The party raged on in the streets below even as Henry left me. The people reveling in wild ecstasy despite the lack of a concrete future. Even now, there was no certain path forward for humanity as a whole. We were exposed to all the other factions within the Labyrinth. Exposed to invaders, despite the assurances of retribution that the new System declared. It might very well be that Voice of Order and the others were correct. It might be that no one in their right mind would ever dare to go against the new rules set in stone.

But why had those rules not been in place before I demanded them? Were the others so far removed from the troubles of the masses that they wouldn't consider setting those rules down without me?

'No.' I thought solemnly. 'It was far more likely that they did not have the same kind of power that I had. It could very well be that the signals they got back were only composed of information. That they couldn't feel the pain and agony that other people went through as clearly as I did.'

Even so… I didn't think it made any kind of sense. The rules were new, but they had already changed the politicking of the Labyrinth overnight. No longer did any of the lingering lesser warlords attack each other's petty dominions. No longer did the larger empires swagger about with quite as much bravado.

If these events were to be reduced to the politicking of a single planet, it would be as if a new world power simply declared that they would launch attacks against any aggressor within the world, in order to impose a peace fueled by the threat of counteraction.

It wasn't a new idea. Not exactly. Out in the multiverse, the Kenari Empire had served as a counteracting force against most threats within their sphere of influence. Even Savants like the Golden Cruelty repressed their worst instincts and behaved. While the worst ones, like the Seeking Drake, outright hid and refused to engage with most of their neighbors.

Even in the records of Earth, the Pax Romana had been sort of that. Though in truth the Roman Empire's so-called peace was enforced by a tyrannical cruelty and an economy fueled by slaves and the oppression of neighbors.

'Is that what my dream has come to then?' I thought again. 'Lay down rules and threaten anyone who crosses them with immediate retaliation?'

Somehow, that felt wrong to me. I had once envisioned a series of universes in which people saw each other fully. Taking in all their thoughts, emotions and aspirations. All their joys and sorrows and pains. A multiverse in which people wouldn't even think to go out and commit atrocities because they fully internalized what the other person would feel. A multiverse of empathy and compassion.

I sighed and moved down from the housing complex and down onto the street.

My entrance was greeted by cheers all around. People stopped to clap my on the shoulders and congratulate me on a job well done. Many of them showed off mostly healed scars which had been reduced to thin white lines. Tracing the history of wounds up and down their bodies.

"I got this one fighting off a crew of Foxxan pirates!" A youngish man said proudly. "Dude! You would not believe how awesome it was! The ship came in out of nowhere! Like, whoosh! It was here one moment and shooting bombs and lasers down! Then we started putting up force fields and reflecting energy back at them! It was totally radical dude!"

The more I looked at him, the more familiar he became. Until his name popped into my mind.

"Jude?"

"Yeah! Course it's me! Who did you think I was?"

"I… I don't know man. I have my [Omniscience] turned off and I know a lot of people."

Jude seemed to take it in stride.

"No problem dude! I'm just so happy to be here, you don't even know!"

On closer inspection, I noticed that he had a milkshake in his hand. A very large, very thick-looking milkshake. Beads of water dripping off the exterior of the cup as the heat of his hand warmed up the drink.

"I'm guessing you missed sugary drinks?" I guessed.

"Dude! You. Have. No. Idea! I could have killed three people with a hatchet if it had gotten me one of these back when I was hiding in basements! I'm close to tears dude! I feel like a guy seeing dry land again after being shipwrecked for weeks! Like that skinny kid in the tiger movie! You know the one."

I did.

I also saw that other people around Jude were openly mocking him for not knowing the actual name.

Jude didn't seem to care though. He took another long sip of his milkshake and donned an innocent, hapless smile on his face. Honestly, I envied him.

"Jude, can I ask you something?"

"Sure dude."

I braced myself for the question. Not knowing if asking it would be appropriate.

"Do you, think things are going well right now?"

"Oh totally my dude!" He answered at once. "I am loving this feeling of sugary snacks and working toilets again!"

