“There's nothing to talk about,” Amy muttered, shoulders hunching.

  “No?” I asked, looking at Glory Girl. “I think there's plenty.”

  “I'm not done,” she hedged, gazing at the ugly sight. No, she clearly wasn't. “She needs to eat, so do I. I don't have enough material to fix her completely, not with how bad she was when they got her to me. It's...it's a fucking mess.”

  “Par for the course these days,” I replied with a sigh. “Okay, so you can't fix her body because you don't have materials? That right?” She nodded. “And what about her head?” Amy flinched.

  “I...”

  “It should be easy, theoretically,” I continued, keeping my voice level. “I don't totally get your power, admittedly, but if it's just a matter of removing something that shouldn't be there...”

  “It's not that simple,” Amy countered, her voice brittle. “She's...all of this stuff is just temporary measures. The stuff I made from-- from the bugs, that's not going to last more than a few days. It's got to be replaced with real flesh and I can't do that without stuff. I can speed up her digestion though, it won't even be a day and she'll be normal.”

  “Okay,” I said simply, not even bothering to process. Too much energy. “But you can start where...where all this started.” She flinched.

  “That's not...” Amy took a deep breath. “If she resists then I won't be able to fix anything else, she'll be like this and-- and I don't know—” She cut herself off with a full-body shiver.

  “Fuck,” I swore, tugging at a loose strand of hair. “Fucking hell.”

  “Just one night,” she whispered, eyes fixed on Victoria. “That's all I need, one night and then it'll be done. She'll be fixed, and I'll leave. My last thing, something to try and make it up to everyone. Sorry Amaranth I--”

  “Lia,” I corrected her, making her finally look at me.

  “What?”

  “You don't need a lecture from a cape,” I explained. “Didn't need one from a bunch of villains, don't need one from a week-old Ward. I'm not doing this because I'm a cape, Amy, I'm doing it because I care about you.” My cheeks flushed but I held her gaze. “You, and Victoria. I don't...I don't know if we're friends, or whatever, but at least you can trust me not to fuck you over.” She looked back at Victoria.

  “I don't deserve that,” she whispered. “Especially not now, not with what I did, what I have to do to fix it.”

  “Unfortunately,” I said, with a sigh. “We don't get to choose who cares about us.”

  “No, but you can choose to leave well enough alone,” Amy replied bitterly. “This isn't your problem, this is family. What would you--”

  “If you finish that sentence,” I growled. “I'm going to slap you.” I took a deep breath as she snapped her mouth shut. “What would I know about family, that's what you wanted to ask?” She hesitated, then gave a jerky nod. “Let me tell you about...about my dad.”

  It took me a minute to get myself together, put the shattered bits of the memories I'd killed in order. Eventually I began, slowly and hesitantly. I told her about Mark before, about...what I did, but she didn't get it. Not yet.

  I started small, about him taking me to see a boxing match once, against Mom's better judgment. Ringside seats, in retrospect probably an Empire sponsored match, and the best gift I'd gotten til that point. It hadn't even been an occasion, he just had two tickets and had told me Mom thought it was too 'barbaric' for her. I wasn't even sure how he knew I'd enjoy it.

  I sniffed as I talked about him coming to the parent-teacher night in ninth grade. My grades had slipped and I didn't have the courage to show Mom my report card. He offered to come to 'give Mom a night off', then covered for me until I got my shit together enough to actually pass and get into high school.

  God, then there was high school and... I barely got through telling her about coming out without breaking down. I had been so sure he'd be like Mom, that I'd get a look of disgust and be told to leave. Of course I hadn't actually told Mom, because I knew she'd react like that, like she did with...others. Not him though, not him. For all my hedging...he was my dad. Fuck I'd called him 'Dad' that day.

  “And then,” I said, my voice cracking. “Uhh, well, I already told you so...” I sniffed. “So if you tell me I don't know Amy, I don't know what I'll do.” There was a long, heavy silence.

  “It's not the same.” It took every ounce of willpower I had left not to strangle her. “You get it, kind of. I...I fixed my dad after not helping him for almost half a decade, years of suffering because of me. I don't know how he felt when I finally fixed him but...” She trailed off.

  “Maybe it isn't the same,” I admitted. “But I sure as hell know what it's like to be what destroys my family.”

  “I can fix it,” Amy whispered. “I just have to put her back to normal, then she can go have a family. Carol and Mark love her, they'll be fine together. I'll leave them be, make sure they never hear from me again.”

