“The point is you have somewhere to be later,” Flashbang said. “Amy, you made a promise. You will not break that promise to her. I—I know what you’re feeling. Like the last few walls around your heart are down and all you have to do is reach through to where your powers are. The reason I’m not is… I made promises. To your mother. To Victoria. To you.”

“I’m supposed to go talk to somebody in the middle of all of this?”

“You are absolutely supposed to,” Flashbang said. “Amy, you’ve hurt Victoria enough times—”

“I didn’t—”

“You hurt her. You know you hurt her. You won’t hurt her this time by not following through.”

“And after? I promised to go to a therapy session, it’s just one session.”

“You’ll promise me you’ll go to the one after. Right here, right now. I think you need it as much as I do.”

“I don’t—what happens after that one?”

“The promise I need you to make is that you’ll attend the appointment after. That doesn’t end at the next appointment. When you’ve attended appointment number two, then the promise means you’ll go to number three. When you’ve gone to that one, it means you’ll go to number four.”

“The way things are going,” Amelia said. “I don’t think we’ll have any therapists in a couple of days.”

“Then it’s an easier promise to make. But you need something on the horizon to focus your eyes on. Surrender in the here and now is not how I raised you.”

Flashbang met Marquis’ eyes.

“Promise,” Flashbang said, with a raw edge to his voice.

Amy didn’t respond, but she did nod her assent.

⊙

“We’ve got yet another one in Cheit,” Larue reported. “Not one we know. They were a cape who didn’t broadcast their powers. A stranger, it seems.”

“Do we know the powers yet?” Armstrong asked.

“Not yet.”

There wasn’t much to do at this stage. Only to record, identify, and prepare to brief those who made it back here. Some were on the fringes, out of reach of this cracking. Some were at the new refugee settlements. Some where here. Then there were the ones in the city proper. They were the ones who had it roughest. Right in the epicenter, as the city steadily caved into itself.

“Antares,” Larue said.

“It’s bad news,” she said.

“I don’t know what it is. The capes in Breakthrough’s area have gone quiet. Phone lines are down, satellites are struggling with all of the interference. But we can’t reach them.”

Eric quietly studied her expression, watching her process. Her eyes moved around like she was working her way through a logic program.