I finally did it. I finally got to talk to Taylor without something going horribly wrong. The experience was so alien, I almost couldn’t believe it. Ruined only by the look of abject horror practically painted on her face.

  Here was the girl who was meant to be this setting’s savior – a genuine protagonist. And I have the dubious honor of tearing off the fragile veil obscuring the truth behind the whole world’s tragedies.

  Okay, maybe that’s going a bit too far.

  Despite my vehement refusal to have anything to do with Cauldron, I’m not ignorant of the essential role they played in the continued survival of Earth Bet. My objections are with regard to their methods, which have been fueled by desperation and fear for far too long.

  From what I remembered, fanon seemed to be split as to the function that the shadowy organization actually played. Their portrayal also often varied wildly from cartoonishly evil to bumbling stooges.

  My take on them falls somewhere in the middle.

  Cauldron’s approach was basically like chemotherapy, poisoning the body in order to fight off cancer. Only this cancer is particularly aggressive, and the odds of survival are extremely slim. For want of a better solution, they simply kept following a path that gave them the best chance of success. Small as it was.

  Of course, this didn’t erase their crimes, nor did it excuse the pain and suffering they’ve caused.

  From the way Lisa was currently spewing her guts out in the corner of the room, she now had a good idea of exactly what the group had done. Perhaps even better than me, thanks to the apparent boost I gave her power.

  “Alexandria, Legend, and Eidolon,” Taylor listed the three names in a whisper, staring at the floor with wide eyes. “You’re saying that they’re part of this secretive cabal of puppet masters controlling the world?”

  “Yes and no,” I hedged, which earned me a blistering glare.

  “Which is it?” Taylor hissed. “Yes or no? Because, from where I’m sitting, you just told me that our entire society is built on lies! Lies propagated by sick assholes who – who destroy lives on a daily basis. Who fucking let the Slaughterhouse Nine walk around for reasons you refuse to talk about! That the same person in charge of the PRT is also the world’s most famous Brute, and that MY city is a petri dish for some twisted experiment!”

  To be fair, I told them a lot more than that, but Taylor does have a way of narrowing a topic to its basest components.

  “Don’t forget about the whole manufacturing Case 53s things,” Lisa grunted from where she was still heaving before proceeding to do just that. Honestly, the sound of spilling bile bothered me more than the smell.

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  Going over to help her would’ve been the decent thing to do. But, in this case, it would’ve been pointless. I gave her a bucket and set down a bottle of water within reach. That was about as much as I could do for the suffering Thinker.

  “Oh, of course!” Taylor threw her hands in the air, showing more animation and energy now. “Let’s not forget that. Monster capes, powers in a bottle, and losing control over deranged parahumans with body counts in the thousands. Did I miss anything else?!”

  I was pretty sure that last bit was rhetorical. So, while I could have pointed out a few things that slipped her summary, I wasn’t gonna.

  The Master eventually subsided to grumbling to herself, and with Lisa still a bit preoccupied, I let them process everything I revealed in silence. It was admittedly a lot to swallow. While I held off on many subjects, including the nuances of how Cauldron was getting its test subjects, the Endbringers, and the truth about the Entities, there was still a lot for them to unpack.

  A short while later, the blonde was nursing her water bottle on a stool, and Taylor had fallen into sullen contemplation. I, on the other hand, stood beside a window overlooking the streets. The sun was setting, and we needed to get on with things. There was still a lot for us to figure out.

  “Look, I know you two are feeling pretty overwhelmed right now,” I said, turning to the pair of exhausted girls. “But we need to discuss what to do going forward.”

  “What’s there to discuss?” Lisa practically spat. “There’s no beating people with a weapon that guarantees victory. She even managed to get around your oh-so-strong Thinker defense. Why even keep resisting?”

  Her words took the wind out of my sails. Worse was the absence of disagreement from Taylor. I struggled to comprehend why they were acting this way when –

  Drat.

  I keep overlooking the human factor when it comes to the people of this world. Capable as they both are, at the end of the day, I’m still dealing with teenagers. Teenagers who have been through the wringer, true, but that doesn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things.

  Confronted with the reality of how truly hopeless their circumstances are, it seems the fight had gone out of them. And without the series of events that built up their tolerance for hopeless battles, what else could they do but crumble?

  Seeing them in this state, I didn’t even consider using ‘Talk-no-Jutsu’, mostly because I’ve never been good at it. Instead, I did the one thing within my power to tip the scales.

  Calling upon White-Silver, the most inspiring of my Dragoon Spirits responded with grace. Light filled the darkening room, pushing back the creeping shadows, and filling the air with heatless warmth.

  Further bolstering the effect, I channeled a previous user of the Spirit. Not Shana, with her sweet innocence. Not Miranda, with her unbending commitment to duty.

  Instead, I called upon Shirley, the one person I knew who had a heart strong enough to banish despair.

  “You resist because you have me,” I declared with absolute conviction. “I won’t deny my failures. On matters of the mind, both of you will always be my superior. But hear this: Cauldron already knows who and what I am,” I met their eyes, pleased that I had their full attention, “and they are afraid.”

  What truly made my claims more convincing is the simple fact that I was telling the truth. There was a reason I chose this power set before coming here.

  “They offer a hand of peace and cooperation because they know they would lose a straight fight with me. Clumsy, still. Excessive, still. But far less overbearing than they would be with anyone else.”

  Had I been weaker, Alexandria would have crashed through the walls to give me an offer I couldn’t refuse. This was a throw-away notion, though. It was time for me to finally do what I came here to do.

  Approaching the sitting figure whom I have staked everything, I knelt with slow, regal ceremony. Looking into the wide, gray eyes of Taylor Hebert, I then spoke the words that had been left unsaid for far too long.

  “I am your sword and shield,” I intoned with every ounce of solemnity in my soul, the sharp gasp from Lisa going ignored. “For you, I will be sinner or saint. Hero or villain. Man or monster. Until the day comes when I am no longer of use, I will fight for you to my last breath. This I swear.”

  Dramatic? Yes, but necessary.

  “Do you accept my allegiance?”

  For the longest stretch of time, there was only the deafening silence.

  Then…

  “I –”

  To be continued…