-Joyce Meyer

"Keep your head down. You're too recognizable, but we don't have time to make better disguises. Remember, we're in hostile territory, so keep an eye out. I'm sure they're looking for us by now."

John kept doing his best to remain alert without directly eyeing anyone that they passed, hoping Seras' excellent hearing and vision would allow them to spot any incoming threats, although he worried about how affected both of those were by being in daylight. Once his ability had eventually worn off - and he had explained to a rather panicked Seras where exactly she'd been for the last several minutes - they had phoned Moira and then made a quick exit. John wasn't entirely sure where they were… but he knew they couldn't stay there. If the Cabal weren't already on their way, they were fools.

John had grabbed an **** rifle that the Cabal hadn't completely emptied and Seras hadn't used herself in the battle against Lyle, then quickly made his escape with what little ammo and useful weapons he could hold in his inventory. He hoped that it didn't come to a firefight in the streets, but he wanted to be prepared if it did.Thankfully he still had a spare outfit for Seras in his inventory, learned after the last set she’d nearly wrecked during the Minotaur battle. They would be a lot more conspicuous if they were waltzing down the street as a pair of bloodied lunatics.

"Sorry, I’m just… kinda happy right now."

"Happy?" John grunted, raising an eyebrow to the cheerful vampiress. It was true - despite his capture and potential **** back there, as well as Seras coming very close to **** herself, the blonde had been smiling almost constantly since they left the base behind. He hadn't had a chance to ask her about it while they were leaving, but now he needed something - anything - to help keep his mind off the Cabal agents he was almost certain would be looking for them. Hard to do when he was also terrified of letting his guard down for even a moment.

"Yeah, I just… I thought I lost you back there. Maybe forevah. If I was a little slower, a little weaker, if you didn't have that amazin' power-"

"No sense dwelling on the what-ifs… I don't remember much of that map Moira had of Springfield, but Cabal territory was the second-largest, so we’re probably a good ways from the border still.. We better keep moving."

Moira had said they were dispatching two full platoons of soldiers, which as far as John knew there were only four total of in Moira's Order. One was to secure Etriyya's position and render assistance while evacuating them from Cabal territory, while the other had a mission to search Cabal territory from the boundary inwards until they located John.

The first platoon would eventually meet up with the second to reinforce them since they were expecting a heavy amount of resistance, and John was terrified of that very real possibility. They had successfully exterminated one Cabal Officer, but only with the use of an ability with a cooldown that measured nearly fifty-two times longer than John had been in possession of any magical abilities at all. If another one came along as strong as the first, they would be at the mercy of fate and the Order. For now, all John could do was text Moira every time they passed an intersection and he got a good look at a street sign and hope that she passed the information along quickly enough. He didn't know much of anything about this section of Springfield - his shut-in lifestyle was finally starting to bite him in the ass.

"By the way…" John mumbled, thinking about the Officer reminding him of something. "…how many people did you go through to get in there? Seriously, checked my war rewards screen and had thirty-five points. I only get half for Party Members doing it, and I only got ten for Lyle."

"…They really wanted to capture you. I really wanted to save you. Thas' all," Seras mumbled, looking almost embarrassed.

"Well, remind me to never piss you off," John offered jokingly, sensing her discomfort. "It means a lot to me you'd risk yourself like that, though."

"O-of course! You're the master, an'-"

Seras froze as she twitched mid-sentence to glance down an alleyway, tipped off by some miniscule noise John couldn't pick up. Down the way, John saw a man fumbling with his pockets and glancing at them with a look of surprise and fear that could only come from something one was intimately aware of. John didn't recognize a single symbol on him, or the man's face, which immediately concerned him. A quick Observe only confirmed John's fears.

Regis Orthol
Level 8 Cabal Scout
<The Cabal >
95 / 95 HP
Relationship: -180
Alignment: -65
Status Effects: N/A

"Shit," the man swore, raising up his hand. In it was a radio, but all John could see was his demise. John's mana had recovered enough for small spells in the few minutes since they left the Cabal base, but he only had one that could reliably prevent the call that would almost certainly signal their demise.

