Well, Rito and I slept together, though neither of us got much sleep. Not in the fun way, but not in the bad way either.

Instead, the other bad way. I was up late thinking, turning over my thoughts again and again, and feeling regret and embarrassment at how I'd departed, not even having time to say goodbye, and literally vanishing from Lia's arms.

And why? What would make the XPCA turn on me like that? I was as registered as an Exhuman got, it wasn't like the neighbor would report me and they'd decide to take me out. The fact that Micaiah was there is what troubled me most. His presence almost certainly indicated they wanted me alive...so why all the guns? I'd been compliant so far.

Unless he had something he wanted to ask me he knew would set me off? I couldn't imagine what that'd be...but that was no surprise. If I knew it, it wouldn't set me off.

I tried to think of news that would make me go berserk enough to warrant having a strike team on hand. I'd just talked to Saga so I knew she was fine. News that Karu had died? But there's no reason why the XPCA would be telling me about Karu...unless they were behind it and trying to get to me before I found out?

I denied that line of thought. Karu was fine. She was probably in the highest standing with the XPCA of any of us, even if she recently quit.

Maybe it was related to the case...but again, what bad news could there have been?

It had to be about Blackett, I concluded. There wasn't anything else.

I opened my eyes to the dim black of the room, the shapes of furniture crouching in the shadows only barely visible. I was in bed with Rito, her blonde hair looking black in the darkness, straight and shiny, catching the few flecks of light which crept through the window.

I didn't know if she was asleep, until I saw her reach over and hold the chit in front of her face again, pressing the button to show the balance with a holo so small its light looked like the flickering of a candle.

She took a deep breath and then put it down next to her again, but even without its light, I could see her eyes shining in the dark.

That scene had played out several times before I finally found myself waking up with the room lit by the morning sun. Rito was snoring softly, on her side facing me, wisps of blonde hair from above her ear fluttering in her breath.

I felt like overnight my mind had been grinding away on the problem without me, and felt a very confident having-no-clue. I guess I was glad my subconscious was on the same page as me, but I would have felt better with a hint instead.

But I did have an idea, and slid out of bed as silently as possible. I pocketed my mobile and stole from the room.

It was...a house. I hadn't been able to pick out many details in the few minutes I'd trekked through last night, but seeing it now, it seemed charming enough. Sort of dated ugly shag carpet, off-white walls, with a few pictures of family, but mostly sorta cool pencil and charcoal sketches, rough but attractive. A still life of a bike, an expressive piece with dark narrow trees stretching across the page like bars on a jail cell, a picture of an eye I think I recognized as Rito's, with a galaxy in the pupil.

I crept past them, swearing internally every time my steps made the floorboards creak, until I was out of the hallway and in a living room, cramped with too much furniture, and the furniture cramped with too much junk. I sat at the edge of a couch between some junk mail and a pile of receipts and pulled up my mobile. The squat coffee table in front of me was half dominated by a sprawling plant which had crept well beyond its pot, and some spread out bills. I wasn't trying to look, but I noticed many of the bills were stamped with red warnings saying things like overdue and third notice.

Nine AM. That'd make it ten in Santa Fe. That was fine. I hit dial and waited for possibly the one person who could answer my questions to answer.

The person who did answer also probably could answer, but I suspected wouldn't.

"Hello Athan," Micaiah said.

"So you stole Cosette's mobile now?" I asked.

"Colonel Dawn and the rest of the P-Force are under surveillance for known connections to a wanted fugitive. Namely you. I'm just intercepting calls placed by unknown numbers."

"I've never been wanted since turning Exhuman. Feels nice."

"Please cut the glib retorts. I'm very busy at the moment. You were right that Colonel Dawn has an immense amount on her plate."

"And you're not helping by chasing me out. What the fuck, man? I thought you were cool, and then you show up on my door with a kill squad?"

"Are you playing dumb? Are you really, truly playing dumb right now?" he asked with obvious annoyance.

"I'm not playing anything. You tried to kill me--"

"I was going to bring you in for questioning."

"For what?"

He sighed. "On suspicion of the murders of Minerva Frossard and Talon Durand."

"What? Mini's dead?"

"You sound very surprised for being one of only three or four people in the world who knew of her relocation. I did say I didn't want that information public for their protection...but even in just a small number of hands, my precautions seemed insufficient."

"That's your rationale? What about Dragon?"

"Dragon was seen to be leaving Santa Fe yesterday. An FBI team tried to capture him, but...well, let's say he confirmed that he wasn't an imposter."

"So somebody else did it."

"Who, Athan? If you have any leads, tell me, and I will investigate them into the ground. I'd like to believe you, but right now, you're the only one with the knowledge, the access to locomotion, and the capability to do this. When it was just Talon, it could have been any number of people, but with Mini now dead as well...it's getting harder to see any other way."

"But I didn't kill anyone."

"Then come in and we can talk about it."

"But I'm innocent. The real killer's out there. Do you have any idea what the Defiant are going to do now that she's dead?"

