"Where are you headed, Abigail?" Mark asks when he sees his daughter walking toward the front door of their house.
"To visit Emily...?" Her eyebrow's frown. It's highly unusual of him to keep tabs on her.
"Shouldn't you be resting? With everything that happened yesterday..."
"I'm still shaken, dad, but it's probably better for me to keep my head occupied anyway. And I want to be there for her. It was awful for me, but I can't imagine what she went through."
"Ok, I see your mind's made," he smiles, "if you want to... you can take the Shelby."
Mark means his most precious car, a vintage model that Rebecca gave him to celebrate the birth of their first child, Veronica.
Her eyes glow and she hugs him. He laughs and asks only for it to be returned intact.
Rebecca parks the Bentley when Abigail passes in the direction to the garage, showing her the Shelby's keys.
Abigail turns off the engine outside of the Robert's house and takes her time to get out of the car. Rehearsing what to say to her friend.
Emily, we need to talk... I'm afraid... The attack on the Institute...
Ten minutes later, she gives up and decides to improvise instead. She rings the bell and Mary hugs her and holds her face.
"Abigail, cher, come in! Emily's upstairs. Go ahead."
Mary heads to the office where Thomas is. She closes the door behind her.
"Thomas, we need to talk," her tone dropped from the usual chipper, "yesterday... was it the Council?"
Thomas looks up from his laptop to meet her eyes.
"How can you ask that?!" He lowers his voice, but his tone remains as sharp. "Emily could've been killed! How can you think that's something we would've done. That I would've allowed it! Of course not!"
"The Council organized the attack on the Day of Peace. I just thought this one was their work as well."
"Don't. Edward, the president, they are grateful for everything that Emily has done. They would never hurt her or us. This was the work of a terrorist group."
"This was stupid of me. You're right. I can't believe the thought even crossed my mind."
"You can't go around thinking those things. This is what the terrorists want, to create chaos. I mean, after what they did to each other. Killed the entire Ariston community out of spite. Is it so strange that nothing has changed?"
***
Abigail sits on the side of the bed. Emily's still in pain and slowly stands up a bit.
"How are you?"
"Terrible... I'm in pain and couldn't sleep last night. Every time my eyes shut... they were there. I've never felt so powerless." She looks at the bracelet. "We're building a better world, and all of this will be worth it, but I almost didn't make it. And the thought of being unable to defend myself was-"
"I'm frightened."
"Yesterd-"
"No, for our future!" Abigail lowers her voice. "If it wasn't for Rachel Moore, the Angel of Death, and Amy Anderson's son, you wouldn't be here now."
"How... how do you know that they were the ones who saved me? Amy Anderson?" Emily tries to think it through. "Oh, the man! That makes sense, Anderson had silver hair, he has it too."
"I know because... I send them to you when they were on my floor."
"Abigail, they are terrorists! I wouldn't be surprised that they worked together with the assassins. That's what the government is saying that we can't rule out a connection between the groups. Maybe this was all an elaborate plan for me to join them. Rachel Moore asked me to. She tried to manipulate me."
"How?"
"Do you remember the strange feelings that I had when I was younger?"
"Yes, you thought it was the deviant connection. And either it wasn't, or that person died. You stopped having those."
"I did. The person didn't die. It's her. She made me focus on those memories. How would she know where to look? Well, she is Rachel Moore, after all... It's not impossible that she has been following me around and looking into my memories and using this to try to force some connection with me, for me to join her."
"Maybe it's her."
"Even if it's her. She cut our connection years ago. Why bring it up now?"
"Why do you say that? When was it?"
"Let me think... It was in the year that I turned 16."
"Rachel Moore has two abilities. If I were an evil mastermind like Matthew Moore, I would have my daughter carry out the fatal flaw almost at its limit. The closer to 16..."
"The more powerful the new ability will be... sure. Your point?"
"Maybe it wasn't her that cut the connection, but the fatal flaw! Either way, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you had it for years. You felt all from one another."
"All that I felt was pain. She's that rotten!" Emily tries to stand straight but stops because of the pain. "And she has an agenda. Even tried to convince me of ridiculous things, how the government tests on us. Tries to kill us." Emilly rolls her eyes. "Devil."
"What if it isn't ridiculous? I don't know who to trust anymore."
"Abigail, please tell me insanity is a side effect of yours, because if not, you'll be tested. The first deviant to experience human diseases!"
"I'll leave you to rest."
Abigail leaves and receives a text message with some coordinates. When she goes to the park nearby her house, she finds a package from her favorite bakery, inside a croissant and an old phone with a text saved: hope we can stay in touch! Love, Ánh.
