The cool, night air of Future City hit Trinity’s face like a bucket of ice water as she stepped outside. She hadn’t realized quite how stuffy and stifling the air had become inside the warehouse. The heady aroma of mind-warping pheromones had completely filled the building, made all the more intoxicating by the added scents of sweat and sex. The fresh air was something Trinity hadn’t realized she’d needed. She had to pause for a moment and drink it in, slowly filling up her lungs before exhaling as she listened to the sounds of the distant, passing cars. Immediately, she felt so much better. It was like she’d had her head stuck in an oven without even realizing it.

The clean air was refreshing, but the clarity it brought was accompanied by a torrent of mixed feelings. Now that Trinity could look back on her own actions with eyes unclouded by lust, she was shocked. Shocked at how mean and domineering she’d been, and shocked at how much she’d enjoyed it. Whatever excuses she could make, she didn’t feel right about it at all. The question she’d so easily discarded in the midst of passion started to nag and gnaw at her again: had that really been her? Or had it been Radiance? How much of it had been Radiance’s mind control forcing her to humiliate Pheramona, and how much of it had been her simply using that as an excuse to unchain her own sadism and sex drive?

She didn’t know. It was impossible to know.

Trinity didn’t have time to dwell on the question, either. That wasn’t what she’d come out here for.

She’d come out here for Radiance.

A mere heartbeat after she’d seen Radiance slip out the fire exit with a strange look on her face, Trinity had followed. Despite her own urgency, she wasn’t exactly sure why. It wasn’t like Radiance was going far. The two of them were still bound together by Radiance’s golden chain, ensuring that Trinity had no choice but to obey each and every one of her commands. It was, apparently, able to keep extending itself to keep them connected, if that was what Radiance wished. Since she hadn’t dragged Trinity outside along with her, clearly she did. Trinity was willing to believe her chain could stretch a thousand miles, until proven otherwise. Radiance’s power seemed to have no limit.

That shouldn’t have mattered to Trinity, though. What should have mattered was that Radiance had left her unattended. It was the perfect opportunity to try to make an escape. She could have tried to get the chain off her wrist, or set a trap, or attempted to rouse Pheramona. Perhaps she could have found a loophole in Radiance’s instructions that would have allowed her to clue the other supervillain in. Trinity hadn’t done any of that. She’d just rushed after her captor without so much as a second thought.

Damn it.

Radiance was only a few paces away, and one look at her was all Trinity needed to know that something was deeply wrong. After days spent together, the superhero’s body language was an open book. Normally, she was upright and proud, looking every bit as obnoxiously heroic as she did in the press photos. Now, she looked alarmingly sagged, like an old, ruined castle on the verge of crumbling. There was something desperately unquiet about the hero, too; she was breathing hard and she couldn’t seem to stand still. She was pacing back and forth aimlessly, just a few steps this way and that, turning and shaking her head.

She didn’t seem to have noticed that Trinity had followed her, which was a miraculous gift, and the perfect excuse for Trinity to turn around and go back inside. But she just couldn’t stand to see her that way.

“Radiance,” Trinity began, reaching out. “What’s…”

Radiance recoiled, almost like she was scared. Trinity blinked.

“Fuck,” Radiance whispered miserably. “Fuck. I… fuck.”

“Hey,” Trinity ventured. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Radiance replied slowly. She was hunched over like a wounded animal. “I just… God. Fuck.”

Trinity sighed. So it was like that, huh? Well, she’d seen more than one girl through a panic attack before.

“Hey,” she repeated. “Vi. Listen. You need to calm down, OK? Let me help.”

Radiance just shook her head, although she seemed barely to have heard Trinity’s words.

“Violet!” Trinity tried, a little louder. “Listen to me.”

Radiance shivered and went still, and cocked her head. Good enough.

“Good,” Trinity said softly. “Now breathe. One-two-three. I’m sure you’ve given that advice out a few times, am I right? Take it from me: I know it’s hard, but it works.”

Radiance was still shaking her head, but Trinity could tell she was doing her best. Her breathing was easing a little.

