On the three-sectioned sofa in her living room, Casey Wardell sipped from her morning coffee with one hand as she tapped an alert on her phone with the other.
He should be coming, she thought to herself. They'd made arrangements to start getting him settled as a civilian here in Central today. He might not have cared for it, but it was for the best. She knew better than to let him disappear again.
Running her fingers through her hair for the twentieth time to check if it was presentable, she checked her phone again, waiting to see a message.
Sure enough, she received one in a timely manner, announcing her friend's imminent arrival. Casey exhaled through her nose to calm the fluttery feeling in her chest.
What was she getting anxious about? He was just coming here to do something quick and simple with her, nothing that would actually change their dynamic in some meaningful way. In fact, this was something she could have had one of her employees do, but didn't, if only because she wanted to be the one to deal with Allister if he suddenly had second thoughts about engaging in real life.
Before long, the doorbell rang, and she smoothed out her skirt as she got up and walked to the door. Opening it with a deadpan look she knew he would be able to see through, she remarked, "You know, for someone who's in such a hurry, you sure like to come late."
"I'm not late, but Aiden did find me last night," Allister explained.
Her eyes widened a fraction of that, even if she vainly tried to mask her surprise at that. It made complete sense; of course Aiden would take the initiative to go see him.
"And after that I was doing an early morning check-in," her former—and ideally future—classmate continued.
"Check-in where?" she asked as she stepped aside to let him in.
The boy offered nothing more, entering in silence.
Pointing to one of the sofas despite being outside his field of vision, she followed him and took her seat next to him. Within arm's reach, but not close enough to create misunderstandings. In herself, that was. She was confident that he wouldn't misinterpret anything from her. He could, after all, sense her emotions just as easily as he could see her face.
A couple of times, she had tried to use her power's analytical aspect to share his senses in the hopes of finding out how he was feeling. Sadly, it seemed he couldn't sense his own emotions in the same detailed way. And, being as good at silencing physical tells as he was, it was practically impossible to figure out what he was thinking at any given point.
"Well then," she said before it could get awkward, very aware of the half meter of separation between them. "We should get started. I'm going to note down all your information and get my people to provide a cover for your absence."
"Your people," he repeated, amused. "Whose house is this anyway?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah, my people. And this place officially belongs to one of them. I'm just 'staying over.'" Which really meant she owned it in all but name on account of being a minor. Her eighteenth birthday couldn't come soon enough.
He hummed in acknowledgement, gave a redundant look around, and focused back on her. "Since you want me to live as a civilian again, isn't someone going to notice Shade and Finneas Allister showed back up in Apexia around the same time?"
"We'll avert that by providing a cover for your absence," she said firmly. "Considering you were never registered as dead, only missing, there are ways for us to come up with a story and falsify records should the need arise."
"Alright," he replied, not batting an eyelash at the fact that she had just suggested they commit fraud to get him back into the legal system.
Casey tapped a few things into a tablet on the table, her fingers moving with mechanical precision as she said, "We'll file the necessary papers and link your civilian identity to a cover story involving a 'long-term classified training initiative' under private contract. That buys us leeway, and with Aiden backing it, no one's going to push too hard for details."
"Training initiative," Allister echoed, one brow barely raised. "As an unpowered normal?"
"Yes. Unless you would prefer to, like, have gone on a study trip to a school that doesn't exist?" She wasn't even being sarcastic; she could actually arrange that, it would just be more difficult.
"No, it's fine," he conceded. A smirk drew on her lips. It was a small win, but she took it.
"Anything you want to major in for university? We could give you an opportunity to take the entrance exam. The window has already passed, but that hardly matters to us." The power of nepotism was strong indeed.
"Wait," Finn said. "What if I do get unmasked? What'll happen to Mom?"
Could she…? No. She sighed, better to acquire maximum resources for this. While it grated on her not to rely on herself for something this important, she wanted Emily to be safe as well, no matter what. "My father's organization has the means to protect her."
He relinquished a nod.
"I encountered Homeland last night," he said out of nowhere.
Thankfully she had already swallowed her last sip, or she might have choked. "What?!"
Allister shrugged. "Aiden got there before the real fight started. They escaped. There wasn't much else to it."
"Then why are you bringing it up?"
"The recruitment thing. You were right. I'll probably have to say no next time," he clarified. "And then…"
They might try to ruin him. His civilian identity, if they couldn't get at him directly. That explained his concern for his mother. "You don't have to worry. I've got your back. Me and Aiden."
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"I'll make sure not to lean on you too much," he responded. Part of her took issue with that, and another part told her to drop the matter. She'd conveyed what she needed to.
She brought them back on topic. "Like I was saying though, what are you interested in?"
And they talked, with the intention of giving Allister a life again, whether he wanted it or not. It was satisfying, she found.
That they were spending time together had nothing to do with it, of course. It was strictly business. Friendly business.
So she kept telling herself.
*******
In a deep underground complex stationed rather far from the usual DHD headquarters she resided at, Noor walked steadily down the sterile, featureless pathway while keeping her gaze straight ahead.
Walked, not flew, because the lightwave frequency generated by doing so would trigger five of the security systems in this place. At least. Those were just the ones she knew about.
