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Time elapses. Rewind is allowed to leave her prison—er, hospital room. She needs to go around on a wheelchair, and it'll still take at least a month for her bones to mend completely, and she needs help to move around and do stuff. But she definitely won't complain about being able to eat real food more often (she is very thankful for the bot bringing her takeout), and she can keep riding along with paramedics even when she can't really move around a lot.
And one of these days, while she's in an ambulance, something lands on it, rocking the vehicle and startling her from her thoughts. The ambulance stops, and whatever it is makes noises as if it's moving and then jumps off it. Rewind twists to see through the window, and—
"Console, a really weird leafy monkey just jumped on the ambulance and then off it," she says into her comm.
"...did you resent me for presenting boy or enby more often than girl around you when I was trying to win you over?"
"I was always free to tell you to shoo. I am not, meaningfully, free to quit the Wards till I graduate; they take a very dim view of that and I couldn't get a budget without going villain or at least Toybox until I was eighteen anyway."
"That's fair. But well, what's a year? Especially with such delightful company as myself. I'm pretty sure me they're going to hold for the full extra six months."
"Yeah, me they're not expecting to split, they might actually let me go when I have my birthday on the assumption that I'll just join right up like Dad... It's not intolerable or anything. Just chafes sometimes."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I might just stay around anyway, for a while at least, to be around you and because Branding is actually good at its job."
"I'm pretty sure they won't let me go just like that. Even if officially I've left, they'll probably keep tabs on me. And increased surveillance is something I, in particular, would not like to be the target of."
"In part, yes. But also because, well, I've seen other heroes' faces, so have you, they're not exactly known to be super reasonable and nice to us while we're on the team, it would be totally in character for them to do that kind of thing even to you."
"I'm hoping that Dad and the obvious conflict of interest it would be for me to work against the Protectorate will help me there, but you don't have such a direct connection..."
"Maybe. It depends on whether I'll actually decide to leave, it's not horrible and having contact to people to whom I can mention the Siberian is a definite plus for the saving-the-world plan."
"Mm." Glance at Charlie, who is in the next room addressing remaining dishes in the aftermath of the board game.
Sadde has totally been taking the parents into account and has been pretty silent in the relevant parts, but: "Maybe we should go to your room?"
Up he trots after her. When in her room: "Anyway, yeah, I've actually been thinking about staying in the Protectorate because of. Those reasons."
"I don't really have a strong opinion. Although if the Protectorate decides they don't want me freelancing with them your field effectiveness is going to be way down sans bots."