Hope

“Ezra Campbell,” a static-y voice says through the speakers. “Please come to the principal’s office.”

He goes stiff for a moment but I squeeze his hand gently and he relaxes.

We’re in this together.

We’re not dumb, of course. We expect something to happen. But wherever he goes, I’m going too.

So we head for Mr White’s office.

What we definitely didn’t expect, though, was the people waiting for us there.

Zeus, Buckler, Viktor, Elsa. Most of them are sitting or leaning against the wall, but Buckler is standing not far from the door, arms crossed, feet planted in a stable stance.

My heart drops when I see Buckler’s glare.

We both stop in the door, uncertain what’s expected of us now. Fortunately for us, they don’t leave us wondering.

“Please have a seat, Mr Campbell,” Mr White says from behind his desk. Then he looks at me. “Ms Brise, would you mind waiting for us outside?”

At last, I manage to will my body to move again. Decidedly, I close the door behind us.

“Yes,” I say evenly. “I would.”

Ezra shoots me a worried look but I ignore it.

With all the false confidence I can muster, I walk to his desk and sit in one of the two chairs opposite from Mr White. Ezra takes the other, a lot more hesitantly than me.

I look around briefly. Zeus won’t take his eyes off Ezra. When I see that Buckler’s glaring at me now, I feel tempted to pull a face at him but think better of it at the last second.

Don’t start wars you won’t win.

Mr White gives me a mildly irritated glance but then refocuses on Ezra.

“So,” he starts matter of factly. “I’ve heard your powers manifested. Is that correct?”

Ezra nods silently, doesn’t even bother lying. We thought about just denying it, but it wouldn’t lead anywhere.

Own your mistakes, promise redemption.

“And what are your powers?”

“I can hurt people, Sir,” he says in a voice barely more than a whisper. “I can give them my pain.”

From the corner of my eye, I see Elsa stiffen just a little.

“When did you find out about those powers?”

Ezra frowns. “Today, Sir.” He’s a good liar. I’d have believed him.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes.” Without even skipping a beat. “I had this sudden realisation as they attacked Hope,” he says. “I wanted to stop them, so I did.”

That seems to be news to the man on the other side of the desk. “They attacked you?”

Ezra opens his mouth but I’m faster. “Why is that such a surprise to you? Do you really think he’s just going around, looking for the next victim to torture?”

Even though that’s exactly the truth. Except today.

“He was defending me. They were going to break both my arms and legs! Now who’s the real danger in this school?”

He barely reacts to my obvious hostility. For a moment, he goes silent, stares at the surface of his desk.

“Now, Ezra, I need you to be honest with me, okay?”

Ezra gives a short nod.

“Do you think you could kill with your powers?”

“Don’t know, Sir. I haven’t tried yet.” He acts perfectly innocent about it, too. Almost like he’s offended by the question.

I know, though. I saw their grip vain as he hurt them. Nobody can bear that pain for long. Nobody besides Ezra and I, apparently.

“Mr Campbell,” Mr White says now. “I hope you understand that this is a very difficult decision to make. You’re the most powerful power wielder to ever have been recorded. So… please try to see how this is not only for the safety of everybody attending this school – including your friends,” he gives a meaningful glance in my direction, “but also your own.”

My stomach twists. What? Is he going to expel him? Because he’s too powerful?

Because he’s scared?

He knows about the prophecy. He knows that one of us is meant to be the dark. He doesn’t know about the deal we made. But telling him wouldn’t change anything. Because to him we’re just children without a clue about how the world works.

With a sigh, Mr White opens a drawer on his desk and pulls something out.

I freeze. It can’t be a gun, right? He can’t just shoot Ezra, right? How would that be to serve his own safety?

It would end his suffering, an evil voice says from the back of my head, and for just a second I want to shriek at the top of my lungs.

Then Mr White lifts his hand into my line of sight and I see the brown envelope he’s holding. But there’s no paper inside. It’s a small, but not flat object. It dents the paper.

“This is the newest invention sent here from Atlas Labs,” the principal says. “It’s supposed to take away your powers.”

So he’ll suffer eternally? So I’m his only chance at relief for the rest of his life?

“Will it take away the pain, too?” Ezra asks with sudden hope to his voice.

I hadn’t even considered the possibility.

But then again, why would I? It would be too easy. He’d always take that deal. I’d always take that deal. Neither of us wants to hurt people.

“I don’t know,” Mr White says simply, and he even seems like he’s sorry. “Your wrist, please.”

But I don’t buy it. He’s scared. This fifty-something-year-old man is scared of an eighteen-year-old schoolboy because of a prophecy from another schoolboy.

This is messed up.

The principal produces a metal bracelet from the envelope. It’s made of thick metal links that are loosely fastened to one another. Not like chain links, more like short metal sticks with holes at the ends where the next one is attached.

