SSD III: Silver

72. I Messed Up

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Free-dive training."

He winced. "I would again recommend against sharing that with anyone." It wasn't so much that he had anything against people knowing they were trained to hold their breaths for pretty long periods with warning, it was more that he had a feeling Silver wouldn't want people knowing how exactly the training was done.

They were paired up at random, one of them told to hold their breath, and held underwater by the other. It was supposed to be done so that the person held under could tap the hand holding them down when they needed to come up for air. But those partnered with Silver seemed to spontaneously develop numb patches on their hands where she tapped, or unusually slow reaction speeds.

When Keenan had told her he would do something about it, she'd told him not to bother. When a person couldn't breathe, they panicked long before they actually needed more air, that was what she'd said, so all they were doing by keeping her under was showing her her real limits and helping her improve faster.

She'd been the first to be able to stay under the water for more than five minutes, but it was at the price of having been held under the water until she passed out more than once.

"Ok."

***

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Mr Smith finally caved about Tungsten." Silver looked ready to punch someone. Keenan resolved to make sure it wouldn't be him.

Of course, that meant finding a way to break this to her slowly and smoothly. "Yeah, no." Slow and smooth. "She's not dead." Very slow. "And also not quirkless." Very smooth.

Silver didn't respond for a little while, but a little nod to herself signalled the last of her thoughts coming into place as she smiled, a hint of relief at Lucy's good health weaving its way into the expression. Keenan hoped it was real relief and not fake. "A computer accident did seem fishy," she admitted.

He felt that went pretty good.

***

"What's the last thing you remember?"

The smirk on Silver's face was more smug than even Bakugou could ever manage. "I saved Blaze's life."

The maniacal grin clashed with the words painfully. It sent wild shivers down Keenan's spine in all the worst ways, but he supposed it made sense. Blaze had been the last of the team to start treating Silver a little better when her medical knowledge increased her worth to WMD tenfold, Silver saving the girl's life with her skills had been the catalyst for that. She had a right to be smug about it.

***

"What's the last-"

"Why won't they tell me why they killed him?"

Fury. That was fury written in every clenched muscle, in the glare burning through his skull and the hard set of her jaw. Any apathy was gone, this was real emotion and she was feeling it.

"Who?"

"The nurse who's been teaching me."

Keenan did not answer her.

***

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Empty air. Weird, Silver was always at the table by now.

"Silver?"

He walked through the apartment he was now familiar enough with that he could probably wander round blindfolded, checking every nook and cranny for his sister. Nobody.