“Good, that’s good,” Trinity repeated. “Now, um…”

She looked around. On the ground, near her feet, was exactly what she’d been looking for. A rock - really just a small chunk of concrete, worn away from the ground. Trinity scooped it up, stepped forward, and pressed it into Radiance’s palm.

Finally, Radiance actually looked at her. Her sheer surprise seemed to have snapped her out of her panic, a little. “What-”

“Shhh,” Trinity insisted. She clasped her hands around Radiance’s, closing the superhero’s fingers around the rock. “Just go with it.”

A dubious look came over Radiance’s face, but she didn’t pull away.

“Good,” Trinity said again. “Now just… feel it. Turn it over in your hand. Rub your thumb against it. Get to know the rock. Get the feel of all of its edges - how sharp they are, how they curve, how they feel on your skin. Let the surfaces press into your palm. You can close your eyes, if that helps. Look, I know it sounds dumb, but just… try it.”

Radiance nodded stiffly, and Trinity could tell she was doing it. Even so, Trinity kept her hand clasped in her own. Radiance looked so fragile, somehow. It was hard to shake the feeling that she was going to go limp if Trinity let her go, and Trinity couldn’t bear to see that. So, she just watched and waited, and listened to the sounds of the city as the cold air beat over her face.

Eventually, Radiance let out a long and ragged sigh. “OK,” she said quietly. “I’m good.”

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.” Radiance nodded. She opened her hand and looked at the rock. “That worked a lot better than I thought.”

“Told you,” Trinity said lightly. “It’s a psychology thing. Sometimes you just need to focus on something physical. Something real. Something you can get your bearings with.”

Radiance nodded again. And then: “thank you.”

The sincerity in her voice took Trinity aback. She blushed slightly, suddenly aware of how close the two of them were standing. “N- um, you’re welcome.”

They lapsed into a familiar kind of awkward silence. Radiance was still now, and Trinity couldn’t fathom what on Earth might be going on inside her head. Meanwhile, she was wracking her brains, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do or say next. All she was getting was 404: smoothness not found.

“So, uh, do you want to, like, talk about it?” she settled on eventually, and cringed at herself.

“Christ,” Radiance breathed, with an air of gallows humor. She rubbed her face with her hand. “I should be saying that to you.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“In there!” Radiance gestured wildly with one hand, and raked the other through her hair. “I… what was I doing? What was I making you do?”

“Huh?” Trinity repeated dumbly. She wasn’t prepared for this level of emotional whiplash.

“I was - I am - out of control,” Radiance admitted despairingly.

“Hold up,” Trinity said cautiously. “Isn’t that what you brought me here for? To teach me a lesson, or… something?”

“No!”  Radiance cried. “I mean, not like that at least! I’d never…” She trailed off, and shook her head ruefully. “I already made that mistake. I promised I wasn’t going to do it again! Not to you. But then we were in there, and I got heated, and I…”

“Vi…” Trinity had never seen the superhero like this before. It was almost scary. Even calm, she looked like she was on the verge of breaking apart.

“That wasn’t what I’d planned, I swear!” Radiance insisted, her words flowing out of her in a torrent, each one after the next, like she just needed to get it all out. “I just thought… I… the money… fuck! Fuck, I can’t even remember what I was trying to achieve!”

Trinity was speechless, and her silence only seemed to weigh on Radiance, who shriveled under her stare and looked at her with eyes full of pain and guilt.

“I’m out of control,” she reiterated. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Even though it didn’t make any sense to her at all, Trinity’s first instinct was to console and comfort.

“I do,” she said. “It’s the pheromones, idiot! I’m willing to bet you’re not as immune as you think. Definitely not completely. You weren’t thinking straight. Your head was being messed with. That’s what happened. That’s how it got out of control so bad. I could feel it too. That wasn’t you, Radiance.”

Internally, Trinity was too busy calling herself stupid to really think about what she was saying. Why was she doing this? Why not anything else? She rationalized that there was no way she was actually trying to help the superhero who’d been keeping her captive. That wouldn’t make any sense. No; she was just trying to be fair. It wouldn’t be right if Radiance didn’t know or understand the reasons behind her own actions. No one deserved that.

