Felicity ran to her brother''s side and reached up to try and pull him free.  When her efforts proved futile she turned to glare at John, her pretty face twisted with rage.


    “Put him down you freak,” she snarled.


    “Felix, be calm.  Please?” John asked, ignoring the woman for a moment.  Felix, still able to move his head, spat to one side.


    “I won’t attack you.  It would be pointless, right?  If you want me dead there’s nothing I can do without my power.”  John lowered Felix to the ground.


    “Was that telekinesis?” asked Flash.


    “Kind of.  My old power is most familiar and easiest to use but I can kind of… enforce my will on the material world to an extent," John replied.


    “So we can all change our powers?” asked Evie with wide eyes.


    “Kind of.  Whatever you’re used to from the system will always be more natural.  The Essence got twisted and limited when it was stolen from Outside,” John answered his daughter.  “It kind of locks it into certain forms but you can work around that.”


    “How can we level up?” asked Sam.  “If we quit the system, how do we get stronger?”


    “You will have to grow,” John replied.


    “Feck off Sassenach.  Speak plainly,” snapped Reg.


    “It’s like… changing your understanding.  The Concepts that were stolen get sort of merged when you give back the Essence, creating a new being.  As it grows you grow, and vice versa.”


    “You’re a mystic now?” asked Vic.


    “Not quite but it’s more about… living.  It’s a lot less artificial than what we’ve gotten used to,” John replied, risking a gentle smile at his wife.  She didn’t reciprocate but her thoughtful expression gave him a little hope that his remaining time wouldn’t be filled with recrimination.  He’d made his decision back when he was lost in the vision of the Outside and if that was part of the price he had to pay: so be it.


    “You’ve robbed us of our faith!” snarled Felicity, having assured herself Felix wasn’t hurt she now turned her ire back on John who stood alone, his friends ringed around him accusingly.


    “I’ve given you a new one.  A truer one,” John snapped back.  “You weren’t wrong that there is something divine in the System.  It was a corruption of the divine.  The divine was enslaved.  If you take the interfaces you’ll understand!”


    “The interfaces?” asked Felix.  John held up his hand that was now surrounded by a nimbus of pink sparks.


    “These.  They contain all the Essence you’d received.  It’s been fused into a new Concept.  All you have to do is touch it and you’ll be able to see,” John said softly.


    “You have met the gods.  How can you do this?” whispered Felicity as she stared at the lumpy nodules in John’s palm.


    “I’ve met them.  I’ll meet them again but on different terms.  They aren’t gods.  I know that’s hard to grasp.  Sometime, so long ago the numbers are meaningless, they somehow found a way to trap Concepts from Outside.  That eventually grew into the System.  They aren’t gods, they’re running the universe like a Latifundia.  Felicity, Felix-” he looked them both in the eyes, “-please trust me.  I’ve never lied to you.”


    “About anything significant, perhaps,” muttered Felix.  The twins shared a look.  Something  unspoken flashed between them.


    “If I might interject?” said Colin from a projection that sprang up on the wall.  The twins turned to glare at it.  “Easy!  All I’m saying is would you rather free humanity and the shreds of my kind that are used to empower you from endless servitude and found a symbiotic relationship based on mutual respect or would you like to remain a slave?  If you accept the interface no one will be able to take your power from you again,” Colin added.


    “What about the rest of you?  Will you give up your levels?” asked Felix.  There was a general shuffling of feet and humming and hawing until Zeeg stepped towards John.


    “I will join you John-Dad,” she said simply.  John smiled and reached out to join the bridge to his dog for a moment.  She shrank back down to her old size, her shoulder only coming to just above his knees and she sagged to the ground.


    John felt the Essence flowing into his left palm this time.  Having benefited from the experience of converting the twins'' powers and only having to create a single interface this time the process went much faster.  His eyes flared purple, making the others look away for a moment and as they faded he strode over to his loyal, if badly trained dog and pressed his left hand to the top of her head.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Zeeg remained unconscious for thirty seconds which seemed to drag by and last an hour.  Soon she stirred and rose back to her feet.  She was still her old size but as she shook herself out pink and purple sparks ignited around her.


    “This is strange.  My companion is… pleased?”  She became invisible, then reappeared and walked down into the metal of the floor.  She emerged besides John like a swimmer coming up for breath and shook herself out from nose to tail.  “This is good.  It seems the unspent Essence was also returned to my companion?” the dog asked.


    “Yes.  You’d be the equivalent of a level ninety two now but your power is much more versatile,” John replied.


    “So I see.”  Zeeg reached out and snatched Reg up into the air, spinning him around like a top.  He screeched and cursed the dog.


    “My power!” he snarled.  “Why can’t I fly anymore?”


    “I blocked you.  This has some advantages over the old system!” said the dog as she released the grumpy old man.  He wobbled in the air for a second then stabilised and began grumbling about the best ways to introduce Zeeg to a Korean chef.  Zeeg walked through the air to stand in front of him and nuzzled her head against his left hand.  “Apologies, Reg.”


