April (Saturday)

Judas Contract Subject 013
Codename: Prime
One of the founding members of the guild that would become the Rider-Waites and supposedly capable of besting any Major Arcana member in single combat, Wallace Ruiz is the most terrifying man I’ve ever personally met. Only The Magician, The Fool, The Emperor, and perhaps Shelle could describe what Wallace was like in his original home of Tersol. Of those few, only Alvaro is willing to speak openly and clearly about their home. Alvaro’s description of their time in Tersol is not unlike what the Explorer’s Guild has become.
About twenty years ago the troubled goliath appeared at the ground entrance to Alvaro’s mage tower in Tersol seeking a cure for an unknown disease from the already renowned magician. The two developed a deep bond during Wallace’s treatment (Alvaro also shared that it was this time that he discovered Wallace’s giant heritage, as if that weren’t obvious enough). After the goliath was fully cured, the two of them went on an expedition across Tersol together. They cataloged and felled terrible beasts, saved villages from draconian feudalism, and united their people under the rule of the Kingdom’s Throne, which had recently come into control of The Fool. Though both Shelle and Alvaro are fairly secretive on the exact time they met, when lined up with other interviews and his memoir, it seems most likely that during this time away from his tower Shelle came to live in it.
Regardless, at some point Wallace and Alvaro had decided that their business together was finished. Alvaro describes that split as amicable; Wallace frequently visited the mage tower after their expedition and indeed until Tersol itself was destroyed.
Thus, his fighting style was well documented. When he had a soul, Wallace was primarily a fist or improvised weapon fighter. He relied on his physical body, amplified by ki and aura. Wallace possesses innumerable fighting styles which have a variety of effects on his body, too many to list here (see Document JC13d for a non-exhaustive catalog). Regardless, there are a few he prefers. He has a form for heavy strikes which increases his muscle mass and endurance at the cost of speed, enshrouded in golden mana. He has an agile form, which increases his speed anywhere from tenfold to a thousandfold, though greater intensity used to come at great cost to his ki and stamina. He once claimed to have the ability to skip brief moments in time at the cost of great age. Any information on his abilities and limitations should now be considered unreliable. Though he’s displayed most of these powers now, in his current aberrant state, we have no idea what powers him or what his true capabilities are. He does not interact with the world as a soulless being would, that much is certain.
From Sirian’s memories, one ability implanted in Wallace by the entity is chillingly clear: the ability to remove, transplant, and destroy souls. He removed the overgrown Nairis from Sirian and implanted the soul-turned-divine into another body. He’s also shown the capability of removing prisoners’ souls to transplant into necromantic constructs or just as a form of ****. When bloodseeing, it was clear that the corruptors have little patience for weak Abyssals, they either succumb soon or their souls are destroyed and they’re left to die.
Once upon a time he was planned to become the Emperor when the old man retired. Alvaro’s more active role across the guild’s divisions, high or low rank, makes him a much more suitable option, though Wallace’s betrayal may be attributed at least in part to this change of plans. Of course I’m biased, but would he really have turned against us if he were still set to rule us? He was scary, sure, but he didn’t seem deeply traitorous, opportunistic if anything.

Abigail sprinted through the mountain trail, careful to keep her flames dead as she raced through the rocky dirt path on ki-empowered legs. She chewed the side of her mouth to keep her attention, balancing the tingling racing through her legs from the new enchantment she was focusing into them against her new, incredible speed and the twisting, rough path. She accidentally brushed through a tree, and scorched the ground when she shoved her feet down to stop. Turning back to the burning bark, she walked over and patted it out with her hands, laughing to herself as she brushed her hand against a few other scorch marks lower down on the trunk. Satisfied with her work, she examined the rocky cliff above her and crouched down low.

The orange-blue, flame-like ki swirling on the surface of her skin exploded outwards in a sharp crack that blew the needles off the pine trees around her as she leapt upwards. As she ascended, she focused her ki into her arms, the muscles bulged and she grew a bit broader as she grabbed onto a familiar natural piton, launching herself up even faster with her arms and easily clearing the edge of the cliff. When any other camera or eye looked at the peak before her, they’d simply see one, seemingly inaccessible peak of the mountain. She looked upon the rocky clearing, the weather-worn house beyond, and the tall, stocky man emerging from the wood and screen outer door with a desiderium for simplicity that washed over her. “Dad! It’s so good to see you!”

