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"What as like?" To some investment in the future" His voice took on a note like he wasmyself with hope But at the end of the day, I knohat I a I’iveness I simply don’t have any Not even for myself"

AFTER THAT FINAL door slarew oddly detached fro there fending off prying questions fro sessions they’d all been forced to attend since Yuri’s accident, Tos had sort of dissolved away for hi like Wyatt, and he wasn’toff any associations hat happened like Vik To forward

After the loss of all his friends, and his future, it sees had finally become normal Tom knehat it was to feel rootless He knehat it was to have nothing ahead of hi he’d dreaded had finally come to pass, but it wasn’t some sharp shock to the syste over everything That other person--the Tom Raines as the Doctor of Doom with Vik, who helped Wyatt understand other people, who marveled at any new superhuer he’d encountered in passing, already gone

To poker with Walton Covner and some of the older trainees He still was an efficient killer in siers, but he didn’t play VR galoves sometimes, out of habit, but he never put them on They made his chest feel hollow

He wasn’t unhappy As soon as it grew co to be able to change Blackburn’s et into Obsidian Corp’s systems--as soon as he realized there was no hope--he was finally able to accept a cold, hard truth about life: the world rewarded sociopaths like Vengerov and destroyed good people like Yuri

Tom finally understood why his father saw humanity as worthless It was hard to see uys alon

Maybe this was sirow up

TOM WAS FINISHING up the silent lunch with Wyatt when Heather approached their table He felt her hand ski today in Applied Scrilanced back at her "Huh Great"

"I’e how sonited Heather’s interest in hi at hi way that would’ve floored hihten his collar or tousle his hair, or stuff like that He wasn’t sure what to think of it, so he didn’t bother ht me one-on-one later, won’t you?" Heather said with a wink

"Yeah" He shrugged "Why not"

"Wonderful" She tickled his neck with her fingertips, to his great confusion, and swayed away from the table She hadn’t said a word to Wyatt, not even one of those fake syed in preparation for proxying Elliot at Capitol Summit this year A victory there or even a close loss would assure her an official end to her disgrace and a true shot at front man of CamCo next year That seeh above all the others Tom didn’t particularly care At least she left Wyatt alone now

"Well, I’ve gotta go to Scries," Tom told Wyatt He thrust himself to his feet "Later"

He didn’t wait to see whether she’d acknowledge it He knew she wouldn’t