“And what if he doesn’t want to put it on?” I snap almost.

“He doesn’t have a choice,” a deep voice says from behind me. Buckler. Of course.

Fuck I hate that guy. There’s just something about him. This attitude.

“But you are aware that he could just-”

A hand on my arm. Ezra’s.

“Hope, it’s okay,” he says and I whirl around to gnaw his head off because I can hear in his voice that it absolutely fucking isn’t, but then I see the sad smile on his face. “Remember the deal we made?”

Ironic how half an hour ago, I was the one to remind him of it. And now he has to remind me.

“’Course I do,” I mumble, all wind taken from my sails.

So he thinks this is the best way forward? Okay, the city’s most powerful heroes are all in this room to keep him from getting any stupid ideas. But this is stupid! He’s going to go mad if he can’t unload this burden even for moments at a time.

But I suppose they’ll be perfectly fine with that outcome. Because to them, he’s nothing but a ticking time bomb.

If I had a power that was even remotely useful in a fight…. But I don’t, which is probably just as well, since I’m nowhere near Ezra’s power level. Yes, I’m strong, but not as strong as Zeus. I’d be dead within seconds if I were to use an actual power on them.

My stomach clenches painfully as I watch Mr White put the bracelet around my best friend’s wrist. Then he takes the ends – two halves of a link – and pushes them into one another and holds a little device to it that’s mostly hidden in his hand. It must be a key because I can hear the click of the lock somehow engaging. And it doesn’t change a thing about Ezra’s pain.

I jump to my feet. This can’t be legal! “What are you doing?”

Quickly, before I can try to snatch it from him, Mr White lets the key disappear in one of his drawers.

“He’s not supposed to be able to take it off on his own,” Buckler says from behind me and once again I resist the strong urge to hit him in the bloody face.

“Do you even have a fraction of a clue what you’re doing to him?” It’s a rhetorical question, of course. “No of course you fucking don’t, because I am the only one to have carried this burden for him for an extensive period. And let me tell you, it’s going to KILL him! Slowly and very painfully. And what do you do in response to his powers manifesting? You lock him up? You're supposed to protect us, but you never even tried thinking of maybe a cure or something, because letting him die is just so much more convenient, isn't it?” I’m outright screaming now. Leaning over the desk to get closer and screaming insults right in the face of my principal. “Why? Because he's too strong? Because a child told you that he's the dark and now you're scared?” Finally, my voice reaches its absolute limit as I get even louder and it turns into a deafening shriek. “THAT’S PATHETIC!”

I straighten myself, take a few deep breaths. I feel like a mess. My hair is all over the place, my face feels hot and I’m sure I lost a few thousand braincells simply because of the blood pressure.

“We’re not scared of anything,” a voice sneers from behind me. Buckler again. “We’re the fucking elite of superheroes, you little brat.”

“Jack,” Zeus says, trying to get him to shut up, but the damage has already been done.

I turn to face him. “Oh yeah?” I begin walking toward him. “Great fucking elite you are. I dare you to-” I meant to stop short before him and square up menacingly – because I realised I’m actually a little taller than him – but he doesn’t let me get that close. An invisible wall hits me first in the face and then my entire body and sends me to the floor.

“I’M A HEALER YOU FUCKING DICK BRUTE GORILLA!” I yell. “SCARED OF A POWERLESS GIRL NOW TOO? ELITE MY FUCKING ASS!”

I want to continue screaming, but Ezra crouches next to me and moves to simply pick me up – probably to keep me from doing something even more moronic than what I’m doing already – and I don’t want to give that dickface the gratification of seeing me be carried out. So I bat his hands away and snap “I can walk on my own,” even though I’m instantly sorry for using that tone on him. But he doesn’t say anything, only waits for me to get up and then accompanies me through the door.

Even once the door is shut behind us, he stays silent. Simply takes my hand and leads me to the infirmary.

“What are we doing here?” I ask finally when I realise where we’re going.

“Your nose is bleeding,” he says in a low voice, not meeting my eyes.

Right, that checks out. I raise my hand and touch the skin underneath my nose and indeed, it is wet.

Ms Scott immediately gets up when she sees us enter and hurries over.

“What happened to you, child?”

“A dickish superhero slapped me in the face with a force field,” I grumble.

She looks taken aback for a moment – probably because there are really not many heroes that can summon force fields – but then ignores my comment. She sits me down on the closest gurney and begins inspecting my face.

“You’re lucky. No lasting damage, your nose is fine, the bleeding should soon stop. Would you like me to heal it?”

Usually, you’d never come to a healer with something like this. Or if you did, they wouldn’t even consider actually healing you. Because if it’s only a mild inconvenience, healing it is a waste of power. So what she’s offering is to make an exception just for me.

But I shake my head. “Just give me a paper towel for the blood.”

