27

Chapter Text

FRI FEB 25

The rest of my dream was weird, but not nearly as frustrating as the first one. It seemed like my power was trying to get me to figure out how to metalbend, and it gave me a bunch of low-purity metal shapes to try and control after it had me run through the 'scan the pillars' dance again. I hadn't made much progress by the end, but I was more determined than frustrated after the first thinner sheet I managed to fold over slightly.

It had me wondering if there was anything I could do to help accelerate learning it, but I had a feeling the whole point was to progress up the metal purities, and... nothing we had around the house was made poorly enough for me to actually manipulate it. Even the hammer heads and tools we had were decent steel, which should have been easier than iron because it added a bunch of carbon to the mix, right? I knew I could earthbend things like charcoal, I'd checked. In the end, I just gave it up as hundreds of years of industry getting too good at removing impurities for my current skill level to handle.

I wrote Dad a note to keep an eye out for low quality metals, if he could. He'd still been in bed after I'd gotten up, made breakfast, and had my normal workout. I'd gotten up early, hadn't bothered to rush anything this morning, and still left the house before 7 this morning.

The run was fairly normal, with the addition of me trying to actively stop worrying so much about being ambushed in the mornings. Emma and Sophia were bitches, but they were normal people. Nothing I thought up for how they could actually hurt me made any sense for them to try anymore. I didn't want to think about them, didn't want to worry about them, and didn't have anyone else that might be stalking me come to mind. Everything was perfectly normal until my foot slipped slightly on a turn, and a sharp pain ran up my leg. It wasn't enough to cause me to fall, but I did stumble to a stop and lean down to check it.

After pulling my 'shoes' away and prodding a little, I saw a dark line bisecting the rough callus on the edge of my heel. Gently poking at it got me a shock of pain and a drop of blood on my finger. A quick check of the rest of my foot, followed by the other one, found several other cracks that hadn't quite split through entirely yet. I muttered some curses and started back on my way, keeping off my heels while I looked for a place to hide for a second. Once I did, I took the time to heal the cut where the slight glow wouldn't attract attention in the relative darkness of the early morning, and finished my run to school.

My entire time in the shower was spent pondering the problem, since my healing wouldn't let me mend things like the two halves of a hunk of dead skin, just the living skin under it, which still left a weakened section prone to splitting again. In the end, I decided to just ask Amy for help. Once my shower was over, I headed straight to the cafeteria. I didn't see Amy or Vicky, but it was only a matter of time before they showed up. I set up to pick away at some more homework and waited.

It was almost 8 by the time I noticed people popping up in my senses who hadn't been there before. A quick bit of attention showed it was in fact Vicky and Amy, and I packed my stuff up again before they got in. I hopped to my feet when I saw them in person, and moved to intercept them. "Amy!"

They moved to meet me after that. "What's up?" She asked.

I leaned in a little closer. "I need help with something." I started to whisper shyly after that. "It's a little personal..."

She stared for a couple seconds before sighing and loudly proclaiming, "Fine, yes, I'll help fix your period cramps."

Vicky snorted, but managed to prevent herself from devolving into giggles. Others around the cafeteria weren't nearly so restrained. I blushed and spluttered a bit, before hissing, "That's not what..." and screeching out a frustrated groan. I grabbed her by the hand and dragged her out somewhere more private, while Vicky finally broke down at whatever Amy's waving and face-making meant. I wasn't paying enough attention to actually read her lips, at the moment.

When we were alone, I turned and huffed frustratedly at her. "It's not period cramps."

She hummed, and I could feel she was incredibly amused, and trying to hide it. "You know, I really, legally need a doctor and parent to sign off on abortions, right?"

I blushed even harder, my throat letting out a keening shriek as I tried to keep myself from yelling at her. It took a moment for the urge to pass and the tension to fade, but I still raised my voice perhaps too high when I replied. "AMY!"

That finally had her break down in snorting chuckles. "The look on your face..." She shook her head and took a couple deeper breaths. "I know it's not that, I just touched you, remember? So what's actually wrong?" She was smirking, felt amused, happy, a little concerned... I had to force myself to remember that little jibes and pranks like that were a facet of normal, healthy friendships.

