I walked towards Juan, kneeling down beside him, releasing my control over him.

  And I said, “Well, hello there. I’ve got a couple of questions for you, if you don’t mind.”

  “What, what the hell is this?!”

  “I’m the one asking questions.”

  I giggled. I had always wanted to say that line.

  But my smile dropped when Juan tried to teleport away, but I put a stop to that, subjugating him and putting him back in place.

  Then I said, “If you do that again, I'll make you regret it.”

  I crossed another line off my list.

  Juan nodded vigorously in reply.

  “Ok,” I said, “First question, why are you here?”

  “I was trying to get back home from inside the Gate, because there’s this requirement tha-”

  “Yes, the quests, I know. But what led up to you choosing to use Orchid as an anchor?”

  “Orchid?”

  I pointed towards the giant Moth.

  “Oh, uh… My power as a gifted is to… well, it’s complex. The only part you need to know is that I can teleport. But only at fixed points, and if they’re close enough. But if they’re on the other side of the Gate, well, you can guess. Then I realized that my power could synergize with that moth, making it strong enough to teleport back here.”

  “How did you know Orchid was going to Earth?”

  “I didn’t, it was a gamble. Originally, I was going to attach it to this Marine named Jacob, since I felt the same type of synergy when he interacted with one of my Markers.”

  “Why didn’t you just ask for help? This seems a bit convoluted.”

  Juan and Bekert gave each other a look.

  Dr. Bekert wiggled around in the dogpile of minions, trying to reach for something. And I let her, keeping a close eye on her just in case, then she pulled out her Walkie Talkie and said.

  “When the Second Expedition Juan was a part of came back, the only person who walked out was Sergeant Ryan Gray, Lieutenant Jason Gray's son. Nepo baby supreme, and murderer of seven people.”

  “He didn’t murder them,” Juan protested, “He made a bad call I would’ve made with the information he had, his dad's the one being sketchy.”

  “Why are you defending him?”

  “Becau-”

  “OK!” I raised my voice, “Leave this for later, just answer my question.”

  There was a silence before Dr. Bekert filled it with, “Well, when he got back, his daddy covered all his mistakes, and labeled it a freak accident, despite all the evidence to the contrary. And everybody is just playing along, and any mention of even the slightest possibility of something fishy gets you weird looks. It’s like his own little dictatorship.”

  I nodded, “I suppose mind control can do that for you.”

  “Yeah,” Dr. Bekert said with a sigh, then her head shot up, “Wait, mind control?”

  I nodded, “Yeah… suppose you wouldn’t know.”

  Bekert went to push her glasses up, but the Hazmat suit got in the way. So she wrung her hands instead as she said, “That would explain some things.”

  There was an awkward silence before Juan said.

  “So, what’s going to happen?”

  I turned towards him, “What do you mean?”

  “What are you going to do to us?”

  I chewed the inside of my cheek, “I suppose I should just leave, as long as you two promise not to reveal any of this,” I laughed, “Well, you would get screwed as well, so I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that either.”

  They looked at me oddly, Orchid joining in.

  Juan saying, “You’re just going to ignore us?”

  I shrugged, “What, do you want me to kill you?”

  “Please don’t.”

  There was another awkward silence before I said.

  “So, what are you two going to do when I'm gone?”

  “Why are you asking?” Dr. Bekert deflected.

  “Making sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

  Bekert looked at me, considering, “Juan was going to teleport out of here and make it out of the country before anyone notices he’s back.”

  “And you?”

  “I’m not going anywhere, I have debts to pay.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  I snorted, “Of course.”

  Then Bekert said something that caught me off guard, “What about you, what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to go back too…. That’s none of your business.”

  “Of course, but if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your relationship with the moth you call Orchid?”

  “They’re an annoyance of mine.”

  Orchid thwacked my shin with a leg. I yelped in surprise, then gently kicked them. Bekert observed the interaction with cold curiosity, then said.

  “How do you know each other?"

  I gave her a blank stare, “I ain’t telling you squat.”

  “Understood, but if you don’t min-”

  “I do mind, and you two better get going, understand?”

  The siblings nodded in unison, and I watched them as Juan Teleported and Dr. Bekert walked away. But I stopped her and asked, pointing at the cameras.

  “How long will whatever you did to those last?”

  She glanced at me, and I could practically see the question bubble up in her throat, but she suppressed it and said, “Around 3 more hours, but there are people who come in here every hour.”

  I nodded, “Thanks.”

  Then she was gone, and with Orchid I teleported away, one of us would go into Slip Away and reappear as the very edge of our range (around 75 yards), then we would repeat the process. We thought of doing this with our minions as the fulcrum, but our power was centered around our Moth and Human bodies. Though I suppose if we were far enough away, we could possibly exceed that limit, but that brought up a question.

