“So, Henson, new job?” I ask, gesturing to his uniform.
“Yeah, more a sideways move. It was getting a bit risky for me, always letting you guys through the gate, and God knows we need more police nowadays... Don’t worry, we have other allies on guard duty now.”
“Right…” Why would they need more police? I start to ask, but pain splits through my side as I adjust myself in the seat. A groan escapes me.
“Here, take this.” Henson throws a medi-kit into the back, which Gabe breaks open with some gusto, pulling off my make-shift bandage to redress my wounds. I seethe silently.
“I think I’ve got some painkillers here, too...” Henson adds, reaching into the glove compartment and chucking them over his shoulder. “My girlfriend keeps stashes everywhere. They’re not fantastic but they’ll take the edge off.”
“Your girlfriend carries painkillers about?”
He stares at me incredulously in the overhead mirror. “All women carry painkillers. You really must be a superhero.”
I don’t quite understand. Maybe it’s a Lucan woman thing. I swallow a couple, not questioning it further.
“Your brother,” I start, “he’s all right? What about the rest of his team? Nick? Do you know Nick?”
“I mean, we’re not exactly drinking buddies, but he was fine last I saw him? It was a few weeks ago though. I’ve not seen much of anyone since I transferred.”
“You called me Firebird, earlier. Where’d that come from?”
“Wow, you really have been out of the loop. You’re like, famous.”
Gabe raises an eyebrow. “What were you doing before you were captured?”
“Nothing! Well, I rescued some people from a burning building once. And made a video asking people to rise up. Not much.”
“People did rise up.” Henson explains. “Here. Let me show you. Dash, play the Firebird footage, please.”
Before I can find the words to tease him over calling his dashboard, Dash, a video flicks up on the centre screen. I see Luca’s streets awash with people; protests, marches, demanding change. Placards bear my likeness. Images flash before me of my face plastered onto Luca’s walls, a figure robed in flame. “The Firebird Rises.”
I recognise the style, or rather, the styles. This is Nick’s hand, and Abi’s, if I’m not mistaken. Looks like Rudy made good on his desire to make me the face of Phoenix, even after my supposed death. I’m more honoured than mad.
“Did… did change happen?” I ask tentatively.
At this, Henson prickles slightly. “To… to begin with,” he says. “Luca started sending more in aid. Sent cops in to help with crime. There was talk of reviewing the laws of exile. Bills were being drawn up…”
“And then?”
“Um, supposedly, the Phoenix Project bombed a hospital–”
“Phoenix would never–”
“They didn’t. But unfortunately, others believed they did. Suddenly, almost all sympathy was erased. The police presence in the slums turned hostile. It’s… it’s a bit different than you remember.”
“Have… have there been any attacks? Raids? On the slums?”
“A few. Not many dead though.”
I glance at Gabe, who swallows. We both silently try to convince the other that our family is too clever to get killed. I’m not sure it works.
“Where… where have you even been, these past five months?” Henson asks.
“Back at the Institute.”
“I heard you exploded that place, and that’s how you died. Releasing a small army of superhumans who are hiding in the shadows… waiting to save us or destroy us, depending on who you ask.”
“I destroyed one building. It turns out they have a few more.”
Gabe stiffens beside me. I’d not yet told him about the other Eves.
“That sucks.”
“You have no idea.”
We drive on for a little while longer in silence. Henson uses his radio to check in, advising that he’s seen nothing and is going to proceed to Luca as planned. Gabe redresses my wounds as best he can, but he’s no Mi and there’s not a great deal of equipment in the kit. The painkillers are helping a bit though. My stomach rumbles loudly.
Henson throws us a couple of bars, packed with oats and dried fruit. “Here,” he says.
“This is a very well-equipped car,” I remark.
“It’s a cop car.”
“Don’t suppose you have a way of contacting Harris here, do you?” Of contacting Nick.
“Unfortunately not. Too dangerous if I was caught with it.”
