Larkin had always been the worrier. She was the type of person to stress when they had nothing to stress about. So imagine Larkin flying to Des Moines, wondering if her father was even still alive. For all she knew, he could be lying dead on the cold stone floors of the convention center already. And Larkin would have been too late. She wouldn't have been able to stop it.

Larkin tried to put those thoughts out of her mind. She knew her only focus should be getting to Des Moines and stopping George Fredericks from doing any more damage than he already had. Her conscience would kill her if someone else was injured in this ordeal. Heck, she would kill herself out of guilt.

She cinched her arms tighter around Finn's neck as he flew faster. She knew he was doing this for her, for her father, for the sake of her family. She knew that he would do anything in his power to help her, but Larkin feared that nothing would be enough.

The noises of the city engulfed Larkin before she could see it. Her sensitive hearing allowed her to listen in on the streets. As the skyline of Des Moines approached, Larkin's anxiety increased. She was so close. Am I close enough? Am I fast enough? Before she knew it, the conference center where the debate was to take place entered her field of vision. Despite her best efforts, the only thing she could hear from inside was the chatter of the crowd filling the auditorium. She wasn't able to make out any specific words or identify her family among the masses.

Before she had time to start another round of worrying, Finn had flown to the front entrance of the center. Larkin was immediately intimidated by the massive, glass revolving doors leading into the center. She didn't know why. She'd been there before; she'd gone through those exact same doors only one week ago.

But this time, she knew something could go horribly wrong. She knew that what lay behind those doors might not consist of a happy ending for her whole family.

She also knew that the longer she waited outside the closed doors, the slimmer her chances of saving her father became. So, Larkin, being decisive for once in her life, strolled through the doors and through the lobby without stopping once. She could hear Finn trailing behind her, as well as the excited whispers from the people milling about in the lobby.

"Look at the supers! What are they doing here?" the people would say. But no one attempted to stop the two heroes on their quest for the elevator, so Larkin didn't worry about it.

Larkin jabbed her finger onto the up button for the elevator and muttered to Finn, "Confidence gets you places."

He nodded, a sly grin visible on his face. "If you act like you belong, no one's going to stop you."

They stepped into the elevator together, and Larkin wished that it would move faster so that she could get to her father sooner. When the door finally dinged on their floor, Larkin rushed out, and began the journey to the auditorium.

"We'll need to get backstage, somehow," she told Finn. "Once George goes out to his podium, we won't have a chance to stop him."

With each step closer to her father, Larkin heard her blood rushing in her ears, and her heartbeat pounded faster with each step. She had to make it in time.

"How do you plan on getting back stage? Don't you need a pass for that?" asked Finn.

The two supers reached the large glass doors to the auditorium, but they continued past, searching for an entrance to the backstage. "We'll do what we did in the lobby. We will walk right in. I am not stopping for anyone," Larkin said, scanning the hallway they were walking through for a door that lead to her destination.

After a few seconds of walking, Larkin found the door she was looking for. It had no label, but she could hear the sounds of prep for the debate going on inside. She could distinctly make out both her father's and George Fredericks's voice. I'm not too late.

Larkin gestured for Finn to stop walking, and he tried the door handle.

"It's locked," he said, deflating.

With a smirk, Larkin grabbed Finn's hand. "Nothing's ever locked." She dragged him through the door using her powers.

Once the two supers merged on the other side of the door, Larkin was set to find her father. She could hear him speak occasionally, but was unable to pinpoint his exact location. The noises of the sound crew and assistants bustling around made it impossible for her to find her target.

"We have to search for them," said Larkin.

Larkin led the way into the maze of people and rooms and doors. Surprisingly, the sharp-dressed men and women didn't even spare them a glance as they pushed their way further backstage.

The people surrounding Larkin began to blur together as she continued her search. She didn't notice when Finn began to lag behind her. She didn't notice when she nearly crashed into a door that opened right in front of her. Her only focus was on finding.

Larkin was so determined to find her father that she abruptly stopped in the middle of the hallway after hearing a snippet of conversation come her left. That was her father's voice. She turned on her heel and approached the door, wary of what she might find behind it.

With her knowledge that George Fredericks was a super, she considered the fact that he might have advanced hearing, like her. So, Larkin, being as careful as possible, latched her arm onto Finn and stepped through the closed door.

And finally, the conversation was clear enough for her to listen to. The voices of her father and George carried throughout the long room they were situated in.

Larkin knew that this room was located behind the stage. There was another door about twenty feet away from Larkin that led to an area separated from the stage only by a curtain. She could hear the large crowd, as they were only separated by a wall and a fabric curtain, now.

But the thing that had her enraptured from the second she stepped through the door was the two men in a heated conversation, facing each other. She knew who they were, and instantly, her fear for the safety of her father rose five notches.

It was hard for Larkin to focus on the words being spoken when the only thing she saw was George Fredericks's hand inching closer and closer to to her father. Her impending knowledge of what would happen if George made contact with her father frightened her.

She was reminded of what Jacob had told her about Contingence and the conversation with Neutron that felt like it took place months ago, but in reality, had only happened about a week ago. She knew that once George touched her father, there was no going back.

She watched the scene playing out in front of her. She didn't notice when Finn started shaking her shoulder. Larkin could only see the hand that would bring death gravitating ever closer to her father.

With a rough shove from Finn and an urgent, "Stop him!" Larkin sprung into motion.

In a haze, Larkin lept away from the door and ran at full speed towards George. She watched as George and her father took notice of her. Their mouths stopped moving.

Mr. Knolls, oblivious of the danger that George Fredericks posed to him, only crinkled his eyebrows. "Is that Coalescence?" he asked. "Why is she here? And Black Lightning?" He turned to face the supers that were running at him.

George Fredericks didn't utter a word. He did not run. He did not hide. He stood his ground, waiting for the perfect moment.

One touch was all it took.

A hand came in contact with a wrist. A man fell to the ground, lifeless, breathless, hopeless. A boy in a super suit stopped running because he knew it was too late to change anything. A hardhearted man allowed a smile to grace his face; finally, he had achieved his goal.

But the girl, Larkin, did not stop. She would never stop. She ran, full force, arms extended, at the man that had killed her father. She felt real hatred in her bones, stronger than anything she'd ever experienced before.

The killer calmly pulled a gun out from underneath his suit jacket. Larkin scoffed when she saw it; guns could not hurt her. She continued her charge, unwavering in her direction.

The gun was fired. The bullet's path stayed true, however the target was unaffected. Larkin absorbed the bullet before using her powers to shoot it right back at George Fredericks.

And with a satisfied thwap, the bullet buried itself in the chest of George Fredericks. He fell, just like Larkin's father had, to the cold, unforgiving floor. He would not get back up.

Larkin, knowing that her duty had been fulfilled, took a breath. She released it before inhaling another, faster this time, until she was almost hyperventilating. She walked the five feet to her father's body and sank to her knees, devastated.

Larkin felt the tears. They rolled down her face leaving ugly, wet tracks on her cheeks. She felt the emptiness that had once been her father. She died inside knowing that she had been too late.

There were two warm hands placed onto her shoulders and a voice whispering into her ear.

"I'll get you out," it said. It was comforting and familiar.

Larkin recalled arriving at the conference center with Finn. She let him take her away from her father's body and the scene of her ultimate undoing.

As she left the godforsaken place, Larkin thought about her mask and her costume. Her identity was supposed to keep her safe. It gave her a semblance of normal, a chance to live the life that a normal teenager would. It let her go to school and have a family.

Her mask was supposed to keep her family safe, too.