Though a neon-bright concrete jungle at large, this building was understated. Tucked into a dimly lit leisure district on the edge of district three and the city as a whole, the supporting pillars and velveted entrance, almost an outdated ballroom gala compared to the hustle and bustle of Jarako. “How exactly can I fill in for you?” John asked, pressing the earbud further in as he filed in with the rest of the guests. He continued, in a further hushed tone, almost to himself, “As much as I’ve grown, it’s still like I’m a candle to your bonfire.”

“The formal scene, I don’t do it. Intel says they’re keeping the data on a red stick, like something you’d see on Earth. I’m too high-profile to just go in there and get it. If I staked out the place for a while, I could use my sense of the guard’s positioning to get it, but I’ve got other shit to do. You’ve got that mask and your teleporting ability, should be simple enough for you,” Isabelle explained, and just before he crossed the threshold, he could have sworn he saw her face in the starlight for a moment. “Besides, you’re not getting a choice. This has to be done, and you’re doing it.”

“Yes mistress.” John drew out the second word as he left the sky’s view. While he crossed the threshold, he flicked a quarter aside of the entrance, memorizing where it landed. His eyes swept over the crowd. On the left side of the room sat a bar with one man storming across the whole thing, zapping drinks full with a storm cloud shot from a finger-gun, directly ahead stood an enormous staircase which bisected the room; guards in high-tech armor suits stood on each side of the stairs, every five steps.

Finally the right side of the gala, dominated by innumerous people at tables, a man and a woman in the center in shifting outfits made of neon and wire danced to the live music, though when he saw wires in the man’s arm, he wondered if they were entertainment robots. Past the dancers and the staged singer, One Man Armory led Jackie Anor into a brightly lit room. One was in an even bulkier model of her usual power armor, whereas Jackie wore the same outfit, save for a splash of navy blue around her neck. “Cut that shit, I’m your sponsor now. And don’t mess this up. Helaya is one of the good ones.”

Objective Updated! Recruit or Convince Jackie Anor to ally with you!
Rewards: 100,000 XP, +1 Guild Rank, Discounted Tech Upgrades or 250,000 XP, Unlimited Access to Anor Industries Products

Yeah, yeah, John thought. Eyes on the assigned table, he nudged a dining chair out with Move and slid into the seat. Though it sat six, only the seat across from him was filled, a redheaded woman with crimson eyes and stubby fangs embedded in a bright red, rare steak.

John’s eyes roamed over her, and with a start he realized he had seen her before, at the Jarako celebration party for his race win, eight months ago. “Helaya, I’m guessing?”

“Hey John, good to finally meet you on contract. Doing Isabelle’s dirty work again?” Helaya asked, idly shaking his hand as she drained the color of the steak.

John felt his face for a moment, though his mask was perfectly in place. “I know you’ve been watching for a while, but uh, how do you know I’m me?”

“Oh please, I knew the guy who forged that mask for himself. Besides, I can tell you’re you by your blood, even if that mask keeps me from connecting the dots when I look at you,” Helaya answered. She lifted a glass of wine to her lips, and the color from the liquid darkened, losing all red and turning to an inky black in her glass.

“Right. So, what’s the plan here? The dossier was a little light,” John whispered, as he leaned toward her on his elbows as if casually interested by a story, eyes scanning the crowd, his ear to her.

“As you may not know, Jackie Anor is mostly robotic. Intel suggests she would have died during childbirth, and the Anor company would never go without an heir. There’s enough robot in her to necessitate regular operating system updates. The Anor company releases the most complex programming and AI out there, even One isn’t quite up to their standards of quality. The datastick in question holds her next upgrade, which transmits across Anor’s network to their other flagship androids upon verifying compatibility, think of the trial run on her body as a playtest,” Helaya explained; she slid a steak off a passing server’s plate without skipping a beat in her explanation or his stride.

“The Anor Company is a subsidiary of the Rider-Waites, aren’t they? Shouldn’t we be guarding this update?” John asked, leaning back in his chair. Light from the display room beyond bled into the dimmed ballroom, and he could make out glinting metal inside glass display cases.

Helaya chuckled at his remark, a droplet of blood running down her chin. “Maybe a few days ago. The other Jarako tech giants have their own supporters. Even One’s allegiance is technically questionable. Our inside man at Paradox Technologies discovered a plot to infect the update with a magitech virus. Normally, Jackie would be immune to such attacks due to internal technological and magitechnical failsafes powered by her soul. However, this virus is made specifically to attack her. When the presentation starts and she demos the update, it will attack her biological tissue and her soul, and it will kill her, provided you can’t steal it.”

