Aftermath And Fallout

It’s very much to our benefit that the carriage we’re on remains empty the entire ride home. The state that all four of us are in, we are not fit to be seen in public. Ivy spends some time silently healing each of us. I’ve only just found out about how that all works. Gaia heals all visible injuries after leaving from a barrier, to save face for the mundane world.

They still exist as injuries though, and they’re only healed in appearance, so that it won’t draw attention from mundanes. Ivy heals Mia and Skylar before they have to go through the trouble of having their injuries reappear over the next couple of hours. Gamer’s Body solves that problem for me, the only sign that I was in a fight at all is my reduced HP level, which Ivy gets to as well.

The four of us are silent for a lot of the ride home. We don’t know how to deal with what just happened. I feel a very strange dichotomy of relief and horror. Relief that we were able to escape and that they didn’t manage to do anything to us. It turns out that they were all so busy fighting each other to be the first to get us that none of them ever even ‘copped a feel’, so to speak.

Simultaneously, the horror of how close we were to going through one of the things that I dread happening the most? It’s terrifying, and a very sobering reality. We are not powerful enough to face what’s out there, not yet. We’ll need to get a lot stronger before we have a hope of overthrowing Mathias and taking over Sydney.

Ivy cradles me in her arms, with Mia doing the same to Skylar. None of us speak a word for a solid half an hour. We take comfort in each other’s presences and try to remember that we’re still alive, that we’re okay, and that we managed to escape. The ‘for now’ part is something that I try not to think about.

“How can they be so horrid?” Ivy breaks the silence. We all look up at her, and see the tears welling up in her eyes. “I don’t…I don’t understand why some people are so awful…” Tears roll down her cheeks and I hug her tighter. She squeezes me gently but firmly against her. “I know this though.” She continues, her voice a bit clearer. “I hated that. I want to get stronger, so I can protect you all and make sure that we never come close to that again!” She vows, looking each of us in the eyes.

The three of us nod solemnly. “We all need to get stronger.” I say quietly. “Actually I think I might have had a bit of a breakthrough. I can’t normally control winds that strong.” Mia admits. Despite myself, the corners of my lips raise in a small smile. “Lucky bitch.” The aeromancer snorts. I don’t bother observing her yet, we can do that later.

“I love you girls.” Skylar says quietly, still looking at the ground, and we look to her as she speaks for the first time. “I love you so so much. I’m so glad that we made it out of there and that none of them…none of them did things to us.” She raises her head and looks at each of us, her tearful eyes filled with a mixture of love, relief and sadness.

“I don’t know what I’d have done if we hadn’t got away.” Her eyes turn hard, the tears seem to disappear and her expression toughens, her tone grim. “That won’t happen again. I’m making sure of it. We all will.” Mia kisses Skylar’s forehead and her beautiful face softens once more. “We’ll get through this. We’re gonna get home and we’re gonna surround ourselves in as much wholesomeness and love as we can tonight.” I declare.

“Actually that might not be so easy.” Mia speaks up again, and we all look at her. “I joined the fight, in broad daylight. They knew who I was, they knew I was supposed to stay out of it. I don’t know what’s going to happen when we get home, but my dad is going to be mad for sure. I just hope he doesn’t do anything rash.” She says.

“Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.” I pledge. “And we’ll come out the other side okay.”

The walk home from the train station is tense. We’ve managed to process our thoughts and feelings on everything that happened enough that we’re no longer in ‘survival mode’, and we’re ready to face whatever happens with Mia’s father. I hold hands with Skylar as we walk, while Mia leads the way holding hands with Ivy.

We enter the barrier and open the front gates, trudging through the open grassy area towards home. Immediately as we enter the barrier, Alex is easily visible, standing in front of the door to the place I’ve called home for the last three or so weeks. As we get closer, my heart drops. He’s on the phone to somebody, and his facial expression indicates that it is not going well.

As we approach, he hangs up the phone and turns to us. His eyes are heavy and his demeanor is sad, defeated. He opens his mouth and draws breath to speak, but Mia cuts him off. “Dad, I know what you’re going to say, I know you’re angry but-” “Angry?” He speaks in a tired tone, shaking his head at Mia’s words. She stops talking to let him speak.

“Honey, I’m not angry. I’m devastated by what needs to happen now.” He walks up to her, grabbing her gently by the shoulders and looking into her eyes, ignoring the rest of us for now. He looks into her eyes, tears welling up. He hugs her tightly. She hugs him back, confused by his reaction to all of this. They separate after a few seconds and he continues.

“I just got off the phone with Mathias. The enforcer is dropping by to discuss the conditions of our ‘agreement’.” The air quotes he uses are bitter and exhausted. “He’ll be here by 6. You need to be out of here by then.” “But dad, that’s not fair! My…my…they were in danger! I couldn’t just leave them to those men, what was I supposed to do?!” Mia protests, her voice cracking from her upset.

He shakes his head sadly. “I don’t know sweetheart. But the fact is that you broke our neutrality pact. You picked a side and you fought with a gang. Nothing else matters to them. You joined a fight, and you are now a threat to them. You need to be gone by the time the enforcer gets here.” He looks at us. “Your girlfriends too.”

Mia looks at him, stunned. “You knew?” “Of course I knew. I’ve never seen you look at anybody with that much love and happiness in your eyes. I’ve known you since you were little, it’s pretty obvious how you felt about them. I didn’t bring it up, because I was trying to give you the freedom to tell me when you were ready.” His small smile fades. “You all need to go though.”