Gabe doesn’t want to trust Henson, despite my reassurances, and stays on high alert the entire drive, each muscle coiled. I doze off, unable to stop myself. It’s still a long drive to the slums. Eventually, the landscape starts to look familiar. We’re close, so close…
Henson drives us all the way to the old wire gate. It’s not patrolled; no one stops him. We’re here, we’re finally here. I can see the loft!
“I’m supposed to wait here in case a pair of fugitives emerge from the woods,” he tells us. “I can’t take you any further.”
“Here is great!” I could clap my hands. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“Any time, Firebird. I look forward to your triumphant return.”
We crawl out of the car and slip between the narrow nap that divides concrete from woodland. For the first moment since we escaped, I actually feel free. All the pain gathered in my flesh dissipates. I am seconds away from flying.
“How far away are we?” asks Gabe.
I point to a tower block nearby, to the top floor. Lights glow from within.
“That close?”
“That close.”
Home, home, home.
Chapter 29
“So… this is the place you’ve been hiding our family for the past five and a half years?”
“Yes.”
“Ashe… there’s things growing on the walls. And out of the floors. Is it even structurally sound? It’s more plant than brick.”
“I kinda like it.”
It’s home, it’s home. Just a few more floors…
“You should probably wait down here,” I tell him. “Let me… explain everything first. Both of us at once might just be too much.”
“Good plan.”
I climb the remaining floors alone, slowing with every step. I’m not quite sure what the protocol is for returning from the dead. Do I waltz right in, or do I knock first?
Knocking on the door to my own house seems weird.
But just opening the door and walking in like nothing is different? Weirder.
I pause outside the door. The noise of my family swells outwards. Spoons scraping bowls, light laughter. Inane chatter transformed into warmth.
I can hear them. They’re just a few feet away. All I have to do is reach out…
The noise stops. A chair is pushed back. A voice. “Mi? What is it?”
Is that Scarlet?
Footsteps towards the door. I go for the handle, but it falls away from me.
Mi stands behind it, his sightless eyes wide in disbelief. He stares into the dark corridor, and all words fall away. Does he know it’s me?
Say something. Say anything!
“Um, hi,” I say numbly, “I’m um, I’m not dead–”
I don’t get to say any more. Mi’s arms reach out and slam me into his. Behind him, Abi and Ben start screaming. Within seconds, they’ve both shot across the room too. I’m nearly knocked to the floor when Ben dives at my middle, not caring I’m covered in blood and river sludge. I disentangle myself from Mi’s arms to grab hold of my baby, and kiss his salty cheeks over and over again, crying his name with the same fervour that he cries mine.
“The odds… didn’t… support… this!” Abi sobs into my shoulder. “You… shouldn’t… be… here!”
“I’m sorry!” I sob back. “I’m so sorry! I got out as soon as I could!”
Mi clutches my face and leans his
forehead against mine. “I’d hate you if I didn’t love you so much,” he whispers. “Dammit, Ashe.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I love you too.”
He rights himself and takes two steps back. Scarlet is standing on the threshold, her eyes brimming with silver.
“Damn, Supergirl, you know how to cause a scene.”
“It’s good to see you, Scarlet.”
I have questions as to why she’s here –I have a fairly good idea why– but I don’t ask them yet. She leans across and envelopes me in a tight hug.
“I should head back to base and share the good news!”
“Is Nick–”
“He’s alive,” she says quickly. “Away on a mission at the moment. But… lots of others will want to know. Julia will have a fit! Rudy might even smile.”
“Nick always said he secretly liked me.”
She looks awkward at this, but I can’t think why. She blinks away a few errant tears. “I really should–”
“Wait–” I start, as she sets off down the corridor. She’s in for a shock if she runs into Gabe.
She doesn’t get much further. Mi has wandered halfway down the corridor and is standing by the stairs, his ears turned towards the gloom. Can he… what can he hear? What can he sense?
“I… I have something else to tell you,” I start.