“And we can’t just tell her or delay the event because then the enemy will know we know,” John observed, using Move to slide the nearest glass of water at the nearly unoccupied table into his hands. “That’s also why I couldn’t wear my uniform, even if it can become formal enough. I get it. We’ve gotta make this look good. Can we even be talking about this here? If this is a presentation among the tech elite, won’t Paradox Tech be here?”

“Let me worry about that. You have to find a way to get that update in the next half hour. Stake out the display room, use that telekinesis of yours to pick up the whole display case, whatever,” Helaya explained, red eyes shifting back and forth as she considered the whole room. John for his part activated Symphony of the Night. The feeling of the padded chair against his back disappeared, and the murmur of conversation faded away. Instead, the room came into sight with sharp clarity, even the display room beyond.

“I see it,” John replied, eyeing the datastick from across two rooms. “Thin, red stick. Like a USB stick but a bit bigger.” He put his hands in his lap under the table and activated Create as his other sensations flooded back in. He exhaled, breathing mana into the new object and shaping it with his hands until he had an exact replica of the outside of the datastick in question, though it was solid iron instead of actual technology.

“Right, you’ve got to figure out how to get that, and get out of here. Maybe make a small show of it on the way, disrupt the presentation. Try to look like an uninvited party with a grudge,” Helaya suggested, raising a brow after nearly a minute of silence and stillness from her new colleague. “Ready?”

“One more sec,” John said, waiting for Jackie and One to turn around. The display room was empty except for them, the armed guards on the outside. Helaya coughed and began to sip her wine, but John simply waited. Finally the duo in the display room turned away from a rounded metal sphere with spikes sticking out and the datastick, turning to a display on the opposite side. John fidgeted with the decoy under the table before he activated Displacement, swapping it with the datastick in the exact same position. He smiled in satisfaction and scooted the chair back a notch to stick the datastick up over the line of the table. “Now what?”

Helaya’s eyes bugged out and she choked on her drink, wiping her arm across her mouth as she coughed out, “Okay, I see why Isabelle likes you. Now shoo! One is sure to-”

Helaya was interrupted by a blaring alarm and a spinning yellow light. The guards in mechanical suits lining the stairs turned as one, as One’s bassy voice played over an announcement intercom, “Intruder Alert! A corporate spy has stolen the new Anor Industries update. Incapacitating **** authorized. Lockdown in progress. Please remain seated.”

John looked up but Helaya was nowhere to be seen. He tried to place the datastick into his inventory, then tried forcing it into the pocket space, but it just pushed his sheet away. He grabbed the tray Helaya’s first steak came with, blasting it with a quick burst of Clean before putting the datastick inside and topping it with the cloche. He slipped out of his seat behind a passing waiter, following the similarly dressed man toward the entrance and kitchens.

A woman in One’s form-fitting robotic armor put a hand on John’s shoulder, but a man with her saw the serving tray in his hands and waved him on. John almost gave a thumbs up but stopped himself from using the terran expression and simply nodded, rejoining the other serving staff. When they all made it to the crossroads between the kitchen behind the stairs and the path to the entrance, John looked back to the display room and met Jackie’s gaze.

He mistook the spark in her eyes for recognition before he felt his mask gripping his chin and let out a breath of relief. Panic regripped him when he felt the datastick hit the roof of the cloche and Jackie narrowed her eyes at him, pointing him out to One. Beside him, a thick metal door slammed down, sealing off the entrance.

The thick hiss of One’s boosters signaled her launch toward him, fist outstretched. She covered ground faster than even he could retreat, fist colliding with the quarter he flicked away as he activated Displacement, unbothered by the metal entrapping him. He ditched the tray and cloche, shoving the stubborn datastick into his inside suit pocket, dull thuds raining on the blocked entrance. He turned back to the sealed door and activated Create, burning mana to add more and more metal onto it as he heard muffled explosions and saw faint indents of One’s struggles for release.

Behind him, he heard the distinct click of receding metal over the windows as Jackie interfaced with the security system of the building. She leapt through the now unprotected glass and rolled into a landing in front of John. She put her fists up, scowling as she confronted their would-be saboteur despite her uneven stance and shaky hands.

“You’re cute,” John said. Activating Charm on the much lower leveled woman in front of him, he stared into her eyes, his golden, empowered sclera reflected in her bright white. He strolled toward her and put a gloved hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t you just leave little old me alone, huh?”

“Get away from her!” One shouted. This time her attack found its mark as she launched herself into John, picking him up by the neck and lifting him up into the air. “Give me the update!”

