Greg glanced up as Jennifer and Sophia entered the dining room, waving them over. "Hey guys! We're playing cards if you want to join." He gestured to the table where He, Victor, Casey, Carlos, and Victoria were playing while Tessa, Emily, and Brittany watched with the babies.

Jennifer and Sophia shared a look, and Sophia took a seat next to Victoria. "I'll join. What are we playing?"

"I'm going to get some fresh air." Jennifer added, heading towards the deck.

Greg blinked. Not what he'd expected, but hey, any chance to get Sophia more invested in the group was good. "It's called Loser." Greg replied, explaining the rules as he dealt the cards. It wasn't a complicated game, but it was fun and a great way to waste time while they talked. "Any questions?"

Sophia shook her head. "No, I think I have it. I've played something similar before, though we called it something else." She explained as she looked over her cards.

"Alright. Just let us know if you get confused." Greg shrugged, and they began to play.

"So, Sophia… what were you up to before all this happened?" Casey asked.

"The aliens or magic?" Sophia replied.

"Both, I suppose, but I meant the magic." Casey explained.

Sophia nodded. "I was a student nurse. Not much else to say there… I was pretty boring, though I suppose everyone was back then, at least comparatively. When everything happened, I got trapped in the hospital elevator and it probably saved my life. Everything went dark and then… all I heard were screams and banging for hours. It took me two days before I finally built up the courage to escape and even then I was too scared to leave the hospital. I- I hid in a bathroom and drank toilet water." She flushed in embarrassment as she admitted that. "I only left to raid the cafeteria for food. I lived like that for a month until Travis and Jennifer's team raided the hospital for supplies and found me, taking me back to their safe zone. I started working as a nurse again, before I discovered my ability as a healer-"

"Called it." Victor grinned, glancing at Casey. "You owe me five."

Casey scowled as she transferred the points to him. "Of all the basic ass clichés…" She grumbled, before waving at Sophia. "Sorry, please continue."

Sophia gave the two of them a weird look, before continuing. "I- discovered I was a healer and joined Travis's team, which let them be a lot more… aggressive." Sophia's expression twisted. "I almost wish I hadn't now… all those poor people… I don't regret protecting my team, but-" She sighed, shaking her head. "With me, Travis, and Jennifer working together, we quickly became the top team in the safe zone and only Georgia's team could even come close. We-"

"Boom, another five!" Victor exclaimed with a cackle.

"Damn it!" Casey cursed. "Generic bullshit!"

"Real quick, was Jennifer Travis's childhood best friend?" Victor asked and Sophia nodded hesitantly, causing him to turn to Casey with a smug grin. "And I take the whole pot."

"Were- were you guys betting on our past?!?" Sophia asked incredulously.

"Not so much your past as your roles." Casey sighed. "Why couldn't you be a reluctant badass?" She paused. "Wait, unless you're one of those healers that can kill with a touch?" She asked hopefully.

"You don't have to answer that." Victor interjected.

"Butt out, you!" Casey growled, shooting him a dirty look, before refocusing on Sophia. "Well?"

"I- I'm just a regular healer." Sophia answered, looking between the two of them like they were crazy.

"See, this is why I said you shouldn't do this." Greg shook his head in disappointment. "Look at her! You freaked her out!"

"N-no, I'm fine!" Sophia quickly protested. She could have them think she disapproved of them any more than they already did! "Um, where- where was I?"

"Top team in the safe zone." Carlos answered. "Also, it's your turn."

"Er, okay." Sophia nodded, quickly playing a card before continuing her story. "So we became the top team in the safe zone, and- well, we were the ones braving the unknown sections of the city. Then one day… We discovered a nest of ferals, thousands of them. We thought we'd discovered some hidden threat to the safe zone and- we warned everyone. Then we fought… and we won. They- we- we eradicated them. I think- I hope a few escaped, but… so many died. On both sides." The entire table fell silent as a heavy atmosphere weighed down on them all. "A few months after the war ended, the aliens came and we learned the truth. We'd assumed they were a threat, but- we started a war, caused so much death… for nothing!" She growled, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes as her grip tightened around the cards, accidentally crumpling a few of them. "Shit!" She relaxed her grip, looking up in a panic. "I- I'm sorry-"

"You're good. See?" Greg quickly turned the cards to smoke and reformed them in perfect condition.

Victoria placed a hand on her shoulder. "That must have been rough." She muttered consolingly. "I've- something similar happened to me too, and it got- it got a lot of people killed." Her expression twisted as she remembered what had happened to her original World. "But you can't blame yourself for it. You couldn't have known. Blame the people who put you in that position in the first place." Victoria's grip tightened as her gaze hardened. "And make sure they can never do it again." She finished with a growl, speaking more to herself than Sophia at this point.

