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Amelia, Ch 16

By the time we had made it to a very well fed Noelle's chamber, Jess was walking on her own, if poorly. She leaned on the rather smaller Sundancer to help her balance. Her new legs were more than reasonably strong, but she had never used them before. It would be some time before she made up the skill.

I was already prepared for Noelle to be a monster, when the smaller reinforced door was opened. But I wasn't prepared for just what that meant. Her lower body looked like nothing more than some freakish sandworm monster. Gnarled, misshapen flesh, eyes randomly parsed across her body. Multiple mouths, also without any rhyme or reason. She was massive- easily larger than Crawler, which she uncomfortably resembled. Larger than Leviathan. Maybe even Behemoth.

She wasn't nearly as intimidating as the Endbringers, however. Her body was less like a god's personal killing machine, and more a piteous thing from some movie about post apocalyptic mutants. On top of all this was a girl. Hooked into the rest like a centaur of sorts.

And Riley. Who had somehow climbed up the monstrous mass. She was currently sitting next to Noelle on the top, and had handed her an oxygen mask to hold while she set everything else up. Noelle's mass would make the rest of this kinda difficult. And Riley knew more about this than I did.

We'd altered her appearance- or at least that of her changelings. Black straight hair, now. Adjusted to appear as a teenager, of some combination of racial characteristics that'd make it hard to decide if she was Asian or Hispanic. It's not that we didn't trust the Travelers. But we really did not trust anyone when it came to this. 'Hey, we have a pet Bonesaw in our basement. You don't mind that we're sheltering one of the most notorious and dangerous serial killers in the country, right?' Yeah, that'd go over real well.

"Be careful down there," she shouted to us. "The flowers have teeth."

I hadn't noticed them before, but there were a number of plants sitting in pools of random goo distributed near Noelle. I move a little closer and one of them hissed at me.

I quickly stepped back.

"I've never seen her power do that before," Trickster replied. "She copies people and animals, as I explained. But plants? That's new."

"It... that's probably our fault," I answered. "She's using a sort of remote controlled puppet I made. It's made of vegetable matter, mostly. We thought it was safer that way. Fewer people who could get hurt."

Trickster shrugged. "That's a good idea. Marissa, would you mind clearing them out?"

The miniature sun that was Sundancer's claim to fame flickered into existence near the plants, and I watched them shrivel, die, and then promptly burst into flames. "If only it were that easy every time," she muttered sadly.

I looked at Noelle. "I don't know if they told you what this would require."

"My powers are going to be taken away, of course," she replied. "Good. I don't want them. I never wanted them."

"That, yes," I responded. "And possibly more. I won't know until I try."

She sighed. Through all of her mouths. The already rancid stink in the air got worse, bad enough to bring tears to my eyes. "If you can't fix me, then I want you to kill me."

Trickster moved past me, "Noelle, please! You're not thinking straight."

"SHUT UP, KROUSE!" The mouths shouted. It worked. He stumbled back. "I... I've given this a lot of thought. I've had years to think about it. This is my last, best, chance. Clarice says her anesthetic will probably only work on me once. I want it clear. I either wake up normal, or I don't want to wake up at all. Can you do that for me?"

I hesitated. For everything I'd done... killing someone... sure, it would be simplistic. Even with her mass, it would probably only take seconds. "I..." ultimately it was easier for me to lie. I was good at lying. "You won't wake up a monster."

Riley, or Clarice, if you preferred to use her new fake name, finished setting up all of her equipment. "Okay, just remember to breathe really deeply and count backward from ten," one monster instructed the other.

Noelle started counting, and Riley took a running leap off the side of her body, spreading her arms and legs out and landing belly flop style on the concrete. She climbed to her feet. "Durability stress testing," she stated, as if that explained everything.

I placed my hand on the already unconscious girl's body. Everyone tensed, ready to destroy a clone if one appeared. But that didn't occur. Whatever Riley did, it worked. I expanded my senses into Noelle. And almost screamed.