“Go get it!” John said, hucking the red stick as far as he could throw it into the sky and cityscape. Despite the rolling neon colors of Jarako’s advertisements, the slim, red device stuck out as it sailed through the air. One dropped him high in the air, boosting toward the update above.

John took two bullets out of his inventory this time, and switched one with the datastick and tucked it back into his pocket, then threw the other downward, and the following Displacement saved him from yet another of One’s charges. He used Move to decelerate his fall, allowing the small, gradually lifting **** and his natural armor from Fire Away to reduce the fall damage to zero.

The moment he touched down onto the ground, he crashed off his feet and through a glass wall into a large underground facility by a rogue hovercar. A hundred feet below spherical drones of all sizes and parts floated by in a neat order as if in a hive, except for the odd drone breaking off to enter a store every few seconds. Some towed carts with translucent, light blue tethers.

“Is this cute?” Jackie called, advancing toward him in the air on some sort of thin, floating platform. The hovercar she controlled to slam into him flew toward him with a flourish from her arms. John activated Displacement, switching with the car and avoiding its attack. Unbeknownst to him, as one, every single drone below turned upwards.

One, not to be outdone, appeared in the window John fell through. Her suit anchored her to the ground for a moment as her shoulders opened up, firing a barrage of high-velocity missiles toward the gunman. He used Move in a quick burst to shove himself aside of their initial attack, though the missiles rerouted turning away from the ground and back toward him. He couldn’t spare the time to look back at the rockets, but he certainly hadn’t heard an impact. The moment he heard the first creeping notes of Discordance at the imminent, unknown danger, he activated Displacement and switched with One who was waiting for him on the ground, taking aim with wrist-mounted machine guns, hoping she could withstand her own heat as most of the chain of rockets exploded on her.

He slammed his hand into the ground and activated Create, sinking into the resulting indent of the ground as he moved the matter above him to protect him from the last few rockets. His impromptu tile shelter and his armor blocked most of the damage from the explosions, though he was left a sitting duck for the drones amassing all around him.

“Don’t fuck with a technomancer in downtown Jarako,” Jackie yelled, bringing her arms together in a sweeping motion. The drones, smooth, metal orbs with an inset crimson eye, roughly the size of his torso, raced toward him. The propulsion of hundreds, possibly thousands, of the small machines created a roar louder than even the dragons he had faced, the ground of the facility shook and his feet felt numb from the vibrations.

This is going to be a lot of property damage. I’m saving the life of one of the most important people in Jarako though, so… John used Create to separate a chunk of concrete from the ground below then charged up a weak Fist to launch the hunk of rock through ten, though the gap filled back in with hundreds more descending from upper floors or turning around the corner. Not enough. Fist might be strong enough to take them all on directly, but it won’t take One too long to recover.

Fist level 10! You may now expend twice the mana to project Fist as a **** projectile that affects up to (Skill Level) enemies it passes through!

That’s pretty good, but I’ve been saving an evolution point just for this, John thought, activating Reflex Mode to give himself the time to think as he activated the upgrade menu for Fist.

I’ve never seen any skills like this before. Considering the circumstances, this one looks pretty good! John thought, tapping the aforementioned skill. The Fist he had begun to charge turned from its dull blue glow to a violent purple. The same fizzling purple arced around his wrist, forming a black bubble around his hand. He pumped more mana into it, eyeing the approaching horde with new curiosity.

Destroy, Active Skill, Level 1, Cost: Base 10 MP, Variable
Release a destructive touch attack that causes True Damage to all objects and hostile entities within (Skill Level)(Mana Spent/100) meters or concentrated into a single strike for enhanced damage. Objects and entities which receive substantial amounts of damage from this have the matter constituting them destroyed, converted into mana which is reabsorbed by the caster.

If this is anything like Fist, this is really gonna hurt. Once he had two thousand mana charged into the crackling bubble of destructive energy in his left hand, his eyes darted up, but One was still nowhere to be seen and Jackie was high in the air watching the carnage with grim satisfaction. He felt the rumbling in his bones as the drones approached to crush him, and before the first wave could reach him, he activated Create in his other hand, touching his palm to the ground and creating a pillar such that the drones approached him from all sides. Some crawled on six hook-like appendages above the pillar, while many more hovered toward him on rumbling engines that sputtered at their very limit.

