Victor lowered his guns slowly. Kenneth grabbed onto his bleeding arm, never taking his gaze off of his opponent.

Reggie came in between them and hurried on over to Kenneth. A glow spread from his hands, one that reminded Victor of the Altesians. Through that glow, the wounds around Kenneth’s body started being patched up, and he stood a bit straighter.

“I could’ve gotten him…” Kenneth complained.

“He’s stronger than you, Ken, just admit it,” Reggie told him. his eyes were squarely on the wounds and nothing else. Ken grunted in response.

Victor was held by Lillie and Amadeus, who looked him up and down. They avoided talking to him, which made him feel even worse.

“…Thanks for stopping me. I didn’t know far I was going,” Victor said.

“You’re usually level-headed. What’s gotten into you?” Lillie asked with a huff. She wasn’t pleased with what he’d done, clearly.

Kenneth hobbled over with Cory and Reggie in tow. The two disparate groups stood apart from each other, neither one willing to start the conversation.

Victor felt ashamed of himself. The first thing he did after meeting his friends after all this time, and it’s beating one of them to a pulp? Some of the wounds on Kenneth were still fresh-looking, the healed flesh raw and red.

“You can stay here,” he said without looking at them.

He wanted them out as quickly as possible. The golden structures he’d seen surrounding Charleston could arrive at any time, and Imperials along with them if he was unlucky enough. The city was basically indefensible and at the forefront of the whole invasion.

“I’ve got a group of survivors in Washington. Just hold out for a while longer and we’ll bring them back here to grab you guys,” he finished.

Kenneth grunted.

“Yeah, we’ll do that,” Reggie said in his stead.

“You’re leaving, then?” Cory said. “But you just got here.”

“Let him. It’s his choice,” Kenneth said.

Victor looked down. There was nothing more for him to say.

“We’ll come back down again in a month to check up,” Lillie said for him.

The groups split apart once they reached the warehouses once more. Kenneth went back to ordering around the other survivors and arranging missions while Victor’s group prepared the car to leave.

Victor debated taking someone with him but he didn’t want to press his luck with Kenneth any further.

Instead, they took to the EV and rode out of Charleston the same day. Victor didn’t drive any on the way home. He kept his head near the window, watching the sights pass him by. Once the car was out of the city proper, Amadeus piped up.

“Vic, so I’ve been wondering… Who’s Ben?” he asked the Timewalker.

Lillie elbowed him lightly enough that Victor didn’t notice. Amadeus replied with a silent ‘what?’ as she gave him a glare.

“He’s …. Kenneth’s brother,” Victor said.

The rest of the ride was quiet.

****

Reaching Washington wasn’t difficult for the group. A Titan had apparently walked across the roads while they were gone, as there were giant foot holes around the roads the size of trucks.

When they did reach the hideout, the Levine orphans basically jumped onto Amadeus and refused to let him go.

“You came back sooner than I expected, what happened?” Alex asked him.

“Nothing,” Victor said. He moved towards the window and looked out of it.

“How many other settlements do you people have around the city?” he asked her.

“A lot. We send runners in between to keep up, but its hard,” Alex told him.

“We’re going to fix that,” Victor told her.

****

There was trouble in bringing together a disparate group of survivors. Telecommunication lines had gone down all across the country, and so had the internet. That meant that keeping close was the only way Victor could help them grow stronger.

He did that by helping move supplies with Amadeus and Lillie. It took them weeks to organize and bring together the supplies from all around Washington to one place. While they did so, trouble grew in the form of Gates and monsters.

Victor needed to handle those as well. Which led to their next initiative.

Victor helped organize more expeditions into the Gates. Once inside, they’d find whatever Seeds they could and come back out. This wasn’t the time to be choosy, so he gave them away freely. The next part was harder though.

Victor could recognize a good number of Seeds up close. If he didn’t, his item compendium helped him remember the ones he’d forgotten, the issue was that most of them were combat-oriented.

“What’s wrong with that? Don’t we need more people fighting anyways? And we can hunt down the animals beyond the Gates,” Amadeus asked him. Tiffany sat in his lap while Victor examined a group of Seeds displayed on a table. It was their latest haul from a while ago.

