Electra

4:45 am Hunter Manor was very quiet and very dark as Erin crept down the first-floor hallway well before dawn, wearing an old Claremont sweatshirt and polka-dot pajama pants that had been a gift from Alex. There were many more people sleeping over than usual, but they were all on the second and third floors in the other wing, far away and all asleep for another few hours. She stopped in front of the door that led to Trevor’s bedroom (her bedroom too, most of the time), and knocked very softly, then cracked the door open. “Are you awake?” she called very softly through the opening. “I can’t sleep.” The sound of a chair sliding out from the desk in the corner of the room answered her question. Not really needing the benefit of a lamp, Trevor had a bad habit of getting up in the middle of the night to jot down an idea and needing to be forcibly dragged back to bed an hour or more later once Erin was tired to pretending he hadn’t woken her up. “Me neither,” he replied with a touch of sheepishness, reaching out to open the door wider from his side. “Don’t open the door!” Erin insisted quickly, leaning against it to enforce the stricture. “It’s after midnight, we can’t see each other till the wedding. It’s bad luck, and Mark believes in it.” No more explanation was required: they’d both seen the power of Mark’s expectations on both luck and reality. “I just… I was laying in my bed not sleeping, and you weren’t there, and it was weird. Charlie wasn’t even there; he’s made himself scarce with all the people and vacuum cleaners around.” She rested her back against the door and sighed. “Are you nervous?” There was a pause while Trevor took a half step back from the door and briefly debated the risks of flouting tradition before ultimately leaning against the wall next to the door frame with his arms crossed over his bare chest. “Completely terrified,” he confirmed softly, though the even cadence of his baritone made it difficult to believe. He glanced at the clock and counted the hours left before the ceremony. “Not sure why. Planned for everything, made preparations.” Erin laughed softly, more a breath of air than a sound. “At least I’m not the only one,” she murmured. “I’ve been having this recurring dream of knowing that the wedding is starting and everyone is waiting for me, but I can’t find my way out to the backyard.” Bending her knees, she slid down the door to sit with her back to it. “It definitely makes me understand why people elope. I can totally deal with the idea of being married to you, that’s going to be the good part, but the wedding is kicking my ass. Not even twelve hours left now.” Trevor was silent for several moments, quietly shifting himself down to the floor to follow the sound of Erin’s voice. Eventually he admitted, “A little worried about the first part.” Even without being able to see him she could recognize the sound of his fingers threading through his dark hair. “Not a spotless track record.” He was referring to his family as a whole, of course; Trevor tended to think in terms of legacy when he got introspective or apprehensive. “Pfft. If you didn’t look so much like your dad, I’d find it hard to believe you were related to either of your parents,” Erin said, laying her head back against the door with a soft thud. “Maybe it’s better that we don’t have a lot of good examples,” she offered. “Nothing about us is really normal, if we tried to do things the way other people do them, we’d just screw it up. But we’ve got magic gardens and teleporting valet service and a cake that exists so long as you don’t think about it too hard, so I guess we’re doing okay with the weird stuff for now.” She was quiet for a second. “And I know Travis didn’t like to talk about your grandma and how things were with him and her, but it seemed like they must have loved each other a lot.” With a single low chuckle Trevor inclined his head slightly to concede the point even if Erin couldn’t actually see the gesture. “Fair.” It did seem unlikely that they would repeat the same specific mistakes as his parents. His thoughts turned briefly to his grandparents but he refused to descend into melancholy on that day of all days. “Heh. ‘Teleporting valet’. ...last chance to elope, you know.” “Don’t tempt me,” she snorted, grinning up into the shadows of the ceiling. “You know that ship has sailed. I have a literal psychic as my wedding planner. I think if we so much as started to sneak toward the car, she’d sit bolt upright in bed and her head would spin all the way around. There’s no way out but through.” She reached back with one arm, sneaking her hand through the crack in the door and groping for his fingers. “Least if I have to go up in front of all those people, you’ll be right there with me. And you look hot in a tux.” “Very true,” he deadpanned without hesitation, his fingers interlacing with Erin’s without looking. Trevor gave her hand a gentle squeeze and sat there in silence for a while. The warmth of her palm was a steadying presence, a reliable constant. “Going to do this,” he spoke up finally, squaring his shoulders against the wall. “Going to be perfect, too.” “And if it’s not perfect, at least it’ll be memorable,” Erin replied with a soft laugh, running her thumb along his. She was starting to feel considerably better now, and with calmness came a faint drowsiness as well. “We should probably try and get some sleep,” she finally said, somewhat reluctantly. “Hey, have you got Charlie in there with you? He isn’t in my room, I was wondering if he’s shacked up with one of the guests.” Trevor made a quiet sound in the back of his throat before clarifying, “Perfect because I’m marrying you. Also because of tux wearing.” He allowed himself a hint of a smile as he scanned the room from the other side of the door. “Haven’t seen him. Might be hiding under something. Could ask Redbird to check downstairs.” The autonomic machine intelligence had weathered the bachelor party and emerged in much better shape than those physically capable of overindulging. Tilting his head slightly the groom asked, “Think something happened?” “Nah, he’s probably freaked out by all the people. He’ll turn up eventually.” Erin squeezed Trevor’s fingers one more time, then released his hand with a little sigh. “Okay, bedtime for me. See you in the backyard tomorrow afternoon,” she told him, rising to her feet with one hand still on the door. “I’ll be wearing the big white dress, you can’t miss me. Love you.” Standing up as well Trevor considered for a beat before saying, “Cover your eyes.” With his own eyes closed behind one hand he shouldered into the door and stepped halfway into the hallway, using his free hand to find Erin’s waist. With familiarity unhindered by lack of sight he leaned down and kissed her slowly. When he finally broke away he stayed close, hip pressed to hers as he murmured, “Love you, too.”