Radiance frowned. “I think… it was at least a little me,” she said quietly. “After what I did before, at the bar.”

Trinity had absolutely no idea how to argue with that.

Radiance soon started babbling again, perhaps out of a need to fill the awkward silence. “I just wanted to fix everything, I swear,” she said miserably. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted. But it never goes right. Never.”

“I don’t think that’s true,” Trinity replied quietly. “You’re Radiance. You’re the city’s greatest hero. Everyone adores you.”

“Well, they shouldn’t,” Radiance snorted. “You’ve seen what a sad little mess my life is. I don’t deserve anyone’s admiration. And if I’m the city’s greatest hero, then that really, really sucks for the city.”

“C’mon,” Trinity laughed; a nervous, unfortunate tick. “You can’t be serious. You’ve saved this place… how many times?”

“Yeah, and do you see anything getting any better?” Radiance retorted bitterly. “I see more than you’d think, flying around on patrol. Everything is getting worse, for everybody. Crime is up. Violence is up. Villainy is up. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I fight, it’s not making any difference. Everything’s getting worse.”

The true, desperate despair in her voice threatened to break Trinity’s heart.

“So… so what am I even doing here? I can’t stop asking myself that every single morning. Just staggering from one crisis to another? That’s what it feels like. Until I get to the one that finally breaks me. And then what? Future City will carry on like before, but with one less hero.” There was such weariness and heaviness to Radiance as she stood there, slowly shaking her head. “That’s just failure, Trinity.”

Words rose in Trinity’s throat. She wanted to argue back. She wanted to tell Radiance that she was more than that. But as painful as it was, she held back. She sensed that Radiance needed to get this all out.

“I think that’s why I put you through all this,” Radiance continued quietly. “I was trying to prove that I could change something - really change something. Change someone. It- god, that sounds so stupid, doesn’t it? It’s just that every day, people expect me to take care of whatever’s going on. There’s always someone stealing, or mugging, or breaking, or burning, or hurting, and I keep wanting to scream at the world for it to all just stop. Day after day after day, Trinity. You don’t know what it’s like…” She trailed off, and paused, and scrunched up her face. “God. I need to stop saying that. Fuck.”

Trinity couldn’t bear to hold back any longer. “No,” she breathed. “Radiance, no, no, no, you’re not-”

“I’m truly, truly sorry,” Radiance said mournfully. It was as if she hadn’t even heard Trinity speak. “Basically, everything I’ve put you through has just been one long, extremely fucked-up breakdown.” She barked a laugh. “That sounded even more pathetic out loud than it did in my head.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Trinity said unconvincingly. “Hell, you’re not that bad. Radiance, listen. You’re crashing right now. Your mind is messing with you. Plus you’re still dealing with the pheromones, and-”

“I don’t think so.” Radiance was shaking her head as she cut Trinity off again. “Right now, standing out here, it’s like it’s the first time all day I’m actually thinking clearly. Which means I know what I need to do next.” She looked right at Trinity, a look of regret on her face. “I need to let you go. Right now, before I change my mind. You can take Pheramona and leave. You’ll never have to worry about me, not ever again.”

Trinity was quiet for a moment. Radiance was offering her everything she should have wanted, but the thought of it didn’t make her happy. Not even a little.

“No,” Trinity replied, before she realized what she was saying. “You shouldn’t be alone right now.”

Radiance blinked. She looked stunned. “What are you talking about?”

“I-I’m not just going to leave you alone,” Trinity spluttered, her mind racing to catch up with her heart. “Not like this. I wouldn’t do that to my worst enemy. Not that you’re… well, OK, I guess you might be my worst enemy. But, uh, that’s not the point.”

The smile that danced across Radiance’s lips was bemused, but mostly sad. “You’re a lot kinder than I gave you credit for,” she said. “But I’m telling you: you don’t need to do that. Just go.”

Trinity rolled her eyes. Not this. Not a superhero who thought she was being cool and self-sacrificing. She’d have been better off trying to argue with a stubborn teenager. “If you’re letting me go, then that means I’m free to make my own choices, right? Then I’m staying.”