Abi wipes her nose against her sleeve. “What, bigger than this?” She gestures to me.
“Quite a bit bigger, actually.”
Ben is still attached to my waist. I stroke his hair.
“See,” I start, “I didn’t escape alone. I brought someone with me...”
All eyes turn to Mi, standing under the flickering lights, staring into the darkness as a figure rises out of the dark.
“Mercy me…” Scarlet breathes.
In my mind, they have always looked very different, but here I see them mirrored. Two reflections, reaching out to one another, two images dying to be one.
“It’s… it’s not possible…” Mi trembles, his fingers too nervous to close the gap. “Ashe felt you… I felt you…”
“I know,” Gabe whispers. The mere trace of his voice causes Mi’s face to shatter. “But I’m here, little brother, I’m here.”
Mi’s hands reach his face, still trembling with disbelief, but then Gabe’s arms fold around him, and moments later he is sobbing into his chest.
Chapter 30
Mi might have stood forever in that hallway, clutching onto his brother, if a few minutes later my legs didn’t buckle underneath me. The rest had made me forget how tired I was.
“Ashe!” He tears himself away from Gabe and races towards me.
“I’m OK,” I assure him.
“I smell blood.”
“She’s covered in it,” adds Ben helpfully.
“Well, I’m OK-ish. I’m in no immediate danger.”
Mi grabs my cheeks and works downwards over my skin, checking for cuts, bruises, breaks. I yell when he grabs my wrist.
“You broke your arm?”
“Fractured. Fractured it! And it’s only the wrist.”
He reaches my middle, tearing off Gabe’s bandage. His fingers brush my flesh, spread over the wound. “Did you… did you burn yourself?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Why?”
“To cauterise the bullet wound.”
Mi hisses. “Jesus, Ashe.” He turns back to Gabe. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
“How much blood did she lose?”
“I don’t know, it was hard to see when we were fighting against the rapids.”
“Rapids? I–”
“I’m going to make some tea,” declares Abi. “I think we could all do with some.”
Mi touches Ben’s shoulder. “Can you grab my medical bag and take it to Ashe’s room?”
Ben nods and scuttles off. Mi pulls me to my feet and Gabe swoops under my other arm. Scarlet excuses herself, feeling, no doubt, like a bit of a third wheel. She mumbles something about being back tomorrow. Moments later, I’m deposited in my own room, in my old bed. I could sink into the pillows, musty though they are. I fool myself for a minute into thinking they smell of Nick.
Ben emerges with the kit, and Mi quickly hooks me up with a blood transfusion from Gabe. He starts on my wounds next, Ben hovering by my head. Abi comes in with the tea which she hands out to everyone as Mi cleans me up and tuts disapprovingly. This feels oddly normal to me.
“It’s nice to see Scarlet here,” I grin.
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Mi!”
“All right, fine. Yes, she’s here quite a lot now–”
“A lot,” Ben echoes. “She’s here most of the time. And they kiss, too.”
“Thank you for that detail, Benjamin, that was very much appreciated.”
“You’re welcome.”
My cheeks ache with smiling. “So, that happened then.”
“Yes it did, yes, she’s amazing, can you please be still now, thank you.”
Gabe raises an eyebrow. “He’s very good,” he whispers to me, warm with pride.
“Gabe, we all have super-hearing," Mi says. "You don’t need to whisper.”
“I was just trying not to distract you.”
“Excellent job.” Mi seizes my makeshift splint. “This is terrible.”
“We didn’t have much to work with–” Gabe says defensively.
As Mi fixes me up with something more appropriate, we tell a pared-down version of the story, of Gabe’s survival, of my recovery, of meeting each other and escaping.
Scarlet must have reached base by this point, to spread the news to the others there. I hope she can get word to Nick; I don’t want him to spend another minute thinking I’m dead. I don’t really want to spend another moment without him, but I don’t have much choice there. A very large part of me is already fighting the urge to set off after her, just to be a little bit closer to the place he’s going to be.
