The last thing I remembered before passing out was a sharp pain lancing through my head, Earth hurtling toward me, and then nothing at all. I had enough time to figure that Older Me had been right about feeling so tired that we’d one day crash from pure exhaustion, and I guess she was right on the money for that one. Haven’t slept in might just be over a few months. Haven’t eaten since…Gods, can’t even remember that. I couldn’t blame my body on calling it quits so suddenly. Seems like everyone’s got a limit, and I think, after several months, I’ve reached mine and reached it very hard and very suddenly. I could still taste soil and snow in my mouth when I woke up.

  Strangely enough, I wasn’t in a crater of my own creation, which I’d been getting pretty used to making, but wrapped in a blanket and curled up on my bed again. I groaned and stretched, yawning and throwing the thick wool blanket off of me. I glanced outside my window, pushing aside the curtains someone had drawn whilst I was still asleep. Nighttime? I sat upright and frowned, because I wasn’t in my filthy, torn, crappy clothes I’d been wearing for days on end now. Instead, I was in pajamas slightly too large for me. I was still dirty, mind you, but in far cleaner clothes than I’d worn in forever. I got off my bed and wandered out of my bedroom, kind of sleepy, still a little dazed and aching, but with enough sense to know that someone was singing downstairs whilst the tv droned on and on with some old romantic comedy. By the time I was downstairs, everything was hurting in my body.

  I almost felt like I was back on my unscheduled dosage of Ambrosia, but this felt different.

  More like someone had dipped my muscles in cement and let them harden.

  “Hm?” Rebecca glanced over her shoulder. She’d been chewing on a biscuit whilst half-heartedly making two mugs of tea. Scratch that, two mugs of hot chocolate and filling a plate with sugary biscuits. “Oh, hey, you’re awake. I found one of your mom’s old classics and decided to put it on when I got bored. Made some cocoa, too.”

  I stumbled toward her, shaky on my feet, glaring. I stopped in front of her and swiped the cookie out of her hand, sending it clattering onto the floor, then I jabbed a finger against her chest. “How are you still alive, lady?”

  She shrugged one shoulder. “Fell on a thick pile of snow. Tend to be really lucky.”

  “That’s just bullshit.”

  “Language, young lady,” she said, folding her arms. “And I’m really not lying when I say I’ve got the luck of the green. My older sister always said I was born in a field of four leaf clovers. I guess I’m someone’s favorite.”

  “I…” I paused, then said, “Lucas never said anything about having an older sister.”

  “I doubt he ever said anything about me, either,” she said, picking up the cookie and biting into it. She grabbed a broom from…somewhere (don’t look at me, I never did my chores around the house) and swept the crumbs into a napkin she could throw away later. “But she’s not around anymore. No real reason to talk about her.”

  “Oh,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “You shouldn’t be,” she said, picking up the two mugs. “Wasn’t your fault. Anyway, be a dear and grab the biscuits for me, will you? I think after the flight I’ve had and the fall you just had, we should put our feet up a bit.”

  “Hey!” I said, watching her stride into the living room. “You still haven’t really answered—”

  “My feet are killing me and my back isn’t what it used to be, sweetheart. If you want an answer, come sit here with me and you can catch up with your good old Aunt Becky,” she said, smiling as she sank into the couch.

  She’d gone through the trouble of taking off the plastic sheets, dusting down the house and even cleaning up the blood. Her bags were gone, but she’d somehow managed to get the lights back on, too. The fridge hummed and the tv was on, and it almost felt…weird, out of place, because just a few hours ago I was in some hellish future of a reality, and now here I was. I know leaving those guys behind was shitty, but…look, I’ve got my own things to deal with, and I’m sure they’ll be fine. They’ve probably got their own versions of that shifty little trickster of a grease smear hanging around them, too. They’re all fine, back at home, and maybe I’ll meet them again someday.

  Until then, I grudgingly sat on the armchair, a good few feet away from her, setting the plate of cookies on the table and not leaning back the same way she did to take a sip of her cocoa. I didn’t touch the mug. Don’t know what she could have put in it. Can’t blame me for not trusting a Freeman, can you? Even if she allegedly beat the shit out of her brother so badly he almost died in a dingy little alleyway all by himself, which was more than Lucas probably deserved. I watched her smile after she sighed, letting her shoulders relax as she crossed her legs on the couch. Her arms were toned, sculpted, but scarred and tattooed. But they were all faded, the ink and the markings, like they were slowly vanishing, seeping deeper into her skin the longer she lived. Who really are you, Rebecca?