Raina goes on 20

"Whatever's f- screwing up the Doom Room has blocked communications in and out too," Raina interjected, one wary eye on both factions. "Merlin got an SOS call out and summoned an emergency response team from the school. Looks like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel tonight, but it makes sense that students are responding. I thought there was supposed to be an actual teacher supervising them, though." She glanced at Merlin, who nodded once and and dug back into his computer, looking for confirmation on who was sent out and why. "We need to get Archer to a hospital, and then maybe to a mental hospital. He cooked the simulation and then keeled over, so who the hell knows what's going on with him. You guys going to get on board and do the job?" she demanded of Madison and her cronies.

11:30am The second floor balcony in the Hunter Manor opened off the ballroom, which was spiffed and polished up in case of rain that hadn't happened, and overlooked the back lawn of the estate. This morning it was the perfect spot to observe all the work going into setting up the wedding venue without getting in the way or getting drafted. Jessie stood at the railing off to one side and watched with distant interest as hundreds of white flowers unfurled themselves over the trellises behind the wedding arbor. Despite her absorption, she did not startle when a sharp thud announced the arrival of a visitor from the third floor balcony above, instead turning fractionally to give her double a slight, polite nod. Erin was still wearing the simple green dress she'd put on for brunch in a vain attempt to impress Trevor's mother; she took a moment to brush the skirt back into place before nodding back to Jessie. “You didn't come to brunch with us.” “Wasn't hungry,” Jessie offered, but gave that up at Erin's skeptical look. One didn't pass up a meal just on account of not being hungry right now. “It seemed like it would be awkward,” she admitted. “It's all awkward,” Erin pointed out bluntly, walking up to the rail next to Jessie. “You, me, Erin, it's never not awkward. But you were still invited, you should've come.” “I don't really know why you invited me,” Jessie replied, looking down at her fingers wrapped around the balcony rail. “I'm happy for you, but this is your place, your friends, your life. I get in the way.” Erin was silent for a moment, lips pursed as she looked over the lawn. “I know you have some of my other memories,” she finally began. “You know things besides the stuff that Alex deliberately put into you. I can see it when you react to people sometimes like you already know them. I see it in how you were around Travis and Trevor.” Her voice was very even, but she still didn't look at her doppelganger. Jessie's head came up. “Is that what this is about?” she demanded, her voice uncharacteristically harsh. “To remind me that he's yours? Erin, that's not something I'm confused about, I would never-” “I know, I know!” Erin cut in, frustrated. “That's not what I meant. I said it wrong.” She made to rake a hand through her hair, then when she remembered it was already gelled within an inch of its life and folded her arms instead. “So much of your life and mine is the same,” she began. “And we don't have any of it anymore. And when I tried to, I dunno, tried to fix you, it's not your fault that some stuff got mixed up, I just know that it did. I know you haven't made a lot of friends yet-” “I have friends,” Jessie interjected, folding her arms across her chest. “You just don't know them.” “Okay, fine,” Erin allowed, determined not to get sidetracked. “I thought that maybe you would enjoy seeing people that I've known for a long time, and the food and the dancing and the party stuff. It's not really about the wedding. If I was wrong, you don't have to stay, I won't be mad.” She tried to put sincerity into her words, but it was hard to shove it past the defensiveness that seemed to be her default posiiton when dealing with Jessie. Jessie was silent for a long, uncomfortable moment, neither woman looking at the other. “Thank you,” she finally said, her voice quiet. “I appreciate you thinking of me. It's