Drew didn't ask about what had happened again. Instead, he got them inside, closed and chained the door, then led Terra over to the beaten up old couch that sagged in the middle. It had served as a place for friends to crash when they were too far gone in their cups or on the outs with a spouse before. He saw no reason not to offer it to another friend in need for one night. Though he did throw uneasy glances at Sly every few minutes.

Sly didn't pay the man any mind. Instead, he found a place high up on a shelf to curl up and watch over his human for the evening.

Once Terra's tears had run dry, Drew brought her one of the worn quilts from his bed on the other side of the small studio unit. He tucked it in around her. "One night. You can't stay more than that."

"I won't." Terra croaked. Her throat was sore from vomiting and crying. She curled up on her side, closed her puffy eyes, and tried to let sleep take her, but it wouldn't come.

An hour after she had arrived, Sly leapt down on her from the shelf. He landed on her hip, but quickly moved down and around to her face.

[Don't speak. One of them is coming.]

Terra shot up on the couch. She almost asked her familiar which it was, then caught herself and instead used her ability to sense talents in the deliberate way she had learned to back at her building. The thrumming force had the feel of the one she had first grabbed. It was Ajax, and he was undeniably coming to Drew's door.

Terra darted up and across the room, shoving herself into the nook between the shelf and the kitchenette counter. She pulled the bag of trash that normally called the spot home up onto her lap, obscuring most of her torso and face from the room, but it wasn't big enough to cover all of her, even when she ducked her head.

A split-second later, there came an urgent pounding on the apartment door.

Drew shot up in his bed, blinking sleep away. He looked at the place he'd last seen Terra, then the cat that was following her, but couldn't spot either of them before he answered the door in the same manner he had before, keeping the chain on and his blaster ready.

"'Jax? Why are you trying to knock in my door in the middle of the night?"

"She came here, didn't she?" Ajax asked, leaning back and forth in an attempt to see into the studio around his boss.

"Who?" Drew asked, leaning back since he already knew no one was on the couch anymore.

"Terra."

"Why are you looking for her?"

"Oh, cut it, Drew. We both know who she really is. She barely tried to hide it."

Terra had put both her hands up over her mouth, to muffle her heavy breathing. She couldn't see either man from her hiding place, but she could just make out Sly's dark body, curled up under the couch. By keeping his eyes closed, he was nearly invisible in the dark space. She kept her eyes pinned on the furry lump of him while she mentally screamed at herself for being foolish. How had she ever thought they wouldn't notice? Her ploy might have worked if she'd stayed on the move, but instead she had settled in one place. Let people get to know her. Given them details they didn't need to know.

Like the date of her birth.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid.'

"So? We've all got skeletons in our past, 'jax. She's our friend." It was said in the same tired, calming tone Drew had used on Terra back at the parlor. His best de-escalation voice.

It didn't seem to appease Ajax anymore than it had Terra. There was a loud bang from the door as the red-haired man slammed his fist against the outer frame. "Well tonight she's got a new one. She killed a man. Someone that had no intention of hurting her. Is that the kind of 'friend' you're going to protect?"

Guilt and terror choked Terra as an uncomfortable silence stretched between the two men at the door. She was glad of her inability to breathe while the deafening silence gaped in the air. She was certain if she hadn't been so strangled, she would have made some noise that would give her presence away.

Drew finally sighed. "You can look around, but she's not here." He said.

Terra heard the door close, the chain jingle, then the creak of the hinges swinging wide open.

"Thanks, man. She was here though, wasn't she?"

The light coming in from the hall cast the long shadow of Ajax's pointed finger over the couch he was gesturing at. The quilt was still folded over where Terra had thrown it off herself. Her backpack was still tucked under the arm of the couch against the wall.

Ajax didn't wait for an answer, going over to the bag and pulling it out. Terra could see him then, so she closed her eyes, to prevent any reflection off of them from alerting him to her position.

