"Would you look at that? Someone just wandering around on her own. Doesn't she know that that's dangerous? Someone might hurt her."
"Might? I think someone will."
"Of course someone will. And it may as well be us, right Corrosion?"
With a yelp, Cleo fell out of her bed. Her heart was racing, but she couldn't get the images out of her head. They continued as she stared at the ceiling. Two people. Running after her. Chasing her. Ice spread across the ground, causing her to trip.
A man standing over her. She was frozen to the ground, the ice burning her skin. The man dripped a liquid onto her - one that burnt her until nothing was left.
No!
She burrowed back under her blankets, trying to push the images away. But somehow, she couldn't look away.
"Looks good. Let's get back to Twin."
"I'd love to see the face of whichever poor sucker finds this girl."
Why? The future made her shudder. This...
She'd only ever seen other people's futures. But this one was clearly of her. Clearly of the day she died. Cleo would die.
Her limbs shaking, she huddled into her blankets some more. There was still a bit of time before she had to get up for school. Time to calm down and pretend she was still okay.
Louise opened Little Fancy and immediately set herself up behind her sewing desk. She'd been working almost nonstop since James had ordered those new costumes - or uniforms or whatever he wanted to call them. Whatever the client wanted.
Not that he counted as a real client. More like a leech she couldn't get rid of. At least he paid well. She had been able to get away with charging more than she normally would and he hadn't batted an eye.
She glanced up as the bell rang. The guy from last week was here again. He'd helped out on Friday, and Louise was glad he was here again.
"Hey Fiore," she said. "Ready for some more work?"
"Always." He smiled shyly at her. "How's Prime's outfit coming along?"
"Well, after working overtime, I've got it almost done. I just need you to hem it." Louise stood and grabbed the clothes from their hanger. It looked pretty good if she said so herself. Since hemming was a pretty simple task, she was leaving it to Fiore while she worked on the more complicated aspects of her other orders.
"Sounds good." Fiore took it and headed for the sewing machine. She'd bought a second one over the weekend, figuring it wouldn't hurt to have if Fiore was going to be helping her out. During her busy times, it would be good to have a second person working on stuff and he was a natural at it.
They worked in silence for a while, though Fiore seemed to have something he wanted to talk about. Louise let him be, figuring he'd speak up when he was ready. After about ten or fifteen minutes, he did.
"So did you see what happened on Saturday?" he asked tentatively.
"Oh." Louise paused for a second. "Sort of." The news had mentioned that a couple people had been killed by Miracles, but didn't say too much on the subject.
The sound of the sewing machine continued as they fell back into silence. Soon enough, Fiore spoke again.
"Prime was on patrol that day. Knight was supposed to be there too. And it was just around the time I was supposed to start helping. Except we're not patrolling just yet. Achilles says we can wait for our uniforms. Now I'm not so sure. I feel like I need to find something to use in the interim. If I was there, maybe I could have helped.
"I mean, I don't want to do this hero thing. Not really. But if I don't who will? And..."
The sewing machine stopped. Louise paused her work and walked over to him, then slapped him on the back.
"Hey!" he yelped. "What was that for?"
"Careful there, kid," Louise said seriously.
Fiore looked confused for a second, then nodded and waited for her to continue.
"You can't fix everything. No one can. That was unfortunate. Maybe you could have stopped it. Or maybe you would have been killed too. No one can say. Thinking endlessly about the hypotheticals won't help anyone. The best thing you can do is focus on what you're capable of here and now. Right now, you're working with me to get this mess of an order done so the Legion can operate at full capacity. That's more than any of your other new recruits are doing."
Fiore fell silent, then started up the sewing machine again. He looked a bit more focused, but still distressed.
"Did you know those people?" Louise asked.
"No. But someone did. And there was no reason for them to die."
"You remind me of Jumper," Louise chuckled. Fiore, glanced at her in surprise, but kept focused on the hemming.
"I do?"
"Yup. You don't really want to do this, but you figure someone's gotta. It's dangerous, honestly. I wish you kids didn't get dragged into this. James should have left well enough alone."
She went back to work as Fiore's machine clattered away.
"What's he like?" he asked. "Jumper I mean. I've only met him once and only briefly."
"He's a terrified kid like you," she replied. "He wants to help who he can, but he's terrified the entire time. He shouldn't need to be a hero. Honestly, I haven't really met him either. The only real impressions I have of him are from the two times he came into my store looking like a meek little high schooler and the times I've briefly seen him on the news. If you wanna know more about him, you should ask Courtney."
Fiore looked at her in surprise. "Couldn't I ask Achilles?"
"James sees the world through a very strongly skewed pair of rose-tinted glasses. I wouldn't trust anything he says. Besides, Courtney's spent more time with Jumper than anyone else in the Legion. I get the impression she's the only one he really trusts."
"Why?" He looked at her anxiously. "Should I not trust anyone else in the Legion?"
"That's up to you. But, well, his options were Achilles the fool, Mr. Preteen or Lightning. Which one would you pick?"
Fiore laughed. "Right. I forgot how small the Legion used to be."
"Courtney's said that he really wants to just live a normal life, but we'll see how that goes for him. Especially with this new shit in the mix. Really, why are we leaving it up to kids like you to deal with it?"
"We have Miracles," Fiore answered simply. "Doesn't that make it our job?"
"It shouldn't. Honestly, anytime you wanna hang up the mask and become a tailor, let me know. I'd hire and train you in a heartbeat."
"Thanks. But I think I'd still like to be a farmer."
"Then go farm, kiddo. Send me some strawberries when you do."
She looked across the room and saw Fiore smiling back at her.
"Sure."
