Time seemed to linger for a moment. In a single fragile second, Echo changed everything. She was the key, and we'd just gotten her back. Luck was in my favour.
"It's a long story," Mirage mumbled.
Echo dug her hands into the pavement, creating a slicing vibration, toppling Midnight to the ground. The consistent humming persevered, lifting to a crescendo as Echo got to her feet. Her hands fluttered like an orchestra conductor, guiding the sound. The tune sounded almost vaguely familiar, but I couldn't seem to place it.
"Are you all right?" she said to Mirage. "Your powers, are they..."
Mirage gave a sad smile. "Not yet. I'm only trying to help. I couldn't let you stay like that."
The pulsating tune displayed Echo's emotions, a solo peaking through the layers of her soul. "I'm back now," she said simply.
Amethyst rushed to Midnight's side, her hands aglow. It took her only a few seconds to return Midnight to her former fighting shape. "You'll have to do better than that to get rid of me."
She swung her hands out, Amethyst clinging to her like a sea urchin. "Go ahead, take your time."
Echo shifted, running at full speed. She tossed herself off the ground, sailing through the air. Her feet impacting with Midnight's chest; Echo grabbed her shoulders and kicked once more, flipping around. Another burst of noise sent her flying in the opposite direction.
Midnight's voice changer sputtered as she tried to speak. I needed to figure out how to break Amethyst from her control, fast.
I took Echo's side. "We have to distract Amethyst, lure her away."
Midnight kept getting back up no matter how many times Echo tossed her around. "She's a healer. Helping people is part of her nature."
Echo nodded, wiping her face with her glove. I glanced at her, from my periphery, then once more. Her face was covered in blood, dripping idly down her chin. Crimson smeared across her knuckles. It looked impossibly real. Next, she nodded at Jax—Terry—as he crept up on Midnight. At the same time, we charged. The collective force split Amethyst and Midnight apart.
Echo advanced, pushing her hands out. Another illusion, this time of water, burst forth from her palms, colliding with Amethyst's chest. The misty air dripped off my suit, evaporating instantly. Amethyst defended each attack, pursuing the two of us. We circled each other; I begged her to listen to me, but none of it seemed to have any effect. The blood on Echo's face didn't seem to be working, either.
Midnight's attempts to speak were still in the background: "You can't... this is... and when I win, you'll see."
A pair of hands tugged me down, avoiding Amethyst's next blow. Expecting to see Echo, I nearly screamed at the sight of a second Midnight. In her illusion, the copy was identical. She even mockingly lifted her hands up triumphantly before exclaiming, in a clumsier, yet halfway decent impression of her synthetic tone, "Listen to me, you poor excuse for a hero. I am your leader now, and you will listen to everything I say. Do you understand?"
The other Midnight stood. "Don't—don't you think about listening to her," she said, fixing her gaze on Amethyst, who was looking between both Midnights repeatedly, trying to figure out which one to take orders from. "I am the real Midnight, you know that."
The Echo-illusion gestured at herself. "No, I am the real Midnight," she said haughtily. "You are the fake. Listen to yourself. That voice doesn't sound real, now does it?"
Real-Midnight dove out of Mirage's grip, viciously angry. Effortlessly batting Terry away, she stomped up to the illusion, commanding, "Attack her, this instant."
Amethyst took a step forward.
"Don't move," illusion-Midnight said, and Amethyst stopped. Beneath my feet, the ground rumbled. For a second, both Midnights teetered unsteadily, balanced at the end of a knife. The ground collapsed; broken stones and asphalt disturbed by the noise Echo's power created. I shielded my face, but it was no use—the impact collided with my chest, the catalyst of an explosion—a shimmering suit flickering, a beacon.
My feet left the ground. I flew as though my body was made of glass, my eyes forcibly closing. My knuckles took the brunt of the fall, catching myself short of hurtling face-first into the sidewalk.
I could hear my heartbeat, pulsating. The whine of my hearing aids. My fingers were slick. A pressure, sharp and persistent, on my side.
"Next time." My eyes opened at the sound of Terry's voice. His hands shining steady purple, dissolving in an instant. His power. He used his power. "Don't just fucking stand there."
In the distance, Mirage was yelling, distress flowing through her tone. "Echo!"
At the center of the storm stood Midnight, poised over Echo. In her hands, a fresh needle. Mirage, sprinting, would never catch her in time. "So, this is how it ends," she said, as though she had all the time in the world. "There's a philosophy about this, you know. They say that when you have to make an impulsive decision, it reveals your true loyalty. You made the wrong choice, this time, and saved the one girl who will be your demise."
Echo gingerly lifted her hand, curling her fingers, her eyes closing. I felt the hair on my arms raise, and when I glanced at my sides, I could see twisting embers tumbling from my arms. The delicate twisting fire extended behind my back, arching at my shoulder blades, creating a pair of wings that looked forged from the heat.
In the mere seconds before Midnight plunged the needle into Echo's shoulder, she'd given me wings.
And with finality, Midnight stabbed the needle into Amethyst, dropped Echo, and scampered off into the thick cover of the trees.