Okay, that hadn't been the right question to ask.

"Sorry, let me try again. Do you think things are good enough now, with the new System rules? Do you think there's something more I could have done?"

That question let down a hushed silence over the immediate area. The people who had been celebrating up until now turning to look at one another with either confusion of trepidation.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed a figure I recognized. One I hadn't seen in a long, long time.

"Of course, not dude!" Jude said. Waving me off with his free hand and laughing at me with a carefree attitude.

"Honestly! People have been telling me you've been having second thoughts, but that's the biggest load of (Zombie) I've ever (Zombie)ing heard. Here. Let me bring up Goldierings to make my point."

He waltzed right up to the Golden Cruelty and dragged her out into the open. While the Savant was too stunned at his audacity to put up any meaningful resistance.

"My new friend here has been telling me about all the things you had to do to keep humanity safe. Like, you had to go around turning cities inside out and killing all sorts of people who were good people in the end, even though they were seahorse people and not people people you know? But anyway, she told me how you boosted this really bad guy called the Seeking Drake and let him turn people into curtains and rugs…"

I looked over at the Golden Cruelty, and noted how she looked as if she wanted nothing more than to let the ground open up beneath her so she could scurry underground and out of sight.

"But anyhow, the point is that she told me how you did all these things that were straight up evil so that human worlds wouldn't be affected. Now, I know you, cause you've let me inside your mind. I know you're a good guy and I know you have those manic-depressive episodes when you think you're being a bad person. I know how much doing that must have messed you up. But I can see that it was all worth it in the end!"

He nodded vigorously to himself.

"Everyone in my own Earth is safe and sound and everyone on this Earth is safe and sound. And you didn't need to do that whole mind-melding thing that made you so uncomfortable. Plus, I got to keep the boosts. So, you know, bonus."

"But I didn't completely eradicate crime." I rebutted. "I wasn't able to completely eradicate evil."

He laughed in my face.

"Dude! You can't beat yourself up like that man! The (Zombie)ing buddha couldn't do that! What are you on dude? You can't make people not be a bunch of (Zombie)holes if that's what they want. No without enslaving them completely. The best you could ever do is make a society that works well enough that almost no one feels like being a (Zombie)hole."

He patted me on the shoulder.

"You don't need to go around worrying about mind-control or alien empires anymore dude. What you need to worry about is, like, education and stuff. The economy and prison reform. Like, make it so that guys in prison don't shank each other and like, get rid of gangs in prisons so they, like, work on trades and getting degrees."

He turned to the spider-like Savant.

"Back me up here Goldierings."

The Golden Cruelty stared at Jude. In the same manner as a pig farmer watching his biggest, meanest hog tearing up his vegetable garden, before then eyeing his grill and the newsletter for the neighbourhood barbecue. Her mandibles clacked menacingly, but then her eyes glazed over. No doubt glancing over the System message.

She groaned in pent-up frustration, but ended up answering.

"Yeeeessss." She hissed. "When you look at the big picture, you've managed a greater. More widespread peace than Hazimon could have ever dreamed of. If what you want now is a more tangible and impactful change, then you need to work on the makeup of this society from the ground up."

She considered the query further.

"I personally wouldn't bother anymore and simply retire to look after my own mental health and my own hobbies, but I suppose you're not the kind of being to enjoy sitting idly by. Mnnn. I would then suggest that you try and set up a culture that rewards honor and competition. One that encourages self-improvement and honest effort. It worked well enough for Hazimon, as the Kenari planets in his empire did have a shockingly low level of crime. You can simply lead by example and encourage more and more people to delve into Instances within the Labyrinth. Also, you can copy what has worked best in other human worlds if that doesn't work out."

"Right on dude." Jude agreed. "I went to that massage place you recommended in that girl Olga's world. Whooo! Dude! I've never felt so chillaxed in all my life! I felt like I was walking on clouds by the time I left. That idea of getting all the robots to do all the farming and working and building stuff while people relax is genius!"