Drew finally answered the question in a weary breath. "Yeah. She was a mess. What did you do to her?"

The scoff Ajax made caused Terra to flinch. The trash bag in her lap crinkled like thunder in her ears, but neither man heard it over the tumult of her bag being dumped out onto the old wood floor.

"What did we do to her? I didn't even see her. There was some kind of attack on my new parts and next thing I know I'm waking up with a splitting headache, her place is ransacked, one of my new mates is dead, and the other says she attacked us all." The anger in Ajax's voice gave way to a broken crack as he rifled through what sounded like the pages of a sketchbook. "Damn it, Drew, no one was supposed to get hurt! It was going to be a clean job. We'd get her back safely to her parents and then we'd get paid. That was all. Instead..."

"You miscalculated." Drew's voice was gentle, but firm. "Someone doesn't run away from a cushy life to live in the slums for no reason."

Ajax sniffed loudly and threw the sketchpad against a wall. Terra heard the pages fluttering like the wings of a shot bird as it fell. "So what? At least she'd never go hungry where she belongs. And I bet her parents are worried sick."

Drew didn't try to reason with him more than that. Instead he said: "Check the bathroom. She probably ditched her stuff to buy time, but I'll look around out here. Clean yourself up while you're at it."

"Yeah. Sure." The broader man grumbled, going into the only room separated from the rest of the studio by a door, and closing it behind him.

Terra had kept her eyes squeezed shut the entire time. She didn't dare open them until she heard water start to run in the bathroom. When she did, her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.

Drew was standing over her, looking down with disappointment and pity blended into a potent mask of accusation on his face. "Why?"

The simple question pierced into Terra. "I- I didn't mean to. He- I pushed him. From the entrance to my apartment." Her mind scurried after more excuses. She wanted to justify herself, to say she had been scared and they had been in her home. She swallowed back the flimsy justifications and said instead: "I'm sorry."

It seemed that wasn't the answer Drew had been looking for though. His expression hadn't changed as he crouched down in front of her. "Why won't you go back?"

The answer seemed so petty and selfish now. After hearing what a man she called friend thought of it. Knowing now that it had come at the cost of someone else's life. She curled tight around the trash bag. She couldn't meet his eyes. "I didn't want to live that lie anymore." She whispered.

Drew sighed heavily through his nose. "They were waiting for you in your home?"

"Yes."

"Did you know they wouldn't hurt you?"

"No."

Terra had not lifted her head, so she jumped when Drew's ink laced hand gently closed around her shoulder.

"You should go. I'll keep 'jax busy."

"Oh, you'll keep me busy, will you?" Neither had noticed when the water had stopped running in the bathroom. The door swung back open with Ajax's words, silhouetting him in the bathroom's light.

[You need to drain his influence again. Now.] Sly's voice was urgent in Terra's mind.

'Will that hurt him?' She asked in her thoughts while jumping to her feet, dropping the trash to the floor.

[I don't know. But do you think he cares whether he hurts you? He already has.]

Terra forced the hands fisted in fear at her sides to release. She wasn't going to risk harming someone else tonight. Especially not someone she had once called her friend. Even if he was probably the one who had led those men to her home, she just wanted to get out of this without doing more damage.

"Let me go, please." She pled.

"No." Ajax said coldly. He didn't rush at her. He just walked across the small space slowly. He was a head taller and twice as broad at the shoulders as either Terra or Drew. His stiff frame and tense anger filled up the tiny apartment. "Just come with me, Ter. Joah's family knew the risks his work entailed. Don't steal the creds from them too when you already took his life."

Before Terra could be jerked forward on the chain of her guilt, Drew took a step closer to her and asked Ajax: "How much is it? The amount you are willing to trade her life for?"

Another incredulous scoff preceded his answer. "I'm not going to kill her."

"Maybe, maybe not." Drew said calmly. "Terra, did you set out to kill someone today?"

