"Nero. Look."
He looked up at the stars, much more clearly visible than he had ever seen them before. The night was chilly this high up, and it was dark, with the lights of the city deep below them. They were on top of the tallest building in District 2. Alcina sat next to him, staring up with the same blank expression. He looked down, between his legs dangling off the building. It was a nauseating height, only slightly broken by the terraced floors below them. His treatment so far was wildly different than he expected.
"Hey Alcina. What's your power level?"
"We don't know."
"You don't?"
"No. We've never been measured."
"Why not?"
"Jack never let us. It was dangerous. We don't need a number to know our strength either."
"What exactly is your power?"
"A curse."
He looked at her, watching her stare up at the stars. "If I fell, could you catch me?"
"Easily."
"I couldn't catch you. I'd just have to hopelessly watch."
"Why?"
"I can't change the world beyond the this reach." He held out his arm in the air, leaning back onto his other one.
She looked over, watching him close his fist.
"If it's just that," he continued. "I wouldn't be able to grab you before you were already gone."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Huh? It doesn't mean anything."
"It sounds like it would mean something."
"No, it's quite literal. It's my problem to deal with. In this city where people can have extraordinary powers, I don't get one. It's really like that."
"We've never seen the outside world. Not this body."
"You haven't?"
"No. We were born here. We've spent our whole lives in these streets, struggling to live for nearly as long as we can remember."
"With that Jack person?"
"Yes."
"Where were your parents?"
"Would you like to hear our story?"
Nero paused for a moment. He swung his legs back over the roof, and stood up, walking away from the edge. Alcina followed behind him.
"Sure. I'll listen," he said, sitting down against one of the massive air conditioning units.
Alcina told her story to him.
***
The night was stormy. The city's hurricane walls had already been put up for this storm, but that didn't stop it from pouring down into the city. Bolts of lightning streaked across the sky, followed by the roaring crashes of thunder echoing from the giant walls.
The house was simple, right up against their neighbors, and in a pristine one-story building. The lightning had shot the transformer in their section of the district. Alcina clutched her stuffed bear tightly, laying in her bed as the occasional lightning lit up her window. This was the worst storm of the season.
Her parents, just blobs in her memory, spoke to her from her doorway, telling her it would be okay, that it's just a storm, and other comforts. She couldn't stop her tears from welling up when the thunder crashed.
Then, there were the knocks on the door. It was terrifying for the girl, so her mother stayed with her as her father went to the door. Outside was a young man, drenched in the rain, holding onto a broken umbrella. Feeling bad for him, her father opened the door.
It was only seconds before their was a knife in her father's neck, and her mother was screaming. The man ripped the knife back out, before turning it on her mother. Alcina jumped out of bed, and was hiding behind the other side of it, whimpering in fear. Of course, the man found her easily.
He took his time with this one, throwing her into the living room, right against the coffee table. He slowly sliced at her, opening a gash on her cheek. Then, with a hyena-like laugh, he licked the blade, reveling in her fear.
That's when he changed. The feeling of yearning for something was burning in Alcina's mind. The man didn't cut her again. He changed right then, and instead took her away from that comfortable house.
He told her that they were now one and the same. Everything that he did, was also her responsibility. Everything that she did, was also his.
He took care of her, taught her to use her powers, told her to take anyone that interested her and to make them a part of her. To treat the world as an unfair place to exploit, so that she wouldn't be exploited. He carried on murdering, robbing the corpses, while she would pick people to parasite, leeching money off of them. Together they survived.
***
"And then what happened?" Nero asked fervently.
"He died."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Nero said, confusion spreading across his face. "How did he die?"
"He was shot, by a man promising to free us of this curse. He is who we now follow."
"Oh." He waited a little bit for her to say something. "Are you going to force me to do that thing?"
She looked down at her bandaged arm. "No."
"Am I too much of a disappointment for you?" Nero laughed at his self-deprecation.
"No. We feel that to take away your freedom would only bring us pain, and save you from none. It is therefore against our wishes."
It was a surprisingly real answer to him. He could only change the subject again. "Do you trust the guy that said he'd cure you?"
"No."
"Then why do you?"
"We have no better plans on how to do so. We are desperate."
The door to the roof broke open with a metallic clang. "Hold it right there! This is the police, show us your hands!"
Alcina didn't wait for them to say they were trespassing. She instead grabbed onto Nero's arm, and pulled him off the building. Nero watched, his heartbeat accelerating, as they went past the first balcony, and the ground came closer and closer. The wind rushed past his face, blowing his hair back from his forehead. Alcina had the same blank expression.
Before they hit the ground, black tendrils sprouted from her back, and started grabbing against the building next to them, each leg moving like a spider's. They slowed down, each step transferring a bit of energy from their fall into the wall. They touched the ground, feeling as though he landed from no higher than five feet. Several people were staring at them in the bright lights, moving out of the way as Alcina dragged him down the street.
"Wait! Where are we-"
She jumped up, almost flying through the air as her legs delicately tapped against the walls of another building. She ran, right up between the windows. The black tendrils from before had wrapped themselves snugly around Nero, simply carrying him along. Despite this, her hand still held onto his wrist. He couldn't finish his sentence, only let out a yell as the wind drowned him out.
Soon they came to the top of the building, seemingly slowing into the apex of the arc, right over the edge. The moon was full tonight, and he could see it right behind her head. A strange glimmer was above her, almost like a halo, but it was shaped like a gear. It had wisps of other gears meshed into it, spinning about, slowly, until the moment ended and they landed on the new roof. This one was covered with solar arrays, pointing all the way out to the east, waiting for the sun to come back up over the horizon.
Nero rolled over onto the ground, breathing heavily.
"Be our friend," Alcina said, looming over him.
"What?" Nero asked between heavy breaths. "I don't get it."
"We don't know how to bond with someone besides stealing them away. So we want to try having a friend. Be our friend."
Nero just laid there breathing for a bit.
"Do you not want to?"
"I'll be your friend. Just don't drag me around so fast."
He still couldn't refuse, but he wasn't nearly as hesitant this time.