Her body wasn't trying to become an Endbringer, like the Travelers suspected. It was trying to become a Passenger. Or... trying to become a Passenger... that was trying to become a person? I didn't know for certain, it was so very alien. Following biological rules I hadn't realized could exist. Drawing mass from other dimensions to construct itself. Or, I had to guess that's what it was doing. The mass was coming from somewhere, and it wasn't just her diet.

She had no less than two Corona Pollentias. And one had grown to twice the mass of a normal human brain. It was contained somewhere below one of the constructs in her lower body that superficially resembled a stomach. It was rendered inactive by Riley's chemicals.

I got my first true look at it. Not too different from an ordinary human brain. It even had the cerebellum structure in the Gemma, although it was a single mass instead of a pair of lobes. And it didn't behave like a normal brain behaved. It was closer to the nerve bundles I used to control my puppets.

I started separating Noelle from the monster beneath her. she'd have to live with not having legs for at least a little while. The corrupted tissue beneath was not something I was willing to use to rebuild her. It was... I wasn't certain what it was. Like some kind of sapient tumor.

And then it moved on its own. Riley's drugs had rendered Noelle unconscious, but not the monster beneath. One of its limbs swung toward me- too fast for me to avoid. I felt a tug and was thrown back, out of reach. Riley had pulled me out of the way, only to be batted hard enough to fly into the concrete wall twenty or so feet away. She dropped, the impact force was enough to kill even a changeling.

Fortunately, it was just a changeling. Taylor went through them all the time. But *I* was actually here in this room with that monster.

"Noelle?" Trickster shouted at the rampaging thing. "Please! You have to calm down."

She's not in there, I thought. That thing, the Passenger, that was all that was. Riley's concoction had backfired. It would have worked on a case 53. It would have worked on a parahuman. It only make things worse for Noelle.

I was moving even as she approached Trickster and the other two. Jess had fallen and was trying to crawl away with Sundancer's help. They wouldn't make it in time, and Krouse was too stupid to even try.

It was distracted. And that's what Noelle had become, an it. I had to convince myself of that for at least the next three seconds. I made contact and reached out. My power... I had never used it like this, but now I didn't have much choice. I couldn't afford to be picky or specific. I didn't bother trying to create. I simply destroyed. Her nervous system, converted instantly to barely organic goo. She was paralyzed, but regenerating. The circulatory system, I replaced with digestive enzymes and acids. Regenerating. Nervous system again, converted to tree fibers, if only to block the regeneration. It worked for all of five seconds.

Which was enough time for me to target the Corona Pollentia. I shredded it entirely. Down to the last cell. Cutting off whatever part of its nature allowed the Passenger to reach through into this world and grant powers.

And with that, Noelle was no more. I slumped to the floor, covered in the goo that was once a monster that was once a girl.Amelia Ch 17

"Why did I ever agree to this?" Taylor moaned beside me.

"Because it was Minerva's idea, and you do absolutely everything she says because you're hopelessly in love with her?" I replied.

Next to me, Riley snickered.

"If she did everything I said, we would be several hundred miles away from Brockton Bay at this moment," Lisa muttered.

And above us, our doubles were the guests of honor at an outdoor press conference. It had been eight days. Eight days since Victoria died. Eight days since Taylor and I formed our alliance. Eight days since I became a premeditated murderer and had added one of America's most terrifying parahumans to our team, alongside the person I hated most in the world. And in the last week, we'd committed a horrifying violation of human rights and set ourselves up to be entirely capable of being more dangerous than Heartbreaker and Nilbog combined.

The good we'd done. Rescuing Dinah, harnessing Coil, curbing the activities of E-88, the fact that my murder was Jack Slash... did all of that balance out the bad? I couldn't say. I was still frustrated by our continuing failures to cure Noelle. I didn't even have the benefit of knowing exactly what I'd done wrong. But at least she never knew. We'd try again later.