just... it reminds me of stuff I'm never gonna have. I know you saved my life. I owe you everything. And I'm really, honestly happy for you because you deserve him, and a happy life, and all the things you want.” Jessie did rake a hand through her unencumbered hair. “I don't understand how you managed to get better enough, but I'm glad you did. I'm not gonna get there.” “Come on, Jess, it's too early to tell...” Jessie locked eyes with Erin finally, cutting off Erin's attempt at a platitude. “I don't know,” Erin admitted. “I didn't go through half the hell that you did, and what I did go through was more than enough for one lifetime. I wouldn't have made it without Trevor and Alex and my other friends. But I used to think I was never going to have any of this either,” she added, looking out over the lawn. “Part of me is kind of terrified that I'm still going to screw it all up. But I don't think I'm gonna. Time passes, we change. We get better. You won't always be this way.” “Maybe,” Jessie allowed after another pause. “Guess if anybody knows about how weird and stupid fate is, it's us.” “You're not lying,” Erin agreed ruefully. Jessie took a deep breath. “I'm sorry I didn't come to brunch, I didn't really mean anything by it. I think I'm going to go see if Aquaria needs any help with the landscaping before it starts.” “Okay,” Erin replied. “Um, I better get back upstairs before Alex comes and beats me over the head with the schedule.” “Yeah, she's pretty scary,” Jessie agreed with a faint smile. “I'll see you later. Good luck.” “See you later,” Erin nodded, smiling too. “Thanks.” She hopped onto the rail and back to the third floor with a light bounce, leaving Jessie to her solitude again. There was just too much to think about for one day.

Paige screamed before she even woke, the psychic reverberation ripping her peaceful dreams to shreds and leaving her with the stabbing pain that would become a migraine later on. By the time she managed to gather her wits and open her eyes, her uniform was already on and Richard and Will were both waiting on her. "Yeah," she managed shakily, "there's really no time to waste. We'd better get going." Though her mind felt bruised and raw, Paige took a moment to reach out and check on Holly, safe in her psychically baffled room. The little girl was still asleep, though the twisted bedcovers around her suggested that her dreams were not entirely peaceful. "Somebody give me a ride."

Jessie grimaced at Aquaria's exuberant fish-handling, though she did her best not to actually wrinkle her nose at the smell. "Just do it before we get back to the apartment," she reminded her roommate. They had enough problems with managing weird smells and mildew without Aquaria deliberately adding new aromas. "I'm just gonna go see if I remember how to surf." With a smooth, ground-eating jog, she ran over and scooped up one of the surfboards from the sand, then headed into the waves. Her swimming was more effective than elegant, sheer power making up for lack of technique. She clambered upright as soon as a wave came along, and immediately wobbled dangerously as old remembered skills clashed with a very different body. That first time, she executed a clean dive off the board before she wiped out, then paddled over to retrieve it and tried again. This time was more successful, and she actually found herself grinning as the wave swept her toward the shore.

Paige goes on 9

"Whoa, hold on there, Stabby," Raina said hastily, stepping forward before Riley could jam the knife anywhere important. "That doesn't look like something we wanna use field medicine on." She sighed with relief as the alarms cut out, even though the strobey lights continued. "Hey Merlin, can you tell anything about what this here might be?" Merlin was very absorbed with his study of the computer screens, but he turned around long enough to advise Raina that it was pretty gross. At her huff of annoyance, he took a closer look and opined that it was some sort of transceiver, sending and receiving signals from a remote station. They typically did not belong in necks. "Thank you, Dr. Doolittle," Raina muttered. "What the hell do we do with him?"