I nodded along to his recommendations and thanked Jude for his time. He laughed it off as if it was no big deal and then went back to enjoying his milkshake.

I walked further and ran into more and more people I knew.

Kaito was there, playing some kind of axe-throwing game against Prudence.

Charlie was also there with them; Olga wrapped around his shoulders as he watched over the game. Next to him were a horde of his little brothers and sisters from the orphanage, as were Vince, Luigi, Helga, Clover and Thunder Fist.

"That game looks fun." I said offhandedly.

Prudence glared at me. Shooting me a glance so venomous that it could have withered entire forests at once.

"I'm sorry about messing with your mind using [Presence]." I said at once. Pre-empting any kind of accusation.

"I'm not stupid Sully. I know that wasn't entirely your fault." She snapped. Though her tone made the others become extremely uncomfortable. "I mean, it's not like you wanted to enslave me and my aunt, right? It's not like you wanted to buzz everyone up on so much Psy they couldn't think about anything else. It's not like you had any reason to expect that this would happen. It's not like anyone warned you that you were acting like a dangerous, self-righteous loon and… oh wait!"

She made a face filled with faux-surprise.

"I think I did warn you that you were acting like that! Kaito? Didn't I keep telling everyone that someone needed to keep both eyes open around Sully because he was acting like a dangerous, self-righteous loon?"

Kaito looked singularly uncomfortable. Helga and Clover started stepping backwards without saying anything at all.

Thunder Fist guffawed in amusement though and that took all the wind out of Prudence's sails.

Somehow, the larger man's mirth stripped away the layers of resentment. His reputation doing far more than my power or the threat of my power ever had.

"True, true. All too true. Someone with so much power at their fingertips should always be feared and respected in equal measure. It is why I never disagreed with my personal minders and their suggestions. Someone with power has the responsibility to be mindful of how others see them. Such is the burden that a hero must bear."

He smiled at me. Much more warmly than I felt was possible.

"I'm glad you decided to take a step back, Sully. I know it couldn't have been easy."

Vince nodded vigorously.

"Yes yes. Vince understands the pain. Yes yes the pain. Please someone stop the pain."

Thunder Fist nodded along beside him.

"I too am no stranger to the restlessness that comes with responsibility. Why, for the first few years after gaining my powers, I found that I could hardly sleep. How could I justify resting in comfort, when there were monsters out there stalking the night and feasting on the innocent? How could I eat a fancy meal or a good old bloody steak the way I used to, when there were people going hungry? So, I lost sleep and some days it was all I could do to swallow some porridge. If you look closely, the suits I wore those first few years had fake muscles. I lost a ton of weight."

He coughed into his hand.

"So, I know how hard it is to finally let go. I'm proud of you Sully. Especially because of all the things you managed. Like, you did everything you could have possibly done before stepping back."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

I looked at all of them. Noting that even Prudence seemed relieved, though still irate.

"Yeah, about that. Do you actually think I did everything I could?"

Helga and Clover turned and sprinted into open portals.

"Oh come on!" I said dejectedly. "I just… I just feel like (Gnome)! Okay? I… I had this whole thing in mind. A universe in which no one would ever be hurt again. One in which no one would ever have to be afraid again. I spent so much time trying to convince Charlie and for what? For me to just, give up at the last stretch?"

"Didn't you change the System to make crime punishable for the first time in forever?" Luigi asked pointedly.

"I mean, yeah, but people are still getting hurt."

"That just means that they still have their freedom, (Sully)." Prudence sighed. Her spirit almost leaving with the force she ejected alongside the air in her lungs.

"You can't feel bad for letting people do what they want. In a way, that's even more (Sully)ed up than you taking away the freedom in the first place. Why can't you see that?"

Charlie stepped forward.

"If you're worried about what I'll say, then you're worrying too much. I'm not sure that the rule of law the System has is foolproof, but it sure does beat nothing. If you think about it, a world with a consistent, incorruptible rules of law would have made it so that neither me nor my siblings had any trouble with the gangs. Or with Whitmer. I can't really say I'm all that dissatisfied."

