It took almost two days for me to gather enough nerve to even consider talking to the other humans. The war died down, everyone settled into their positions, and I was left with free time and no more excuses far sooner than I expected. Even Ambus, who I’d expected to hate me down to my core, had accepted an apology as long as we still looked for something to save everyone Dylan had fucked over.

I’d given up on stalling. So now I was just waiting for the right time. Which was definitely different than stalling, since I’d actually gone outside with a teleportation anchor.

I sat atop one of the taller buildings that hadn’t been collateral damage and looked out over the city as the fighting… smoldered. It wasn’t anywhere near as violent as it had been at its peak, but there was absolutely no chance this would end before every one of Endra’s brainwashed soldiers were dead. I didn’t want to imagine how many of them were veterans of the same war Nia was, but it was all my mind could go to.

“Are you ready?” Jun asked from my right. “Annette’s been talking to them for a good half hour. Inopsy’s chained up in the facility, Mortician’s talking with Viri and Acasiana, and Okeria’s commanding the others. There’s nothing left for us to do except go talk to your people.”

“My people.” I chuckled nervously and shook my head. “It doesn’t feel like they’re my people. Last time around, Dee didn’t lose his loved ones for a few years. And it drove him to completely lose himself in booze. Now… he’s not the same person I knew, Jun. None of them will be. So I’m just… struggling with that.”

She leaned in to rest her head on my shoulder. “Then don’t even try to make it the same. Treat them like completely new people and learn to love them like that instead. You managed to make someone from a completely different species fall in love with you, rescue the conglomeration of an entire dead species from a hazard, and bring the progenitor of Rainbow Basin back from her eternal prison.”

Her smile was both comforting and a little sarcastic. “How much harder can it be to make friends with a few humans?”

I snorted and leaned into her. “You’d be surprised. I don’t know what Garrett told them about me, and I don’t know what Annette’s filling their heads with. I’m not a supersoldier. And I’m worried about what’s going to happen if I do… well… drag them into all this.”

An explosion from one of the districts punctuated my sentence, proving my point better than anything else could’ve. If it was the old Dee, then I wouldn’t be hesitating at all. He’d gone through just as much shit as I had. But this one… he hadn’t seen anything like a war. Even if he’d lost his son, it wasn’t anything close to what he’d suffered in his old life.

“I just want him to be happy.” I said at the same time as I realized it. “He suffered so much, and if I could’ve helped it, I would’ve wanted him to have a happy life. Not just him, either. Everyone else from my old life had shit they had to deal with, and I wasn’t in a position to help them out. But… I guess I am now.”

I put my arm around Jun and squeezed possessively. She giggled lightly, and that little expression of joy was enough to steel my resolve.

We needed the Human embodiments’ help to deal with Endra. But that didn’t mean I had to drag all of humanity through the mud for that purpose. I knew where good low-level hazards were–as long as they still existed–and even if they didn’t I knew what to look for. I could guide humanity down a path where we all got strong enough to fight whatever horrors came for us, but that would have to start with cutting out all the rot that had destroyed us in my first life.

Life would still be hard. People would still get hurt, die, and suffer for pointless reasons. But I had a chance to mitigate some of those hardships.

“I think I’m good.” I eventually said and pushed myself to my feet.

Jun followed a second later. “You’ve got a plan, don’t you?”

I grinned and took her hand as I patted the teleportation anchor on my waist. “More than one, but hopefully plan ‘A’ works out just fine. Plan ‘B’ involves a lot more fighting and death.”

“Well, I’ll be here even if we have to go all the way down to plan ‘Z’” Jun squeezed my hand, then grabbed her own anchor. “Ready?”

I nodded. Electricity overtook me in a heartbeat, and I took a deep breath as I steadied myself for my meeting with Garrett. I wasn’t sure how I’d react to seeing the man who’d stolen my core and tried to steal my life from me, but I was going to do it with a confident smile.

Annette had put her anchor a good bit away from the human camp for some reason. Probably so Garrett didn’t see it, but it could’ve been for any number of reasons I wasn’t aware of. Whatever the reason was, it forced Jun and I to walk hand in hand for a dozen minutes until we reached the tents and folding tables of the camp.

Humans–real, honest to God humans–were milling about the camp with the same purpose that I remembered. Almost all of them were wearing their whole armor save for their helmets, probably to make it easier to talk with each other, and I smirked at their reactions when they saw me. Well, more like when they saw Jun, but we were kind of a package deal now.

“She wasn’t kidding.” A young man who looked to be of native american descent whispered as we approached. “Aliens. That’s so cool.”