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

"No." Terra said, finally seeing the lines Drew had been thinking along this entire time. Her voice was still croaking like a frog's from the damage she had done to her throat. "I thought I would be the one that died. I promised myself I'd go down fighting, rather than be taken back."

"And that gave you the right to do whatever it took, huh?" Ajax's voice dripped bitterness.

Terra didn't answer him as she looked past him. Drew followed her gaze and went wide-eyed.

Sly had slipped out from beneath the couch a while back. Terra had noticed him slowly circling her emptied bag and the contents that had been spread over the floor. She hadn't been sure what he was doing until his electric eyes started to glow a moment before.

Ajax only turned to look as well when he saw a strange light reflected in their gazes.

Terra could feel the lines of influence surrounding Sly. When his eyes lit, so did they. Then they shot out in arcs to each of the items in the room he had been weaving his gathered potential into. The lines hooked onto that potential and fed from it, growing brighter and solid. Each line's other end broke from Sly and converged within the backpack, drawing the bag upright and throwing all Terra's scattered belongings back into it. While he was spending a profligate portion of the potential Terra had gathered for him earlier anyways, he decided to push out just a little more to make the two men hear him.

[I gave her the right.]

The hissed words in their minds were accompanied by all the lights in the apartment building going out at once, including Sly's lines of influence. Blinded in the sudden darkness, neither man saw the familiar leap to Terra's shoulders, the bag following in his wake as it was still tied to him by the lines he had willed invisible.

Terra couldn't see any more than the others, but she could feel the shape of Sly as well as her bag and belongings, which were threaded through with his fading influence. She hurried her arms into the straps and ran for the door. She didn't need him to point out to her that she wouldn't have gotten through to Ajax.

When Sly's body on her shoulders went limp as she emerged onto the dimly lit streets, she reached up to catch him.

"Are you alright?" She asked with concern, running without a destination in mind. All she knew was that she needed to get far away and stay away. From friends and foes alike.

At least the rain had stopped.

[Drained. I will recover. Feed me another street lamp if you're worried.]

Terra snorted. "I'm not that worried." She said, though a desperate smile tugged at her lips. After the tension in Drew's apartment, running as fast as she could through the streets in the dark with a ridiculous cat laying limp in her arms and snarking at her felt liberating. "Can we leave the planet sooner rather than later?"

[We could have before all this. Now, I have to get more potential first.]

"Why?"

A small paw batted lamely at her chin.

[Use that puny Brains stat of yours and think for once.]

Terra humored him for now, letting her feet go where they willed as she focused herself into her mind.

She wasn't used to thinking things through though. In all honestly, she tried to avoid thinking about anything besides art, stories, and client gossip as much as she could. Everything else she'd ever thought about felt overwhelming or crushing. She preferred to let her mind be a place she escaped to, rather than one she worked in. Whenever stuff cropped up, she would act first and think about it later. Maybe. If she really had to. Which might be why she was always running headlong from one problem into another.

Like she had run into that man. Joah.

If she had thought through what she was doing before she pushed him, she could have reasoned that falling forward down steep steps over a paved alley was dangerous. Instead, she had acted first. Like she always did.

It was no wonder her Brains had not increased since she was 12. She hadn't exercised her mind in any meaningful way after that point. For a stat to change, its limits had to be pushed. She'd actively avoided doing any hard thinking.

Terra's steps slowed as she processed through her chaotic thoughts, just as disorganized as her bag.

[Here's a hint. Why didn't you leave town before?] Sly asked with sarcastic syrupy-sweetness soaking into his synthesized voice in a disturbingly accurate way.

She couldn't blame him for his impatience this time. He was right. It barely took any time to realize why they couldn't leave until he had more potential to spend. "Because I can't be screened. Unless you push a fake result for me."

[Technically, you'll be pushing the fake result. But I can't show you how when I'm like this.]

