I sit along the Potomac’s bank again, the same spot as I have in days past. I suppose it’s becoming sort of ‘my spot’, as much anyone can own a random stretch of the river bank. I’m by myself this time, though. 2nd Squad is still in the hospital after their near-death experience, thanks to Senator Redding’s greasy fingers.

  A jolt of pure unadulterated fury runs through me for a split second before I can suppress it. Most of the anger is from Redding hurting my friends in some kind of sick game. Though a part comes from something else, something crueler, vicious.

  He tried to take them from me. They’re mine.

  It unnerves me, that rage born from tyranny.

  I think I know where it comes from, too. I think it’s from that fire, deep inside me. Maybe it’s the source of my power, maybe it’s the result of it. An endlessly expanding, accelerating, consuming sense of more. I don’t think it’s changed me, I feel the same as I always have. But how would I know? I’m stuck in my head, as much as I’d rather not be. There’s a lot going on in here.

  I’m pulled from my thoughts as Morgan joins me, lounging in the air.

  “Hiya, Mach.”

  “Hello, Morgan. I thought you’d’ve left for your gallery by now.”

  She gives me a wane smile.

  “Yeah, we’ll see. Not sure if they’ll be all that happy to see me, given just how badly we snubbed the government yesterday.”

  She dismissively waves a hand.

  “Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to talk to you about your Aura.”

  “My… Aura? You’re talking about the way Empowered are measured, right?”

  She nods.

  “Yep! But we Ascended have an Aura too. Yours is strangely weak for someone with the power you have. But that doesn’t mean it can’t affect people.”

  I twitch. Memories of Redding telling me I’m a threat to everyone around me come flooding back.

  “I… I haven’t hurt anyone, have I?”

  I don’t know what I’d do if I have.

  “No, no. Auras can’t necessarily hurt people, but it can affect them. Your Aura is barely strong enough for that, but it’s growing stronger. In a few months, you might be able to really start messing with people. Which is what I wanted to talk to you about. I can teach you to control your Aura.”

  I focus all my attention on her words.

  She chuckles.

  “Yeah, there we go.”

  “What?”

  “You’re using your Aura right now. You don’t even know it. I can tell you’re concerned and eager to learn. Here, let me try something.”

  She looks at me intently, her eyes boring into what passes for my own. I get the sense that she’s… entertained? Like she’s about to burst into laughter. A sense of concern underlies it. She needs me to understand something.

  “There. Did you feel something?”

  “Yes.”

  I repeat back the feelings I gleaned from her Aura. I wonder how I did that.

  She smiles.

  “Good, good. You can use your Aura in a couple of ways. You can pull it in, so others can’t detect it. You can press down on someone with it, try to intimidate them. You’ve been doing a little bit of both. Not quite using it, but not quite hiding it. You’ve probably been doing it subconsciously as a way to replace the body language you lost.”

  She pulls her legs underneath herself, now floating in a meditative lotus position.

  “Here. I’m going to try to press down on your Aura a little bit. That way you’ll get an understanding of what it is, and we can go from there.”

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  She closes her eyes, and for a moment, I feel nothing.

  Then I get the sensation of something attempting to encroach on me. I instinctively retaliate.

  I am absolute within my domain.

  As I try to trace the alien thought back to the fire inside, Morgan’s eyes snap open and she flops down onto the muddy bank with a yelp. She looks at me with wide eyes.

  “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “You managed to suppress my Aura. It’s how I fly. My Aura is stronger than pretty much anyone in this hemisphere, how did you do that?”

  “Your Aura lets you fly?”

  “Once it’s strong enough, yes. But that’s for later.”

  After standing and casting a quick spell to clean the mud off her coat, she returns to the air.

  “Well, did you at least feel your Aura?”

  “I don’t know. It just felt like me, not anything separate. It felt like you were encroaching on me.”

  “An odd turn of phrase. Can you try and pull in that part of yourself?”

  After a few minutes of failing to do so, she hums in thought. She makes a decision, dropping down to the ground.

  “Here. I’ll try again.”

