ERICA

Dinner was always an uncomfortable affair.

I pushed the food around on my plate, not feeling all that hungry. Seeing my parents watch me with suspicious eyes, however, I let out a soft sigh and started eating. Even a normal meal like this, simple actions sometimes felt like a hostile confrontation. As they watched me eat, my parents began to try the food from their plates as well. Their shoulders relaxed slowly, and it was almost as if we were a regular family for a moment.

Of course that didn't last long.

"How goes your training, Erica?" My father asked, his gaze lingering on my face as if to study my reaction to his words.

I paused slightly, my fork hovering in mid air for a moment, before deciding to resume eating trying to avoid any change in my expression.

"As expected."

What could I say? They broke me, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Ground every part of me into the dirt and made sure that every piece was reshaped into their own image, into that of a super villain. Did they expect me to thank them?

My mother spoke up, as if to make up for my reticence. "Erica's combat abilities are truly exceptional. Her knowledge in poisoning and explosives passable, but improving. The one area where she truly shines however is torture." The woman smiled, but the expression was frightening when contrasted with the icy look in her eyes. "Her imagination in causing pain without leaving a mark... surpasses even my own."

"Good. Good."

My hand gripped the fork so tightly; I thought the metal might warp in my hand. I forced myself to keep moving, to keep eating, as if nothing was wrong. My shoulder throbbed with remembered pain, but I pushed it from my mind.

"But of course, there is still... that issue." My mother spoke up, her tone meaningful. At these words, a silence fell over the table.

Her father leaned forward, intently staring at me who continued to eat undisturbed. "You still haven't learned to kill?"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "I've killed plenty for you. So many that I've lost count."

"All villains. All murders, rapists and abusers." my mother sighed loudly. "We thought to ease you into it dear, but you've remained so stubborn about taking innocent lives..."

"Who cares about whether or not I kill innocent people?"

"I don't know... how about the police?"

I paused, staring quietly at the plate in front of me. Don't give anything away. Feel nothing. Show nothing.

My father chuckled. "Did you really think we wouldn't find out about you researching into the police who are on our case?"

'Maybe I was looking to take them down."

"Sure. And definitely not hoping to cut a deal with them." He leaned forward, his face twisting into a sneer, "Your hands aren't as clean as you wish them to be dearest, I wouldn't be so quick as to trust in a detective to stand by your side."

"But all that changes tonight." My mother was smiling again. Not a good sign. "Tonight, you either join the family business, all the way. Or..."

I took one last bite of my pasta, savoring the flavor. "Or what?"

There was no sympathy in either of my parents' eyes. "Or you'll die tonight."

"What loving parents!" I smiled, feeling the expression slowly spreading across my face. "As... appealing... as those two options are..." I checked my watch. "I'll choose option three."

"What do you...?" My father's face became shocked, and slowly he slumped over. Likewise my mother fell with a heavy thump to the floor. They both stared at me with open, accusing eyes.

I sat back in my chair, closed my eyes and laughed. Rocking back and forth, gripping my sides, laughing so hard that tears began rolling down my face. It lasted almost uncomfortably long, but after a while I slowed down and stopped. Wiping my eyes, I stood up and quickly searched their bodies for weapons. Seeing them still awake, I chuckled once more.

"Surprised? You shouldn't be." I tied them up, propping them against the wall as I spoke. "You never let me touch your food, but let me grab the dishes. All I had to do was coat our silverware and plates with poison." I shrugged, settling in a chair across from them, idly turning my mother's gun in my hands, contemplating. "Don't worry, it wasn't a lethal dose. Just enough to paralyze you for the next 24 hrs. Long enough for me to turn you in with the evidence I've collected over the last few years. "

"..."Father's eyes were filled with hatred, but he couldn't disguise the curiosity he felt. I laughed again.

"You're wondering how I avoided poisoning myself, since you placed the food on the plates and served them yourself, aren't you?" I shrugged, pulling out a bottle from my pocket. "I didn't. I took just as much as you. The difference is, I've been poisoning myself slowly for the past 2 years. The amount we all got tonight isn't near enough to affect me anymore. "

Mother's eyes widened upon seeing the label. Her gaze was questioning, as if wondering if I was crazy.

"Oh, don't worry mother. I'm well aware of the long term effects of this poison." I stretched and went to grab the phone and dial the police department. "Never planned on living long anyways. As long as I take you two down, that's all that matters."

"Erica."

