CHAPTER TWO: THE OFFER

In a hospital in Central Astoria, far away from home, Abigail O’Hare just received an offer. 

“I’d like for you to join the Peacekeepers, with these two, as my personal elite squad. What do you think?” Ian asks, his team surrounding Abigail’s hospital bed. Her eyes dart between each of the Peacekeepers around her - Michael River, cocky but talented, Maya Olvide, quiet and gentle, and Ian Crowley, leader of the Peacekeepers, stoic and smooth. Her head is still spinning - the knock to her skull ringing in her ear. She can barely understand what’s being said, let alone what’s being offered. 

“Ian,” Maya interjects into the silence, “She just woke up. Maybe give her a moment..?”

“OH!” Ian exclaims, slapping his hands onto his legs. “Where are my manners? Take some time and think - “

“Are they okay?” Abigail weakly asks. 

“Are who -? Oh. The folks at the Executioning.” Ian responds as he slowly raises to his feet. 

“The wha?” 

“Executioning. That’s what they called their massive sacrifice they were doing. You know, we’ve been on the trail of these Rokuku’s for a couple of months now. Took us a long time to figure out who they were and what they were after. But you? You just…showed up at the most critical moment. What were you doing there in the first place?”

“Ian.” Maya sternly interjects again. 

“Right. Right. Okay. Well, all of them are alive and well, thanks to you. Some of them are at this hospital too, actually. And some had to be sent elsewhere because of their injuries.” Ian explains. 

“I didn’t…I didn’t hurt any of them, did I?” Abigail asks, looking away. 

Ian just smiles. “Their only injuries were from before you showed up. You did something incredible, O’Hare.” He says, motioning for his team to follow as he starts to make his exit. 

Michael shoots Abigail a look that she can’t decipher before getting up to leave, and Maya takes a couple steps closer to her. “Your phone kind of melted in your pocket,” she says, pulling a phone from her own pocket, “So you can borrow mine if you need to get in contact with anyone.” 

Abigail begins to reach up with her right arm, but a sudden jolt of pain knocks it back down. 

“Oh my.” Maya gently responds, turning the phone on for her as her teammates leave. “You want me to call someone for you?” She asks, pulling up a screen full of numbers. 

Abigail sighs, and stares up at Maya for a moment. She squints her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without a helmet,” she says, looking into Maya’s dark brown eyes. “You look a lot friendlier like this.” 

Maya chuckles. “That’s why the helmet usually stays on,” she replies, offering a smile. 

Abigail allows a soft chuckle back. “Call my sister. Lea O’Hare. 922-342-9547.” She says, watching as Maya dials the number. “Thanks.”

Maya takes a brief pause before hitting the “call” button. “Ha. That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve said to one of us.” She says. “You know we’re not your enemies, right? I’ve seen what you do out there, and I can say pretty confidently that we’re fighting the same fight. Just trying to keep people safe and unafraid, right?”

Abigail shrugs. “Just not a big authority person, I guess.” 

“Well,” Maya says, handing the phone to Abigail's left hand, “I hope you take Mr. Crowley’s offer under good faith.” She presses the call button and turns to leave. “You’d be such an amazing part of our team, Ms. O’Hare.” 

Abigail watches Maya leave as the phone’s speaker echoes a ringing on the other end of the line. The clicking of the call being picked up follows. 

“...Hello?” Lea asks, with a cautious familiarity like she’s pretty sure she knows who’s calling from a new number.

Abigail closes her eyes tightly, bracing for impact. “Hey. It’s me.” 

“Abigail. Oh my god. Are you okay?? I’ve been trying to call you - “

“Yeah, I guess my phone melted.” 

“Didn’t end up being the “hopefully” option, huh?” 

Abigail lets out a long sigh. “No. Wasn’t quite that lucky. Things got out of hand, fast.” 

“Shit. Are you hurt?” 

“Uhhh…” Abigail stares down at her roasted arm, coated in bloody bandages. “I’ve…definitely been better…I’m at some hospital somewhere. The Peacekeepers brought me here, I guess.”

“The Peacekeepers? Jesus, Abigail, what the hell happened?” Lea’s voice is getting more animated. 

