I was happy we were out of Japan for a few reasons, some blisteringly obvious, some less so. For once, nobody was trying to kill us, and Saga wasn't being batshit insane anymore, just regular insane. She kept coming onto me, slinking out of her seat and pawing at my legs and crotch with a glimmer of want in her eyes. I think she was trying to apologize for being such an insufferable tool the last while, and didn't quite know how.

For the record, this was not one of the reasons I was happy we were gone. Even if, somehow, I were into Saga at the moment, I was still strapped in a VTOL with four other women watching my every move.

But I was also glad to be rid of Japan for Japan's sake. When we'd first landed, it had seemed an odd place, to be sure, full of different people, technology and culture. But I'd never found it bad. It was different. It was interesting. In as many ways as it was strange and inconvenient, it was also brilliant and intuitive. I wasn't entirely sure I loved being there...especially given the circumstances, but I did love that it existed as it did, a crazy, slightly-so-different world to be experienced and to learn of.

And then we'd shat all over it. Corpses and fire, empty streets and military vehicles, death and chaos, that's what we brought to that land, and I was glad I could take it with me when I left. It hurt, more than it should have maybe, that they were right; I should never have been allowed to set foot in the country on the grounds of being Exhuman. No matter how noble I tried to see my own goals as, no matter how selfless, the fact was that where I went, I brought destruction. And that just sucked.

It made me consider, strongly, what I'd be doing after Moon was free. Once I had all my ducks in a row, once our corner of the world was safe for us to exist in...should I just go back into exile and leave the damn world alone? If havoc like we'd unleashed on Japan was all I'd bring to my life, I'd rather pass.

Which was stupid, I knew. Blending in was a better option. Things had only gone so south because I had to fight for Moon. Once she was out, I could be too.

I watched the waves whip past under the VTOL. It'd been more than an hour of just water now, leaving behind a white 'V' in the crystal blue water below. We were pretty low to avoid detection, and if I leaned out carefully and looked straight down, I could almost see our craft's black reflection in the surface.

On the other hand, I shouldn't need to hide out. I didn't cause damage or kill people for fun or because I could -- I did it because they forced me to. I was, by my intentions, a benign invader, and it was only from the insanely escalated response that Japan was being scarred. If they'd just left me alone, hell, if they'd just not been so easily bribed into Ichiro's pocket in the first place, none of this would have happened.

The sun sparkled off the wave crests in a way which dazzled me and made me blink more than I felt necessary. Of course, Ichiro only had that kind of influence because of the demand for his guns in the first place, which was again, only because of the danger of Exhumans to begin with. If Exhumans could be tolerated, we wouldn't need guns, we wouldn't need Ichiro, and Japan would have been spared. It all came back to that in the end, every time.

Maybe instead of hiding out I should campaign for Exhuman rights or something, I mused. And then...nah. I was already far, far too hated for that to ever play out well. I'd just be provoking a fight again. Something had to change at some point, though.

I gave up on it and unbuckled, moving over into a seat next to Lia, where she was on her mobile. "How goes?" I asked.

"Grumpy," she replied, without looking up. "No 'net out here. How's a girl supposed to get anything done?"

"What's the girl trying to do?"

"I'm trying to pick up the pieces with Black Shark, but it's not working out so hot. There's only so long you can be dead before people move on without you. I've been trying to send out...statements, I guess you could call them...that she's still alive, but you know what they say. Anyone who has to argue they're alive really isn't."

"Don't think I've heard that one. Anything I can do to help?"

"Not unless you're a satellite." She looked up from her mobile and sighed at me. "Which, no offense, but you really don't look like one."

"Oh I think I'm pretty spacey sometimes," I grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes. You're positively out of this world."

"You two had best knock that punning off or I will turn this vehicle around," Karu chimed in from the pilot's seat.

"She's getting nervous that you're stepping on her flygirl turf," Lia confided.

"I am getting nervous that you will be making inane comments and drive me to murder-suicide."

