Saydaa heaved a sigh as she walked down the street, her pack slung over her shoulder.

The edges of her mouth curled up slightly.

See.

That’s just what you get.

Boss-man shouldn’t have trusted a professional con-woman like her.

Especially not a genie.

Wasn’t that how all the stories go?

Took her a while, but she found the loophole!

See, if she wasn’t really useful, then she wasn’t really working for the boss-man, right?

So the contract was invalid. In your face, boss-man!

After all, she ruined the boss-man’s plans!

Threw the world into chaos!

Nearly got…someone…killed!

She let out a soft chuckle.

“S-See…I pulled one over you in the end, boss-man. M-Made a mess and now I’m leaving. J-Just as planned.”

Faces flashed before her eyes.

She shook her head.

No, she was Saydaa!

The girl who survived the streets, all alone!

She could handle anything!

She didn’t need anyone’s help!

She didn’t need anyone to care about her!

They’d just leave her like all the rest.

Saydaa shook her head once more to clear her traitorous eyes of the…dust that clearly got into them, and set off into the night.

In a nearby alleyway, a hooded figure stood, holding a stone claw. The claw began to glow faintly. The figure lifted a phone, speaking into it with a raspy, hissing voice.

“We found her. The one who changed the world.”

Bob heaved a sigh as he glanced at his phone. Kids. They knew he tracked Kiyosuke somehow, yet they somehow didn’t realize he would track them as well.

Especially Saydaa. Girl had been fooled by the spider drones once already, after all.

“Guess I’ll go talk to her…”

Bob stopped mid-sentence. The drone was picking up strange energy readings. It climbed out of its hiding place and surveyed the surroundings, eventually settling on a figure in an alleyway.

And the glowing claw in their hand.

Bob rubbed his chin.

“These guys, huh? Hmmm…”

He sat still for a moment before nodding.

“This could work, actually. Sorry Saydaa, we’ll pick you up a bit later.”

He stood up.

He had much to do.

First of which was…a little heart to heart.

In a dark room several masked figures carried a sleeping girl before an altar, where stood another figure.

“Master, we have her.”

“Let me see.”

The figure at the altar lifted a hand, which began to glow in a green light. Saydaa’s body was briefly surrounded by a faint red aura.

The figure nodded.

“You have done well. The loss of the tablet was a heavy blow…but now it is irrelevant. With this girl’s power…anything is possible. We can achieve our dream. We can change the world, set things right.”

The figure took a deep breath.

“Take her to the guest room. We must show our best hospitality for the key to the future.”

“By your will, Master.”

The figures carried Saydaa off. One of them remained behind and approached the altar.

“Master, what would you command?”

“Those apes that call themselves heroes would interfere. We have survived for countless eons in the shadows…but that will not be possible when the time comes to enact our plans.”

“Then…what will we do?”

Underneath the hood, the figure at the altar smiled.

“We shall let them be the heroes they claim to be. Gather the acolytes and all of our treasures, all of the power we have gathered over the years. It is time to awaken the Sleeping Ones.”

Kiyosuke double checked his bags. Everything was packed and ready to go. He nodded, picked up his sword, and walked out of his room.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Kiyosuke paused in the break room and sighed.

“How do you keep doing that?”

Bob was sitting in the corner of the break room, sipping a cup of coffee. He shrugged.

“The trick isn’t always knowing where people are or what they’re doing. The trick is knowing the person themselves. Then you can simply guess what they’re going to do in any given situation.”

Kiyosuke narrowed his eyes.

“Then you know full well where I’m going.”

Bob stood up and walked over to the shinobi.

“Yes, but I want to hear you say it.”

Kiyosuke met his gaze for a moment before scoffing.

“That annoyance is messing with the team. I’m going to bring her back.”

“Do you know where to find her?”

“I’m a shinobi, I’ll figure something out. We trained to track people.”

“Or you could ask me, seeing as I already know where she is.”

Kiyosuke crossed his arms.

“...of course you do. Well, where is she then?”

“She got kidnapped by a cult.”

“WHAT?!”

Kiyosuke turned to run for the door when Bob lifted a hand.

“Calm down. They’re not going to hurt her. If they were, I would have already intervened.”

“You let her get kidnapped!”

“She let herself get kidnapped, and you need to think about why before you run off again.”

Kiyosuke grit his teeth but he looked at Bob.

