Gage woke up like he usually did - slowly, mouth dry, stubble caught in his pillow like Velcro, in somebody else's bed.

It was comfortable - he wasn't emotional, wasn't the type to become attached to a particular bed - he knew that about himself, he didn't really comprehend those strange flutters across people's faces, they reminded him of butterflies. Unique, vibrant, full of brief life and color, he'd thought himself merely lucky -

To not have to become overwhelmed by that confusing saturation and perhaps blinding brightness - but, he'd been in a cocoon of sorts. Without realizing -

He liked it. It wasn't silk that wrapped around him, it was hard, a rock. A chitinous shell and it served him. It was him - that as he felt certain parts of the armor breaking, felt something new, sensations emerging he didn't discard his hardness - as other's would. He held onto what had become an integral part of him -

The strongest part of him -

He was content to forego the flitting, fluttering of others more whimsical emotions for something more practical, which wasn't to say he was immune to emotion, but rather it wasn't exhausting. To him emotion was like a beer - you reached for it, opened it and enjoyed it. And he could even get drunk - if he chose to.

He wasn't his father - he had a choice. He would never be a hostage to his own inebriated, irrational impulses - therefore it wasn't as surprising to him. Or Weston, perhaps - when he did awaken a power that seemed at least partially dependent on emotion -

Loyalty -

It was a unique power - perhaps a dangerous one because of who he was loyal to - without the limits, but Gage didn't need those limits - would never test them. He was loyal.

It was an Ability - he realized, more than a power, it was an Ability that stemmed from the power. Why Hickory hadn't gotten an Ability yet? Why Weston hadn't? When Gage was the supposedly the last to awaken it?

They didn't know how to use them. To activate them. That was what this was coming down to, slowly being revealed. Weston and Gage shared with each other, talked frankly about the powers, about what it could mean - put down their guards and spitballed ideas and were always...trying new things.

Perhaps in ways the powers weren't meant for. There was no religious pall that hung over them - that Gage believed that May's mermaid stint was actually an Ability, which is why Hickory had been able to say she was a mermaid -

Though it was fun to accuse him of smoking the Sea Weed - to hear Hunter suddenly burst into songs from the the Disney movie when Hickory was in the middle of trying to tell a fishing story -

Gage's power was...different. He watched Weston's eye's widen as he looked at himself - circled what appeared to be a perfect replica, a copy - the height, the impeccable haircut, the quirked lips that couldn't help but signal superiority, the Covanger blue eyes, the size of his toenails, the proportions were all correct -

"I'm not that big." Weston said -

There was some - well.

"How did you?"

"You were busy." Gage shrugged, he wasn't embarrassed. He was a man -

"It's... creepy." Weston said as he put his hand on his own bare shoulder, his own bulging bicep - "I assume you can't do clothes?"

"I haven't tried. This is only the second time." Gage said and it was - well, he knew it was childish but -

As Weston got close - staring into his own eyes from inches away, leaning closer - his body double moved - grabbed him and -

Weston was a Man. He was confident. All the time. Not as Gage was, Weston's was more polished, refined. He knew his value, that he was a diamond. That it was the diamond on the tip of an oil boring bit? Set to drill through solid rock? That the sparkling facets that made Weston radiant were there to cut - that all the brilliance that embellished him was merely a consequence to his sharpness rather then it's design?

Gage was not that. He was the rough stubble to Weston's smooth razor, they should have been oppositional - they were. Two pieces not made to come together, not intended - but it was that very thing that had brought them so close -

So it was with absolute glee - that Gage heard Weston shriek like a girl as he was groped by himself. That...had been great.

"This changes everything. I can be in two places at once." Weston said - shortly after Gage had finished screaming like a girl. It wasn't fair - he finally had a power. Finally was able to do something fun, spice things up, who didn't want twins? And Weston had stolen it - used it against him in a manner Gage refused to acknowledge or appreciate - he'd been surprised.

"It also means it is you, it's...real. Doesn't it? Like a clone? If it has your blood?"

"Can you do somebody else?"

Gage shrugged - "Probably any of the guys. Not, uh - "

"Naked." Weston nodded.

Gage shrugged, "I wouldn't have Hickory say he didn't love his Ma's cooking, or have Chase root for the Yankees or Hunter buy the first round of drinks - well, the last I could do as a joke. It's more about context."

