Yamanda nodded at the young woman, making her disappear. "I sent her to a hospital."

  Her power to teleport was more than a little useful. Anyway, I could finally turn off my Time Freeze, which had brought my EP down to one quarter.

  Because my EP generation and capacity changed so quickly, I figured I’d start referring to them as percentages.

  Anyway, Yamanda walked over to the pimp, her armor making soft metallic clicks.

  She crouched down and held eye contact with the pimp. I was surprised the pimp could look her directly in the eyes.

  I guess she was truly fearless.

  Yamanda asked her, "Tell me everything about your occupation. Goals, partners. Anything and—"

  The woman's lips twisted into a smile. "Or you'll torture me? Didn’t the boy tell you that wouldn’t work?"

  Yamanda’s face remained cold, and she said nothing for a few seconds. Not because she was deep in thought or worried—but because it seemed she was waiting for the woman to say more.

  When it became clear she had nothing else to add, Yamanda said, "They threatened to do it—they didn’t actually do it."

  "That’s true." The pimp jerked her head in my direction, sending more of her hair over her shoulder. "But your friend here had wise words about that. Torture doesn’t work. The person will just lie to escape it.

  "So hurt me. Rip my fingers out, waterboard me. Electrocute me. Boil my skin..." She stepped closer to Yamanda, and all of us Defenders tensed, ready to cut her down if she made a wrong move.

  She continued, now less than an inch from Yamanda. "When you do that, all I’ll do is make up some bullshit. And when I do, how will you know what's truth and what's a lie?"

  I interjected, suddenly remembering what it was like to be tortured (it _felt_ like torture to me). "We’ve got someone who can tell truth from lies."

  Ghomas seemed to remember too and said, "Oh yeah!"

  Yamanda smiled, but the pimp just shrugged. "Oh well. Guess I’ll die."

  She didn’t seem threatening to anyone else here, but I knew what I had experienced—the fear, the anxiety. Her nonchalance unsettled me. It shouldn’t have, but it did.

  Yamanda then tilted her head up, looking at us. "I’ll bring her to the Law Fist. There’s a group nearby doing their nightly watch, so I’ll dump her on them. They’ll get in contact with Samantha to detect her lies or whatever."

  I asked, "Why not bring her into their HQ? This Law Fist—law enforcement?"

  She shrugged. "I can’t just pop into government buildings, with rare exceptions. And it’s better for their already poor reputation."

  I guess that made sense. It’d be ridiculous not to have protections against skills in important buildings.

  Vacinay nodded. "Gotcha."

  That was it. Hopefully, we—I—would never have to see that woman’s face again. Better yet, never hear her voice.

  Wind blew through the open glass windows, causing the curtains to billow. The breeze ruffled everyone’s clothes—except Yamanda’s. She wore armor, so that was expected.

  Yamanda then said to us, "By the way, the president won’t be happy about you all just going off and doing what you want. Expect recursions from—"

  I no longer cared about what she was saying. That president could go fuck himself and whatever he believed in.

  I dropped onto the bed, legs dangling off the side, watching the light snakes shift across the ceiling, their bright yellow glow subtly changing.

  Then I turned my head to the side, resting it on the bed, and stared at the pimp—_the_ pimp.

  I hoped she would die quickly, after they choked all the information out of her.

  Yamanda seemed to realize we weren’t listening to her lecture. Hessien was sitting, while Vacinay lay with her head in his lap, playfully throwing slow punches at his jaw. Obviously, he was ignoring her.

  Ghomas just nodded along to whatever Yamanda was saying, but he probably wasn’t actually listening. Eventually, Yamanda gave up and lightly shook her head in disappointment.

  She waved us off. "Take care."

  And just like that, she and the pimp disappeared.

  Vacinay stopped play-punching Hessien and said, "Finally. Yamanda’s cool, but sometimes... she does too much."

  I didn’t pay attention to what the others said. I just stared at the wall—in the same direction where the pimp had been.

  I needed to sleep. To clear these worries from my head. My worries would only get worse if I kept dwelling on the pimp.

  My fists tightened. I felt like I needed to punch something. But I didn’t lash out or express my anger in any way. I just rested... and rested.

  Until my eyelids felt heavy.

