Ask for forgiveness

“I used to really dislike Illyana. I didn’t like the demonic side of her, I thought she was just inviting demons and bad things into her life. Into all of our lives. But after what she did... I was wrong. She’s braver than I could’ve imagined. I’m glad she’s back. I’m-- I’m still apprehensive about the demonic stuff but... I want to know her better. And I would do anything for her. Our team is family.”

It almost seems impossible to think about Josiah starting school in a year or two. Sam doesn’t know where all the time went, and certainly was starting to feel quite old. “Ah know isn’t it? Before we know it mah boy will be a teenager. Ah don’t think ah’ll ever be ready for that day.” They grow up too fast, but these last four years have been GOOD ones. Josiah has been the happiest baby, and that’s all Sam could hope for. “Mah momma doesn’t like the city, but mah siblings do. They’re havin’ fun bein’ tourists. Ah wanna bring ‘em ta see th’ institute.”

“Aw, God. Dinnae e’en say thon. Josiah, a teenager? He’s juist a wain.” It was so hard to imagine him growing up. Hadn’t their team been just kids when they’d met? It didn’t feel like so long ago. “Yer maw knows what she likes. Nothin wrong wi’ that. But A’m glad yer siblings like it. New York is so big when you come from rural.” They might come from very different landscapes, but Rahne understood what it was like growing up in a quiet place, far from any big city. “A think that’d be lovely if ye did. Let them really have a look around.”

“You’re very welcome, Rahne.” Sam always polite, and it was nice having one of his friends around the institute. He was a professor here now which always felt amusing since there was a time when Sam was the student. “Ah know he’ll be starting school before ah know it.” The man laughs a bit while moving up the stairs carefully. “They are, yeah. It’s like a vacation for ‘em. One of our oldest friends is helping look after th’ farm animals while they’re here.  It’s the first time many of mah siblings seeing th’ city.”

Rahne liked teaching at the Institute. She’d been just assisting for a little while now, but slowly she seemed to be getting more to do. The Institute was the first home she’d really felt safe and happy in, and there was always someone around. “Gosh, that’s a scary thoucht. Wee Josiah i’ school?” Rahne had seen Josiah grow from a tiny baby to the now four year old boy. It all seemed so fast. She smiled warmly at the talk of Sam’s family. “A’m glad. Yer family is always guid tae us. How are they likin the city?”

There were a dozen different answers, but none of them quite felt right. They were skirting dangerously close to ‘what is the meaning of life,’ and there was never going to be a firm answer. There was no magic map on a wall somewhere, pick a pin and make it your life’s purpose. The truth was, if Kara had an answer, she would’ve fallen into it years ago. Her purpose had been join the Science Guild and join her family among the greatest scientists Krypton had ever known. Then it had been protect Kal. Then it had been…

There were no answers. Kara’s fingers drummed against the table between them as she tried to work through an answer that would never come. “I don’t know if there’s an answer for that.” She looked up, lips lifting in a half, lopsided smile. “I’ve always just– do you ever feel driven to do what’s right? By as many people as you can? Sometimes it’s all you can do. No big purpose, no big meaning, just…making sure you’re leaving this world better than how you found it. When that gets hard, I look to family, and friends, and R– and faith.”

Rahne didn’t know what the answers were. Maybe she never would. As Kara said, she didn’t know if there even was an answer. But Rahne still wondered. For a long time, her life really had been about survival. Surviving the Reverend, surviving his expectations of her, and following his rules to the letter. Surviving when the rest of their tiny village saw her as a monster to be destroyed. Until Moira rescued her, and brought her to America. To the X-Men.

It had been life changing in the best way possible. For the first time in her life, Rahne felt like she had a true family. Friends she could count on in ways she had never known. Rahne would do anything to protect that. And she’d been given more than that. “Yes! I do, all the time.” Doing right by as many people as she could, fighting for good. It pulled to her, and she was so glad to hear someone else voice it too. Especially when Kara also mentioned faith. Rahne’s face lit up. “My faith is a big part of it too,” she admitted.