He finally slammed Destroy into the ground, and was immediately blinded by the resulting purple explosion that rocked the underground mall. He fell twenty meters into the crater his attack had created, thankfully only a few feet below the ground floor thanks to his pillar. He grabbed the edge and leaned over it, the entire building suddenly quiet with no trace of any of his attackers. His eyes went to his health and mana before he even realized he felt no pain. No recoil?! I guess it’s a bit more distributed than Fist. I got a thousand mana back too, though I can’t imagine how I’d destroy any more. Is half as good as the returns get?

“Why won’t you give up!?” Jackie shouted, leaping down at him from her descending floating platform and punching him in the nose, though against his mask and natural armor, she only succeeded in splitting her knuckles with her own mundane strength. John used Move to shove her off him, though she commanded her platform into his stomach, the dense metal platform knocking the wind out of him.

“Jackie,” John began, dodging aside another of her platform’s attacks and glancing around for any sign of One, though a minute had gone by and the armored woman was still suspiciously absent. John finally took off his mask. “It’s me! It’s John!”

Jackie had wound back for another fruitless punch and her platform rocketed down toward his head, though both paused when he revealed his face. Her furrowed brow unknitted and she let out an audible huh. Her fist unfurled and gripped the bandana around her neck made from what little of the Midnight Duster survived. “You traitor! How could you do this!?”

“I’m no traitor, I’ve saved your life twice now! Don’t install this, but really look at it!” John pleaded, taking the datastick out of his pocket and holding it out for her. She gave him a skeptical look but plucked the device out of his hand with her technopathy, floating it over toward her. Her suspicion mounted and she raised an arm to point an accusatory finger at him, but let out a shocked gasp before she could say anything and dropped the datastick, kicking it back toward him.

“That would’ve been a worse **** than the decapitation you’ve saved me from before,” Jackie said, her face red as she looked around and realization dawned on her. “And we tried to stop you."

“Don’t worry about it. It kinda had to be this way. I don’t think I’m supposed to let One see me like this, though,” John said, finally climbing out of the hole he had dug for himself. He dusted himself off, looking to the hole in the wall near the ceiling all three of them had come through.

“Oh, well, she’s certainly coming back, especially after what you did to those drones. The missiles you hit her with destroyed enough of her armor that she went to call on better. You’d better get out of here. Need a lift?” Jackie asked, stepping back onto her hovering platform and offering him a hand. He climbed onto the disc, expecting it to recoil against his additional weight but readjusting his step when it stayed static in the air.

“I won’t forget what you’ve done for me,” Jackie said, brushing her orange ombre hair out of her face and looking up at him. “The Anor Company is at your service. If you ever need anything, call me.”

She touched her wrist computer to his bracelet, and a tiny display popped up in front of him auto-confirming the addition of a new contact. He finally met her gaze, and felt a warm wave wash over his mind as her pupils softly glowed.

"What did you just do?" John asked, feeling his head then his chest as the same warmth radiated through his soul.

"I interfaced with your soul. I wanted to try to show you technopathy, but it's… immutable. Your soul is structured like mine. Or, well, you're probably an actual champion. My soul is artificially structured like yours," Jackie explained, flustered. "You can still reject it if you want to, but I opened up a few blocked channels in your soul carriage. Your magic can affect technology as though it were alive, a bit like mine. But you're going to have to be focused on your intent to do so."

Quest Update: Guild Relations
Objective Complete: Befriend Jackie Anor!
Optional Objective Pending…
Rewards: 250,000 XP, custom-made Anor Tech (Pending), Hidden Perk: PhaseShift

PhaseShift: Hidden Perk, Exclusive from: Phaselock, Phasewalk
Allows spells which would otherwise fizzle to interact with any machinery as though that machinery were a living entity. Technology takes to your magic easily, preventing typical mana-electrical interference.

“That’ll be great, but I’d better get out of here. If One sees us collaborating, she’ll know something’s off,” Jackie said, dropping him off on the street through the window he had crashed through. “I can feel her armor returning. Destroy my platform and push me inside, that’ll make it look good.”

“If you insist,” John replied, charging up another Destroy and taking out her floating apparatus though he didn’t deal enough damage to it to reduce it to mana. Jackie grabbed the update from his pocket just as One came back into view, and John snatched it from her and pushed her back through the window in one fluid motion.

“Get back here with that!” One commanded, shooting a grappling hook out of each hand, one seeking John’s mask and the other the USB stick he held. A simple Displacement switched their places. One’s grappling hooks retracted as she turned around to see John’s quickly retreating back. The crafty mage pressed a hand to a wall and activated Create, using the wall and asphalt’s matter to launch a barrage of interlocking pillars at the advancing mech suit.

