Step 10562, say "Door to Earth; Dimensional coordinates Eta 6, Gamma 9, Axis 3 - spatial Coordinates; Japan, 35.5311° N, 139.8894° E"
She obeyed - as it always had been.
To Fortuna, her power had always felt like a curse - should she cease using it, the urge her Agent gave her intermingled with the overwhelming guilt of her inaction.
Using it, however? It was akin to placing her faith in the puppet master by tying his strings around her limbs and neck.
The Path to Victory was her onus to bear, however - and she would not spurn the countless sacrifices made, the countless atrocities she had committed, incited, aided and abetted, all in the name of mankind's salvation.
However, as a small child, perhaps five years old, fell into her arms?
She could only take a sliver of joy in the small acts of mercy and kindness her ability allowed her.
This world, across its many dimensional iterations, needed violence, hate and conflict - the irony of the matter was not lost to her; for to defeat Zion, they had taken upon themselves Eden's mantle.
But this little action?
It would save so many worlds.
She tried explaining it once to Alexandria - Rebecca understood it on the intellectual level, but it was Keith who
understood - on the emotional, human level.
Better than anyone, she understood how each and every action followed a reaction, and how the bonds between each person rippled like wakes in a pond.
Every soul was like a world unto itself.
She had become Death, Destroyer of Worlds.
But for today?
She had saved an entire world.
And she was fine with that.
—WWW—
Daniel Hebert was content.
His left hand was combing through his wife's hair, picking through a paperback a friend had mailed her a week ago.
His right was wrapped around his daughter's shoulders, bracing the sleepy five year-old to his side.
He quarreled with his old man quite a bit - the old salt was the quintessence of the hardened sailor, veteran of World War Two, and a Destroyerman at that; "Not one of them pansy, snot-nosed kids with their fancy computers and missiles, boy - back in my day you had your eyes, your ears, a quad-40mm BOFORS, and we beat the Japs up so bad they turned pacifist!"
But at that moment, a certain phrase he spoke to him resonated across time.
He had gone with a friend on a joyride, and they'd both had a couple of beers beforehand.
The tree they encountered had taken offense to that, and while they both walked away from the crash, he'd broken his nose.
His father found out immediately.
A friend of his, a police officer, had responded to the crash and picked both of them up.
They both avoided any black marks in their records, but only barely.
It was the one time his father raised his hand on him.
He opened the door, gave his gratitude to his friend, brought him inside the house and to the kitchen, and slapped him so hard across the cheek he fell to the floor.
To his seventeen year-old self, it felt like he had an intimate encounter with the wrong side of a freight train.
"I don't care if you smoke, drink, or whore around; those kinds of mistakes, you can make and learn from; But if I ever see, hear or even suspect you're going to do something so
stupid like what you did today, I will wring your neck myself. Am I clear?"
He nodded.
"Good."
He turned, then stopped at the door.
"When you have your own family, You'll understand."
And at this very moment, he did.
Three thumps, a knock on the door.
Seeing his daughter had succumbed to sleep, and his wife still immersed in her reading, he heaved a sigh and rose to the call.
Opening the door, he saw a young woman, perhaps around her early twenties, holding the hand of a smaller girl.
Behind them, the torrid rain fell yet still, and a fork of lightning lanced actinic across the sky, striking a lightning rod atop one of the wrecks in the Bay.
The peel of thunder caused the small girl to jump.
He was confused.
Was this an acquaintance of Annette?
"Good evening, Mr. Hebert - is your wife home?"
Yup, probably one of her friends from the college - though this late at night, in this weather, and with a child? Smells like trouble.
Still, he couldn't very well leave them on the steps - already, the small girl shivered.
"Yes, she is - would you like to step inside while I call her?"
The woman nodded, urging the girl inside.
The relief the small girl showed when he closed the door made him feel more at ease with his decision.
Leaving the two at the entrance, he had called Annette - who professed to not having invited anyone from the college, much less with a child.
When she saw the woman, however, recognition and discomfort were apparent on her face.
He left the two women and the girl in the living room while he took Taylor upstairs, tucking her in.