But I cannot rush off, not yet. Ben is sitting on my lap, Abi is wedged to my side, and now that he’s done doctoring me and unhooked the transfusion line, Mi is practically indivisible from his brother. For a while, it is right, I think, to be the five of us again. How utterly impossible this would have been five months ago.
Slowly, I become conscious of a sound up on the roof, a clopping of hooves, accompanied by an occasional bleating.
“Um…” I ask eventually, “is there a goat on the roof?”
“Yes!” Ben claps his hands.
“An investment,” Mi assures me. “The wool and the milk–”
“Meat's not bad either.”
The rest of my family gasp.
“You can't eat Cinder!” Ben wails.
“Cinder? You... did you replace me with a goat?”
I am met with reserved silence.
“Did. You. Replace. Me. With. A. Goat?”
Abi swallows. “She's a lot more even-tempered than you–”
“Abi!” Mi scolds.
“It's true!”
“She's not a replacement,” Ben insists loyally. “She's just a part of our family.”
I sigh, and ruffle his hair. “Then I promise not to eat her. Or joke about eating her.”
I break this rule mere moments later, when I'm introduced to this scruffy, pine-coloured goat, trotting about our rooftop on a long chain. She comes over to us and starts nibbling people's pockets for treats, and I'm obliged to pet her.
“You're very cute,” I say loudly, and then lean down to whisper in her ear. “I will still eat you.”
Ben and Abi are too distracted to hear, but Mi chuckles under his breath.
I've missed this.
Before long, the sun is setting. Mi whips us up something to eat, and we eat it on the sofas, all pressed together, knees and elbows knocking. There’s the temptation to demand we all sleep right there. Ben is already drifting off, resting against my shoulder. But I need a proper bed, blankets, decent sleep. I ask Gabe to p
ut Ben in my room, and shuffle in after him. Mi prepares me a herbal tea to help me sleep.
“He sure got bigger,” Gabe says softly, tucking in the covers around Ben. “I wasn’t sure he would remember me.”
Ben remembers so little of the Institute, and we spoke so rarely of Gabe, that I’m surprised he does. But he knew Mi had a twin, and we have a picture Abi drew of him somewhere.
I wrap my arms around my baby and inhale his hair. He needs a wash. I don’t care. “He’s a good kid,” I declare.
“You did well with him.”
“Everyone says that. It was a group effort.”
“You’ve all done well.”
“You told me to take care of them.”
“I did,” Gabe leans down and strokes the hair from my face. “Goodnight, Ashe.”
“Goodnight.”
He and Mi stay up a while longer, conversing in low voices. I fall asleep listening to them, too tired to be afraid that this is all some beautiful dream. For a moment, I let myself believe it.
I’m home, I'm home, I’m home.
Chapter 31
I awake early, my room full of warm, bluish light. Sunlight. Real light. It soothes my very flesh. I feel better, much better. Still sore, still aching, but healthy and whole. I could run for miles if I had to.
I lean over and kiss Ben, tucking the covers around him, and crawl out of bed. My old clothes are still folded in the dresser by the windows. I pick out the comfiest and slide into the sitting room. Gabe and Mi are camped out on the sofas, their hands dangling over the edges, a few inches apart. The warmth continues to spread through me.
I grab a hunk of bread from the side and a bit of goat’s cheese from the rickety old fridge, and go up to the roof to watch the sun rise. The slums look just the same, but somehow I find beauty in each hollowed-out husk of a building, each pile of rubble slowly being reclaimed by nature. How could I ever have hated it here?
If I concentrate long and carefully, I can hear the market beginning to stir. I’m overcome with a desire for a walk, so without really thinking, I slide down the fire escape and tumble down the apartment block. I regret it as soon as I hit the floor; my side is still splitting and my wrist isn’t strong enough to support me. I’m superhuman, but not invulnerable. I need to take things slow.
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