CW:

 

The factory was eerily quiet. Dark, dusty, and slowly crumbling to pieces. If I hadn’t just come out of a fight against a supervillain, I'd probably be pretty spooked right about now. Didn't help that I was alone either.

Rachel wanted to come with me, but I refused to let her. None of her team was in a fighting condition, especially her. I wasn’t about to let them hurt themselves even more. Plus, they still had to keep an eye on Shade and his minions for now. Out of everyone on our team, I was the one who was in the best condition to head inside.

Not that I exactly wanted to head in alone, but there wasn't really any other choice. Someone had to go in and check on our three missing teammates, it might as well be me. I didn't know what the problem Skye had was, but the sound of silence through our communicators was worrying. I hope she and Eve are doing okay…

Entering into a larger room in the factory, my eyes snapped to the figure leaning against the wall. A villain that had slipped my mind with all the chaos that's happened.

"Last time we met you were still just a simple villain, but look at you now. All grown up." Nova smiled, wearing a dark red and grey skin-tight costume instead of her normal dress. "Maybe becoming a vigilante was good for you. You never were cut out to be a proper villain."

I tensed up, but wasn't entirely afraid of her. I still had Voltis lightning powers and Nova was still powerless. I had the advantage here. All I needed to do was take care of her then I could go check in on my friends.

"What are you doing Nova? Why do you keep messing with me?"

She chuckled. "You did your job already, and I didn't even have to lead you to him either. Shade will finally meet the end he deserves, and I will see that he does."

I frowned. "Isn't he your boss? Shouldn't you be more upset about this?"

"Upset?" Her expression fell into one of suppressed anger. "No. I weaseled my way into his gang, climbed his ranks, all just to get close to him and earn his trust. All so I could take his resources and connections, and use them to create the Spirit I needed."

"You made them?" My eyes widened in surprise. "You designed those horrifying things?"

"With Doctors help of course," She shrugged. "The blue and red Spirits were only a stepping stone to making progress on Project Green. A necessary evil to give me all the powers I needed to enact my revenge. I only regret not stopping Doctor from using them to experiment on people."

Did she just say powers? I tensed up even more and prepared myself to react if she tried anything. If she truly wasn't powerless anymore then I doubt this will be as easy as I thought.

"So you did all this just to beat Shade?" I asked her. "Now what?"

"It's not just Shade." She frowned as her anger grew. "All those responsible for what happened five years ago will pay. They'll all die by my hand, it's the only way I'll make it up to her."

I paused at the way her voice cracked at the end. "Her?"

"Marilyn Foster." She said as her gaze softened and fell to the ground. She took a shuddering breath.

"My wife."

"Your wife?" I paused as some of the tension fell. "What…what happened to her?"

"She's dead."

"Oh…I, I'm sorry…"

She sighed and pushed herself off the wall, taking a few steps towards me as her anger grew once again. 

"It was all because of those three bastards. Shade, CyberKnight, Snapsion. All three of them must pay for what they did. For the lives they took."

She stopped in front of me, determination in her eyes. "And you will help me."

"Me?" 

"I have recently become aware of your relationship with Guardian. A friendship between two opposite sides." She spoke, her hand gesturing in the direction of said hero. "You have some sway with her. Speak with her, tell her my demands, tell her that Snapsion and Shade must be released into my hands so that I can kill them myself."

I looked at her, stopped to see the hurting angry villain in front of me, someone who didn't deserve to lose someone so close to her, and came to a single conclusion.

"No."

She frowned, her anger building even further in her voice. "I am not giving you a choice. You either help me willingly, or I will take you as a hostage and force my demands. Project Green might not have given me the right powers to defeat Shade, but it has given me the strength necessary to force the heroes to listen, especially if I threaten the life of their friend in front of them. Guardian will deliver me Shade and Snapsion, or else."

I shook my head. "Can you even hear what you're saying? There's no way, hostage or not, will they listen to you. They aren't going to let you kill people, even if you think they deserve it. This is just plain crazy."

"So what?" She hissed. "Do you want me to throw away all I've done!? Five years of careful planning and research, and you want me to just give up!?

"I will NOT stop here. Not when I'm this close." Nova took a step forward. "I will drag you out there by force, and use you to demand your little hero friends that they give me what I want."

I took a step back, still feeling a tad exhausted from the earlier fight and starting to doubt my odds of fighting against two super villains back to back. "I don't want to fight you."

She started walking towards me. "Good, makes it easier for me then."