But I would see justice done for my sister. The PRT's crimes would be publicly exposed. We would protect this city, and we would do it in spite of those claiming to be heroes. Really, it was becoming far more than that. Dinah's predictions of the End of the World meant we had a planet to save. But that was more than a decade away from us.

Today we were being honored as heroes on a hastily set up stage right next to Crater Lake. Not very far from my new apartment, actually. I'd learned that Coil and Lisa had purchased almost all the land surrounding the hole already, in anticipation of it later being far more valuable. In... oh, about an hour.

"So, tell me how you managed to make this happened?" I asked Lisa.

"Well, rescuing his niece made him pretty willing to hear us out," she responded. "But, truthfully? There's an election coming up and, after all the hell this city's been through, he has to look damn good or he'll never have a political career again in his life. Voters are willing to forgive acts of god and/or satan. What they're not willing to forgive is a leader looking weak and ineffectual."

"So he's using us to win a popularity contest," Taylor muttered unhappily. "Like fucking high school all over again."

"Swearing!" Bonesaw snapped quickly. At least she's getting better about it.

"That statement alone qualifies you for a bachelor's degree in political science," Lisa continued. "On the plus side this means all we have to do is smile, let the mayor's spin doctors make us look amazing, and let Coil's influence carry us forward after he forgets about us for whatever keeps his backers happy next week.."

I sighed. I was with Taylor on this one. That was... depressing would be too kind a word. This 'use and be used' mentality was not okay. I'd have said something, but now was our time to play our parts in the sad world known as politics.

"So it is my honor to introduce Pantheon," the mayor said with a smile that might even be genuine. We were saving his career, after all.

We stepped up, smiling. "Thank you," I said as I took the podium. "It's no secret that I'm pretty terrible at public speaking," I said to the audience. I even got a couple chuckles. Panacea had always been the absolutely least approachable member of New Wave, when it came to the media. "As such, I believe it would be easiest to start by allowing my team to introduce themselves and briefly explain their powers. Starting with myself. Gaea, biological modification."

I stepped aside and Taylor took the mike. "Khepri," she started. "I can control bugs. Which, it turns out, is not as lame as it sounds."

She even did it without the swarm-voice. Our powers were already scary beyond all reason. Didn't need to add that dehumanizing element. She handed the mike off to Lisa and stepped off to the right, next to me, as the other two girls moved closer to the podium.

"Minerva," Lisa replied. Of all of us, she was the one most comfortable with the stage. "I have the ability to be lucky at guesswork. I'll spend most of my time playing dispatch for the others, so be sure and take a lot of pictures. They'll have to last you for a while."

She handed off to the final member of our current quartet. Riley's safe-to-be-outside changeling. "I'm Aceso," she started. "Mid level brute package coupled with a form of combat precognition and a few other minor tricks."

Yes. That was the closest we could get to making Riley sound safe, while still being true. Sorta. Turns out, the whole martial arts myth about being able to kill someone with a tap to the arm is damn close to true when you're a biotinker. That, and she'd done so many things to her personalized changeling that there was almost nothing left of my work inside it. It was more machine than anything, and qualified as a pretty impressive brute in its own right.

She handed the mike back over to me. Now we had functionally surrounded the podium, giving the reporters a chance to capture us all together.

"We'll be taking questions now," I said after they'd had a few moments to get their fill. It helped that none of us were actually on the stage. It helped that Lisa was telling us how to play to the camera from while we were all nice and safe. I pointed at one of the ones in the front row, at Lisa's instruction. She knew which reporters we should pick from better than I did.

"What do you call that vine thing that you have been using?"

Ah, the easy one. Thank you Lisa, for letting that start us off. "I call it the Yggdrasil. I've already provided all the documentation to the government about its function, but it is perfectly safe and unable to survive without me."

I picked another, second row this time. "Yggdrasil is a Norse icon, right? Are you worried about being associated with, or provoking, Empire Eighty Eight."

