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Everyone thought about the wasteland warriors when imagining their apocalypse plans, so people assumed Sabine was the person to keep around. She was a fighter, a shooter, and a tactician. Sabine knew that you wanted people who could keep people fed (like Pippa) or alive (like AJ) so she knew who she'd be calling when the s*** hit the fan. "Please, every dystopia story has to have its plucky main character."

Slipping on the sturdy gardening gloves, Sabine grabbed her gardening tool and dug the blade into the soil, heaving a sizeable pile from the bag and into one of the larger pots. "Trust me, I don't envy you, and I'm the one who ends up in front of the mic half the time." Shoveling was going to be her workout for the evening, but Sabine was enjoying the wholesome labor. It was a change of pace doing something domestic. "I know you won the... dirt lottery when it comes to this job, but if it makes a difference, I've liked having you around. Totally selfish, I know," she added in a more playful, overdramatic tone. Sabine was allowed to be selfish in this one regard.

Working behind a desk so much, Sabine found fewer oportunities to flex some of her well-trained skills. Sure, she was a competent fighter and a good shot, but those were rarely if ever the focus of her fieldwork. Sabine trained as an actress in college before settling on her career path, and playing a role was something that came naturally to the agent. There were tragically few reasons to "play a role" behind her desk beyond pretending to be a person with more authority than she actually carried.

This seemed like a situation where Sabine could be helpful to AJ and have some fun. Keep those acting muscles engaged, as it were.

And lucky for her, AJ chose B, an option so far removed from Sabine's current life, she would jump at the chance to ham it up.

"AJ, you jerk!" she called out, stepping hastily onto the restaurant patio. She had to keep her volume controlled enough not to actually get AJ kicked out or have the cops called on her. As much as she would enjoy shouting at her deadbeat ex, her lament had to be more public-friendly. "I can't believe you're already out and about, like we never happened."

Riling up a sense for drama, Sabine felt the sting in the corner of her eye. Oh, if she could get herself to cry on command, this would be her best moment of 2021. She just had to keep pushing. "Well, I hope you're having fun," Sabine spat out, grabbing the back of an unused chair and leaning over it for support. "And I hope this one doesn't mind being a step-mother, AJ. Because I'm. Late."

Whatever the root cause of the persistent attacks on Sabine, her assailants were laying low as of late. She wondered if the lull in her impending doom was connected to the emergence of a "magic cult," but Sabine was just glad she could walk the city with her default levels of caution and paranoia. You never shook your training, but you could let go of some tension and grab a bite to eat.

Sabine tapped her foot impatiently, standing beside the entrance to the restaurant when she finally received a text.



Fucking Kristoff. Not that she envied him; for all the responsibility Sabine had thrust on her shoulders, Kristoff was the one high on the food chain dealing with bureaucracy as the primary focus of his job. Sorry SOB. That did not mean she would spare him grief for cancelling on her or insinuating their meet-up was a date.

Rolling her eyes, Sabine looked through her phone. She was still hungry and she could eat alone, but there were other options. She could text Sveta and make it a business dinner with her number one frenemy. Of course, if she really wanted to enjoy dinner, maybe Pippa was available...

>> "Then why are you here, if you don't want to date?"

Dealing with people the way Sabine did, remembering faces and voices became necessary talents. That voice around the corner was familiar. Side-stepping toward the corner of the restaurant's brick wall, she peeked her head around the corner and confirmed it: AJ, Pippa's kind, brave, and (admittedly) handsome friend was sitting at the outdoor patio. What's more, he was clearly on a date. (With not Pippa, she also could not help but note.)

Ever the observer, the body language of the pair screamed everything she needed to know. The woman was needy to the point of physical clinginess. She was demanding attention, and AJ's tension said he was not keen on being wrapped in her embrace. If he was less of a gentleman, he probably would have jumped out of his seat, but leaving a bad date politely was next to impossible.

Not without help, at least. Grabbing her cell phone, Sabine found AJ's number, claimed after the baseball incident. He was a witness and a major part of Sabine still breathing, so they exchanged numbers in case there was some follow-up on what happened. Now she could, in a small way, pay him back by saving him in his time of need. Typing out a very fast text, she hit send and kept an eye on the scene from her spot around the corner.



Sabine waited for a response to get in the right headspace, but once she was there, she finally turned the corner and approached the outdoor table. "AJ??"

Sabine was not good at being herself; for a long time, she struggled to identify what "herself" was. With so much of her time spent mirroring people around her, Sabine fell into a struggle with her own identity apart from the people interacting with her. She hoped the real her was some semblance of who she was with Pippa tonight. It felt easy being like this; casual, but vulnerable.

Admitting she knew her doppelganger opened Pippa for bemused questioning. "She's a stage actress. Small roles, but she seems to be doing fine. Funny enough, that was a possible career I looked into in University." Her unique educational path gave Sabine a breadth of career path options, and life would have been wildly different if she had not been called by a desire to prevent tragedies like what happened with her mother. She could have been living in the Village, performing off-Broadway, likely still in her own world.