Sophia shook her head. "If we'd just talked- if we'd taken the time to study them- if we hadn't just attacked- we just assumed we knew what the situation was! We were so used to fighting being our only option that- even with what we knew, we could have done better! We should have done better!"

"I wouldn't say should." Greg frowned. "Could, yes, but… well, it's like how ideally every kid will be perfectly dedicated to school, but in practice it's never going to happen, and you can't even expect it to happen, cause kids are kids. They aren't equipped to consider the ramifications of blowing off their education. And you weren't equipped to consider the ferals people. How could you have known they would suddenly get better? Sure, ideally you would be able to be constantly aware of everything around you, capable of spotting any sign that things might be different than you previously thought, but that isn't how people work, and it's ridiculous to expect that of yourself."

"But if we didn't automatically resort to killing it wouldn't have happened either!" Sophia retorted. "If we hadn't decided to make our mistake in the only way that would make it permanent, it wouldn't have been so bad! We could have tried driving the ferals away, capturing them, anything other than simply killing them, and it would have been better!"

Greg paused. "Huh… Well, can't argue with that." He shrugged.

Sophia blinked. "You- you can't?"

"I mean, you're right. Once you kill someone, you're done. There's nothing more you can do, and you can't take it back." Greg replied. "If you have any other option, you should take it."

Sophia frowned. "So- you agree that you shouldn't kill people?"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Greg shook his head. "No. Killing should absolutely be a last resort, but it's still a resort. If you don't have any other solution, then… Well, it is still a solution, and the problem still needs to be solved. Ignoring a problem just because you don't have a perfect answer will just make things worse."

"But how can you just give up on finding a better solution?!?" Sophia protested. "Because that's what you do when you kill someone! You give up on any other solution!"

"Well, if the choice is either killing them or continuing to let them victimize the innocent, then in order to protect others, you kinda have to give up on a perfect solution." Greg explained with a shrug. "In the end, I value the safety of the innocent more than the life of some asshole."

"But what if they aren't actually an asshole?!? What if you have the entire situation wrong!?!" Sophia countered.

"Well, if they're hurting people, they're pretty clearly doing something wrong." Victoria commented, before pausing. "Though that same argument could be turned on us for hurting them." She muttered with a frown.

"I think you just gotta do what seems right in the moment." Greg shook his head. "Otherwise you'll never do anything because you can never know everything, or at least, by the time you do, so many more people would have been hurt because you didn't act. You should figure out what you can, but at a certain point, you need to act, and at that time, all you can do is whatever you believe is best. Maybe you'll get it wrong, but… that's life, and you just have to try to do better next time."

Sophia still didn't look convinced, but she didn't want to continue the argument either. It was counterproductive to what she was trying to do here. "I don't think we're going to agree on this." She shook her head. "What were you guys doing before all this?" She asked, changing the subject.

*

As Jennifer walked out onto the deck, Andrew was resting next to the mast, watching the clouds as they drifted across the sky. Debbie was humming to herself in the crows nest, while Rachel, Sarah, and Meredith sunbathed on the foredeck. Jennifer hesitated, wondering whether she should focus on Andrew, who she was really trying to get close to, or head over to the girls, which would be more natural. She'd already talked with Rachel and Sarah a few times, so she could probably start up a conversation there… but how would she draw Andrew in if she did that?

"Hey new girl!" Debbie suddenly yelled down from the crows nest as she caught sight of Jennifer standing there. "Can you get me a drink? They're in the mini-fridge there!" She asked, gesturing to the mini-fridge sitting by the mast, next to Andrew.

"No one is climbing up the damn mast just to give you a drink!" Andrew snapped, glaring up at her. "You want to stay up there, you come down here and get your own damn drink!"

"You don't speak for her, tiger boy! You don't know what she'll do!" Debbie retorted, glaring back down at him.

Andrew rolled his eyes, turning to Jennifer. "Just ignore her. She can get her own, she's just being lazy."

"Hey Jennifer!" Sarah waved and shot her a smile as she walked over to get herself a drink, leaning back and tossing a drink up to Debbie in the process.

"Thanks Sarah! You're the best!" Debbie thanked her, before leaning back in the crows nest.

Andrew sighed. "Damn it, why'd you have to do that?"

"Because now she's going to have to climb down to pee." Sarah replied with a wink as she sipped at her own drink.

Andrew paused, before snorting in amusement. "Now that's devious."

"You can't argue with Debbie, you just gotta let her dig her own grave." Sarah smirked, before twirling to head back to the foredeck.

