“Sure, but don’t you need to keep tabs on the tracker or something?” Payback asks me, moving to the door to the waiting area

“Ah yeah, but it’s an excellent test of how far these tethers stay attached, and going for how far the tracker makes them from, I don’t think they’ll be snapping from us going to the closest bakery.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

I look back at the treatment room, seeing Spotlight soundly asleep and no sign of Spyglass. LED had just move out to some working out, so I move to follow Payback to the front, thinking of maybe bringing them something.

We exited the pharmacy, glancing up at the closest bakery only a couple of blocks away. And set walking there, I tried to close the gap I still felt I had with Payback. I felt that I still had a gap with everyone, but one step at a time.

Chatting with Payback was relaxing. He kept things light but didn’t shy away from taking about deeper things when they came up.

Somehow the conversation had turned to how I messed up again, as we two still hadn’t really talked person to person about it.

“So, you don’t think it was my fault?” I asked eventually.

“Ah, it was in some way, but don’t take it too harshly. If you didn’t come around and acknowledge that you should have been more of a team player, you wouldn’t even be in the team anymore”

“Yeah, that was a big oversight.”

“But even then, you told us about the tracker. Someone slimier might’ve just stayed quiet about it. Pretending not to realize so that there could be no culpability, hell, if you didn’t tell us that you could have cut it, we wouldn’t even know.”

“I could’ve thought that they would reach us eventually and just told you all so I more likely to survive through the ambush”

“Hey, I’m trying to argue on your favor here.”

We shared a laugh as the bakery came into view; it wasn’t the smallest I had seen, occupying the corner where two streets met, with windows to both sides and coffee tables on the sidewalks and inside by the windows

We entered and made our orders, choosing them to sit by one window.

Soon enough, there was a steamy mug of coffee on the table in front of me. Payback had asked for a mug for himself, choosing to get it with milk while I preferred my coffee black.

“You know, I’ve recently realized that I wasn’t really trying my best, with the team and everything.”

Payback nodded, silently letting me keep going with what I had in mind

“I was thinking if it would be okay to ask some questions? About you I mean”

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

“So, Payback, how did you get into all this being a part of a revolutionary group thing?”

Payback looked taken aback for a second but then chuckled, “really Matrix, wanting my backstory with no subtlety at all.”

I shrugged

“Well, I guess it’s better than not showing any interest.”

“I think it’s worth it to try, now that I’m not as... Distracted.”

“Yeah, I can see that” “and it’s a good thing. Our team could use some more actual team building.”

“So, about the question? Or are you against talking about it? As much as I was direct, I can understand if it’s a sensitive topic.”

“No, it isn’t really a secret, it was sudden, that’s all.”

I nodded, taking a sip of my coffee while I waited for payback to start his story

Payback took a breath, releasing a little sigh “Well I was in the military, actually.”

“Oh, that’s unusual,” I thought, with us being against all they represented, but maybe that was what actually attracted people who had been a part of it? “Or is it?” I added.

“It’s less than you’d think. After all, when we enter its more because of the propaganda and well, if it wasn’t for the incident that led me to being here now, I’d probably still be happily under the thumb of the government.”

“The incident?” I asked, intrigued.

He chuckled darkly, nodding. “Yeah, I’ll get there. I was from a military school, as the vast majority are now. And there they put you through propaganda and prepare everyone to serve. When I was 18, it was just a matter of fact that I would serve.”

“I had no powerful love for the military, but it was like a sure thing in my head. To me there were some extreme people in it but the army was an okay thing, just like in my school there were some assholes but the majority were some okay people.”

“I was hoping to just make a good buck with the winning side and call it quits after I planned on applying for a higher degree through the military after my service time was done. I wasn’t one for revolutions. I’d stay low and away from all the drama, or so I thought.”

He heaved a sigh, taking a sip of his coffee.

“The thing is, people don’t really internalize the shit that’s going on, it’s all clean on the surface with the cover-ups, only hearing about disappearance, all the unsurety and the fear it makes people stay detached from the real horror, it’s really easy, just keep your head low and it’ll never affect you.

That’s what I thought until I ran headfirst into what lay under the covers. I was just another soldier at first, and they regularly make recruitment to programs that put you through a couple of awakeners to raise the number of powered in the force.

“So that’s why there’s so much more soldiers that awaken after a couple years in service.” This confirmed a theory that I saw often in the forums, even accountings of people that had entered the military with the explicit purpose of getting powers. I just never thought it would be worth it, so I never even entertained the idea.

“Yeah, so they chose me for one of those programs and awakened to my power and it’s quite the wonderful power, so they put me as a healer.”

“Only as a healer?” I asked, intrigued. “The potential for combat of your power is really high, even more so when you’re the one taking the damage, right?”