Knitting his brows together as Seras shot forward, John focused on controlling and disrupting the electrical signals within the radio. It was a longshot, something he'd never tried to do - but as if the radio were a working battery, he was able to short circuit the entire thing and caused it to emit nothing but static as the Cabal soldier frantically worked his radio. After a moment or two he seemed to realize that it was hopeless, but Seras was upon him by then and quickly dispatched of the man with a two-punch combo that left him twitching on the ground.

"Huh," John observed, staring at his hands in wonder, "remind me to ask Tricia to put some kind of magical reinforcement on my phone. Don't really want that to happen to me."

"We should prolly get goin', no tellin' if they were able to trace the signal, even if he couldn't really say much through all that noise," Seras pointed out. John nodded in agreement and they set off again, going as fast as they could down the streets without drawing attention by sheer virtue of their speed. The Cabal's territory seemed deserted in comparison to some of the other regions of Springfield, so John wasn't actually all that worried; anyone they saw was probably looking for them anyway. He chalked it up to being what must happen when a bunch of gangsters ran an area. He didn't know much about how often Abyssal factions messed with mundanes, but he was guessing a Cabal-controlled area must not have been a very safe place to walk after dark.

John swore multiple times over the next several minutes that he saw people closing in on them, following behind or approaching from side alleys. No one ever stopped them, nobody dared stride into their path. John was not used to this sort of tension or alertness, so he had a very difficult time telling exactly who was actually watching them - if anyone - or who he was merely noticing due to his **** paranoia at that particular moment.

His paranoia took a serious flare when an SUV burst around a corner, coming to a screeching halt only a few feet away. John had his hands up, already halfway to pulling out one of the few rifles he'd found with some remaining ammunition from his inventory when the door opened to reveal none other than Moira Brighton herself.

"Get in, quickly, John!"

"Moira!" John exclaimed, even as his legs launched him toward the van. Moira nodded but did nothing else except move herself so that both John and Seras could fit inside quickly. The SUV turned out to be one of the APCs, under an illusion spell John hadn't immediately recognized, with almost a dozen Knights secured within.

"John, I'm so glad that you're okay," Moira said immediately after the door closed, her face genuinely concerned. It was not a look that John had often seen. "How were you able to escape?"

"Seras rescued me," John immediately replied, glancing over to her. "The Cabal had me in a facility to the… uh, whatever way we were walking from? I don't really know where we are, I just remembered which direction to walk from what little I saw of that map of yours."

"That's not much detail," Moira noted, raising an eyebrow. "One person rescued you from an entire freight of Cabal? Does this have something to do with the energy I can practically taste rolling off her? And… John, why are her eyes red?"

John could see Moira's eyes flashing across Seras, and the vampiress was a mixture of indignant and embarrassed by the outright accusation. John narrowed his eyes, feeling oddly protective of the woman decidedly stronger than himself.

"She risked her life to get to me. They nearly killed her, but they didn't understand how to kill her, so she was able to get to me. I gave her as much power as I could, and she was able to kill most of the guards, then we worked together to finish off the Cabal Officer who was overseeing them. I was hoping to keep him alive, but it took everything we had together to get ourselves out of there."

"Just an ordinary Cabal squadron, then? That's extremely fortunate," Moira sighed, shaking her head. She didn't seem to have forgotten about Seras, but she moved past it for the moment. " I was afraid that they had already arrived."

"No, only one Cabal scout found us - we wiped him out."

"Cabal? No, I wasn't talking about them; some of the soldiers Etriyya and her unit captured after your meeting with Lady Arista finally talked. They said they were sent to capture you specifically. We had already assumed that, but we didn't realize how desperately they were after you - there are rumors travelling around that you're the entire reason they started this war."

"Wait, what about the Order outpost that was attacked? The Inquisitor goods - would they really do all that just to prepare and set us up for a trap eventually?"

"The Cabal are not what they once were," Moira glanced out the front of the APC, checking the area ahead of them before continuing. "The name Cabal came from an organization that was one of the most influential and powerful magical factions in the new world; they were set to establish control over most of the East Coast, all the way through large swathes of the Great Plains up to and including most of southern Canada. Over the last few decades, they were destroyed by infighting, some disastrous battles on their northern fronts, and the incursion from the west by various factions - including Himiko Nakamura, who you've recently become familiar with."

