“I don’t—I’m not a teenager. I don’t feel like it is. My role, um, I don’t know. It’s not the civilian side of it. I’ve… never been that connected to it.”

“You could try. It’s a skill you can learn.”

“I… think I’m better off focusing on things like Victoria, you, Uncle Mark, Aunt Carol. Old teammates. I liked Solarstare. Vista.”

“Wherever you want to go, I’d be happy to come with you. If that’s okay.”

“Of course it’s okay,” Crystal said, aghast. “Really.”

The look on her mother’s face seemed genuinely pleased, even if she looked away, trying to hide it.

“Want chips?” she asked.

“Sure. I’m actually very disappointed they didn’t tell us where to go for lunch,” her mother confessed. And it was a very human admission, when her eyes were alien, the little things so different. It left Crystal feeling vaguely off-kilter. Always veering one way or the other.

She lasered off the top of the chip bag, catching the strip from the top out of the air.

“Crystal Eve Pelham!” her mother said, in a voice that was perfect down to the note. “Open those chips like a human being, thank you. Your hands will atrophy into claws if you keep doing that sort of thing.”

She blinked, caught off guard.

She blinked a few more times, eyes moist. A barrier that she hadn’t known was up came down, and those feelings in her upper chest that she couldn’t put to words or action settled into a new configuration she could.

“I’m sorry, that—”

She interrupted her mom by hugging her, tight, the bag of chips crinkling and spilling.

⊙

“Hey, Crystal!”

“Hey Triple,” Crystal greeted the girl with a wave. She was navigating the set of dormitory buildings, not all that different from the settlement that was a world and three hundred kilometers away. More solid, more condensed, and surrounded by ruins that were slowly getting sorted out.

“I wanted to ask, and this may be a dumb question, but can you make laser swords like your mom?”

“No,” Crystal said.

“Have you tried, or…?”

“I can’t, no.”

“The Girls at Bat are recruiting, and I thought if you could, you could call it a bat, it’d fit the theme…”

Crystal shook her head.

“Darn.”

“You guys have your whole dynamic… afraid it’s not me.”

“Darn, I got my hopes up when I saw you and saw you didn’t have a new costume. Some were saying you were very firmly temporarily with the… Errant?”

“Erring Right. A minor team my aunt and uncle joined before the whole Titan fiasco. Yeah, it’s temporary. But… I’ve got stuff to take care of.”

“You all okay, not knowing where you’re going to end up?”

“I’m fine, but uh, I’m looking for someone.”