Chapter 1

Roan felt like she was going to throw up.

"Are you sure," Hestia was saying, looking right at Roan's nose. Close enough. "That you want to unmask yourselves?"

They were sitting in a conference room in the school library, the door closed and their voices hushed just in case someone was walking by. Luke nodded in agreement with their new Director. He had been public for a while now, and he was basically friendless at school. As soon as he unmasked himself, his friends stopped talking to him. Roan had heard that he and his best friend Jason had gotten into a huge argument about it. People were still polite to him, but he sat alone at lunch, and did most of his projects by himself. She didn't want that.

But she couldn't keep living a lie.

She's known some of these people her whole life, and since she was first recruited she's been lying to them. She's been lying to them about what she does, and what her powers are.

That was kind of taboo in this society.

Powers are sacred. They're a massive past of who you are, and greatly affect how you'll grow up, what you'll become. Her family power has always been in the fighting area, she was a combat expert, like Legion. They weren't related though. It's a common power. But paired with healing? That's too easy to narrow down. She's always had to keep that a secret, otherwise she'd be like the local doctor for all these kids getting bruised and scraped.

"I'm sure," Roan decided, looking Hestia in the eye. She sometimes forgot her friend couldn't see anymore.

"Yeah me too," Jay echoed.

We all turned to look at Quinn. Except Hestia. She doesn't know where anybody in this room is, except Cole, who was therapeutically rubbing the back of her girlfriend's hand. He looked up after the room went silent for a bit, glancing first at Jay and then at the rest of us. He clasped his hands together, thinking hard.

"I'm in, but I tell my extended family first. I need at least a week." He finally said, his tone leaving no room for discussion. He had gotten more confident over the months, coming into himself. Finally. He raised a good point, though. Roan felt she owed it to her family to tell them before they found out on their morning news. Sure her mom and dad and step-mom knew, and her older sister, but what about her grandparents? Her cousins? Her aunts and uncles? They need to know.

"I agree with Quinn on this one," Surprisingly it was Jay who spoke up first. "I want to tell my uncle before he finds out on the radio."

"Me too," Roan confirmed when Cole looked at her with those big brown questioning eyes.

"Okay," Hestia said. "I can hole off the press for about a week, but you won't get much longer. If you want to back out, please don't do it the day of. I have to tell them how many chairs we'll need and I've discovered I hate being a liar, all things considered." She let out a short laugh at that, of course, finding her own jokes funny. She opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by the bell ringing shrilly. We all stood up silently, lost in our thoughts.

"Come on, Cammie," Roan said absentmindedly. "We've got English now." She started to walk out of the room, until she heard a cough behind her. Right, she's blind. "Sorry, sorry, I'm coming back. Jeez this is hard to get used to," Roan muttered.

Hestia snorted. "Try being the one who can't see who he's talking to," he joked. Guess Hestia is a he today, maybe Roan should make those bracelets she found on that Tumblr post a while back. The one where that teen had a bracelet for if they were female, male or neither. Classic Tumblr.

Roan grabbed Hestia's arm, and led him out of the conference room and out into the hall. She didn't acknowledge Luke, he still wasn't public friends with them. It sucked, but it wouldn't be that was for long, she hoped.

A week later and they found themselves in the same conference room, having a similar conversation.

"Well," Hestia was saying. "We're all here, again, I think." She muttered the last two words. Roan snorted. Hestia was just too sarcastic sometimes, it was so funny.

"So you guys are serious about this?" Luke said, looking each of them in the eye. His hands were clasped together on the table, and he was leaning forward. He looked a little nervous, as if he expected us to all say, surprise it was a joke!

"They're not backing out now, I paid a lot of money to get the good reporters to come." Their Director answered for them. The corner of Roan's mouth tugged upwards as she looked at Hestia. She had really come far in these past few months since the this winter. After everything she had been through, Roan was thoroughly impressed that she had almost gotten back to normal.

"So what time tomorrow, and where are we having the meeting?" Jay asked.

"Twelve," Cole answered. "At the front entrance of the cave."

"Alright," Quinn spoke up, stretching his arms across the table. "I guess by Monday we won't be living with secrets anymore. That'll be weird."

We were all silent for a while, just thinking. Slowly and silently, some people left the room. Finally it was just Roan and Hestia.

"Okay guys, let's get to class." Oh man, Hestia didn't hear them leaving. Roan stayed quiet, biting back her laughter.

"Guys?"

Hestia went silent again, looking a little mad. She slapped her hands lightly on the table, a decision made. "I'm getting a seeing eye dog," Roan couldn't help it anymore, she started laughing loudly. Everything was going to be okay.

. . .