Lia thought for a long moment, probably pulling for another pun, so I decided to move on again before we got under Karu's skin. She was, after all, the only one of us actually doing anything at the moment.

I joined her in the front and sat down. She gave me a nod and I noticed that she was smiling broadly beneath her visor.

Her threats had all been in jest, I knew. But I teased her anyway. "You happy to be out of Japan? Your short-lived career as an American idol is over?"

"God, yes. It was as though they had never seen a woman before."

"Well you have to admit, they've never seen a woman like you before. Honestly, I don't think I have, either. You're pretty unique."

"Coming from your lips it sounds a compliment. But it feels far more disingenuine when reflected in the glassy stares of the slack-jawed masses. I take little joy in their reverence, compared to yours."

"Well, I never said I was reverent," I said, slouching in the chair and examining the multitude of displays around us. I wondered why she still needed her visor with all these things, but I also had no fuckin' clue how to pilot a VTOL so I wasn't going to ask stupid questions.

"I suppose you may think not. It matters little, however. So long as I know it."

I realized she was still smiling, which was going on a little longer than I tended to expect out of her. After a few more quiet moments, I had to ask. "So what's with the grin?"

"Oh I am just...pleased with the situation," she replied.

"And what's that? Flying to China?"

"No. Though I admit some allure in expanding my worldview consistently. But rather, with you, and your finally coming around."

"Coming around?" I echoed dully, not sure and not liking where this was going.

"To my way of thinking, as it were."

"And in what way am I coming around to your way of thinking?"

She went quiet for a moment before she replied, as though making sure of what she was going to say. "The previous occupants of this vessel, for example. You ordered them to be killed, and then did so without reservation"

"I had plenty of reservations. We all argued about it for a few minutes, and I only had them ejected when it seemed like there wasn't any other real choice."

"I am aware. And while that is a bit more wishy-washy than I would have preferred, the fact of the matter is that you did, ultimately, decide that your goals were more critical than their lives. It is a point I have been attempting--"

"No," I cut her off. "It was just...that…" I struggled for a moment, trying to come up with any reason that didn't sound like our goals. "Moon's life was worth more than their lives."

"And yet here we are leaving, assured that her life is safe, for the moment."

"Why are you being such a tool about this?" I asked. "Why do you have to throw my decisions in my face like this? I had innocent men killed, and that's horrible. Do you think I want to go over how senseless that was?"

She scoffed at me. "Do not pretend that you do not self-flagellate over concerns such as these without my prompting. I hold you up as a beacon of righteousness, deaths and all. Your actions are pure, and your motivations noble. It is through the scrutiny of them that we can see why."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"It doesn't feel very fucking noble to kill helpless people."

"But you said yourself, it had to be done. It was a decision made of necessity, in order to attain your goal. You are a being of goals which are greater than the value of the lives of this earth."

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means, that while most men tread dust, concerned with issues such as the size of they paychecks, the hours in their deadlines, the ballots for their politicians, or the scores of their sports teams, you are one who considers instead how the world should function, should be designed, should operate, to be the best world it could be. A philosopher, in the vein of the creator himself."

"Yeah...I'm not fucking God, and never will be."

"You say that, but I have yet to see you lacking in his will. As I said, you dream of such potential, and then more, what truly sets you beyond in my eyes, you do it. It astounds me that a man such as you exists, and seems only natural that I would be at your side and service."

"Dude. Karu."

"Dude yourself, Ashton."

"I'm just a guy. Like, an Exhuman, sure. But that literally makes me less of a person, not more. I'm a guy with no rights, on the run from the law, who can shoot lightning. And while, yeah, God can do that last one too, that's about all we've got in common."

Her smile broadened. "To confirm, you do not spend much of your time and energies deliberating the direction the world should take?"

I couldn't really answer that one, having just spent a few minutes pondering what the role of Exhumanity should be in the future, after rescuing Moon. But that was strictly coincidence.