    “Not forgiven!” Reg snapped, rising higher and away from the suddenly dangerous seeming dog.  Zeeg shrugged and walked back to John.


    “I’ll take the interface,” said Felix suddenly.  “Perhaps we were right to call you Saint all those years ago?”  John looked at him and through him but he couldn’t see any deception in the man.  Felicity grabbed Felix’s arm to stop him moving forward and he turned to look her in the face.  “It seems our faith may not have been entirely misplaced, sister,” he said simply.  Felicity stepped back and Felix approached John cautiously.


    Felix extended a single digit and delicately brushed it against one of the devices in John’s right hand.  It dissolved into his fingertip and Felix staggered back, eyes wide as purple and pink sparks swirled around him.  Felicity rushed forwards and grabbed her brother but she bounced off and couldn’t move him.


    “It’s ok, Fliss.  It’s bizarre but it’s true.  We were eaters of the dead.  The Concepts… John has somehow brought them back to life!” said Felix in a wondrous voice.  Felicity leapt toward John and slapped her hand down over his still outstretched palm.  Purple sparks began to orbit her as well.


    “Welcome to the fight.  It won’t be easy and it will be a long time before we can have true peace but this is the first step along the right path,” said John.


    “You’re a messiah now?” asked Vic.


    “He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!” laughed Evie.  “Ok Dad, do the purple spark thing for me!”  He reached out and she sagged as her power left her.  He leapt forward and caught her before she hit the ground and pressed a finger to her temple, transferring the new interface to her.  It truly did get easier the more he used his new powers.


    “We need to talk,” Vic said, glaring at John.  He let Evie settle to the ground, gentling her fall as she stared in wonder at the swirling lights around her.


    “Ok.” John turned to the rest of the team.  “If any of you want to do this today just hang fire and we can sort it out later,” he said.


    John and Vic moved away from the team, some of whom began to talk excitedly while others voiced concerns in worried tones.  As they moved away the babble fell into the background.  Once it was just murmurs from halfway across the cavernous hold Vic turned to face him.


    “This is what you’ve been hiding?” she asked.


    “Some of it,” John confirmed.


    “What’s the downside?” Vic questioned.


    “It puts us at war with both the Void and the Alliance.  We’ll become a third power.”


    “And how is that a good thing?” Vic demanded.  “Christ, John!  How does this affect Ryn and everyone else back on Earth?”


    “It won’t until we get there.  We’ll be attacked enroute.  Voidliners are diverting to intercept us already.  We’ll have to destroy several of them over the next few months.”


    “And we can do that?” she demanded.


    “Nope.  But Colin can.  He- it will get us back to Earth in one piece,” John offered.


    “And then?  Will you have to do the power-stripping thing to everyone?”


    “It won’t just be me,” John said.


    “There’s still millions of us left alive.  Not counting the crazies they kept away from the off world colonies.  How?”


    “How what?”  he asked.


    “How will you do that thing, whatever the fuck it is you did to the twins, Zeeg and Evie to so many people?”


    “I need to… It’s complicated but I can do it.”


    “Without hurting yourself?” she asked sharply.


    “Yes.”  It wasn’t a lie.  It wouldn’t hurt.  Vic looked him up and down for a moment then pulled him into a hug.


    “I feel like I’m losing you!” she whispered into his ear.


    “I’ll always be around.”  Again, if things worked out as he’d seen in his transcendence, this wasn’t a lie.


    “What will it mean for the kids?” she asked, pulling back and looking into his empty sockets.


    “It will give them a chance.  The wars they fight won’t be Noh theatre where it’s just the same side wearing different masks and with a bit of luck they’ll be able to establish some places where they can leave in real peace.


    “You saw the future?” she asked.


    “Some of it.  I had to forget a lot of what I saw to become more like myself again.”


    “I’m sorry.  I didn’t understand.  I still don’t if I’m honest.”  She raised a hand to his cheek and pulled her body close to his.  “You saved me all those years ago from the rats.  We’ve been together in some sense or another since then.  I don’t want to lose you.”


    “I don’t want to lose you either love.”  John had a feeling this was the best of the many possible futures he’d seen, as least as far his relationship with Vic was concerned.  A worm of fear ran through him as he pondered if this timeline being optimal in this way meant other aspects of their future would be less than ideal.


    Their old friend Katie had talked about time and fate in an overly familiar way.  She’d understood it could be changed but that there was an inertia to it and changing course always came at a cost.  He wished she had survived.  If he had been able to unlock the Essence she had filtered and refined humanity would have had access to an oracle of unprecedented foresight.  The assholes masquerading as gods would have been well and truly fucked in that case.


    He pulled Vic close and wished he could still cry.  The emotion boiled in his chest but couldn’t find a physical manifestation.


    “Want me to do you now?” he asked before a blush suffused his cheeks and neck.  Vic laughed, deep and throaty in a way he hadn’t heard in what felt like forever.


    “Maybe we should save that for tonight,” she chuckled.  “You can make me an interface though if you like?”