“I’m away. Got a whole continent mostly to myself, now. I changed my skin. What I’ve got on right now by default isn’t really human or mine. I’ll change it up more later. I have direction, Victoria. It’s being my own person with control over my own existence, not being some hypocritical ping pong ball that’s bouncing around from crisis to crisis.”

“You enjoyed the crises.”

“I did. But getting there is a pain, having to drag you all kicking and screaming, seeing you all fight yourselves every step of the way. This is better. I’ve got projects in the works, and if the world ends up ending like Amy says it will, I think I can get enough people into space, away from it all. Build something, give ’em all bodies adapted to that environment.”

“Powers don’t work in space,” I told him. “We’re tethered to the agents and if you move far enough away the power doesn’t feed in. You wouldn’t get any tinker inspiration. When Sphere was trying to build the moon base, he had to build on Earth and send stuff up.”

“You think I don’t know that? Shin has better power labs and research than you do. I’m aware, and I’m confident. Don’t worry, but don’t expect a reserved seat either. Because you’re either going to be stuck right here, or you’re going to be the ones who ran, caused trouble, or otherwise left millions to go without supplies because your recklessness jeopardized a trade deal.”

I tensed. It was the kind of line that preceded aggressiveness. He remained where he was.

“How much of this did you plan?” Vista asked.

“This? It’s stupid politics and a bit of Teacher, a bit of one of the bigger precogs. I just showed up, enjoyed the show, and figured I’d fulfill my promise to Panacea while I did it.”

“You set me up to go to her.”

“Gave the doctor the miracle drug that would knock you out, pulled the strings, gave her the room number, let the meeting happen. One way or another, I figured I wouldn’t have to listen to her whine any more.”

I nodded, letting the hollow, empty feeling take up residence in my head, throat, and upper body. It was likely it was the very same emptiness he’d alleged Ashley had inside of her.

That I could’ve felt as scared and awful as I had back in that room with Amy, and that someone could have inflicted that on me so casually?

“Fucking why?” I asked.

“He wants us to hate him,” Ashley said. “It’s safer. It lets him stay isolated from the rest of the world, unaffected by others.”