"And then, you do not adjust your personal course of action, directed solely by the aforementioned conclusion?"

That, also, was just a coincidence. I had to decide what I was doing with myself at some point, right? And who wouldn't look at the bigger picture when making plans like that?

"I believe your lack of rebuttal seals my case," she concluded with confidence.

"Even if those are true, that doesn't make me...godly or anything. I'm still just a guy."

"Just a guy. Jesus was 'just a guy'. Mohammad was 'just a guy'. Mortal men, born on this earth in and of human flesh. That does not prohibit God from acting through them. Are you aware of the buddha's origins?"

"No. Do you like, dabble in all religions?"

"I do not. I do find it difficult to claim devotion while withholding ignorance, however. One who chooses worship solely because it is their only option has made no choice at all, and thus has no faith at all. I have faith, and so I educate myself. Would you like to hear of him?"

"Literally anyone is better to talk about than me right now."

She chuckled. "The original buddha, like you, was 'a guy', by the name of Siddhartha Gautama. He was a philosopher who spent much of his life trying various things, listening to various wise men, internalizing their teachings and testing them against his experiences. Always, he found established traditions to be insufficient and contradictory to the beliefs supposedly holding his society together. Always, teachings which allegedly promoted peace and wholeness instead lead to conflict and division. Like you, he was dissatisfied with the state of the world as he saw it, and the paths offered to the people within it."

She flipped a couple of switches on the controls and then turned to me halfway. "Eventually, he pioneered his own philosophy, the path of Buddhism with which we are now familiar, though it has changed much over the years with many more holy and wise men adding their lot to the sum. But what is and was and shall forever remain unquestionable was that the buddha sought to end suffering among humans. He preached and acted always towards that end, and in the end, though his wishes in it are violated constantly, he even asked not to be worshipped, as he believed it was his way and not himself which were transcendent."

She smiled at me. "That was a pun. I hope you and Lia forgive me."

"Nevarrr," Lia growled from her mobile, and Karu chuckled again. I didn't get it, but whatever.

"So your point is, I'm basically buddha?"

"My point is, there are wise and holy men who are divine because others see them as such, regardless of how they see themselves. Though he wished not to be, Buddha is worshiped, and you will find millions of his followers praying at millions of his statues across the world. And that is because he, like Jesus, belongs to mankind as a gift from God, and mankind does with him what they will. Although I am certain Jesus would have preferred to be worshipped than crucified."

I sighed at her as her image came clear. "So this is all just justification to see me as some kind of divine thing, while also ignoring my own words and opinions, and being able to do whatever the fuck you want with me, is that about it?"

"Crass, but not inaccurate," she beamed. "And, as I pointed out, I believe you are slowly turning towards where I believe you should be. A divine creator, unfettered by human law and traditional order, who sculpts the Earth in his image because his vision with closed eyes is superior to what they see."

"You're weird as fuck," I informed her, and again she just chuckled, full-bodily. "But you've still got one thing wrong."

"And what is that?" she asked, cocking her head at me.

"Neither Buddha, nor Jesus, nor any other holy fellow in the scripture ever started over by destroying everything and killing everyone. No matter how many times you argue I'm just like them, the fact is, I've got more in common with the plagues of locusts and tides of red than I do with Moses. Even if you argue I'm necessary for positive change...which I don't...that doesn't make me a good guy."

Her visor glittered at me as she grinned. "Was God a good guy, Ashton?"

"Uh, by definition. But--"

"And did he not drown the world found wanting to start anew?"

"I'm not gonna drown the whole world, Karu."

Her smile turned a little less cocky and a little more enigmatic, and the movement of her brow told me her eyebrows lifted beneath her visor at me. "Would you not though, I wonder?"

"I sure as hell wouldn't." I unbuckled and prepared to move to the back again, tired of this whole conversation.

But she had to get her last barbs in as I left. "Not even if the whole world came after you and yours? After killing a hundred...a thousand...ten thousand, to save your sister...would you simply stop and let them have her? At what point do you look at yourself and say 'I have killed too many' and submit?"