Of course it made sense - Gage's power was Loyalty, and if he could only create a copy of somebody he was loyal to - loyalty required an understanding of a person's character and also respect. They were his brothers.

Weston...it was different-

"Fascinating." Weston said, flicking his Body Double's forehead, leaving a mark - "I can feel it like you can, but it's more muted - I can't control both simultaneously, and I can feel it would take...from my Reservoir? Maybe - I can push some power through it, not enough to fight, but certainly enough to maintain the illusion if power if needed. It's obviously come from your protective instinct, but why not a..."

"Weapon?" Gage offered, "It's not a craft, either, it's - we're still thinking about this wrong. I think that there's a chance that it's just too soon to have the answers we want. That there are mental triggers we can't comprehend, that's how it felt."

"For me?" Weston said looking at him -

"Fuck you!" Gage said, "It's just loyalty, and this is just a part. I think it's an Ability. I think we unlock them at need, like an open chamber for a bullet - when the Chief raised that bow?"

Weston nodded attentively, scholastically but also seemed bashfully pleased -

"Hunter with the blueprint, being able to build them and lower their cost? I think it's multiple things. I think the Blueprint is a craft, the Construction is a Skill. and the reduced cost is an Ability. I think I'll unlock an obvious power at some point, I just think because the power is the most obvious, we're fixating on it."

"You're sounding like a Dungeonist."

Gage shook his head at the slang term Weston called Chase's school buddies - there were different camps that believed different things about where the powers came from, how they worked. The Dungeonist Camp was split on the cause, but more cohesive on the structure - they had been laughed at before the classroom expansion, not anymore -

That it drove them insane that Chase - a guy they knew from school as a dumb, sometimes drunk jock, had unlocked it? They were...adapting, finding strange friendship, too, calling him Groc or Chase the Barbarian. That it was said that Chase had reached into his pocket for a marble and dice had fallen out - that Hunter had been standing right there, pointed them out, howling with laughter.

That Hickory said he might have to dig up Jared's head so Chase could wear the Goofy Goggles -

"There's too many loose threads, but from the pragmatic standpoint, I'll use their language. We know now that what you use to attack a fountain is Willpower as a baseline, and Reservoir for your fuel, that you use more of it for a power boost."

Weston nodded.

"So what I'm saying is that I think - I don't think your power is pride. I think pride is your trigger."

Weston looked like he'd been socked in his head - dizzy -

"Think about it. Hickory believes he's honest, but he lies all the time. I think it's more important for him to believe he's honest, then to actually be honest."

"That would - that would make sense." Weston said, pacing - "When I switched Fonts I'd thought Confidence felt stronger - What if the Font is like...a flashlight on the trigger, it wasn't stronger but just clearer. The colored Font made it more obvious for me. And I didn't have fire then!" I didn't have a bullet! Not until we fought!"

Gage said, "I don't know if it even matters except that you believe it matters. That maybe -"

"No, it matters." Weston said, "Everything matters."

Gage shrugged - "I can't say you're wrong. I can't even say it's the same for both of us. But if Chase is dueling at the Font, without a manifested power? Have you faced him yet?"

Weston shook his head - as smart as the students at school were, they hadn't made the connection. That the pool of water was a way to duel for the actual Font - but it was only a matter of time. The fact that Jared was dead helped obfuscate matters - to those that knew of the Covanger Conquest...

"It's what get's me, the vastness of it, that Chase is right about that at least, that anything this advanced or incomprehensible is essentially magic. It's the religious nuts -"

"I don't want to hear you rant." Gage said - wresting control of Weston's double to thump him in the gut, "We've got more important things to do -"

"It's not fair. How much power you have." Weston said, and Gage could tell he was speaking truthfully - watching his double steal away the small amount of control Weston still had left over him.

"It's Loyalty. It can only act in your interests, as you would do anyway."

Weston's eyes bulged, his face turning scarlet, "Are you kidding, I won't -"

"Isn't that what pride is? Self love?"

Gage was happy to be back home - as exciting as the delegation to the Tribe had been? He was a simple man, and he'd missed his horses - that there had been people with Skills didn't mean they knew Oates liked her left ear scratched more. That Best preferred the east patch of grass in the morning, and the west pasture at night - that they loved wild strawberries and they got one each evening after their brushing.