“I’ll give you the full details when I get home. Which, uh, I’m not sure when that’ll be. Can you check on Miki for me?”

“I’m stuck at Magnolia, but I’ll hit up Carlos.” Lea says, taking a pointed pause before speaking again. “Abigail…did you…last night, did -” 

“Yeah.” Abigail cuts her off. 

A long silence. 

“Abigail…” Lea’s voice is quiet, distant. Cold and afraid. “Whatever happened last night…” She begins. Abigail can almost hear her shaking her head. “...well, we can talk when you get home.”

Abigail’s head is hanging low on her shoulders. “Yeah.” 

“Please let me know when you’re back.”

“Yeah.”

Another pause.
“I love you, Abigail.”

“Love you too, Lea. I’ll see you soon, hopefully.”

A soft chuckle. “We saw what happened last time you said ‘hopefully.’”

The phone line cuts out as Abigail hits the ‘end’ button. She sits quietly for a moment, placing the phone gently on the table beside her and then laying back down. Joining the Peacekeepers, huh? She thinks to herself, closing her eyes. They must be serious if Ian Crowley himself is making the offer. But… She stares down at her busted arm again. Maybe if I wasn’t alone…I wouldn’t have…

“Hey,” she weakly shouts. “You guys can come back in. Let’s talk.”

The Peacekeepers open the door, Ian leading the way. “You sure? That wasn’t a long time to wake up.” Ian says, slowly making his way to his seat from before. 

“Yeah. My answer would be the same no matter how long I wait.” She replies. “But, first. Thanks. Really. I’m not sure what would’ve happened if you guys hadn’t shown up.”

“Ha! No ‘I could’ve handled it’ this time, O’Hare?” Michael asks, a grin growing on his face. 

Maya rolls her eyes. “Michael, stop -”

“He’s right,” Abigail interrupts. “I needed help on that one. So thank you for saving all of those people there. Girls with mangled arms bleeding out on the ground can’t really pull crucified folks from the wall.” She says, a half smile on her face. “Or do much of anything else, really.” 

Maya furrows her brow. Michael just snorts a laugh. “I like you better when you play nice.” He says, slumping down into a chair. 

“So we’ll get back to my offer in a minute,” Ian says, voice commanding the room. “But first, I need to know why you were there last night.” 

“Did I do something wrong?” 

“Wrong isn’t the word I would use. But those Rokuku’s were in the thick of the Deep Woods. There’s no way you could’ve just stumbled upon them, it took us a long time of searching to even get a hint as to who they even were, let alone where they were located. So how’d you do it?”

“I honestly didn’t mean to. I was on a case - “

“What kind of case?”

“I was hired to find someone. They were attacked by Rokukus, but someone scared them off. She wanted to thank them, whoever they are. I figured if I found the Rokukus, I’d find some answers. Just ended up with no phone and an arm I can’t move.”

“But how’d you end up there?”

“They used some teleportation technique. The “Wandering Flame”, or whatever. They needed some relic in a church off Oleander to activate it.”

All three of the Peacekeepers look surprised. 

“A teleportation technique?” Maya asks, sitting back in her chair and rubbing her head. “Damn. They’re just full of surprises.” 

“Who were they, exactly? Just a bunch of nutjobs?” Abigail asks. 

“They were people who believed their leader was their salvation,” Ian says, a sad smile on his face. “Cultists are rarely pure evil. They’re desperate for meaning. Desperate to find a way to make some sort of sense out of the madness that’s ever growing around them. Ryu’Djinn just capitalized on that fact. Spread his message, his flames. His will consumed them and warped them into something else.”

“They do something to that sea serpent from the other day, too?” 

Ian raises an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”

“It started breathing fire at the end of our fight, before these two showed up. The same yellow flame as theirs.”

“Hmm. Interesting.” Ian says, placing his hand on his chin to think. “Maybe he was experimenting with what else could withstand his fire.” 

“Or maybe they’d grown so powerful that they could affect the reality around them.” Michael ponders. 

“Their church had mind-wiping effects on the area surrounding it.” Abigail replies. “So it’s not out of the question.” 