"I know how to surf," Jessie told Kimber hesitantly, "or I used to, I guess. It's been a really long time since I tried." She tossed a couple of chunks of string cheese to the dogs and gave Tarva an unfathomable look after the explanation of the dog's relative reality. "Maybe you could surf too," she suggested to Kimber. "It wouldn't matter if you got knocked off the board or anything like that, right? I don't think Aquaria would have the patience to learn." With the blanket secured at all four corners, Jessie rose to her feet and whistled to Avro. "Hi, pretty kitty!" She tossed a bit of string cheese to him as well, and used the move as a pretense to edge a little bit closer towards the group at the bonfire without actually committing to anything.

Singularity looked up to meet Fred's gaze, her brown eyes full of grief and remembered horror. "It's nothing," she murmured, letting go of the death grip she had on her own fingers in order to pick up the bundle of antidotes. "It didn't happen. Stay close, okay?" she added in a firmer voice, tucking the bundle under one arm and leaving the other free for fighting. She pushed open the front door and looked around, assessing whether it was safe to move at all. "Looks okay for now. Where are we going with this?"

"You should also stay inside for now," Jessie advised the pharmacist, who looked to be in no danger of wandering outside anyway. She regarded the bundle of antidotes for a moment, tugging at her hair and then rubbing one hand over her face. "You... you made those really fast," she told Fred. "Are you sure they're going to, um, work? Like you want them to?" She hugged her arms to her chest for a moment, then fell into a stance something like parade rest, then just rubbed her hands together, somehow still graceful even in her fidgeting. "There's no chance that giving this to people could do anything bad to them?" Her voice was quiet, less like she was doubting Fred's acumen and more like she was hoping for reassurance.

"Hi Tarva, hi Kimber," Jessie waved back, giving them a genuine, if small, smile. "It's nice to see you guys again." She spread a blanket out over the sand, then began filling little plastic zipper bags with more sand to weigh down the corners. Baxter, who was no dumb cookie, began whiffling around the baggies for signs of sandwiches, till Jessie put him into a lay-down with a quick hand gesture. "Did you get a dog too?" she asked, looking at the shadowy dog-creature with some puzzlement. "Is it, um, real?" Her head jerked up at Comrade Frost's noisy arrival, but she relaxed when he was obviously just another party guest. "I don't know a lot of these people," she admitted.

On Earth Prime, Stesha cried out in shock and sudden pain as control of her portal was suddenly ripped away, a sensation that burned the tips of her fingers and left the taste of rotting vegetation in her mouth. The green light went a sickly gray and winked out, then the vine border itself seemed to disintegrate all at once, falling to powder before her horrified eyes. "No!" she cried out, digging into her seed pouch with trembling fingers, throwing half of its contents to the floor in her haste. A dozen vines sprouted at once, twisting together, clambering over each other and up the walls, hastily forming themselves into a much smaller portal. The green light returned, pleasant and unthreatening as before, along with the inviting smell of flowers. Stesha leapt through the portal without hesitation, but was back in seconds, her face very pale. "They're not there!" she announced frantically. "The portal opened where it should have, but they're not there!" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I don't know where they are."

Paige closed her eyes and murmured the blessing along with Ray, and for a few moments, the entropic energy that covered her body slid back under her skin and away, leaving her clean. Opening her eyes, she gave Ray a small smile. "I hope you're right." Turning to the door, she raised the hand joined with Richard's long enough to plant a quick kiss on his fingers, then walked in with everyone else. The sight of August Roman's withered form was shocking; even in old age he'd always had a vitality and strength to him that was entirely missing now. Whatever had happened to him, she wasn't at all sure he was wrong in his assessment of his own chances. But being negative wasn't going to help them now. She squeezed Richard's hand a little tighter as the demonic entity tempted all of them, feeling first the pain in her own heart at the thought of her nieces and nephews, left unprotected too long, unprotected and endangered still. Letting herself go back down a villainous road wasn't going to do a damn thing to help them now. She'd find another way. She felt Richard's anguish in all the unspoken fear that lay behind his superficial wish: the loss of his father to age and time, the passing of decades that had changed his self-perception from exciting young man to out-of-touch dad type, the fear that the slow march of time, so much slower for him than anyone else, would bring nothing but more pain and loss. And still she felt him reject the bargain, and she was proud, with no words ever having been spoken. "You have nothing for us," she told the demon. "And your time here is very limited. It'll be better for you if you leave now, while you can." In her mind, she reached out to the frail husk of villain on the bed, sending him hope and resolve to wash out the fear. ~It's not too late. You're August Roman, and you can't let this thing get the better of you. It's not too late!~

