The bright lights of studio interviews was something I had become used to at this point. I was doing an interview with a relatively hostile interviewer. Alicia Howard was one of the more hard bitten talk show hosts, more likely to press you or try to embarrass you. I was sitting in chair across from her and the pleasantries were over right off the bat. That was fine, I had a plan up my sleeve to throw her off balance.

"Mr. Trent," Alicia Howard asked me, leaning back in her interviewer's chair, "Do you consider it appropriate to be continuing your run for office in light of your participation in the attack on the United States capital, including the very place where you hope to work?"

I didn't really like talking about my mind control time. I actually didn't like thinking about it. The profound powerlessness that had been involved, to be.. replaced by that terrible blue light, I still woke up sweating with it on my mind. I had killed three thousand, seven hundred, and eighty five people. It turned out that I could focus on the death count and know their names, where they lived, and how they died. It was not the funnest trick, but when I needed to really get the water works going, it was pretty easy. It took three names this time before my voice was substantially shaky enough. "I think about that every day, Ms. Howard," I said, breathing in for a moment. "I think about the people who died. I think about the gun I had in that case, I wish I had found the courage to turn it on myself. I wonder how many people would've still been alive," objectively, I would probably save more lives if I just replaced the air planes and cleaned up long-distance travel. It would've been a catastrophic mistake to waste my life for theirs. The math didn't even kind of work out. "But that chance is gone. I must find a way of living for all of us." I said, as if pushing away the difficult thought.

"What could you possibly do that would contribute in light of the damage you've done?"

"There are really two prongs to that question. Personally, I have to dedicate myself to forward progress. It was the Super-Soldier Serum I developed in the hopes of looser policy that empowered the elite Defense Team from SWORD. It was the spaceship that I designed that brought the Avengers to capital within three minutes of the attacks. It was Ms. Wizard," Tina Minoru, "whose life I saved by quick thinking, that deprogrammed Erik Selvig and Clint Barton. It was my fiancee who ultimately delivered the shrunken bombs that disabled the control ship using the shrink suit I designed. It was my foresight to look into every rumor and myth, to prepare for every eventuality, that allowed me to see the possibility of mind control coming and set up safeguards against it. So I look at the world and I see a lot of problems that could still use someone with my abilities and foresight."

"Is that the best that you have to offer Americans who wonder if you can be trusted in light of your mind control? You had some good ideas in the past?"

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"I did a lot of good in the past, I'm running against people who have had bad policies in the past." My opponent, a Democrat incumbent, actually had had perfectly sensible anti-militarist policies in light of extant American hegemony, but I had a hawkish streak that was useful in these contexts. "But I also want to show America that I'm sincere about making good on it. I've been convicted that I must dedicate myself to the work of putting my mind to the use of our country and our world. That was always going to mean divestment, but I started earlier than I intended. I put over half of my money into the Capital Victims fund, which will help to care for those who have suffered loss from the Burning of the Capital."

A round of applause erupted from the crowd. It is shocking the amount of forgiveness you can buy for a few billion dollars. Nineteen billion dollars meant I could deliver five million dollars for each of "my" victims, either lump sum or in stocks of my companies (which was always the right choice). The amount of money involved was mind boggling, but also functionally trivial for me. The market is fickle. Before the Burning of the Capital, my market valuation was seventy three billion dollars. Afterward, it was thirty nine billion, almost a 50% drop in the market cap - Not for any good reason, I might add. Stupid investors were following their heart rather than the obvious precedent that I was the most brilliant, cutting edge inventor in the world. It wasn't like I was now less likely to pump out a world changing technology - When Nemo and Trent Industries released the "receiver" design for free our broadcast power system would dominate world power, I'd be back where I was before.

"Wow," Howard said after a moment. "That's… a lot of money. Some might call it blood money." She was still talking about money, thinking about the money. The money was nothing, a score on a screen.

"It's not blood money," I said, shaking my head. "If I could be blamed for not managing to avoid Loki's scepter, how much more could others be blamed for being unprepared? President Ellis? My opponent who dismissed the possibility of an alien invasion as the product of too much science fiction? I was as ready as anybody in the world for the attack. But I don't blame anybody. Now isn't a time for laying blame. It's a time for taking responsibility and if I can give some comfort," I let my voice choke up a little bit. "To the people who have been harmed in this brutal attack, I will. And I promise them, I promise you, that if I am elected to national office, I will do everything in my power to ensure that everyone in the world is as prepared as I was. I will ensure we are ready to fight back against invasion, tyranny, and potential genocide."