As he came back down the stairs, he saw that they had been waiting for him.
"Danny, we need to talk."
He remembered another phrase his father told him.
"It's never a good thing to hear that sentence from a woman, believe you me."
—WWW—
His old man was indeed right.
The woman, whom Annette introduced as Cassandra, used to run with Lustrum's group.
While Annette had left them before the tides turned ugly, Cassandra had stuck around for a bit more before disappearing.
As it had turned out, she had been on an assignment from a branch of the FBI that later formed the foundations for the modern-day PRT, investigating rumors of Lustrum gathering powered Lieutenants.
Seeing how this proved false, she was recalled when the tides shifted and her task became too dangerous.
While the story certainly filled some gaps in his knowledge, was still left unsatisfied.
"So, what does the little girl have to do with the situation? I hardly believe she ran with Lustrum as well."
His humorous quip crashed against the icy walls of his wife and her former 'colleague'.
Ouch. Tough crowd today.
"The girl is called Lucy. She was rescued from a laboratory in Kyushu several days before Leviathan's attack."
What?
"The facility was tasked with the investigation of parahuman abilities and attempted to replicate them with genetic modification - put more bluntly, they were attempting to make super-soldiers."
I'm gonna be sick.
He looked to the small girl, whose head was now resting in his wife's lap, asleep.
A head of pink hair.
Are those… horns?
"From what we can gather, Lucy was made in the facility, and spent all her life there; while she has yet to manifest powers of any sort, her genetic structure is quite a bit different than that of the average human being, containing similar genetic additions to precursor human species uncovered in archeological digs in the Mediterranean. The hair coloration, for example, will likely darken with age, but remain uncommon for the average human. The horns seemed to be part of her skull's structure, and interface with her brain in a way we do not fully understand."
"She was also abused."
Thick silence ruled the room for a minute.
His veins, thus far laden with ice, began pulsing with fire.
She can't be older than Taylor - and they treated her like some sort of science experiment?
He swallowed thickly.
"I assume they've been dealt with?"
At that, Cassandra's mute facade broke, revealing a toothy smile that, while restrained, hid violence.
"Thoroughly."
She's dangerous.
"I see. I assume you haven't told us about her for the sake of making conversation, then?"
Cassandra nodded.
"I'll be blunt - we'd like you to take her in."
His eyebrows rose.
Cassandra continued.
"We, the government, will provide a stipend for her welfare, as well as a compensation for your family - it should prove sufficient to enable you to make any expansions to the house as needed, or purchase a new residence after adding the estimated resale value of your home."
It was hard to wrap his head around the idea.
"We understand this is unexpected and sudden, to say the least - but given my acquaintance with Annette, and your daughter's age, your family was one of the better candidates on the list."
He looked at his wife, whose hands never stopped stroking the short pink hairs.
Her expression was unmistakable.
"We'll take her."
It was that face that made him marry her, after all.
And in any case - Taylor always wanted a sibling.
—WWW—
Taylor was excited.
She definitely wasn't nervous, because only babies were nervous, and then they cried and pooped everywhere.
No sir, Taylor Hebert - not Herbert! - was a big, brave girl; she was already five!
She kicked her feet in the air a bit.
Mommy put her hand on her shoulder, all warm and mom-like.
"Relax, little owl - we're just meeting a new friend, that's all; she's about your age, too!"
The small coffee shop's door opened, and the door bell went ding-a-ling - like all the best doors do.
There was a tall lady with a cool hat that held a girl's hand.
A girl
her age.
"Mommy, are
they your friends?"
Her mommy smiled at her and Taylor felt warm inside, like she ate a rainbow.
"That's right - now, how about you put on one of your special smiles and say hello?"
The Cool Hat Lady - she just KNEW she was the kind of person whose name people capitalized - sat across her mommy, and the girl sat across from her.
The nice waitress lady brought them water, and Taylor said her thanks like mommy taught her.
Finally, it was time.
Taylor scrunched her shoulders, and did the
thing.
"Hello! My name is Taylor! I like my mommy, my friend Emma, and my plushie, Mister Googly the owl! What's your name?"
She must have put too much power into the smile, since the other girl didn't say anything.
