The memories still were as vivid as always, closing my eyes and trying to remember it always brought it back as if it had just happened yesterday. The taste and smell of blood, the pain as those that were my world id at my feet, unmoving. Eyes closed as they still tried to crawl towards me.

  The pce surrounding us was destroyed beyond what one could expect to see in a site like this, this was a normal house. My parents weren’t special by aric, my mother was a meid my father was allegedly a stay-at-home father who tried to make it big by being an author. He wasn’t a very good o that I was told.

  Aheir visage as they tried to crawl to me wasn’t the thing that stayed with me the lo, I was what? Five? Four? It is hard to put a timeframe, you see… It is hard for me to measure time, my [Power] makes age and even [Time] a meaningless cept.

  But what stayed with me across all this time, was the image of a man who walked into the fire aru as if it was nothing, his visage as he punched and in some instances, merely spped away the mohat roamed the neighborhood was amazing. At this time I didn’t have full trol over my power, so when it ran out of trol it started to ma…

  [Things].

  Monsters straight out of my worst nightmares, and when I didn’t allow them to ma ihey went to the hing and did it, all my plushies had turned into aberrations of mankind, [The Tiheorized that I wasn’t summoning monsters but tapping into alternate realities where some kind of bizarre series of unfortunate events ended with a dog plushie turning into a five-meter tall monster.

  I never uood it, but what I knew was that the image of the man that stood in front of me at that moment was what a true [Hero] should be. He wasn’t wearing a fake smile, he wasn’t looking for blood or justice. He merely stood in front of me, making sure he wasn’t stepping over my dead parents.

  “Everything will be okay, for [I am here].” Was all he said as he kneeled and offered me his hand.

  He didn’t take me in a hug, he didn’t grab my hand trying to reassure me. No, he merely extended a helping hand and waited.

  The world screamed around us as monsters maed from my nightmares, the neighborhood was full of sounds and I could faintly hear someone speaking into this [Hero]’s ears. A…he stood there looking at me with his eyes focused on me. No hurrying me, but only waiting.

  “...I’m sorry…” Was all I could utter as my younger mind couldn’t process what was happening and in one jump hugged the first calming presen this personal hell I was.

  The man, [The Hero] merely embraced me and carried me in his arms, he walked out of my house. That would be the st time I would see it, too dangerous for me to return. Too much risk for trauma to resurge they said, my power was [Unstable].

  Too much power for such a little girl they said, the United Nations cimed that I should be incarcerated, my power stripped and my mana veins burhe current members of [The Twelve] stood divided, Veritali’s member advocated for me to be sent to one orphanage uheir vigil.

  “What do you want to do Jenna?” [My Hero] asked, making the whole pce turn silent as they stared at me. “We will try to help you as much as we , but you o take the first step.”

  “Jack I know you just got your own daughter, but don’t projec-” The leader of the UN tried to say, but was silenced by a magic circle that snapped on his throat.

  “Hubby is right, we could always take you in. We have a daughter around ye, she could use some friends, we are thinking about moving. So we buy a bigger house.” [The Stardust Explorer] said, “She is around three years old.”

  “I want to be like you!” My younger self said as she poi my [Hero], at [The Ameri Crusader].

  “Well, that…may take some effort.” He said with a smile, it was a warm smile. But I k, it was the same my father did when he said something a the opposite. “You will o learn to trol your [Power] first. And then some more.”

  What followed after was a couple of years in some research bs followed by the watg eye of half the [Twelve] making sure they didn’t do…bad things. They wao make sure how my [Power] worked, and what were the limits.

  The problems started when I turned seven years old…And Elizabeth, [My Hero]’s daughter turned five. At the moment I didn’t know what it was or what happened, but what happeill crushed my heart.

  “Jenna….we will not be able to take you in.” [My Hero] said with sadness in his voice, “We will o quarantine Elizabeth, your to-be sister…She…She is sick.”

  He never expined more, and after a whole year I finally mao meet her, the one girl that was the luckiest in the world, for she had a [True Hero] as a father, and…She was too normal.

  “Why does she have bck hair and yellow hair?” I asked as my eyes found Elizabeth for the first time, I had learo better focus my power at this point, so I was able to tap into the fount of it, and bring into this world better my abilities.

  “How so? What are you seeing?” Asked [My Hero], so happy to help I answered of course, “ She looks like three? Four? like many people are superimposed, she is like… A thuorm after a drought, but also closer to a bck hole.”

  Of course, my expnations weren’t the best, I was seven! Still, [My Hero] took me seriously.

  “How do I look? Catherine? How do the [Twelve] look to you?” He asked instead, as if to make sure I was seeing right.

  “That’s easy!” So I answered as fast as possible, “You look like a pilr that holds together the world! No matter from whigle I look”

  Really, even after growing up that never ged, “Big sis used to look like a worn doll…But nowadays she looks as if she had been also sewn all over...badly. If I turn from a very specific spot I see her as an office dy tho.” That had been a scare to see.