He seemed to think about it for a few more seconds.

"I probably would have accepted this result right away, if this was what you offered back then. Even after I accepted, it never sat right with me. I'm honestly relieved."

Olga cut in then. Letting go of Charlie and patting me on the shoulder consolingly.

"You're acting insane Sully. Well, more insane than usual. You've already said my world was the best Earth you'd ever ran into. Just, think of the System putting down the laws like our Regent AI putting down laws. Sure, there were still crimes. Some folks are just impulsive or not right in the head. Some folks are given every opportunity to choose the right thing, but do the wrong thing anyway. It happens. I'm not happy that it happens, but better that than not having the choice at all."

I should have let it go then. It was the nice, friendly thing to do. I could have simply smiled and allowed my powers to make me seem as if nothing was wrong. A fake, plastered smile that would have seemed perfectly innocent.

But I didn't feel like letting the Shifter abilities take over. If I couldn't be honest with these people, at this juncture, who could I be honest with?

"I still feel them, though. It's less than before, but I feel echoes of people in pain."

Luigi nodded, then stepped forward.

"Turn off your Titles please."

I did so.

He slapped me across the face. With so much force that a shockwave erupted from the swing. One that sent the plates on nearby table flying.

"Thank you for indulging me." He said casually. "I don't think I could have held it in any longer and… oh yes… need to pay the fine."

He rolled his eyes and I saw a notification.

Four thousand Store Tokens being deposited into my account as restitution for an unprovoked attack.

"Man. Sully. You have got to stop doing this to yourself. You're not perfect. No one is. You holding yourself to the standard of a perfect outcome every time, is insane."

He shook his head ruefully.

"Sully, we all got kidnapped, starved, attacked by monsters, forced to adjust to this insane System, all against our will. So, you know what, you going around and acting like a mind-broken psycho wasn't that weird. I'm still taking Vince to therapy and the stuff I've heard from him makes me cry at night sometimes. But my point is, this isn't happening anymore. Yes, the System is here to stay. Yes, it seems we're stuck with the aliens. Personally, I'd like to start an anti-alien political party and go for total isolation, but it looks like that's not going to happen. Fair enough. None of us can have all we want, all the time."

He sucked in a breath.

"My point being… you're not in crisis anymore. To borrow the therapists' words. You're not being stabbed by actual, literal slavers and a seahorse man isn't threatening to wipe out humanity."

He shook his head suddenly.

"(Sully) I can't believe I said that out loud. I need a drink. You know my therapist has a drinking problem? Because he does. He didn't have one before. Just so you know."

"Oh! Oh! Vince has this thing where he can reach his therapist anytime he wants! Look!"

Vince showed us his phone. It went straight to a video call. No input needed from the other side.

It showed a room with a knocked over chair. A short man swinging from a rope tied to a ceiling fan.

"Oh." Vince said sadly.

"Nah he's fine." I assured Vince. "I boosted everyone in the world back then remember? I know this guy. He's got Shifter and Enhancer on the second Tier. He's just… out for a while."

"Vince says yay!" Vince said with cheer. "He's the only one who didn't drop Vince as a Client!"

Luigi then ranted for a while longer. Reminding me that I was not, in fact, Vince. And that I should be more thankful that I didn't need that much help. At least compared to him. He then told me to man up and get over it and was in the middle of saying other things when Borislav walked up. One of his sisters beside him.

"Looks like you're having a fun time." He quipped.

Kaito squinted at him. So did some of the others.

"I'm sorry, do we know you?"

Borislav chuckled and willed his Symbiote to change. Back into the old bunny suit he'd had in the beginning. Before then changing it back.

Kaito's eyes almost popped out of his skull.

"Boris!?"

Prudence's mouth dropped.

Olga was the one who spoke.

"What happened to you?"

He shrugged.

"What can I say? I've been doing better now. Much better, now that I've got my sisters close. One of them has gotten married. The other is seeing Mr. Park…"

The sister at his side smile happily.