Someone was calling my name. Breaking from my reverie as I sat at my desk impatiently tapping on the surface, I looked up at the VSU agent who called out to me.

I pushed back the memories to the corner of my mind. The day I had betrayed my parents and turned them in. One of my few happy memories of my family.

I smiled lightly, startling the agent who had been calling for me. It was fairly rare for me to show any emotions, at least any ones other than anger. I tried to remember his name but gave up quickly.

"What's the matter?"

"The mole is in interrogation room 2, Jarrod wanted me to let you know."

Quickly the smile faded from my face.

Jarrod.

After seeing his confrontation with his brother, I understood him a little better. I could see how a young boy could easily be swayed by his family into not coming back. Easily convinced into thinking I was safe. Deep down, I had always known there would be a rational answer behind his behavior. The gentle kind boy I had known as a child didn't just disappear into thin air. He just believed the wrong people.

It didn't matter.

He and I had changed. He grew up with heroes and trained to help others. I stayed with monsters and became an even worse one. It was much too late to change that.

It was too late for a lot of things.

With a nod, I stood up and headed towards the interrogation rooms.

HENRY/JARROD

"It's strange to see you on this side of the table." I rubbed my neck, feeling tired, as I stared at my brother in chains. Michael's face was bruised, courtesy of the beating I had given him earlier. He seemed fairly unconcerned with the fact that he was in cuffs, sitting calmly with his legs crossed, as comfortable as if he was in his own living room.

"Had to happen sometime, I guess." He grinned, and I felt a flutter of unease in my stomach. "Is SHE coming?"

"Who?"

He leered. "Your partner. I've missed her."

I fought back the urge to punch him again, my hands trembling with the desire of it.

"Shut up. You don't know anything about her."

"Oh, I know a lot more than you do, brother dearest." He leaned forward. "She's not some little innocent girl from your childhood. She has blood on her hands."

I thought back to the folder that the Captain had shown me, shaking my head. I refused to consider his words too closely. No one could make it out of a hell like that without some regrets, and if I had come back sooner... It wasn't time to dwell on that though.

"All of that is irrelevant." I kept my voice emotionless. "All I want to know is where to find the Shadow Couple."

Michael laughed. "Sorry, don't know."

"I think you do."

"And if I do?"

"You're going to tell me."

"What if I don't?" He leaned back in his chair, looking smug. "What are you going to do, torture me?"

"That's a great idea!"

The voice came from the doorway. We both looked up, shocked. Erica stood there, a faint smile on her face.

"Sounds like you know me pretty well." She walked over, pulling blinds across the windows in the room. "Did you come by and check on me, like you told your brother you would?"

"..." Michael's complexion had turned pale.

"Then you must have seen a lot." She shook her head sadly, taking her jacket off. "You know what I've been trained to do, what I'm good at... Exactly what I'm capable of."

"P-Please..." His voice was a whisper.

Erica threw her jacket on top of the security camera in the top corner of the room. Blocking its view. She tilted her head, hesitating for a moment at his plea. "'Please'? What a strange word. I wonder if you heard me say that when I was a child. I did... quite frequently."

"I- I..."

"I wonder what you thought as you were watching me beg and scream from the safety of the shadows...." Her smile widened but her eyes reflected nothing but pain and sorrow.

"..."

"Jarrod."

I jumped at the sound of my name.

"I need you to step out." She took a small black case from her pocket and put it on the table between them. Michael seemed to recognize it, shrinking back in his chair, shaking his head back and forth rapidly.

"I – I don't know if that's such a great idea."

She opened the door and pushed me through it. With my strength, it would have been easy to avoid her, but I let her guide me out.

"Please, I can't show you this side of me." For the first time, I saw a flash of deeper emotion on her face and felt the urge to look away.

"You can show me anythi..."

"Not this. Not the part of me my parents created."

I had nothing to say. She shut the door quietly in my face.

I slowly walked back into the office, closing doors behind me to mask the sound of the screams.

I paced back and forth between the desks, too anxious to sit down. I checked my watch again, but only a few more minutes had passed since the last time I looked. It had already been twenty minutes.

Should I head back there?

I thought of Erica's face when she asked me to leave and shook my head. I barely had gotten her to trust me as a partner and if I broke that now... besides, Michael had brought everything he got on himself.

Why had he stood by and watched over all those years? Was he already so far gone that young, to ignore a young girl in danger?

It just didn't make sense.

"Where is he?" A familiar frantic voice called out, causing me to groan with annoyance. I turned towards the rushing couple, a headache already starting to pound at my temples.

