Victor rubbed the back of his head, eyes fixed anywhere but on Jennifer. Her gaze moved between him and the bird hovering nearby, confusion giving way to quiet surprise. Eventually, she asked the question sitting plainly between them.
"How?" Her tone carried curiosity, not shock. After everything she had learned about metas who bent weather, duplicated themselves out of thin air, or rewrote physics on a bad day, the bar for disbelief sat comfortably underground. At this point, aliens would barely earn a raised eyebrow.
What puzzled her was not the impossible itself, but the mismatch. Victor's ability was supposed to be superspeed. Speed did not explain spontaneous life.
Instead of answering, Victor lifted his hands. Green light bloomed across his palms, vivid and alive.
Jennifer folded her arms, studying the glow with a deepening frown as something began to take shape between his hands. Bone, muscle, feathers, all knitting together with deliberate precision.
Moments later, the light faded. A small hummingbird hovered between his palms, wings beating so fast they hummed softly.
Jennifer stared. Then she reached out and poked it once. Twice. A third time, just to be absolutely sure she was not hallucinating.
The bird chirped in protest. Her expression shifted into open fascination. When she finally looked up at Victor, that fascination cooled into something flatter.
"So," she said evenly, "another thing you forgot to tell me."
"It's my main ability," Victor replied, watching her face like it might suddenly explode. "Everything else is just… a byproduct."
Jennifer studied him for a moment. "What is it?"
"Biokinesis."
Her brow creased. "Which means?"
Victor hesitated, the calm in her expression making him more uneasy than anger ever could. "I can manipulate organic matter," he said, dispersing the bird back into light and nothingness.
A brief moment of silence. Then Jennifer nodded once.
"Okay." She turned back toward the twins as if he had just told her the weather.
Victor frowned. The lack of reaction felt wrong. Deeply wrong. "You're not going to say anything?" he asked, dread and curiosity tangling in his chest.
She turned back to him, confusion flickering across her face. "Say what?"
For a moment, Victor had no idea how to answer that. Then she smiled, soft and amused. "Did you expect me to get angry?"
He nodded slowly, realizing he might have been arguing with ghosts in his own head.
"You've always been secretive," she said, giving him a knowing look.
"What, me? Secretive?" Victor protested, already failing to sound convincing.
She only smiled wider. "Oh, please. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a few more skeletons rattling around in that cupboard."
Victor released a slow sigh. He hadn't realized how transparent his secretive habits were. "So you're not angry," he said, reaching for a glass of water, "or even curious about what I can actually do?"
"You don't owe me every truth," Jennifer replied, exhaling softly. "Just… be careful with it."
He nodded, tension draining from his shoulders. All that worrying, for nothing.
"There is one thing, though," Jennifer added, her gaze drifting toward the living room, where the twins were enthusiastically chasing the bird in chaotic circles.
Victor followed her eyes.
"That bird isn't normal, is it?" she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.
The creature paused mid-hop, emerald pupils catching the light. The look it gave her was far too sharp, far too aware. Not animal. Not quite.
"What gave it away?" Victor asked, genuinely amused.
She gestured at it. "Look at it. Does that look like a normal bird to you?"
"Fair," he admitted. With its vivid green eyes and feathers that shimmered like polished silk, Zephyr stood out even without trying.
"That's actually why I brought him here in the first place," Victor said.
Jennifer frowned, confusion flickering across her face. "You brought him? Why?"
He explained then, the words tumbling out more easily than he expected. About protection. About the twins. About the fact that Jennifer couldn't always be with them, no matter how much she wanted to be. Zephyr could. He would step in when Victor couldn't.
When he finished, Jennifer looked at him for a long moment, then smiled.
"That's… incredibly thoughtful," she said softly.
Victor scratched the back of his neck, a little embarrassed. Making sure the twins were safe felt obvious to him.
The world, the city, was far too dangerous to leave the two unattended, not that they actually were.
That danger was why he had chosen to reveal some of his secrets in the first place, to give her something more physically grounded. After all, telekinesis could only go so far.
"There's something else," he said, catching her attention again.
She looked at him. "What, is it another secret?"