"He's nice to me."

Borislav went on.

"And I'm seeing someone too. I have a job now, so I shave and have regular showers. It's… it's a steady life. A predictable life."

He smiled and his smile brightened the very air around him.

"What can I say? I'm happy."

The others still shook their heads. Having trouble recognizing him with all the changes in his body and in the very way he carried himself.

He shared some parts of his new routine. Carpentry apparently being a very relaxing hobby and part-time career. He talked about his new dog and his new cat. How they were rescues and how they wrapped around him at night. How his new house was so warm in the winter and how he travelled by portal hopping here and there on a whim.

How he was happy now. More happy than he'd ever been before.

He eyed Charlie then, and inclined his head.

"I don't suppose you've decided what you want to be yet?" He shrugged. "I'm still thinking about it. Don't think I'd make a good welder anymore with Olga's world throwing out robots and I don't know how many people will be paying that much for handcrafted furniture."

"Simeon farms his own food." Olga pointed out. "And we're from the same world. He's always been happy enough."

Charlie shrugged.

"I don't know. That kind of life feels, I don't know."

He licked his lips. His blonde hair swaying in the wind as a breeze coursed through the street.

"Unreal."

"Tell me about it." One of his siblings murmured.

"Shut up." Charlie nudged him. Before turning to Boris.

"I still have a ton of Store Tokens. Not like those are going anywhere since I didn't get fined by a certain boss spider like some people I know."

He considered his own drink. A sugary pop.

"I might try to become a System Enforcer. These days fighting is all I seem to be good at."

"I could see you being a good one." I offered.

More to the point, I could see him being way, way too overqualified for any such position. What with his high Tier and many, many combined abilities.

"Well I hope it works out for you." I said, putting some cheer on my face. "Now that I think about it, I could totally see you turning this into a really good career choice. You have a way to tell right from wrong straight away. That, and a certain flair for making people scared to death of you."

Somewhere in the distance, I could hear Peachy and her kin, Orphan Maker, choking on some hot dogs.

Them, and Monique, who was coming over with her kids. All three of them also choked on empty air as they approached and a bit more attention revealed that Monique was almost dragging them along by force. Her hands gripping both of theirs.

"Hey Boris." She smiled genuinely. "You look great. Though I'm sure you've heard that a lot today."

He smiled back. "Thank you, Monique. And yes, I have heard that. Though I can't say I'm tired of hearing it yet. I feel so, new. You know?"

"It certainly has been a change." She smirked.

Jimmy and Ben gave Borislav some compliments too, though they felt a bit forced since neither knew the older man. That, and their eyes were not on Boris, but rather, on me. Staring at me as if I were about to turn into a Swamp Hydra and swallow them up in one scoop.

"You look great guys." I said to all three of them. "How are the renovations going anyway?"

Monique sighed and went into a great big speech as to how much time it was taking. About how she'd gone and gotten a bunch of cleaning robots from both Olga's world and then later from some company in the Labyrinth run by Foxxans. She had been forced to tear the walls open because they had termites and ants living in them. That, and apparently the kids had dragged bedbugs and fleas into the basement when they were alone. The carpeted floors were all infested, so they had to go as well. Same with all the nice furniture that the previous and now dead owner left behind.

"I'm honestly not sure it's even worth it to stay in that Earth." She admitted. "I just wanted to stay because, well because it had been home. But our old house is gone and the old neighbourhood with it. We're rebuilding this mansion outside a city that's still filled corpses even now. I…"

She sighed. "I think it might be better to just move here. Or else to buy a house in Human City. But that place…"

"Reminds you of the Warehouse too much and gives you recurring nightmares?" I offered.

"Yes." She nodded. "Exactly that actually. I know the Periwig video said the city would expand the more our faction grew, but it still feels claustrophobic."

She failed to mention that most of her nightmares featured me, which was nice of her. Her kids looked less than convinced however.

"Mom!" Jimmy hissed in a low voice. "We can't move here! This guy's nuts!"