"They've already repeated their threats and made clear that any additional unexplained death will result in a cataclysmic Exhuman event. They said in quite colorful vocabulary that if there is a killer, we have to catch him before he acts again. And if there's not, and it's us...well the vocabulary becomes even more colorful."

"They really just sent you a whole message of explicatives?"

"Oh no. Colorful in quite the opposite way really. The most baffling word choices." He stopped and cleared his throat. "Athan, turn yourself in."

I held my head in my hands. "I can't. Look, pretend with me a second I'm innocent. Which I am."

"I'm not saying you're not. That's for the courts. I'm saying there's enough evidence to suggest you're not."

"Pretending I am, let's say I get taken in. Let's say things don't go well for me, because of your evidence. Do you know what happened last time I was in XPCA custody?"

"You were interrogated and developed an irrational loathing of all XPCA Intelligence-branch members, I believe."

"I meant before that."

"Oh. No? I don't have it on your record that you were."

"It was sort of off the books. It ended with an Exhuman event which killed half of XPCA command, and that was just the desperate cherry on a shit parfait which had the whole organization a few days away from being terminated by the US president."

"I remember that," he said thoughtfully. "That was all you?"

"Yeah," I said. It was a lie, but I wasn't about to point this guy towards my friends. "It might surprise you, but even given this latest fuckup, I don't want the XPCA shutting down. So no, I'm not surrendering."

"That honestly just sounds like excuses. Refusing to surrender for our good? If you are innocent, just come in and this will all blow over for you. Then nobody gets hurt."

"Bullshit. I'm not that stupid and I know you aren't. The XPCA loves scapegoating Exhumans. You think Director Hall is going to think twice about throwing me to the Defiant to get them to back down?"

"For someone who claims to want the XPCA intact, you seem to have very little faith in it."

"It hasn't earned my faith."

"Enough to give motive to provoking the Defiant, into destroying us?"

"Hey, fuck you, jackass. Go find the real killer."

"Just come in, Athan, and I swear--"

I hung up. Stupid fucking Intel officers. If I didn't hate them before, I sure did now. And oh how I hated them before.

"Murder rap with the XPCA, huh?" someone said, and I almost jumped out of the couch, knocking over a stack of books.

Rito's mom was there, leaning against the wall of the hallway I'd crept out of this morning. Pink fluffy robe, barefoot, blonde ponytail and a steaming mug that had "#1 MOM" engraved on the side.

"I don't...remember...saying that," I said, shoving the mobile into my pocket and trying to restack the books.

"Oh, I'd have gone with how long have you been standing there myself. At least then you're not treating me like an idiot."

"Sorry," I said, feeling a needle of guilt. I really was the worst liar. "How long have you been standing there?"

"A while," she said, and glided over, sitting opposite me. "Care to talk about it?"

"Not really," I replied, avoiding her gaze, even though the stacking of books was long-finished by now.

"Too bad. Wasn't really a question. More importantly, does Rito know? Is she in any danger?"

I looked up and met her gaze, blue like her daughter's. I didn't know what to do here, but all I'd ever done was just play things straight and hope they worked out. Like AEGIS had said, just barrel towards how I think the world should be, and if problems pop up, fix them.

But just how honest could I be here? Rito's mom obviously didn't know her daughter was an Exhuman. And if she were gonna hear it, it shouldn't be from me. Looking at that mug, so dorky and stupid, but her mom using it without a hint of irony...I could ruin this for them.

But I also didn't have any lies. I sucked at lying, we'd just re-established. And this was already a whole freaking mess with pretending to be her boyfriend. What a damn disaster.

"Um, she's safe, I can promise that," I said. Mama Rito nodded. "And she knows...that's why we're here. She wanted to give us somewhere to hide out."

"Figured that much. Someone shows up at your door at midnight and then hear they have a problem with the law? Tale as old as time."

"But it's not true, I swear. I didn't kill them."

She gave me a wry smile. "Tell me why I care."

I blinked at her. "What?"

"Why should I care if you're innocent or not? You're trouble for me and my girl either way. So tell me why I shouldn't just call up the XPCA right now and tell them I have an Athan here who's a wanted man?"

I...what? I was a little unnerved by how efficaciously this woman could put her family first. But, I guess thinking about it...that's how it should be. She owed me nothing.

Something growled behind me as dark clouds began to form above Mama Rito's head, unnoticed as she continued to glare into me. I reached behind the couch and gave Tem a sharp shove into the ground. With a crash and a yelp, the clouds dissipated.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Uh, nothing."

She crossed her arms.

"Sorry. That was...a girl. Oh boy this is complicated."

"Explain," she said simply.

"I...she's…" My mind raced, but mostly with thoughts like damn it Tem. "Oh boy."

"So shall I be making that phone call?" She eyed me dangerously.

"Look, Mrs. Rito's Mom," I began. "Tem...this girl," I said, pointing behind the couch, "she...and I are Exhumans."

"So I figured."

"What?"