"It's okay," Jessie replied to Aquaria's offer, "I can go ahead and unpack, and you and Bax can work off some energy." She bent down and released the leash from the exuberant young dog, who looked to be about equal parts labrador, St. Bernard and dandelion puff. Baxter immediately took off down the beach, barking at a seagull and kicking up sand. Jessie was in her swimwear too, though it bore more resemblance to a warm-water dive suit than a regular swimsuit. The black would've been a good color for day, but in the gathering darkness it made her already porcelain-pale skin nearly ghostly. "We haven't got much stuff anyway." She dropped their two beach chairs next to the cooler she'd been dragging, dropped the beach bag on top of that, then took a look around at all the other guests, gave a halfhearted wave, and dug into the bag looking for towels.

A chirp of satisfaction from Merlin was all the warning Raina got before the simulation ended, not cleanly and instantly the way it normally would have, but in a disorienting wash of static and a whine of feedback as the city disappeared and left them standing only a few yards apart in the black box of the Doom Room. Merlin told Raina that he'd sent the SOS, that attention would be paid, though it was hard at this point to say what kind of concrete action anybody might take. She nodded curtly, then looked to her classmates. "Everybody okay?" she asked, her voice strange and strangled to her own ears. A large portion of her wanted to fly up to that window and obliterate it, then start in on the person inside, but for once she wasn't going to give someone the satisfaction of being right about her. "Riley, Fred, you with us here?"

Erin kept one careful eye on the proceedings down below, but this particular group of violent tree huggers didn't seem like much of an immediate threat. They could always have a metahuman or two in the ranks, but that would be unusual even for Freedom City. Most likely they were just another revolutionary group who'd decided to turn words into actions, whether or not they had any idea what they were doing. "Call the play," she murmured to Riley, all but inaudibly. "Midnight and I will back you up, you take the lead." It was a good mission to let the trainee take charge of, well-supervised charge.

"You're never imposing," Stesha reminded Erik. "The bees miss you when you're gone too long. You're godfather to another crop of larvae this past month, by the way, and some of them hatched out as drones. You're going to have to train up the next generation pretty soon." She put her fingers to her hair as though to open the portal, but hesitated at Talya's words. "Oh sure, you'll definitely want to have that," she agreed, as though there were any real possibilty of Talya wanting to knit during or immediately after labor. "Could one of you grab that for her?" she asked the others. "You've already got enough to carry," she reminded Talya with an encouraging pat on the arm. "Here we go." Removing one of the yellow daisies from her hair, Stesha tossed it to the ground, where it began growing, sprouting new leaves and flowers and runners until it formed a rough square about seven feet high. Green light shimmered in the portal, and the air suddenly smelled of springtime.

Erin nodded at Midnight. "I'll call Edge, get the ball rolling." She stepped aside several paces to gain a little privacy, Jessie following at her heels without command or comment, pausing only to give a little finger-wave to her companions from the Voidrunner. They stopped about twenty yards away, under a tree on the edge of the parking lot. "I really am sorry," Jessie blurted out suddenly, wringing her hands hard enough to crack her knuckles as the words came tumbling out, fast and faster. "I should've stopped this from happening, I never should've let Aquaria touch that glowing thing. Or I should've protected her better so she didn't have to fight and hurt that... I don't know what it was, the thing that was attacking her, and we didn't have to fly away in the ship. And I shouldn't have promised that you would pay the Voidrunners but we didn't have any other way to get back to earth and I just wanted to go home-" "Jessie! Stop!" Erin's barked command cut across her doppleganger's torrent of apologies. "You did what you had to do to keep the both of you alive and get home. You didn't have an episode, you didn't kill anyone-" She cut herself off as a red flush of shame swept over Jessie's pale face. "Jess..." "Nobody died!" Jessie said hastily. "Nobody got badly hurt. But it was scary, and I got scared. They wanted to arrest us. I thought- the box..." she trailed off on a miserable, confused whisper, wrapping her arms around herself and ducking her head. Erin swept a hand through her hair and regarded her double with consternation. "We gotta figure out a way to keep you at home, Jessie," she finally said. "You're not ready for the hero stuff." She reached a hand out halfway and then pulled it back, too awkward to make a connection. "But don't worry about any of this stuff. Trevor and I will fix it, I promise. I'm just glad you made it back." Leaving Jessie to compose herself, she took another couple steps away and pulled out her phone. "Hey Mark, it's me. I really need a favor right now if you're not too busy..."

