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Nadia held the steaming mug between her hands, tight, and looked at each girl seated around the table. Priya, scared to become her own kind of Super Hero. Shay and Ying, happy and also maybe a little bit tired of seeing only each other. And Taina, who always wanted the best for her friends but didn’t always know how to express it. She loved them all. So, so much. More than anything else in the entire world.
So…why hadn’t she wanted to talk to them about her project? She hadn’t felt the overwhelming, all-consuming intensity she had last time she threw herself into her work in the midst of a manic episode. She had just been certain that she was on the right path; so absolutely, unequivocally certain that she didn’t feel the need to seek out any other opinions.
And why had she been so positive that it was a good idea, anyway?
The screaming was subsiding. Her eyes were throbbing, but less. It was good. Almost.
“Hey.” Taina nudged Nadia’s calf with one of her crutches. “Check the mirror again.”
Nadia steeled herself. She left her tea behind on the table and walked slowly back over to the cabinet. When she looked at herself in the mirror once more, she saw Nadia.
Just Nadia. Her eyes were back to normal.
Nadia spun. “How did you know…?”
“Taina figured it out,” said Ying.
“We would have figured it out, too,” Priya added, a little defensively.
“Except…” Shay looked down at her hands. “We weren’t really here.”
Ying nodded. “Any of us.”
Priya sighed. “We weren’t. And we’re sorry. All of us.”
“I mean, I was clearly the best friend of all of us—” Taina was interrupted by shouts from the other girls.
“Excuse me—!”
“I mean—”
“Listen—”
“Well, I was!” Taina said loudly.
“I’m sorry, too,” said Nadia. “I was so busy watching myself for the things I knew about that I didn’t watch myself for the things I didn’t know about. If that makes sense. I don’t think it did. Basically I should have just called you guys. Or listened to Taina.”
“Agreed. You absolutely should’ve listened to me.” Taina grinned. “I want that in writing later.”
Nadia smiled, so relieved to be back in a place where they could make jokes.
“You were just too obsessed with the wrong things,” Taina explained. “It’s not that it’s weird that you were obsessed, that’s completely normal.” Nadia tilted her head. She had to give Taina that one. “It’s that normal Nadia would have been obsessed with the A.I.M. break-in and bringing Bee-Boi up to functional and getting us all together in the lab to work on Maria’s list. Instead you decide to hook an AI we know nothing about up to the quantum realm without telling anyone? Nah.” Taina shook her head.
“But to what end?” asked Nadia. She took a sip of her tea—still too hot. “Are you suggesting this is some sort of Ultron situation? VERAs gone rogue? Or…” She hated to even bring it up, to even consider it, but she had no choice. “Or do you think it’s Margaret, and she’s trying to…” Nadia wracked her brain for the most deviou
s plan she could possibly come up with on short notice. “Make a…really small VERA?”
“Seems like we’d need to study a VERA for that,” Priya said dryly.
Ying crossed her arms. “Oh, did you have a better idea for disabling the thing without disintegrating it?”
“I could have…wrapped it in a…plant…?” Priya suggested awkwardly.
“I love your whole plant vibe,” Shay said gently, “but I just don’t think that would have cut it.”
Nadia blew on her tea. “Could we just buy another one?” She was feeling more clearheaded than she had in weeks. It was amazing.
“Sold out across the state.” Taina shook her head. “I checked this morning.”