"They don't exactly have a copyright claim on ancient mythology," I replied. "Besides, E88 would already hate us." I gestured over to where our 'obviously ethnic' Aceso stood next to Minerva. She waved daintily toward the crowd and their cameras.

Minerva spoke up. "It's true. I'm actually Jewish."

That earned a few chuckles. 'You are not,' The real me stated.

'You can't prove that, and neither can they,' Lisa replied.

'Whatever, moving on.' Above, I picked out another reporter.

"It's something of an open secret that you are Panacea, of New Wave. Did you have a second trigger? These new powers seem to suggest you have."

Ah, was expecting that one. "No. I have the same powers and weaknesses I've always had," I responded. "If you examine the records of the cases I've dealt with, it's always been known that I can manipulate life other than human. I just hadn't really considered how useful plants could be until recently."

"What about New Wave, aren't they a family team? Why did you choose to leave?"

Well, ouch. "I disagree with some of New Wave's policies," I answered. "And due to recent events, including the loss of my sister. It's... it's time for me to move on. Follow my own direction, instead of one set for me by others. I respect what New Wave tried to accomplish. And wish them the best in the future. But I believe Pantheon will prove better for me."

Pointing to another. "This is for Khepri. Much like Gaea, it's an open secret that you were Skitter, a member of the Undersides, a villain group. Why the change of heart? And do you expect that you'll be granted leniency for your previous activities?"

'What the fuck, Lisa?' Taylor hissed. 'I thought we were going to get the easy questions.' Her changeling simply paused for a second.

'We'll have to answer it sooner or later, and this is the friendliest group of reporters we will ever encounter,' she said back.

Khepri stepped forward, taking the mic and letting me move to the side. "Yes. I was a villain. I hurt some and terrorized far more... and I am sorry. I won't try to offer any excuses, and I hope my actions in the future will prove I'm sincere. The name I chose for myself is a symbol of rebirth. And Pantheon is that for me, a chance to be reborn."

I came to her defense, of course. "Part of what Pantheon stands for is second chances. We've all done our fair share of wrongs." Mine worse than most. "The fact is that Khepri is here, trying to do the right thing, is enough to give her that chance. Speaking as someone who was on the receiving end of her actions as Skitter, and seeing what she's done to make up for it. I've already forgiven her." Strangely enough, it was actually true. I hadn't quite managed to forgive Lisa, mainly because I didn't think she was actually sorry about anything she'd done, but Taylor had been nothing but remorseful.

Beside me, the Mayor reached out. "If I may?" I handed him the microphone. "I have to agree with Gaea. It would be easy for me to hold a grudge, after the Undersiders crashed my last dinner party, but seeing what these girls have achieved in the wake of Leviathan and the Slaughterhouse Nine. As well as what they have planned for the future, I can forgive her as well. What our city needs now is to come together and work for the future as a community, not sink to petty recriminations."

There was some applause from the audience.

'That was his plan all along, wasn't it, coming to our rescue, right after throwing us at the bus like that?' Taylor whispered.

'Yup, pretty much,' Lisa responded. 'Had to let him do it. Too good a plan to let go to waste.'

The applause died and I was handed back the microphone. The reporter who asked that question of Taylor looked entirely too pleased with himself. Oh well. I returned the mic to Taylor. 'You should be the one to announce the next part,' I told her.

"Part of that atonement," she said after a moment. "Is the reward money and bounties for the death of members of the Slaughterhouse Nine. As one of the Undersiders, I have partial credit for Burnscar and Shatterbird. I have individual credit for the Siberian. And as part of Pantheon I have partial credit for Jack Slash and Bonesaw."

That earned some whispered conversation. Thanks to the construct's senses, I could hear them. None of it was very interesting, almost all speculation on how the 'bug girl' could kill someone that had literally punched Alexandria's eye out. "It comes to a large amount of money. All of which I plan to use in the rebuilding and recovery efforts. I didn't fight the Nine for a profit. I did it to be a hero."