I really don’t feel like feeling better. I really don’t feel like letting it go. Actually, I very much feel like being a child about it, so I can go either sulk in the corner or yell at them some more.

Ms Scott nods and a few seconds later, I’m back in the corridor, holding paper to my nose.

For a moment we just stand there, uncertain what we’re supposed to do now.

It’s gonna be time for dinner soon, but I really don’t feel like eating. Really don’t feel like sitting at the same table as Maria. I should probably make sure Ezra’s alright. Try to divert his attention. But that’s difficult to do when I’m still seething with anger.

And then I look up and see Elsa come around the corner. She’s walking slowly, like she doesn’t really know where she’s going, her searching gaze wandering around.

Then she spots us and cautiously comes closer. She must’ve been looking for us.

I glare at her, grateful to have something to focus my anger on. “What do you want?”

She flinches ever so slightly. She must not be used to civilians being hostile toward her.

“I wanted to apologise on my colleague’s behalf,” she says then, stopping a little further than you’d normally do for a conversation.

I eye her suspiciously. “If you’re sorry, why didn’t you say anything back there?”

She seems very uncomfortable in her own skin. “It’s not that simple.”

I give a dry laugh. “When is it ever?”

“He’s a dick, okay? And I’m going to tell him as much as soon as we’re on our own again. But we can’t fight when there are people around.”

Right. Because they have a reputation to maintain. The invincible superhero team. I really shouldn’t be surprised about this.

“So why do you work with him if he’s such a dick?”

“Because he’s the best there is. You know, there’s a difference between combat and normal life. You could be the most despicable human in your private life, but if you work in combat-”

“Do you think this is right?” I interrupt her.

She pauses for a moment, uncertain what I’m talking about, then her gaze falls on Ezra and she slowly shakes her head. “No, not really.”

I straighten myself. “So what will you do about it?”

Once again, she slowly shakes her head. “I don’t think there’s anything I can do to help you.”

She looks like she’s genuinely sorry, but I don’t care.

I harden my expression. “So your apology is worthless.”

She shrugs, suddenly looks very tired. “Yes, I suppose so. I just wanted to let you know. We’re not all emotionless assholes.”

I give a dry laugh. “Thanks ever so.”

There’s a moment’s hesitation in her eyes, then she turns to Ezra. “I’ll ask around, see if there’s anything they can do. And if there is, I’ll do my best to set it in motion, okay?”

He gives a short nod and mumbles, “Thank you.”

She nods, too. “Sorry.” And she turns and walks away.

-

“I hate this!” I yell, following Ezra up the fire stairs on the roof.

He doesn’t bother asking. He knows I’m talking about everything.

“These fucking assholes! I want to kill them!”

Finally, he breaks his silence. “You don’t mean that.”

“Do I?” I chuckle drily. “They deserve to suffer for what they’re doing to you! This is torture, for fuck’s sake. They wouldn’t even think about giving you a chance in crime fighting. You’d be fucking aces in that department. But no. They’re too scared of that little wiener’s prophecy.”

It’s cold up here. It’s already dark out and the wind is strong and icy. With a shiver, I cross my arms.

It’s a pattern, isn’t it? That I somehow manage to wrap my head around the new situation, get my bearings together, find some form of hope and happiness and along comes fate and fucks everything over.

Luca, Ezra’s pain, Ezra’s powers. What’s going to be next? Will I even make it this time?

Yes, I realise. Because I don’t have a choice. Because Ezra needs me. Okay, he might be perfectly equipped to become the most massive supervillain of all time, but it’s not that simple. It’s not as simple as ignoring the fact that he already used his powers to hurt people – and if I’m completely honest with myself, it wouldn’t surprise me if he also used them to kill. It’s that I know that if I had those powers, I’d be so much worse. It’s so obvious they’re supposed to be mine and my powers are supposed to be his. But now he has them and I don’t have to go through all this suffering. So isn’t this the least I can do? Support him and try to get him out of this with mind and body in tact – however that might be achievable.

Ezra snaps me from my thoughts.

“I guess we can be glad, then, that you don’t have my powers.”

I nod ever so slightly, finally sit down at his feet. “That’s the worst part about it,” I say then. “If I had your powers…. I think I’d already have killed them.” And I mean it because I know how angry I was minutes ago and I don’t want to be a villain. But I know I would have been, with my destined powers.

“How?” he asks from behind me. “The country’s best four heroes were in the room!”

“Didn’t you listen?” I ask and turn to face him. There are tears in my eyes. “You’re the strongest hero in all of history! They wouldn’t stand a chance!”

SeptemberMorgan

Yeah I've been looking forward to posting this for several months now XDD
As always, please comment your thoughts.
Also, I think this is a great time to drop another friendly reminder that I have a Patreon that is currently *checks notes* five chapters ahead and SO much happens :)
Have a great week!