"Good afternoon, and thank you everyone for coming out today." The Director was saying on TV. Moon was watching carefully, her family sitting beside her. They were all staring intently at the TV, watching the live news broadcast. The Director and the Secretary were sitting in the centre of the table, with Aerglo and Geronimo on one side, and Phoenix and Mazus on the other side.

As the Director was talking, Moon took the time to look at Aerglo. She was pretty sure his name is Luke, she's seen him around school sometimes. He was always alone, keeping his head down. He unmasked himself a couple years ago, and lost all his friends. Some friends they were, Moon thought. If they didn't stick it out with him.

She tuned back in when her grandmother elbowed her in the side.

"But enough with the pleasantries," the Secretary was saying. "Let's get to what this meeting is really about. We at the Agency have tried our hardest over the years to do right by you, and for one of us that was revealing his identity." She gestured down the line to Aerglo, and the camera panned to him.

"In the recent events that occurred," the Director continued, "Many of our members have retired. In fact, the ones you see at this table, and three others are the only ones who remain. Those of us at the table are here today to show that we will not back down, and that we believe in you, the people."

"That is why we are unmasking ourselves," Phoenix cut in. What?

Everyone went quiet on the TV. Moon's family was already silent, but now she could hear a pin drop. Were they really going to do this? As she thought that, Jay stood and pulled off her mask, revealing green eyes. Guess so.

"My name is Jay Wong, and I am a senior at James Peter Collegiate Institute." Moon recognised her.

Mazus stood up beside her, taking off his mask too, revealing dark messy hair and brown eyes. "My name is Quinn Budan, and I am also a senior at James Peter." Moon recognised him too. They were both part of that giant group of friends. Funny, how that worked. The Director stood, the Secretary helping her up. They both pulled off the masks they were wearing.

"I'm Hestia Whitehead, and I'm a senior at J.P. I was also Chameleon, but you can understand why I am not anymore." A few gasps were heard in the crowd in response to her face. Her skin was dark, but was marred by light coloured scars. They disfigured her face slightly, and she could see they went up into her hairline, probably covering her head and making her hair grow in patches. It was horrible. The worst part was her eyes. They were covered in a while film, and something wasn't right about how she was using them. She's blind, Moon realised with a jolt.

"I'm Cole Samai," no way, her too? "And I'm a junior at J.P."

Moon was starting to notice a pattern. Just that friend group alone, they were the main supers. How is that fair? Geronimo was the last to stand up, Aerglo already without his mask. Ten bucks she's from that friend group too.

She pulled off her mask, revealing a slightly hooked nose, fair skin and crystal blue eyes, dark brown hair tumbling out around her shoulders. "My name is Roan Michaels, and I'm a senior at J.P.C.I." Moon shut off the TV and stood, ignoring the questioning looks from her family.

She needed to lay down.

. . .

"Hestia! Hestia!" Calls were coming from all over the room.

"Roan, Roan!"

"Quinn!"

"Jay!"

"Quiet down, please." Hestia almost shouted. Roan could feel a headache coming, and it was probably going to be worse for Hestia. "We will be answering all your questions, despite the fact that we all have homework."

The crowd chuckled, and took their seats, calming down. A couple people called out to be asked first, and Cole selected a young looking woman in the third row. "What happened to the last Director?" Of course this question was coming. They all sat down and looked to Hestia. Nobody wanted to answer this question, not even her.

"I'm going to assume you saw the battle between us and the villains this winter in the park?" The woman nodded, and Hestia continued. "One of the members we took down was Genocide. When we removed his mask, it was revealed to us that he was in fact our previous Director. Next question?"

And so they came. Questions about when they are inducted, because that was apparently very difficult to remember, how old they were exactly, what direction the Agency is planning on taking, how they are going to recover, what they plan on doing with the old Director, if they were going to recruit. Hestia answered all of them honestly, telling them if she was unsure.

"What do you think about the mayor's new laws regarding your people?" Whoomp there it is. Roan knew this was going to happen as soon as Hestia mentioned her last name. She saw her friend's face crumple for a second, not having been prepared for something so rude. Anger welled up inside of Roan.

"That will be all for today," Roan called out stiffly. "Thank you for your time, we look forward to serving you as long as we can."

Protests rose, and some close to the man who called out that question turned on him angrily, having unanswered questions themselves. How could he say something so insensitive? After everything she had done for the people, how could he be so rude. Roan signalled to Cole to get her off the stage, and briskly followed after them. They ducked into the cave, Cole's hand resting on Hestia's back.

"Are you okay Cammie," Luke whispered coming up beside her.

"I was trying to forget about that," Hestia said hoarsely. "How could he do something so cruel as that. Making us register for citizenship even though we were here first. We were here first." She repeated, slowly leaning against the nearest object, which happened to be the wall. "We were here first." She slowly broke down into tears, and Roan felt helpless.