Vivainne stood in a dim room in the prison she'd traveled by teleporter to reach, black walls and grainy yellow overhead lights her only company.

Ticking seconds off as beats against her arm, Vivainne began to wonder what it would take to break out of a prison like this. Set hundreds of miles off the coastline, on a super-made piece of land erected out of the ocean, the high security meta prison had been constructed to hold the most dangerous meta criminals in the world. Breaking out of a normal prison had been nothing for Vivainne, though that escape had been arranged by the heroes, so it might have been harder if they were actually trying to keep her in.

Surely a prison like this had ways of keeping someone from phasing through the walls.

She didn't get a chance to find out.

The doors opened, a man clad in black security armor stepping through the door. It closed behind him, lock clicking back into place.

He lifted the reflective black helmet, revealing a surprisingly handsome face and a charming white toothed smile. "Sorry about that," he said, tucking the helmet under one arm. "We overkill on precautions here."

"That's understandable," Vivainne said. She didn't mention she'd been waiting close to an hour in the room, having been dropped off and left there alone by the Unity teleporter. When she agreed to go see her mom, if just to get Vora to stop asking, she hadn't expected all this. "So…"

"Right. This might be a bit uncomfortable, but it's just another precaution. I'm a neutralizer, and we don't allow anyone back without having their power neutralized. This is both to prevent anyone from using their power to free an inmate, hurt an inmate, or allow an inmate to interact with their power. The effect will fade away once you're no longer within my realm of influence, so whenever you leave, but you might still feel a bit sick for a bit afterward. The effects won't last anymore than a few hours."

He raised a hand, and Vivainne took a quick step back. "Hold on, how does your power interact with my core?" she asked, speaking quickly as the man raised his eyebrows questioningly. "I only ask because my core is damaged, and I don't want anything to make that worse."

"Some neutralizers work differently, but my power interacts with your core in a way that makes it go to sleep. I'm not doing any suppressive work, just essentially turning back the clock to when your core was unawakened. Temporarily, of course."

"Right. Okay." That sounded fine.

She stepped back up to the man, letting him touch her lightly on the shoulder. A soothing cold washed over her, deeper than her body. Focused inward, she didn't feel anything press against her core as she had anticipated. Instead, her awareness of her power core dimmed, becoming something distant and unreachable.

Curious, she strained against the feeling. Nothing happened.

He stepped back, eyes darting up to her face.

"What?"

"Curious, is all," he said, shaking his head. "I've never seen anyone like you."

Did that mean he felt her second core? The one she couldn't reach? She'd suspected it was unreachable, or that her original core no longer existed. Or maybe he was just sensing her implanted core, and could tell it wasn't meant to be in her body?

"What is it?" she asked. "If you don't mind explaining, I'd like to know. This could be important later."

His eyes narrowed. "Perhaps after you speak with your mother."

Oh. She rolled her eyes without meaning to. "I'm not going to tell her anything. The Unity of Heroes is going to continue the research into prosthetic cores. That's why I was asking, since I've been involved with everything."

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"I see." He opened the sealed door, leading Vivainne out into the prison. "I'll send a report to the tower, if that's the case."

She gritted her teeth, keeping down the urge to ask him to explain now. This was for their research, but it was also for her own understanding. She'd have to ask Charles to let her know if he said anything they didn't know about her power cores. There weren't many supers who could interact with power cores, her mother and this neutralizer being the two she knew of. And she couldn't exactly ask her mother about what she'd done to her.

The prison was eerily silent, no noise but that of air vents as they walked down a sealed off corridor. Black doors made of a material Vivianne couldn't identify lined the hall, sealed shut from the outside.

With no identification on the doors, Vivainne wasn't certain how he knew where he was going. She suspected it had something to do with the black mask he wore, once again firmly in place on his head, hiding anything identifying about him.

"Why do you wear that mask?" she asked. It was the same uniform as the guards who'd accompanied Vora to court, standing on either side of her in the impassive masks. She hadn't thought to ask then, and she wasn't certain he would answer now.

"To avoid personalization with the inmates," he said, the voice muffled to something unidentifiable behind the mask, nearing robotic. "If they can't see us, it's harder for them to interact with us and try and manipulate us."

"Do they try?"

"All the time."

He stopped in front of a black door, pressing the palm of his black gloved hand to the lock. It released with a puff of air, slowly retracting inward.

As it opened, he turned to Vivainne and handed over a small red trigger. "She'll be behind a wall the entire time, but I'd still not get too close. When you're ready to leave, just press this button, and I'll let you out."

With a jolt, she realized she'd be alone with her mother. She'd expected a guard or someone to be in there with her. "You won't be in there with me?"

"No. I'll remain outside, waiting."

He nodded to the door, now open, indicating for her to step inside.

Thumbing the button he'd given her, Vivainne stepped up to the door. She shut her eyes for a moment, preparing herself to see and speak to her mother, then stepped inside.

The door slid shut behind her, sealing back into place. She jumped as the gears hissed, locking her into the prison cell.

It wasn't the bare, empty cell full of unpolished iron and glaring lights that Vivainne had imagined. It was closer to a display room in a warehouse, a floor to ceiling glass wall with a bedroom behind it. The walls had been painted a muted yellow, a bed pressed into the corner with soft covers, a bookshelf beside it. She also had a desk, and a bathroom to herself. It was far more comfort than Vivainne expected, and she found herself wondering why. Why did Vora deserve that comfort?

Once she was done taking in the room, Vivainne allowed herself to look at her mother. Vora rose slowly from her desk, wearing a jumpsuit in all white, her hair tied back in her signature bun. She was more put together than Viv expected, but less than she was used to, and she remained frozen by the door, waiting for her mother to act.

"Hi, baby," Vora said, her voice sickly sweet. It turned Vivainne's stomach.

"You need to stop asking to see me," Vivainne said, and the voice that echoed through the room was harder than anything she'd heard herself utter before.

Vora walked slowly up to the edge of her cell, stopping at the glass wall. She stared through it, tilting her head to the side. "Then why did you come?"

Vivainne didn't hesitate. "To say goodbye. I won't be seeing you again, Mother."

She turned around, finger hovering over the button the guard had given her. Before she could press the button, her mother spoke up once more.

"When did you decide to turn against me?" Her thumb touched the top of the button, plastic firm beneath her finger. All she needed to do was press down.

"The moment I realized what you'd done to me," Vivainne said, speaking the words over her shoulder.

"I know it looks like I'm a terrible person," Vora began. "But one day, you'll appreciate the gift I gave you."

Her fist clenched, thumb plunging down on the button. Air hissed around the door as the gears began unlocking it once more. She couldn't sit here and listen to this.

"Goodbye."

"See you later, sweetie. Good luck at school, I know you'll make a great hero."

Vivainne rushed out of the door, panting as she slipped free of the cell and pressed herself against the cold stone wall. How does she know?

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