  “Where's the end of that road?” Her hand snapped towards me as I continued. “You have to put her back together, but you don't have the material, so she needs to eat, but needs help to digest it fast enough, but you need a day...” I sighed. “I asked you a while ago Amy, how would you make your sister let you fix her?” She seemed to shrink.

  “It's not that bad,” she squeaked. “Just...I'd need to put her under for a while, keep her complacent. Once she's healthy, the last thing I'll do is fix her, then I don't know.”

  “To be completely honest,” I said flatly. “That's pretty fucking bad.” She flinched.

  “I know,” Amy said, hands gripping her pants tightly. “I'm a fucking monster.”

  “No you aren't.”

  “I am.” She said more firmly.

  “Not yet,” I said, shaking my head. “But Amy, fuck...I...” My hair snapped as I yanked it. “Amy if you do this, if you do...this, then you will be.” A beat.

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  “What do you mean?” I swallowed hard. “Oh god Lia what do you mean? What did I do?” I stared at Victoria's still body.

  “Nothing yet,” I barely managed to whisper. Her hands seized my shoulders and twisted me around to face her.

  “Please,” Amy begged, tears in her eyes. “Please, this is the only way Lia, the only way I can do this, the only way I can feel even kind of right about this.” I just shook my head.

  “You told me a while ago you didn't know the difference between right and wrong,” I said, fingers plucking at my locks. “This isn't something you should feel right about Amy, and 'kind of' means it doesn't, does it?”

  “It feels worse to leave her like...like this.”

  “You wouldn't be,” I countered. “You'd be fixing her brain.”

  “But that doesn't matter if she'll just die as soon as this shit decays!” Amy wrapped her arms around herself. “I won't have fixed anything, I'll have made things worse. I can't just...”

  “It's hard to do,” I agreed. “Probably the hardest. Makes me think it's the right thing.” Her fingers dug into her arm hard enough I saw red around the nails and she buried her head in her arms. “Amy, you fucked up. I can't pull punches on that, but right now you have a choice. You can do something that you can 'kind of' feel right about, something that I'll tell you outright is wrong. You said it's the only way, but maybe you're discarding the other choice too fast. I'm not saying it's good,” I said before she could stop me. “I don't think there's any good choice you can make here, but there are right ones...and wrong.” We were silent for a while.

  “Why do you care?” Amy asked hoarsely.

  “Because you care,” I answered. “You, and Vicky, and Gallant and...all of you tried from day one. I was just some weird girl intruding on you, and you hatched some scheme to help me fit in. Or Victoria did and you went along with it to help. You told me about your problems, gave me advice about mine. So I care when you're making a choice that I know is going to hurt all of you; especially you and Victoria.”

  The crackle of distant flames filled the air. I looked up and sighed. It was getting dark, though fire still lit the streets better than the sparse . The moon was blocked anyway by pillars of smoke rising from the burning buildings. What a perfect backdrop to the horror playing out here...

  What...” Amy began shakily. “How...Lia, what do I have to do?” I grimaced.

  “I don't know,” I answered honestly. “Fixing her brain should be first, she's not going anywhere right now and if you fixed it that wouldn't change, unless you made it right?”

  “I...I guess?”

  “So keep her...sedated, like you just did while healing her.”

  “What then?” I stared at Victoria.

  “How long will the bug grafts last?” I asked. The dirt was still squirming with insects and worms.

  “I don't know,” Amy said, sounding almost desperate. “They won't integrate like flesh will, they're shitty bandaids.”

  “Make them as long lasting as you can then,” I replied, running my fingers through my hair, wincing at the pain from my absent tips. “That way, even if she still doesn't want you to fix her, she'll have time to find an alternative.”

  “Who--”

  “Scapegoat, for one,” I cut her off. “Since he can literally replace injured body parts, it shouldn't be too hard. You're not the only healer on the planet, Amy.”

  “Then they--”

  “Would know what you did,” I finished. “Only your...emergency measures. They'd only know the rest if Victoria told them and, well, that's not really something you can help either way.” She pursed her lips.

  “Would...would it work?” Amy asked hesitantly, her lip trembling. “Would it stop...whatever?” I looked up, looked her in the eye.

  “It will,” I lied as easily as I breathed. “Trust me.” She took a deep breath and nodded, her lips stilling, then put her hand on Victoria's back. “Walk me through it, maybe it'll help you concentrate.” Amy's entire body tensed. “Amy I already know what you did, telling me the mechanics of how you're undoing it won't change that.”