John shivered at the memory, and at the shard within him. "Okay, but what does this have to do with their plans for me?"

"The Cabal want to reclaim their rightful place - there are at least a half-dozen factions still named the Cabal across the surrounding areas, while the rest have splintered off and joined many other groups to save their own skin or changed their name and started anew to avoid ire from the Cabal's former enemies, usually unsuccessfully. The Albidian Society rose to prominence after the Cabal lost influence over the Midwest, the Forgotten Legion picked up several soldiers who swore loyalty to their cause, and so on - the Cabal's taint covers most groups to one extent or another.

"This particular group still calls themselves the Cabal because their ambitions are to become even greater than they once were, but their leaders have not yet displayed the talent or intelligence to reach those heights from where they are. Resources are one thing they perfectly understand, though. As I've told you many times - the Order is one of the few organizations that would not exploit your abilities, at least… not without your consent." Moira must have seen the look on his face when she added the last part.

"If they thought they could properly utilize you, they would likely do just that. But their arcane resources are highly limited, and their abilities moreso. Apparently their plan was to capture you, determine if the information they gathered from Tricia's drones was accurate, and then sell you off to the Albidian Society."

"What were they trying the sell me off for? I mean, I guess it doesn't matter now… kind of fun to know how much I'm worth, though."

"They wanted to assimilate with the Albidian Society - total entry, all but the lowest of the low or the newest of the new recruits allowed in as full members. It’d get them out of the war with the Order that they never really wanted, it’d get them the potential for much greater advancement in a more powerful faction, and they would get a piece of the Albidian Society's vast wealth, presumably."

"Seems like a win-win for the Albidian Society too. More men, more influence, and… I guess me."

Moira shook her head, sighing. "No, that might be a decent thought if they had any way of vetting who was allowed in, if they had common interests, or if there was a former alliance. The only things that the Albidians and the Cabal have in common are a lust for power and a lack of morals. The Albidians trust the Cabal exactly as much as we do - which is to say that letting even a single Cabal member into their group would normally require a significant show of faith. Your capture…"

"…would be something they couldn't pass up, no matter the risk."

Moira nodded. "It's possible the Albidians will come after you themselves, if they even believe the Cabal about what they are hearing. That is most likely why the Cabal went after the drones when they attacked Tricia's home - it's unlikely they even knew they were stepping into the home of one of her kind; they simply wanted you or a way to prove you existed. How closely they are guarding that information we cannot know. Lady Arista has announced no support of the Cabal yet, so we can only hope they are holding it as a trump card for whichever faction they feel offers them the greatest opportunities."

"…"

John took a long breath, holding it for just a moment as he tried to comprehend the mania that his life had become. He left his home, his life, and the Academy in the name of his new abilities, and still it didn't seem enough. His mother could still be threatened at any moment. He could - potentially - be stuck in the Brighton Manor for weeks or months to come if the war dragged on, all to avoid the risk of an attack that had still happened because what was he going to do, sit on his ass while people around him died? Definitely not now that he was pretty sure he was the root cause of it all.

"Moira, when we get back, I'm going to start looking for an apartment."

"Apartment? I applaud you thinking ahead, John, but I don't think you'll be able to inspect many buildings. We can't afford a guard-"

"I'm not moving out of the Manor when this is over. I'm moving out the second I can."

Silence fell across the APC. The nervous chatter of the Knights around John and Moira - most of whom he did not even recognize on sight - was cut off as Moira's demeanor grew into a mixture of shock and annoyance.

"And what method of **** did the Cabal subject you to in order to induce such suicidal thoughts?"

"Ooh, sassy," John snarked back, "you and Gaia would get along great."

"John Newman-"

"I left my home to protect my mother, but they know who I am now - you've had to put her under guard anyway. The only reason I haven't gone back already is to avoid catching her in any crossfire if they decide to come after me directly. But you can't prevent that - even if I wait until the end of this war, we have no idea what will happen afterwards. Factions like the Albidians could strike when you aren't even at war - or I could be the first strike of a new one. I will not live the rest of my life in that mansion, Moira. I'd rather take my chances, and if I'm going to do that, I may as well start now - why wait for this war to end if another could break out?"