  “We used to find this movie so crappy,” she murmured. I glanced at the tv. “We saw it in the cinema way before she met your old man. I had to drag her out of our dorm so she could at least get some social vitamins.”

  “You guys went to the same college?” I asked her.

  “Can you believe it?” she said, setting her mug down beside her on the couch, which I know for a fact would have gotten me an earful ever since the time I did what with a cola. “We’re Olympus West alumni. Even had the blue and golden scarfs during football season and everything. She was this young and daring egg-head who was going to change the world one way or another, and I was her dummy roommate who wanted all the boys, all the cash and all the medals she could get.” She smiled, silent for a moment. “Then she met Zeus, and I figured I should also help a couple of people out here and there, then I started skipping more classes, and she started not coming around anymore, then she just…left after a while.” She looked at me. “When she came back, she’d had you.”

  “I guess she got her wish,” I muttered.

  Rebecca laughed a little. “Yeah, I guess she did. For all those hours she spent not showering, hunched over a book in the library or in her bed, scribbling down frantic little notes about some drug that would help the entire world, only ever eating whatever she could knock out of the vending machines, she somehow got the most powerful man the world had ever seen to bend over backwards for her. Oh, man, he used to come to our window at night during our Master’s years, begging me to come in, since I made it clear that barging into people’s rooms with his super speed was a big no-no down here on planet Earth.” She rested her arm on the back of the couch, taking a deep breath and nodding. “Shame he turned out to be a bastard. I guess you can’t teach a very old dog new tricks.”

  “You can,” I said. “He just chose what he wanted to learn and what he didn’t care about.”

  Becky kept looking at me, a thin smile still on her face. “How old are you now? Nineteen?”

  “Eighteen,” I said. “I turn nineteen early next year.”

  If I even make it that far.

  “How’d you spend your last birthday? Your mom stopped replying years ago. Fill your aunt in on the deets, hun. The boys you like and the ones you kissed, or the girls—that’s also cool. Did a few of ‘em back in my time.”

  I hated to admit it, but I kind of liked this chick.

  Except it was about time I started leaving.

  “Look,” I said, sighing. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know you and I really don’t trust you all that much. But I’ve got places I need to be and get things done that I’ve been putting off. Mom needs me and so does my best friend.”

  “Carly’s little girl, yeah, I know,” she said, taking another sip. “The roommate that was always too hungover to remember which university she was meant to be going to most of the time. Backstabbing brunette, I swear. How can she go and get a big girl job as the dean of Olympus U? But I guess her grandfather helped with that, and so did that smile. God, that Ross smile, you know? The gap-toothed grin with the freckles? Killer. I bet her kids…her kid can get anywhere she likes just doing that. Last I heard before she also called me was that Bianca—”

  “Why are you here?” I asked, rubbing my hands together, picking my nails. “Why now?”

  Her mug didn’t reach her lips this time. It lowered, then she cupped it in her hands. She took a while to answer me, staring at the tv and the canned laughter playing in the background when the main lead tripped over himself trying to catch up to his lover. Finally, she looked at me. Stared at me and nodded slowly. “I should’ve been here a lot earlier, I know, seeing how bad things have gotten in this city. I couldn’t get myself to come back here. My whole life, all I knew was this city. My family moved here when I was little, but these are my first memories. The streets. The superheroes. The flashy capes and the giant monsters. It got normal. It got intoxicating. I mean, look at you. You’re younger than I was when I started jumping off rooftops like some carny, but a part of you loves it. You can’t run away from it. Normal people don’t get it, because it takes people who aren’t very normal to wear a costume and save the day, and not just because some of us are lucky enough to get powers, but because you’ve got to have a few dozen screws loose to think you’re the one missing link the world needs to save the freaking day.”

  She finished her cocoa, then set the mug on the floor. Beck leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “I didn’t come back because I wasn’t ready, and that was selfish, I know that, but when you grow up making sure that your little brother doesn’t get beaten every single day, you start to think…you start to think he’s gonna turn out alright. Then one day he’s got blood on his hands, and you’ve got his on yours, and you’re standing over him, watching him struggling to breathe because one of his lungs has collapsed, and you start to really question what the fuck you’re doing with your life. Kid, I was meant to be an olympian, and not the superhero kind. I wanted to be an athlete, because that’s what I was good at. I’d have a big house, take all the pictures, and be some kids’ hero.”