Her cheer was too strong!
The other girl's cheeks went all red-like, like when she caught mommy and daddy making kissy-faces in the living room and being all yucky.
The Cool Hat Lady put her hand on the girl's back, like mommy did for her when she was nervous.
Was the Cool Hat Lady the girl's mommy?
"M-my name-", the girl started, then stopped.
She took an extra deep breath, then spoke again.
"M-my name is Lucy. I like dogs, and orange juice. Without the orange bits."
At that moment, Taylor knew.
"We're going to be best friends!"
—WWW—
She was always alone.
Always cold.
The men came, poked her and jabbed her with their needles and syringes.
Sometimes, a lady would come and ask her questions.
She never knew the answers, and for some reason, there were no right answers.
Every several meals, there would be tests.
They would throw things at her, and tell her to defend herself.
She never could.
One day, the men got angry.
"ENOUGH! Raise the power level - 1000 joules!", shouted one.
It was a big number, bigger than ever before.
The bigger numbers hurt more.
"But sir! That much energy, the subject-!"
"SILENCE! The subject will either produce results or they will be disposed of! No further arguments, do you- hey, who are-?!"
Loud banging noises over the intercom.
Some of the men screamed.
Then they stopped.
Soon, shoes went click-clack behind her.
"I'm going to release your binds now - relax your body, or you might get hurt."
She did as the lady asked - bad things happened when she didn't listen to the ladies.
The metal cuffs went
clack! And fell off her wrists and legs.
She dropped down a bit, but was caught before she hit the floor.
Looking up, she saw a lady she had never seen before.
Tall, scary looking, with a fancy-looking hat.
"What is your name, girl?", asked the hat lady.
The ladies never asked for my name. Is she a different lady?"
"My name is Lucy, lady."
The lady smiled.
"Nice to meet you, Lucy. My name is Contessa, but you can call me Tessa."
She is a different lady! The other ladies never told me their names."
"Thank you, Miss Tessa."
Miss Tessa smiled.
"Now, Lucy - how would you like to go somewhere nice?"
Somewhere nice? Where was that?
"I don't know, Miss Tessa - I've never been anywhere else."
Miss Tessa's face made the twitchy thing that some of the ladies did when they got mad, and she flinched back.
"I'm sorry! Please don't hit me!"
She didn't hit her.
Instead, Miss Tessa picked her up, and put her head against her chest, cradling her in her arms.
She feels… warm.
"I'm not going to hit you, ever. I promise."
Miss Tessa's face was very serious. Then she smiled.
"As for where is that somewhere nice? How about we find out? Would you like that?"
She suddenly felt very tired, and very warm.
Her eyes drooped, and just past her eyelids, she thought she saw something gold.
Just before she fell asleep, Lucy managed one last reply.
"Mm-hm…", she nodded.
Then she dreamed.
—WWW—
Miss Tessa told her that the men in the lab were bad men.
That what they were doing to her was bad, and that they were punished for it.
Miss Tessa was not nice when she said that.
Part of her wanted to feel bad for the men.
The other parts, the ones that hurt under the cold water and the hard bed, didn't want to.
Miss Tessa told her this was normal, and that it was fine to not think about it right now, not decide right now - she let her talk with another lady who said that she helped people who felt bad feel better.
She didn't think it was possible, but after meeting the lady several times, she didn't feel as bad as before.
After some time, Miss Tessa told her that they were going to meet some nice people.
The man they met was tall and thin, and the lady he lived with was shorter and very pretty.
Miss Tessa told her they were married, and that it was something that people who loved each other did after some time.
When she asked Miss Tessa if she was married, she made a weird face, and Miss Rebecca laughed.
She didn't get the joke, but laughing was good.
The next day, they went to a 'coffee shop' - which sounded like a bad place to go, since she tried mister Keith's coffee and it was
gross - but it was a nice place in the end.
Then, she met Taylor.
"We're going to be best friends!"
She didn't have the words, not at the time - but that day she swore, on her entire being;
"We will!"
No one would ever take this from her.
Not for anything in the world.
And those who would dare try would
burn.