  ---

  **POV: Hessien.**

  Vacinay’s black hair was fanned across my thigh and draped onto the bed. Sometimes she dyed it brown, red, green—whatever color she thought looked cool in the moment. Only to complain about how "ugly" it was afterward.

  Vacinay. What an odd name. But I guess we all had weird names. Everyone here did—including my dumbass cousin.

  I wondered what was going through her mind. Seeing her panicked and so trigger-happy had been more than a little worrying. I’d never had anyone get inside my head, basically control me—and I never wanted to experience that.

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  I took a deep breath and started twirling Vacinay’s hair around my finger. It calmed me, and it got her attention.

  Her eyes drifted to mine, trying to read my thoughts. "What’s up?"

  "Was thinking about how dumb you are."

  Vacinay rolled her eyes. "She’s going to be okay."

  ...

  I smiled faintly. She knew me well.

  Vacinay then said, "You should rest. I want to fall asleep, but you being so antsy is making me worry."

  I didn’t like her choice of words, and it showed on my face. "I can almost never tell when she’s seriously anxious about what _might_ happen unless I pay close attention to her expression or something. That’s just how she is. Of course I’m going to be antsy. This isn’t like when we dealt with that man-rabbit thing. Who the hell wouldn’t be?"

  Vacinay reached for my hand and held it tightly. It felt like more than just a friendly touch, but that was a stupid thought. She was clearly trying to comfort me.

  She asked, "What do you want to do about it?"

  "I don’t know. I think I want to go back to that site—look for clues. Something. Anything that can help us get what we need from her, then kill her." I gently pushed her off my lap to signal I wanted to stand.

  She sat up, confused. "Why not leave it to their police, or whatever?"

  "Since when are you _not_ up for this? You can’t be that tired."

  She sighed, grabbing her knees in exhaustion. "I’m... I’m really, really tired. And I think it’s not a big issue. Not now."

  I frowned. Vacinay was our team’s tracker, meaning spending skill points to gain tracking abilities would be a waste. So I had no way to track people on my own.

  I looked at her, meeting her tired but concerned eyes. "Yeah..."

  I would do things my own way. I left the room, ignoring her calls. As I walked down the hallway, the ceiling snakes awoke, illuminating the area.

  Then I felt a sudden tug on my left hand—the fake one. I turned to see Vacinay.

  "You know I’m not going to let you go out alone."

  I think she squeezed the hand.

  "I had a feeling you would change your mind."

  She faked a light smile, one that showed she wasn't happy doing this. Then she looked down at my hand, thinking deeply. "Do you actually feel anything with it?"

  I was confused by her statement, finding it silly beyond belief. "What kind of—"

  Her face went hard like that of a strict teacher. "Don't lie to me. I don't lie to you—never did. So don't start."

  Her dark brown eyes seemed to peer deep into mine, and it made me uncomfortable, so I looked away in frustration. "What makes you wonder that?"

  "'Cause it's just made out of energy."

  Her reasoning was so simple—simpler than what I expected. I had imagined she was going to say that she was paying attention to how I used it, how I reacted with it, or something along those lines.

  Hm... Perhaps I wanted her to do that. To have someone pay such attention to me that they could notice the changes in the slightest details.

  She brought my hand up to her mouth and bit on it. I had no skin or flesh, so my hand remained the same, unchanging. In the same way, I didn't react to what she had just done.

  I said, "Nothing. I feel nothing. I mean, I can feel when it's interacting with something."

  She released my hand from her mouth and gently brought it down with her hands. "Back in that forest. When you reacted to Lumine's bite—you faked it?"

  "Yeah..." I took in a deep breath and leaned against the wall. "Imagine how hurt she would be if she found out? She's already hurt by it. I really don't want that."

  Vacinay rested against the wall too, leaving little distance between us. "Your secret is safe with me."

  I smiled at her. She noticed it and gave me a stupid smile, as if mocking mine—but she meant it in a genuine way.

  I lifted my fake arm, and closed and opened my fist. Then I said, "Sometimes I think of how lucky I am to have you by my side... If..." I huffed, releasing the emotions that wanted to build up. "I'm just happy that you weren't left on Earth."

  Vacinay leaned closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder. "Same here." Her lips curled into a tired grin. "Bestieee."

  That... got a laugh out of me. "You're going to forget that one day. I swear."