"Speaking of, most of Pantheon's work has been pretty below the radar when it comes to heroics. Is that going to change?"

"Yes, on both accounts," I nodded. "In spite of our ostentatious name, we believe in doing what helps people, not what makes headlines." We also believe in not attracting attention to the fact that we're S-class threats before we're ready. "I have used my Yggdrasil to clear out blockages and clean up hazardous materials. Restoring the sewer system to working order and undoing the damage which Leviathan had inflicted. Khepri has been using her control of insects to clear the camps and hospitals of disease carrying vermin. Minerva has been helping us by sending us where we're most needed, and planning our future steps. It's not the things that usually gets noticed, but it's what saves the most lives."

I paused. "Still, we're about to step up and start doing things on a more visible level. The first involves setting up a legitimate base of operations. The city has been kind enough to donate a small area for us to set up a home of our own."

"Where at?" One of the reporters asked.

"You're looking at it," I said, gesturing at the huge sinkhole. "You'll have to forgive me for letting my team handle the rest of the questions, but my power is touch range only, after all."

My changeling stepped off the podium as everyone watched, and walked over to the water's edge. Meanwhile, underneath, I was extending my control across my plants. I had tens of thousands of tons of raw mass to work with, but this hole was massive. Without the relay system, Taylor could not have influenced bugs on opposite sides of the shore at once. A testament to just how powerful Leviathan was. And how we were going to upstage him.

My copy stepped into the water, and the Yggdrasil poured out. It wasn't elegant at all, there really was no time for it to be. Ninety percent of the material I controlled was functionally vomited onto the water, flowing over it and forming root systems to reach the bottom. A dome of branches and roots formed near the center, creating a stout, wide building. Two stories high, a full city block in width. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, true, but it was ours. Trees sprouted up at intervals near the edge of the crater, blossoming and forming fruit almost immediately. Underneath the carpet of greenery, the Yggdrasil drank heavily of the water of the lake. It would be a while, but eventually at whole underground would be filled with the plant's mass. Give or take a few deep level basements for Riley to work.

During the fifteen minute process, no one had spoken. There was the occasional gasp, and the reporters had of course moved to get the best view possible. I was exhausted. For the first time since I had started legitimately using my power, I had tired myself out. I hadn't even set up relays for Taylor in the base. She'd need one near the center. Probably two, actually.

Speaking of Taylor, she took the lead when it became clear I was done for the day. "As you can see," she said to the silenced reporters. "We are ready for business. The city already has the details they need, but on top of working as our base, we will be setting up a number of facilities. Notably, near the northeast end, we will be providing an area for repair and sanitation crews to dump their refuse. There will be a patch of special Yggdrasil which is capable of breaking down almost any material and will serve to reduce travel time for disposal. Near the south end, we will be establishing an area to serve as another temporary camp. The trees near the perimeter produce edible fruit. Feel free to try them out, they taste similar to how they look. And thank you for your time."

It took us eight days. Eight days for Pantheon to become the single most visible group in the city. Possibly on the eastern seaboard, once my stunt really got into the news and other stations got in on the action. Tomorrow, and for the next few days, we'd worry about all of that. But tonight? Tonight I needed to be physically carried to bed. I wouldn't be doing something like that again for a long time.

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A/N- Yes, they did indeed use the Coil reset button. I'm a troll like that. I promise to never use this,Amelia, Ch 18

As it turns out, my 'tomorrow' was spent bedridden. With a headache the likes of which I wasn't aware could be survived. It wasn't until well into the afternoon that I had recovered. I got up, eventually, to use the bathroom and brush my teeth. I was sticky, and I smelled bad. Not things I was normally familiar with, as my power typically dealt with hygiene for me. Well, for the most part at least.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of thinker migraines," Lisa announced when I managed to wander out of my room. "Your complimentary t-shirt and bottle of pills will be delivered in six to twelve business days."