"So you would have me assign additional Knights to protect you in some new place? I already have several protecting your mother, John, our manpower is-"

"Stretched thin, I know. And I really appreciate the protection," John emphasized, "but I don't want your guards. I'm not convinced it would matter that much anyway - I just got kidnapped while in the company of several of your Knights. If I get attacked, I can either handle it or I can't. If I have the chance, I can always use World Shift to get to my private world and come back later, when they've left."

"So your solution is to flee, hope they aren't there when you come back, and pray that we even notice you have been attacked?! We have no method of communication with you, no-"

"We can discuss safeguards and security protocols, Moira. But we can't debate my freedom. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was just kidnapped… but I won't be held anywhere, voluntary or not. Not anymore. You can either have me available and ready for when you need me next time, or I can go to my private world now and come back in a few days and hope that I can find my way home from wherever we are."

"An ultimatum?"

John didn't say anything - he had nothing to add. She wasn't wrong, but he wasn't going to withdraw it, no matter how stern Moira's glare grew.

"You are, of course, aware that this is exceptionally foolish and that you are placing yourself at incredible risk?"

"Of course. But… after all I've seen of this world? I'm never going to be safe. Since I got these powers, you recruited me, and the biggest decisions I've made have been to drop out of school and go clothes shopping. Everything else has either been at your request or as a result of something else stupid happening or been in whatever world or Barrier I have access to. I need to start making my own decisions. Living my own life."

"You have impeccable timing, John Newman," Moira groaned. "The few times you truly set your mind to something, it is at the exact moment I had thought you reasonable. Very well… if we are to indulge this foolishness, though, I insist it be in the most controlled manner possible. Knight Winston, take us to 23rd and Marston."

"Where's that?"

"The new home of Springfield's greatest fool," Moira said drily. "You need not search for an apartment, John Newman. There is a house the Order owns approximately a mile and a half from the Manor, used primarily for storage and as a fallback point for one of our other outposts. We had a small garrison there but have recalled them to the Manor since it was deemed not worthy of the deaths that would result in any defense of it. If you truly wish for independence, it will offer you a position we have secured but which is also yours - though I may occasionally send a Knight to check on you or retrieve something stored there, you will be free to come and go as you please."

"Moira… that would be outstanding!" John beamed with joy at not only her acceptance but assistance with his goals. "I don’t want to be too far, I just… I'm trying to come to terms with everything that has changed. Getting a fresh start on my own seems like the best way."

"I could think of at least a half-dozen ways that would be better and don't involve you using yourself as Cabal bait," Moira wheezed, shaking her head and running one gauntleted fist over her face. "Still, there are worse reasons for you to want it. I would ask that you at least have the decency to call us any time you seek to leave your apartment; thanks to Tricia we can contact you inside of Barriers now, but if you enter your pocket dimension, we will have no way of knowing where you are for four hours, and if you go into Springfield and disappear, we should at least know where to start searching."

"Yeah, I can do that," John said with a nod.

"Good. The more advance notice we have to start planning the funeral, the less rushed we will feel."

"You are just… brimming with optimism."

"Guess you're gettin' two 'omes today, eh, Master?"

Seras finally spoke up, smiling at John. John was so caught off-guard by her actually speaking up in Moira's presence that he didn't immediately catch on to what she was saying.

"The 'ouse, Master? You said it was gonna be done today."

"The- oh my god, the house!" John clasped his hands together in joy as he recalled that the build timer of the house in his other world would be finishing soon. "I completely forgot that was today - holy shit, this week has been going by so fast!"

"I feel like it's never going to end," Moira groaned, mashing her head into the back of the van.

"Don't mind 'er, Master," Seras said with a smile. "I'm really glad you finally get what you've been wantin'. After all this time… you get your own home."

John paused, glancing at the genuine happiness in Seras’ eyes. He realized that it was missing something - in those endless black and crimson rings, there was a tiny void.

"No," John corrected, reaching out across Seras' gloved hands. The soft cloth gently caressed John's skin until he was lacing their fingers together, still staring into her eyes.

"Our home."