Radiance clenched her jaw a little. “Fine,” she replied. “You can stay. I’ll go. I have wings. I’ll fly off somewhere.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Trinity snapped, and the way Radiance jumped at her outburst almost made her smile. “Are you an idiot? Learn to accept some help for once! I get it. You’re strong. You’re trying to save the whole damn city on your own because you think it just has to be you. And… and maybe it does! I don’t know! But at least stop being so thickheaded you’re not gonna let a girl keep you company for one night when you seriously need it.”

Trinity had never seen the superhero look so surprised. It was deeply satisfying. She’d often longed to be able to put that blank, stunned, helpless look on Radiance’s face - albeit, not quite like this. Even so, she was worried she might have pushed a little too hard. The tall, gorgeous, amazonian hero standing in front of her somehow managed to look faintly like a deer caught in headlights. Trinity was afraid she was going to spread her wings and flee into the sky.

“Fine,” Radiance said quietly, instead, and right before Trinity’s eyes, slumped to the ground.

Now it was Trinity’s turn to be surprised. It hadn’t occurred to her that Radiance might want or need to take the weight off her feet. She always seemed so far beyond such trivial, human things. Clearly she wasn’t, though. Clearly, she was just as messed up as everyone else. For all the shit Radiance had put her through, knowing that, Trinity couldn’t help but feel compassion for her.

And so, because there was nothing else to do, she sat down too, right next to Radiance.

For perhaps the first time, the silence between them felt companionable. Certainly for the first time that wasn’t an odd, fleeting moment, soon lost to sleep and twilight. That was a minor miracle, given everything that had just happened inside the warehouse. Trinity was finding it surprisingly easy to not think about any of that. She was just thinking about how she was a little cold, but that she could feel Radiance’s warmth against her skin, just faintly, from a few inches away.

It was nice.

A faint, distant siren sounded from somewhere far away. Both Trinity and Radiance turned their heads and watched silently as alternating red and blue lights passed over the horizon, from the other side of a row of industrial buildings. Trinity wondered briefly if Radiance was going to dash off after it, but she was entirely still until the siren’s howling faded into the night. That was a relief.

Trinity almost jumped out of her skin when she felt Radiance’s arm settle across her shoulder.

Now it was her turn to feel like a deer in headlights as she looked up at the superhero. The tender, protective expression on Radiance’s face made her heart skip a beat.

“You looked cold,” Radiance said simply.

That was so, so unfair of her.

There were a lot of things Trinity might have said, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything except “yeah,” and nestle herself against Radiance’s tall, firm body.

It was much, much warmer like that.

“You know,” Radiance murmured, after an immeasurable amount of time had passed. “Maybe you had the right idea all along.”

“Probably,” Trinity replied breezily, before feeling a little embarrassed with herself. “Um, about what?”

“About getting out of here for good,” Radiance replied. Her eyes were back on the horizon. “About just leaving this hellhole and all its problems behind. Starting over somewhere else, with a nice, quiet life. It sounds pretty great.”

Trinity’s eyes widened. “I’m… surprised to hear that,” she said cautiously. “I didn’t think you were the type.”

“Me neither,” Radiance admitted. “I always thought I’d be in this fight until the very end. I was always the best, you know? I’m not saying that to brag. I just… was. When I was growing up, when I got these powers, that’s what everyone said. And when you’re the best, you can’t just stop being the best. That doesn’t feel like an option. It doesn’t even feel like it makes sense. Who am I to anyone, if I’m not this costume? These wings?” She sighed. “Maybe it’s time to stop.”

“M… maybe…” Trinity couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and she could even less believe what she was about to say. But a deep part of her wouldn’t let the moment pass. She wouldn’t let this be one of her regrets. “Maybe we could… go together?”

Slowly, Radiance turned her head to look at her. It was a little too dark for Trinity to read the expression on her face. Trinity’s stomach was doing some crazy backflips. It was like being a schoolgirl again, trying to figure out of the older girl she had a crush on was gay, or just weird. Trinity was blushing and squirming right down to her very soul as she waited for an answer.

