“When I visited the source of powers. I saw the… construction of Tattletale’s power. It let me see things if I asked. I asked about Amy a few times. Asked about you once.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re not you?” I asked, turning to face her, wounded. “Because something clearly happened, and you’re retiring?”

Jessica sighed. “What did you see?”

“Your hands around her throat. She hurt you in response. What happened with Riley?”

“After the portal incident, we were isolated. We were trapped in an alternate universe. I’d cut back on my workload prior, started to find my way back to who I used to be, old hobbies, old interests. I tried to hunt down people I knew, through the internet. The portal took me out of that frame of mind, and put me into a hostile place with exceptionally dangerous people who were, as long as everything was well, being good.”

“And it was your job to ensure it all went well?” I asked.

Jessica nodded. “I was second in command of our little group. Leader when Van—when the self-elected leader wasn’t around or when he was sleeping. There were other, more distant camps, and he’d visit them. The parahumans who had previously been prisoners or test subjects were in an isolated camp as well, about twenty minutes away from the main camp. I was in charge of that one. Making sure they were happy, keeping an eye out for danger.”

“Something happened?”

“We endured. We kept a balance. It wasn’t easy. A lot of the foods we experimented with made us violently ill. Fresh water was in short supply, we were cold, we got sick. Riley seemed to have saved us, if anything, by analyzing the food and curing the sickest of us—people I deemed so at-risk that it was unlikely she could do too much. Riley and Jamie Rinke were, to all appearances, angelic, all considered. Some reining in needed, naturally, and it took everything I had to stay on top of it all, especially with my own bouts with illness, but it worked. We’d made it out the other side.”

How does that get us from there to you strangling Bonesaw?

I didn’t butt in.

“The ‘other side’ was Valkyrie’s arrival. We talked. Everyone began to pack up, and she plotted the way back with Van. As liaison, it was my job to collect Riley and Jamie. Jamie was happy to go. Riley wanted to pack up her lab… and was resistant to my offers to help.”

“Tinkers are touchy. Little things like fingerprints can cause problems with specific tech. I have to imagine it’s the same for her work. Or was she up to something?”