Jason slumped into his couch, utterly spent.

  Though his battle with Tacti had been relatively brief, crouching perfectly still in the corner of the Vault for the better part of three hours would never not be taxing, even on his superhuman body.

  "Fuck me," he grumbled, sagging into the leather. “I need to fucking retire.”

  He lounged there for what felt like hours before the front door clicked open. His super hearing made sure to wake him up.

  He tiredly turned to see his wife shrug off her coat, peel off her shoes and toss her keys onto a hook. It was a superhuman feat of accuracy, and she performed it without so much as a second glance. Jason didn’t usually bring attention to her casual displays of preternatural perception or skill, but he never stopped seeing them.

  It was impossible not to notice her many little perfections.

  "Second Skin is at the Chasm." She fluffed her hair and moved to rinse off in the sink. "Bernard just texted me."

  Jason smirked. "You two text now?"

  "Don't start," she warned, though without malice.

  She was stalling. Any bacteria weak enough to be hand-washed away wasn't capable of affecting either of them. But she needed the time, so he gave it.

  "Are you okay?" she eventually asked after almost a full minute of silence.

  Jason nodded. "Yeah." He swallowed. "Bernard, uh, told me. The day before we all ate at that cafe with Matthius."

  She nodded. "I never–"

  "I know." Jason chuckled. "I hit him."

  Elise's jaw dropped. "What?"

  "Yeah. In the shoulder, and obviously not very hard. He had to pop it back in place."

  "Jason!" exclaimed Elise incredulously. "What did he say?"

  Jason scratched his stubble. "That he deserved it, but if I did that again, he'd hit me with a sonic so hard my brain would leak out of my ass."

  Elise laughed. "You know, after all this, I actually believe him."

  "He's a piece of work," agreed Jason. "We did okay."

  Elise's face fell a fraction. "We didn't 'do' much of anything."

  "No? He joined SWORD. If he’d put his mind to it, he could've made a billion dollars at any S&P 500 company, but instead, chose this. The most dangerous, volatile avenue of work on the planet. Especially as a blank. He grew up with morals, a sense of duty and courage." Jason shrugged. "We did enough."

  "We did some," she corrected adamantly. "Not enough."

  Jason's jaw locked, then he shrugged. "Yeah."

  "You know the strangest part?" she asked. "He doesn't hate us."

  "I wouldn’t be so sure." Jason bristled bitterly. "He forced you to join a terrorist group."

  "No, but he could've," replied Elise. "I saw it in him, when he first... pitched it, I guess. His instinct pushed to dangle LA, but he chose to ask instead." She walked around the sink. "That's why I agreed. He didn't try to control me."

  "He didn't blackmail you because he knew the threat was already there. He didn't need to voice it." Jason shrugged. "And he's a fantastic manipulator, as we've all come to learn."

  "Yes," agreed Elise, "but we're all alive because of it." She shook her head. "The Family had such a gigantic head start, it's not funny. They had moles at almost every level. Add Juice, and practically half of sword is dirty. You had to be there to see it."

  Jason crossed his arms. "And yet, the second we had them straight, they imploded."

  Elise rolled her eyes. "Yes, but we had to trick them twice to set it up. That's how prepared they were."

  "So, what, you're on his side?" groused Jason.

  Elise dropped into an armchair opposite him. "I'm on your side, Jason. I always have been. That's why I went to him in the first place."

  "How does that even make sense?" Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. "Elise, we are married . I get it. Some things aren't for me. Tampon brands? Nail choices? Girls' nights? None of my business. But this ? I should've been the first person you came to!"

  "I know! Jason, I know. I... fuck, I was scared. I have never seen you look like that. I figured if I fixed things with Bernard first, I would have help convincing you–"

  "Convincing?" spat Jason. "What the fuck is there to convince ? That you aren't a traitor?"

  Elise's eyes were watering. She fidgeted hard enough to toss embers from her nails.

  "I didn't know what to do," she whispered.

  Jason scrubbed his eyes. "You talk to me! That's what you fucking... Fuck Elise!" His throat was eerily dry. "I had to leave my son's hospital bed thinking he'd almost died because of you!"

  "I'm sorry." She didn't look capable of offering much else.

  Jason placed his hand as softly as he could manage on her shaking knee.

  "Elise, we are a team. We always have been. I don't care who interlopes or what happens. You know this."

  She nodded, sniffling weakly.

  "I didn't kill your father out of rage or malice. I did it because he needed to die. Without hesitation or doubt, because I love you." He combed through messy hair with shaking fingers of his own. "You know I'd do it a hundred times over if I had to. I wouldn't even blink. But I can't if you don't talk to me."

