Worm fanfic where Amy/Panacea winds up with a goth girlfriend associated with Youth Guard

Question

I was recently reading a Worm fanfic (one of the ones I asked about before) and the Youth Guard, a group in-universe who operates to try to prevent exploitation of youths with superpowers, came up in the story in association with Amy Dallon, aka Panacea, one of the major healers in the universe. That suddenly led to me getting vivid memories of another story I read where a sideplot (I think it was far from the main one) had a member of the Youth Guard, female, probably early college age, who was described as wearing too much eye makeup, piercings, and clunky black boots, started interacting with Amy, and the relationship eventually bloomed into something more romantic. Later in the story, the young woman in question was thinking of quitting Youth Guard, because she discovered something (maybe an attempt to exploit one of the kid superheroes?) and was feeding Amy covert information in hopes that she could fix it. I also remember that a rift between them erupted from the young woman in question having engaged in self-harm in the past (maybe even fairly recently) and she did not want Amy to heal her, preferring to wear her scars proudly, while Amy was mildly offended by someone she knew causing injuries to themselves, since Amy is geared to heal.

I probably read it somewhere between the mid 2010s and 2020. Unfortunately, I can't remember many details of the rest of the fanfic, particularly vexing because I don't think Amy was even the main character of the story, but rather a supporting one who got a few focus episodes.

Answer 1

I think this was from Deputy, a sequel to internship. In the fiction Taylor got a job at the PRT. And because of her analitical mind the internship is a huge success! She manage to deal a heavy blow to the Empire. Taylor is supposedly a non-parahuman: they even tested her a few times because she is surprisingly competent for a civilian.

A youth guard named Caryn Ives was manipulated into attacking Taylor, who was working as an intern in PRT. She is an idealist who really believe in the YG, and was used as a pawn by the guy Taylor got fired.

She is a goth when out of an uniform.

She was unrecognizable. Now that I knew who she was, I could place her voice. Also, I could count on one hand the number of people I'd met with such long hair. But everything else had changed. The shape of her lips and eyes were completely obscured by makeup, leaving her dimples as her only distinguishing feature; her chest was still noticeable but was much less pronounced in a correctly-sized shirt; and unlike her hodgepodge 'professional woman' getup, her gothic look showed care for her image.

"When we first started checking in on you, the Director cooperated. She gave us the same access to you as she gives us to the Wards, and that included your confidential personnel file. Well, I caught Smith poking around our computers and leaving with a memory stick. I think he stole your file. Don't know why, but I had to let you know, okay?"

The scene where Amy finds out about her self-harming habits is from the sequel Deputy commander.

Amy grabbed Caryn's wrist and tugged her shirtsleeve up over her shoulder, revealing a fresh bandage with crimson stains seeping through. "What. The. Fuck. I healed you last week."

Caryn's reaction reminded me of a match, a blazing ignition that quickly burnt out into a thin, fragile husk. She yanked her arm free and yanked her sleeve back down, motions severe and furious, but she was already apologetic seconds later when she began to talk. "Look, I would never have asked you to do that under ordinary circumstances. I didn't want to get healed in the first place, and I sure as hell didn't want to make you work on your day off. Seriously, I can't believe that they didn't pay you for your time in the hospital. But with that little girl right there? How was I supposed to explain to her why I do what I do?"

Amy softened the instant Caryn mentioned the hospital. If anything could earn my friend's respect, it was recognizing how difficult her situation had been before her defection. "You want me to put them back?" She asked. The speed of Amy's turnabout was a pleasant surprise; Amy's cynical outlook was well justified and a part of what made her her, but she could stand to be less prickly from time to time.

The relationship is kinda in the background, as it is not an Amy-centered fiction. It is a bit of a cracky story as the idea is that Taylor gets more and more power within a PRT, no matter how little sense that makes. He is deputised at the end of intern, and is promoted in every sequel.