"Do you have to show me?" Terra asked. "Why not just tell me, then I can try it with you to see if I'm doing it right. You're still a system, right? Even if you're a tiny one."

[I'm not small.]

The petulant words sounded particularly like a boy grumbling about being a big kid, which made Terra smile. Even though she didn't say anything, Sly glowered up at her grin.

[We could try that. I don't expect it will work, but it's worth the shot. The sooner we get into the Interim, the better.]

"To do this I'll need to use my 'Reality Sense', right?" Terra guessed. She began to orient herself on the streets now, figuring out where she was and what was nearby. Her blind flight had taken her into a residential district not quite as bad as the one her home had been in. The streets here weren't safe, but they were the kind where someone would probably bother to come out if she screamed. What sort of payment they'd want for helping her with whatever had made her scream was another question, but she didn't think it would come to that. She ducked aside into a clean looking alley to continue the conversation with Sly somewhere out of the light of lamps and the view of windows. She kept walking, but slowed her pace since she didn't have a destination in mind.

[Correct.] Sly agreed. He had regained some of his muscle tone in her arms as she ran. [You're gonna want me to explain that now, aren't you?]

"Do you even need to ask that if you can read my mind?" Terra teased. Her playfulness was forced, but her heart was still pounding hard in her chest, her blood high on adrenaline.

[For the record, I don't read every single thought and desire you have. At least not all the time.]

"Is this a thing you can do because of the bond, or have you been stalking me for a dozen years?"

[It would have taken potential to analyze your mind before the bond was finalized. As a seed with no champion, potential wasn't something I could afford to waste.]

Terra frowned at that. "So why wait for me at all? Why not find someone else. Do you know how many people would sell an arm and a leg to get a familiar?"

Sly went stiff, then sat up to hiss in her face. [Because you were promised to me.]

"And I'm just that special?" She asked sarcastically. Maybe she shouldn't engage with his little tantrum, but she didn't want the guilt of his loneliness and hunger on her shoulders. He could have and should have just moved on.

[On this planet? Yes.] Sly said, relaxing back into her arms stiffly. After a moment, his tail curled with reassured vanity. [You are the prize for my patience.]

The next turn Terra took in the alleys led her past an alcove where a group of the homeless were bundled together sleeping under soggy cardboard canopies. One man was on watch. He narrowed his eyes at Terra, but she kept her head down and didn't slow her pace.

'What makes me a prize? My Capacity? Is it really that unusual?' She switched to thinking at Sly with an effort. It should have been easier to do than talking, since speaking with her mind let her throat focus on breathing, but she wasn't used to it yet.

[No. Your Capacity, especially at the age it capped out, is impressive, but not unusual. Almost any Second Order being will have equal or greater Capacity. It is useful, since it is likely to always be higher than most others within your Order, unless you reach Fifth Order, but what makes you special is the talent that high Capacity allowed you to develop.]

It had been a long time since Terra had been lectured on the Orders, but the lessons had been so numerous that they came flooding back to her mind involuntarily.

Orders were the means by which mortal sentients were classified by systems. The vast majority of people within the universe fell into the First Order. It represented folks whose stats were within natural mortal limits, namely, 10 or less. Any stats beyond 10 required some kind of bond to a system so that the system could manipulate the body to allow it to exceed normal limits. Anyone who had at least one stat over 10 was considered Second Order, which was the order almost all people with secondary system bonds belonged to, be they system administrators or VR athletes.

Any stat over 20 marked the threshold for the Third Order, common only among experienced Interim explorers, champions travelling the universe while gathering strength for their system seeds and searching for their world. A world couldn't even be seeded until a champion had a stat average of 26 or so, by which point their physical and mental capabilities were on par with the original Earth myths of superheroes. Anything less than that and they would not be able to generate enough potential for their system seed to take root and metamorphize into a full-fledged system.

