A knock at the door pulled Amy out of the dazed stupor she'd fallen into. A fight between the Teeth and some Nazi gang had gone badly and a lot of people got caught in the crossfire. She'd spent the afternoon on-site with red hands. Still, better than having nearly thirty people die because a bunch of gangsters wanted to kill each other. She rose from the couch and shuffled to the door, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  “Hey,” Lia greeted her as Amy opened the door. She looked...bad. Her eyes were bloodshot, lips chewed ragged, and...she wasn't wearing a mask.

  “Get in here,” she huffed, pulling the idiot inside before she outed herself. “You're unmasked.” Lia touched her face and sighed.

  “God fucking dammit,” she swore. “I'll need to borrow a cloth. Anyway, um, okay this is off to a bad start. Can we sit down? I...we need to talk.”

  “Uh, okay, sure.” Amy felt her heart beat a little faster.

  Was this...it? Was Lia finally going to tell her what a monster Amy was, or at least could have been without her intervention? Amy wasn't sure she was ready for that, not after a day of actually using her powers to do objective good. Sure she had to do a little finagling to make sure everyone remained stable while she worked, but it was fine, and she'd removed the slight modifications she'd made afterward.

  “Um, so,” Lia began hesitantly when they'd sat on the couch. She wouldn't meet Amy's eyes. “I need to tell you something about me. It's maybe about my power, maybe not but...but it doesn't matter because it's still part of me. And I'm sorry in advance if this makes things...weird, or like, weirder.” Amy blinked.

  “Oh,” she said flatly. “I uh, I thought you were here to tell me about...whatever I didn't do.”

  “Sorry,” she said with a grimace. “Um, another time maybe? You might not even want to hear about it after...you know.”

  “Sure,” Amy breathed. “So, are you better?” She raised her hand and waggled it.

  “Better than I've been in a while,” Lia replied. “But I'm still sort of putting it all back together putting...me back together. Sorry, that's cryptic shit. Um, when I got powers, I also got thirty years of memories from someone called Amy, from another world.” Amy stared at her for a moment, then stuck out her hand. “What do you-- oh, you don't believe me.”

  “I just...” Amy paused, glancing at the floor. “Sorry.” Lia took her hand anyway, and when she continued, Amy knew she wasn't lying.

  “All of this,” she gestured with her free hand. “She read about it in a story, and I got her memories of that. It's not exactly precognition but...well, it works sometimes. That's how I knew about everything, about you and...and everything. She knew a lot about you and now I do too. Didn't ask for it, and I'm sorry that I sort of violated your privacy knowing. So...now you know.” Lia shrank in on herself as Amy stared.

  Lia was telling the truth, at least as far as she could tell. It just... She let out a long, slow breath. Couldn't jump to conclusions here, it could just be her power screwing with her head, making her think she had memories that she really didn't, or only had in the context of being a precog. God, Vicky would have a field day asking questions, but Amy just wanted to know if it was real or not.

  “I can try to remember something from Amy, sorry the other Amy,” Lia offered. “I...I could tell you about her life or something, like she was a soldier, Canadian and--”

  “Okay,” Amy cut her off. “It's fine I...I can see.”

  It was an ugly sight. When her synapses lit up, Amy could see Lia sure as hell wasn't lying; that didn't fill her with confidence though. Memories were physically encoded on the brain, yet another reason for her to avoid touching them. That meant here though, Amy could see how packed her hippocampus was. True to Lia's word, it looked like she had at least the memories of more than forty years.

  Two things puzzled her about the fugly arrangement. First was that, even though Lia said it was a power thing, there didn't seem to be a connection between her coronas and hippocampus; at least nothing that suggested their hand in the memories. She wasn't a specialist, but that didn't make much sense with what she knew about powers. Weirder was the physical overlap of some engrams, like they'd been stamped over something that was already there. Lia complained about memory issues and Amy could see a physical cause. Not that she could do anything to fix it...

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “S-so you're...”

  “Lia,” she said shakily. “Amelia Carina D'souza born in Brockton Bay, USA. I'm not Amy whatever from Canada, I just remember her. So...there, now you know everything. Sorry.”

  “Apology accepted,” Amy replied quickly. “So til now...what?”

  “I was trying to convince myself I was her,” Lia said, squeezing Amy's hand. “I...she was someone who could handle it, and I was just some fuck-up kid who absolutely couldn't. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before.”

  “Don't know I'd have believed you,” she said honestly. “I probably wouldn't give you the benefit of a doubt if you hadn't...you know.”

  “Yeah.” She bit her lip. “I tried.”

  “You succeeded, right?” Amy asked, her heart thumping. “Like, me and Glory Girl are better off now, aren't we?”

  “You are.” Amy almost sagged with relief.

