“He… I don’t think people want to bring the capes back.”

“That’s just one place. Let’s hope. I’m supposed to present this to a group of two hundred people and I swear, if it wasn’t this important, I’d chicken out. I’m so worried I’ll stammer, with the stakes so high.”

“Didn’t you want to be a lawyer?” Presley asked, leaning onto the snow-dusted railing. In the distance, Sleeper’s cloud was receding.

“I don’t think I could speak in front of a judge and jury. Probably.”

Presley didn’t have a ready response, except, “Good luck.”

“Thank you. I hope I don’t need it.”

Presley thought about asking questions, stopped herself, then thought about it again, and in the re-thinking, she found herself blurting it out. “Did they all take the drug?”

“Breakthrough? Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Different reasons, hon. I talked to Victoria in advance, then talked to her when she handed me the data. I think she’s spooked. She hopes for the best, but she plans for the worst. She puts a lot on herself, so she took it in the grimmest possible terms. A lot of this was her idea.”

“No,” Presley said, shaking her head.

“As for Precipice, Capricorn Blue, and Tress, I think they trust people. They didn’t see it as dying or putting their lives on the line. Or if they did, they didn’t let it show. Neither did Lookout, but she was too young, we didn’t let her.”

Presley swallowed. She almost told Natalie, but Lookout could be listening, and Natalie didn’t need distractions.

“And Capricorn Red?” Presley asked. “He didn’t get pulled along into what his brother wanted?”

“…He sided with his brother. I think it was important for him that he do that for his brother.”

“And Cryptid? What about Swansong’s sister?”

“I don’t know about Cryptid. He eluded capture. Swansong’s sister is in custody. She tried to attack Lookout, hit a projection instead. When and if she wakes up, she’ll be imprisoned. She wasn’t doing very well, toward the end.”

Presley could hear the distant rumble of Natalie’s ride working its way through snow and ice.

“What happens next?” Presley asked. She looked out at the red light, the glowing city.

“I don’t know, Presley,” Natalie said. “But I can tell you—”

The call crackled.

“Service is—”

“Can’t hear you,” Natalie said. “The——bye.”

“Bye,” Presley said.

She hung up, her fingers numb, and jammed hand and phone into her coat pocket, her bag heavy on shoulders sore from carrying that bag for hours, earlier.

The red glow pulsed, danced across the sky, formed patterns. When it reached certain points, she imagined she could see the distant Titans.