Adrian found himself on the ground faster than he could believe, but Nova was even faster. She reached down and pulled him to his feet. Nova pushed a finger to his chest with a knowing look. Adrian hadn't become his alter ego in the past months, but she was right. Adrian hated the idea of depending on the suit of armor ever since he had lost his powers temporarily. Ever since Honey Harper had stripped him of his strength.

He reached for the zipper tattoo with Nova's encouragement, but even thinking about the ink in his skin made the scar tissue on his arms hurt. The patches of skin had only barely grown back and were horribly scarred. They had once held his concussion beam and flames and now felt as if they were being cut away again. He since had replaced the missing tattoos, of course, though he hadn't added any new ones since the barrier tattoo. Now his drawings were coming back to haunt him once again.

Ruby and Oscar were both just as ready as he was to face the menace that had appeared, but Phobia didn't make any aggressive movement. He simply stayed, seeming to bask in the glow of the stadium. Adrian pulled down the zipper and let himself feel the comfort of his armor for the first time in months. Still Phobia didn't react. What was that monster doing?

Adrian aimed his right arm at Phobia and fired his new concussion beam. The power felt really good, he had to admit. Despite his apprehension about turning into his alter ego, he did feel himself settling into the armor again.

The beam he had fired did just about as much as he thought it would. It passed through the vaporous form of Phobia, striking the far wall. Phobia, however, did finally react. His dark shape turned in the air above Magpie and muttered something. Adrian felt a tug on his armor, and he knew something was wrong. It felt just like when he was down in the catacombs beneath the cathedral, fighting Ace Anarchy the first time. When he lacked his helmet. When Adrian had won. But there was no more Ace Anarchy. There was only one person who could be doing this, but...

Why would Maggie be working with Phobia? She was a Renegade.

He felt a lurch as Magpie finally took over his armor. He flew forward towards the young girl, crashing through the table. Poor gummy worms and licorice ropes. It was a senseless waste of good snacks. Adrian finally came to a rest sprawled on all fours before Magpie and Phobia. Something smacked into Magpie as Adrian came to a rest. Nova must have come to the same conclusion he had. Maggie was helping Phobia.

Despite the shockwave round smacking into Magpie, Phobia still hovered in front of him. Adrian slapped a hand to his chest and let the suit collapse. It wasn't going to help if he was against a metal manipulator. Still he noted the pale metallic scythe hanging in front of him. Bony fingers wrapped around his neck, pressing into the base of his skull.

"The only reason you remain alive, Everhart," Phobia growled in his disembodied voice, "is because my life is connected to yours. That does not mean I will not make you suffer." Another shockwave hit phobia, and he dropped Adrian, his cloak billowing with the wave-like projectile.

"Nova, no!" Adrian shouted as Phobia darted for her. Her power wouldn't work on his monstrous creation. Luckily, their friends were on top of it. A white fog covered their section of the field, and Adrian caught sight of another figure running across the far side of the field. Hugh Everhart, Captain Chromium, running for the cloud on the field. Adrian knew the fog would delay Phobia long enough for his dad to get there. Maybe even his dads, as the Dread Warden was nowhere to be seen.

Adrian turned his attention to Magpie, who was lying unconscious across the field. He wondered, just as he had when he had shot Ace Anarchy, if perhaps the attack intended to stun was too much for her and caused permanent damage. It would be truly unfortunate if Magpie had suffered some lasting injuries from the shockwave gun. He noted that she was breathing steadily in and out, a clear sign that Nova had not, indeed, accidentally killed her. He drew a pair of handcuffs on the nearest wall and pulled them into reality. After he clamped them over Magpie's thin wrists, he wondered how the others were faring with Phobia. His thoughts were answered with a scream.

The fog seemed to quickly clear, revealing Ruby kneeling next to Oscar. Oscar was gripping his side, red staining his uniform as it quickly deeped in shade. He no longer able to keep the fog in place as he focused on keeping himself from dying. Ruby had quickly cut away a sleeves from her own uniform and was tying them off around his midsection. Adrian was there in an instant, the springs on his feet launching him towards them. He trusted the cement handcuffs to hold Maggie until he was done. He hoped they would.

It seemed like he arrived just in time, his Sentinel suit enveloping him once more. He didn't know how to fight Phobia. The last time he had been defeated had only been thanks to Adrian sacrificing his powers, and Agent N no longer existed. There was no way to defeat Phobia now. You could only fight the fears he supplied.