“Yeah, and I had some inkling about the nature of reverting damage, but that was a minor thing, never really put to use. I’d normally only heal the soldiers when they came back to base. Spent a good while being shipped all around the country anytime there was someone high profile I could heal in time.”

“So, one of those times I was in a base after healing one of these high profiles personal and was called suddenly for an emergency heal, they brought me to an infirmary and what appeared to be a civilian dressed in all scraps and completely covered in injuries, it was a young woman, barely hanging in life.

He stares at his mug for a bit, mulling over the memories.

“They tell me she’s important personnel and that she couldn’t die. I follow my orders and heal her, right?”

“The thing is, my power lets me see who it is that can receive the damage back, something they didn’t know, because not even I knew.”

“And the woman slowly came to, sobbing and scared, suddenly brought back to perfect health. Shrinking from just looking at the soldiers around her and I see why as well, a red haze around one four of the five soldiers.”

He shakes his head in disgust. “The woman was an awakened, and I saw her preparing to fight back, just for one of the marked soldiers use some whatever his power was some sort of restriction as it immediately shuts the woman’s power off.”

He stays quiet for a moment. “I remember it clearly, like things became slow, I had a choice at that moment, I could just walk off and let the poor woman be taken back to be tortured, and I thought how many times had this happen, were all these high-profile people I healed really just some accidents or were they political enemies, or even civilians.”

“but mostly I thought about this one person, right in front of me. If I did nothing, she would only go back to being tortured. It was immediate. It wasn’t something that I could just ignore and pretend it didn’t exist. My power told me with the red marking exactly what had transpired I could feel it in my guts.”

“Then I chose. I simply extended my hand to the guy restricting her power. No one even reacted to the harmless act. Just went and touched him”

“He immediately crumples on the ground from the trauma and the other soldiers go alert, but the same thing, they were too close, I move my hand and down they go.”

“The woman looks at me, surprised, but also hopeful. And I nod at her without words. She simple destroys the other two soldiers. And I flee with her. She really packed a punch, got us through the rest of the base while I just run after her. As you could guess, she was a Dawnbreaker already, so logically I just joined the group.”

“There you have it how I got into this.”

“Hmm, couldn’t let a damsel in distress, a true hero,” I say jokingly

“Fuck off.” Payback says as well, smiling as he shows me the finger.

I laugh, “But really, a way more dramatic introduction than mine was.”

“Yeah, that’s for sure.”

“But then how did you end up in this team specifically.”

“Well, we went to one of the bunkers, one way bigger than the UnderBarn, and I stayed there for a while training and staying under the radar.

“I got to know LED there, actually. And was made a part of the cell he was going to create. It seems the dawnbreakers are very decentralized, spreading various cells all around the country. The new teams don’t really get much information instead of getting missions and if we can go on long enough and survive, learning with experience, and not turning out to be spies, then we’ll be introduced to more important things.”

“Very spartan, but it seems to work.”

“Yeah, I don’t think most of the members even know how many of us there are.”

We finished our coffee talking some more about how we thought the Dawnbreakers were organized and what their goal was. We could only guess since Payback also knew little, having stayed with the civilians when he was in the bunker.

We grabbed some things for the rest of the team when we were leaving. They would probably be awake by now, and likely hungry.

While walking back with the groceries, I felt the tracker connecting to my matrix. The sudden sensation making me pause. Payback notices that and turns around with a questioning I hold a hand, forestalling any question and signaling for him to wait as I try to focus more closely on the sensation.

I could just feel the tracker, actually feel that a tether was connected to my matrix, something that I attributed to the recent tweaking I did with my matrix where I better implemented spotlights power in a way that functioned with me. The sensation was the same as when I was deep in meditation, just without the visual portion. It was like navigating a room you knew well in complete darkness; you knew your way around. You just had to feel it some more and let your instincts and experience guide you.

I try to go through the motions of disabling the connection. The experience of doing it multiple time guides me in this unfamiliar sensation that is much closer to tact but still very distinct.

I break the connection once again, just needing the extra concentration to focus properly on what to do, something that will probably become easier and easier to do. It feels good to see some improvement. Who knows, maybe I’ll even be able to sleep once I get a little better at this.

What was that Payback asks me, when I walk again

That was me messing the trackers’ attention, without having to be all closed meditation style

“You feel pretty smug about it”

“Well, this way I can probably just go about my day soon enough, and keep the tracker of us”

“I imagine it must feel great to fix the problems you caused yourself.”

“Yes, payback it does.” I say sarcastically, ignoring his jab.

We arrive at the clinic, everything nothing having changed, led was back and we give him and the others the food we bought for them. We had actually bought it this time, payback for having taken some money with him

“Where did you get the money for that, anyway?” I ask, out of curiosity.

“What do you mean?” he looks at me confused, “the cash register of course.”

“Of course,” I sigh heavily. What did I expect.