"I... split my heel this morning." She felt confused, so I showed her. "I healed it, but I couldn't fix everything, and I'm not sure what to do about it. You were the first thing I thought of."

Her emotions transitioned to feeling relieved and indignant. "Yeah, I can fix that." She held out her hand, and I took it. "Not everything needs a superpowered solution, though. I honestly thought it was a feminine problem, at first."

I shook my head. "Nah, it's weird. I still need pads, but I haven't had an issue with cramps since I..." I paused, a slightly pained wince at the thought of what'd happened. "Since the locker."

Her eyes met mine, silently glaring and judging. I think she'd even paused in her healing to stare for a few seconds. "You lucky bitch..." She muttered as she turned back to looking vaguely down at my feet.

Oh yeah, she was jealous. "Sorry... I'm hoping it's just a Brute thing, but I've heard recent trauma and intense stress can mess with them, too." Amy hummed in response. "So, you can fix cramps?"

"Oh, sure." Amy shrugged. "It's kind of a thing, these days. I usually do it, as long as they put up with me giving them shit about it." Ahh, that explained the cafeteria a bit more. "I've actually got Vicky's mostly turned off right now. Kara too, now that I think about it."

I goggled a bit, "Wait, really?"

She snorted. "Oh, yeah. Vicky was a high-cramp heavy-flow girl before I got my powers, then she asked me to fix her, and kept asking, and it got annoying relaxing her muscles every few hours, so I just asked her if she wanted them gone." She shrugged and shook her head. "Tweaking it that much changed some things though, and she had a few missed period scares... eventually I just turned her cycle off, and she's been happier ever since." She grimaced a bit, probably remembering Vicky and her boyfriend... yeah I'd probably take advantage of that too, if I found a boy who liked me and wasn't just using me. "Kara found out and wanted me to make her..." She took her hand back and lifted them into the air, hands forming claw shapes as she gave a gigantic fake grin. "'impregnable! Nyahaha'..." Her face shifted back to its natural glower and she rolled her eyes, taking my hand again. It'd actually been a pretty good impression, I thought. "If she actually fucked boys, I would've told her to use a condom like everyone else, but..."

Yeah, with her history and some of the things she's said... I really didn't blame her for wanting to be sure. "Thanks, for that."

She shrugged and went back to her tweaking. "There we go, should be done."

I lifted my feet up, and... eww, most of the dead skin from the calluses had stayed on the floor, just little bits still clinging, or caught on my shoes. I shook both of my feet out and stepped away from the little pile, staring at it and shuddering. My feet felt... weird without them, the skin much thinner, more supple, less rigid... honestly much more sensitive too. It felt like the easy range my senses usually sat at had gone up a bit. Focusing farther away wasn't taking as much effort.

"You don't want me to do gross things, stop asking me to do gross things." She sniped, drawing my attention away. The pile of dead me didn't seem to bother her any, but I'm sure she'd seen worse.

I shook my head and shuddered again. "Right, right. Thank you, Amy."

She shook her head and sighed again. "You know, you're gonna' need to be a lot less squeamish if you want to be a healer." She waved at it. "If this is enough to bother you, you wouldn't last a day in the ER's waiting room, let alone actually helping people."

I sucked in a deeper breath and nodded. "I know, I'll work on it... when it's not me..." I shuddered again. Amy rolled her eyes and called me a wuss, before heading back toward the cafeteria. She probably still needed food, if she'd gone to the hospital this morning like she said she would, yesterday.

When we got there, she waved at Vicky's table, calling out when we were a little closer. "Vicky! Kara!" She paused, raising her arm into the air as she let me catch up. When I stopped curiously next to her, the arm curled and her finger pointed down at me from above, not looking very comfortable at all to manage with someone taller than her like I was. "Foot Care Bootcamp." She yelled.

I froze, the words sending a thrill of sheer terror lancing up my spine. I glanced from Amy, barely keeping herself from grinning and ruining her stern countenance, to the two at the table, who were grinning at each other now. I could feel how giddy they were, as they hopped to their feet to head our way. I turned back to Amy as she lowered her arm and rolled her shoulder.