"It's not happening," I said, standing.

"Only because it hasn't. Not because it wouldn't."

As I crossed Lia, she shook her head at me and made a gesture for crazy, and a gesture at Karu. I nodded enthusiastically and went as far to the rear as I could.

"How are we doing?" I asked Tem as I gently sat next to her.

She nodded, saying nothing. But even from that, I could tell she was doing better. Whether she wanted to or not, she'd recovered a lot during her imprisonment. The last time I'd seen her, she was wheelchair-bound from malnutrition and beaten to ten types of hell from the fight in Vegas.

Now she was sitting up again. Looking at things again. A normal girl again...in all the ways that word could possibly apply to her. I hadn't gotten a chance to catch up with her since her rescue, and wanted to make sure I spent the time to do so.

"You look better," I offered. She nodded again. "You not talking?"

"I am talking," she said with a small shrug, her eyes on the floor.

We sat in silence for another few minutes, but it felt like a heavy silence. I thought she was always on the cusp of saying something, but would never come to say it. I was too tired to rack my brain for every option, so I just didn't. I asked.

"Tem, please tell me what you're thinking."

To my surprise, she glared at me, the icy blue of her eye catching me off-guard. Almost as fast as they hit me, they fell to the floor again, and I had to wonder if I'd seen them at all. Something had changed in the girl.

"I am...I…" she stammered out and then drifted back into silence. Just when I thought I'd lost her, she spoke up again. "I do not understand, s-s-sometimes."

"What don't you understand?"

"You."

"What about me? I think I'm pretty simple."

Again the eyes flashed at me, and I felt like I'd said something wrong. I swallowed heavily.

"Why did you rescue me, when it was Moon who needed s-saving?"

I blinked at her. "We rescued you because we could."

"You could have rescued Moon instead."

"Um...we really couldn't. She was further underground, there were too many enemies and--"

She was shaking her head so violently her hair bobs were whipping her in the face. I stopped and blinked at her again, at this sudden, silent outburst, completely lost.

"No!" she told me, and then bit her lip like she'd just uttered heresy. "I mean...what I mean...is that you can do anything. You would always s-save me, you always have. Unless you chose not to, which...which I would understand. But Moon does not deserve to not be rescued, and you did not, and I do not understand."

I felt my heart breaking as she pouted through her flawed logic, tears forming in her eyes. I really hadn't expected this. Tem had always been...dependable, I guess was the right word, but in the same way as a trained dog. So devoid of her own agenda that it was easy to give her direction, all because of how simple her worldview was.

And here I was, inadvertently challenging that worldview. For the second time today, someone was calling me God, and this time, I didn't have a rebuttal. Because, while Karu had an abundance of flawed reasons to put me up there, Tem was struggling to find one to keep me up, and that wasn't anything I thought I could give her.

"Tem," I said, giving her a soft squeeze which she didn't even react to. "If you were captured, or Moon, or anyone here, you know I'd come for you. But that doesn't mean I'd succeed. I'm just one guy, I can't always take on the whole world, or even tiny parts of it. Someday...you're going to have to live your own life, when mine falls apart too much for you to keep leaning on it."

She bit her thumb and shook her head, wet streaks rolling down her cheeks, and I just sighed and wrapped her in my arms so she'd stop flailing as much. She seemed to calm down, seemed to be out of words, seemed content to just let me hold her.

"But I don't want you to do that," she said, her voice just a whimper.

"I know. Me neither. But that's how the world is sometimes."

And after all the shit of Japan, all the warring we'd started and the deaths we'd caused, the arguing and philosophizing and all that bullshit, that's how it all ended. Me holding Tem while she cried.

It only lasted for another ten minutes or so, and Tem had drifted off in my arms, before Karu looked back and notified us that land was coming up, and we'd be arriving shortly.

In China. Or whatever was left of it.