  “I guess the one thing Lucas did do was put the name out there,” I said bitterly.

  She chuckled, shaking her head. “Right, yeah, that fuckin’ name. I picked it out of a brochure when Carly and her folks once took us out bird watching because I thought the bird was pretty cool. Shrike means nothing. He shouldn’t have either, but he meant everything, because he was all the family I had, and I nearly killed it.” Her voice became hoarse, clipped, until she cleared her throat. “But I’m here now, and we’ve got years to catch up on.”

  “It doesn’t work that way,” I said to her. She paused. “You don’t just waltz in here expecting that.”

  “And you’re right, I’ve got no claim to your life,” she said. “What I do know, is that you need help.”

  “That’s why you came?” I asked her. “To help me? With what? Taking care of me, trying to act like we’re this niece and aunt duo for years and years?” She unfolded her legs and sat normally. “Mom stopped raising me this year when she threw me out of the house. Your roommate probably died the second I popped out of her, so I’m gonna be real for a second and tell you this: I’m fine. I’ve got people I can turn to, people who are already helping.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking,” she said, “but…who are they, these people helping you?”

  “Lots of people,” I argued. “Like Dennie, and my friend Emelia, and a talking head called Ava—”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “I like where this is going.”

  “And a branch of the government, too,” I finished.

  “Right,” she muttered. “So all of these people looked at you, the eighteen year old barely out of high school, to save the city all on her own? Rylee, you passed out when you tried to take me into the sky. I had to bring you back here on a sled I borrowed from a kid. I changed your clothes and let you sleep, because you look like you haven’t had a wink of the stuff in weeks, darling. You were shaking and had a temperature. I had to spoon feed you porridge whilst you were delirious until you had enough in your tummy to stop the adrenaline dump shakes and the cold sweats. I personally don’t think anyone’s bothered taking care of you for a long time, not in the state I found you in, not at all. I came here to look for two people: Bianca and your mother, and to do something for you, too.”

  “Yeah?” I asked defensively, snorting. “And what’s that?”

  “To take at least half the burden off your shoulders so you can actually stand straight again.”

  “I don’t slouch.”

  She smiled thinly. “Rylee, I’m offering you my help, sweetheart. You’re exhausted. You’re beaten. I used to watch you in the news back home, you know. My smallest loved watching you, even if I couldn’t show her all of what you used to do, but to her, just seeing you fly through the sky, past the skyscrapers and through the clouds, was all that got her through the hospital visits and the doctor’s appointments.” I was about to ask her about that, to stop her mid-sentence, but she continued before I could talk. “Whether you like it or not, darling, I’ve got a duty to my best friend, and that’s more than just looking for her, but it’s also making sure you’re okay, too. Jesus Christ, you’re legal, sure, but you’re a child. You’re still young. It should be school and saving the day, not suffering and murder and killing yourself slowly through exhaustion trying to look in places you don’t even know about.”

  “This is rich, coming from someone who ran away from New Olympus.”

  “I’ll admit that’s true,” Becky said quietly. “But so have you.”

  “I didn’t run away, things just kept happening to me.”

  “And they shouldn’t have in the first place,” she said. “If somebody had actually cared, if somebody had taken the time to give you proper help, then half of this city wouldn’t be in ruins and the other half wouldn’t be Lower Olympus. There are dozens of organizations filled to the brim with superheroes, and not a single one has done any heavy lifting apart from that fellow who looks like your father. Quite frankly I’m angry, and furthermore I’d like a word with the people who watched you bleed, shrugged, and turned a blind eye, because it’s just foul.”

  “I’ve not got any cracks in my skin, have I?” I asked her. “Because you’re talking like I’m broken.”

  “Rylee,” she said, emphasizing my name. “Listen to what I’m saying. I’ve got no right to tell you what exactly is right and wrong, but I’ve got half the mind to tell you that you need to slow down for a moment.”

  “Bianca and my mom kind of need my help right now.”

  “According to the news, you’ve been missing for a week.”

  My mouth dried. I pinched my nose. Fuck me.

  “What… How long until the end of the year?”

  “It’s the tenth today,” she said.

  I need to go. Stop talking and go.

  But…where? Where do I start? Who do I even start with?

  A knock on the door stopped me from choking on my own tongue. I looked up, and Becky shrugged. “I had to call an old friend of mine with some good news, because I just found his superhero for him, all for free.”