“Sorry, finders, keepers,” John called back, grabbing the lids of two nearby trash cans as he exited the alley. He belted them to the right, downhill and down the street. One was upon him, firing a hail of bullets down onto him which John blocked with a barricade Created from the street. John activated Displacement again, tracking onto the bullets thanks to the sharp increase in his Agility and switching with one that had missed his barricade, to the left emerging from the alley.

One boosted her rockets, charging toward John faster than even he could run and catching up with him uphill at the top of the street. John bent down to the ground, removing asphalt from the street and burning mana to Create even more as a labyrinthian fortress sprouted from the ground around him. One crashed through it all; she punched at where his mask was, but her armored fist punctured through a metal trash lid that John had switched with. His fortress grew in size and restricted her space, an enormous asphalt compound which swallowed her into the ground.

Meanwhile, John’s feet touched down on the second lid he had thrown. He burned a bit more mana to Create a streak of thick ice down the street. Taking out his sniper, he left an Afterimage behind to ride the lid in his stead when he shot the rifle and switched with the bullet nearly three hundred meters away. He activated Attunement to see that David just swooped into range, and so swapped with his bird, appearing even further away and dozens of meters in the air.

Taking advantage of his bird’s ability to blink from one place to another, John activated Attunement then Displacement once more, chaining his teleportation with the hawk’s teleportation to travel near instantly, unseen underneath the Kingdom-spanning rail line of Jarako.

“It is hard, but we’re doing good things. Helping people, just like you used to,” Abigail said, taking the mug of tea he offered her from across the table before he sat down with one himself. The graying man let out a deep, good natured laugh when she finished.

“You’re doing more than I ever did. I was just a firefighter and one of the teachers at the dojo on the corner, before I met your mother. I’m proud of you, Abigail,” Robert said, putting a hand on her shoulder, “but something’s bothering you.”

“Well… you were right, I’m not the strongest person in the world. I probably never will be. What I said to you before I left…” Abigail began, her voice almost cracking as she remembered her angry departure from this place, though her dad simply laughed again, moving his hand from her shoulder to pat her head.

“You still came back to visit. You’re young. I knew hearing that would hurt, but finding it out for yourself would hurt even more. I also knew that you had to leave, so you could find what you really care about,” Robert explained, “unless you’ve decided that is what you really care about.”

“Not really. I remember when you would let me train with you, we had a mantra. When I was a kid, fighting everyone stronger than me seemed like fun, a good way to push myself as far as I possibly could, like you wanted,” Abigail said, picking up her mug and sipping it, soothing her increasingly raw throat.

“Abigail, that’s never what I wanted,” Robert said. Getting up from the table and putting his hands on it, he continued softly, “Cherufe, if you put all your energy and efforts into whatever you come across, you’ll burn out.”

“But even after everything else, you always made me want to be the best me I could be. How can I do that if I don’t try my hardest? And what if even when I’m trying my hardest, people surpass me?”

“If you are working your hardest at what you want, then nobody can surpass you.”

“You always say that, and I used to think so… but is that really true? If there are so many people so much stronger than me right now, and they’re trying just as hard as me, and they’re improving even faster than me, then what hope do I possibly have? Everybody else is growing in such new and interesting ways, and no matter how hard I work or what I try to do, I’m still just me,” Abigail said, tucking her head down to hide the tears welling up in her eyes.

“Oh Abigail, you’ve misunderstood,” Robert said, opening his arms which Abigail stood into immediately, gratefully accepting the hug. “I use a mantra to focus my time and energy on what matters to me. Being the best you isn’t about being the strongest person in the world or defeating the most powerful, it’s about defending what you care about and ensuring it thrives, like I did with you girls.

“You have a loving relationship, friends and family that care about you, a job helping people that fulfills you, and you’re the strongest damn woman I know, that sounds like a pretty good ‘you’ to me,” Robert claimed, releasing her from the hug and brushing an evaporating tear out of her eye.

“Stronger than Eliana?” Abigail asked, a crooked smile overtaking her tight-lipped expression as she wiped tears from her own face, and this drew a final laugh out of the older man.

“You’ll take any opportunity you can get, huh? By now I wouldn’t be surprised,” Robert said, grabbing the back of his neck with his hand. “Have you heard from her?”

“Not once,” Abigail shook her head with a furrowed brow despite the feeling of joy and pride welling up inside of her, “and she said she’d visit me in Springfield once I got settled in. She must be pretty busy.”