  This time, Jason choked up. "I thought I was alone. I thought I didn't have you, and it was fucking awful."

  Elise reached for him. "It’ll never happen again, Jason. I swear to God. I don't care what I'm told." She squeezed his hands. "I promise."

  Jason sucked in a breath. "I can't do that again. Ever." He laughed hoarsely. "The Sunmaker tore my fucking arm off. I knew it would and still wasn't ready. I walked it off. But leaving Matty's room? I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move or think. I made it five seconds out of the Sheath before I lost power and dropped into the Bay. It took me over an hour to fly out."

  Jason was shaking the whole couch now.

  "I can't do that, Elise." He clutched his head as tears dripped from his eyes to the carpet. He coughed words out between sobs. "Everyone needs me. To kill something or save someone or go somewhere. It doesn't stop. I'm too desensitized for fight-or-flight reflexes. Over and over and over again until I die and everyone moves on to their next pack mule. I help and help and help and I fucking can't. I need you and I can't ever, ever fucking do that again. It was so fucking horrible."

  Elise reached over and hugged him, not bothering to control her strength. Their clothes immediately began to tear. She felt her shoulder wet, as did Jason's back. He shuddered bitterly, struggling to breathe.

  Elise clutched him harder. "Jason, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I won't. Ever again, I promise. I won't. Please believe me. I can't leave you."

  She sat there holding him until his breathing slowed and his hands stopped shaking. Eventually, they started hugging her back, which is where she broke down. Pressure seemed to dissolve from her shoulders as her arms tightened around his neck.

  Jason, now with some of his rational thinking back, felt horrible. She'd still been afraid of him. Of being rejected. But he'd done enough crying for the day, and steeled himself for the hour she needed to let him go.

  "I love you," she muttered quietly once she finally loosened her arms around her neck. "I don't say it enough."

  Jason grinned. "Thank god. Was starting to think I was competing with the telekinetic fucker."

  Elise soured and scowled hard enough to flicker the lights.

  "That is not funny. Never say that joke again."

  Jason’s hands rose in surrender. "Of course." His eyebrow crept mischievously upwards. "But, I mean, he's taller than me. And hey, with that vibrating thing he does, I'm sure–"

  Jason's words were suddenly cut off by an extremely strong hand clamped around his throat.

  "Shut the fuck up. Shut up. Unless you no longer need your neck and tongue?"

  "Now that you mention it," he wheezed as he was pinned against the back of a rapidly deteriorating couch, "maybe I should be quiet."

  "Good." She tilted forward and kissed him. Jason quickly realized why she'd chosen those two examples. "Then shut the fuck up."

  Jason sighed, genuinely, honestly content. "Mhm."

  For the first time in what seemed like forever, everything finally went our way.

  While my family and I dealt with the VIPs in Antarctica, our Syracuse ambush went off without a hitch, save a few unplanned Rogue deaths. The Family's forces were far too disorganized to mount meaningful defences against us, and almost everyone was down in less than an hour. Titan and Proto-Knight proved to be the toughest nuts to crack, forcing Blacklight to frustratedly execute the veteran Rogue with a massive spire of shadows. The Nordic faced no such reservations, and was all too happy to lope Proto-Knight's head clean off his shoulders.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Angela's team carried out their escort flawlessly. Though sedating powerful, mobile convicts was never ideal, repairs after Crackle's attack forced our hands.

  I now held the new record for the single largest Rogue bust in SWORD history, having incarcerated over fifty Alphas with Guadalupe, Syracuse and Antarctica. Not only that, but with the lowest Hero death ratio as well. Were this any other era, I'd have been celebrated.

  Instead, I was recalled to Capitol Hill for an impeachment vote. After LA, my enemies had been waiting, plotting in the shadows to usurp me once I'd dealt with the terrorists they never could. By that point, I was too tired to fight. Most of my time and energy had gone into keeping the Family in check, and I just could not be bothered to do the same with my supposed allies.

  Luckily, I'd made the right kind of friends.

  Half an hour into my trial, William Adkins, my expected replacement, was delivering an impassioned speech on the value of human life and how I neglected to put civilians first. He drew on personal accounts from survivors and my callous disregard for their wellbeing. He even made the outlandish claim that most Heroes would agree I, as a blank, was simply not fit for office.

  Blacklight chose that moment to pop out of his shadow. Adkins almost did a backflip. Eye-Lie followed suit by unveiling an extremely unimpressed Nova family sitting in the back with a handful of my superhuman colleagues.