One stat over 30 put a being into the Fourth Order, which was when most Interim explorers would seed a world. It was unheard of for anyone other than a champion to reach the Fourth Order. Most experts in the field of system sciences hypothesized the primary system bond of mortal and familiar was necessary to achieve it since fostering that much growth beyond typical limits required a concerted and consistent effort on the system's part.

The Fifth Order was the last, and most powerful. At 40, a stat had reached the limits of what the physical laws of the universe could be bent to without breaking. Calling a stat at that level god-like was almost an understatement. Most champions would never reach the Fifth Order, meaning Terra didn't need to worry about her Capacity ever being unimpressive for her Order.

None of that told her how it had given her a talent.

'The reality sense?' Terra asked. 'What does that have to do with my Capacity?'

The burst of static like sound in her mind gave Terra the distinct impression that Sly had just done the system equivalent of snorting in amusement.

[Everything. Starting with the fact that if it was any lower, having my parent system ripped out of your head would have killed you at that age. Your aptitude for gathering and channeling potential for a system took what should have become massive brain damage without a bond to channel it away and instead grew it into the exceedingly rare talent that let your body handle and process it on its own.]

'It didn't feel like I escaped brain damage.' Terra thought. 'And how would this talent allow me do any of that?'

[I'm getting to that. You have heard of the space-time continuum, right? Also known as the fabric of reality?]

'Sure. It's the higher dimension your kind works off of. Systems use potential as an energy source to weave threads of influence into it and change properties of the physical dimension within it.' It wasn't a feat of cunning on Terra's part to regurgitate the core set of facts her administrational studies had shoved down her throat endlessly.

[Good. Now, what do you think it means to be able to "sense" that?] Sly's voice had taken on the condescending ooze of someone leading a stubborn- or particularly unintelligent- mule to water.

Terra had already started to guess at this on her own, though. 'It's why I can sense when other people are using talents, right? Why I feel where every tap is without having to look or know where disruptions are before they're flagged.'

[It's also why you can touch influence and manipulate it. Like a system. Most of you mortals can only expel it through your talents.] He was practically purring now, because she belonged to him and it pleased him to have something precious. [You can't produce shaped influence from potential of your own- yet- but when you are holding existing influence, our bond allows me to absorb it and convert it back into unshaped potential. And I can use my potential however I see fit.]

'So how am I going to fake a screening result if I can't shape influence?' Terra asked. She came back out onto the main streets again. If she was speaking in her mind anyways, there was no point taking the risk of walking through alleys.

[You can't produce the influence directly, but the system running the screening will be doing that. All you have to do is nudge the results.] Sly had regained most of his physical strength by now and adjusted himself into a tidy cat loaf shape in her arms. He ducked his head down into the crook of his paws looking far too comfortable and relaxed there.

'Won't the other system know I did that?' Terra asked while staring at him. He was annoyingly adorable to look at.

[What do you think your Hacking skill is?]

The sharp change in topic confused Terra. 'Hacking is for breaking into computers or databases, isn't it?'

[Something like that. Typically. In your case, it is the name I chose to give your ability to manipulate influence. It can go by other names: Weaving, Tampering, Molding. I chose Hacking because one thing it is capable of is reshaping a system's influence without the system noticing. So long as the results are within the expected parameters a system sets on the outcomes for an expenditure, it does not know if the influence was tampered with. Full-fledged systems are too abstracted to focus on inconsequential details like that.]

'That doesn't explain why I have the skill already. I thought you told me I had to have at least some experience and talent with a skill for it to be listed.'

[You have already used it.]

'When?'

[How should I know? A screening assesses what exists within you, not how it got there.]

That troubled Terra. She went quiet and tried to think about any time she had interacted with a system or other sources of the influence she could feel. She was fairly certain that she had never even tried to do anything with what she sensed until today. Until Sly had told her to try, she hadn't thought it was something she could touch. It would have been like trying to grab a rainbow.

[Find a tap.] Sly said when he'd had enough of her brooding. [It's time to practice.]