“I’ve been wondering, David,” Evelyn Cade sighed forlornly as she stood over Senior Enforcer Hart’s desk, her arms crossed and her head hung low.

            “What about?” he asked.

            “About all of this.  And… whether it was because of me.”

            At this, Hart fully directed his attention over to his colleague and friend of over half a century.  “You’re talking about Alexandra?”

            “Yes.”

            “How could you say that?”

            “There was obviously so much going on with her, so many problems she needed help with, and I was blind to it all.  And now it’s hurt not only her but other innocent people.  If only I’d spent more time with her, maybe I could’ve seen it before.”

            “You’ve been there for her since that night she first showed up here.  You’re the closest thing she’s had to a real mother.  Probably ever.”

            “I… I know, but… sometimes I think I could’ve done more,” Evelyn continued, her voice cracking in the back of her throat.  For the first time in a long time, the Omega felt an uneasy hollowness: a creeping sense of fallibility she’d hadn’t felt remotely close to since she’d stood at the height of an Alpha all those years ago.  “There’s so much about the way she grew up that she never fully healed from.  I always knew it would take her a long time to work her way back to some kind of normalcy, and… and I know Bridget helped her by leaps and bounds, but…”

            “But what?”

            “She’s seen such awful things for someone so young.  I suppose all these years she’d just been storing that up inside with nowhere to get rid of it healthily, and now she’s just imploding.  Maybe… maybe if I’d just spent more time trying to understand, trying to reach her, maybe this all could’ve been-”’

            “You can’t let yourself think that, Ev,” Hart interrupted.  “I agree, whatever’s happened to the Alexandra we all remember must have something to do with that pain.  And even though she’s got to put in the time now, I know it’s not fair to hang the blame entirely around her neck.  But you can’t place it on yourself either.  You’re not the one responsible.”

            “Why not?  Look at us.  We’re the most powerful beings on Earth.  We’ve been trying to fix the world for eighty years, and still things like this continue to happen.  Who else can be responsible, then?”

            “I don’t know what to say.  We’re Omegas.  Not gods.  Even if we’re going to live long enough to see the entire galaxy populated and big enough to hold a hundred people in our hands, everyone, even Kayla, came from humanity, and that’s a part of ourselves we’re never going to completely lose,” Hart said sorrowfully, the bitterness of the situation evident in his words too.  “Even if we wanted to.”

            “So what good are we if we can’t help everyone?”         

            “Because we can still do our best.  And when our best isn’t enough, we put everything we have into healing.  Just as we’re going to do for those Betas, and just as we’re going to do for Alexandra.”

            Evelyn bit her lip and nodded, her eyes glistening with salty pools.

            “Those… Betas, though.  And that girl, the one who… who…  How has she looked?”

            “They think she… could wake up soon.  Her body’s responding well to the treatment.  It’s much more positive than when she arrived,” Hart answered.  “It will be all right again.”

            “Excuse me.  David?  Evelyn?” piped the voice of Tricia Reynolds from the Alpha path lining the office.

            “Yes, Trish?” Evelyn said warmly, trying to disguise the penetrating melancholy of her mood as she turned to face her comparatively miniscule coworker.

            “There’s an individual over at the entrance bay that I think you might want to have someone come listen to,” she responded as she pointed in the direction of the elevators.

            “Who is it?”

            “The man who runs the Beta clothing store in that alley behind where the Warren attack took place,” the Alpha said with arms crossed.  “He says he wants to talk.”

            “Didn’t we talk to him the night of the incident?” Hart said with a frown, rapidly scrolling through the record of the case on his tablet for confirmation.  “Does he have something to add?”

            “I think he does.  He’s spooked.  Looks like he might start crying any second.  If I was a betting woman, I’d say he knows something he didn’t share before.  He was mumbling something about getting even, and something else about a boy.  I believe I heard the words “that rich little fucker,” but it’s hard to say.  I couldn’t really make it all out.”

            “All right, we’ll… get someone over there,” Hart said uneasily, pulling out his phone.  “If you could take him to an empty debriefing chamber, I’ll see who’s open right now.  Anything else?”

            “I don’t know if it’s anything we need to handle, but he had a couple bruises on his face.  I don’t think anything too severe,” Tricia added.  “Still…”

            “Maybe an Alpha heard he helped with the investigation and tried to even the score?” Evelyn suggested.  “That might’ve been what he was mumbling about.  It might’ve been someone young, too.”

            “Someone who knows Alexandra could’ve tracked him down,” Hart said.

            “Or anyone, really.  There are a lot of people unhappy over all this.”

            “You can say that again.  But I don’t think it was an Alpha who roughed him up,” Tricia continued gravely.  “I didn’t get a real good look at his face, I only carried him over to a different platform, but the mark on his chin was small.  Looked more like it came from a Beta.”

            “Really,” Evelyn said back.  She bit her lip and seemed to drift out of the present as she disappeared into her thoughts.  The words Tricia had heard from the man all seemed like a disconnected jumble, and yet something was gnawing at the Omega in the back of her mind, telling her that it could make sense.  Something she’d stored away long enough ago that she had to think twice.

            “A Beta hit him, hmm?  Whichever medical examiner’s on call right now, could you give them a page while I get someone to take another statement from him?” Hart asked Tricia as he finished dialing into his phone and put it to his ear.

            “Will do, David,” the Alpha responded with a nod before turning on the path.

            “Wait a minute,” Evelyn cut in softly with a wave of her hand, her eyes locked numbly to the floor as she swam through her memory bank for a word or image she couldn’t recall.  “The boy.  The first one to give his statement.  Nathaniel-something.  What was his last name?”

            “Nathaniel… Tyler, I think.  Tyler.  That’s it.  Why?” Hart answered as he covered up the phone’s mouthpiece, repeating it with confidence.  “Wait a second.  Isn’t he…”

            “Oh, God,” Evelyn uttered, her mouth hanging open and her face flushing white.