Adrian turned to where Phobia stood, right in front of Nova. He could see that Hugh was almost there, almost able to help. He wouldn't make it in time. Adrian saw as Phobia changed. A man with a gun and a woman clutching onto another man's arm. A gunshot cracked through the air, seeming to still all the movement save for the figures that were Phobia. Captain Chromium stopped running for them, fearing the worst. Nova's scream of rage and terror was worse than the gunshot to Adrian's ears.

Then the second shot rang out, and the second figure fell to the ground. Adrian rushed to help. He leapt through the air, but even as he soared, he could see Nova squeezing her eyes shut, gripping her head. She fell to her knees as he landed in front of her. He didn't remember slamming his hand to his chest, but he knew he needed the armor off. Another scream was cutting through the air, even as Adrian was wrapping his arms around Nova to comfort her.

It was Maggie. Why would she be so afraid of the same thing that Nova was? What made this so terrible? He had to guess the only thing that would possibly scare Nova was if this was Phobia mimicking the murder of her family. This conclusion only led him back to the same question. Why was Maggie terrified of this?

A fourth form appeared, a small cradle. It was still, and Adrian immediately knew what Phobia was about to do. He recalled what Nova had said, almost a year ago. The man who had murdered her family. . . He had murdered her baby sister in her sleep. Who shoots a child in their sleep? The man approached the cradle slowly. He lifted the gun and Adrian felt the simmering anger ignite as he let his arms leave their place. He didn't want to burn her, only her fear.

Adrian hadn't given himself any new powers since the Day of Empowering, but he had certainly had thought to give the ones he used to have something of an upgrade. He felt the flames licking at both his forearms, where he now had two parallel tattoos of flames inked into his skin. He let the flames intensify and pushed them forward, the surge of heat disappearing from his arms. To Adrian's surprise, Phobia returned to his original form, strangely wary of the flame.

Phobia let out a rasping growl and disappeared into an inky blot on the evening sky. Adrian didn't know if it had been the flames that forced him to go, or if he was simply done with whatever he had been plotting. Adrian's first thought was of his girlfriend. Great skies, he was a terrible boyfriend, leaving her like that to deal with Phobia. He had only gone after Maggie because she was one of the Renegades he was trying to teach to be a hero.

"Adrian. . ." Nova wheezed as he wrapped his arms around.

"He's gone, Nova. There isn't anything to fear anymore."

"Don't let Magpie get away," she whispered. Adrian tried not to smile at the duty focused girl in his arms.

"Alright, but first," Adrian cut himself off as he pressed a kiss to her forehead then let her back down, "I just needed to make sure the girl I love is alright." She gave him a weak smile, though she seemed to still be trying to shake the image of her parents being shot by the man Ace Anarchy had hired. Adrian still felt a little responsible for her grief. It had been Phobia, the monster he had accidentally created, that had killed Lady Indomitable. His mom wouldn't have died if he hadn't created Phobia, if he had been braver. Nova's parents wouldn't have died if his mom had been alive. Everything was his fault, but he would do his best to make up for it by solving this problem.

It was only the next afternoon when Adrian found himself back at Renegades HQ, sitting side by side with the rest of his team in the patrol rest room. Adrian had spent the morning trying to convince his dads to let him talk to Magpie. It had been a long argument until Max had come down to the kitchen and pointed out it couldn't hurt if he had another member of the team in the room as well. Max Everhart was actually still considered part of their patrol, though he didn't have any powers anymore.

"My dads gave me permission to question Magpie," Adrian was informing them. It was something of a personal concern, but they were also only allowed two interrogators. That was what they were here to settle.

"I'm going to be one of the two that are allowed in the room, and I was thinking that maybe Nov-"

"No." Adrian hadn't expected Nova to cut him off so suddenly. "I am not going to question that villain." She said the word with such spite that Adrian wondered what it was that Nova truly was angry about.

"Alright then," Oscar said, "if not Nova, then maybe me? She's met me before."

"No." This time it was Max who spoke up. "I'll go in with him. She's an orphaned kid, right?" Adrian wasn't sure where she was going with this, but he had some idea.

"I can connect with her over that. I'll be 'good cop'. Adrian can be the disappointed mentor and 'bad cop'." The plan made sense. None of the others spoke up against it.

"Max, are you sure you want to do that?" Adrian knew that Max was still relatively young, only fourteen years old, but he had grown up so much due to his time in the quarantine that Adrian often forgot that Max was almost five years younger than himself. He was about the same age as Maggie, he was right about that at least.

"Alright," Adrian submitted, "Max will be the other one in the interrogation room, but everyone else will be just outside, right?" Everyone nodded and they began to stand to break away. Adrian put a hand on Nova's shoulder, silently asking her to stay for a few minutes.