"He's nuttier than squirrel poo!" Ben agreed. "I'd rather have the zombies back."

"You know I can hear both of you right?" I asked them.

They shuffled behind her quickly and then refused to say anything else.

I said some more pleasantries after that, before I then made my way back towards the center of campus.

I passed a few interesting things on my way there too. Such as the Seeking Drake, now taking the form of a bone-covered burly man. Standing next to Finn. Dusty and Slab's father.

They were both holding signs.

"Down with Clankers!" The Seeking Drake roared. "The robots are taking away your jobs! Your essence! What makes living beings awesome to begin with! And they can't do half the things you all can do! Say no to the machines! Yes to Shifters! Yes to transmutation of the flesh! Meat over metal! Meat over metal!"

My soon to be father in law wasn't saying quite the same thing, but I could see that he was (Gnome)ed off as well.

"The Clankers are not your friends!" He roared. "Neither are animals! You can't trust anyone or anything to do your job for you people! They'll rise up and destroy everything you love before you can all blink! You can only trust yourself! Open your eyes! Meat over metal! Meat over metal!"

I tried to avoid making eye contact and kept on walking.

Honestly, Finn could use a break from being the new de-facto king of his world. Purely by virtue of his association with me of course. That and the Seeking Drake really was behaving if this was the worst he was up to. I wasn't going to try and bother them.

I then reached an open courtyard. One that had once been filled with sandbags that separated the woods from the rest of campus. Now the sandbags were gone, and this was a walking trail once more. A rather pretty one to boot.

Dad was standing at the edge of the forest. Looking in with somber eyes. Mom was next to him; her expression filled with something close to nostalgia. Both of them were holding hands next to Puffin, Dusty and Slab. The trio didn't look as if they got what was going on, but they didn't say anything either.

"Something interesting in the woods?" I asked softly.

Dad didn't turn around. "This was the spot where we had our first date. We used to come back here for picnics every now and again, until we had you. Then we never really found the time and then the Rifts started getting worse. A bunch of surviving monsters started making burrows here one time and the picnic scene died out."

He huffed in annoyance.

"I was just thinking about going back there. To our old spot. It's probably overgrown with all kinds of weeds and thorns though. I don't think it'd be worth the effort."

Dad was speaking as if he was still only a Telepath. Instead of someone who was more than capable of sterilizing the entire forest with fire on a whim. Actually, no. Sifting through his thoughts, he was thinking as if he was still a regular joe again.

"We can probably burn everything away around the spot." Puffin offered, not picking up on the undertones.

"Maybe next time." Dad sighed. "It's completely safe in any case. There's no hurry."

Then he turned around to face me. Just in time to miss Mittens' figure popping out from behind a tree. A knife in one hand. An old, flayed gnome corpse in the other.

I blinked and he went back behind cover. I turned to look at dad as he started talking to me.

"So, dad tells me he's going to go out and start a colony in this Human City I keep hearing so much about." Dad prompted. "Slab here says he's joining him too."

'Good for him.' I thought. 'Grandpa needs to feel like he's doing something and this is as good a cause as any.'

I nodded slowly.

"That is how this whole thing is set up. The Labyrinth works like a game, and you need to play along even if what you want is something simple like a base of operations that you can use to trade."

"Also, it'll be important for a lot of people." Slab reminded us. "Not all the Earths are in as good a shape as this one. Not all the Earths have people that can portal in and out whenever they want. Remember that desert world?"

"Oh yeah. I remember that." I said with a smile. I also recalled that this had been once of the worlds I sent Intruders and Psy-spores to after my discussion with Charlie all those months ago, and that the people were more than capable of portal jumping at will, but I kept my mouth shut.

Slab nodded.

"No one is thinking about protection, now that the new laws are in place. But I've been thinking. Part of why the laws weren't in place must have been to keep pushing people to be paranoid and to get stronger. Their growth fueled by fear of what their neighbours could do. So many humans have been boosted that it's not really a concern anymore, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't engage with the System."

He paused.