***
Jade knocks on Emily's bedroom door and sits next to her.
"Yesterday was... intense. You could've died, Emily. And that scared me, sure, but more than that, it made me feel so stupid."
"You're not stupid. Don't say that."
"I know that I'm not. But I felt like it, because there we were, in a life-or-death situation and yours felt like it was too much of a possibility. Everything, all our history, seems futile in comparison. Our trip to Africa and how I treated you there."
"Not just Africa. For too many years now, Jade. You always pull me close and then apart."
"You're right. I think it's just... we've become too familiar with one another. Like, I know that you'll always be there for me no matter what. And instead of appreciating that, instead of treating you like you deserve, I've taken it for granted."
"I don't know what you want me to say." That I feel like a fool whenever you decide we are done. With no explanation. That I feel worthless when you ignore me.
"If you want me, I'll try harder this time; I know now that we haven't worked because of me."
Jade looks at her and Emily holds her face with a smile.
***
Rebecca goes inside her house, takes off her hat and walks toward her husband.
"Really, Mark? I thought you loved that car more than us."
"It's so silly to care more deeply about things than people. How mad are you? From I-could-kill-you-now to I-will-unleash-hell-on-earth?"
"Jokes won't help. We agreed yesterday that it was better for Abigail to stay put here for a while. I leave your sight for two seconds. Two! And you let her go? I can't even imagine the possibilities, if I left you two for a whole day."
"She's heading to the Roberts to see Emily. It will be good for her. Staying put doesn't always mean being safe, Rebecca."
"I don't agree with you. Here we can watch her. I talked to Mary earlier today. They are heartbroken. I can't put myself in their shoes, how much pain they are in. Those monsters were nowhere near my baby..." her voice breaks, "and I'm so scared."
Mark hugs her tight and they stay there for a while.
"Should we call the president?" He grabs a drink and pours one for her too.
"Which one? The country's or that idiot Madeleine?"
He mouths both.
"Either will be useless. They'll just make up excuses, and I bet whatever you want that in a few days, we'll have a request for more funding. This time to..." she waves her arms around, "reinforce security."
"Well, Emily is supposedly the number one. They almost killed her. I guess it's better to secure the funding, no? With the bracelets, they are at a clear disadvantage to any attack. Any luck with the NGOs?"
"They'll organize some protests, but don't believe that it's possible to shift the public opinion on this."
"Why not?"
"For every ad we pay, Emily's smile promoting the bracelet is worth much more effortlessly."
"But with the massacre yesterday."
"No one cares, Mark. Deviants tried to kill other deviants. Humans don't bat an eye that some were defenseless. They only care that one day, sooner than later, all deviants, especially the bad ones, have to use the bracelet."
"Maybe we should just leave. Head to Eurasia. Things are much brighter there."
"I love your optimism." She smiles. "Always have. But you know the bracelet will go there in a few months, years, if they're lucky. They tolerate deviants there, it's not acceptance. We're always one political mess away from them having fewer rights than before. Eurasia isn't foolproof. Their people have just forgotten the last war. Ours is still too fresh in the collective's memory, and Rachel Moore and her army make it worse."
"When I realized the other day that Abigail is 25 already... it sank in."
"What did?"
"That we've been doing this for 25 years and nothing has changed."
"That's not true."
"Who's the optimistic now? How can you say that anything that we've done has made a difference?"
"I can say it because I'm being realistic here. When I was born, if I had the gene, I wouldn't be considered my parents' heir. Now, when we die, Abigail has the same rights as Vero and Zach. They are equal in that aspect! We wouldn't have gone to school, if we were deviants. She has."
"She has studied only on institutes."
"Because we made that choice! We thought, and that was a decision we made together, that having her with her peers, with other deviants with abilities would be the best for her. She could've gone to any school after the war."
"Yes, Rebecca, after the war! Abigail was ten already. Do you think that any deviant that went to it with that age or older had any chance to keep up with the humans? Any chance to actually learn when they hadn't for years?"
"I'm not looking at 2013. I'm talking about now, and now they can go to school, they can have jobs."
"No one hires them!"
"We do!"
"Yes, Rebecca, and that's exactly my point! Because Abigail tested positive, we care. Because until that point, we didn't. And while we do everything in our power, we hire deviants, we sponsor the Institute, we pay for educational ads, we sponsor NGOs, we finance the entire campaigns of representatives that support deviants, and let's not even talk about how we manipulated information to have the last presidents elected-"
"Well, I don't regret doing it."
"I don't either. All that I'm saying is that after everything we've done... I still don't see a better future for Abigail."