"Amy," I said, letting the pain of betrayal flood into my words. "I thought we were friends."

She snorted. "They're probably going to drag me along shopping at the girly goop stores, too. But I'm willing to take that bullet for you." She leaned closer and narrowed her eyes. "Oh best friend of mine."

"...This is for that time I didn't get you out of shopping, isn't it?"

She shook her head. "The fact that you think there's only one thing I'm getting you back for means my vengeance will be eternal and unending."

"Those mean the same thi-" My words were interrupted as the girls finally got to us, both of them grabbing one of my arms as they frog-marched me back to their table. I glared back at Amy, who gave me one of those small finger-flutter waves before heading for the breakfast line.

"Taylor you should've told me-" "If I knew you needed help-" "-don't worry, we know what to do-" "-you'll be okay dear, we're the experts-" "-trust us, we're professionals!" I let out a pained groan of suffering as the pair chattered away in both of my ears, making it hard to understand them. Vicky wasn't bothering to hold her aura in completely, and forcing myself to ignore it wasn't helping my concentration any.

When they had me seated, and took their own, they turned their attention on me. "Now Taylor," Kara started.

"honey," Vicky chimed in.

"sweetie,"

"tell us everything you know about foot care." Vicky finished, and I could feel them low-five under the table.

I stared at them, uncomprehending, until it wasn't just me sweating. "Taylor," Kara started again, slowly. "you do know something about proper foot care, right?"

"I... moisturize whenever I shave, and wash between my toes?" I tried.

At this point, Vicky'd covered her mouth with one hand, trying not to look alarmed. "Oh, no." She muttered.

Kara turned her own wide eyes to her friend. "Vicky..."

"Can't talk, plotting murder." The hero replied in a low monotone.

She rolled her eyes and tried again. "Vicky!"

Victoria huffed and nodded. "I mean, I know your mom is dead, but seriously someone should have taught you all this."

Kara punched her in the shoulder, and it was a testament to the girl's fortitude that the loud crack that failed to budge the hero didn't leave her in a pained and crying heap. Vicky pretended not to notice, but I could feel her aura flicker and fade to a minimum. "Vicky, it's not her fault." She turned to me. "Taylor, we're not mad at you. We're not disappointed with you, but basic self-care is pretty essential, and we are going to need the names of those friends you used to have..." It hadn't felt great when Vicky brought up mom, but Kara pointing the negativity Emma's way helped significantly to offset my rapidly worsening mood. She slapped at Vicky again when the girl started giggling in a distinctly unheroic manner. "later, but for now, I think we need to schedule a spa day."

My mind stuttered to a halt. "A what?"

"Spaaaaaa daaaaay~" The words sounded like a prayer to some elder terror, and I shuddered. The way the rest of the girls started chittering to themselves quietly about it didn't help any. "Tay, what's wrong?" She asked softly, and I could tell she was worried.

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. "Don't spa days involve getting naked, having your hands and feet pinned down so they can get operated on, and then getting fondled by some burly masseuse at the end?" I was trying to remember the last time I'd gone, with Emma. I'd done my best to bury the memory along with the rest, good or bad.

The little conversations around ground to a halt, everyone staring at me. All of them were either horrified of my admittedly embellished description, or looking at me like I was stupid. Kara and Vicky shared a worried glance, before they turned back. "First off," Kara held up her hand, finger extended. "towels are a thing. Second, we all-" she indicated herself, Vicky, and me. "-kinda kick ass, even naked. No one's going to be able to do anything you don't want them to." She held the hand up again, three fingers this time. "Also, masseurs are men. Masseuse is for women, usually not the burly butch types. You get your pick, including 'none'. Usually more of an optional extra, in my experience."

Vicky was nodding along. "There's lots of options, but unless you get a pricey package deal, most of it is 'pay per' for what you do want."