"Also, we need to think about the next generation getting the System. There are a bunch of new kids who will be growing up knowing nothing but the System. They need a springboard to go out into the multiverse within the Labyrinth."

Dusty looked a bit upset at that.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

Slab brightened while dad looked supremely uncomfortable.

"Your grandpa and Mr. Park got back on the dating market. You know that right?"

"Yeah. Mr. Park is quite the gentleman, apparently. He's going to start a family with Boris' sister."

The age gap was a bit much by human standards, but thinking about it another way, both of them were more or less immortal with so many levels in Shifter. That, and the older man now resembled a K-pop star after so many bodily alterations. So that probably helped.

"Well, your Grandpa helped my dad gather the tribes and explain the ins and outs of the System a bit more. That and they started gathering volunteers for the new Human City. There were a lot of those. Including Glossy."

"The girl that used to bully you two?" I asked.

"The very same." Dusty snorted. "Now she's acting all motherly like she's going to be my elder in the family. Saying that I should respect her and whatnot."

"Why would she?" "She seems to be trying to woo your grandpa." Mom explained. Some amusement in her gaze.

Dusty did not look as pleased or amused as she did though. Neither did dad.

All I could feel was a strange sort of bemused contentment.

"Well, I mean." I started. "I don't think she's, his type. Not really. That and I think the whole nasty business of her character might get in the way."

I saw how much this was bothering dad and Dusty. So, I felt a bit of a cheeky impulse. A bit of playfulness, and decided to play along a bit.

"But weirder things have happened. Maybe it'll work out."

Dad looked like he really, really didn't want to believe that.

He shivered and turned to me once again.

"Anyhow, what are your plans?"

"He's going to be staying home a while longer." Mom snapped. "And he's going to keep seeing Doctor Leibowitz."

I used [Omniscience] for an instant and confirmed that Doctor Leibowitz was currently trying to hang himself from a wooden beam in his ceiling. Again.

"I am making a lot of progress." I lied smoothly. "But I think it might be time for a break. A change of scene, you know? Maybe I'll try and build up the estate from Pandemonium over here on Earth? Or if real estate prices are too high, on Dusty's Earth."

"Why not live in the mansion you already have?" Mom asked innocently.

I thought back to Charlie.

"Weird things happen to people who visit. I think it might be best if I stay on this side for now."

"I think it's a great idea." Dusty followed up. "I mean, I know you don't have any Store Tokens to buy anything with, but I still have my stash and I'm sure others would be more than happy to give you whatever you asked for. We could buy the materials from the System Store and then set ourselves up anywhere. Really disconnect from everything. It'll be like that funny thing that father-in-law described."

"Retirement?" Dad asked with some worry.

"Exactly! I mean, imagine living for years without working? That's ridiculous! But it could be fun! We could go travelling if we want. Anywhere at any time. Really forget about the whole business of Divines and the System and treacherous seahorses."

I thought about what she was saying. What Dusty, was saying. If she of all people wanted me to forget about my responsibilities and live happy and carefree, then…

I sighed again.

"Have I really gotten that bad?"

"No." Mom assured me.

"Yes." Puffin snapped.

"You need to work on yourself." Dad offered.

"You need to get over yourself." Puffin corrected.

Slab winced, but he didn't disagree with Puffin. Neither did Dusty, which said a lot.

"Look." He began. "You've done a lot. Far more than anyone else had any right to ask from you. You've sacrificed so much, for so long. Endured that burden all by yourself. I think…"

Dusty elbowed him.

"We think… it might be best for you to stop now. It's over, Sully. You won. We won. Let it end."

I thought about his words for a moment. Then I thought about them for the rest of the day. Until the sun finally set over the horizon, and the beautiful hues of gold and orange turned purple and violet in the sky.

Was this enough for me?

I thought about it again. About all the things I regretted. Things that I could have done better. Things that would happen, because of people choosing the wrong thing. The selfish, evil choice.

Could I let all of that go?

Maybe not. Not in the long run.

But maybe, just maybe, this might be enough for today.

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