"Great," I muttered. "I'll be sure and wear it every time I do something stupid."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short," Lisa replied. "You regularly scan every blood vessel in the human body simultaneously. If you stretched all that out end to end, it'd wrap around the world two and a half times. And that's just the blood vessels. It takes a pretty strong thinker power, to track all that."

"Good to know. Can I use it to find coffee?"

"Nah, but I got that covered," she smiled. "Oh, by the way, 'Clarice' wanted to let you know she can surgically upgrade your brain so you don't have to worry about that anymore. I told her I'd deliver the message, but she should probably worry about getting Taylor another fully equipped changeling."

Glad Lisa chased her off, I thought. The way my head feels, I'd probably have accepted. "Again? What did she do this time?"

"Night and Fog."

"Well, at least it wasn't another Hookwolf. Why does she keep doing this?"

"I dunno, let's ask her..."

At that point, Taylor came around the corner holding a couple styrofoam cups. I could smell the coffee scent from here. Also, how the hell does Lisa do that? "Ask me what?"

"About your playdate with E88 last night," Lisa smiled.

"I keep telling you. It's a perfectly valid tactic," Taylor sighed with exasperation, handing me the beverage that I had come to love and need. "I keep them off balance without making them feel like they're losing. It means they can't really advance, but also don't feel the need to come after us hard until we're ready for it."

"We don't care about them advancing," Lisa countered. "They can take this whole city and we'd be able to take it back in under an hour. We WANT them to win. At least temporarily."

"I know," she agreed. "But I'm getting restless. I want to actually do something, all this waiting sucks." She paused. "Umm... Amy... you might want to finish that coffee fast. I think your family's headed this way. You've got about five minutes."

"Already?"

"Already."

I skipped the shower, using my power to self clean my skin pretty effectively while combing my hair and brushing my teeth. It'd be my first step into the public eye after that press conference, and I couldn't afford to be anything but perfect.

We took the sewer path, regardless. It wasn't really any slower, and it had the benefit of keeping my house off the radar. My identity was entirely public, and I would compromise Taylor and Lisa's identities if they were seen with me out of costume. Thanks a lot, Carol.

We emerged near the edge of my Yggdrasil, right where the sewer line entered the crater. It was a simple enough matter to form a staircase from the layers of root and biomass. My favorite part of dealing with my construct was that it lacked any kind of centralized system. Cut it to shreds and each piece was still just as alive as it was as one singular organism. I could twist and shape it any way I liked, and it would not be harmed. So much easier to work with than human beings.

The remnants of New Wave were already there when I came out to meet them. Mark and Sarah were flanking Carol. Crystal was a bit off to the side, looking decidedly uncomfortable. Her eyes darting from me to Khepri and back more than once. A number of people had started to gather around, to see the spectacle in the time before we arrived.

A swarm of bugs were kind enough to convince them to step back. And, for added measure, I stepped out of my sandals- best part of my costume design, really- and placed my bare feet onto the ground. Seconds later, we were surrounded by a six foot privacy hedge.

I smiled as my supposed family looked around, more than a little startled by the casual display of power. That's right, weak little Amy can do all this.

"Thanks," Carol finally spoke up. "It's better to have this conversation in private. Amongst family." Her eyes had focused over to where my partners stood. She locked them down in a stare. As if trying to demand they leave. Had to give it to her, she was good at intimidating people. Even people who could, one way or another, destroy her entirely. She couldn't do much to stop Khepri. And god help her if Minerva went after her. But this was my fight, not theirs.

I could feel the pressure where Taylor started to turn to leave. Lisa didn't, of course, but whether that was due to her lack of sensitivity, or predicting what I was about to say, I couldn't know. "So we're agreed, then. They belong here."

Carol's lips drew together in that disapproving way she was so good at. "I see," she said coldly. "Very well. We can do this in front of your friends."

Was that really some kind of power play? Now.

"Amy," she started.

"Amelia," I interrupted, my voice every bit as frigid as hers. "My name is Amelia Claire Lavere. I would thank you to keep that in mind."