  “Then...it's fine,” she said, shrugging. “It's weird, I guess, but not weirder than dealing with other precogs.” She hadn't worked with other precogs, but that was probably true. “So if you remember reading about this then is it...” She couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence.

  “It's real,” Lia said quickly. “At least as real as I am and, well.” She squeezed Amy's hand twice. “That's what I think anyway. Who knows, my memories could all be fake anyway.” Amy fought to keep her face neutral.

  “Yeah, I guess you're right.” Amy sighed and let go of Lia's hand, shuffling a little closer. She didn't need to know about what she potentially lost because of them. “So you knew all about me, what, since you triggered?”

  “Basically,” she replied. “A little over a month now I've known about you, about your dad, about...Glory Girl. I don't know everything about you, you weren't the main character, but yeah...sorry.”

  “Stop apologizing,” Amy snapped. “Did you ask for powers?”

  “Fuck no.”

  “Then it's fine,” she said. “It's...it feels weird, but that's because I've never heard of anything like this before. But...well, it's not like parahumans are exactly normal; yes, I'm including me here, don't snark. You're not the only one your power,” probably, “messed with. The PRT keeps a lot of case files for abnormal parahumans, like Case 53s?”

  “I know,” she said. “I don't...”

  “It's weird, sure,” Amy continued. “But no weirder than twins literally sharing a body, as in physically switching spaces when one wants to...I think the term Victoria used was 'front'? No weirder than any of the anatomical or memory changes experienced by 53s so...yeah. You're weird, Amelia D'souza, but I don't mind.” Not that much anyway. Lia sniffled and Amy shuffled closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they began to shake.

  She apologized breathlessly through choked sobs, leaning against Amy. She wrapped her arms around Lia as the girl's body rocked with pained cries. It was obvious this was killing her, a secret like Amy's own had been. It wasn't nearly as ugly, but Lia had been just as afraid of it coming out.

  And it was weird. Amy knew about the case files because of her nerd of a sister, not personal interest. She definitely didn't intend to become friends with someone who'd been that messed up by her powers. Now that she was though...she wasn't just going to dump Lia like a dirty rag. The girl had been through enough as it was and, power weirdness or not, she wasn't trying to make things weird. Probably.

  “Thank you,” Lia whispered once she was done. She didn't hug Amy back, but turned so she was resting on her chest. “I don't deserve it.”

  “Oh don't give me that,” Amy groused gently. “I think this at least is fine, not exactly breaking my back or anything.” She stiffened, but nodded slightly.

  “Okay.” The silence dragged on for a few minutes. “Thank you.”

  “You're welcome,” she replied. “You um, you still going to be a hero?”

  “Duh,” Lia said, and Amy could practically hear her eyes rolling. “Between the Undersiders still being a problem, the gangs moving in, what's coming...” She shivered. “Too much to do, can't stop helping in good conscience. You?”

  “I'm not a hero,” Amy hedged. “I...I'll help, heal people, stuff like that but...I'm not Panacea anymore. Just...Amelia Lavere.”

  “That's fair.” There was a beat of silence. “You could try rebranding maybe?”

  “How many capes on the planet heal people with a touch?” she asked sarcastically.

  “At least two,” Lia replied, apparently taking the question seriously. “Probably more, but I'm not really a cape geek. But like...I don't know, you said you didn't choose to be a maskless cape before. Now I guess you can, is all.”

  “I...it's not a bad idea.” It may be a little dumb, but it wasn't bad. “Maybe I'll think about it sometime, but for now it doesn't really matter.”

  “I guess.” After another minute, Lia pulled away from the embrace and sat back on the couch. “Thanks again Amy for...for hearing me out. And for not like, hating me.” Amy reached out and gently cuffed Lia's shoulder.

  “Dumbass,” she muttered. “You're my friend so, yeah, least I could do I guess.”

  “Cool,” she replied, a little breathy. “I'm gonna go crash I...yeah, I'm pretty tired I guess. Trying to sort out everything took uh, a lot out of me.”

  “Makes sense, go sleep then.” Amy offered a weak grin. “It's cool.” Lia rose and nodded.

  “Cool, you got a towel or something I can borrow?”

  Minutes later, and less one hand towel, Amy was left alone again in her little apartment. She went to her bed and sat down heavily, staring at the wall. That was all...jesus. Lia, a PRT case file and friend. It was still her, the same girl Amy had gotten to know, the same one who stopped her from falling far enough to deserve the Birdcage. Weird no doubt but, well, forgivably so. And she'd gone through hell and still wanted to be a hero. So Amy would stick around, because frankly she needed a good example to follow after.

  Besides, with everything going on, Lia probably needed her as much as Amy needed Lia.