Ian smiles. “Look at you. You fit right in already.” He says. “I don’t understand you, O’Hare. You clearly want to do what’s right. You’re smart, powerful, strategic. But you’re wasting away doing small-time work around the coast. If you join the Peacekeepers, you could keep doing exactly what you’re doing, but on a much larger scale. You could be even more of a hero than you are! Why work by yourself?” 

Abigail stares at Ian for a moment, and then looks away. “...I’m sorry. Look, I appreciate the offer…”

Michael laughs. “Here we go.”

“...But that’s not something I can do.”

“But why, Abigail?” Ian asks. “Help me understand.”

She just shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter.” She says, making sure to not make eye contact with anyone. “Thank you all for saving me. And for saving…all of the people there. But right now, all I want to do is get home to my rabbit.” 

Ian continues staring at Abigail, and then gives a defeated sigh as he stands up. “Alright. I can’t force you to do anything. But promise me you’ll think about it, okay?” 

“Sure.”

“You want a ride back to the coast?” Maya asks. 

Abigail stays quiet for a moment, pondering how awkward a ride it would be, but decides she ought to be nice. “That’d be great, Maya. Thanks.” She mumbles, embarrassed to have the words leave her mouth. 

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the calm skies above Astoria, a small jet soars quietly through the air. The Peacekeepers have a large assortment of vehicles and machines for travel, including personal any-terrain vehicles, the sky included on the terrains. Maya’s is a jet black, sleek machine with a wide window in the front and several seats on the inside. Maya is sitting at the controls, clicking a few buttons as the plane gets to a cruising height, and turns on auto pilot. Abigail is seated beside her, and she’s keeping busy staring at the light whips of clouds around them. They hadn’t spoken a word the entire trip - something Abigail was thankful for. 

The quiet peace is broken by Maya. “So like…are you okay?” She asks, unsure if speaking was permitted between them right now. 

Abigail nods gently. 

Maya understands the social contract she’s signed now. No talking, she thinks to herself, “are you sure?” she adds anyway, breaking the contract. 

Abigail nods again. 

“Your arm’s just - “

“I know how my arm looks. It’s attached to me.” 

“Right.” Maya zips. 

The silence grows too awkward for Abigail. “Sorry,” she says, shaking her head. “That was mean.” 

“It’s okay.”

They both stay quiet for a while, and Abigail looks back out at the clouds, now with a burning pit in her stomach. She’s gone out of her way to be nice. Don’t be a dick. She thinks to herself. “You seem too sweet to be a Peacekeeper.”

Maya smiles at Abigail, accepting the apology she only made with her tone. “Not all of us can be hammers. Sometimes you need a different tool to help people.” 

“Is that why you do it? Just because you want to help people?”

“Of course. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.” Maya responds. “Is that why you do it, too?”

“I like to try to throw people a bone if I can,” Abigail says. “It’s just the right thing to do.”

“Exactly! God, you’d just be such a good Peacekeeper -”

“Drop it.”

Maya winces. She overplayed her hand. Might as well keep playing it. “But you have the right -”

“I’ll jump out of this plane if you don’t stop.” 

“- The right mindset for why you - “

Abigail begins to shift. “I said - “ She’s interrupted by a long blade in front of her face. She looks over and sees Maya is holding the hilt, which has a large attachment on the other end that looks like the barrel of a gun. 

“Don’t you dare jump. You’re hurt, there’s no way you’d survive the fall.” 

“I’ve survived worse. What’s wrong with you people? What do you want me for so bad, anyway?!”

“Because it’s your CALLING.” Maya says, a genuine gasp of desperation in her voice. “Because the world around us is getting more and more chaotic by the day! You saw how strong Ryu’Djinn was, that wouldn’t have been possible a decade ago. We need people like you on our side. We need good people who care.”

“I already made my answer clear, Maya. I can’t join you guys. That’s not something I can do.”

Maya pulls her blade away and it vanishes into thin air. “Fine.” She says, going back to the controls. “Fine.” 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Night falls on Coastal Astoria as Maya’s jet approaches Abigail’s apartment. It slows and hovers directly in front of the building, hanging several dozen feet off the ground. 

“I can take it from here,” Abigail says. Maya wordlessly presses a button to open up the cockpit. “Um. Thanks again for the ride.” She awkwardly adds. 