  I didn’t exactly know how to feel about seeing Overseer Two in my living room a few minutes later, a mug of cocoa in his gloved hands and a steel silver briefcase at his shiny leather shoes. He sipped slowly, quietly, and let the mug rest on his palm. I’d filled him in on everything since I’d been gone, and he’d responded with nothing more than hums and nods and sips from the mug until he fell completely silent. Becky heard the whole story too, even if I didn’t want her hearing any of it. They both sat there and listened, the tv turned down and the canned laughter dim, just like the lights, just light the sounds of falling snow just beyond the window. When I stopped, my mouth was even drier, and my stomach even tighter. I was a mess. Almost shaking with nerves, shaking with a need to get out of here and start looking, because that’s what I needed most, not to fold my legs underneath me and talk.

  “Quite eventful,” he muttered. “Never one to remain static, are you?”

  “I’ve got several questions,” Becky said. “Many to do with the ghost you made a deal with.”

  “We’ve been investigating the whereabouts of your mother for a while now,” Overseer Two said. “Her disappearance is as much of a concern to us as it is to you, I’m sure. Bianca Ross’ unfortunate kidnapping has also been troubling us for a while now, too. Things have been rather…difficult in this city. Politics is rearing its head.”

  “What does politics have to do with either of them?” I asked.

  “Bureaucracy is humanity’s greatest feat yet,” he said, a pinch of exhaustion seeping through what was usually a flat, unemotional voice. “One that does not buckle or bend no matter the environment or the lives that get affected by its existence. Funding has been cut to the SDU. Personnel have been reallocated and repositioned within other branches of the government. Currently, we’re a fraction of what we used to be, and all because Cassie Blackwood has made it very clear to the government that our department is a relic of its time, and funding would be better used to ensure Damage Control have the ability to maintain the city’s peacekeeping efforts alongside the Olympiad.” He swirled the remnants of his cocoa, staring into the mug. “Keeping the SDU from complete ruin is a daily task, growing from what used to be a yearly occurrence. Your mother and Bianca are still top priorities, but our rostrum of those we can call upon and the contracts we can offer have dwindled in both power and influence.”

  “Good old Uncle Sam,” Becky muttered. “Listening only to the highest bidder.”

  “But why?” I asked him. “You guys helped more than the Olympiad ever did.”

  “Not as of late,” he said. “Superheroes are beginning to make a return. Adam broke the seal—”

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “—and with the marketing effort they have put behind him, it seems as though Miss Blackwood wants a piece of this new and flourishing industry. The public’s opinion swayed once he saved the city. Superheroes now have an image the government can uphold. One that looks and sounds familiar, and one that doesn’t leave their streets smeared in blood.” I didn’t know if I should take offence to that last part, or to swallow the lump sitting in the back of my throat, trying not to feel sick at the thought of Adam being the one who brought Cape Culture back into the mainstream just because I’d been gone for two months. “Damage Control has essentially become a far less expensive alternative to the government than us, and why exactly the standing president changed his mind so quickly is a mystery to all of us outside of his oval office. I apologize dearly. This is hardly the news you deserve.”

  “So what do we even do?” I asked him. “I’ve got until the end of the month to save them.”

  Overseer Two raised an eyebrow. “You’re not afraid of what the public may think about you?”

  “I’m pissed off that they like him, but when I crawled out of that sewer, it told me that all your fancy statistics on how the public has swayed don’t mean much when I’ve got people thanking me for coming back.”

  “Interesting,” he muttered. “Media interference, ever so thrilling.”

  “What we’re going to do, Ry, is put you on leave. Take your two weeks off, love.”

  I stared at Becky. “Excuse me? You heard what I just said, right?”

  “She is correct,” Overseer Two said to me, which was the very last thing I was expecting. “Taking some time off will mean that you get to focus on being the superhero we currently need. In all honesty, we need you in a more public capacity. Mrs Gardener and I have spoken at length on her way to the United States about what we should do once you arrive again, and our conclusion took…time for both of us to agree with, but it is simple: after monitoring how you perform, it’s clear that you’re more suited for larger scale operations. Covert and often in-depth and long-standing battles against enemies whose capabilities spread throughout the globe are better left to those who have experience in that world. You’ll one day be capable, yes, but as of now, New Olympus needs Olympia.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing right now. Right now of all times, I was getting bumped?

