“I volunteered, I lied and said you and Dad gave your permission. Things were hectic enough they didn’t check. I think they didn’t want to check, because they needed every body on the ground they could get.”

“I wish your dad hadn’t let you go that morning.”

“You let me go too, kinda. The phone call, remember?”

“It’s more that you changed, after. A light went out.”

A light went out in me in the weeks before I got my powers. There were less primary colors in the world after that. But I’ve tried to explain that to you and get you to own up to your part in it and it’s useless.

Problem is, when the light goes out you can get used to it, but then a crisis hits and you’re fumbling for something and that’s when you realize how much you needed that light.

“I lost friends. My first crush,” Missy volunteered.

“I know.”

“Did you know I killed someone?”

A stricken expression crossed her mom’s face.

“That day. Bastion gave the order, to bury him with Leviathan. I always wondered if they passed on word to you.”

“There wasn’t much communication in the weeks and months after. So much happened. What happened? Did they do anything, or… did I miss something?”

Missy shook her head. “No. Yes. It was a thing that happened. One of a lot. I could tell you stories for days. I could show you scars.”

“I tried, but you were… it was uncharted territory. I couldn’t talk to your aunt or Jane or any other parents about this stuff. You didn’t want me talking to the parents of the other Wards. Are you mad? I’m not sure what to say.”

There were a hundred things Missy wanted to say. Some were angry, some were disappointed.

“I’m eighteen. I’m free and clear, and leading my own Warden team. I can tell you stuff. I will. Stuff that would have made you hold me back or play the card where you’re a mom and I was technically a minor.”

“I never wanted to hold you back.”

“When you hear some of the stories, you’d wish you had,” Missy said it with a smile, but her mom wasn’t smiling.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Sorry? Good luck?

“I don’t know what to say either,” Missy admitted. “Except that this is me. It’s been me all along. Hi.”

“Everything about you and me doesn’t have to change all of a sudden just because you’re eighteen.”