Cait thundered towards the stone wall surrounding the AEGIS installation, covering a hundred yards in 3 steps. Unwilling to stop at the gate, she leapt over it.

  “GodDAMN it Amaranthine! Use the fucking ga-.”

  “Fuck you Pete!”

  She slammed into the ground, narrowly avoiding the statue of Shelly in the Pantheon’s courtyard. There were too many people around to Boomsprint, so she just ran. She could hear that Kennedy’s breath had slowed, but now she could hear her softly weep.

  Cait rushed past the secretary’s desk, and didn’t even take a second to wave to the real Shelly before bursting, literally, through the door to Director Swan’s office. It had been locked.

  “Cait?” the woman looked up in surprise, taking off a pair of tiny readers. Her eyes widened in concern as she saw Cait’s cargo. “Kennedy!?”

  She fluidly vaulted her desk, sending paper, pens and a laptop flying as she ran to her daughter’s side. Scooping her off of Cait’s shoulder, she carried her to a chair, where Kennedy curled as small as she could get in her lap. Rose chuffed anxiously next to the two women, softly headbutting the Director’s legs.

  “What. Happened.” Director Swan demanded, barely constrained rage in her voice. She didn’t take her eyes off of her daughter for a second.

  “I don’t know!” Cait said, pacing in front of them. “We’d stopped for a break, she was tired from scanning, and then….”

  Cait gestured helplessly at Kennedy.

  “Should I go?”

  Director Swan gave a stiff nod, but Kennedy’s hand shot out locking around the Amazon’s wrist with Cait’s own strength.

  “NO!” she half growled, half sobbed. “I’m fucking sick of freaking out without you knowing why.”

  Her eyes wildly scanned the room, but it was different than it had been outside. Now it was like something was missing.

  “Can someone PLEASE go get Lira!?” she croaked.

  Like the words were a summoning spell, the redhead burst into the room. Or she would have, if the doors hadn’t already been wrecked by Cait, instead, she ran into them and had to dodge as one fell off of its hinges and tried to bean her.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  She never broke stride though, and in a blink, she was crouched next to Kennedy and the Director, hands kneading the armrest.

  “Hey!” she cooed, eyes locked onto Kennedy. “Hey, its alright babe, I’m here.”

  All the fighting I did, and nothing helped as much as that, Cait thought, feeling a palpable relaxation emanate from Kennedy. Instead of feeling jealous, she felt herself smiling.

  Kennedy stayed clutched to the Director, but took a few breaths, calming herself.

  “Hooo… okay. So. You both know I’m fucked,” she started. Cait opened her mouth to protest, but- “Shut the FUCK up, Cait, I’m talking.”

  “This piece of shit we’re fighting. The Bookeeper. He started a cult. He wanted to make the Altered Ascendant, he called it. Stupid fucking name. After a million non-starters, he decided the solution would be to breed his monster.”

  Kennedy spoke like each word was vomit, forcing its way out of her throat and burning all the way.

  “My mother was his daughter. Could be argued she was a victim too, but fuck her. My fucking father was his right hand man. Bookkeeper decided he was the only one strong enough to use his daughter like breeding stock. So. Me.”

  She took in a deep shaking breath.

  “I was almost what he wanted. Defying logic, I was born with these powers. But he felt like I was too limited. Too fragile. So he wanted one more generation.”

  Director Swan stroked her daughter’s hair as she continued. Tears streaked the mature woman’s face now too, but she remained silent.

  “The rest of the kids my age were considered failures, and Bookkeeper was impatient. Given the success the first time, he decided his lieutenant would be the right choice to sire his own granddaughter. I was fucking twelve.”

  Kennedy shook, and reached out to squeeze Lira’s hand tight.

  “He didn’t even have to talk him into it. I think that piss-eyed fuck was waiting for it since the second I was born. Three goddamn years of torture.”

  Finally she, smiled up through her tears at her real mother.

  “Then, two days after my fifteenth birthday, Black Swan and the I-Cub killed every adult in that compound, and the nightmare started to end. You guys have seen the effects, but believe me, I used to be worse. Then, today, I saw my father’s eyes. I know I did. I tried to convince myself it was just a reflection of my own, but it wasn’t. I’d forget them if I could, but I can’t. I see them every day in the mirror.”

  Kennedy fixed those eyes on each of then in turn. It was hard to believe things that beautiful could be a source of such pain, but a constant reminder like that….. harder to believe she hadn’t clawed them out.

  Dealing with this was so far out of Cait’s wheelhouse she was struck dumb. A heavy ball of helpless despair weighed down her stomach, surrounded by a blazing, coursing inferno of insensate, impotent rage.

  But that wouldn’t help right now.

  Instead, as Kennedy’s pleading eyes met her own, she just said:

  “I like your eyes.”

  It wasn’t the right thing to say, but it wasn’t so wrong that it didn’t help. The non-sequitur got Kennedy giggling, and as she opened an arm to Cait and Lira, the women joined her and her mother, holding her tight, all laughing and sobbing in equal measure.