She sat back down across from him and sat, silent while the others dispersed. Ruby and Oscar left together of course, Danna left on her own, and Max headed off towards the elevators. It gave Adrian an opportunity to address what he wanted to talk with her about.

"So," He started, "do you... want to talk about the stuff that happened?" At first, she simply stared at her toes, then the ceiling, and finally she met his eyes.

"Not really, but do I have a choice, Sentinel?" she used his alter ego's name unexpectedly, catching him off guard.

"Of course you do," he stuttered, "I was just worried about you. It isn't often that you have to... go through that... for a second time." Nova gave him a hard look. He shouldn't have started this conversation. It was only going terribly.

"Well, thank you for your concern, but I'm fine. I've had to live with that in my head for twelve years. It wasn't too hard to see it again." It was a blatant lie, and they both knew it. Adrian hadn't watched his mother die, but when Phobia had shown her falling to her death to scare him, it was still an image scarred across his brain every time he thought about it. Grief doesn't disappear, even if it fades into the background, it still hurts just as much every time you remember.

"Um, so," Adrian said, looking to change the topic now, "has your answer changed?"

"Answer to what?" Nova said. He couldn't tell if she had forgotten their earlier conversation or if she just didn't understand his phrasing.

"You know, coming to live at the mansion until you can get you own place?"

"Oh, right!" Red flared across her cheeks, but Adrian pretended not to notice. He was just helping her out until she could get her own apartment. He would have done it for any of his teammates. Though... Nova was a special case, wasn't she?

"I'm still taking you up on that offer, Adrian Everhart. Despite our occasional disagreements, I do still love you. A little disagreement isn't going to make me try to get away from you as quickly as I can." She smiled, suddenly seeming more confident. He leaned closer to her, and they shared a few breaths. Just as Adrian felt Nova move to kiss him, a voice interrupted them.

"Ugh, really guys? The PDA is so annoying." Sterling Tucker had stepped off the elevator with his brother, trailed closely by three other Renegades. This must have been the patrol that they had elected to join. Adrian wasn't familiar with all of the patrol teams, but he did recognize one of the two girls on the team to be another new member of the Renegades.

"I mean, not that you aren't super cute together., but we already have to deal with Ruby and Oscar, man," Sterling clarified. Jade was smiling as well, making it clear that they were not as bothered by Adrian and Nova's display of affection as they were trying to make it sound.

"Well Silver Snake, maybe when you're older, you'll realize you were just jealous of our wonderful relationship," Adrian told him. Jade laughed and slapped Sterling on the back before taking his turn to talk.

"Hey, do you know where Max is? I think we need to talk with him to get the image of you two kissing out of our mind."

"He went that way, I think," Adrian pointed up to indicate that Max had taken the elevator, "And to be fair, you actually interrupted me before I could kiss my very attractive girlfriend." This, of course, earned him a light punch from Nova. She hated when he talked romanticly in public.

"I digress," Adrian laughed, "but I'll see you guys later." He waved as they stepped back into the elevators. He finally turned back to Nova and took the chance he had to kiss her.

"Sorry our moment was ruined. So, you gonna watch me be bad cop?" Adrian smiled as he pulled away.

"Adrian, you are a terrible bad cop, maybe worse than Oscar. I would love to watch you try to not be the teddy bear you are, but I have to talk to Snapshot about something."

"Oh?" Adrian asked her. What could she be thinking to do with Tina Lawrence? Adrian wasn't aware that they were anymore than workplace friends. "What are you going to talk about?"

"You'll see in the next team update. It's a surprise," she told him. She knew it was going to torture him until he knew now.

"Alright, fine. You keep your secrets," Adrian said, "But you are totally missing out. Ruby, Oscar, and Danna are totally going to be there watching."

"Then I'll see you afterwards, Bad Cop," Nova chuckled as she finally headed to the elevators. The next few hours were left to Adrian to decide what he was going to ask Magpie. He had more than a few ideas, but he needed to prepare for more specific things. He took the next elevator down, and his mind raced as the doors slid closed.

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Y'all!

Hey guys! I hope you loved this chapter, and remember to vote an comment to let me feel the appreciation. It is a big happy when I get the notification that soem voted or even commented!

   I am so excited to announce that I have taken up a second writing project (not counting all those hiatus ones). I have begun my work on a small how to guide. The subject of which I will be revealing at the end of chapter three! Don't worry about updates to this story too, I won't be slowing down on those either.

M.J.S.