Template:Featured Articles/14-2025
 "We'll be fine. Hell, anyone betting against Jean is an idiot." Kane's grin was electric. "And you. Fuck, Amanda. I died and came back. I pulled a guy out of the grave who was your biggest enemy or first boyfriend or something depending on the dimension?" Kane took a deep breath. "I am alive and you're a big part of that. I was ready to die. I didn't want it but fuck, going down fighting for the people I care about.. that's better than just wasting away." "Ugh, don't even start with Adam. It was bad enough trying to explain what happened with him to Topaz." Amanda shook her head. "And I knew you'd do something like that. Better to burn out than fade away? I just wish it hadn't been on my behalf, but I get it." "Really? Klar had me. I beat him because of Logan and Judd. I learned how to be meaner than them." Kane said. "But that was because I was up against something dark and vile. I don't know Adam at all but... he came from a world where he was rescued and you weren't. How much does that change?" "Because that's not all he is. He's one part Roma's fucked up pretend world, yeah, but he's also one part the memories of this world's Adam that I had in my head. The fucked up bastard who got left behind when I got out." Amanda shook her head. "He tortured Topaz, nearly killed me, put a curse on a bunch of random people here... The only thing that stopped me from drowning him in the swamp was that Tante vouched for him. And the Roma version was the one doing the steering." "Look, I'm not an expert in any of these magical elements. But Amanda... that guy was lost. He was talking about Remy and Strange and all the people I remember from the old universe. He might be different. Doesn't he deserve a chance?" "That Adam? Totally. And the other, the one from this world?" Amanda paused in their walk, thinking everything over, every memory Adam had shoved in her head. "Him too," she admitted reluctantly. "I carried him around in my head for five years, because I couldn't just let him die. And again, Tante brought him, them, into this world, I just have to trust her." "No, you don't. You need to make a choice. I don't know any of this, but it is your call." She stopped and looked up at him. "Why? I didn't fucking ask for this, I was fine with how things were. Tante decided to do what she did, why is that my call?" "Because the universe isn't fair. Was there anything to save? If so, you have a chance. If not, accept it and take him out." Kane said intently. Amanda shot him a look and stomped down the hall without him for several steps. Then she stopped and paused for a moment before letting out a noise of intense frustration. "ARRRGH!" Then she turned and glared at him. "All right. Fine. There's something to save and I won't take him out. Fucking bastard didn't ask for Rack's shite any more than I did and he deserves the chance to show he's not what Rack made him." The words were spat out between clenched teeth, before she reluctantly relaxed. "Fuck, I hate magic. So bloody much." Kane paused and reached into the pocket of his jacket. "Would you like a Twizzler?" He held out the candy to her. There was a long pause, where it seemed like Amanda was wrestling with whether it was worth trying to punch him or not. Then she reached out and took the red licorice from his hand. "I swear to fucking fuck, Gar. One of these days..." "Bam. Pow. Right to the moon." Kane said. "I got to be honest. You might want to talk to people." "Which people? My girlfriend, who lost an eye to him?" Amanda bit down on the Twizzler viciously, as if it had offended her personally. "My mentor, who brought him back from the fucking dead? Topaz, who I just had to explain the whole thing to and who is curling into a self-defensive ball?" She chewed the bite of Twizzler meditatively and swallowed. "Remy would have understood this whole mess. But he's dead." And suddenly the waxy-tasting candy stuck in her throat. "Maybe start with Adam." Kane said mildly. Behind the affable good guy exterior, it was easy to forget that Garrison was not only exceptionally good at reading people, but he actually had a degree in psychology. It was easy to forget when he was sitting on a bar stool demolishing a platter of fried food the size of a middle-schooler. And there it was, the truth she'd been avoiding. Because it was much easier to deal with memories, both false and not, than an actual flesh and blood amalgam. Her shoulders slumped a little. "Y'know, I need to get friends who don't call me on my shit." |
