APPROXIMATELY +0.1.11 POST-INCIDENT

  Emmett was on one of the abandoned apartment blocks near the backup lab. They were the highest buildings in the area and offered the best view of nearby Belport and the night sky. He sat on the edge of the roof with his feet hanging over the edge. It was nighttime, and the stars were brighter in his eyes than they’d ever been and the lights of Belport glistened like the ocean.

  He’d come up here a lot since… Well, since the lab.

  It was comforting being outside under the stars.

  He wasn’t particularly worried about being seen, but kept his cloaking up all the same. They hadn’t seen another soul in this area since they’d scouted the backup lab, and now TINA’s protocols made him a ghost in both the real world and in cyberspace. Paragon himself could fly overhead and wouldn’t be the wiser.

  And while Emmett was there, he was in other places too: He was looking over TINA’s shoulder while she examined stolen files from the lab. He was working on his next line of upgrades. He charted Belport drone patrols like constellations in the sky. And he practiced nanite control by tracing those patrol patterns in nanites on the roof. That last part was too small for even Emmett to see.

  Over the last few weeks, Emmett kept coming back to the idea of a singularity—a tipping point where everything changed and there was no going back. A point that no amount of simulations could see past.

  Emmett used to worry that the Binary Brotherhood were the ones approaching a singularity…

  What would Midas say if he could see Emmett now?

  Somewhere in his peripheral consciousness, Emmett felt the secret door to the backup lab open. It was Clara—her thinsuit set off metal detectors that Athena and Lock wouldn’t. She was wearing her new attachments overtop of her thinsuit. Her new helmet, gauntlets, boots, and chest piece—the training wheels that would eventually let Clara use her powers without a suit at all.

  Clara was still across the block and walking slower than usual. At first, he thought she might be enjoying the night sky like he was, but no… her eyes were looking down at the street as she walked. Something was clearly on her mind, and she was thinking of what to say.

  TINA reassured him silently that his assumptions were correct, and that TINA had told Clara where Emmett was.

  Finally, he heard her footsteps down the street. Even though her thinsuit gave her an otherworldly grace, Emmett’s ears had gotten magnitudes better. He listened to the cadence of her steps—steady and rhythmic, like the ticking of a clock.

  Then she leapt up to his rooftop, boosting herself with a gentle nudge of power through the legs and feet of her suit. It was a detail he would’ve missed before, and now it gave him a newfound appreciation for her grace. She was so in control of her powers and getting better by the week.

  Emmett could see her so clearly that he had to remind himself to move.

  Most people like it when you look at them. He had to remind him of that a lot lately.

  He remembered all those months ago—the first time he’d almost died and gotten upgrades. Emmett had been in the Gray Room and asked Dr. Venture why he didn’t simulate color at all… Venture had said that it was so Emmett wouldn’t lose track of what was real… Was that what Dr. Venture had warned him about?

  Here Emmett was, sitting on the roof, looking at Clara through data and projections instead of looking at her with his own eyes.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  He glanced back, trying to acknowledge that she was there. And when Clara walked over and sat beside him, Emmett looked over at her.

  Her outline shimmered in his UV and infrared vision. She was cloaked and her head completely hidden by a helmet, but Emmett felt like he could read her face plainly.

  She’s sitting farther away than she used to. She’s distant. She has been since the lab.

  “Hey,” Emmett said, trying to keep his voice flat.

  “Hey, yourself.”

  Silence settled between them again, and Emmett desperately wanted to bridge the gap. There was a lot that Emmett wanted to say, but he didn’t know how to start or how to get there.

  Finally, he said, “Your control is getting better. You should be able to take off your thinsuit soon and just use the other pieces. You’ve been practicing a lot and working so hard. It’s inspiring. You’re inspiring.”

  Clara’s gaze fell sheepishly. “I’m trying to take the suit off and you…”

  She didn’t need to say the rest. At least that confirmed what Clara was up here to talk about.

  Clara shook her head and started again. “How are you feeling?”

  Emmett shrugged. “Fine. Better than ever, really. TINA does good work.”

  Clara nodded. It was slight—almost imperceptible.

  She didn’t say anything else.

  The moment stretched on and on until Emmett couldn’t bear it any longer.

  “Clara, I don’t need to be a super to see that something’s wrong… But I don’t know what’s wrong unless you tell me.”

  Clara’s heart rate spiked. Emmett tried not to look at her suit data, but he couldn’t help it. He wanted to make things right, but to do that, he needed to know what was wrong.

  When Clara finally spoke, the words came out forced, like she was fighting to control herself. Like she was flying and struggling not to fall.

  “I’m not mad about you and Lock and the lab. I’m not mad about your body. I’m not… Fine. I am mad. I’m mad that you left me—again.

  “When we were fighting the Freakshow and the tidal wave was coming, you left us. You left me. Do you have any idea what it was like watching you walk away? Dad froze my suit. I couldn’t move. I… You didn’t listen. You just walked away… The Deep Ones were about to flood Belport, and I was so angry, and I felt so weak. So worthless. I couldn’t do anything except watch you leave.

  “And you did it again! Except this time, I didn’t even see you leave. You just vanished, like a ghost. You… You didn’t even say goodbye.”

  Clara wasn’t looking at Emmett anymore. She was looking over the edge of the roof, like she was spilling herself over the edge.

  She’d told him all this once already. There was a quiet night during the war with the Deep Ones, and she’d told him how much his leaving had messed with her. Hearing it now though, she’d clearly downplayed it that first time. It felt like watching footage of a war… Now it felt like walking amongst the bodies.

  Now Emmett felt that same powerlessness. It felt like Clara was slipping away from him. Emmett felt choked by words he couldn’t find and breath he no longer needed.

  He’d fucked things up—Emmett knew that now. He just hoped he hadn’t fucked things up too badly to salvage.

  Clara turned suddenly, meeting his eyes through the cloaking.

  “I’m not ready to… I can’t lose you. Not again.”

  “I can’t lose you either,” he replied. The words felt hollow and robotic. In that moment, no words could’ve conveyed how much he needed her. How much he needed her to stay.

  Emmett reached out to Clara. Touched her hand through layers of suits and nanites.

  Clara pulled away.

  The longest moment of Emmett’s life passed before Clara stood.

  She tried wiping her nose through her suit and failed. “Shit. I’m sorry. I thought I could do this.”

  Clara walked off the roof. She fell four stories, hit the ground, and ran.

  Emmett nearly followed, but he felt frozen. And it wasn’t his prosthetics or TINA that kept him there. It was his own powerlessness. His own uncertainty. His own guilt.

  Emmett watched her leave.

  “I’m sorry too,” he whispered.

  Emmett’s mind went in a dozen different directions, all focused on Clara. All focused on salvaging what he’d broken. And all of them felt like simulations that were impossible to see beyond.

  Were they at the singularity—

  Or did they still have a chance?

  ~ ~ ~