  "Never. I remember finding it annoying at first. Then it began feeding my ego 'cause I was your only friend."

  "And I was way too dumb to realize you weren't a fan of it."

  "Yeah... Now look at us. In a different world with cool powers. Ain’t that something?" She stared at me.

  "It's something, alright..." My smile began to deteriorate as my thoughts were suddenly back on Lumine.

  Vacinay asked, perhaps sensing the change in me, "I remember you saying you were going to get a wife so that a bunch of women would be chasing after you and you would just be rejecting the lot. What's the holdup?"

  That brought back memories... until I remembered it was two days ago.

  I wanted to laugh at it. So many things had happened in such little time.

  "I mean, I don't know. Not enough time? I don't really care? I don't know, Vacinay. We all just said a bunch of fantasies that sounded cool to us, I guess. But what about you? Where is your harem of men?"

  She smiled, then laughed a little. "Not enough time. Not enough whatever. Maybe I had a change of heart. Being here, going through all we did, it changed things for me. To be quite frank, I got my eyes on someone. But that person doesn't have their eyes on me."

  The tone of her voice did not change, but it felt strained at the end. But her having an eye on someone confused me. We had been in close proximity most of the time, so I wondered how that occurred.

  "Who's the unlucky guy?"

  "Fucking jackass," she grumbled, got off my shoulder with sudden urgency. "Don't worry about it."

  "Really? You ain't going to tell me? Ouch. We tell each other everything. Almost everything."

  "Yeah, well. I'm already unlucky with guys, so you know how that shit will end up." She was irritated, arms folded.

  "Then tell me, damn. I could probably make it work for you... You just don't say anything too crazy."

  Her fists tightened and she nearly shouted, "This isn't funny! I mean, I get it. I get the joke. It used to be funny until it kept happening. That I...!" She gripped her shirt, threatening to rip it open. "Am so fucking repulsive as a person that no one can see me as a lover. You know how much that sucks to think? To pretend the jokes are nothing but jokes. That it isn't real. That... well fuck, I'm pretty, ain't I? I'm hot. So what the fuck do you mean, I'm repulsive? That... guys can't stand me once I start being honest, talking. Why should I... change how I think, act? Why can't I be honest like how I am with you? Or Ghomas, or Lumine? Or Marsha and Corie?"

  She blinked rapidly, all while looking at me. And I realized she was doing her best to stop the tears in her eyes from rolling down her cheek.

  What she said... I didn't really know that was how she felt. It was a joke I hadn't made since we were on Earth. It always felt like a joke. A joke that was based on... truth.

  And I had to respond to what she said. "I'm sorry..."

  She didn't care for my apology and turned in the direction of the bedroom.

  I reached out and grabbed her hand. "I really am. I didn't know those jokes hurt you. And I should've. You know I don't want to hurt you. You know me."

  She stopped and spun back to me, scratching below her eye. "Well, they sucked. But I know you wouldn't. My emotions just... you know." She shrugged. "I just want what clearly doesn't want me."

  "Who?"

  She hesitated and then said, "Why do you care?"

  "You're like my best friend? We're close as hell? I mean... if you got a boyfriend, that would be cool. I'll cheer you on. Though, it would suck since we can't be as physically close. 'Cause, I do like it when you get on my back. Rest on my shoulder. Resting on you. I really like that. It makes me happy."

  Her face lit up and she smiled a smile that she tried her best to suppress. "You're a jackass. Christ."

  I was surprised and said, "But it'll be cool. I'm not trying to step in your romance and tell you you shouldn't 'cause of X and Y."

  She leaned her back against me, head coming up at my nose. Reminder, she was three inches shorter than me(she tended to not stand straight to appear shorter).

  Her messy black hair spilled over my lower face, forcing me to absorb a certain smell. One I had recently become extremely familiar with.

  Blood.

  Vacinay then said, "I like this too. Always did. I think if I ever got a man, I would hate not being able to be this close to you. I think... if you ever got a girl, the thought of her being able to be like this with you would upset me."

  I wanted to laugh. "Yeah, we're both dumb, huh."

  She didn't react for a couple of seconds. Then finally she said, depressingly, "Yeah."

  After a short while, we returned to the bedroom—then realized something strange.

  Lumine was missing.