"No," he replied, hesitating. "I actually want to…"
**Jennifer's POV**
Early the next morning, just as the sun began to rise, Jennifer stirred from sleep. The familiar heaviness that usually clung to her at that hour was gone. In its place was a strange, restless energy, the kind that made lying still impossible.
"Is this Victor's doing?" she murmured, yesterday's conversation replaying in her thoughts.
She let out a slow breath. Just when she thought she was beginning to understand him, he slipped further out of reach. Victor was a puzzle with no bottom, a mystery that only deepened the more you tried to grasp it.
Her gaze finally settled on the curtains, where warm, gentle sunlight crept through the narrow gap. She remembered his words.
Victor had placed his hand on her shoulders and left it there for a few minutes. He hadn't explained anything afterward. He'd just told her to stand in the sun the next day. Which was today.
She walked over and pulled the curtains open, letting the light fill the room.
When the sunlight touched her skin, she froze. Her eyes widened, caught off guard. Something moved through her body, warm, gentle, and comfortable. She almost made a sound before stopping herself.
"What is this?" she muttered, her focus slipping.
Time blurred. Minutes stretched without shape, and before she realized it, an hour had passed with her standing there, unmoving, wrapped in the intoxicating comfort of the sun.
Then her phone rang, snapping her out of the trance. It took her a moment to steady herself before she finally answered the call.
Later that morning, she made her way downstairs and found Victor in the kitchen, busy preparing breakfast. He noticed her approaching and smiled knowingly.
"Good morning. Do you feel any different?" Victor asked, slipping the apron off.
"Um… I don't know. I stood in the sun for like an hour. It felt strange," she said, glancing down at herself. Her skin almost seemed to radiate, unnaturally smooth, touched by an otherworldly glow.
Earlier, in front of the mirror, she had studied her reflection and couldn't ignore it. She looked younger. A few years younger. There was no doubt this was Victor's doing. What exactly he had done, though, remained a mystery.
She decided to ask him directly. "What exactly did you do to me?" she said, frowning as she folded her arms. "And please stop trying to be mysterious. You're failing miserably."
"It's better if I show you later," Victor replied calmly. "Eat first."
Jennifer stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head and let it go. Whatever answers she wanted, she would get them later during their training session.
They settled around the table and dug into the food. For a moment, the clink of cutlery filled the room. Then Jennifer paused, as if something had just clicked. She looked up at him.
"Hey… you stopped that blood-sucking meta," she said, casual but clearly curious. "But you never actually told me what happened afterward."
Her gaze sharpened slightly. "I don't think an ordinary prison is going to cut it."
Victor froze for a split second, his gaze drifting as though pulled somewhere far away. Then he steadied himself.
"He died," Victor said.
Jennifer frowned, confusion knitting her brows. Had Victor killed the meta? The thought made a small knot form in her chest.
"Did you?" she asked quietly.
Victor understood immediately and moved to defend himself.
"No, I did not kill him," he said, sounding genuinely offended. "What do you take me for, gosh?"
"Well, you can't blame me," she replied.
Victor rolled his eyes, the mock anger fading as quickly as it had surfaced. He wasn't exactly known for being open with the truth. He couldn't really fault her for wondering.
"So what happened?" she asked, still curious.
Victor exhaled slowly, hesitation weighing on him before he spoke.
"His meta ability manifested as a blood-lusted alter personality. He couldn't control it. The people he killed…" He trailed off briefly. "He couldn't live with the guilt."
After a beat, he added, "He begged me to kill him."
Jennifer stayed silent, her gaze turning solemn with understanding. The meta hadn't wanted to murder anyone, hadn't chosen to kill in cold blood. His own body, another will entirely, had fought against him and forced his hand. It was tragic.
"If only the particle accelerator hadn't happened," Jennifer said absently.
Victor considered her words, then dismissed them just as quickly. Without the particle accelerator, he would still be a rich nobody on the sidelines, powerless. No means to protect himself or the people he cared about.
Without it, he would have been forced into far riskier plans, ones that would have put his own life on the line. Many people had died that night. He didn't deny that.
But if he had to choose again, he would still choose the explosion. His safety, and his family's, would always come first.