Chapter Thirty-Six - Late Night Anxiety

Emily had barely slept.

Part of that was her mind just refusing to shut off. She had nightmares for the first time in...

Actually, it had been a while since she'd had a nightmare. They used to be regular occurrences for her. She'd go to bed two, sometimes three days before an important event--maybe a not-so-important event--and would wake up in a cold sweat, her mind filled with half-faded memories of being ridiculed, or of having to deal with something she wasn't ready for.

The nightmares had been recurring, but mostly they happened whenever there was something going on. When she had to travel across the city for something. Doctor's appointments with a new doctor, going to fill out some paperwork, even stupid things like going to buy new shoes or going to the dentist on her own filled her with dread that would wake her up with a cold sweat.

The nightmares had subsided for a while.

When had that started? Had she had any since going to college? Since sleeping with Teddy squished up against her side?

Strange, that. She'd tried weighted pillows before, but they hadn't helped. Maybe she should have gotten a dog or something, but then vet visits and the like would add a ton of stress too.

The other thing that kept her up was the constant nagging worry that they'd be found.

She'd asked the girls to rotate through the night, at least two of them keeping awake the entire time, and she took the middle watch so that they'd all get at least six or so hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Those middle hours had been awful. She'd tried to read by flashlight, but had mostly spent the hours pacing the home they'd taken over, staring out of the windows, and expecting to see lights in the dark as a HRF hit squad approached.

Nothing of the sort happened, but her imagination didn't seem to care for that detail and filled in all of the possible things that could have happened anyway.

So, when the sun rose and morning came around and all of her sisters woke up bleary-eyed and tired and cranky from too little sleep, Emily was already prepared for the worse.

She wasn't expecting to receive hugs.

First it was Athena, who looked up at her even while rubbing her eyes free of sleep crud. She shook her head, then silently walked up to Emily and wrapped her arms around her waist.

Trinity joined in soon after with a laugh, then not to be outdone, Teddy grumbled and gave Emily a hug too.

Once the group hug was over, Maple shyly walked up to Emily, never looking up to meet her eyes. "I'm sorry my stuff didn't help more," she said.

"Oh, it wasn't your fault, not at all," Emily said. "If anything, it was all me."

"Oh... okay, but I could have--"

"It's okay, Maple," Emily assured her.

Maple nodded, then brought her arms up, just a little, and when Emily stepped closer, she raised them higher and gave Emily a hug.

"Well, now I'll feel left out if I don't get a hug too," Aurora said. She grinned and gave Emily a hug as well.

It was stupid. A few hugs didn't change anything, not really.

Emily still felt better for it, though.

She prepared breakfast, feeling a bit less nervous as she did, though she was still worried that she might break out in hives, and her heart hadn't quite settled yet. "We, ah, have to go over everything," she said as she set down a large bowl of oatmeal on the table.

"Like how to track down and kick the butts of those other villains?" Teddy asked.

"I bet I can do it," Trinity said. "I'll just run across the entire city until I find them!"

"We probably have some time," Athena said. "If the Endgame didn't end the moment we captured the orb thing, then it's probably all about holding onto it for a certain amount of time, or until a certain time."

"Ain't that the same thing?" Teddy asked.

"No it isn't, you idiot," Athena snapped.

Maple shifted in her seat. "I don't understand," she muttered.

Athena's glare softened as she turned towards Maple. "What I meant was that I think you either need to have the objective in hand for a certain amount of time, like hold it for a full week, or you need to have it when a certain time comes around, like the last day of the Endgame."

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"Oh," Maple said. "Thank you for explaining."

"No problem," Athena said.

Teddy huffed. "You didn't explain to me!"

"Cause you're stupid."

"Girls," Emily warned.

Emily wasn't sure how right Athena was, and she wasn't entirely willing to gamble on her sister's knowledge, but... it was a better idea than what she had. "If it's either one of those options, then how long do we have?" she asked.

"If it's to hold it, then it's probably something like a week," Athena said. "How long did the heroes have it for already?"

"About a week and a bit," Emily said. "Assuming of course that they found it on the first day of the Endgame."

Athena nodded. "So they might have been close to winning! Good job, Boss!"

"Yeah, we stole'd it before they won!" Trinity cheered.

"Could be that the heroes would need to keep it longer, since they were playing defensive."

Athena reluctantly nodded. "The idiot is right."

"Don't call your sister an idiot," Emily said.

Athena's lips pressed together. "The moron? No? Oh, fine. Teddy is right. For once."

"Okay... so, if the Endgame is won by holding onto the... orb or whatever," Emily said.

"Orbjective," Aurora muttered.

The others giggled, and the name, as terrible as it was, gained immediate acceptance.

"Fine, the orbjective. If the villains have it, the other villains, I mean, then will they need to hold it for a full week or so?"

"Maybe. Or maybe the Endgame will have started a count-down," Athena said. "That'd be more exciting."

Emily wasn't sure she liked the idea that something being more exciting made it more probable. Exciting was bad and dangerous. "I think that, either way, if we want to win this, then we should make a point of stealing the orbjective back."

There were two key reasons for that. First, sunk cost.

She knew that the sunk-cost fallacy was dangerous, but she couldn't help it. They had lost a few days to this whole venture already, had taken risks, and it was even possible that they had been spotted.

What would happen if they returned to Eauclaire and the HRF had properly, undeniably, flagged her and her sisters as villains?

At least if they won this Endgame, they'd be returning with more power. She wasn't sure if all of her sisters would get copies of whatever power the Endgame rewarded, but her gut told her it would, and completing Endgames seemed like the best way to progress as a... powered individual, regardless of heroism or villainy.

That, and proving that she could defeat the HRF at their best was strong in and of itself.

The other part was stung pride.

This seemed like a rather minor Endgame. It didn't look like it had attracted the most attention out there, but to be beaten by another group of villains was... painful. She didn't like it, not at all.

In Eauclaire, she and her sisters were the top of the villain game. It wasn't much but it was something, and she was kind of proud of it. Obviously, they were nowhere near the top on the world or even national stage, but... but this Endgame wasn't national, it was local.

She wanted it to be their victory.

"Okay," she said as she looked down at her own portion of breakfast. It was starting to cool off. "Right... here's the plan. We need to find out where the other villains are holed up, what the Endgame is doing, and how the HRF are reacting. Basically, we're lacking a lot of information."

"We should capture one of the HFR people and brainwash them into being our mole," Athena said. "We just need to combine my powers with Maple's a bit!"

"I... like the spirit of that, but not so much the content," Emily said. "How about we go and see what the Endgame is like now. Maybe we'll learn different things on entering it today. And then we... scout, I suppose. I guess that questioning someone from the HRF couldn't hurt, but only if we can do so in a subtle way."

"We can do subtles!" Trinity said.

Emily wasn't so sure.

She was also increasingly uncertain that she had much of a choice. Victory wouldn't just fall into her lap.

***

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