I hadn't been involved in that side of things, last time. I think one of our moms covered it. "Yeah, I'm sorry. It's just... the last time..." I shook my head. They glanced at each other, then back to me, with soft eyes and placating smiles.

"If you really don't want to, we don't have to." Kara said softly. "I was thinking it would help to see some of this done professionally, but..." She shook her head, "sometimes the best way to move on, is to make new memories, with new friends."

Vicky took Kara's hand and nodded vigorously, with a wide supportive smile. They probably would've grabbed at me, if I hadn't been on the other side of the table. I smiled and nodded. The girls had themselves a little cheer, as Amy came back from getting breakfast. She took one look at them, then raised an eyebrow at me.

"Apparently, we're having a spa day." I replied to her silent question.

"We?" She asked hesitantly, tremors of agitation flowing into her.

I quirked a brow at Vicky, who grinned wider. "We!" She cheered. "No getting out of this one, sis!"

Amy closed her eyes, sucking in a deep breath through her nose almost hard enough to snort the air. Then she glared at me. "Eternal. Vengeance." She growled.

I broke down into giggles at that. Amy huffed, but sat down next to me. We spent the rest of our time before class discussing the options at the local spa they went to sometimes, in the commercial sector near the Towers. Most of them seemed silly to me; if I wanted aromatherapy I'd buy candles, and hot rocks to soothe aches I could easily manage myself... things like that didn't interest me. They were insisting on a pedicure, and the sauna did sound nice... I wasn't sure about facemasks or wraps, and the mud or salt baths were a hard why, even though I didn't shoot them down outright.

They seemed to have fun planning it, though.

---

As I made my way to lunch, I wondered who I should hang out with today. Tracy I'd dropped in on yesterday, and I'd see her later today anyway. Vicky, Kara, and Amy I'd had breakfast with, and was also going to see them later. I wasn't sure if Vicky was going to show up, but I wouldn't be surprised at this point. I briefly considered trying to find Carlos, Serei, Susan, or any of my other loose acquaintances, before I dismissed that, too. I wasn't sure if I wanted to pursue any of those friendships, yet.

No, in the end I decided to see if Cassie was busy. If nothing else, I could see if she wanted to come to the training today. Even if she was busy, I always had Vicky's table to fall back to. Plan set, I focused more closely on the figures I could feel with my senses. The freshman usually got to the cafeteria first, since their classes were all on the first floor, too. A lot of the upper years skipped the lunchroom entirely, walking to the nearby restaurants or driving a bit farther off. The younger years ostensibly weren't allowed off campus during school hours, but that was one of those rules that only seemed to be enforced on students who were already in trouble for something.

I found Cass before I got to the room, hanging out at their table having not bothered with the line yet. When I got in, I glanced over to check on her. I was briefly confused before I realized what'd changed. She didn't seem like the hair dye sort of girl, but after a moment I realized the colors combined with her long feathery hairstyle suited her. She'd gone with a dark blue-purple for most of it, with some bright red on the longest of her hair, underneath the rest. It was a bit of a messy job, but she was a bit of a messy person, once you got to know her a little. Overall, I thought it was a good look for her.

I meandered toward the line, wondering why the thought of those particular colors were nagging at my brain a little, before I stopped. I barely noticed the people behind me bumping into me and bouncing off, paying them no mind as they glanced warily at me before parting around me. I'd turned my wide eyes on Cassie, inspecting her with all of my senses. The same figure, the same pouty lips, the same colored hair... the voice had sounded familiar too, now that I thought about it.

Cassie was Rune.

So much made more sense now, despite how much I wished it didn't.

I dug out my phone and sent her a text. She fished hers out and looked at it, curious, then wary. Her eyes panned across the room until she found mine, and winced under my glare.

'We need to talk' indeed, miss Rune.

She nodded, and motioned for the food lines. I kept glaring for a moment before I nodded. We might as well get food, since we were here. I hopped into the line first, keeping a laser focus on her with my senses as I made my way through. I waited for her by the pay stations, and she caught up about a minute later.