Gage had written out a confidential contract, to have the secrets kept, to have the strawberries delivered because he was the Adjutant - that such things were not the actions of the stoic, at times needed, dispassionate, perhaps at some point feared - man.

It was similar to Good Cop, Bad Cop - Gage had to be the whip for Weston could be the carrot. But whips weren't for horses - not these horses. These were not buggy mules - these horses were bread for speed and beauty, showmanship. They were smart. Their coats glistened, their manes flowing, they were like people if people didn't have problems -

These two - Oats and Best, were the sweetest, the Ladies. Gage wasn't sure how he was going to implement the Breeding Apparatus - how it was going to work, when it was built. It was...not what he expected.

Gage was surprised to discover that this...Animal Breeding Machine was actually simple. Of course he was cautious at first, the last thing he wanted was for the machine to think that he was the animal - that perhaps feeding horses strawberries would be an afterthought if his men saw him being artificially inseminated by a stone snow plow -

It had a large scoop, lots of round rocks, one large boulder balanced on top, and that was it. Nothing to stick into anything, nothing to stick anything into it - so he'd taken their fastest stallion, their handsomest - Jasper, and walked him around the contraption.

That's all it took.

That was the easy part -

The machine made a baby horse. A perfect tiny clone? Just one parent? Just like that. Except...it was in the rock - the rock was transparent and it was right there, like it was a womb.

It was just floating there, an umbilical chord attached, everything. It was about the size of Gage's thumb - the first day. What should he do?

He fed it a strawberry.

It was a habit, alright? He didn't actually feed it the strawberry, but he was talking to Tackle like he talked to all his horses, he had a pouch full of strawberries and he sat one on the scoop -

She was a good horse. She was sweet. He told Tackle how much Hickory wanted to see her, meet her, and that she was going to be swift and spoiled and loved and lavished in praise and kindness and fancy saddles, ribbons and all that stuff a lady loves.

The strawberry had rested there, Gage had forgotten about it - perhaps a bird had gotten it or a squirrel in his focus, when he put the next one there, the other had been gone.

"Hunter, he's stupid but you'll get use to him. He's the one that found Hickory, and we've all been best good buddies since, he taught me about loyalty. What it meant - he's the first one, the youngest of us all, and my dad scared me - back then, when Hickory stood up to him."

It was only a day, and Tackle was as big as his hand. And it was important -

"That's all I ask, you understand, you be loyal to him, too. I know him, know he can't have a dog, can't handle the hurt of it running off, that he don't love with half a heart, that it's the only thing that scares him. You be loyal to him, let him love you, you love him back and don't worry if it ain't enough it never will be, and he's right with that, so long as you're loyal."

Tackle was nearly a human baby already the next day - and Gage wasn't surprised, wasn't shocked to see she was cute as a baby, even ugly and bubbling in that rock, that she was gonna be special for him. Special for Hickory.

That she was a she - not a he, not a clone. That she was already showing some color. Jasper had been mostly brown, had that fine red dusting that was perfect for a noble steed, Hickory didn't need a noble steed, wouldn't want one -

No, Hickory needed a horse that was sweet and wild, smaller - like him, and a little sour -

"You like them strawberries don't ya, Tackle." Gage laughed, "They rubbing off on ya, aren't they...they got a nice kick. Ma planted them before she took off, they come back every year and growing up I use to dream I'd walk outside, see her picking them, dream I smelled pancakes cooking. Sometimes I still do, but I'm always happy to see them strawberries, see that bit of red rising out of the green, that life ain't perfect, that I can't make the world right but sometimes we can do little things to make it almost work. You'll be like that for him. He might not have everything he wants or needs, but he'll see that bit of red when he's about to give up, about to say it ain't worth it no more and he'll make it. He'll saddle up and ride again, I know he will."

Of course Gage wasn't sure - wasn't sure he could give Tackle his power. His loyalty to Hickory. But would he truly be loyal if he didn't try? If he didn't put his whole heart into it, if he held back just an ounce -

It wasn't easy, he couldn't do it for another. That there are levels of loyalty, and Gage knew in his heart he'd die for any of them. Would he live for them? Did he understand them so fundamentally to tell another soul - something as pure and trusting as a horse - that they could live for him.