“We have too many mouths to feed. And meat won’t sustain us forever. A Seed that lets you fight will win you the battle, but a Seed that gives you food will win the war,” Victor explained.

He still divvied them up regardless. The increased force helped in organizing even more expeditions, especially once they started advertising the gain of power.

The people started flooding in. their expeditions grew more numerous and so did their bounty of Seeds, until eventually…

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Finally got one,” Victor breathed out. His blade was covered in the blood of Daughters as he picked up the Seed in one hand. He examined it to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.

[[Farmer’s Harvest]:

The Farmer’s Harvest allows the user to enhance farming in all aspects. It is amazing for feeding those who need it, which makes it entirely worthless to anyone not of Earth.]

The cornucopia smelt of dirt and looked perfect. Bringing it back from the depths of the Gates wasn’t a challenge for Victor, especially because of the few boosts he’d gained over the past few weeks.

He’d worked his Slowdown out on various creatures and items. The slowed monsters made them a lot easier target for his pistol and blades, which let the others get some practice in combat.

Victor was growing surer of his new force of Wielders. Under his and Amadeus’ guidance, they were growing quicker and better. And while the two of them were preoccupied, Lillie helped to move the other bases closer.

They had the entirety of Pennsylvania Avenue filled in no time, in part due to the survivors coming in from Charleston.

Victor waited outside for those newcomers, hoping that Kenneth, Reggie and Cory would be among them. But they never were.

“They said they’re coming in last, just to make sure everyone’s out,” one of the survivors had relayed the message.

They helped to fortify and soundproof the buildings, something Victor had insisted on from the very beginning. Recording studios were the easiest place to find acoustic foam, so they ripped it right out of the walls for their own use.

While he handled the tops, Amadeus took the bottoms. The cars they weren’t using were dragged out or stripped for parts. Then they were replaced with EVs that Amadeus charged himself. He got proficient enough to do a dozen in a day before needing to take a rest.

Those cars would help them drive around, but it wouldn’t ensure their safety on the road. But that was something the survivors could handle after the fact.

Victor stood in the middle of a basement with concrete flooring. A flashlight pointed down and he ordered some of the miners towards him.

“Right here, start tearing it out,” Victor told them.

They couldn’t risk growing it in the Gates, nor could they do it outside where their enemies were. So the only solution? Right inside the buildings.

“They’re not going to get any light here, though,” the woman he’d given the farming Seed to told him.

“You won’t need it. Just keep using your powers on the plants and they should grow.”

“How do you know that?” She gave him a lopsided look.

“Heard it from somewhere,” Victor replied, looking away from her.

The miners got to work soon after. The sound padding helped hide the noise from outside, and they were done a week after.

“This isn’t going to be enough for everyone, but it’s a good start,” Victor said as he watched the first of the seeds being planted. While they worked, electricians wired together artificial lightning for the plants around the room. Amadeus stumbled down through the stairs heaving and gave Victor a glare afterwards.

“Down here too? You’re going to work me till I’m skin and bones!” he complained.

“Come on, Am, we’ve got a few new Wielders that can take over for you. We’ll just need you for the starting parts?” Victor said. Amadeus grumbled and sat down to drink some water from a bottle.

When he asked for more, one of the other farmers wiped his forehead and told him.

“We’ve got it bottled, but we’re going to need to find a fresh source soon enough,” he told him.

Amadeus turned to Victor in reply. Victor rolled around his sore arms in their joints. Another thing he’d have to take care of.

****

“Careful now, we don’t want it to notice us too early,” Victor told shooting squad with his hand raised. Not a single one of them had an actual weapon besides their Seeds. That would just give away their position.

Down below them, right off the cusp of Gate was a Vintaric adult that was prodding around the place. It was awfully close to their base, which meant Victor had to take care of it. It was searching for something, most likely weapons to eat, before moving forward.

As soon as it hopped away from the junction, Victor gave the command.

“Now!”

A hail of magic blasted the monster in an instant, decimating it. When the smoke cleared, there was a rough hole in the middle of the street and a twitching corpse that spawned a Seed. Victor let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding while the other Wielders whooped in accomplishment.