“But…can’t you do something?! Can’t you negotiate something different?!” Mia bursts out, getting more worked up by the minute. Alex shakes his head again. “There’s nothing I can do Mia. You need to leave, and I need to disown you as my daughter.”

“Why are you just rolling over and accepting this?! Why aren’t you fighting or just doing something?! This isn’t right!” Mia yells, tears streaming down her face. “Mia, please don’t make this harder than it is.” Alex pleads, a single tear visible on his cheek. “IT’S NOT HARD AT ALL! THIS ISN’T OKAY, YOU CAN’T LET THEM CONTROL US!” She screams, and Ivy gently holds her. Skylar and I lean into each other for comfort.

“I have ****! I can’t do a thing, they have all the power here!” Mia’s father defends himself, his voice raising despite his efforts to remain calm. “YES YOU CAN! YOU CAN FIGHT FOR WHAT’S RIGHT INSTEAD OF ACTING LIKE A FUCKING COWARD!” Alex’s face reddens and he visibly stops holding back his emotions.

“Mia, you don’t understand the shit storm you’ve gotten us all into by making the decision fight one of those gangs! They have an army, that is far more powerful than you can imagine! That army is coming to my doorstep, and I have **** but to disown you!” “I MADE THAT DECISION TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE I CARE ABOUT!”

“AND THIS IS WHAT I HAVE TO DO TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE I CARE ABOUT!” Alex roars. “YOU HAVE BROKEN OUR NEUTRALITY. THAT MEANS THAT OUR ENTIRE FAMILY IS IN DANGER. YOUR SISTER, YOUR MOTHER, YOUR GRANDFATHER, YOUR AUNT AND UNCLE, EVERY SINGLE PERSON HERE!” Mia recoils at the words, but he keeps going.

“I DON’T CARE WHY YOU DID WHAT YOU DID. THE FACT IS THAT YOU DID IT, AND NOW MATHIAS IS SENDING THE ENFORCER HERE. HE WILL SLAUGHTER EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US IF HE SEES THAT WE ARE STILL TRYING TO PROTECT YOU!”

He takes a deep breath in a visible effort to calm down, but it only slightly helps. “Everything I have done, I did for my family! I did it for you, for Georgia, for your mother, and for everybody here. This isn’t the best, but we made it work. I was able to provide safety for you all in a place where most people are never safe.”

“I made a deal. I, and none of my family would interfere with Mathias, or any of the gangs around here. In exchange, we were left alone. We were safe. We did have to pay him a tribute and we did have to train some bad people for this safety, but we did it. We did it because we wanted our family to be safe. That was more important to us than anything.”

He sighs, looking down at the ground before looking back up at Mia. She waits in silence for him to continue. “I let you go out there, have your friends, I let you join this guild. I let you have all the freedom I could give you, because I wanted you to be happy. I just told you, I begged you, I pleaded with you, do not engage in a fight with a gang.” He pauses, wiping his face and sniffing. “But you did anyway. You did, and we all have to face the consequences of that. I need you out of here in an hour.”

He bridges the distance between them again and hugs her tightly. “I am so, so sorry. I wish I could do something.” Mia sobs into his shoulder and he rubs her back gently, comforting her. Ivy, Skylar and I hold each other, watching the scene in front of us in a grim silence. “I love you dad.” Mia says, her voice barely above a whisper. “I love you too sweetheart.”

The first question we need to answer after Mia is able to calm herself down somewhat is, where do we go? The consensus is pretty quickly reached that we’ll stay at my apartment. Skylar’s parents wouldn’t take us in since they haven’t met us and are extremely cautious people like Skylar was with us, and I’ve made sure to keep up with my rent payments, despite everything that’s happened.

My apartment is not a big place and we’ll have to do a little shopping for some extra supplies for the four of us, but we can make it work. Skylar’s car is still parked out the front of Mia’s place so we quickly decide on a moving plan and get to work. The four of us cram everything Mia wants to take with her into Skylar’s car and my inventory.

Skylar and I set off driving to my place while Ivy and Mia stay behind to prepare another carload. The trip to my place from Mia’s is much shorter by car than it is by bus, and we get there pretty quickly. We unload the car and everything in my inventory, dump it into my apartment, and go back for the second haul.

We make another trip there and back without Mia and Ivy, while they prepare the last of her things. We make it back there and load up the few remaining belongings that Mia has at her parents house. It’s almost 6 by the time we’re done. We watch Mia say a tearful goodbye to her mother and father, before she joins us. We drive away from Mia’s place for the last time.

The car ride back to my apartment is silent. It’s a different kind of silence to the silence in the train carriage just over an hour ago though. We’re sad to leave, Mia especially. She stares out the window absently, holding Ivy’s hand for comfort. I keep my hand on Skylar’s thigh, a gesture which she gives me a small smile for.

We arrive back at my apartment, and Skylar parks in the parking spot that my rent also covers. We somberly unload the car, taking out everything else that Mia has. I get out my keys as we walk to my front door, the small chain jingling slightly from the movement. Unlocking the door, I step inside. The air freshener ensures that the air inside smells nice. The others follow me inside and I shut the door behind them. “Here we are.” I say. “Home sweet home.”