Can't blame a girl for trying…

I sighed and raised my fists, preparing myself to react to whatever she could throw at me. I didn't know what her newly obtained power was, but perhaps it would be best to even the playing field. Using my trick with Voltis powers to make room, I copied Novas and-

……… 

 

……

 

…

 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ashley's POV:

My legs dangled over nothing, my feet swaying back and forth idly as I stared out into the ever-present darkness. Only through brief glimpses and images could I get a picture of what happened outside, small tidbits of what was once my other self and what she was getting up to. 

Except, the images stopped. There was silence, an oppressive silence that has only happened once in recent memory. 

Sarah has gone too far once again.

Her, no, our body couldn’t handle the pressure and weight of other's powers in excess. Even the new trick she learned isn't enough to bypass our limits. Every copied power, every single last one, was trying to pass over their instincts to Sarah. But it was too much, her subconscious mind couldn't handle the overflow of information.

And so it shut down.

A quick mental tug at our connection proved useless, only when I applied far more force than I would have liked did I get to see a glimpse of what she has turned to.

A monster.

Her fight against Nova had already started, if it could even be called that. It was more like a wild savage beast attacking through pure instincts. Without her mind to restrain her she has gone berserk, throwing her body into danger and pushing herself far past human limits. At this rate, we will be lucky to even be alive once the dust settles, though I doubt our body would ever recover.

Broken bones and deep wounds could be mended, healers like Selene are proof of that, but there are things which can never be replaced. Can never have its flame reignited.

If Sarah continues as she is, her powers as Mimica will fade away. Burnt out from overuse and broken limits.

I will not let that come to pass.

A benefit from my prison is that I held control over where I was and what was around me at all times, an area where I was in charge that expanded all the way until the black darkness. 

A simple thought was all that I needed to change my perspective, the environment shifted around me until I was once again standing in the cafe. Or at least a mental copy of it. Directly in the middle of the room stood a large sphere of energy, one that was vibrating from instability and stress.

What was once supposed to be small and a clear milky white, has now turned into a monstrously huge ball with all the swirling colors of the rainbow. 

In front of me was the source of Sarah's powers.

I laid a hand against it, it fought back, tried to push me away, tried to hurt me.

But I was in charge here, this was my home.

Slowly, carefully, did I start to push my control into her power. My other hand reached up to one of the dozens upon dozens of colors, a bright light blue, before pinching it between my fingers.

I gingerly pulled it away from the orb, back and back as a migraine started to pound into my head.

Until it popped out with a snap, the color now in my hand in the shape of a small ball. The power floated next to me as I turned back to the giant ball of powers, now slightly smaller than before.

It's time to get to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~

My mind snapped back into clarity just as I saw a fist flying directly at me. 

I didn't have the time to dodge or block, and quickly found myself flying through the air. Crashing into a brick building and through several walls, only finally stopping in what looked to be an abandoned bedroom.

A hand reached up to cradle my head as I groaned, pain exploding through my skull. How the hell did I survive that? Super strength?

[You’re welcome for the wake-up call. Sorry that it came at a bad time.]

Ashley!? She's back!

"You picked a, ugh, bad time to come back." I groaned as I pushed myself up. "But I'm glad to hear from you again."

[Glad to see you too. Try not to copy over two dozen powers in one go next time, okay?]

Two dozen?? How many powers does she have!?

"What happened?"

[Oh, well it's interesting. See I found out our connection gets boosted if I'm near your power core.]

"What…?"

[Yeah! I was extracting the excess powers one at a time and I realized what was happening and-]

"No, wait," I interrupted her. "That's very interesting, and I can't wait to hear about it later, but what happened while I was losing my marbles?"

[Oh, right, you wouldn’t remember. You two have been fighting for the past ten to fifteen minutes. I'm not sure where you are right now, but your fight has definitely moved away from the factory.]

I groaned. Great. 

"And what about everyone else?"

[Dunno.]

I stood up and stretched my back, trying to get some of the soreness out of me.

"How long do I have until she starts to look for me?"

The wall exploded inwards as an injured figure appeared in the room.

[Not very long.]

Nova's eyes found mine and she quickly started stomping towards me.

"We can still talk about this, right?" I asked as I brought my fists up.

"Not a mindless beast anymore huh? Too bad, you lost your chance to cooperate. You'll get me what I want even if I have to bring you back in pieces!" She lunged at me, her fist held behind her.

My hands moved up to block, and she punched forward. The sound of fist hitting metal echoed around the room.

I stared at my arms in wonder. My metal arms.

"What…?"

[Since you can't handle having so many powers I decided to help out. I took out all the powers you copied, and can put them back in when the situation calls for it.] Ashley sounded proud as she spoke. [You just fight like you always have, and I'll give you the power you need when you need it.]

I smiled. That certainly makes things easier. "Thank you."

Nova shook her hand out after punching metal. "Talking to yourself now?"