  “[The Prophet] and [Warlock] look like they have s on them, one going up one going down.” Those two never had too much variation. Same as the rest of the [Twelve] really. “[The Elementalist] looks like a librarian or a teacher, [The Beast Master] is always a veterinarian, [The Traveler] is dead half the time, and when not he is a messenger.”

  “[The Tinkerer]...she is weird, half the time she does! How does that even work?!” And that still scared her to think about, to be ho. “ [The Monk]...is always a monk. [Shadow Pact] is either an insurance seller or an office worker. [The Sniper] is always w in the military…Or in a school.”

  That st oill made her giggle to this day, the taciturn woman w as a teacher was su iing image to see from time to time, not that she was able to peek into those realities as often, not after she settled her power.

  “And you?” [My Hero] asked, of course he would… I had just bee a member.

  “...[The Juggernaut]... is always following [The Ameri Crusader] behind making the world a better pce.” That was, of course, a lie. Most of the time she didn’t awoke a [Power] her life would be mundane, she would get a boyfriend, get her heart broken…Marry have some kids, live a plentiful life, a divorced around her fifty anniversary because her husband cheated on her with a younger woman. Cry, and end in a nursing home ter that year, then lived the rest of her life there till death came.

  “...I see.” Answered not Jack Brighton, nor Jack Ashcroft. But [The Ameri Crusader].

  I tio attend some birthdays from time to time, and also some parties, mostly to see how Elizabeth was faring, they never asked me what I saw or not again. That part of my [Powers] wasn’t disclosed to anyone else withiwelve], they all thought my power allowed me to summon [Heroic Spirits] and mahem into the real world.

  And I did something like that yes. Only I wasn’t summoning [Spirits] but something else, the same thing that allowed me to take in my [Juggernaut] persona.

  My power, the power of [The Juggernaut], the power of [Jenna Lewis] was [Eaion]. It allowed me to tap into [The World] and pull a possible future and bring it to the real world, it toyed with realities and allowed me to do great things.

  Most of the time I only used to summon servants from a reality where I had awoken a [Summoning] power instead of this. Most realities where I woke up a power had some variant of this power. In one I could summon seven different types of [Heroic spirits] so long they fell into one of seven archetypes.

  In another, I had super strength, flight, heat vision, frost breath, and invulnerability. If I had powers, then I would be close if not at the S-Tier rank. If not, well, I was average. It was weird, either I had it all or nothing, but what was always also true…Is that if I had powers, my parents were dead.

  Why does this matter? Well, that es with the part of my powers. I could peek into alternate worlds and in some cases pull parts of those realities, but…do all worlds move at the same speed?

  No, they don’t. Rarely do some even move in the same dire. What this means is that to some degree I could see the future, not in the same sehat I knew 100% what would happen, but if something happens enough times in other realities…Well, ces are it would happen here if the same circumstances align.

  And…well, in some realities where [My Hero] fell, died, or wasn’t born. It became my mission to do what he did, being his successor, so that was the main reason why my [Juggernaut] persona was what it was.

  The real identity behind the armor? Well, you guess?

  [Echos from another life: The One Who holds the weight of the world on his shoulders, Jack Ashcroft.]

  That is right, I was maing an [Echo] of [My Hero] and using that as a framework for my identity as a member of the [Twelve], of course, they let me in. One [Ameri Crusader] was enough of a threat to world stability. But two?

  No member of the [Twelve] could stop me, well, [My Hero] could of course. And perhaps [The Stardust Explorer], but her would actually do it. I was closer to an adopted daughter by the time I was ten. Even if I didn’t live with them.

  And the other member of the [Twelve] acted as such, I liked to think that in their eyes I was more of a daughter than Elizabeth, sihe only times some members of the [Twelve] could see her was on her birthdays, and not all of them.

  The Italians didn’t get invited often, [My Hero] always suspected their involvement in the event that happened when Elizabeth was five, but sino proof was brought and Elizabeth was mostly fihey let it go. It may also help the fact that when I was asked about their other lives…I had answered that most of the time they tried to work for the betterment of the world?

  Granted, it was a world where they stood at the top, but it was still a better one. Yeah, it was my fault that they got pardoned instead of being a spt. But what I say…I…wasn’t very mature till the advent.

  My power is great and might, but as such it also affects me, I liked the simple life I had while younger so I usually [Maed] a version of me that was young, most of the time when I wasn’t on duty you would find a little girl version of me running around.

  It all ged after the [Advent] of course, that oime [My Hero] asked me to leave and I did. Because I didn’t notice the implications of his words, nor did I think to look at his future outes from parallel realities…

  And that brings us toward the [Advent], the moment when two [God]’s asded on this p…Most people talk about it as a great moment, the time when [The System] bridged the differences between powereds and mages, the moment when [Framework] and [Odyssey] fixed one of the biggest problems this world had. The [Tainted].