  Our power was us, and our power had a limited range, so what would happen if we stepped out of each other's range? Would we separate, would one of us die, or would we hit some invisible wall?

  I shuddered at the thought, happy I didn’t have to think about it as I was focusing on positioning for our teleportation. Two simple jumps and we were out of the camp, a couple more and we were in Oregon City proper, but that came with a problem, Cameras.

  They were everywhere, so we had to think our teleports through a lot more, eventually we decided to hop across the air. Most cameras were pointed since that’s where most humans were, and the few that were pointed upwards, Orchid and I navigated around.

  It was quite the exhilarating experience to be in a constant state of freefall… for Orchid… because of my misery. You try not passing out when your body is pumping more adrenaline and cortisol through your system than an EpiPen.

  But eventually it ended, and we made our way to my destination, Barbara's apartment. I found the front door, sending a jet of raw mana towards Boe in a rough imitation of Bekerts. But it got the job done, and then I knocked on the door, my mind racing as I tried to think of a way to greet him.

  But he was already opening the door, eyes wide, then they narrowed, and he said, “Oh god, you ran away from the Military didn’t you? Should I be expecting Military Police tomorrow?”

  I rolled my eyes, “I’m only visiting, plus they don’t know that I'm here.”

  “You realize that doesn’t make it any better, right?”

  “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

  Boe shook his head, “This is why mom didn’t fucking love you.”

  There was a moment of silence before we started giggling.

  Then Boe said, “Come in, it’s the middle of the night, so remember to be quiet.”

  I nodded in agreement, “Don’t tell me what to do 1.0.”

  “1.0?”

  “You’re the crappy original, I'm the improvement. Like Puss In Boots The Last Wish, or The Empire Strikes Back.”

  “Mmm, you’re more like the second season of The Promised Never Land.”

  I put a hand to my chest, “We do not speak that name in this house, you hear me!”

  We bantered for a while more, making bowls of cereal, talking through bites, and the next time I looked at a clock, it was almost time to get back. But this meetup had felt so short, so unproductive… I scrambled for something to assuage the feeling. My mind landed on something I had been ruminating on for a while.

  Then I said, “Uh, Boe, can I show you something?”

  “Of course.”

  I hesitated for a moment before pulling out Orchid.

  Boe flinched back at the dog sized moth appearing out of thin air, but recollected himself and said.

  “That’s your magic, right?”

  “Well, yeah… not exactly. This… this is Orchid.”

  “Did you bring them from that place you told me about?”

  I nodded in agreement.

  “Are they your pet?”

  Orchid hissed at the suggestion.

  I grinned, “Yep.”

  Orchids slap my leg with their wings again.

  Boe looked between us, “I’m guessing you’re messing with me.”

  “As always.”

  “So what is it, really?”

  I chewed the inside of my cheek, “Well… I suppose they’re me, and also not me?”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t explain that the best did I. Well, to put it in better terms, when I was sent to that place I told you about, I was fused with Orchid here.”

  Boe tilted his head, “Oh, well that’s… interesting.”

  I felt the breath I was unknowingly holding exit my lungs, and the tension Orchid had been keeping in their wings releasing. But I still felt a bitter taste in my mouth, no, not bitter…. Sour? That wasn’t right, it tasted like something had settled on your tongue after inhaling noxious fumes that probably shaved a couple of weeks off your life. But it was better than the metallic nothingness present before.

  I looked at the clock again, and it was definitely time to get going, but before I did, I forced two words through my lips.

  “Thank you.”

  Boe looked at me, confused, but when he saw my face, it turned to worried, then to something I didn’t know how to describe. The closest comparison I could think of was those marble sculptures of Greek heroes from the Renaissance facing off against monsters.

  Then he said, “Of course.”

  There was a silence, but it wasn’t awkward, instead it was warm. I wanted to bask in it, but I couldn’t, so I said.

  “I have to get going, I don’t wanna get caught.”

  Boe's eyes rolled, but as he looked at me, his face turned pale, “Wait, you weren’t joking about sneaking out…”

  I rolled my eyes, “Of course not.”

  Then I teleported away, giggling at his expression as I made my way back to Camp, making it past every camera and guard without a hitch. Shimmying back into my sleeping bag without a single person seeing us.

  O O O

  Kalani watched Jacob in confusion as they took something from the exchange box and then found a hiding place. A dim light coming from inside their sleeping bag, despite none of them having anything that could produce a light. Then they got up and just disappeared into thin air, short circuiting their brain.

  They had suspected Jacob was hiding things recently, but this was absurd. They didn’t have much time to think it over as Jacob returned from nowhere, Kalani freezing in their sleeping bag as they followed Jacob with their eyes. Watching them fall asleep as if nothing had happened.