"There has to be something we can do!" Carrie said. "Some way to fight this!"

"Anything we do would just make this worse," I told her. "Besides, if we fight this, then we're the bad guys until we conquer Earth or the Scourge come back. The world's governments needed to make a decision that would let them keep Nephilim on Earth in case they came back, and they wanted to make a decision that they thought would leave them in charge of the Nephilim by proxy."

"I will not cooperate with the people who sent my Commander from his home," Kyouka said.

"You'll have to," I told her. "If you don't, then they'll try to remove you the same way they're removing me. Don't let them run roughshod over you and what you're doing, but don't be an iron wall that they need to get rid of. Balance being firm with being amicable and they'll let you stay without any true complaints."

"I will try," she relented. "It will be difficult."

"You're really not going to fight any of this?" Mom asked. "You're just going to let them walk all over you?"

"I'm not going to be on the planet," I told her. "That doesn't mean that I'm going to leave orbit. I've got a Principality who's going to need my help. I can't leave her here, thrown out to the wolves."

"That's not the point," Carrie said. "You made the Nephilim, you led us to Earth, you guided us against the Scourge. If you're gone who's going to step up and be the face of us?"

"Kyouka is," I told her. "I've already been using her as the go between for the rest of the world. It's her face on our recruitment ads, her all the governments talk to when they want something from us, her that I've been grooming to take Earth matters over. If I'm gone that just means that nothing's changed. Besides they all know that she's not a pushover."

"Can we change the subject?" Jen asked as Harry nodded from beside her. "I want one last dinner with my brother. Here on Earth, like a real family should have."

"A great idea," Father said. "I'll start cooking. Why don't you help me Jenny? Harry you have the baby, right?"

"Yeah, I've got him. Besides Maggie's here if I need help," he said.

"If you think I'm letting you hold my grandson all night, you're a fool," Mom told him as Father and Jennifer went to the kitchen to start cooking. "Carrie, Kyouka, you're both welcome to stay for tonight."

"Thanks Mrs. James," Carrie said, she wasn't as quick to change the topic as everyone else had, but she managed. Kyouka echoed her words before asking a question.

"Can I send for my brother? He's always wanted to meet the Commander. I'm sure he'd love to talk to his family as well," she said.

"Of course," Mom said. "The more the merrier I always say. Bring all those, what are they, Wings too."

While everyone else moved to take care of whatever they could think of for tonight, I moved through the house that had been built for my family. Mom had managed to keep a hold of her phone and her camera that had the memory chip with all the family pictures in it.

There was my first day at school, holding hands with Jen. There was the last birthday party Mom had celebrated for herself before declaring that she wasn't aging anymore; I'd teased her about that with Father for years afterward. That one was the day I hit my first homerun in the middle school baseball team; the first one I'd ever hit come to think of it. That was Jen's first school dance, she'd gone with friends and had fun. There was Father's law firm out for drinks after winning a big case. There was Jen going to college. Mom dancing with Father on their anniversary. Me going out with friends. Jen and I the day we all went to the water park. Every picture told a story; my life on Earth up til now, and each one seemed to nail home what was happening to me. I was outcast from my home planet and soon enough all I'd have to remember it by would be memories.

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"Something wrong, sweetie?" Mom asked, she'd taken little Rick from Harry at some point.

"Just thinking," I told her. "Remembering."

"I did that too when I thought I wouldn't see you again," she said. "I spent weeks looking at your baby pictures and crying my eyes out. Your Father tried to hide it from me, but he killed more bottles of liqour then than he had in the forty years we've been together."

"I'm afraid," I told her. "I might not have a chance to see you guys again when I leave for real. I knew that, but I'd come to terms with it. Told myself that I'd visit whatever graves you had and that would have to be enough. Now, I don't even get that."

"Oh sweetie," she said leaning into me for a hug. "You'll always be able to see us. You'll always be able to talk to us. And I don't care what some jumped up judge says on behalf of those damn politicians; you're always welcome wherever I am. That's never going to change, not as long as you're my son."

"Thanks Mom," I whispered. Tears had begun to flow and I wasn't sure I could stop them anytime soon. I knew that if I didn't try, that I'd end up sobbing into my mother's shoulder, just like I had when I was boy and skinned my knee or the other kids were being mean. Funny how it all changes but things like that stay the same.

I stood there for a moment longer, trying to stop crying and just remembering everything that I was leaving behind.

Dinner went great, Father and Mom told everyone stories about me, the embarrassing kind that had other parents and friends rolling in laughter. Jen had her own stories to share about me and she didn't pull any punches with them. Kyouka's brother was excited to talk to me about any and everything Nephilim Army related; he was adamant that he would sign up soon, and Kyouka was doing her best to make sure that he was safe and well-trained when that time came.

Carrie and Sarah were still fighting about Sarah's decision but they were able to put it all aside for dinner and both had fun. The other Wings were happy to tell us all about their own families and they told mine about the different things I'd done and screwed up enough that it was funny. I didn't have anything to say. I was just happy to listen and spend time with everyone like that.

After dinner, I stood outside watching the sun set and wondering if I would ever see something like it again.

"Rickshaw," Harry's voice pulled me from my thoughts.

"Hey Harry," I said.

"I'm sorry that this is happening to you," he said. "I just wish I knew a way to help."

"Don't worry about that," I told him. "You're doing plenty to help. You're keeping Jen sane and you're giving Mom something to focus on other than me with little Rick. That's already more than I could ask for."

"It still feels like I should be doing something," he said. "You've given more than any of them know and now they're all trying to take even more from you. It's not right."

"It's what I expected," I told him. "They were either going to remove me and try to keep the Nephilim or they were going to remove the Nephilim entirely. If they get rid of me, they think they can control the Nephilim Army and take all the things we have and use for themselves. If they get rid of the Nephilim, they'll have people rioting and their approval ratings would fall. We were the one who removed the Scourge. Not the governments. The people know that, so now they're working to undermine the biggest threat to them politically. Me."

"If they look at how you were before all this happened, they'd know you aren't some political threat," Harry argued.

"I am though. If I endorsed someone, then they'd have my word and track record backing them for whatever office they ran for. They can't have that," I told him. "They're all so used to having the power they abuse that if something were to happen to upset their control, they'd do everything they could to remove it."

"Maybe you're right about that," Harry sighed after a moment. "It still isn't right and someone should do something to change it."

"It won't be you," I told him. "I won't have you risk anything about your life or Jen's or Rickshaw's for me. Just let this drop. I'll be fine."

"I hope so," he told me. "I just wish you'd let me do more to help."

"You're doing plenty," I assured him.

"Maggie wanted you to have this," he said holding his hand out to me. "She knows you won't take it from her, and that if she tried to give it to you she wouldn't let you go, so she asked me to give it to you. Alan gave something to Carrie for you."

I took the little memory card from him and nearly started crying again.

"She's sure?" I asked him quietly.

"She is," Harry told me. "She wants you to have it."

"Thank her for me," I said as the shuttle that was to ferry me and my Nephilim back to the Phoenix descended. "This means so much to me."

"I will," he said. "And Jen put some pictures of Rick in there too, so you won't have nothing of him."

"Thank you both for those," I smiled at him and stepped forward before the tears fell. It was time to leave home. Forever.