  But to me? It was a nightmare, it was hell, it was…the sed time I lost my parents.

  “WHY ’T I GO TOO?!?!?? I HAVE ENOUGH MANA TO ASD TOO! LET ME GO!” I had screamed at the apparition of [My Hero], [My Father], [Framework].

  “You o uand Jenna, we need someoo hold the reins oerial pne. After going up there we will not be able to interfere with the mortal world. I need someone I trust…” Said [Framework], no. Said my sed father, the man who raised me. And the sole light on this cursed world that still existed.

  “THIS WHOLE F#G WORLD BURN FOR ALL I CARE!” I had screamed back as I let my po, my form shifted from the little girl I had used for so long to my real form.

  The one I still was using, the one no one knew about…I was tall, almost as tall as my foster father, the only difference was that my hair was blue and long and well… That I had curves where he had muscles.

  “I care not for this world, for a world that will fet what you have done for them!” I screeched back at his apparition, fog all my mana into my eyes to try and find a future where I could go with them…and finding nothing. It was like staring at a bck hole, there weren’t any alternative realities where the man known as Jack Brighton or Jack Ashcroft and [Jenna Lewis] lived together as father and daughter.

  “...Please Jenna…Uaoo, we didn’t want to do this. But Ethan didn’t leave us a choice. Do you think we wao [Asd]?” Jack said back. I khis, of course, the distaste Catherine had fods]. And how little my foster father thought of them, so long they left him alone he wouldn’t mind them.

  “...why must I stay here?” So I asked him that instead, trying to suppress the tears from my eyes, I khe answer already of course. It art of the reason I rather stayed as a little girl instead of this form…It was the reason why my [Juggernaut] form didn’t think too much.

  “I want you to look after Elizabeth, we don’t think [The World] will try to pull a fast on us, but it’s better to be sure.” He said.

  “...did you raise me as a shield for her?” It hurt to ask. I could see the pain in his eyes as the words left my mouth, but…it hurt to me too.

  “....That was the inal pn yes.” Jack said after a long sigh, “We found someoh levels of powers that only [The Beast Master] could match…if you t us out that is.”

  She khat of course, that the power between [The Twelve] wasn’t on the same level. That their weakest member could be defeated by an A-Tier, while their stro member couldn’t be defeated by normal S-Tiers.

  “But that stopped being the case whearted seriously thinking about raising you. You became what we wanted for a sister to Elizabeth…If only…” Jack left the words trailing.

  Of course…it was…

  “If only my power wasn’t something that could risk worsening her situation.” Jenna k, she had peeked at other realities close to them where she grew with Elizabeth, somehow if she got close to the girl before a certain age or before she matured into her power. Then the girl would turn crazy.

  In the best-case sario, she would end up in a a, in the worst case Elizabeth would kill herself from the visions. Somehow her power wasn’t something the blonde girl could live with, something about her made the blonde girl run out of trol.

  It was the reason why she only was allowed to be near her on birthdays and parties.

  “So I will not order you this as the leader of [The Twelve], I will not ask you to do this as someone who raised you. Nor as a [God].” The image of [Framework] turned into his normal form, not the bulky man he preseself, nor the idol that Catherine crafted for him. But the image of a rugged military man in his prime. “ you look after your sister while we are out?”

  He made it sound like they were going on a trip or something. It was ridiculous.

  “...fine, I will try to check if her powers are stable enough, she had them for a year nht? “ She wasn’t sure how Elizabeth was at the moment.

  “Her powers should stabilize in the months, we stripped all the [Taint] from her and made sure her [Soul] and [Body] match. I’m sorry for Eleanore’s daughter, but…My family is more important.” Jack said in a cold tone.

  “Do you wao pass her any message? I will be cheg on my baby sister when all of this calms down.” Was the st thing I said to him.

  “No, just keep your distance for the first months after this. She has friends that who care for her, whearts her third year you go to her.” Jack said before starting to blur, “Thank you Jenna….take care….of…your….sister….”

  And like that, I was once more alone in this cursed world…Well, not alone I guess…

  “Rep in, update on file. ID# JUGGERNAUT.” I called to the [Twelve]’s base of operation. “Update physical description, s for [Mana Wave] and [Mana Blueprint], update data file with current form as default:”

  “[Juggernaut]? What happened?” The voice of one of the very few people among the [Twelve] that I could t as a friend asked back.

  [The Tinkerer].

  “Amelia? I need a favor… you start a monit in these cellphone IDs?” [My Hero] had asked me to leave Elizabeth alone for now, but it couldn’t hurt if I made sure she was okay right?

  She was, after all, my baby sister.