Andrew watched her go for a moment, before flushing as he turned back to see Jennifer watching him with a raised eyebrow. "Uh… so, what brings you to the deck?" He quickly asked.

"Just getting some fresh air." Jennifer shook her head with a small smile. The big bad avatar had a crush! "The ship is nice, but you can only spend so much time inside, you know?"

Andrew nodded. "Yeah, I've never enjoyed spending too much time inside." He leaned back, staring at the sky again and taking a deep breath of the fresh air.

"Big nature fan, huh?" Jennifer asked.

"You could say that." Andrew smirked. "I spent most of my childhood in the woods and I've probably had more animal friends than human… though that isn't saying much."

"Is that why-" Jennifer cut off. She was going to ask if that was why he'd kept his animal features, but… he wasn't a feral, he was from a different reality. His animal features had nothing to do with being feral… maybe that was just how he looked, and saying those features were animalistic would be offensive? Probably best to just avoid that topic. "Uh, is- is that why- you- joined the crew?" She asked hesitantly. That was innocent enough, right?

Andrew paused, giving her a look, before shrugging. "No. I'm just here because of Greg. He kinda… dragged me along, you know? Not much I could do about it."

Jennifer snorted. "Yeah, I get that." Travis had been dragging her along ever since they were kids. Though she supposed she'd done her own share of dragging him along too… the price of being essentially attached at the hip since childhood. Whatever one of you did, the other would end up doing too. "So how do you feel about all this then? Traveling around, hunting down evil people, making the world a better place…"

"Well, who doesn't want to make the world a better place?" Andrew replied with a shrug. "As for hunting people down… if it's necessary then it's necessary. I've certainly met my fair share of people the world would be better without… I'm just not sure if it's something you should be looking for. It's one thing to see a problem that needs solving, it's another to look for problems to solve. People tend to find what they're looking for, so if you look for problems, you're going to find problems. I'm just not sure if that's a good thing or not." Andrew finished, frowning thoughtfully.

"Well… the problems still exist don't they? So isn't it a good thing if you find them?" Jennifer offered.

"It's one of those… like, you know how people suck right?" Andrew asked.

"I… guess?" Jennifer replied, cocking her head, wondering where he was going with this.

"Well, people are kinda allowed to suck, to a certain degree. It's just how people are. So if you go around looking for people who suck, you're going to find them, you see? And if you get used to taking care of people who suck… well, how long before you're taking care of people who are just the normal amount of sucky, rather than the ones who really suck?" Andrew explained. "Like, there's a difference between a racist and a racist, you know? A racist is an idiot, but people are allowed to be idiots, so there's not much you can do except call them an idiot. A racist on the other hand actually hurts people, so they need to be stopped. But if you go looking for racists, you're going to find racists, because, you know, they're both racist, but if you assume every racist is a racist, then you're going to hurt a lot of people who are just idiots." Andrew paused. "I'm just wondering if we might make the mistake of hurting people who only cause problems because they're dumb."

"But again… they're still causing problems, aren't they?" Jennifer pointed out hesitantly. "Even if it's just because they're dumb, the problems are the problem. You can't just ignore the problem because the person causing it is an idiot."

"True." Andrew muttered. "I don't know, I just think it's a bad idea to set a standard where people aren't allowed to be idiots sometimes, because everyone is an idiot sometimes, in some way."

"I guess, but I also don't want to set a standard where people are allowed to hurt people." Jennifer pointed out.

Andrew frowned for a moment, before shaking his head with a sigh. "No, I don't want that either. Of course, turning it back, that means you can't hurt someone just for being an idiot… but you can hurt someone for hurting people then?"

"I- I don't think it's about hurting people at that point, it's about preventing them from hurting others." Jennifer replied. "Like hurting someone for hurting people is just revenge, and that's wrong. But hurting people to stop them from hurting someone else? That's protection, and that's necessary. I mean, it'd be best if you could do it without hurting them, but… well, the point is, hurting them isn't the point. The point is to stop them from hurting others, even if it means hurting them."

"So… it's a motivation thing?" Andrew raised an eyebrow at her. "As long as you're hurting people for the right reasons, you're good?"

Jennifer's expression twisted. "Well that doesn't exactly sound right either… but I think- like, ideally you could stop people from hurting others without hurting them, right? It's just sometimes hurting them is your only recourse. So it isn't okay that you hurt them, it was just necessary, you know?"

"I suppose…" Andrew agreed tentatively. "So our goal shouldn't be to hurt anyone, it's just what we might need to do sometimes?"

"Exactly!" Jennifer exclaimed.

Andrew shrugged. "I suppose I can get behind that."