"Not here." I don't think I completely held the growl out of my voice, but she seemed more resigned than scared at this point, nodding along wearily. I led the way first to the stairs, then to one of the senior classrooms I could tell was uninhabited. As far from the flow and press of people as we could get without leaving school, while also being private.

I tossed my tray onto a desk, almost careless enough to spill something. She set hers down and wandered a bit. I turned and leveled another glare her way after she shut the door behind us. "You're Rune."

She nodded. "And you're Terraform."

I bristled at her statement. "How did you...?" I snapped, before clamping my jaw shut and shaking my head. She probably figured me out the same way I did her, too many similarities clicking just the right way. "How long have you known?"

"Since the fight, with Victor and Othala, and Amy." She stated clearly. She was walling herself off emotionally, trying to drive herself numb. I could still feel flares of trepidation underneath, but she was like a girl walking herself to the gallows. She didn't expect this to end well, and was preparing for it to hurt. I swallowed thickly, and some of my rage petered down. It couldn't hurt if she didn't care. At least there was that small point in favor of her having actually been my friend.

"And what have you done?" I was still angry, but my voice was cold. "Have you told anyone?"

She shook her head. "No, I haven't said anything." Her voice, by contrast, sounded dead. "I don't think anyone knows, but Victor's not stupid. He might have put it together by now."

I heaved out a groan, dropping into a nearby seat and rubbing at my face. "Such a fucking mess..." I grumbled. I glared at her again. "How? Why!?" I snapped, my hands clawing in the air between us as if I could drag the answers out of her.

She plopped down into one of the other seats and gave a sad, lost chuckle. "Remember my family?" She waited until I nodded. "The Herren clan. One of the biggest gang families in the States. We've got capes, and manpower... but that's about it. It takes a lot of money to arm that many people, feed them, keep them out of prison, keep them loyal." She shook her head. "So we got shipped up here to join the Empire. Empire gets capes and soldiers, Clan gets money and guns." That didn't feel quite right, but it didn't ping as an outright lie. Cass shook her head. "At this point? I'm pretty sure we were just cheaper than the European alternatives." She glanced my way, and saw I was still staring stonily at her. She sighed and continued. "Me? They told me how great the opportunity was, convinced me to volunteer." She spat. "I was excited to get out, make a name for myself... fight 'the good fight'." She shook her head, a spike of disgust flowing through her. "I wanted to kill people, because I didn't see them as people."

"And that's changed?"

My eyes narrowed as she glanced away, hesitantly. "Yeah." She glanced up and caught me glaring. She repeated it, more confidently. "Yeah, it's changing."

I supposed a work in progress was better than she used to be. I sighed and pawed my face again, groaning into my palms. "So, what now?" I wasn't sure what I could do. The Rules would dictate I do nothing and trust her to do the same, and there being a Truce on kind of hindered any plans to try and bring her in for her crimes, anyway. That said, I didn't feel like I could just pretend I didn't know.

She hesitated, glancing away again. I could tell she was debating with herself, conflicted and wary, frustrated and fretful. She didn't seem to know what to think, so I turned back to my tray. I wasn't hungry, as stressed as I was feeling, but I knew I needed food. I started shoveling food in, barely tasting it, angrily chewing away and occasionally glaring at Rune. I stopped after I'd destroyed a good third of my food, finally clearing my mouth again to speak. "Were we ever really friends?" She winced, a small thing, her heart and breathing picking up in response to the aggressive tone I used. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

Cass nodded, "I was, and… we are." She didn't feel confident in her answers, but didn't seem like she was trying to lie. "I just… wanted to wait a bit. So it wouldn't be like this." She motioned between us. My glare softened considerably. I suppose that wasn't a terrible reason. "After yesterday…" She shook her head and muttered, "never mind."

I wasn't going to let her stop at that. I needed to know. I bit down my emotional response and tried to sound just curious. "No, what is it?"

She glanced back at me, and I wasn't sure I hid my determination to ferret out secrets that might affect me nearly as well as I'd intended, from the wary confusion she was feeling. She took almost half a minute to think and work herself back up to speaking. "I don't want to stay with the Empire." She swallowed thickly after she managed to get that out, and the words started flowing again. "I was hoping, after seeing everything you can do, that you'd help me get away and stay that way. I didn't expect you to wise up and figure me out this fast, though. Not after weeks of..." She shook her head, and stopped before she could shove her foot deeper into her mouth.