  "Listen up!" Blacklight had proclaimed, conjuring a twenty-foot cobra to shut the yammering audience up. "Adkins is a fucking pussy! Not only is he stupid, but he decided to pair a green tie with a yellow suit! Who the fuck does that? I, for one, do not want such a poor dresser as my boss, especially when lives are involved. In fact, I believe Director Skies has made it explicitly clear that he's the best choice through his personal, professional and emotional sacrifice. I discussed it with several of my colleagues, and we are in agreement. When you all get your phones back, the Heroes who are joining me on strike will have put hashtag 'SkiesTheLimit' to show their support." He stabbed a finger at Adkins. "The Novas and I have all agreed to retire if that dumbass wins."

  Blacklight grinned through his mask. "That's all."

  Fifteen minutes later, I walked out with a unanimous vote to dismiss my expulsion. I tried explaining to Blacklight that while I appreciated his help, he'd just committed a federal crime.

  "Federal mederal," he'd snorted. "I'm going AWOL for the next two weeks since my girl is probably going to melt her ring if I don't do something dramatic. Toodles!"

  "If you're telling me, then you're not actually going–" I managed to get out before he vanished.

  We wrapped the Juice case and bagged all implicated Heroes inside the following two weeks. The scandal was so sweeping, chatter over my potential removal basically stopped. Hilariously, Adkins ended up being one of the worst offenders, having gobbled up an impressive chunk of the drug money pie. His arrest was so shocking, rumours began to circulate that I did actually have mysterious powers that made my enemies disappear.

  My family continued to be a work in progress. I saw them more often as we tried to figure out what was left and what needed rebuilding. As promised, I wiped Elise's association with the Family from all records and reinstated her as a full-time SWORD Hero. Matthius tried getting me drunk to celebrate.

  Angela remained reliable as ever. Through my trial, the Juice Scandal and the months beyond, she continued to be as steadfast as the day we met. I lasted two months before biting the bullet. She was forced to resign as my secretary, but promised she much prefers just being my girlfriend and new Headmaster of the Den. Elise waited two weeks before pestering me about proposals, since Matthius, promiscuous as he was, was extremely careful about pregnancies.

  Who knew? My mother wanted to be a grandma.

  She would have to wait.

  Once things finally settled back at SWORD, I allowed myself some time to breathe. I'd gone over every shred of data, intelligence and leaks over the past few days, and against all odds, life was... good.

  No insane, obscenely powerful Rogues. Corruption, though omnipresent, had been reduced to a manageable degree. I was even getting more popular amongst blanks and Alphas alike, thanks to the mysterious rumours about my true 'powers'.

  Things were going so well, in fact, that a few months later, I found myself in a bright polo, driving north to one of Jason's many cottages. Angela's playlists were the one negative about the trip, as I wasn't a big fan of her music. Elise warned to keep that to myself. I didn't mind, in all honesty, since she seemed to be enjoying herself. She was shrieking the lyrics to a pop song while wind whipped through her hair.

  It was ‘cathartic', she'd said.

  We arrived a few minutes later. I recognized the two-story lodge from my youth, but it looked bigger. There were even dirt bikes out front and a pond over to the side. I remembered it as one of Jason's favourites because the backyard forests were packed with all kinds of birds, which he loved watching. They'd taught him to fly, apparently.

  Angela and I were pulling our bags from the trunk when Matthius leapt over the cottage to land dramatically in front of our car.

  "Welcome to Casa Nova!" he cackled. He'd been telling that joke since middle school and I'd never laughed once.

  Angela threw our folding chairs at him. "Hold these."

  I was quickly falling in love with this woman.

  We ambled around the house to find Jason roasting up a storm on a bright red barbecue while Elise lounged in a deck chair, basking in sunlight. Passive heat absorption gave her hair and skin a reflective, jewel like quality that I'd always found distracting.

  Jason tore his eyes from the patties. "Welcome."

  I walked over and dropped a bag of buns beside the grill. "Your starch."

  "Whole wheat?" he asked.

  I glanced over at Elise browsing her phone and gave a tiny headshake. He grinned and smacked my shoulder, nearly dislocating it. Again.

  "Good man."

  "Mhm," I replied, grimacing. Those, I did not miss.

  Angela noticed and was not impressed. "He needs to control himself."

  "He was," I assured her, turning to my mother.

  Elise looked up and scowled. "Are those whole wheat?"

  My hesitation betrayed me.

  "Bernard, come on."

  I shrugged helplessly. She rolled her eyes, rising from her radiation rig to hug me. She'd been doing that more often. It wasn't a fix, as Angela said, but it was a start.

  "Alright!" Matthius said. "Everyone's almost here."

  I faced him. "Almost?"

  The shadows flared to spit Micah Rush out from their bowels. He was in flipflops, swimming shorts and a floral button down with 'I Survived LA' printed across the back of the shoulders.

  Angela stared. "Where do you even get something like that?"