"Hi Mom, Hi Dad."

My parents were superheroes. The kind everyone looked up to. They saved the world more times than I could count, and did it all while raising a family. To the outside world, they were perfect.

At least on the surface.

"Cut the crap, Jarrod." My father was furious, his face red as he stepped closer, thrusting a finger in my face. "We heard that bitch arrested Michael under false charges, and we want you to get him out. Right. Now."

I shook my head. "He was arrested after being caught red handed giving classified information to a super villain group by myself and my partner. He is now being questioned.

My mother paled. "His lawyer?"

"Declined."

"I don't believe it!"

At her wails, I frowned. "I wouldn't lie to you, Mom. I caught him myself, in a sting operation to find a mole within the HAU."

She ignored me, "Why are you even working with that... person? You're a hero, you shouldn't be with the Villain Suppression Unit!" Looking around at the dilapidated office with a shudder, she added "A bunch of thugs and bullies."

A nearby agent snorted, but otherwise the entire room ignored the pair.

"I'm a liaison with the VSU and I'm working with Erica because she's the best agent they have. "

"I very much doubt that." My father placed an arm around my mother, his face indignant. "Given who her parents are, she's more likely to be the mole than someone upstanding like Michael."

"She has ten times the arrest record he does!" I couldn't help but laugh.

"The apple never falls far from the tree."

"Funny words coming from the mother of a traitor." Erica had returned, her face calm. She stood next to me, looking up with a sigh. "Sorry for the wait."

"No problem, but..."

"We want to see our son!" My father was practically spitting with rage.

Her expression was emotionless. "He's resting, and refusing visitors."

"BULLSH..."My mother lunged at Erica, arms outstretched as if to strangle her, but I stepped in between them.

"Jarrod! Why are you protecting her?! Have you forgotten who your real family is? I mean, look at her!" My mother stood back, pointing. "She's practically a super villain herself!"

"..."

I laughed, it came out more like a sob. "Is she really the villain here?"

"..."

Erica grabbed my arm. "Let's go."

"Sure, where are we going?"

She grinned, and my heart skipped a beat at the wild look in her eye. "I found them."

ERICA

We snuck up on a warehouse, looking at the patrolling guards carrying large guns.

"Well, we found something." I chuckled nervously. "Let's just hope it 's the right place. "

Jarrod stared at me intently, as if trying to see into my thoughts. "What... what did he tell you?"

"Everything..." I sighed. "Everything I wanted to know and much, much more."

"Did he say why?"

"I'd... rather not talk about it." I pushed his disgusting words to the back of my mind, refusing to dwell on them. As it was I would probably have nightmares for months just from listening to his awful insane ranting, on someone relatively more innocent like Jarrod...

It was better if he never knew the entire truth.

"Should we call for backup?" He was changing the subject, for which I was grateful.

I sat back, considering it. "Not yet. Let's try to quietly confirm the presence of the Shadow Couple. Then we call the Captain. If the VSU raids the wrong place, we might tip them off too soon."

He grinned. "Well, you're the 'Villain Lair Raiding Queen', so I'll listen to you. "

"I thought I was the Demon Witch?"

"Queen, Witch, close enough, why not keep both titles?"

We stared at each other in silence for a moment, and then laughed.

"Alright, Get us to the roof, we'll break through the fire escape door on the third floor."

He glanced up at the distance, nodding. "I can make that jump, sure."

"Carrying me?"

He rolled his eyes. "Super strength, remember?"

"Alright, then I'm counting on you, Henry." I smiled, patting him on the shoulder.

"..." There was an uncomfortable silence, and in a moment of panic I realized what I had called him. "Shoot. Sorry, I mean Jarrod."

He grinned, reaching over and pulling me into his arms. "Don't worry, I don't mind being called Henry." As he prepared to jump, I heard him mutter. "I liked Henry a lot better than Jarrod anyways."

He leapt into the night sky, timing it so that neither of the outside patrols were facing our direction. We landed on the roof, with a slight groan at the impact.

Right in front of another guard.

His eyes widening, he reached for his walkie-talkie...

Only to be stunned by a quick dart I shot, and slumped silently to the ground instead.

"Nice." Henry patted me on the shoulder, an impressed look on his face.

"I've done this a time or two."

"So I've heard."

"You still owe me a coffee for saving your butt." I grinned.

"How is it my fault that there was a guard there? You were the one who said to jump to this location!"