“Tell me, what do you know about Saydaa?”

Kiyosuke glared at Bob but he said nothing more. Kiyosuke heaved a sigh, and then furrowed his brow.

“She’s annoying. And…she knows magic…somehow?”

“That’s what I thought. You’re not wrong, but not a comprehensive evaluation by any means.”

Kiyosuke grit his teeth when he felt Bob’s hand on his shoulder. He looked up, eyes wide.

“Well, you weren’t exactly in the best place yourself, so you can be forgiven for missing a few things. Here is what you need to know. Saydaa grew up all on her own on the streets. She had no family. She had no training. She was never adopted and kicked out of the orphanage at a young age. She had no one. She has never had anyone. Her magic is not something she was taught, an heirloom of her family. It was something she was born with…and something that caused her a great deal of trouble when she was young. She had no joy in her life…save for outsmarting those who sought to use her.”

Kiyosuke frowned.

“Then all the more reason for us to…”

“Which is why…she can’t trust anyone. Least of all you.”

Kiyosuke’s eyes went wide one more time. Bob gave him a shrug.

“Are you surprised? Let me paint you a picture: Saydaa had to hide all her life because of her powers. I found her, revealed that I already knew about her powers, and recruited her. She joined the team…because she was interested in what might happen if she didn’t have to hide anymore. Deep down…perhaps she hoped she might find a place to belong. And then one of the very first people she met…did everything in his power to push her away. To the point of attacking her.”

Kiyosuke’s eyes went as wide as they could go and started to tremble.

“Why do you think she grew so intent on bothering you? She can’t stand losing, of course. But more than that…you represented the rejection she’s felt all her life. To beat you, to wound you, to force you who would never give her the time of day to acknowledge her…perhaps for her it was a way to vent all the frustrations of a lifetime of rejection. And one day…to overcome it. To forcefully make a place where she could belong.”

“And it helped that there were others who did accept her, so for a time she could simply explore her new life. But she made a big mistake and lost her confidence. And then you saved her life. So the girl that has never had anyone to care about her…at her lowest point, where she felt the worst about herself, almost died…and had someone else, someone who rejected her, someone who she desperately wanted to overcome, sacrifice himself on her behalf. And that terrifies her.”

“You see, Saydaa has had her hopes denied all her life. No one has ever been willing to care about her or to take care of her. And now she is forced to confront the fact that you do care about her, far more than she ever considered possible. Enough to take a knife for her. Yet, you are the one who denied her most, so she cannot accept that without her having earned it somehow. To do so would leave herself vulnerable to the whims of someone else, to place her hopes and trust in a person who has rejected her time and time again. So, she has preemptively abandoned us…and especially you. You have given her an uncertain hope that she expects to be denied, so she has cut us off to protect herself. Sound familiar?”

Kiyosuke looked away. Bob crossed his arms.

“We’re going to get her back. I guarantee that. The question is…are you ready to bring her back? Because if you want to bring her back…to calm her fears…you will need to overcome yourself. You will need to open up. To be truly honest with yourself. To let people back into your life. And to confront the risk of loss and hurt that comes with that. Are you ready for all that, Amano Kiyosuke?”

Kiyosuke went silent, looking at the ground.

“Well, there’s still some time left before we get her. Take a good look inside yourself, Kiyosuke. Figure out what Saydaa and what this team really means to you. What you want it to mean to you. And what that would mean for them. We WILL save Saydaa. The only question is…will you be a part of that?”

Bob turned and left the room. Kiyosuke just stood there, staring at the ground, for a long time.

Bob heaved a sigh as he made his way through the facility.

The boy needed more time to heal, honestly, but time had run out.

Oh, he wasn’t going to risk Saydaa on Kiyosuke’s emotional growth, of course, but this was something that needed to be handled if Nemesis was to remain a functional team for the near future.

And well, with everything going on they couldn’t exactly wait for a handful of teens to face down all the traumas of their past in an ideal setting. So if this could be the impetus for either or both of them to change…then Bob would use that opportunity.

After all, he was NOT rebuilding this team from scratch.

He heaved a sigh and turned into a break room in a different part of the facility, intending to grab a coffee for the road. Someone had left the television on, currently displaying the news. Bob glanced at the screen…

He froze at what he saw.

Seriously?!

They did WHAT?!

Bob rubbed his temples and groaned.

Cults are really, seriously, extremely, super annoying.