"If you want to have a hospital birth, we can absolutely arrange for that." Stesha Madison was in full cheerful mother-hen mode today, ready to cluck and fuss over the new mother-to-be. She was happy to attempt to ease the last minute jitters with encouraging words. "Miss Americana was my doctor while I was pregnant with Amaryllis, and she has an excellent facility over at ArcheTech for superhuman physiologies if that'll make you more comfortable. Unfortunately," she added, "I really don't think they knock women out to give birth anymore unless it's absolutely necessary, since they found out it isn't great for the babies. And sedation and epidurals for women like us aren't always reliable anyway." She gave Talya a smile of commiseration. "But you liked the birthing center on Sanctuary when you took the tour, right?" Stesha reminded her unwilling guest. "We have a private room all set up for you, and the midwife is going to be there if you have any trouble at all. We'll get you into a warm bathtub and I think you'll start feeling quite a bit better. Are you ready?"

Even without a body, Gina could still smirk, this time ruefully as she considered the work of her descendants' hands. "The power of my will isn't even enough to bring myself into line, much less let me determine what's best for other people," she told the glowing apparition. "You know what I was like, you know what I am. It would be hypocritical in the extreme for me to assume I can tell anybody else how they should live. But I like to think I've still managed to make some people's lives better. To use the gift you gave me and do some good, and not just change my own circumstances. Will you be all right?" Are you scared? she wanted to ask, but didn't. She didn't know if it could be scared, and if it was, she wasn't really close enough to ask anyway.

They hung in silence for a moment while Gina considered those words, then released a soundless sigh into the vacuum. "That's good to know," she said at last. "Such a painful battle, it's nice to think it was all worth something." Gina turned her gaze downward towards herself for a moment and was mildly surprised and relieved to note that neither of her physical shells had made the trip with her; she had no more corporeal form than her companion right now. It was a good feeling. "What will you do now?"

Gina nodded to her companion, surprised but not startled to see it there. "It's very beautiful," she said honestly, reaching an arm out halfway as though she could trace the water-drop curve of an arcology with her fingertips. "Is this a vision of the future?" she asked, "or an alternate universe? Or is it some of both?" Timeline theory and alternate universes were not a specialty of Gina's, but she remembered everything she'd ever read or seen, and she was very clever. "It looks so pristine."

"Send out an SOS," Raina instructed her familiar, wheeling around on her broom so she didn't have to look at the simulated corpses any longer. "The headmaster if you can get her, otherwise any of your technopals you can catch. Something's going on beyond the normal sadism." Merlin agreed, commenting absently that screwing with the holodeck always led to bad situations. "You're a nerd," she replied, forcing a half smile. He did not disagree, but he wasn't paying much attention, either. She saw Riley had jumped off the roof, a little more acrobatic than she'd expected from him, but he seemed to have landed okay. Fred was probably hanging back to stay out of trouble from the remaining simulations, and maybe to stay out of the way of Robin's exceedingly well-deserved tantrum. While she waited for Merlin, Raina circled around and potshotted the monsters, shooting the occasional dark look at the observation room.

Paige stared at the door, almost as though she were looking through it, the entropic energy now seemingly content to coat her hands and arms like impossibly slick opera gloves. "He's in there," she murmured, "he's conscious, but the thing that is with him..." She trailed off, did her best to regroup. "It's like if you tried to imagine the goodness of God, and then you inverted it." She shuddered, then looked to Ray with a slight, rueful smile. "If you've got a blessing to give, I'll take it gladly," she told him. "We get our powers for such times as these, right?" One of Paige's hands reached automatically for Richard's before she pulled it back, not wanting to touch him with her tainted skin. "And I guess this isn't going to get any easier if we keep waiting."