Pre sat there for an immeasurable amount of time. She had to put her com away. It was too much to look at, too unreal. How did this happen?

She had never heard of a 100% match. She didn't know you could get a rating with just a kiss. What am I supposed to do now?

Peaches still lingered on her tongue.

Minutes dragged by. Vian didn’t come back. They must have seen the rating by now. Would they even care? They were already a Diamond. A 97%. What would 3% more give them?

Something was bubbling inside of her: fear, excitement, uncertainty, hope. She needed to talk to Xinder. But how could she get into the Diamond Lounge?

Then it hit her - she was a Diamond now. The most Diamond of them all.

Again she flinched back from the overwhelming realization. Too much. She engraved one thought in her brain as she stepped into the exclusive area: I belong here.

For some reason, she had expected a more dramatic response. Conversations stopping or a record scratching, like in the videos from Prequel days.

But barely anyone noticed. Pre's confident stride slowed once she was actually in the same room as them. Who was she kidding? These were people she had admired for years; people whose names and faces and backgrounds she knew almost intimately. No way she could play it cool here.

Crissandra and Zenyth were still on the couch, making them the closest people to her. Crissandra's back was to her. She was using her com as a mirror to reapply mascara while chatting at Zenyth.

Over Crissandra's shoulder, Zenyth made eye contact with Pre but they didn't seem to care who she was or why she was here. They just nodded in greeting and went back to their conversation.

Across the room, Kono also noticed Pre. His long dreadlocks bounced as he hopped off the dance machine and yelled, "Oi, Xinder! That's your plus one, yeah?"

Xinder's head whipped around to look at her. As they locked eyes, Pre felt something washing over her: realization.

It was like someone peeled away a layer of reality, revealing a new layer of Xinder. There was the man, her lifelong friend, closest confidante, practically a brother to Pre. And then… there was the Diamond.

The Diamond Xinder didn't care about Pre. Diamond Xinder used her, lied to her. She knew it. It was a deep knowledge, as if she had known for a long time but chose to ignore it. But then again… it hadn't been her choice. It had been his.

As he walked towards her, she knew he was about to do it again. The lies, the distractions, were forming around his mouth. She could… see them now. They looked like crimson stars sparkling in the air, falling out of his lips. "Pre?" he said, voice perfectly puzzled. "What are you doing here? Are you ok?"

With a rush, Pre remembered what happened that afternoon. The Connext people. Axial. And then… Xinder swooping in. He saved her, got rid of them. But instead of letting her ask how, he did something. He didn’t erase her memory, nothing as crass as that, but he convinced her to think of something else. Made her think of something else.

The rest of the Diamonds were watching them. Pre glanced at each of them, then did a double take. All of them had miasmas or apparitions or auras around them. And if she happened to make eye contact with someone, she understood things, knew things, out of nowhere. Crissandra could influence anyone who had seen a photo of her. Gracia could manipulate anything she was standing on. Noëmie was a tech genius. Kono learned at an alarmingly accelerated pace when he was lying down.

And Jawn.

Beams of fragmented light shone from him, and he looked… hot. Not attractive-hot, well yes that, but temperature-hot. His aura glowed with heat. Bright energy spooled off, spiraling out into the city.

Pre felt dizzy. She stumbled back, fumbled for the doorknob. "Sorry," she muttered. "Sorry. Didn't mean to - I gotta -"

She made it through the door, practically falling through it. It was hard to breathe, as if the apparitions she saw were crowding up the air.

She needed to get out of there.

The wall partition was still up, blocking her exit through the holo-screen. She considered looking for the security person to let her out but didn’t want to face anyone.

And what if they had powers too?

She didn't have time to think about that, or any of the million other questions in her mind. She needed to get out.

“Pre, wait up!”

Xinder’s voice cut through the mental fog. She didn’t turn around. If a security person was bad to face right now, Xinder was downright unbearable.

How long had he kept this from her? Used it against her. Jawn had secret powers too, yes, but he never weaponized them, as far as she knew. Her memories were untangling from Xinder's careful confusion. She could recall every time Xinder convinced her of something, distracted her from another.

“Pre where are you going? You’re acting strange. How was your night?”

Eye contact was the key. If he didn’t have that, his power wasn’t as effective. “I’m tired. Just came here to say good night before I left. Sorry if I interrupted you.”

“Nah it’s fine. Was just discussing the new place with Jawn.” He put a hand on her shoulder but she didn’t move. “Pre what’s wrong? Come on, look at me.”

“Why?” The word came out harsher than Pre intended. It sliced through the air, hungry for blood. “Why?” she repeated. She shook off his hand. The accusation bubbled out before she could stop it. “So you can twist my mind? So you can… talk your way out of this? Like how you argue out of moving in with Jawn? How you made me forget about Axial?"

Anger overwhelmed her. She pounded a fist against the wall. She wouldn't look at him. Couldn't look at him. “Just let me out!” she yelled, cracking into a sob. “Just let me go.”

For the first time in a long time, Xinder looked lost. He fumbled with something beside her. Pre heard the click and hiss as the wall slid away. She went to step through the holo but he grabbed her wrist.

“Pre,” he said, voice softer than she’d heard it in a long time. “Pre, you don’t understand. I don’t know how you found out but-“

“You don’t?” she asked. With a yank, she pulled out of his grasp. “It’s over, Xin. I’m not just your sidekick anymore.” She opened her com, flashed it in his face: 100%.

“How’s that for statistically probable?”

And with that, she left him there with his lies and luxury.