It took a few seconds before Amethyst's brainwashing lifted. When it did, she stared at the shattered pavement beneath her, the cowering reporters who hadn't yet fled. She scooped Echo into her arms. "She is going to be okay," she said to Mirage. "She's just exhausted from the blast. All of you are unharmed?" She looked at each of us, the guilt plastered on her expression. I caught her eyes and tried my best to smile.
"You need to get out of here," Amethyst advised. "Villains are still on the loose, and now..."
Mirage nodded. She took Echo from Amethyst and held her close. "Don't worry about us. As long as we have Starlight, we're going to win."
***
By the time we'd gotten to the hideout, I felt like I was going to fall over and pass out. Mirage's words swirled around in my head, over and over like a possessed carousel ride. As long as we have Starlight.
Mirage gently set Echo down, propping her up against the hideout wall. "Isn't this place quaint?"
"We're working on it," defended Terry. Then, quieter, "Did Echo pass out?"
He looked at me. I understood his expression instantly. He was thinking about Midnight's philosophy. If he'd saved Echo from the blast instead of me...
"It's not your fault," Mirage murmured. "I didn't know you could teleport. That was actually pretty cool."
Terry shrugged. "I didn't know I could do it either," he said dimly.
"I should get Echo some water," said Mirage, getting to her feet. "I'll be right back, you two stay here."
"You're going in your suit?" I said, to which Mirage nodded.
"You get used to it," she replied, grinning as she closed the door behind her.
I threaded a finger through my hair. Amethyst's powers were gone, Echo was barely awake from the fight, and I still hadn't figured out how to destroy Phantom's plans. For that matter, Phantom hadn't shown up to battle with Midnight or even shown himself at all. Was it on purpose? What if Midnight was just a distraction? And, like a fool, I fell right into her trap.
"I have to tell them," I said slowly, pointing to myself with my thumb.
"But you can't do that," replied Terry, catching on. "And, you know, just in case your genes are listening... I think they should hurry up and give you powers already."
I chuckled lightly. Mirage returned, handing each of us bottled water. She held the bottle up to Echo's mouth and helped her take a few sips of water. She tipped the cap against her gloves and held her hands against Echo's forehead to cool her off.
"Don't worry about me," Echo croaked, blearily tilting her head forward. "I fought. I lost. We did everything we could."
"Even right now, how can you be so positive?" Mirage said, supportively squeezing her friend's shoulder. Sweeping her eyes across the hideout, she admitted, "We need to figure out what we're doing next."
I dragged my finger across the floor, tracing circles in the dust. My mind was continually hitting a wall, trying to put the pieces together. Sitting there, the truth pecked at my subconscious, begging me to come clean. "About what you did earlier," I said to Mirage, "that thing about winning as long as you have me? Well—"
"We are," interrupted Mirage sweetly. When I took a cursory glance at Terry, he was shaking his head wildly, his expression conveying clearly, as if the words had appeared on his face: don't do it.
I shot him a glance back and hoped he understood. I have to. "I don't have powers," I said, swallowing. "And whatever Phantom and Midnight are planning, I won't be able to stop them."
I couldn't avoid the truth any longer. Now that Echo was powerless, I had nobody to keep up the charade. I was supposed to be brave, but the glass case around me was insurmountable. No matter what I did, Midnight would always be one step ahead of me. I was never a threat to her plans, and she knew it.
Echo giggled lightly. Her hands slowly touched her mask. After a second of quiet deliberation, she peeled off her gloves, letting her hair down. Beneath the mask was Eleni. "I know. Why else do you think I would give you wings? I believe in you. Astral City believes in you. In case you haven't noticed, there's only one person who can outsmart Midnight in a fight, and that's you."
"I know you're trying to be inspirational, but would you please start thinking before you act!" Mirage cried, panicked. "You're not supposed to—"
Terry jabbed a finger at her. "If she's Eleni, does that mean you are—"
She leaped at him. Her next words gave everything away, however: "Shut your stupid idiot mouth, Jasper!"
"I don't care what you think, Lydia!" he shouted back. "This whole time you've been sneaking out to—I am so telling—"
She launched her water bottle at him, effectively cutting him off. "If you even think about telling on me, you are deader than dead," she retorted. "And take off that stupid mask! Do you really think I can't recognize you with that thing on? It looks like it came straight from the bargain bin of a Halloween store."
He pulled off the mask to throw it in her direction. "You are the worst. When shit happens, you tell me. Especially when that shit is having actual superpowers."
Lily scoffed. "Listen—"
"No, you listen—"
When she caught my eye, Eleni sighed. "I guess some things never change, huh?"
As they bickered, Eleni tugged her phone from a pocket in her suit. She swiped past a line of notifications and furrowed her brow at something on the screen. Having neglected to bring my own phone, I bent over curiously. "There's footage already," she said, irritably holding her phone out towards the window. Without service, she must've connected to the free internet from one of the corner stores a few blocks away. "I just want to see what the reporters are saying. Come on, load."
I spotted my name at the top of the headline, in bold. Starlight and Midnight battled it out again this afternoon. Only one hero remains.
I pressed a finger to my temples, breathing deeply. How could I possibly take them down now? Besides Jax, all the heroes are powerless, there's nobody left to—wait a second. The longer I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
I was the last hero, but there was one other person left whose powers Phantom hadn't bothered to take. Onyx Spark.