In hindsight, it did feel pretty obvious that Cassie was Rune. I couldn't be sure how much of that was it actually being obvious, or me feeling stupid about it, yet. Still... "You wanted to wait until we were better friends, so that I'd want to help you." She nodded, and I felt a spike of rage lance through me. I grit my teeth a bit as I said, "I don't like being used."

"I wasn't..." She snapped, then paused, shaking her head. "I didn't want to trick you into helping me. I wanted to earn your trust, earn your help." We glared at each other for a few seconds before I glanced away. That did sound like how normal friendships were supposed to work. Instead of feeling smug or victorious at winning our stare-down like I expected, Cass just felt relieved. "If you don't want to help me, that's fine. I'll figure something out." She got up and moved to sit herself down where she'd set her food and started eating.

It was times like this I wished I could just call Dinah to solve all my problems. I didn't know if our lunch times matched up though, or whether she was busy. She was happier, seemed more outgoing. I didn't want to pull her away from friends she might just be making for my problems, especially when I could just ask tomorrow. I glanced over at Cassie, who was starting to stab at her food a bit. She was getting frustrated, not liking how this was turning out, but not pushing me for more despite that. She was anxious, worried... but seemed determined. She really would just try on her own, from what I could tell. "Hey," I said, and she threw her hair and looked sharply my way. Intense, but not glaring. "I need to talk to some people. Ask for more opinions. It's not just me." Her eyes narrowed in thought, cold and calculating. Probably assuming I had a team, or that I was going to spread her name around, but she didn't speak up to stop me. "But, I'm not going to say I won't help, yet."

She kept up the stare for a bit, then glanced down and nodded. "Thanks." She turned back to her food, still anxious and frustrated, but it seemed to have stopped building higher for the moment.

A few minutes later, when my food was almost gone, I sighed. I couldn't just leave things sitting like that, but everything I thought to say just sounded so awkward. In the end I decided it was just going to have to be, sucked it up, and talked. "So, are we... still trying to be friends?"

Cass gave me a gimlet eye, quirking her brow and pursing her lips. She was trying not to smile, and keeping herself from laughing at me. I knew I sounded ridiculous, and could tell she thought so, too. Still, she chuffed and shook her head, a small smirk forcing its way onto her face. "Yeah, Taylor. We're still doing the friend thing."

I let out a small sigh of relief, at that. I liked Cassie. For all that she was a crass bigot most of the time, there was something about her that felt weirdly magnetic and familiar. I shook my head, deciding to ponder that later. "So did you want to drop by the gym after school? The martial arts practice?"

She rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Yeah, I'll go. No promises on staying, though. Your other 'friends' aren't really fond of me, and my 'boss' might have a job." She patted her pocket, with her phone.

I hummed. Nothing I could do about Kaiser right now, but... "That sounds fair. Let me worry about them." I wasn't sure if her emphasis was for Amy and Vicky, or Kara's group. For all I knew, it was both. Cass let out an unsure affirmation in response, but otherwise dropped the topic in favor of her food.

When we were done, she checked her phone. She'd been ignoring it in favor of our conversation, but that didn't stop people from messaging her. Cass grimaced, and put it away. "I should go. Need to keep a lid on some shit." She got up and headed to the door.

I glanced back at our trays, and stopped her. "Hey, you heading to the cafeteria?"

She glanced back and I held up my tray. She eyed her own like it'd betrayed her, and I couldn't help but feel she'd forgotten all about it. "Sure, yeah." She scooped hers up, and I slotted mine into it when she held it out. "See you at the gym?"

"Yup. See you then." I gave her a little wave as she left, then watched her dig her phone out again and start grumbling at it, with my feet.

There was still about a third of our lunch period left, but none of the options I could think of for something to do sounded nearly as good as taking some time to decompress after that conversation. I headed to my next classroom early, and sat down to meditate.