Eventually, she read the path's end. Standing in front of a glossy, gem-like black door, she didn't move her head, seeing her unaging face in the reflection. At sixty-eight years, she could confidently say she had outlived many of the people she had come to know in her time, some of whom were fellow heroes. They could finally rest now, at peace with the knowledge that others would take care of the rest.
Unbound like her.
With a muted hiss, the door slid open, revealing another corridor she had to walk through. This went on three more times before she was finally at her destination.
From beyond this entrance, a chime went off, alerting the room's occupant to her presence.
When it opened, a smaller figure barreled into her. Anticipating it, she floated into the air a little so the impact wouldn't send tremors through the floor. The person living here was, after all, quite powerful.
"Noor! You really came!" he said, antennae and compound staring her in the face under his bright grin. Supposedly, his insect-like features had been advancing according to his medical records, but that had stopped when he was taken into their custody.
The boy's legal name was Yves Remy, son of one Genevieve Remy—who was more widely known as Viperia. Upon first learning about the impossibility of allowing this child to live among other kids, Noor had been heartbroken, regardless of whether she recognized the necessity of his isolation. Which she did. But she never let any of those feelings show on her face. They were hers to bear, no one else's.
"Didn't I promise I would?" she said, reciprocating the death grip he had on her that would have turned a normal woman to mush with a soft embrace. "Hey, it looks like you've grown bigger. How did you do that in only a week?"
He stuck his black tongue out. "Puberty."
Oh, he was entering that stage of life now, wasn't he? Being thirteen years old, it seemed about right.
"Noor?"
She gently lifted him up and put him down on the reinforced floor. "What's up?"
"Did you really put my Mom in prison?"
She didn't flinch at the question. Having lived his life in isolation, it was understandable that he had no idea how to transition into different topics gradually in a conversation, given that all the people who talked to were either researchers on the other side of a speaker, exceptionally strong and older individuals like herself who barely had time to see him, and very cautious people who were terrified in his presence.
"I did," she answered without missing the beat. "I'm sorry you have to miss her, but she was hurting a lot of people."
"Okay…" He hung his head.
"I'm guessing you have been browsing the internet?" She inclined her head.
"Only- only when I'm not playing on one of the consoles. I got bored and just checked some stuff about Somnus. You know? That's all."
"No dirty websites?"
He rounded on her. "NOOR!"
She raised her hands placatingly. "You can never be too sure."
Though he calmed down, she could see the blush reaching his ears. He really was just a kid.
Unfortunately, not everyone saw it that way. She tried to get him more privileges, and was still working on ways to ensure the safety of normal people when they were around him. And she'd have to convince many experts and people in power of those ways in turn.
Above all, there were two main reasons why many among those in the know were wary of him.
The first was his odd propensity for uncontrolled growth-like effects in his environment, capable of distorting his surroundings in ways the scientists still didn't understand. All they knew was that it wasn't safe to be around civilians.
What was the other reason he was so special?
Yves was immortal.
In the truest sense. Not just possessing eternal youth like herself. It was more than that: he genuinely was incapable of dying.
His growth power often went out of control, and multiple times, he had obliterated his own body with it. And subsequently regenerated without a scratch. The research was limited with how often she vetoed suggested tests from "specialists," but the projections were quite certain of his nature in that aspect.
In contrast, she was reminded of her own mortality. Just recently, she had missed the opportunity to deal with the biggest threat to her life at the moment. Omega, or rather, Gunther Halden, as they now knew him. A chance they had squandered. Intel they had been trying to gain for years, handed to them on a silver platter. And she blew it. Her team had done their jobs. It was simply down to her, and her insistence that they capture him.
In all her experience, she had gotten comfortable enough with her position that she thought she could afford everyone mercy now. But nothing could be further from the truth.
No, she was feeling the pressure more than ever. She had expected to put his rise to an end with one conclusive battle, but he had been even stronger than she was prepared for. And she had been prepared for a lot.
From here, it would come down to someone else. She would fight. She would give it all she had to protect Apexia. But she knew she couldn't stand against that man alone. Her goal, therefore, was to find someone who could.
And she might have done just that, if she gave her team's latest addition just a bit more time.
Nar's power had been unique enough to warrant a visit all the way to Central when he was a small child, even younger than Yves here currently was. Ever since that day, the leadership of Apexia had been awaiting his graduation into the adult division.
The young man didn't disappoint. If given a few months more to refine his abilities, he would perhaps be able to take care of the problem all by himself. With little input from others. They had offered him plenty of new abilities to copy, and he had refused almost every single one.
With Omega injured, he might just get those months to get stronger. And then, if he won, she could pass on the mantle.
Noor certainly hoped so. She'd never wanted this position to begin with.
Bringing her mind back to the present, she observed the small bug boy finger painting—claw painting?—on a sheet of paper.
"Yves, come here for a moment." She beckoned with a hand.
"Okay?" The boy ran up to her.
"I have a game in mind that we can play. It goes like this…"
Because that was her role.
Buying time for the next generation, until they were strong enough to take over.
Before then, she would do her utmost to hold the line.
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