Valentine's Day, and your girlfriend's grand, romantic date idea—is a declaration of all-out war on humanity. Starting with half your university campus! Hey—at least nobody could accuse Cate of doing anything by halves.

Perhaps it’s on you, really. She didn't even have to compel you. Her fragile little doe eyes did all the work for her. You love her despite it all—no strings attached—no bullshit; no secret anti-Supe viruses or memory wipes or fucking nothing. You're standing by her side when Shetty had only loomed, how Marie couldn't and Luke never would have. It's just you and her, against the world—and it’s both terrifying and exhilarating all at once.

She's never experienced unconditional love before. Certainly not from her mother, who locked her away because of a power she shot her up with. Not Shetty, who needed her to do all these things like lie and cheat and burst the brains of everybody she's ever cared about.

"Do you want my help?" Cate's eyes flicker over yours, searching, needling for anything to indicate to her that you're not one-hundred-percent with her. That you’re not about to pull a one-eighty because even by Cate’s standards, this is insane and she would blame you. She finds nothing. Nothing but you, looking back at her with so much fucking love she finds herself breathless. She almost forgets what she's about to do. What the two of you are about to do.

It's a wonder. Maybe you're fucking insane. Yet, an anti-Supe virus does seem fucking crazy, doesn't it? And perhaps an all-out massacre is a touch too dramatic, maybe that wild, wild thing in Cate's eyes that flared the moment she found out just what Shetty was doing—like something had snapped, within her, was the sign you should've turned back—

But you didn't, and now you're here.

"I could stop you from feeling," Cate murmurs, hand brushing your cheek. It's cool to the touch. Her breath ghosts along your skin, sensation hauntingly familiar. "It'll be just another Wednesday."