And if she did that, maybe she would have kept the burden of her biases. There was no telling what paths a life could take, except for her doppelganger, whose mother never died, keeping her in Canada. "She might have seen me. I'm not going to bother her, but I'm sure if she was really curious about me, she'd reach out." Sabine was annoyingly reachable thanks to SUPER.

Both Sabines lived lives semi-publicly, but it made sense for Pippa not to cross paths with her AV self. Given that Pippa's relationship with SUPER, reaching out to this Pippa would have been a degree of visibility not worth the risk. It was not Sabine's place to air out details of Pippa's doppelganger if neither Pippa pursued that on their own. "Whoever she was, I'm guessing she was passionate and trying to do good. Some things feel universal." In the AV, Pippa was labeled an extremist, but she lived in an extreme world. Sabine was learning to view the struggles of those vocal protests in the context of what mutants in her world went through.

"Speaking of doing good, I imagine your garden is still hoping for some love. Maybe I can lend a hand?" Even with a glass of wine, she had a free hand for a trowel.

In hindsight, Sabine was glad her dark humor missed the mark. Pippa did not know how bad SUPER used to be. Aggressive recruitment was a PR-friendly way to refer to an unpleasant past of coercing and sometimes kidnapping high-value targets. It was better for Pippa not to deal with the burden of past sins she was not involved with.

Pippa may not know the full extent, but there were stories. There was time to see what that universe was like, and Sabine was morbidly curious. She did not want to drag down the mood, but Sabine was investigative by nature. Pippa supposedly kept her interactions with Sabine's homeworld to a minimum; for the best.

Sabine was the one who existed with her front foot in one world and her back foot in an alternate past. "There's a lot to adjust to," she admitted. "The Yankees are pretty good here, which is cool. I had to relearn my commute, but the streets make more sense here. That's neat. Oh, but I had a go-to beer brand, Winsbrew, and nothing has tasted quite right here."

Sipping her drink, Sabine thought back to things she would not see again. "I never got to say sorry to my mom. I should have pulled in all my favors to transfer her over. She would have gotten better care here. I probably wouldn't be unlearning so many awful beliefs if that rift could have opened up sooner. You're meeting me at my best, honestly, not that it's saying much," the agent joked, but it did not reach her eyes.

She was putting it mildly. AJ was flying by the seat of his pants at the stadium, but he showed himself to be cool under pressure and willing to put himself on the line to protect people. In Sabine's book, those were signs of a good egg. "He's a good man. I'm glad SUPER's better than it was, or someone would be aggressively recruiting him." It was possible that could have happened, even in a kinder, gentler SUPER, so Sabine elected not to report sightings of an Adapted. AJ had not recognized himself as such anyway, so she was barely covering it up.

Sabine noticed Pippa's signature gloves, recognizing how much of her life must have involved protecting herself from anything with a history. Sabine had plenty of history, but they never discussed if skin-to-skin contact triggered her mutation. Unimportant, but it came to Sabine's mind.

"I wish you'd all stop saying I'm heading things up," she muttered into her drink, taking a big, annoyed sip. She was not in charge, but with her seniority and workload, it felt like it. "But I know what you're saying. SUPER has some nefarious origins, and I was unfortunately part of that," she lamented, thinking of how different she was in the other world. Her world, though it stopped feeling like that long ago. Sabine lived moment-to-moment, and her moments happened here now.

Sabine smiled, the regret keeping it from reaching her eyes. "I'm glad you never saw it like that. Saw me like that." Of course, Sabine was assuming, but inter-dimensional tourism was common before the rift closed. "Did you ever visit the other side? See how the broken half lived?"

Despite expecting a sarcastic quip from Pippa, the impromptu hostess said nothing, making Sabine's pause seem pregnant and awkward. Well, assuming really did make an ass of you and me. Well, mostly Sabine.

Seeking confirmation that she wasn't a burden or an unwelcome presence, Sabine was left wanting with Pippa instead getting caught up in the innocuous appreciation of Pippa building Sabine's social profile from nothing.

Confused, Sabine's patience was rewarded. Rarely did Sabine put herself in positions she was not prepared for. The risk of failure felt high and she wasn't actually sure what success meant here. "I understand. I get antsy when left to my own devices." she didn't forgo her vacations, but by the end of them, she was always itching to get back to work and keep her hands busy.

The mention of AJ dropping through the ceiling bright that story back to mind. Sabine had failed to consider the, by all accounts, handsome paramedic. "There are only so many good men in the world. I don't think you question when one falls into your lap." Oh, why did that thought sit funny in her stomach. "Does he drop in often? Figuratively. Considering you're, well, you, I'm lucky I didn't barge in on you and company." Pippa had the right energy to be a social butterfly. Though Sabine didn't hear about many friends outside of AJ and Haven, come to think of it...