Good, now we have some proper defences.

After that day, more Wielders were put on watch all around the base. A few communication Seeds had entered circulation, so it became even easier for them to setup and relay messages. That gave Victor an idea of his own, but he didn’t dare put it into practice until later.

****

Victor stared out at the budding resistance he’d helped form. Lillie toyed with a bottle of water on the edge. She used her panes of light to roll it around in the skies. Amadeus was enjoying some oranges grown by the farmers and spitting out the seeds over the balcony.

“You’ll hit someone with those,” Lillie said.

“There’s no one around to hit, we’ve secured the whole area,” he replied.

Lillie created a pane of light in Amadeus’ trajectory. The Seed bounced off and back into his face.

“Point taken,” he replied, settling down.

Victor didn’t take part in their game. It’d been a year since they’d come back to Washington, and he’d been at the forefront of its development. But every time he looked back down at it, all he saw was more work to be done.

He didn’t know how or when it had happened, but he’d been chosen as one of the leaders of the resistance. Maybe he should’ve left well enough alone, because the responsibilities kept on piling afterwards.

“What are you thinking about, Vic?”

“The last transport’s coming in sometime in the next few days,” Lillie said, guessing at his intentions.

Oh yeah. That was the one that would be carrying Kenneth and the rest of the Washington group along with them. He’d almost forgotten.

“No, it’s not that. I just….” Victor trailed off.

He felt like something was missing. Like he wasn’t doing as much as he should’ve. Patrols were going, crop growth was finally yielding some actual food and they were expanding quicker than ever. And the more they expanded, the more survivors came to them.

He thought the surplus would cause an issue but their sheer number of Wielders had helped them in that regard. They could accommodate, even start thriving due to the Seeds they’d gained. So why was it that he didn’t feel content with it?

Because we’re still not any closer to understanding the threat. He realized then and there.

“We need to go back to Los Angeles,” Victor told them abruptly.

“What?”

Victor gave him a look that Amadeus had seen before. It was the one that indicated that Timewalker business was going on. Even though they’d spent the whole year with Lillie, Victor hadn’t felt comfortable telling her about the Seed.

It hadn’t seemed to matter either way. She’d listen to whatever he suggested either way.

“I do want to see Mrs. Wilson again,” Lillie mused.

“And they could use our help just as much as these people did,” Victor said.

Maybe that was what he was missing. The more they helped, the stronger humanity would grow against their new threat. And that meant they could stand against the calamity that would come.

Now, the only problem was breaking that to Alex.

****

“You’re leaving?” Alex looked like she’d lost her golden ticket.

“We’ve got people elsewhere that might need our help. And besides, you’re doing well for yourself here,” Victor told her.

“Yeah, but…. You’ve basically been spearheading this whole operation. Without you gone, some of the others might not be as confident,” she replied.

“They’ve got you for that, Alex. Just make sure you don’t run the settlement into the ground,” Lillie joked.

Alex chuckled awkwardly before growing quiet.

“How about this? Once we get there, we’ll establish some communication between the two settlements. That way we can help people on both coasts!” Amadeus offered. That seemed to lighten her mood a bit, and she nodded.

“Fine. I guess I can’t convince you otherwise. But you’re going to need to take some extra hands with you,” Alex said.

“And us!” Yvette burst in through the door. The gaggle of orphans behind her looked distraught and crashed into the room.

“I can’t believe you were about to take off again!” Yvette pointed a finger to Amadaeus’ chest, pushing him back into the wooden table in the centre of the office.

“Yvette, the kids’ll be safer here. You know how dangerous its getting out there day by day,” Amadeus told her.

“Oh, I know,” Yvette then turned to Alex.

“How many ‘extra hands’ are you offering, anyway?” she asked the woman in charge.

“As it turns out…”

And so, despite his protesting, the group of survivors that they were to take back to Los Angeles grew bigger. They had some dozen Wielders come along with them. Most were those with family on the west coast that they wanted to see, while others idolized Victor, Amadeus or Lillie.

The date was set for a few weeks after so that Victor could make sure their business in the city was done. And so he could meet his old friends once more.