The next day, they meet in the operations room after lunch. All but Emily. She hasn’t left her room since Saturday. Ánh and Abigail bring her food and she eats some of it, but other than that, her last few days have been spent only lying in bed, looking over social media.

“Abigail and Emily can’t leave the house…” Rachel begins.

Emily doesn’t even leave the bed… Abigail pays close attention to the paintings in the room. She recognizes the landscapes from a trip she took to Norway a few years back with her family. She smiles recalling how they played in the snow, watched in awe the northern lights. Beautiful days that won’t come back to her anytime soon. She hears in her head Zach’s laughter, Vero’s complaining that her brother broke the rules, Mark holding Rebecca tightly and her smiling.

“… even with Diego’s ability. Let’s not take any chances!”

Everyone nods in agreement.

“So, Alex, Diego, Megan and I, we’ll keep following Joshua Roberts. He’s our best chance. Ánh, keep looking up any financial or other connections between the Institute and this organization and if the camera on Marianne Olsen’s house shows any movement. That’s it, everyone. Good work.”

Who’s Marianne Olsen? Abigail wants to ask, but immediately the group disperses. Megan leaves. She’ll look for Joshua. Ánh, Alex, and Diego go to their computers and Rachel turns her back on her and paces back and forth, talking out loud.

“Madeleine Clark, the Roberts… we’ll find the connection.”

Abigail slowly goes up the stairs and Rachel follows her. When she hits the last step, she trips and almost hits her head on the table nearby, but Rachel uses her ability and with a soft gust of wind stops her from hurting herself. The wind puts the girl tenderly on the floor and Rachel guides the wind to her and Megan’s room on the first floor.

Abigail lies comfortably on Rachel’s made bed; she finally regains her senses and sees a fluid bag connected to her arm and Rachel next to her.

“What… what happened?” Abigail slowly says while trying to get up.

Rachel helps her up and puts a pillow on her back.

“You lost conscience. If I had to guess… low sugar. You haven’t eaten since the party.”

“I have,” she avoids meeting Rachel’s gaze.

“Abigail, are we going to have a problem here?” Her tone is as sharp as a knife, but she takes a deeper breath and softens her voice, “you don’t have to lie. It’s okay. I know that you haven’t eaten… you keep avoiding it and pretending that you have already whenever Ánh invites you to,” she sighs and gets up, takes a few steps toward the window to see the busy life happening on the street, “You know,” she chuckles, “I could overpower you-”

“You could try, sure,” Abigail scoffs.

“Abigail, I could absorb Alex’s mind control and overpower you. Force you to eat,” she turns and faces her. Abigail looks away, “but I won’t. I won’t force you to eat. I won’t make you. My hope is that you understand this isn't the solution. Starving yourself. Killing yourself. There has to be a better solution. Please… eat.”

Abigail nods and Rachel brings her a wig and a hoodie. She leaves the room for the girl to change.

“Why…?”

“It’s already nighttime. Come with me.”

They leave the house, each with their hoodie covering their faces. A few minutes later, Rachel knocks on a door, a small window opens.

“Two cheesesteaks, please, for Rachel Moore.”

“Of course, savior. Stay in the fight!” The other person says when they hand her the food and drinks, all in the house.

Savior… oh, please.

She grabs it and shows Abigail the way to an abandoned house. With the help of her ability, she creates branches on the floor to lead them to the terrace and there, the most beautiful view over the city that Abigail has ever seen. Her eyes open wide and her mouth drops. Rachel looks at her and smiles.

“I’ve never been in this part of town.”

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

“I know. Here, let me know if it’s too cold already, I’ll heat it.” Rachel hands her the wrap.

Abigail opens it and it’s still warm, smells delicious and it looks even better. A cheesesteak wasn’t Abigail’s favorite, but this one, because of the act of kindness, most likely, meant the world to her.

“It’s the best in town, I’d say.” Rachel takes a bite and moans, “wow.”

“Probably tastes better because it’s free… ‘savior’,” Abigail chuckles, “this is so good! I don't think I ever had a better one.”

“Really? Here I was sure that nothing would impress Abigail Parker. I was gonna bet your personal Michelin chef had made you a better one.”

“I know you’re just trying to get a reaction out of me, but sure, I’ll take the bite. We don’t have chefs at home. Katryn does the cooking. She’s like a grandma to me, the biological one that I never had. General Lewis lost her parents when she was 18 and my father-”

“General Lewis?” Rachel keeps chewing.

“Oh yes, Rebecca Lewis, my mother. Behind her back, we call her that, never to her face, definitely. She’s…,” Abigail takes a sip of her drink, “tough. I mean, tough would be the understatement of the year,” Abigail smiles.

