Avery ended up making it back in less than fifteen minutes and deposited Liam in front of the woman at the desk. “Here. A family member with the same blood type. He can help you now.”

She turned to leave but Liam called after her. “Hang on a minute! Who are you? How did you know Chris was hurt or where to find me?”

Avery let out a wry laugh. This was the beginning of the end, wasn’t it? That didn’t matter though. All that did was that Christian was going to get the help he needed. He would have the same questions when he woke up and if he thought hard enough he would find the answers.

“He can tell you when he wakes up.”

She rushed out the door ignoring his protests not to leave and made her way home, deactivating the suit before bursting into tears. She curled up in a ball and sobbed as the implications of what she had done hit.

Christian would have died falling at that height; there was no one else around who could have caught him. She knew she had saved his life but in the process she had probably lost him, anyway.

If he figured it out she was Nox…there would be no way explaining her way out of this one. Everything she, her father, Horatio, Angelo, and so many others worked for would be ruined. To make things worse, the man she loved enough to ruin her life for was going to hate her.

Avery rocked back and forth in her little ball sobbing about what a mess her life had become and how stupid she had been to think she could ever be with the man she loved until she was completely out of tears. Nothing could fix this. All she could do now was wait for the fallout and try to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.

===

When Christian woke up he was groggy and unaware of his surroundings. It took several blinks for his eyes to focus enough to realize he was in a hospital and Liam was sitting in a chair next to his bed tapping his foot anxiously.

That snapped him to attention. Liam should not be here.

He didn’t have ID on him when he went out to do his hero duties so it wasn’t like anyone from the hospital would be able to try and call his family. They wouldn’t even know who his family was!

“Liam,” he croaked. “How did you get here?”

His brother immediately swiveled his head and relief flooded his face. “Chris, you’re awake! You’ve been unconscious for half a day after your surgery.”

Surgery. He remembered now; he had been hit by a flying knife Circus Freak threw hard enough to lodge itself in his chest. It was a miracle he was alive right now! He couldn’t quite remember what happened after that…

“How did you get here?” Christian repeated.

Liam frowned as he thought back on it. “It was kind of weird, actually. Do any of your hero buddies know who you are? Because one of them broke into our place and kidnapped me before asking if I had the same blood type as you. That was when he explained you got stabbed and needed a blood transfusion.”

Nobody knew his secret identity aside from his immediate family and that was only because they were aware of his powers and would have figured it out on their own anyway. How would they have known to look for Liam, let alone where to find him?

“They shouldn’t,” he said with a wince. “Who was it? Delta? Red Dynamo? MultiMan?”

“He didn’t give a name…but he was completely covered by a black suit and his voice sounded kind of robotic.”

Christian shot up in shock before immediately sinking back against the pillows because it hurt too much. It was all coming back to him. The piece of the puzzle he had forgotten. Nox. His archnemesis, who had shown up and rather possessively attacked Circus Freak for hurting him.

What did he say? Something like ‘how dare you touch what’s mine’? As if no other villains were allowed to hurt him because that was his job.

Nox must have been the one to catch him when he passed out but that raised all sorts of questions. They could be split into two main categories: how and why. For example, how did Nox know where to find Liam? And why on earth would he bother?

“…you okay, Chris?” his brother asked nervously.

“No,” Christian moaned. It was over. It was all over. If Nox knew his secret identity nothing was safe. “That was Nox! The villain I told you about.”

Liam’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “What?! Why would he save you then? And if he knew who you were all this time why didn’t he ever try to do anything to you before now? Do you think he figured it out after you got hurt?”

He hadn’t considered that. It would make more sense than if Nox knew who he was beforehand. If his mask had been taken off to admit him to the hospital then Nox could have seen his face.

That raised additional questions though. Did Nox know him in real life? Or did he have some sort of high-tech facial recognition software imbedded in his helmet?

Christian had wondered more than once if the villain had hacking capabilities because of the way he conducted his heists. There was never any video footage left behind according to the authorities. That suit seemed like it could do practically anything so it honestly wouldn’t surprise him.

Technology scanning his face and revealing personal information about him made more sense than the idea of Nox knowing him. Because most people that knew him didn’t know where he lived.

“He must have,” Christian mused. “That suit is crazy high-tech; I’ve never seen anything like it. It wouldn’t surprise me if it had some sort of facial recognition capabilities.”

“That would make sense…but if he’s your nemesis why would he bother to save you?” Liam asked.

That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? Why would Nox bother to save him? He didn’t have any qualms about punting him into a building with his feet and breaking his arm before. Though he wouldn’t have known that would be the result he had still done something potentially harmful.

“Why indeed,” he said dryly.

A moment later his conversation with Frostine came back to him. About how Nox might be more of an antihero than a villain and believed he was doing the right thing.

He never gravely injured anyone and purposely went out of his way to make sure those guards didn’t get hurt in the explosion. He got involved in that mess at the restaurant despite totally being able to get away with hiding in plain sight as a civilian and waiting for someone else to handle it. He clearly had some sense of morals.

Christian was pretty out of it by the time Nox intervened in his fight with Circus Freak but he had noticed there was real anger in his voice as he took the other villain down. He had always teased his nemesis mercilessly but the possessiveness was surprising.

Did Nox think they were friends somehow? Was that why he acted like that every time they ran into each other?

That was absurd considering they were enemies but it would explain why the man would bother jumping in to save his life when he had absolutely no reason to out himself. No one else in this city knew who Nox was.

People were definitely going to take notice of him now since he had gotten involved in the middle of a fight between a hero and another villain. More likely than not they would assume he was some new hero. There would be an awful lot of speculation in the coming weeks, especially if he made another appearance any time soon.

He hadn’t been as active lately. Only showing up once a month at various medical warehouses.

If Nox truly had been stealing nothing but insulin this entire time he probably did it on a monthly basis for a reason. Perhaps to play Robin Hood like Frostine suggested.

“I might have been wrong about him,” Christian mumbled.

“What?” Liam asked in confusion.

“Nox. I may have had his motivations wrong this whole time. I thought since he was a villain that he was like the rest of them but what if he’s different?”

“You better hope he is. Otherwise he might out you as Mercury and your whole life will be ruined.”

Christian had been trying not to think about that part. The last person on earth he wanted his secret to be exposed to now knew the truth. Who he was. Where he lived. Who his brother was. He didn’t have words to describe how bad this was!