Everyday waking up without you is like wrenching teeth—looking you in the eyes and knowing there's nothing looking back–that your gaze will just glass right over her—

Cate did you a favour. Clean slate. Easy-peasy. After all, the betrayal of finding out your girlfriend has been erasing your mind over and over and hiding the existence of your brother is very much break-up territory. One last erasure, you'd asked her. One last.

She's a proper Supe now. Her names on the posters, and everything. You would be proud, she thinks. You'd almost forced her to switch majors when she'd declared she'd change to Hero Management to support you; shook her by the shoulders and told her she'd be so much more than just your girlfriend.

She is, now. So much more than that—yet, what she wouldn't give to be just your girlfriend for just one more day.

It's no wonder that when Cate sees you, casually loitering at Vought's lobby, chatting amicably to the reception, treating them like real, actual people rather than doddering extensions of your will (you were in the Seven, after all), that the floor is pulled right out from under her.

She knew this would happen, eventually. The two of you worked under the same company, for God's sake. Just—you were so out of touch, out of reach, that she'd lured herself into this false sense of security that maybe she'd never have to see you. Never have to be faced with what to do if she did.

She shouldn't—she shouldn't. She promised you, to erase herself from your life for good.

Cate is weak.

"Hi." A blonde skids to a stop in front of you. Your brows furrow, and your mind stutters, like there's been a lag of some sort. You know you've never seen this girl before in your life, and yet, there's something oddly familiar about her. A sense of deja vu crashes over you like a physical, foreboding thing, and for a second you think the world is about to implode, and you have no clue why.

Then, your eyes slide to just behind her, and— Guardians of Godolkin. Right.