Maya looks over at Abigail for a moment, and gives a hint of a smile. “Don’t die out there, O’Hare.” 

Abigail takes a sharp breath in. “You’d get along great with my sister.” She says as she releases the breath, and hops out of the plane, her feet igniting in small flames to gently ease her to the ground. “See you around, I’m sure.”

“Hmm.” The cockpit shuts back around Maya, and her jet raises vertically for a moment before shooting off into the night sky. Abigail watches the jet as it leaves, her stare lingering for a moment. She shakes her head and makes her way into her building, and up the stairs to her unit. She can hear the scratching of little tiny claws against the door before she even puts her key into the lock. I guess if it was between my phone and keys, I’m glad these didn’t melt,she thinks as she opens the door and immediately finds Miki, who softly ignites into purple fire and floats up to Abigail’s face. 

“Abigail!” She exclaims, rubbing her face against Abigail’s before float-hopping to her arm. “Your arm! Here, here, let’s get you - “ Miki is interrupted by Abigail’s other arm grabbing her in a hug, squishing her as close as possible. 

“Miki.” Abigail gently says, feeling tears fall down her face. “I’m sorry I didn’t come home last night.”

Miki just softly laughs. “You owe me extra raisins for that.” 

“You can have all the raisins you want. Did Carlos come by earlier?”

“Huh? Oh, I think so. I don’t remember stuff too good if you’re not here.” Miki says, leading Abigail towards the raisins in the cabinet. “But I have food in my bowl, so he must’ve been by. Lea was definitely here earlier though.”

“Oh, shit. I need to tell her I’m home,” Abigail says, suddenly feeling a deep pain in her arm that makes her recoil. Miki hops next to her. “Can you see if she’s at her place?”

Miki nods and her ears begin to twitch as more flames flicker from them. She closes her eyes in concentration. “Hmm. Yeah. Be right back.” She touches back down on the ground, and her flames immediately go out. Abigail watches patiently for a moment, until the flames reignite. “She’s on her way.”

“Awesome,” Abigail says, falling to her butt on the floor of the kitchen.  

Miki settles down on the ground next to her. “I can’t believe you opened it.”

Abigail takes a moment to think. “I don’t really wanna talk about it.”

“It’s been what? Almost two decades now?” 

“Stop.” Something’s wrong.

“Did you think that was it?”

Abigail’s eyes widen. “What?” 

“Did you think you could just open it?” Miki’s voice begins to twist. 

“Miki?” Abigail can barely squeak out. She tries to move her head to look at Miki, but finds she can’t. 

“Actions have reactions. They have consequences.” Miki’s voice is unrecognizable.

“Stop it.” She can’t breathe. 

“But you’re no stranger to consequence, are you?” The voice is closer to her ear. Whispering in glee. “You know what you are.” 

“Shut up!” Abigail yells, managing to move and throw her arm out to shoot fire at whatever the hell this was - but she just shot out a pathetic spurt of fire mixed with blood out of her busted appendage at an empty room. 

Miki reignites. “She’s on her - oh my god!” She says, hopping over to a gasping, bleeding Abigail. “Abigail! Are you okay? Lea’s coming, she’s on her way -” 

Her words fall on deaf ears as Abigail passes out. 

Jellyfish are swimming through the darkness, pale flickers of debris and ash floating in an ocean of nothing. From Abigail’s eyes, she looks down at her hands, her right arm now free of wrappings. She looks up and sees a jellyfish light up two rows of red, luminescent tentacles. It speaks a word to her - she can’t place the voice, but she’s heard it before. It’s a gentle voice - a man’s voice, but very soft. Kind. She can hear the smile behind each syllable, like the voice is saying a word they hope to say many, many more times. 

“Abigail.”

A hand reaches out slowly from the darkness, and she reaches for it. 

“Abigail!” Lea shouts, and Abigail snaps back to reality. She’s now on the couch in her living room, her sister and rabbit huddled over her. She pants as she sits up, wincing in pain and panic - once she locks eyes with Lea, she releases a breath of relief and falls back down. 

