Sunday:
I was dressed in a black hoodie and baggy sweats. Underneath, my Spider-Man costume was on; my mask had been removed and stuffed into my oversized pocket. I was on a mission.
I had been following Tandy and Harry since noon.
First, lunch at a place Harry apparently liked in Midtown. Then Harry took her to the top of the Empire State Building — she had mentioned, apparently, that she'd never been. Then a movie theater. And now, as the afternoon settled into early evening, a walk through Central Park.
Honestly, the movie hadn't been half bad. I had kept one eye on them and one on the screen, and the story was decent. Harry had picked well.
But I knew Osborn could change at any moment. The Green Goblin formula was unpredictable at the best of times, and Harry was still early in whatever process Norman had set in motion. Which was why I had spent the last three hours trailing them like a determined ghost.
They were moving toward the Bethesda Terrace now. The area was busy — couples and families everywhere, the fountain catching the late afternoon light. I trailed from a comfortable distance, hood up, eyes focused on Harry.
He seemed...fine. I hated admitting it, but watching him walk alongside Tandy, laughing easily at something she said, he didn't look like a man on the edge of anything. He looked like a kid on a good day.
Maybe I was being paranoid. Maybe he wouldn't just snap like a switch being flipped.
Maybe. But I was never going to underestimate an Osborn.
They found a park bench overlooking the fountain. I settled behind a line of trees and watched. They talked for a long time. I started to yawn. The sun was getting low.
Eventually I focused my hearing and tuned into Harry's voice.
"...Pete is my best friend. My only real one. And I think he's ashamed of the person I was before, so he stopped spending time with me — and I can't blame him. He's the kind of person who'll always stand up for what's right, you know?"
Tandy sighed. "Yes. I know exactly what you mean. He did the same for me. He saved me and I can't...I can't even thank him properly."
"Is that why you love him? Because he saved you? Do you feel like you owe him something?"
"No. I know Peter would never accept that. I love him because...because he's the kind of man who didn't look away when a homeless girl needed help."
I pulled back from my focus and exhaled. I did not need that in my head right now. I looked at them one last time. They were fine. Harry hadn't gone anywhere near the edge. My job here was done.
I turned to leave.
My spider-sense hit me so hard my legs buckled.
I spun around.
Walking through the park, moving directly toward Harry and Tandy, was a figure in a black cloak that billowed behind him in an absent wind. Inside the cloak there was nothing — absolute darkness, darker than shadow, a void wrapped in fabric.
Cloak.
Tyrone Johnson. The half of the superhero duo Cloak and Dagger.
I felt the recognition land with the weight of a stone dropped in still water, and immediately what followed it was dread.
Cloak and Dagger. They were supposed to be together. Tyrone was a creature of living darkness — the Darkforce — and without Tandy's Lightforce to balance it, the darkness consumed him. Without Dagger, Cloak lost control.
Without Tandy.
Oh no.
He stopped before their park bench. Harry looked up, immediately putting himself between the figure and Tandy. "Can I help you, man?"
"The light," Tyrone murmured, his eyes locked on Tandy with an intensity that wasn't entirely human. "You're leaking it. The light."
"I'm sorry?" Harry stood up fully. "I think you need to step back. You're making her uncomfortable."
"The light...you are the one I seek. Balance." Tyrone stepped forward, his hand outstretched — the flesh completely consumed by darkness.
Harry stepped into his path. "Hey! Back off! I don't know who you think you are—"
Tyrone turned to him, reached forward, and threw Harry over his head with one arm. Harry went sailing past the fountain and crashed into a tree branch with a crack of impact.
"H-help!" Tandy cried out, backing up. "Someone! Anyone!"
A wave of darkness began rolling out from Tyrone's body, spreading across the ground, dimming everything it touched. People nearby gasped and stumbled back, disoriented. I started running.
I needed to understand what was happening before I escalated. Tyrone wasn't evil — he was sick, or desperate, or both. Without Tandy's light to balance his darkness he went out of control. That much I remembered. But the specifics of their history in this world — what had separated them, what Tandy might mean to him beyond the power dynamic — I didn't know enough.
What I did know was that he was about to hurt her.
I pulled on my helmet and dropped the hoodie. "Sexy — scan that energy signature if you can."
Tyrone turned toward me. His cloak parted and tendrils of darkness launched outward. I ducked and weaved, the tendrils passing close enough to feel.
"I'm sorry, Spider — I can't get a clean reading. The energy source appears to be a form of dimensional matter. It's not registering on any known spectrum."
I clicked my teeth. That tracked. The Darkforce existed partially outside normal space.
I tried to step forward — and couldn't.
I looked down. My own shadow had come alive. It wrapped around both my ankles like a vice, holding me in place with more force than physics had any right to grant it. I tried magic — channeled power into my legs and pushed. Every form of energy I generated was immediately absorbed into the darkness around me. I tried web lines — the shadows generated by the webs themselves came alive and severed each strand before it could reach its target.
I was being pulled toward him. I dug my fingers into the ground, trying to anchor myself, but slowly, steadily, I was dragged forward.
"The Lightforce," Tyrone murmured, turning away from me, moving toward Tandy now. "Hungry...so hungry..."
"No!" Tandy screamed. "Get away from me!" She pushed at him with both hands. Tyrone caught her arms and held them, her struggles making no difference to him. She kicked at his midsection — and her feet disappeared into the void inside his cloak up to the ankle. She screamed louder. "Help me!" She was being pulled in. "Help!"
And then there was light.
"ARGH!" Tyrone cried out and lurched back.
Tandy was glowing. Not metaphorically — she was genuinely luminous, a warm bright light radiating from her skin and hair. Her hair rose in a wind that wasn't there. Her eyes brightened steadily until the irises were almost white, and then a glowing crescent shape appeared just beneath her right eye — like a mark, or a birthmark of light.
I stared.
Tandy Bowen. It was right there in front of me. The name, the power, the mark. Dagger.
I had done this. I had pulled Tandy away from whatever situation she had been in and brought her here, to this school, to these people — I had separated Dagger from Cloak before Tyrone even knew where she was. Without her light to sustain him, his darkness had eaten him from the inside out until he had no choice but to come looking.
This was my fault.
Tandy thrust both hands forward. Two blades of pure light materialized from her palms and flew at Tyrone. He absorbed them eagerly, his darkness drinking the light in — and seemed to grow.
"Hungry! Hungry! HUNGRY!" His voice had lost the last of its coherence. His form expanded, the darkness spreading outward like a flood tide, the cloak stretching to encompass more and more space. Everything within range was beginning to be pulled inward.
Tandy screamed.
I lunged forward and grabbed her as we were both caught in the current. I wrapped both arms around her and held on. She pressed herself against me, hands fisted in my costume.
"Close your eyes," I said.
She did. I closed mine.
I prayed — with genuine sincerity, the kind of prayer that comes when there are no other options left — that wherever Tyrone sent us, there would be a way back.
The darkness covered us completely.
And as it took us, I had only one thought.
This is all my fault.