I saw Sveta, lying on the ground. Her face buried against Slician’s shoulder. The mover in the tight black costume who could slide through tight spaces.

“Go!” Amy called out. “Leave! Shin wants you gone!”

“I want to pass on the message!” Sveta called back. “Get it through that thick skull of yours!”

“Why!?”

“Because Victoria said she sees something in you! Her words! Not that you’re a good person, not that you’re a saint or a healer or a possible tool! You’re a person, to her. Flaws and good sides included. Those are her words! She kind of hates you and I think you know that’s for good reason! But she’s willing to extend you a chance. I have no fucking idea why!”

I said that before you tried to stab Sveta, I thought.

One by one, the limbs receded, pulling into the ground, leaving ruined road and buildings in their wake. The front of the station had broken away due to one power use.

She hadn’t even used her army. She’d made them back off.

This wasn’t the Amy I’d known. This was the Amy who had spent years with Marquis.

“I can’t even talk to her without her getting upset,” Amy said.

“Obviously not,” Sveta said.

The first thing she’d said that wasn’t in the script.

“What’s the point, then?” Amy asked.

I typed. Kenzie gave Sveta the words.

“The point is you realize nothing you’re doing is making things better or happier. You realize you’ve been hearing people say you need to talk to a therapist or reach out and you have a gut reaction not to. Maybe you stop listening to that gut reaction. Victoria’s willing to concede the idea it might be your power. Your agent, nudging you. Let’s take that concession, let’s fight past it.”

“Did she ever think that maybe, just maybe, my being around someone who has an aura that makes you think she’s the best thing ever or the scariest thing ever might mess with someone like me? Like maybe it’s like an abusive relationship, yanking me this way and that, and that’s why I’m so screwed up?” Amy asked.

I froze.

The statement felt heavy. Like it took something for her to voice it.

How long? How long had Amy been holding onto that?

I typed.

Sveta said my words. “You never went out into the field, Amy. You hated caping. She used her power around her mom and her dad, around Crystal, around Shielder, and even her boyfriend more than she used it around you. At higher and lower intensities. If it had that effect, it wouldn’t have been you.”

It was Amy’s time to freeze, to consider.

“I’m vulnerable. Weak. Pliable. I was alone. They were actual family, and Gallant was emotion-resistant.”

I typed.