  We spend the entire day training my Aura so I can retract it, but to no avail. As the sun slowly falls to the horizon, I know Morgan can feel the fear that fills my soul.

  “Morgan, what happens if I can’t retract my Aura? If it grows too strong, could I hurt people?”

  I can feel her nervousness. The one thing to come out of this Aura training has been my ability to read others’ Auras. Morgan is making no attempts to hide from me, though I’m sure she could.

  “I don’t know, Mach. I don’t think you can hurt people with them, but we know so little about Auras as is. I wish I had an answer for you. Maybe once it grows stronger, you’ll be able to control it? We’ll try again tomorrow.”

  I think I know what the fire inside is now. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared of something.

  The next day ends the same. Hours upon hours of Morgan pressing down — encroaching— on my Aura in an attempt to help me gain control of it. Every time she does, I instinctively react. I’ve gotten better at stopping myself from lashing out, but it takes a great deal of effort. Every moment she spends pressing down on me is like sand in my eye.

  After hours of practice and with little to show for it, Morgan returns to the air.

  “Mach, I can tell that not having control of your Aura is making you nervous. But I don’t think you have to worry right now. I haven’t heard of Auras hurting anyone. Unnerving or terrifying them, yes. But my Aura is very strong, and I never hurt anyone with it before I was able to control it.”

  “What are you saying, Morgan?”

  “I’m saying that you don’t have to be scared to get into a plane with McKinley and the others. At most they’ll probably get flashes of your strongest emotions every so often. Look, the only Fractures that we know of right now are Cat-2s and they’re no more than a day old. We can take another day or or two to practice, then you can get back out there. What do you think?”

  I think over it for a few seconds.

  “Alright. But I won’t stay idle if I’m needed.”

  “Of course. I’d expect nothing else.”

  As we spend the rest of the next day training, I notice people watching us. That’s not a particularly notable event in of itself. Given our new-found fame and my distinctive form, there’s always someone watching me. Eyes wide and phones out, normally.

  But a handful of individuals seem to be a bit more suspicious in their attention. I think I’d call it recon or espionage rather than ‘watching.’ I’m not sure how exactly I know that, though. Maybe all this Aura training is paying off. Typicals do have extremely weak Auras of their own, but they can’t control it or use it, not like how Empowereds can.

  It’s easy to act on my suspicions without drawing attention to myself, though. Given I don’t need to ‘look’ at something to see it, it’s quite easy to scan the individuals in question. It doesn’t take me long to confirm my thoughts. One individual, who’s dressed as an officer worker is sitting on a bench eating lunch. Next to him on the ground is a brief case. Inside the brief case is a powerful directional microphone and a high resolution camera.

  My attention flickers back to Morgan and the primary thread that’s conversing with her.

  “Alright, ready to begin again?”

  How am I supposed to tell her we’re being watched so closely without tipping them off?

  “I’d like to try something, I have an idea.”

  “Alright, go ahead.” She closes her eyes.

  I might not be able to retract my Aura like others can, but I can still command it in other ways. For example, how I was subconsciously using my Aura to communicate body language. This attempt is somewhat similar to that. I slowly guide her attention to the spy, trying to communicate a feeling of suspicion and paranoia.

  Her eyes fly open, staring at him. He meets her eyes, seemingly by accident. Without seeming overly hasty, he finishes his lunch and quick leaves, taking his surveillance device with him. Morgan looks sheepish.

  “Uh, whoops? Sorry!”

  I wave her off.

  “It’s fine.”

  I know what he looks like, I’m sure I could run rampant through a dozen databases if I want to know who he is and works for. I stay my hand, though. I can’t blame people for spying, really. Not after what we’ve done, and what we’re capable of. Besides, it just seems… wrong. To tear through the internet, to devour a man’s life and everything about him for something so small.

  He’s not the only one who’s watching more intently than the average onlooker, though. There’s a few more, scattered all around. I put them out of my mind. I have more important things to worry about than a few curious spies.

  “Let’s keep training. No time to waste.”