“There you go. Take it easy. Breathe slowly.” Lea says, grabbing Abigail’s left hand. “In and out.” The sisters breathe together for a moment. 

“What was that?” Miki asks, hopping to Abigail’s stomach and sitting down. “I was only gone for a second.”

“It’s because I screwed up.” Abigail says, voice shaking. “I never should’ve gone there. I got in way over my head…” she says, trailing off. The girls stay quiet for a minute before Abigail continues. “I went after the people who tried to kidnap Danny’s cousin. But they were strong. Had a Calling I never could’ve conceived. They had easily 20 or so captives, I couldn’t just let them die -”

“So you had to do what you had to do.” Lea says, giving Abigail a light smile. “You wouldn’t have done what you did unless it was dire. I know that much, at least.”

Abigail averts her sister’s gaze. “It was stupid. I was stupid. And now,” she says, barely lifting her arm, “I’ve just got this.” 

“But all those people lived, didn’t they?” Miki asks.

“Yeah, but that’s cuz the Peacekeepers showed up. If they hadn’t…I’m not sure what would’ve happened next. I just saved them from dying in that second.”

Lea debates saying something, but decides against it. Now isn’t the time for a lecture, she thinks. “Abby. Let me see that arm.”

Abigail shakes her head. “I won’t let you use your Calling like that.”

“It’s my Calling, I can do what I want with it. Let me see that arm.”

Abigail knows better than to argue. She slowly shifts to her side, letting Miki hop off gently and float a small distance away. “I heal quick, you don’t need to do too much.”

Lea places both of her hands on Abigail’s bandaged arm. “Shhh. I need to focus.” Both of her hands light up green, and the light begins to spread across Abigail’s arm. After a moment, she winces. “Buckle up.” Her hands light up brighter, and the sound of flesh rapidly regrowing is matched by Abigail’s stifled yelps of pain. “I know, I know.” Lea gently says through gritted teeth. Her hands continue to grow brighter until they flash, and then the light slowly fades away back into her palms. Both sisters allow their bodies to fall, exhausted. 

“I promise I won’t make you do that again,” Abigail says, choking out words through shaking breath. Lea doesn’t respond, but instead just gently rubbing her hands together and massaging each finger. The insides of her hands are bloody and cracked, damage from using her Calling beyond her limits. Abigail doesn’t miss this fact. “I mean it.”

Lea just nods. “Okay.” She says, regaining her composure as she sits herself back up. 

“I realized something out there, Lea. I can’t do this alone anymore.” Abigail says. 

“Of course not! You’re strong, Abigail, but you aren’t invincible.” Lea responds, becoming lively in pleasant surprise. “Are you going to join the Peacekeepers, then?”

“Oh, god no. I refuse to do that. But I suppose I can expand my own operations. Find some people who can fight. And I know just where to start.” Abigail says, sitting up and moving her arm around. It’s definitely not fully healed, but at least it isn’t unusable anymore. 

Lea nods again. Not the answer she was hoping for, but one she was interested in. “Who’s on the shortlist?”

Abigail looks up at the ceiling in thought, watching her ceiling fan slowly spin. “You know that guy I’m supposed to find? I think he was there last night. The crazy folks I fought, the Rokuku’s, were expecting him to be there - kept saying they were waiting on their ‘special guest’. But he didn’t show up - or, at least, I didn’t see him.”

“Then how do you know he was there?” Miki asks, cocking her head to the side.

“Just a hunch. Before their leader went into full-throttle-murder-mode, I heard an explosion on the other end of the compound. As far as I could tell, the vast majority of their group was waiting to do their big sacrifice - so who could’ve made a big boom like that, when I was keeping their attention?”

“That doesn’t prove it was him, though.”

“Sure, but the pieces add up. The Rokuku’s were angry he stopped their kidnapping, so they go after him. Maybe he gets the same idea I had - let them capture him so he can find their base. Maybe things got out of hand for him, too. But if he made it through an explosion that big, or hell, even made the explosion…”

“...he must be strong.” Lea finishes Abigail’s train of thought. “You don’t even know this guy, whoever he is. You think he’d team up with you?”

Abigail shrugs, still watching the ceiling fan. “No idea. But it’s worth a shot.”