No. I knew my ex-sister too well. I knew how she would want something so badly she would believe it was so, and she would lie to herself. She’d then tell that lie to others. Promises to Mom and Dad about maintaining after school activities in addition to the hero stuff, training, visits to the hospital, and grades. Three straight semesters across ninth grade and the start of tenth grade, she’d steadily declined, had maintained the illusion, until they’d forced her to cut back. Pledges about diets, pledges to me about making friends beyond my friend group. She would believe it.

“That’s a relief,” Sveta said.

“Not really how I’d put it, if I’m honest,” I said. “What about you guys? Any objections? You okay with this?”

“No,” Rain said. “No objections, I mean. I’m okay with it.”

“I’m worried about Chris, but I trust you when it comes to your family,” Ashley said.

“I’m good if this is good,” Kenzie said. We’d told her about the signals. If anyone on Breakthrough would see the little things we’d told them to pay attention to, it would be Kenzie. Our Lookout.

So many things worried me about her, but her not picking up on information wasn’t one of them.

“No issue,” Sveta said. “You’ve been way more fair about this than I expected.”

Most of my attention was on Tristan, though. I willed him to get what I meant, where I was going with this.

“You really want my opinion on this?” he asked, picking up on my quiet intensity.

“I want your opinion especially. We’ve talked about sibling stuff. I want your take on this.”

“Then okay. Yeah.”

Yeah.

We’d talked about it. Permanent solutions, if we had to.

He was in agreement. It was in the cards, at the very least.

“I’d rather the Wardens had more oversight here,” I said.

Chris spoke, “Separate world, separate nation. The Wardens have no responsibilities here, no role.”

“Then I’ll rephrase. I want Amy, at the very least, to make trips out to the Wardens, for checkups, talks with a therapist we trust. Let’s get to where none of us have to worry about mistakes.”

“No,” Chris said. “That’s probably not going to work out.”

“Why not?” Rain asked.

“They don’t like us doing the back and forth thing. Makes it too easy to pass on information, makes us harder to keep track of. If you come here and you go any further than this little city hub here, the checklist of things you have to do gets long. Not to mention it’s a hell of a trip to even get here.”

My mom’s hand tightened around my shoulder.

Was that it, then? My mom’s request for help in escaping? Parahumans that stayed were expected to remain in their island chain area?