“It’s about making a statement about them too,” I said. “The parahumans who came to Shin. Chris, Marquis… telling them their place.”

“Yes,” Miss Militia said.

“They want them to handle the arrest, put us in our cells.”

“Yes. And to handle any punishments. Aian just cut through several of Luis’s arguments by saying that punishments can be more pointed because Amelia Claire Lavere can be ordered to maintain our health,” Miss Militia said, her voice overlapping Luis’s rebuttal, which was quickly followed by a response from Aian. “If we refuse, if she refuses, we’re clearly lying in reassuring them, either Amy’s too dangerous, we’re too dangerous, or both.”

Okay. I was on the same page as Tristan now. Didn’t expect hardball to this degree.

What else could we do though?

“Are they being influenced by Teacher?” Ashley asked. “This feels pointed.”

“This is how they politic, I’m afraid,” Miss Militia said. “This seems normal.”

I spoke, “When we investigated Teacher, it all seemed normal or excusable. Things so close to reality you could believe it happened. You had to look at the end results and the consequences to find patterns.”

“Luis and his Founders are center, as far as we’re concerned, joined by the group to his right. Normally the Coalition balances it out, and with my voice or another Gimel voice we can strike a healthy compromise. The Coalition being absent could be Teacher.”

With them gone, the guys in the ‘center’ were our best advocates.

And our best advocates, Luis’s faction—he was stepping down and back, no longer one of the people speaking. Ceding the floor to Aian. Ceding a victory to Aian.

Aian talked, his voice low, and he did all of the talking, with only a periodic one or two word comment or agreement from other groups. Luis was entirely silent.

Fuck me. Gary had stirred shit up to score a political victory at home, and caused an inter-Earth incident in the process, painting their parahuman saviors and neighbors in the worst light possible. We went to handle that, just so we could go after Teacher without worrying about what’s happening in the background, and we faced imprisonment, torture, public humiliation…

And worse than imprisonment and torture. We faced my sister. My sister who was ‘not well’, according to my mother. Who was spiraling out, doing her best to mitigate that spiral by moving slowly. I wasn’t sure her best was very good.

I was even less sure it would be good if she was forced to cooperate in our torture and humiliation. My torture and humiliation.