"Excuses, excuses..." We moved forward, and for once, I didn't feel uncomfortable with him at my side.

We disabled the emergency exit alarm and entered from the third floor.

Everything within the building was dark and quiet.

"I don't like this." I muttered, looking around.

"Me neither."

"Feels like a trap."

We moved into a larger empty room, the carpet of the small office we had entered into giving way to a concrete floor.

"What do you..."

BUZZZ!

A jolt traveled up my legs from the floor, paralyzing me. Stunned, I fell to the floor on my side, hearing Henry fall beside me. He groaned with pain, and although I couldn't move very well at all, I could talk with some difficulty.

"Are... okay?" I forced the words past numb lips.

"...barely."

Just as he answered, the lights of the warehouse turned on. Almost blinded by the incredible brightness, I blinked rapidly, trying to force my eyes to adjust. There were guards everywhere, their guns pointed straight at us.

But that wasn't where my eyes were drawn.

A middle-aged couple stood in front. Boring looking. Harmless. A couple that looked like the type to call driving to another city "a big adventure." The last people you would suspect of any wrongdoing.

But there they were.

My personal demons, here to drag me back to Hell.

My parents.

HENRY/JARROD

I recognized them of course. I had thought they were my parents for most of my childhood after all. I tried to move, but whatever they had shocked us with was still working to paralyze us.

The woman bent down over Erica, a sweet smile on her face. "Hi there, sweetie, we've missed you."

The man chuckled next to her, "Kind of disappointed you never came to see us in prison, kiddo!"

Erica was shaking with rage and fear. Trying desperately to move, but still unable to, she forced out a few cold words. "Go. To. Hell."

Her mother frowned prettily. "Now, now. Is that anyway to speak to your parents?"

I wanted to shake my head, to force myself between them... anything to protect Erica from the look of terror that had flashed over her face at the sight of her parents. Despite her fear, her eyes were resolute.

"Choke and die."

"Oh, honey, what disrespectful words to say to us after all this time." The woman bent down, stroking her hair, ignoring the disgust on Erica's face.

It was too much.

Using all my strength, I pushed against the floor, trying to reach her...

And only managed to move a few inches.

That small bit of movement however, attracted their attention like blood to a shark.

Her father smiled. "Oh, and it looks like you found your long lost brother, Henry!"

The woman moved closer, studying my face with curiosity. "You've grown up as well, child. It was so wonderfully cruel of you to escape without our girl, and never come back."

"She used to cry your name at night." The man's eyes drilled into my own. "Praying you would come back for her."

"She never told us where you went, even after we tortured her."

He nodded. "Eventually, she was so delirious that all she would do is say your name, over and over again." Laughing, he added. "We heard you don't even go by that name anymore, how delightful."

I felt tears run down my face, unable to look at Erica, wanting to look away from their cruel smiles. I could never undo what I had done to her, the terrible things she had suffered. How could I...

"I've called the cops." Erica's voice was calm and steady.

They turned back towards her. "Impossible, dear, don't tell lies."

Her hand slowly opened up, and a panic button fell between her fingers to the floor with a clatter. "Directly to the Captain's office. I'm sure he'd love to arrest you again."

"..."

"..."

"How... Disappointing."

"We were just about to kill him, did you guess?"

"Still protecting him, after all these years."

"Never, changes, our daughter."

The couple discussed amongst themselves calmly, as if the sound of sirens in the distance weren't audible.

"Should we take her with us?"

"Not nearly as much fun."

"We'll find them later."

Erica's mother bent down again next to me, he face serious. "You're not a very good brother, you know that?"

"..."

"Did she tell you she's dying?" She whispered gleefully.

"..."

"Slowly poisoned herself for two years, just for the chance to turn us in. Has long term effects, she shouldn't have much longer."

"She knows it, but hides it from everyone."

I couldn't look away, but I felt Erica stiffen beside me.

"We have the cure for it, it was our poison after all, we developed it. But, she refuses to ask for our help."

Erica spat in their direction. "I'd rather die."

"Oh, you've made that abundantly clear darling." Her mother caressed her face. "That's why we're not talking to you." She turned towards me.

"We want the anti-super power technology that the VSU is developing."

Her father chipped in. "In exchange we'll give you the antidote."

"Her life, for a lousy piece of technology."

"You could finally save her, just like you always wanted."

"Just think about it."

I wanted to argue, to fight them, to do... anything... but even as I struggled, darkness overwhelmed me, and I fell unconscious.