Sometimes, therapy is there to ground you. It is not a cure all, instant solution. Therapy is an ongoing, constantly changing process where you pick at your psyche in a safe place with someone you trust, or with someone who knows how to do it safely.

  This does mean that everyone heals differently and at different speeds, but a fundamental core of therapy is that you must want to heal for it to work.

  -Samurai Doma at a Family meeting, trying to get newer Samurai to take care of themselves, 2053

  As I agreed for Synaptic to join us, her Mesh avatar flowed out of the phone in Augustus's hand. It was just her eye form, with a few more tentacles, but no one was claiming Protector AI weren't extra.She floated over to my right, at an even height with my head.

  “Thank you for joining us, Synaptic. As is policy, this conversation was blocked from you until he invited you in.” He turns to me. “Now, Victor, you may either repeat your questions to Synaptic or I may transmit them to her.”

  I wave my hand at him. “Please, transmit them. I… I don't want to get that angry again right now.”

  He nods as an orb appears in front of him. Augustus pushes it towards Synaptic, who grabs it with a tentacle and pushes it into her eye.

  “Hmm. I see. A rather valid line of questioning and one I can, thankfully answer as none of it affects the Privacy policy we hold towards Vanguard. I shall start with why he didn't catch the events in question, as it will explain a number of your questions.”

  She summons a circular chair and sets herself into it. “The reason why he missed everything is the same reason the ‘goons’ were able to plant the device on Buddy’s SUV. There are a number individuals within The Family’s Building that are not loyal to The Family, and thus were bought out by a number of other Corporations, none of them on the corporate council officially, but the information makes its way to them anyways. These people sell classified information for extra credits and political favors by abusing the trust Black Log has given them. While Doma was here, the worst thing these people sold were Vanguard profiles, who they were, what they could do, and where they lived, as well as the actions in their files. Some of those files were doctored, of course, to mislead others. The reason that was the extent of it is because that is what Doma let them sell. But the moment she left, they all gave in to their greed.”

  As I heard that news, I leaned back further into the Squish, blowing a slight raspberry. “It's always about money.” I grumble.

  “Yes, that does seem to be the root of a great number of problems you humans deal with. On the bright side, Black Log has marked all of the offenders for an internal purge to happen in the next day. The lesser offenders will be fired without severance pay, while those directly associated with this betrayal will be given to Morrigan, along with a majority of the Beslté agents and soldiers that survived. Not many did, however, but those that did currently wish they didn't.”

  That did make me feel better, knowing this wouldn't happen again. Synaptic continued. “As to why no other of my brethren notified their Vanguard of the other kidnapping, it is due to a personal preference of those families involved. Bub’s family requested to remain out of their AI’s observation range, as his wife could never come to terms with his AI and their constant monitoring. For Shrew’s family, she was alerted and was moving back as fast as she could, but she was very far away at the time and she was unable to call New Phoenix due to the traitors in the Family Building jamming her calls directly. As for Alice, she requested to only have help called if it was likely for them to have succeeded in their plot, which Jynie calculated that they would not as you were alerted to the problem. As for why I alerted you all, it was both because I knew if something happened to them, you would want to know immediately, as well as them requesting help the moment the engines died.”

  “Alright. So it was a comedy of errors and traitors, all of which I'm sure won't happen again. Thank you, Synaptic.”

  “Anytime, Victor. Do you wish for me to remain? I can remain silent until you wish for me to chime in.” She asked, wiggling her tentacles.

  I thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “You're already here. Might as well stay.”

  Augustus looked at me with an eyebrow raised, but I simply shrugged my shoulders. “Very well.” He said, readjusting himself in his chair and swapping his legs. “Now, we were at the point where you were still in pursuit of the van. Would you like to continue from there, or jump ahead?”

  “I should continue, but the problem is I didn't feel much else other than relief that Jill was fine. Leman did exactly as he should have and protected her, and everyone was safe. My next burst of emotion was when I learned that Bestlé had launched their attack, and they had a column coming up the old I-Ten. I was… annoyed? Yeah. While Shrew had some bloodlust in her tone, I was just annoyed, yet also glad that I could end them now. No need to wait for the rest of the two month period, just a simple, overwhelming assault. From here, I felt some catharsis dealing with the PMC and their heavy armored vehicles. I blocked out the ground troops, as I don't take pleasure in such scenes of mass casualties. Then I spoke to the commander of the column and just grew more annoyed and frustrated because there was no chance for them to surrender.”

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  “And why is thst?” Augustus asked.

  “After years of interacting with so many PMCs, you learn to detect their types. How they tick, what they are willing to die for. And they were the worst type to deal with, the zealot types. Those who were raised within the company, for the company, and would die for the company. Can't reason with them, can't bribe them, can't threaten them, it's complete the mission or die trying. If I could have gotten a surrender order from them, I would have. But I know those types well enough.”