"Just a good friend." I got into a fighting stance as I grinned at the villain. "Is that all you got? I expected more."

She glared at me as she rushed at me again. Her body sped up, going far faster than the eye could see. A speedster power?

Then, just as I thought I was going to be a goner, her speed came back down to normal as the world slowed around me.

[I matched you with her. Enjoy super speed.]

I smiled as I parried a punch that nearly broke the sound barrier. [Thanks Ashley.] I sent back.

I ducked under a punch aimed for my head, as I leaned in and elbowed her side.

She winced and stepped back, only to spin around on her foot as she went for a roundhouse kick. I only narrowly dodged backward enough for it to miss. I rushed in as she was recovering her balance, tripping her foot over and watching her fall down. I moved to grapple her, but she kicked her legs out first. Hitting me back and giving her time to get up.

Her super speed started to wear down and mine followed suit. She aimed at me with her hand and snapped her fingers, causing a big shockwave of force to slam into me and throw me back.

She ran up to me as her hand turned into a blade, slashing down at me only to meet metal arms. The attack bounced off and she recoiled back, I leaned forward so she didn't get time to recover, my fist pulled back.

Her arms went up to block, metal shifting over her skin and hardening it.

[Fire breath.]

Trusting fully in Ashley, I stopped my fist from swinging and instead took a deep breath. On the exhale a large wave of flames spewed out of my mouth like I was a dragon.

Nova cursed and jumped away, the fire having had a bad reaction to the metal. I saw her wounds slowly recovering on their own.

[A regeneration power?] I asked as I tried to catch my breath.

[Close. It's not as powerful as you might think, and it takes up quite a lot of energy to use. She isn't invincible.]

[Good to know.]

Nova threw her arms wide as long tendrils of purple energy appeared around her, lashing out at anything nearby. They rushed towards me, crashing into the ground or the walls as I dodged them on my way to her.

I rushed straight at her as I felt my body grow stronger, like I had copied Silver's strength. One of the tendrils slammed into me, causing intense pain but not knocking me off course.

I tackled Nova as I reached her, she was too busy controlling the tendrils to dodge. We slammed through the brick wall and out into an empty street, the purple tentacles slowly disappearing as her concentration broke.

We hit the ground and I bounced off of her, rolling a good dozen feet away onto the street. Lesson learned, don't tackle someone through a second-story building.

We both groaned as we got up, and I could feel my legs starting to give out a bit as I shakily stood there.

I panted as she turned to look at me, her eyes glowing a bright green.

[Put up a wall!]

By bringing my hands up and palms out, a bright red barrier appeared in front of me. Almost like Guardians, but a lot more rigid. I couldn't curve the shield, nor could I summon it too far from me.

It did its job though, as a green beam of energy shot through Nova's eyes, hitting the barrier and slowly pushing me back. I groaned and tried my best at standing my ground. Beads of sweat rolled down as my energy levels were quickly reaching empty.

The fight needs to end, and soon.

Luckily, it was Nova who gave out first, the beam cutting off as she fell to one knee trying desperately to control her breathing.

My hands fell to my sides in exhaustion. I sighed in relief that the beam attacked stop, any more and I probably would have been the one to give out first.

I stumbled over to Nova, doing my best to keep myself from falling over. Standing right in front of her, while swaying slightly from side to side, I asked her one question in between gasps for air.

"Do we really… need to keep… fighting?"

Her head snapped up to look at me, rage and fire in her eyes. She roared and lunged for me, tackling me to the ground and hovering over me. Her hand turned into a blade, one that was held directly above my neck.

I took one look at it, before my eyes slowly moved over to meet Novas.

"Why are you doing this?"

She continued glaring at me, anger and hatred filling her eyes and voice.

"They took her from me! They killed her right in front of me! I was too helpless to do anything as she died in my arms! Too helpless to fight back, too helpless to stop them, but not anymore! I have the power now, and I won't rest until they die!” She exclaimed, screaming to the point she quickly ran out of breath. She stopped to fill her lungs again as her eyes bore into me. “It’s the only way to make things right. It's what Marilyn would have wanted me to do."

"Is it?"

She paused, anger giving way to confusion. "What?"

"Is that what she would have wanted?" I continued. "Would she have wanted you to get involved in villains? Would she have wanted you to lose yourself in revenge?"

A metal blade stabbed into the ground next to my head, Nova glared at me as her anger started to return.

"I know what you're trying to do!" She hissed. "If I hadn’t done all this then her killers would have never gotten the death they deserve!"

"They already got the punishment they deserve," I started, trying to ignore the sharp blade next to me. "Snapsion is imprisoned, and Shade is well on his way to joining her."

"That's not enough! They need to die!" She exclaimed. 