Jun perked up a little at that, then grew even more confident when the young man’s sentiment seemed to be shared by everyone we passed. Awe and excitement were by far the main emotions that spread through the camp, and even those who stayed on the fringes with nervous curiosity looked like they were working up the courage to talk to her.

“She has four eyes. And look at how colourful she is.”

“Yeah, like some exotic plant. I wonder if all of them are so beautiful.”

“No way. I mean, look at all of us. Annette’s a freaking stunner, but then there’s your hairy ass.”

“Aw, fuck off Marian. Nobody’s lining up to paint you either.”

Jun snorted at that, and the two people blushed a deep crimson and stammered some apologies. They ran off before Jun could clear up the misunderstanding, but from the mischevious twinkle in her eye, I had a feeling she wasn’t going to even if they stuck around.

“Seb!” Annette called eagerly before I saw her. I turned in the direction her voice had called from and saw her head peeking out from behind a tarp. “In here. I want to introduce you to my freiends!”

I nodded and walked over, but before I could brush the tarp aside, she stepped out and barred the way.

“I didn’t tell them about you… remembering.” She whispered. “They just think you’re a chosen like me, and that you were here to help these people out because of Dylan screwing with them.”

“Thanks.” I said and put a hand on Annette’s shoulder. “I don’t think I’m ever going to tell them the real truth. It’ll be a lot easier that way. Is Garrett…?”

She shook her head. “No. Damian hasn’t been able to find him since that huge lightning strike a few days ago. We’ve got as many scouts as we can on it, and Okeria’s already pitching in. If he’s still somewhere around here, then we’ll find him. You can count on us.”

That was both a relief and a… disappointment somehow. I smiled with what I hoped was a reassuring nod, then gently pulled the tarp to the side to reveal… one person.

Dee. Sitting there, exhaustion etched into a fairly young face that I’d never seen on him. He had a flask at his hip, but his eyes were completely focused on me without a hint of intoxication. His smile was nervous, and his hands were laced together in his lap while he fidgeted with something between them. It looked like half of a dented clock-shaped locket.

“Um, hi.” He said awkwardly. “I know you were probably expecting a few more people in this tent, but they’re all out looking for Garrett. We were the only ones who knew what brand of crazy he’d gone, and we feel kind of responsible for making sure he’s here.”

I stared at my old friend, but my old friend didn’t stare back. Damian did. Bitter acceptance brushed against my tongue, and I forced myself to keep everything I wanted to say from spilling out. The little hope I’d held that he recognized me died out the second he didn’t recognize me in the slightest.

Jun prodded me in the side. “You’re staring, Seb.”

“Right. Sorry.” I chuckled and took a seat opposite Damian. “Annette told me pretty much everything that happened. So why do you want to help me?”

Damian snorted, then caught himself and sat up straighter. He was trying to be professional, but from how his hands shook and his voice caught… I had a feeling I knew where this was going.

“Garrett killed my son.” He said quietly. “I had my suspicions for a while, but nothing concrete enough to risk everyone else in the camp turning against me. When he disappeared, I went through everything he left behind and found this.”

He held up the half-locket for me to see. It dangled like a pendulum from how much his hands were shaking.

“He told us you did it. It’s the entire reason we came out here in the first place. But I guess you already know that from Annette, huh.” He laughed weakly. “I… I wasn’t a good dad. My wife and I were already on the verge of divorce, and his death absolutely broke her. I told everyone I’d left her behind, but that isn’t the truth.”

I held up a hand for him to stop. He looked like he was going to shatter into a million pieces, and from how Annette gasped a second later with realization, he actually had hidden the truth from everyone.

“Is she still alive?”

Damian shook his head and choked out a sob. It took everything I had to not jump out of my chair and pull him into a hug, and even that broke when I saw the tears rolling from his eyes. My arms were around him not a second later, and he broke down sobbing not a second later.

“I don’t have anything left, Sebastian.” He sniffled. “Garrett is the reason they’re gone, but I don’t want to live for revenge. It’s the entire reason I almost lost my wife and son back on earth. So… I need something else. I know it's selfish, and it puts too much pressure on someone I just met, but–”

“If you want a distraction, I can’t help with that. But if you want to try and rebuild something out of the scraps of your life, then I’ll give you absolutely everything you need.” I said without thinking through the possible consequences of my words. “I’m a chosen just like Annette. The reason there’s a war going on is because another Embodiment killed someone important and stole her body. There’s only one way to kill an Embodiment, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Damian looked up at me. It hurt to look back down at him.

“How?”

I looked back at Jun and Annette. “We’re going to find all the other human chosen. And we’re going to give the Embodiments something to be scared of.”