Selena let out a slow breath, she already expected this to come sooner or later.

’Weaknesses.’

The word sat in the air between them.

She ran through everything she’d seen over the past weeks. The fights. The decisions. The moments where any other hero would have cracked under pressure and Nicholas had simply... not. The brothel. The Tochiux. The rooftop. The moment he deactivated Void to teleport her out of the bullet’s path without hesitating for even a second.

’As much as I hate to admit it...’

Katherine’s face surfaced in her mind immediately.

Small. Bright-eyed. Hanging off his arm in the hallway thirty seconds ago, waving goodbye with her whole arm.

Selena pushed the thought back down firmly.

"I haven’t noticed any significant weaknesses," she said.

Dana looked at her for a moment longer than the answer required.

"I thought as much," she said finally.

She turned and began walking, gesturing for Selena to follow. Her voice remained measured as she spoke.

"Do you remember the Dr. Bane disaster?"

Selena’s expression shifted immediately.

"Dana—"

"Do you remember it?"

A pause.

"Yes," Selena said quietly. "I remember it."

Dana walked at an even pace, her eyes forward.

"One of the strongest heroes of his generation. Exceptional emotional control, exemplary service record, not a single incident in twelve years of active duty." She paused. "And then the plague came back for him."

Selena said nothing.

She knew the history. Everyone in the association knew the history. That was the point — it was the kind of story you were told early, so you understood exactly why your role existed.

The plague didn’t end with the awakening. That was the part most civilians didn’t understand. The desire that had been conquered to produce an ability didn’t disappear — it remained, dormant, a pressure that could resurface. For most heroes it never did. For some, under enough strain, it returned stronger than before.

The second infection was different from the first. The desire wasn’t just consuming — it amplified everything. The ability. The strength. The capacity for destruction.

Dr. Bane had leveled an entire city district before anyone understood what was happening.

The Hero Association had been scrambling for a counter and found nothing in time.

That was why supervisors existed.

Not just to guide heroes or report their progress.

To know them. Completely. Their triggers, their breaking points, their emotional architecture — everything that could be used to stop them if the worst happened.

A targeted counter for a hero whose power was understood was manageable.

A hero like Dr. Bane, who was unknown and uncontained, was a catastrophe.

"The system exists because we failed once," Dana said simply. "We can’t afford to fail again."

Dana said her eyes focused as though she was trying to peer through the door.

"Having someone as powerful as Phantom without any meaningful check on file is a risk," Dana continued. "I’m not suggesting he’s unstable. I’m not suggesting the disaster repeats itself through him." She glanced at Selena sideways. "But the association’s first obligation is always to the people."

"And now it’s not just him," she added quietly. "It’s his sister as well." Dana said letting out a frustrated sigh, "Both their abilities are crazy enough to have the councillors putting out everything just to get them."

Selena’s jaw tightened, ’She’s right’

She thought about what to say and chose carefully.

"He’s level-headed," she said. "More than almost anyone I’ve supervised. His emotions don’t get the better of him — if anything, the concern runs the other way. Sometimes I wonder how someone like him got infected by the plague in the first place."

Dana glanced at her from the corner of her eye.

The look wasn’t unkind. But it was perceptive in a way that made Selena feel slightly transparent.

"Maybe you’re right," Dana said. "Maybe he is level-headed. Maybe we don’t have to worry about the Bane scenario repeating through him."

They reached the door to Eric’s office.

Dana stopped walking.

She turned to face Selena properly.

"But that’s not actually what I’m worried about right now."

The hallway was quiet around them.

Dana’s voice dropped slightly — not secretive, just careful.

"We’ve made a discovery recently. Someone is looking for a cure to the plague."

Selena went very still.

"A cure?"

"We don’t know the full scope of it. We don’t know what they hope to achieve or what they plan to do with it if they find it." Dana’s expression was unreadable. "But the methods they’ve been using suggest they aren’t waiting for ethical approval and it can’t be anything good."

Selena’s mind moved immediately to Hexi’s voice in that room.

’Master will be so happy.’

’We found your cure.’

The pieces had been sitting in separate places. Now Dana was handing her the frame to put them in.

"So you think they might come after Phantom for his ability?," Selena said slowly. "Since he can void the ability of others..."

Dana didn’t answer immediately.

She didn’t need to.

"Nicholas is too significant to remain a blank file," she said finally. "Whatever his weaknesses are — whatever might be used to help or to stop him — the association needs that information. Not because we distrust him." A pause. "Because someone else is already moving toward him with a purpose we don’t fully understand yet."

"And if they get to him before we understand what we’re dealing with—"

She let the sentence end there.

Selena stared at the door to Eric’s office.

Dana’s words weighed heavy, she took at some point, thought to herself how dangerous his abilities were but she didn’t place much thoughts on it.

What would happen if someone like that decided to switch sides on them.

Or worse he became an impure.

’Knowing Nicholas, he’d sell himself off if he could’ Selena thought with a wry smile.

"I understand," Selena said quietly.

Dana held her gaze for one more moment.

Then she pushed open the door to Eric’s office.

[A/N: Will take this short opportunity to thank y’all for reading this far! Sheesh, it’s not been easy at all! But I’ve crossed over 70k words with the First volume and now we’re crossing into the second Volume with even more exciting things to see ahead of us. Had a really bad headache when writing this Chapter.. don’t know if it came out well, but I did the much I could.]