I knew I shouldn't be trying to convince a villain of the error of her ways, it wasn't really a thing that I do as Mimica. But what else could I do?

Between fighting two super villains, getting zapped by Volti, and taking care of a dozen or so minions, I was basically out of energy. I still had some left, something to use in case of an emergency, but I was already pushing my body to its limits.

If there was a way out of this without any more fighting, then I'll gladly take it. Even if I had to go for the harsh truths that she didn’t want to hear.

I shook my head. "You're taking things too far. Marilyn wouldn't hav-"

She wrapped her free hand around my throat, not choking me, but definitely squeezing enough for it to hurt.

"Don't say her name!" She yelled with a wild look in her eyes. "You don't know what it's like! To lose someone so important to you! To lose that person that gave your life meaning! You can't understand how I feel!"

I couldn’t help the way my expression dropped as memories flew by. Memories of someone who only wanted the best for me, someone who would stick up for me even when others wouldn't.

Mom…

I sighed. "I understand more than you think…"

She paused, and lifted her hand off my throat. "Then you should understand why I did all this. Why I worked with the people I hated most just to see them fall."

"I can't," I slowly shook my head. "I just can't see why you would do all this the way you did. I can understand wanting revenge, but this is going too far. Joining the Phantoms was going too far."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "I had to. There was no other way. Shade would have never fallen if I hadn’t planned things the way I did."

"While that may be true, you left a trail of tortured and hurt people in your wake." I started, thinking back to the stories of Skye’s past. "You made terrible things, drugs that were used in inhumane ways, just so you could get your revenge."

She glanced away, a frown on her face. "I…I had to, there was no other way."

"Is that what Marilyn would have wanted? Would she want you to have made those horrid drugs?"

She faltered, eyes wandering as her expression fell. "O-of course she would. S-she wouldn't want her killers to-"

"If she saw you now, would she be happy?"

And for the first time, Nova froze. 

Her arms fell to her side as they slowly shifted back to normal. A war of emotion took place, rage desperately fighting back against the growing sadness as she struggled not to show the conflicting emotions on her face. A quiet moment where I could only watch as her mind raced, a moment where I wondered if maybe I had gone too far. And then, when the battle finally ended,

She broke.

"No," she cried as her eyes started to water. "S-she…she wouldn't have wanted this…but I already knew that! I knew this whole t-time, but I kept going. I had to. I had to do something, anything, to make things right. To get revenge on those who t-took her from me. But…"

She sobbed. "W-what was I supposed to d-do? How can I l-live without her? How can I live with m-myself after all this?"

I slowly sat up and gently laid a hand on her arm. "It'll be alright. It's not too late to change things."

Nova wasn't listening, she was staring off into nothing as her breathing started to spike and her body started to shake. "Oh god…what have I done…she'll...she'll never forgive me…I…I..."

She sucked in a breath of air as she pulled away, her eyes wide and her breathing chaotic, a hand went up to her chest, clutching her heart. She tried to get up, but only succeeded in falling over onto the ground.

I rushed to her side, glancing over her trying to figure out what was happening to her.

[She's dying. You have to help her.]

"What?" I asked as I started to panic. "How?"

[Use the healing powers on her. They are not regenerative powers, but they will help her.]

I felt the power enter me as Ashley swapped it in. I put my hands against Nova's body as I pushed the power's energy into her.

[It seems like her body was falling apart. However she got those powers was imperfect, it gave her a time limit that she was quickly reaching. Her emotional state seemed to have only made it come faster.]

I tried to control my breathing as I focused on using my powers. "Will she live?"

Ashley was quiet for a brief, horrifying moment.

[Yes,] She finally responded. [But only if she receives constant healing until someone with a stronger power appears.]

I nodded, feeling a little relief kick in. I didn’t like Nova, didn’t approve or agree with any of the decisions she made that led her to join a villain group, but I still didn’t want to see her die. "So we just get her to Selene's yeah?"

[You both need to see her.]

I frowned. "Me too?" 

[Her powers have done a number to your body, though not as badly as it did to hers. Combine that with the numerous wounds you have suffered, most of which came before your sanity recovered, and it is very surprising that you haven't passed out yet. You’re very reckless when you don't hold back.]

I tiredly chuckled. 

"Tell me about it."

My knees finally gave out, and I collapsed down as I sat next to Nova who was starting to look a bit better. My eyes glanced up at movement down the road.

And I couldn’t help but sigh in relief, a smile growing despite my exhaustion.

Limping towards me was a collection of four heroes, dragging along an imprisoned super villain, but most importantly,

Two vigilantes that meant the world to me, whose eyes lit up with relief when they saw me.

[You did it.]

I shook my head.

"We did it."