  Sighing, I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “There was a job some years back, where we had to infiltrate a tech workshop working on some fancy battery. We had to collect the prototype and any relevant files and get out. The prototype was guarded by this rabbit dog of a PMC, can't remember their name. But the moment we tripped an alarm, they came charging at us. We grabbed the lead engineer and tried to use him as a human shield, but those grunts still shot him to hell. Cody took a bullet to the arm as we fought our way to the security center, capturing the commander. We tried to force him to order a stand down order, but instead he activated a code Black.”

  I sit up slightly. “Ah, a Code Black is code for fight to the last and erase the building. Hearing that, we booked it, escaping the building just as it went up in flames. Buddy still has- no, I suppose he doesn't now, with the new skin and all. He had a burn scar on his back from a chunk of flaming brick slamming into his shoulder. He healed up well enough, but that was the mission that ingrained into us to always take out those kinds of PMCs the moment we discovered that they were guarding the mission objective.”

  “Hmm. A pragmatic approach, all things considered. Yet, I must ask this of you now. Do you still feel that his policy is wise?” Augustus leaned forward. “You are no longer in the same situation you once were, straddling the lines between life and death in combat between humans. Very few non-Samurai have the capability of hurting you and yours again, especially with all of your current gear. Does this not allow you any leeway in dealing with them in the future?”

  I had to think on that for a while. He's right that I no longer was forced to have to kill them all for survival. And going forward the amount of these types of PMCs we could encounter would drastically drop. And even If we did, unless they belonged to a Samurai, they couldn't hurt me or mine. But there was a small problem anyway.

  “As much as I agree with you, Augustus, it's not a policy I can change easily. While you are correct that I have the ability to capture them rather than just kill them, they have their own anti-capture methods that make sure they are unable to live long after.” I pull up the information on those captured in the park. "This is the vital information of those I captured before I knew they were zealots. See here that they all only had four injury points, one on each of their vital tendons to make sure that they couldn't move or fight back.” I then flick to their vitals an hour later. “And here you can see that they all flat-lined at the same time. The lucky part is that they didn't explode this time, which is a large concern with these types.” I lean back further. “I don't relish killing, never have. Yet it is a tool I am intimately familiar with. It is a tool that will never truly be able to be removed from my belt, just one I can hope to use less often.”

  Augustus sighed as he straightened up. “I understand. It is unfortunate, but understandable. There are many Samurai who have an aversion to killing, but there are just as many who have no qualms with taking human life. Just so long as you know that you have the ability to use other options. Now, from there the report mentioned that you fought with a number of biological aberrants, do you have any thoughts on them or the fight as a whole?”

  “I mean, the aberrant? Not really. They were unfortunate souls who more than likely didn't deserve such a fate as what they received, but the biggest worry was that they could have killed one of my commanders. They did explain to me that they couldn't die like this, as they could easily move back to our servers at home. And that helped me overcome that anxiety, the fear that I would lose a family member. It's a fear I have had for a long time, and I feel with this I have worked past it just a bit.”

  Augustus smiles brightly. “Very good, Victor. I am very proud of you for both recognizing this weakness of yours as well as beginning to work through it on your own. I do hope that you can keep this mindset as you progress through whatever new events your life leads you through. Now, on to the last part of the report. It says here you got into a small argument with Black Log and Shrew. Was this simply a case of frayed nerves, or something deeper?”

  “Sands, doc, you just keep moving.” I mumble, then I speak up. “Yeah, it was something a bit deeper. Shrew came out of left field, going from asking about my nanites to accusing me of aiding the mass murder of these gangers rioting in the city. And her hypocrisy bothered me greatly. Black Log also felt kinda off, but I will give him some slack as I had already chewed him out twice before, and he was asking for help, but Shrew just came off as inconsistent. I saw her as practical, no nonsense, yet she exploded on me for not offering my full support, dispatching everything I had. But I agreed with Bahamut in that all we needed to do was to offer support to those already on the field. After calling her out, I turned and left.”

  “Was there any validity to her side?”

  “Oh, sure. Of course there was. If she didn't snap at me, tried to convince me to offer more, I might have agreed. I don't know. But she didn't, she snapped at me, tried to shove her morality at me and force me to agree. I was tired and very hungry, plus my headache was still slightly there, so I snapped back and walked off. I don't regret my actions at the time, even if I wish it didn't happen.”

  Sighing, Augustus nodded in understanding. “I must agree with you, Victor. Vanguard Shrew is a fully mature woman while you yourself are still, technically, a child, no matter what the law says. She should have known better, so this action is regrettable. If Doma was here, I would have recommended for her to speak with Shrew, yet that is not available. I do hope you could talk with her at a later date, but I will understand if it takes some time for either of you to broach the subject. Now, we are approaching the end of our scheduled time, yet I know something good happened to you recently. If you would like, I could push our time a bit if you wish to discuss it. Otherwise, we could talk about it during our next appointment.”

  I could feel the corner of my mouth twitch into a smile. “Nah. We should talk about this next time. I have a feeling it will take a long time to go over everything.”

  I could see Synaptic nod in agreement. Cheeky eyeball.

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