  Micah grinned. "Custom, baby! Val almost divorced me, but it was so fucking worth it!"

  "A shirt is worth our marriage?" asked a small Latina woman who stomped around the house, dragging a cooler behind her. "Micky, if you don't come here right now and help move this fucking freezer..."

  She trailed off into incoherent Spanish rambling that had the King-Class, Titan-killing powerhouse scrambling to relieve her of the burden.

  I looked at Matthius. "Why?"

  "Are you kidding? The guy is sick! And he likes you more than me, which is unacceptable."

  I rolled my eyes.

  The afternoon came and went surprisingly pleasantly. Snide remarks were nowhere to be heard, and the food was excellent. Micah and Matthius were locked in a competition of who could out-buffoon the other. In my incontrovertible opinion, Matthius took the undisputed victory. Elise tried and failed to feed him vegetables while Jason lounged back with a beer and serenely watched a family of robins go about their business. Angela hit it off with Valentina and spent a concerning amount of time complaining about me and Micah's hardheadedness.

  I found a nice, plushy lawn chair and took a nap.

  I was cleaning out the barbecue sometime later when Matthius walked over and handed me a beer. I eyed it suspiciously before he promised it would be the only one. He even waited for me to finish rinsing off my hands before cracking his open.

  "What's up?" I asked, taking a sip.

  He took a swig as he watched fishes flit to and fro in the pond. "I spoke to Mom." He tapped his drink nervously. I couldn't remember the last time he'd been nervous about anything. "She said back when we were kids, you, uh..."

  "Oh." I shrugged. "It happened. That's life. You move on."

  He nodded. "I know, but just... That's fucked, Barn. Seriously. I'd never want that. Neither would they."

  "I'm aware. I was a kid."

  He looked up to peer at the setting sun. "I looked for you, you know. When you left. Called all your friends, even that one girl who you went out with once. Took me four months to give up."

  I scratched my neck. "That was kind of the goal."

  "I think... I think you're the reason I'm so fucked up."

  "Come again?"

  "Things made a lot more sense when you were around. Rules and shit. Don't go out at night because Bernard says it's dangerous. Be nice to girls and stuff because Bernard says it's the right thing to do. Listen to Dad and keep up with your training because Bernard knows you're way fucking better than Spitfire and deserve the sidekick apprenticeship." He shrugged. "After, Dad just sort of kept up working, and Mom made it a point to make me out to be better than everyone else. I kept pushing, wondering where she'd stop, and she never did."

  "Good to know some lessons stuck," I chuckled. "I hope this means you'll stop flying to Sweden."

  "Fuck no. Got her email."

  I sighed. "Figures."

  "Mom will never admit it, but they needed you too." His gaze seemed unfocused. "What's the thing where artists make a chick strip and inspire them?"

  I arched my brow. "A muse?"

  "Yeah, that. You were like that for them. The Hero shit gets to your head, man. The jobs and secrecy and injuries. Then they come home and see you and it makes sense. It's not a job, it's an effort to protect lives like yours. Secrets to keep blanks safe. Injuries to prevent innocent deaths. They lost that when you left."

  We momentarily stood in silence, letting the world breathe.

  "You're not gonna leave again, will you?"

  I shook my head. "Don't think so, no. Angela would get a conniption."

  "She's cool." He smirked. "Nice catch."

  "Agreed."

  He cocked his head as the brilliant splashes of orange and gold began to recede over the horizon.

  "Hey, why'd you change your name to Skies?"

  "I didn't want you to be able to find–"

  "No, I know that," he specified. "I mean Skies specifically. Why that name instead of, I dunno. Skullfucker or something metal."

  "I will never be called Skullfucker."

  He shot me a conspiratorial grin. "And yet, you don't have an official callsign."

  "If you ever, under any circumstance, call me Skullfucker, I will expel you from SWORD."

  He laughed. I allowed a small grin before joining him in observing the sunset.

  "My best memories are flying with Dad," I finally told him. "Where everything seemed so far away. No sad looks, no disappointed sighs. Just me, him and open air. We were literally free to move however we pleased."

  I took a sip as he watched me.

  "'Novas' are exploding stars. They fit you guys well. Unrelenting, impossible power." I looked up at the clouds. "But that? That's... limitless. It doesn't really even exist if you think about it. It can be the clouds, the sun, space or the atmosphere. It's free to be... whatever. I liked that.

  "I dunno, man. I was young." I shrugged. "I guess when things were dark, I'd look up, remember drifting through the sky and feel a bit better."

  We stood in companionable silence before his hand landed softly on my shoulder.

  "It is a nice name," I heard Matthius whisper.

  —————

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  —

  FIN