  “Who else is gonna save them?” I asked, heat in my voice. “You just said the SDU—”

  “It’s not the only department in the world that deals with Supes,” Becky said. “Mr Mysterious over here needs you on his side so he can save the SDU and stop the government from having control over almost all of your kind, but I’ve got people who are more than willing to pay me back an old favor. Your mom and Bianca are going to be fine, but the city also needs to be saved, and last I checked, not many people can do what you can do, Rylee.”

  “You’re using me as a political tool. That’s bullshit!”

  “It’s unfortunately what we need you to be, and more,” Overseer Two said. “Your body will continue to receive abuse, both mental and physical, if you don’t give yourself time to rest. Your decisions have only become more brash, and the series of unfortunate events you’ve found yourself in don’t lend themselves to a clear state of mind. We’ve organized for you to be dealing with current issues one at a time when possible. Their location will be communicated to you, and you will deal with them as cleanly as you like, at your leisure, though I smartly suggest you attend to each as soon as you can. Whilst that is being dealt with, Rebecca and her associates will find them.”

  I stood up, mostly because I still couldn’t believe this, because my heart was beating hard against my ribs and my breaths were getting hotter and faster in my throat. “I’ve been fighting all this time, all these weeks and days and freaking months on end, just for you guys to go behind my back and tell me to chill out? My mom and Bianca are missing. They’re gone. They could be fucking dead, and you know that! They’ve been gone for weeks, and—” Suddenly I felt woozy. I sat down and put up my hand, stopping Becky. I waited until my head stopped ringing and my gut stopped trying to climb up my throat. Quietly, slowly, I said, “All I want to do is save them.”

  “Rylee,” Becky said, kneeling beside me, hand on my knee. “Let someone else do that for once.”

  “I’m good enough,” I whispered. “I can save them, you know I can save them.”

  She squeezed my hand. “Eventually, someone’s got to save the superhero, too.

  “You’re tired,” Overseer Two said, standing. “I suggest you take several days to recoup and rest. Your age group tends to enjoy your winter vacations, and even though you’ll still be dealing with the multitude of criminals that have seen the opportunity that both your disappearance and our lack of manpower provide them, you should also take this time to look within yourself and understand what your goals, your morals, and who you ultimately wish to be are. You’re an extremely important person, Miss Addams. One of the most important people I’ve had the pleasure of both meeting and working with, and your talents, your name, your symbol, are all needed by the people of New Olympus more than they’ve ever been. You’ve been gone for long periods of time, and many things have changed since you last left. Take a few days to get your mind together and rest your body, but there are mission files in the briefcase there for your nightly reading, as well as a newly designed suit for you to wear, designed by—”

  “Yours truly,” Becky said, smiling softly. “But let’s scrap the world-impacting talk for tonight, and I do your hair, cut the split ends, we drink some hot cocoa, then start dealing with real life tomorrow. How’s that sound?”

  I hated that they spoke to me like I was a broken object, like I’d failed to such an awe inspiring level that I was better off being used as some kind of marketing donkey to keep a dying agency alive, to keep people’s hopes up day by day, putting out tiny fires instead of once and for all actually fixing things, because that wasn’t who I am. Olympia was meant to save the day, to fly through the sky and make sure everything was fine, and that would be the day I could put my head down and rest, but I’d let Bianca down, and mom was gone, and there were so many other things I needed to do that didn’t mean being a part-time superhero. I was more than that. This is all I’ve got now.

  I didn’t know what I had left without being Olympia anymore, day-in and day-out. Rylee hadn’t been in the driver’s seat for months. I’d given this superhero thing the chance it deserved because mom said I’d never make it happen, and dad figured I was a waste of time, and…and now the world thought the same thing, didn’t they? I was a blue, red, and golden advertisement for the same Cape Culture that thought I wasn’t doing them justice. For the same Supes who turned their noses up at me because I didn’t fit the bill. Now I was just meant to be another one, to let it all happen in the background, let someone else handle my problems as I played pretend and read problems off a compiled list and ticked them off one by one. I laughed silently and massaged my eyes, because mom was right.

  I wasn’t really built to be the superhero I wanted to be, so I guess…

  I guess the world was finally gonna get the version of me they wanted.

  All because I couldn’t actually solve a problem to save my fucking life.

  I stood and headed up the stairs, not saying a word to either of them. I was beat.

  And I think, for once, I needed to sleep.