One look at those terrified bright blue eyes made Damien hesitate. There was nothing sinister, just honest fear.

Nevertheless, Ross's conversation with him a few hours ago rang clear in his mind.

****

"You can sense it too, Damien," Ross said it as though she were stating a fact. Damien lowered his gaming console, looking at her with uncertainty over the top of the sofa. Ross leant over the top, propping her head on one elbow. A few loose strands of red hair dangled at her wrist level.

"I'm taking nobody's side. This senseless debacle has gone for long enough."

Ross had the decency to look ashamed, putting her hands on the back edge of the sofa.

"She rattles me so much." She scares me, was what Ross wanted to say. Damien could sense it even without telepathy. "And I know Markl won't admit it. Carlos is so dumb he wouldn't notice if a brick hit him in the face."

"You reckon I'm the only chance."

"I'm not looking for a schism." Ross got defensive, pink spots blossoming over her cheeks. She wiped away the stray hair strands. "Markl isn't doing anything. I need to take things into my own hands. Just... just keep an eye on her. God knows she'll blow off if it were me doing it."

"Your method can hardly come across as well-intended."

"You know as well as I do - perhaps more - the first impression she gave me."

A wry smile came on Damien's face.

"You were convinced she was a demon."

"My instincts have never failed me." Ross's hands curled. "Demon breakthroughs are increasingly frequent and unpredictable despite our repertoire."

"And then there's that demon on the hospital roof."

"Yeah. I'm not taking Tora's bull crap about that. I heard enough of their conversation. They know each other and whatever they've got planned, that spells trouble for us."

Damien twisted his fingers. Ross caught his discomfort.

"There is no way there is nothing fishy about this girl wandering around one of the biggest breaks we've experienced - and she sustained no injury whatsoever."

"You had similar suspicions about me when we first met. You couldn't believe there could possibly have been more like you and Markl."

"That's what Markl told me, though. He sought me out. And he said there were so few special ones like us and the humans so vulnerable and oblivious."

"And yet you trust me now. Why not Tora?"

Ross's knuckles clenched so tightly the skin turned white.

"Judging her now without the benefit of the doubt when she's not hurting anyone-"

"-yet-"

"-seems a rather unfair thing to do, to me."

From seemingly out of nowhere, Ross whipped out one of the Seeker files.

"Look at this." She slammed it on the sofa and vaulted over the back, flipping with one hand to the growth chart. "I've kept track of our abilities for four years now."

She drew up Damien's and Carlos's files, too, and turned them to the same page.

"Look. Steady, almost linear in improvement. The odd dip from injuries and stuff, but fairly consistent."

Damien followed her jabbing finger with his eyes.

"And then look at her."

Tora's blue chart spanned only two years. Initially she started near the bottom, the lowest baseline out of all the Seekers. It took off on a jagged projection, seesawing its way up. Within three months, Tora was at twice her baseline. By the first year, she performed at six times the strength and durability. Even at four years, Ross, with the second fastest growth, only missed at double her baseline. Throughout Tora's significant improvement, though, there were intermittent dips and peaks of significant magnitude. The most recent spike was from the hospital break, after which she plummeted to about a third of her normal level.

"You feel reassured by this?"

"I can see why not." Damien's mouth was dry.

"We are sitting on a bomb here. Volatile fluctuations in large amplitudes of supernatural power. Unprecedented growth independent of significant stimuli in just two years. And I've not started about that stubborn hot-headedness. I'm keeping it objective, here."

He could sense that. Hard as Ross found it, she sieved out her dislike of Tora and stuck to the facts.

Which made this conversation all the more uncomfortable.

He couldn't help but notice how thin Tora's history notes were - literally just two pages long. Even Carlos, the newest edition, had at least twelve.

She saw his glance.

"And nothing surfaces in two years. No memories... and you've sensed nothing."

His head jerked up, surprised.

"How did you-?"

Ross gave a dry chuckle.

"I think I'd have heard it from Miss Loudmouth already if you had."

She had a good point. Memories didn't just stay in people's heads like liquid in a watertight jar. They were more like whispered conversations that get overheard, leaked. Bits of their past and flashbacks often crossed Damien's path - and resulted in him unwittingly peeping into the Seekers' past lives. He'd grown used to Ross's memories of the hard-core military regime her father had brought her up with, leaving her bleeding and with lash marks when she'd failed to live up to his expectations, and her grim determination to balance a perfect school life during the day and demon killing at night - until Markl came into her life. Damien had felt Markl's isolation and despair when he'd first fought demons by himself, knowing he was going to fail his quest and his people would be doomed to monsters.

And it was Damien who delved into Carlos's head when they found him and realised the proximity of discovery they were at, thanks to his - entirely unintended - confession to the police of having witnessed an unwitnessed crime when he was invisible. It was hard to cover such an extensive investigation, but eventually the Seekers managed to entirely erase Carlos's existence from police database and erase any memories pertaining to the guy.

Sometimes Damien saw more than he'd care to - Carlos's exploitation of his ability before he joined the team made Damien mentally scrub his eyes for weeks - no, months - afterwards. Whatever pleasure and preferences Carlos had for life forms... Damien did not want to know.

Tora's quietness on that front had caught his attention, but he'd always put it down to her lack of mental filter. Barely anything was edited before she spoke, anyway.

It didn't explain why her subconscious offered no wandering past memories, however.

"You've noticed it, too." Ross read him like a book. Damien unconsciously wiped his sweaty palms on his combat trouser legs and stuck his feet on the coffee table. "Markl thinks I'm overreacting and bullying Tora, but I'm not. He's too blind to see."

He fidgeted. His chest squeezed like a rubber band. A sensation of bugs crawling over his skin made him shiver. Ross's green eyes, bright with expectation, stared down his attempt at a rebuff.

"You realise what's at stake, don't you?" She slapped the flat of her hand on one of the folders. "We intrinsically trust each other. Every battle we put our lives, our existence, on the line for humans. We put ourselves in each other's hands, knowing each of our abilities, limitations, and pitfalls. "

She jabbed at Tora's photo, almost skewering the image.

"But her? I can't predict her. I can't trust her. The hospital was more than enough proof. Back at the park, too. If her power drops during battle, we might as well kiss our sweet little butts goodbye and wish the demons bon appétit."

He felt like he was backed into a corner, torn between his conscience and something deeper. He ran both hands through his blonde hair, his fingers trembling.

"I can't spy on her," he whispered. "She'll know. And I can't do that to her."

Just the mere thought of double-crossing the girl who had shown him the most acceptance he'd ever felt made him sick to the stomach. Tora was such a kind soul, harsh as she might come across. She didn't deserve it.

"You make it sound like I'm stabbing her in the back." Ross sighed. "Just... let me know if you spot anything. Try to bring up the subject of her past. See if you can feel anything. If nothing else, then prove me very wrong. No harm done."

"And what if there was something?"

Ross's face darkened; her eyes glowed like embers.

"Then she will wish she was never born."

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