>>5149330“What’re your thoughts on everything that happened?” You ask in a huff, the tangled veins carpeting the landscape scurrying out of the way at your silent command.
“I think you were right to leave, for starters.” Em replies, a lazy flick of her wrist manifesting a surge of bone that sharpens into her blade of choice—a segmented bastard sword that she absent-mindedly whips around as the two of you walk. It’s an old habit of hers, to have a weapon on hand...a small comfort, at the end of the world. “I think her attitude was shit. I think her plan was dumb. I think her hair was jank. I think-“
“I think you’re trying to make me feel better.”
She makes a small noise, at that; something between a sniff and a chuckle. Another snap of her wrist, and Em’s whip-sword carves a long, bleeding line into a hill several hundred yards off as she meets your eyes.
“…I think maybe you’re waiting on something that doesn’t exist.” She says, holding your gaze. “I think we’re running out of time.”
“So…what? We throw in with the first charismatic sociopath with a plan to make the world a marginally better place?” You counter. “No. There’s someone out there who can bring everyone back. Someone who’s willing to give people a chance, again.”
“Not sure if you’ve noticed, but it’s no coincidence that the Crucible brought back people with chips on their shoulders.” Em reminds you, rolling the sword at her side. “I can count on one hand the number of people who’re willing to give humanity another go-round.”
She raises her index finger, then jabs it your way. “Oh, hey, check that out. It’s you.”
You roll your eyes. “You really believe that? That people don’t deserve a second chance?”
“He did.”
Your heart tightens, and you know by the look in Em’s eyes that she’s gone too far, and she knows it. For a few moments you walk in silence, until-
“Look, I want Mom back. I want Gran back. It’s as simple for me as that. As for you, well…” She trails off, soberly. “Maybe I’m a bitch, but I’m not really picky about how that gets done. The rest of the world can go-“
“Fuck itself. Yeah, I know.” You sigh, the Waystation’s coming into view on the horizon—an old railway platform, with gnarled tracks careening underground into a cavernous abyss. “I’m not going to say that people are good. They can be awful. They can be petty, and cruel, and…monstrous.”
“…but?” Em prompts, slinging her blade over one shoulder.
“But they still deserve a chance to be something better.” You conclude, sliding down into the Waystation’s depths with the other girl at your side. “He believed that, too—that as bad as people could be, they still deserved the chance to be decent.”
“That sounds dangerously close to optimism.” Em snarks as you place a hand on the tunnel’s obsidian wall.
“It’s faith.” You reply.
“…Gross.”
(Continued)