She didn't bother arguing the point. "Imagine how shocked we were to discover you were leaving the team, from a newspaper? Couldn't you have shown the courtesy of informing us in person?"

"Mark didn't tell you?" I asked. "What about Victoria? I made it clear to them that I had no intention of returning to New Wave. And that was almost two weeks ago."

"Mark said you were upset, after everything Bonesaw had done. And Victoria refused to speak about it," she looked around. "If she saw what you were doing here, I could see why she was disturbed. Amy-"

"Amelia," I corrected again.

Sarah moved up and put a hand on Carol's shoulder. It was enough to quiet her. "Amelia, fine," Sarah spoke up. "You have to know how dangerous this is. What you're doing is going to frighten people. And rightfully so. It'll set back the parahuman rights movement. Destroy everything that New Wave has been working toward. Please. I know you're upset, but this isn't going to help. It'll just make things worse for all of us."

She was right, of course. Why couldn't she have taken me in, instead of Carol? I could have had actual parents. Victoria wouldn't have been my sister. Not that cousin was a great deal better. But that really wasn't the problem...

"Right," I managed to bite out. "How could I forget when it was hammered into my head since I was thirteen years old? My power would scare people. I can't let people realize just how powerful I am. That fear, and don't think I didn't pick up on it, that I'd turn out like my father."

Carol stepped back like she'd been slapped. Sarah looked down.

Mark spoke up. "Amy, please, I know I haven't been the best father. I tried, not that that's an excuse. "

I sighed. "No, you're right. You, at least, did try. I can't blame you for that. But I can blame her." I locked eyes with Carol. Years of frustration and repression boiled to the surface. I couldn't control it if I wanted to, and I definitely didn't want to.

"I probably couldn't have helped you, not until Bonesaw forced me past my own mental blocks. But if it weren't for Carol... then Victoria would still be alive."

There. I said it. And it felt amazing. And I wasn't about to stop. "Maybe even Eric and Uncle Neil."

"You can't know-" Carol snapped back.

"Can't I? I fought the fucking Siberian to a god damn standstill, something even the Triumvirate never accomplished. I made sure Jack Slash died screaming. I did all that with only a day of preparation. I built this in a week." I gestured to the ground beneath our feet. "I could do it again in another month, at the rate we're going. Imagine what I could have accomplished in three years! If you'd encouraged me to use my power. Instead you force fed me horror stories about Nilbog! Made a little girl terrified of herself!"

"Maybe I couldn't have stopped Leviathan. My ego's not so big as to believe I'm a match for an Endbringer. But my Yggdrasil would have easily held back the ocean. Got people to safety. Let Eidolon focus on offense instead of defense. We'll never know the lives I could have saved in that fight. Neil and Eric may have been amongst them. Make of that as you will." I breathed slowly, calming myself enough to continue speaking. "There is, however, no possible doubt that I could have ended the Slaughterhouse Nine, all of them, the day they stepped into Brockton Bay. Every life lost to them, including Victoria's, is on my hands. And yours. I want you to know this."

Carol actually broke. She sobbed. I'd made her cry. "Please, Amy, we're your family."

I felt guilty, then. But I was still angry, and I was angry that I felt guilty. "You are not my family. Victoria was my family. You are the people who kidnapped me. Now leave before I make you leave."

I let the privacy wall collapse, joining the mass of the rest of the Yggdrasil's mass. It would even itself out naturally, without any direction on my part. I didn't wait for them to respond, I simply turned and headed toward what was becoming our command center. I felt them lift off and leave.

Somehow I held myself back until I was alone. I let go of my self control and my anger. I slid down against a wall and pulled my legs up to my chest and allowed myself, for the first time since we started this, to be Amy again. I was still crying when Clarice found me. She said nothing. Simply sat down next to me and waited in silence until I was finished. or any other "it was just a dream/etc" scenarios ever again. While Coil's certainly doing his thing, events shown in story from this point on only come from the real timeline.