Three months later and the world was a mess. Everywhere was in a recession and in turmoil. I wanted to say it would have been better if we had succeeded, but also we didn't succeed, we were colossal failures everywhere except Pakistan and India, where the huge ass monetary gift from the United States had enabled Durrani and Bhatia to stumble through the fall with some stability and a shitton of sanctions. South America had struggled through the spiking of the U.S. dollar, with the pink tide returning once more, totally vindicated by events but also left to rule over battered countries with limping economies. China had taken over Taiwan and Hong Kong while America was distracted trying to sort itself out.

Everybody had to deal with the rogue Hydra Fireflies recruiting in their territory, but the Hydra scientists who could've made more were all caught. Whitehall's capture had triggered Konstantin's fall. Working personally with Nazis? No amount of money can wash that out of any man over Stalingrad. Of course, then there had been a massive looting of the treasury and the American money had never ended up trickling down to the Russian people. Things there weren't the second fall of the Soviet Union, but they also were not great. The Middle East was a chaos basket of feeble democracies and vindictive majority-backed dictatorships and paranoid minority backed dictatorships.

Personally, I was doing worse. I hadn't recovered from Andromeda's death and I still saw her mouthing, 'hate you' whenever I closed my eyes. The PRIDE didn't talk to me any more. Nobody talked to me any more, except the occasional fanatical true believer that I met when trotted out by the new government who was convinced that I had been forced into confessing on television. At long last Steve had told me he was ready to let me leave, that they'd gotten their uses out of me and my family was taking up too many protective resources.

We were driven to the location in an unmarked van, accompanied by Steve Rogers. He came to all of the things he had promised me, for the sensible reason that I trusted no one else. We were flanked by six other vans full of Fireflies – With Hansen and the Yorkes' help, the procedure was running full steam again and with the threat of Pakistan and India looming, they'd just given up on the international treaty and started loading up as many loyal soldiers of democracies as they could find.

I looked over at Steve Rogers and said, "You talk to my doppleganger?" I asked, trying desperately to get my mind off the issues I had created. Steve had definitely consulted with his alternate self, who had reported that Thanos wasn't a problem, but he had done a few more checks.

Steve nodded his head, "That was the weirdest experience ever. He was… good."

This was as close as Steve Rogers had gotten to calling me a scumbag. Ever polite.

"He wanted me to run for President," Steve said after another moment. It made sense. A democracy needs politicians like a gut needs bacteria – Nobody wants to see them, but they're vital. This was all a state secret, so he pretty much only had me to talk to about it. "Well, he wanted me to push for a new constitution to reconstitute the country as a parliamentary democracy or a, uh, 'sortition democracy in light of the possibility of mass conspiracies'. But I told him I wasn't going to do that."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Listen man, you've got a right to the vine and fig tree," I said, not wanting to say loudly that Steve should absolutely do one of those things. People needed to have a government they could trust and the present crop of politicians weren't going to be able to deliver that. Steve could. "Things are rough in this America, there's a big recession, a brewing Cold War with India and Pakistan, and no trust in government. That's why I asked for exile, I don't want to be here for this mess."

"It's gonna be a tough few years. We'll get through it. But I see what you're doing," Steve said as the cars slowed to a stop. "You agree with your doppleganger."

I nodded my head before I got out fo my seat and lifted Pericles to put him into hiscarrier, "You a bible reading man, Mr. Rogers?"

"Not as much as I should be," Steve admitted.

"That parable of the trees I quoted in my campaign speech, for me it was bullshit, but you might want to read it." I shook Persephone awake and she blinked her eyes open.

"In this analogy, wouldn't you be the thornbush?"

I guess he had checked it before this conversation. Or hell, maybe he knew it off the top of his head. "Yeah, I was the thornbush, there was a fire, it nearly consumed the whole country."

We were out in an old woods, trudging towards the reconstructed Lilypad. Victor's masterpiece was still a glowing ornament of metal and roses.

"Daddy, we're really leaving?" Persephone said from my side.

"Yes," I said, trying to make my voice encouraging.

"Good," she said. The long months under house arrest had not been kind to two children who had lost their mother and me, their not-particularly close or familiar dad. Plus Persephone was smart enough to know everyone hated us.

"Maybe you'll have cousins," I said, trying to figure out what to say so I didn't have to think about this cursed world. I needed to be strong, for my daughter.

"You mean the other you might have kids?" Persephone asked, "Even though he didn't marry Mommy."

"Right," I said. It would be good for her, to have cousins

"Do you think their Mommy is dead too?"

Right in the gut kid, "No," I said, "I sure hope not, at least." Wouldn't that be messed up? Such different lives and that's where we land.

We walked a bit further in silence and I felt like shit. I had wrecked this world, top to bottom, and I was leaving other people to clean it up. Andromeda was dead, her doppleganger was no doubt either in prison or likewise. We climbed onto the platform, I turned on each of our single-use Quantum Tunnelers that some mad genius had designed to thwart me from coming back. I don't know why they bothered – There was some cool stuff here, but I could rebuild it if I wanted to, and besides that it was just political clusterfucks stacked in a row, many of them my fault, all of them blaming me.

I gave a thumbs up to Rogers.

We left that hellhole forever.