Deep down, I’ve always known that this would happen. Kindness would always demand action. And he had it in spades.

Perhaps pursuing him was a mistake. Perhaps following the orders left by an indifferent whatever was madness. Perhaps deluding myself that my presence would... would what?

Perhaps I could have stopped… Right. Because of how well that turned out before. Perhaps. Perhaps I don't know anymore.

It was incredibly easy to track him. The few good things that happened in this miserable ball of mud and misery were almost always not their doing. Ours.

A child healer here. Healed hundreds and caused the death of thousands.

A charismatic preacher there. Spurred a revolution that toppled the monsters ruling them, replacing one family with thousands of warlords.

A vision somewhere. A whisper of mercy here or a song of liberation there. Sometimes the math made sense, often, no. But then again, wasn't it always a numbers game?

Or he wasn’t really hiding. I found him sitting inside a worn house deep in the woods. Expectant with a bright smile. The same one he wore after telling me how kind and beautiful Mother was a long time ago.

"You came."

"I did."

"I was waiting for them to send you."

"You know why I'm here."

He stood up and tended to the fire. It was almost comforting.

"We can still fix this." Lie.

“I know what it must have felt in that moment..." Lie.

“If you'll only go back with me, we can appeal--" Lie.

His eyes. Last time I saw them like this... Jericho, when the walls fell.

"You don't understand."

"Make me, then."

His eyes shifted, so small a movement anyone, even one of us, would miss it. But I have known him for millennia. Guilt, guilt, guilt. It always comes back to that.