“Well,” Radiance said slowly, clambering to her feet. “Before anything else, we should probably clear up this whole mess.” She jerked her head towards the warehouse.

“Ah. Right.” After a short pause, Trinity nodded stiffly. She tried not to let anything show on her face. She wasn’t sure if she had crossed some kind of line, perhaps pushing Radiance before she was ready, or if she’d just been imagining everything between them. Either way, she could sense she wasn’t going to get her answer.

“I think I need another moment. Could you check on your friend for me?” Radiance flashed a small, weak smile. “I promise I won’t run off. Or fly off.”

“Sure thing,” Trinity replied, with forced ease. She was a little grateful for the request, in truth. She needed a moment away from Radiance.

Her head felt like a ringing bell, vibrating but empty, as she walked back towards the open fire door she’d left the warehouse through. Trinity braced herself as she stepped inside, but fortunately, time and fresh air seemed to have whisked away the worst of the mind-warping pheromones that had been filling the room. Once she looked around, though, she soon realized that something was missing.

Pheramona.

The villain was gone. Trinity had been sure that, after the dose of shimmer she’d given her, Pheramona would have been down for the count for a good while. Evidently not. She must have recovered and slipped away. Trinity cursed under her breath. That woman was stupidly tough. And now, she was another potential mess to worry about.

With that weighing on her mind, Trinity busied herself loading some of the many stacks of bills strewn about the floor back into the cargo containers Pheramona had brought them in. It was mostly a way to kill some time while she got her head back on straight, but she reasoned that it needed to be done, whatever she and Radiance decided to do with it. Once she felt ready to face the superhero again, she stepped back outside.

“Radiance,” she called, “we might have a-”

She froze, interrupted by the sound of a loud, insistent beeping.

Trinity’s gut started to churn as she realized what it was. It was Radiance’s communicator, tucked into the hero’s belt. As if by instinct, Radiance was already reaching for it.

“Wait!” Trinity cried. She didn’t know exactly why, but she was overcome with a terrible sense of foreboding. “Don’t answer that!”

She never got to know if Radiance couldn’t hear her, wasn’t listening to her, or was simply operating on sheer, long-trained reflexes. Whatever the case, Trinity’s warning didn’t stop her from hitting the button to answer and holding the small device up to her ear.

“This is Radiance,” she said briskly. “What’s-”

Trinity watched in horror as an unmistakable change came over the superhero. She went ramrod stiff, and suddenly looked more like a toy soldier at attention than a person. All of the color and emotion drained from her face, and even her deep, sad eyes came over blank and glassy. It was plain that she was thinking of nothing as she listened to the words being poured into her ear. Trinity had absolutely no doubts about what was happening.

Radiance was being mind-controlled.

She had only seen the hero react this way once before, and because of that, she knew exactly who was on the other end of the communication line. It was The Peregrine. It had to be. The first time, Trinity had sensed something was up, but she hadn’t been sure what. It had seemed plausible that The Peregrine was just one scary bitch that Radiance happened to take orders from. But now, there was no mistaking it.

The Peregrine was controlling Radiance.

That meant that both of them were in very, very serious trouble.

“Understood,” Radiance replied blankly after a few moments, and put down the communicator. Then she looked straight at Trinity and started walking towards her, her every movement suddenly robotic and cold.

“Violet-” Trinity started to say, a warning chill passing down her spine.

“No,” Radiance interrupted immediately. Her words were as bereft of emotion as her face. “Silence. No more talking.”

When Trinity’s mouth clamped shut, she bitterly regretted that she hadn’t asked Radiance to take her damn chain off when she’d had the chance.

“No more distractions,” Radiance said, clearly echoing someone else’s words. “Don’t move. Stay here.”

That didn’t leave Trinity with many options. She was helpless to do anything more than breathe as Radiance disappeared into the warehouse and returned a moment later with the cargo crates full of money hefted across her shoulders.

“Hold on tight,” was the superhero’s final instruction.

Trinity couldn’t disobey. She pressed herself to the brainwashed Radiance’s side as tight as she could as Radiance wrapped an arm around her, spread her magical wings out from her back, and leapt into the sky.