Victoria knelt down so that she was eye-level with the counter. The medicine lined up with the 25 millimeter line, so she grabbed the cup and walked over to Summer.

"Here you go." She handed the cup to Summer.

Summer groaned. "This stuff's disgusting."

"Sorry." Victoria nodded at the medicine.

Summer rolled her eyes and chugged the medicine. She made a face as she handed the cup back to Summer.

"You gonna go train?" Summer asked as Victoria took the cup over to the sink.

Victoria shrugged and turned on the faucet. "Yeah, in a minute. Dr. Williams wanted me to organize the medicine cabinet."

"What, you'd rather do busywork than train?"

Victoria rinsed out the cup. "Apparently."

"You don't like fighting, do you?"

"And you do?"

Summer shrugged. "I mean, the whole situation kinda sucks. But yeah, I like fighting. It feels good to be doing something. I get it though, most kids don't. They still do it, though."

Victoria didn't say anything. After a moment, Summer added, "Sorry. What I mean is, you don't have to fight at all, if you don't really want to. I mean, I'm sure the doctors would be glad to have a full time assistant."

"I have to fight," Victoria said.

"For Claire?" Summer guessed. "She can handle herself."

"Everyone keeps telling me that," Victoria muttered. She glanced at Summer, who stared back with a quizzical look in her eyes.

Summer looked down. "Have I mentioned my cousin?" she asked.

Victoria frowned. "Shane?"

"Yes. You sort of remind me of him. I mean, the way you worry about Claire. He was the same way with me."

"Oh yeah?"

"He wouldn't leave my side during battles." A sad smile tugged at Summer's lips. "We've lost a few kids over the years. We were good fighters, sometimes we just got unlucky."

Victoria hesitated. "Ash killed him, right?"

"Well, sort of," Summer said. Her expression darkened. "It was a supply run. Our suppliers have to move around a lot to stay safe... Anyway, this time they were temporarily renting the top floor of a building in LA. Scorpion showed up and we ended up in a fight on the roof.

"Ash turned to attack me, and Shane jumped in to get him away from me. They fought, they were too close to edge, and all Ash had to do was give him a push..."

"I'm sorry," Victoria said. "That's... that's awful."

"Yeah, well..." Summer's eyes met Victoria's. "It was a long time ago. Anyway, what I want you to get is that you need to live your own life. If Claire wants to fight, she can fight. If you don't want to, you don't have to."

"I—" Victoria searched for an argument, but she wasn't sure what else there was to say. Except...

"I hate to sound like a broken record," Summer said. "I'm sure you've been asked this a thousand times, but I think you have an answer you aren't giving us. Why are you so worried about Claire?"

Victoria's fingers drummed against the counter. "I think she's pushing herself too hard," she finally said.

"Why?"

Victoria bit her lip. Only she and Dad knew what happened. She'd promised she wouldn't tell. But deep down, she desperately wanted to trust Summer with the story. She wanted someone to know she wasn't crazy for being so protective of Claire.

"Well, we were only five when the accident happened, so of course we don't really remember it. But I do remember that Claire wouldn't talk afterwards. We'd known about our powers since our time at the labs, and our dad wanted us to hide them. He told us to try to be normal, because it was the only way we'd be safe.

"So that's what I did. I made friends, I did my best in school, and I avoided using my powers at all costs. It wasn't too hard, for me at least. But Claire was a loner. She didn't talk to anyone, not even me and Dad."

"You think it was because of the accident?" Summer asked. "I mean, you guys lost your mom, right?"

"I always thought so. I mean, I don't remember it very well now, but right after the accident it was pretty rough." Victoria hesitated. "And Ivy said that Malcolm told her the scientists experimented on Claire while we were still at Cladis Point."

"The prisoner?" Summer asked. "Do you believe him?"

"I don't know. But if it's true, then whatever they did couldn't have been good. I mean, maybe it affected her."

"Do you think she'd remember something like that?" Summer asked.

Victoria shrugged. "There was something else that happened when we were about eight. We were on the playground before school one morning, and I took my eye off Claire for a minute while a few other kids were playing a game with us... When I realized she was gone, I looked around and saw her and a few other kids standing by the side of the building. One of them pushed her, and I ran over."

"When I got down there, they were making fun of her and pushing her around. I told them to stop, but they just laughed, of course." Victoria's gaze drifted to the ground. "There were five of them, the two of us were no match. Even if I did use my powers, I could really only control one copy back then. And I didn't know how to fight." She looked up and met Summer's eyes.

Summer nodded solemnly, and Victoria continued. "Well, one of them took a step toward Claire and tried to grab her, and she freaked out. She threw her hands up in front of her and all of the kids flew back into the wall. It was a good ten feet, too."

Summer's eyes widened. "Geez, were they okay?"

"They recovered and ended up just fine," Victoria said. "But if I remember right most of them broke something or other. I think one kid's appendix ruptured. And Claire was so distraught. She started crying and saying 'I'm sorry.' They were the first words she'd spoken in months.

"And then she collapsed," Victoria said. "I panicked. I had no idea what was happening to her. I ended up dragging her home to our dad and told him what happened."

Victoria's fingers trailed along the counter. "Claire woke up a few minutes later with no memory of what happened. We decided not to tell her. Dad called the school and told them we were sick and wouldn't be there that day."

"Oh, wow," Summer said. "That's... I'm sorry. But Claire seems fine now."

"I know," Victoria said. "And I mean, after that she started talking more and did better, I guess. She still didn't really have any friends besides mine, and they didn't talk to her much.

"When I found out about the fighting thing, it scared me. Claire's not the kind of person who would hurt others. And I've watched her in battle, she's not nearly as... She doesn't attack as much as everyone else. She just defends herself. I..." Victoria cleared her throat. "I'm afraid she might lose control. Seriously hurt someone on accident. If she killed someone, I think it would destroy her."

Summer was quiet for a moment. "Sorry," she said. "I don't know Claire like you do. But don't you think she'd tell you if she wanted to stop fighting?"

Victoria shook her head. "I don't know. Probably not. Like I said, I think she tries to push herself too much. She jumped out of a freaking helicopter with Spencer a few days ago!"

"I heard," Summer said. "I was surprised. Spencer normally has better judgement than that. You guys really had no other choice, did you?"

"I guess not." Victoria sighed. "I have been trying to relax, though. Claire's been fine the past few months. I just... I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to her."

"Well, we all blame ourselves for stuff we shouldn't," Summer said. "I still feel awful about what happened with Terrence."

"What do you mean?" Victoria asked.

"I was kind of our leader. I should have realized he was planning to betray us."

"What? How?"

"I don't know. I guess it's kind of stupid. I should have been able to tell something was off. I liked him, I thought he liked me, but I guess I was wrong."

"Oh." Victoria looked down at the ground and folded her arms, searching for something to say, but she didn't get the chance. The door behind her swung open. Dr. Newman entered, followed by Dr. Williams.

Dr. Newman smiled. "I have some good news."