"You were talking to the XPCA, man. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"And you're not like...screaming? Or throwing me out? Or running for your life?"

"Well you haven't killed my daughter yet, so you obviously have some civility. And I'm certainly throwing you out at this rate, because I asked you to explain one simple thing and you are doing the worst possible job of it."

"Right. Sorry," I said, trying to get back on-track. "There was a murder, and they think it was me even though it wasn't, and Rito is helping us hide."

She looked at me like she was waiting for me to finish still.

"Again. Why should I care?"

"Because I'm innocent?"

"Kid, innocent people die all the time. That sucks, but that's the world. I'm not going to put my family in danger just because of some poor Exhuman who got stuck with a murder rap."

"But they'll probably kill me."

"I heard you say that on the phone."

"Did you also hear the part where that might destroy the XPCA?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not stupid enough to fall for that line either. Anything else you got?"

I sat in just kind of a stunned, defeated silence for a minute. Everything which I felt should have surprised her didn't, and she was so...so fine with putting her family first. I kinda had to respect that, even if it was currently a huge pain in my ass.

And really, I had nothing to convince her. Half the time, I wasn't even sure why I was alive. Just to piss off a bunch of girls who had the bad luck to fall for me, I guessed.

"Is that it?" she asked, and I had nothing left to do but nod. "Then get out. And don't talk to my daughter ever again."

"Can I grab my stuff?"

"Don't wake Rito."

I headed back into Rito's room and found my bag by the door, scooping the dirty clothes I'd left on the floor into it and giving her a final glance.

In the dim light of the room, she looked positively angelic, moreso than usual because when she was lying down, I couldn't tell she was a whole head shorter than me. Her hair and skin was so light.

I didn't know what I was doing here. Not in this room, but in my life. If I walked out that door, I'd be all alone in an unfamiliar city with no money and no way of getting home. I wouldn't even be able to look up directions online to get to anywhere without tipping off the XPCA where I was.

And, like a fucking moron, I'd broken her mobile. The XPCA might know I had connections with her, but not in the immediate now. Even if they were monitoring her mobile, we could have spoken in code or something. Or just met up and disappeared under their noses. Cutting off my options like had just been short-sighted and stupid.

I could wake her up. Ask her to send me away. I'd have the same problems anywhere, I knew, but at least if I were somewhere else, I might know the city better, or be somewhere with friends.

I pulled out my mobile and sent AEGIS a message.

> Is it safe to come home yet?

Her reply was almost instantaneous, like she'd been waiting for me to write.

> no

That figured. I could have Rito dump me back in the wild where at least I could survive, I knew...but...that was just running from the issue. If the killer wasn't stopped, if the Defiant acted on their promise, there wouldn't be a world left to come back to.

And maybe if that happened, I'd have all the time in the world to hang out in the wilds, I thought, a little morbidly. Form a survivor's enclave like Ajax and Celia did in the ruins of their world.

No, here was where the action was. Here was where the Defiant were hiding out, and here was where their killer had to be. If I was to have any part in this, I needed to be here. But how to survive? It was a little after nine and I was already hungry.

And then I saw something in the bed next to Rito and my heart froze. The chit she'd been checking and re-checking all night, the money Lia had given her. Looking around her house, seeing the piles of bills...remembering what Saga had told me about Rito lying about going to art school, seeing the drawings filling the halls and how close she and her mother were. I could see her motivation for money, clear as anything, and yet even so she'd been hesitant to take it.

I could steal it, I realized. All the money I'd ever need to get situated. Seed money, to prevent the end of the world. The two of them would be fine, wouldn't they?

I hesitated for far longer than I should have. And then I turned and left. I wasn't that person.

"I was about to check on you," Harper said from where she still sat. "Say your goodbyes?"

"Yeah," I said, throwing my bag over my shoulder. "For what it's worth, and I know you don't care about my opinion at all, but I'm sorry you and Rito had to get involved in this. You seem like a good mom, trying to protect her from me."

She rose, and to my surprise, gave me a gentle hug.

"Thank you for leaving," she said as she stepped away. "I know it can't be easy. And I know Rito will be mad at me. But I think you're doing what's right for her. Is there anything I can get you before you go?"

"I don't suppose...um...you have any spare credit?"

She gave me a small smile. "Not even a little bit."

"Any food maybe?"

And so a few minutes later, I was walking down an unfamiliar street eating half a box of animal crackers, weighed down with a few cans of condensed soup. It wasn't much, but considering how much she owed me nothing, and what she had, it felt like a lot.

I had two goals before me. The first was obviously to find somewhere to stay, some money, anything I could use to stay afloat until either I found the killer, or the fighting started.

And two, there was someone in town I knew. They might not be happy to see me, but they had information I needed and with any luck, food and a place to stay. I didn't exactly like the prospect, but it was kinda the whole reason I was here.

I tightened the shoulders on my pack and headed towards the taller buildings on the skyline. The downtown of this little suburb, I guessed, and as good a place to start my search as any.

The Defiant were out there somewhere.