Arnold stepped out of the portal thinking, how quickly sometimes love can be turned to hate. How easy it is to let the negative emotions swallow you and pour acid into your soul. How easy it was to give in to hatred.
He thought about how he fought for the good memories, fought against an entire guild just because they dared to lay a finger on his sister. How he fought to keep himself empathic even as every terrible thing he had predicted came true. All his struggles and pain came back to hit him in the face. He kept thinking about the reasons to be kind to Nicole or anyone in that regard, but this time he couldn't find any, he felt hurt in a way he had never been hurt before, not even a Wyvern's attack hurt as close as Nicole's words did to him.
All this negativity bothered him in a way nothing ever had, 'I need to calm myself down.'
A single thought was going through his mind as he stepped into the bathroom and began washing his face rigorously, he looked at himself in the mirror, his eyes that were once filled with so much purpose and determination was now replaced with bitterness and hate.
'This is not who I am... I need to focus...'
At that moment his communicator started blowing up with text and messages for Nicole and Nina, he read one of the texts from Nina.
<You both need to talk... or at least, please call me!>
Arnold kept staring blankly at the communicator as if it was the weirdest thing he had ever seen.
He calmly picked up the communicator and quickly typed a message before sending it to Nina.
<I don't think there's much taking to do, and even if there is I don't think that either of us is in a position to do so. I'll text you when I'm in a better place and ready to talk.>
A reply came almost instantly but he wasn't going to indulge her anymore. He knew she wasn't at fault but he didn't care, he had already said what he wanted to say there was nothing left for him to say to anyone.
'Looks like living in luxury and gaining so much power got to her head... just like it did with me.'
He gave an awkward smile looking at his reflection, thinking about the time at the Malibu Club when he took an act of petty revenge on one of the guys from his former guild because he was acting cocky around him.
'Man, was I stupid.'
He was slowly calming down but the constant ringing of his communicator was pissing him off, so he switched it off and left it in the washroom. He wiped his face and got out of the bathroom, only to be greeted by Alice.
Ever since the incident with Amanda, Arnold had given a selected few of his summons a free reign to move around the base so that they could help him in maintaining order and worry less about the base in his absence. Alice was one of them along with Talos, Duke, Cerberus, and around 50 other summons while the rest of them still lived inside his domain to provide help and assistance during his shenanigans in the swamps if he needed them to.
Arnold looked at her sitting innocently on his bed. His fight with Nicole and Amanda made him self-reflect on his own actions, making him realise that he wasn't much different than Amanda. While she used the mental powers to manipulate everyone, Arnold used the powers given to him by his domain to do more or less the same thing. So he decided to do something, something which he should've done a long time ago.
He bowed down to her and apologised.
He apologised for the way he had treated her. He apologised for unnecessary hate he poured over her. He apologised for the hardships she had to go through, all because of Amanda and Devon. He knew it wasn't his fault but somehow he felt obliged to do so after all, it was because of him and his family that she had to associate herself with Devon and in the end his perception about her was wrong.
Yes, she was wrong for doing what he did, but it was because of her father and fiance and for that he would never forgive her, but she was indeed innocent in the recent affairs with the church and everything, as Amanda herself admitted that she had been controlling her throughout the duration of the plan, just like Allen. He forgave Allen... well not exactly, but still, Allen's willingness to give his life for him was a step in that direction. He was his 'blood brother' after all. Now Arnold thought, it was his turn to settle his differences with Alice.
The moment Arnold started blurting out his apologies, Alice started apologising as well. Her eyes were filled with tears, something Arnold thought wasn't possible for his 'summons' to do. Alice admitted that she too had misunderstood Arnold, of course, he had killed her fiance, but it wasn't his fault. Jake attacked him first and all Arnold did was to save his family, just like she was trying to protect hers. After all the apologising, they say down and talked about the old times.
"You were more troublesome than anyone among us!" Alice smirked.
"Not gonna lie, I was. But it was because of how everyone treated me back then!"
They chatted like friends who met each other after being apart for decades. The room was filled with laughter and Arnold finally got some peace of mind after talking with Alice. He felt like he was slowly turning back to his usual self, but not entirely... he still didn't want to talk to anyone else especially not to Nicole.
Wherever he remembered what she said it made his mood go down in an instant, he needed time to let him heal himself but in the meanwhile, he decided to cut contact with Nicole and focus on developing the Alpha Base along with zone 4.
Allen and Talos came in moments after Alice left, as usual, to give him the report about the day.
"You're right on time guys." Arnold greeted them with a smile.
"What wrong? You look weird..." Allen looked sideways at Talos who shrugged his shoulders, subconsciously imitating Arnold. Arnold never smiled like this to greet them.
"Nothing's wrong just some family drama," Arnold sighed, "Anyways you two, I've got a job for you."
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