“I interrupted you. You were saying… your father.”

“Yeah, rude,” she laughs, my father, he doesn’t have the best of relationships with his parents. He moved out the farthest he could for college, paid for it himself, working several jobs, cut himself out of their life and never once spoke with them again. I never understood why and once I even lashed out at him, but mom was so harsh with me, saying that father loved us and wanted us to be safe from the mess he grew up in.”

“That’s exactly what a father should do for his children,” Rachel smiles.

“Did Matthew Moore do that? He always seemed so proud of you. He and Amanda Anderson always smiled on their videos when they talked about their incredibly talented daughter.”

“Matthew wasn’t a father, let alone a good one,” Rachel looks away for a bit, “do you think I’m like him? My father? Jade Harris said it.”

I never thought that her words had made such an impact.

Silence. You do think it.

“My father was… a monster would be the understatement of the year,” she chuckles and hesitates, “he killed so many people, destroyed so many lives, and when we created the movement, Megan and I, we wanted something entirely different from the Five. It’s, “she holds back the tears, “unfair when I’m still compared to him, no matter how much I try not to be anything like him.”

“Isn’t life strange?” Abigail chuckles.

“I’m sorry?” Rachel faces her and raises her left eyebrow.

“Rachel,” she smiles while looking at her, “Never in a million years I thought I’d be sitting… on a terrace… on this part of town…” she looks over the city, “next to you, the world’s most feared deviant-” she says in a mocking tone.

“Powerful too.”

“You’ll never catch me saying that.”

“Not to my face, Parker, just like General Lewis, but behind my back, I’m sure you will.” Rachel looks for a while at Abigail.

“Moving on,” she rolls her eyes and tries to hold back a smile, “all to say, that ever since Saturday that I have been completely down. Nothing has cheered me,” I even considered… using my ability, “Ánh couldn’t make me smile, Emily… she’s a mess, nothing was helping, but you. You helped me. Life is strange. I never thought the leader of the terrorists would make me feel better. You’re not your father, Rachel, and I know this because Matthew Moore was incapable of changing anyone’s mind about him through kindness.”

“I… don’t even know…”

“What? No expensive words that no one knows the meaning of? Are you speechless? Here’s a first. Who’s Marianne Olsen?”

“Megan’s mother. A few months ago, we realized the new students that were supposed to arrive at the Institute, some never made it there. Ánh connected the dots. There were posts circulating in the forums-”

“Forums?”

“The deviant forums… well, not for all deviants. It’s mainly where the people on the deviant side during the Great War gathered.”

"Why haven't I heard of it before?"

“Alex’s mother, Stephanie Williams, designed it. She was good at it. So far, Ánh is the only person who cracked it and got in without any problem. It’s very well hidden. You interrupted me, rude, as I was saying… some people commented on the forums that their friends, family members have disappeared, they were taken. Those children disappeared too. We figured that they are being tested, and that’s where Megan’s mother comes in.”

“How?”

“Megan said it.”

“So, you think it’s the same place that Joshua works for?”

“We know it’s the same weapons from the massacre at the Institute, so we think the two are connected.”

“But you haven’t found Marianne Olsen yet.”

“No. She’s nowhere to be found. We aren’t even sure if she’s alive still. And if she is, if she’s connected to the kidnapping. If the kidnapping is connected to the weapons, they used on the massacre.”

“Are you against the government because they killed your parents?”

“Abigail, I killed my parents. The government only claimed to. I had to protect Alex. I had to protect myself.”

“You two don’t seem that close.”

“Not anymore.”

Rachel ends the cheesesteak and asks Abigail to head back.

They walk back in silence to the house. There’s a million questions that Abigail wants to ask, but Rachel’s silence is loud enough for her. She probably has overstepped already, even if she doesn’t say it out loud.

I only killed three people in my life. She remembers when Rachel said it. On the night she got rid of the body of the man Abigail killed. Two were her parents… who is the other?

Rachel opens the front door and steps to let Abigail walk through it.

“Sleep tight,” she smiles and begins to turn around.

“Aren’t you coming in?”

“I need to clear my mind a bit. Take care, Abigail, tomorrow is a new day,” she waves and leaves.

A few minutes later, she got into the usual bar. As soon as she walks in, everyone recognizes her. Most try to talk to her. She listens to their proposals for the movement, how a revolution should happen and when.

A few hours later, she has finally listened to them all. A couple, they are in their late thirties, approach her with a drink. They chat for a few minutes, smile, and leave together for a darker room.