"You're getting big there girl, you're damn near ready to come on out, aren't ya." Gage whispered, pressing his hand against the rock - feeling that pulsing thrum of life, that promise - "No, I ain't telling you to hurry, I'd never rush a Lady, I value my life too damn much to do that! That the world will wait on you - it's what May don't understand, she don't get. When Hickory loves you - that's it. Will he ever ride another horse? Will he ever brush another down? If he needed to, if you were hurt - if you couldn't ride, if you didn't want to - he'd not ask it of you. He'd not make you feel sorry over it - he'd not balk if you were ridden by another if it suited ya, girl."

Gage watched the baby horse buck, kick about her gurgling pen -

"I know you're better than her, but I'm telling ya true all the same so you don't ever worry bout it. So you know that his love will be the same til he dies, that if you see him on another horse you know he's thinking bout you, Tackle, that a man is going to ride. That he'd not call another horse his Tackle, that he'd not pretend to love that horse for the sake of riding, he'd walk before doing that, but if a horse is willing to be ridden and he's walking, well it just makes sense is what I'm saying."

Gage watched the small gal shake her mane, her tail. The hair growing there perhaps reminded him a bit of a mermaid, though Tackle was a darker, wilder red - how it fluttered in the water -

"It's a loyalty, it's an understanding of character. You'd understand it all, the good and bad if you see it that way, and I'll tell you like it is, that the world will wait for you. He'll be your world, and he'll wait - but he'll also ride. That when you're ready, a day, a month, a year, and it's not a rush at all, it's no hurry and he's excited, he tells me everyday how much he wants to meet you and how happy he is for his Tackle. He understands you need your time."

"You ready to head out? They'll miss you, if you don't."

"You mean they'll miss you?"

Weston shrugged - "I'll miss you."

Gage almost spat, remembered he was in the presence of a lady. Got up from his squat and tipped his hat. Tackle gave a proper curtsy in response - he was gonna miss her so damn much when she grew up.

"The normal?"

"Yeah, I'll keep an eye on things, step in if it's needed, I'm not sure if Wildcards coming tonight, but I won't risk it."

"They gonna be family, them two." Gage said, nodding at Tackle with a grin.

"Not if it turns out to be Butch's git, I reckon -"

"She'll temper him, I don't think she's gonna be fraid of much, she's got more spirit then Chase's whole hooch house, she's a legend in the making in her own right I'll bet."

Weston looked at the horse - he saw it different, saw her breeding, her stock and thought he knew it all - Maybe deep inside he knew what was in her heart, saw what was in her blood, that it wasn't what he'd expect - was more then just wild. Reckless, and reliable. That it was a different sort of purity there then pedigree - to come from one parent. Raised on just stories, those sour-sweet strawberries, friendship, learning about loyalty -

There's no guilt, when you're loyal. That there's woman loyalty, dog loyalty, and then horse loyalty - Gage was a dog, he knew that. He liked his ears scratched and his balls rubbed and he'd rip a throat out without batting an eye, play fetch and do all sorts of tricks - and wasn't sorry for it. It was a choice. His choice - the good and the bad that came with loyalty.

Character.

Weston was learning but he still didn't quite understand, it was almost, but still learning - when he assumed Gage couldn't make a - copy of them like that. He had too much pride to see the truth, to understand the difference and why it mattered, hopefully he'd never have to find out, not as a surprise.

That there could be overlap of loyalties, and as long as everybody was taking the same road, be it a road to heaven or hell, it didn't make a difference, not a lick, not a dent -

Gage walked to the truck, the drivers seat, and Weston got in next to him. Weston waved to him in the mirror as well, then headed back to the corral to check on Wildcard again, while Gage drove Weston to the Casino, to watch Hickory lose another fortune in black jack, or roulette, or craps - that he owned half the casino was the only reason he had a marble. That he could have owned the whole thing?

It kept them both happy, Hunter and Hickory - that their glasses were always full, Chase made sure of that - Best Good Buddies. Loyalty. Weston would understand or wouldn't and at the end of the day it only would matter if it mattered.

Gage would never marry. Never have an oath like that to break, to leave, kids. Never. He had loyalty. Levels of it, not a house of cards. One fallin' didn't knock the rest over, else there wouldn't be a tree left standing - that it took the strongest one to hold the rest up -

Call it horse shit - call it craps. You only lose if you bet wrong.