  “Okay,” she sighed, closing her eyes. “It's...a bunch of artificial neurons spread through her basal ganglia, uh, part of the brain that deals with a lot of stuff but here...p- partners. I...I put it there and it, um, changed how she feels about...me. It's...it's easy to fix, just take the neural pathways and put them back how they were before...before me.” A beat. “There.” I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding.

  “Amy?” She looked at me, firelight reflecting in the tracks that tears had left through the dirt of the past few days. “You made the right choice.” She sniffed, then nodded once and turned her attention back to Victoria.

  “I'm going to use some more bugs to reinforce the grafts, parts that were too damaged for me to totally fix, that stuff.” I saw her reach into the writhing dirt and scoop up a handful of goo, which went right onto Victoria. “It's going to be ugly but, with enough, it should last long enough for her to see...someone else. It'll be a few minutes.”

  I watched her work like a hawk. It wasn't that I didn't trust her, but I knew I couldn't, not yet. Amy seemed to be in the zone, reaching down, getting a handful of bug goo, replace vital organs, repeat. She was careful in her touches, never doing more than brushing Victoria's skin with her hand, beside the one firmly on her back. She'd told the truth though. A few minutes later, she sat back on her haunches, a haunted look on her face.

  “It's...done,” Amy said after a minute of silence. “Once I bring her out of it...that's it.”

  “And?”

  “I don't know if I can be here for that.” Her voice was almost too soft to hear. “Don't know if I can hear how she feels...”

  “That's fair.” I sighed and rubbed my sandy-feeling eyes. “I can talk to her then, I guess.” I'd already disarmed one nuclear bomb today, why not another? “She'll need to know what to do so...what does she have to do?” Amy took a deep breath.

  “The grafts are temporary, sort of fragile, she's going to need to avoid fighting until they're replaced with...real stuff. She needs to eat badly, I can tell she hasn't in a while, and that's going to fuck with her recovery. Mo-- Carol has a bunch of nutrient shake stuff, that would be a good supplement.”

  “Okay,” I replied, nodding. “I'll tell her. Maybe...bring her out of it on a delay so you can, um, not be here?” Amy sighed and put her hand on her sister's back. I almost missed the breathless 'I love you' before she rose, turned, and fled.

  I sat there for a minute, just staring at Victoria. She was going to hate me, not that I didn't deserve it. I'd spent the last three days protecting her rapist, then encouraged her to do...this. I knew she was better off, and I was the only one. That was alright, I'd...never liked Vicky anyway. She stirred and I flinched, then cleared my throat.

  “Just me,” I said quickly as she whirled, fists raised. “You're...you again.” Mostly.

  “What the fuck did you do to me?” she spat.

  “I sat here and watched you get healed, and only healed,” I reassured her.

  “You let her touch me?” Yeah, she was going to hate me.

  “I did.” I didn't stop it, after all. “Though I didn't tell her to, not that that matters too much.”

  “Fuck you Lia.” Fuck me is right.

  “Okay, cool.” I sighed and plucked at my hair. “Your brain is yours again, no Amy in there besides your memories. Your body isn't fixed though.”

  “What?” Her voice was brittle.

  “Temporary measures,” I explained, pointing to the ugly meshes of bug goo covering the awful wounds Crawler left her with. “It's not the same as flesh, according to Amy.” She growled at her name. “So, you're going to need a patch up in the future to get it replaced. In the mean time, no fighting, doctor's orders.”

  “And I bet she'll want to handle that.”

  “Not unless you okay it,” I countered. “There are other healers, like Scapegoat, you can look for. Oh, also, you need to eat. Apparently your mom has nutrient shakes and that would be good for that.” She stared at me quietly for a minute.

  “How the fuck are you like this?” Victoria asked at last. “She fucking assaults me and you're sitting here telling me to go home and...and what, just forget about it?” I groaned.

  “You two are fucking impossible,” I snapped. “I'm telling you exactly what I'm telling you: your brain is fixed, your body needs more work, and you need to eat. What you forget or remember isn't my business, telling you who to talk to or not to isn't my business. Go home and fucking recover, Victoria, go tell Dean...” I sighed. “Tell him I'm sorry I never stopped this. And Victoria?” I looked up and met her furious gaze. “For what little it's worth, I am sorry I didn't stop it.” The look on her face darkened, and then she was gone, rocketing into the smoke-filled sky. I rose on shaky legs and began walking up the melted asphalt of the street.

  Winning had never felt worse.