28. M O T H E R S : Love

ANGELICA.

XISHUANGBANNA

Sunlight glinted off the Angel's metal wings as she descended from the sky and landed on the roof of the small bamboo house near Safe Haven's outskirts. The wings receded, and her armour folded itself into the prototypic Suitpack (patent pending) strapped to her back.

Former Xirxine International doctor (and kidnapper, rapist, illegal genetic experimentalist, etc.) Angelica "Annie" Woods put her hands on her hips and let out a quiet sigh as she watched the sun rise on the horizon. It had been a quiet night: the Masked had been mostly agreeable, the Faithful never emerged from their hidey-holes, and the Saved hadn't gotten into any shenanigans.

And yet, for some reason, the owl-shifting descendant of the Great Old One Yog-Sothoth couldn't shake the feeling that this was just the calm before the storm.

-

Annie headed down from the roof into the house. "Addison?" she called. "Tián? Are you back from patrol yet?"

No response greeted this query.

Annie frowned. "Xiao Lang?" she went on, poking her head in the kitchen. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

"They're still out on patrol, Doctor."

Annie turned to her right and saw her cyborg cat Kipzie sitting on the kitchen counter, supervising her young unnamed son (affectionately nicknamed "B.B.") as he splashed around in the sink.

"Kipzie! What on Earth are you doing?" Annie cried. "You're letting him bathe himself?!"

"He clearly knows how," Kipzie sniffed, gesturing to the child (who had grown much faster than normal infants) with his tail. "He is developing at an accelerated rate. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts talking in a few days."

"Mama, I'm peeing!" B.B. declared in perfect Mandarin.

Annie's eyes grew even wider.

"See?" Kipzie said, smiling triumphantly.

"My heavens." Annie walked over to the sink and placed her arms on it before resting her chin on her hands. "We really broke the mould with this one, didn't we, Mwindaji?" she murmured to herself.

"Er, technically, you broke the mould. He was an unwilling..."

Kipzie trailed off as Annie closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to B.B.'s. "...participant," he finished. "Ahem. Hrm... um... by the way, Doctor," he said, opting to change the subject, "There's something for you on the table. A card."

"A card?" Annie repeated, turning toward the table. "For me?"

"That's what I said," Kipzie confirmed, raising an eyebrow.

Annie straightened up and cautiously approached the table with an uncertain frown on her face. "It's not from Xirxine, is it?"

"I think you should read it for yourself," was Kipzie's simple reply.

Annie did as the cat said, gingerly plucking the unmarked envelope off the table's surface and slicing it open with a fingernail. She carefully drew out its contents... and found, to her complete and utter shock, that it was a celebratory card of some kind.

On its stark white cover was a fully black silhouette painting of a two humanoid figures embracing, and three words stenciled in perfect cursive: "FOR MY MOTHER".

Annie took in a shuddering gasp, covering her mouth with a hand as tears began to fill her eyes. She flipped the card open with her thumb and read the interior, which had been carefully, tediously, and personally written by the sender:

"Angelica,

Thank you for making a choice.
Thank you for making an effort.
Thank you for making your mark.
And thank you for making me.

Happy Mother's Day.

– Addison"

Annie lowered her hand, slowly sitting down in a chair and keeping her hand over her mouth as she tried to keep from full-on sobbing. However, she couldn't stop the memories from coming back—memories of every heinous crime she'd committed, every life she'd ruined in the pursuit of knowledge, every death she'd caused.

Unable to hold back any longer, Annie collapsed forward on the table, covering her face with her hands as her tears splashed on its surface.

Kipzie and B.B. glanced at each other. Then the former hopped from the counter to the floor, and from there to the table, where he sat and simply rested his tail on Annie's shoulder without saying a word.

After a few moments, Annie lowered her hands and turned to Kipzie, her eyes red and face stained with tears. "I don't deserve this, Kipzie," she whimpered pitifully, lowering and shaking her head. "I don't deserve this. I'm no mother; I'm a monster."

"We're all monsters here, Doctor," Kipzie replied softly, his voice thick with regret as he displayed rare show of emotion. "But we've been given another chance. Maybe you're right—maybe we don't deserve it—but it's been handed to us regardless." He used his tail to lift Annie's chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. "So we must do whatever we can to make things right," he murmured.

Annie's lower lip trembled, and she grabbed Kipzie in a tight hug, breaking down in tears again.

-

Huànxiàng—Safe Haven's "Phantom"—inhaled and exhaled as he hovered over the stream, suspended in midair by tentacles propping him off the ground and wrapped around trees. The echoes carried to him the cries of a woman overwhelmed by regret, burdened with the infinite task of righting every wrong.

"None of us deserve this second chance, Annie," he whispered as tears trickled from his own closed eyes. "But you've made the most of yours. And... I'm proud of you."