Essere Orgoglioso

Jude had been helping from the first moment he was able to. He'd helped set up the whole area. He'd helped organize. He'd done pretty much everything he was allowed to do, and then been sent off to get food so he didn't pass out from exhaustion.

He didn't get exhausted, he told them, but they'd sent him anyway.

He'd returned to speak to Clarence not long before the portal had opened, the great many-armed god seeming to tear a hole in the fabric of reality. And then, like it was any other day, they'd come. There were hundreds of them, and almost all of them were unfamiliar faces. A few he picked out, furiously waving as people were shuffled along. Requin. Miss Thompson. Finch. Someone he was pretty sure was Doctor Trevor, but it was hard to tell at a distance. They were all people he should have been approaching. People he should have been waiting for. And instead he stood, handing out bottles of water to people as they came through, and waited.

Because no matter what he told himself, he was waiting. He was waiting to see if his father would come through. He hadn't asked Clarence because he'd been afraid of the answer he might get, but there was nothing to do but wait and hope.

And then, out of nowhere, he could feel it. He could feel Adraxis as they passed through the portal.

Adraxis wouldn't have come alone.

Jude, no! Came Giltenn's voice that wasn't a voice, but Jude was already off, cutting through the crowd as he headed for the portal. He didn't need to see him. He just needed to feel him, just needed-

Jude's knees hit the ground. The pain was intense--the second strongest pain he'd ever felt--but momentary. After a second, it was gone, even if his head was still spinning, feeling a sudden and intense sense of loss.

Giltenn was gone. Jude tried to push himself upright and missed, tipping as he tried to brace himself with a hand that wasn't there. His arm simply dead ended at the elbow, the shining silver still there, but the gauntlet--the original form of Giltenn--had gone. Jude didn't know where they'd gone, but they could guess, and that was something he was going to have to deal with another time.

He shoved himself to his feet with his good hand, trying desperately to spot Basilio among the crowd.

He was easy to spot. He was easy to find. And Jude desperately tried to close the distance.

Basilio, in a lot of ways, hit him like a ton of bricks. Physically--because he was just going and he just lifted him and suddenly he was off the ground, being crushed into a hug--but also emotionally.

His dad was there. He was alive, and he was there, and he was whole and intact and alive.

Jude cried. His fingers tangled into Basilio's shirt, his face buried in Basilio's shoulder, and he cried. Every tear he'd bottled up since the world had begun to end, every sob and moment of misery and every repressed emotion.

Basilio was there. Things were going to be okay, and nothing mattered as much as the fact that his dad was there.

"Dad," Jude croaked after a few minutes, trying to pull himself together enough to talk. "I'm okay. I'm - I'm fine. I'm happy you're here."

He looked exhausted. No, more than that. He looked like he'd just escaped a dying world, fleeing for his life with the clothes on his back and little more. Jude felt like it was a loss just letting him go, but looking at him was good too. Looking at him, Jude burned the memory of his father into his brain again. It had been a long, long time. Longer than just the evacuation for him. He hadn't spoken with his father since before he'd lost his arm. Since before he'd lost his home.

"Just Clarence. Diadem," Jude said. "They're still trying to locate the others. Clarence arrived on the island three days ago, and was in New York - like their version of Halcyon - a few days before that. Clarence helped open the portal. We didn't want to leave it too long, but we also... well, it's a mess."

Jude was fairly good at getting things straight to the point, which was a point in his favor considering the whole mess.

"They'll handle things," Jude said. "Manta Carlos will. They're... this isn't the first time, for sure. That they've done something like this. It's different here." He'd said as much in his letter, but only in very, very brief.

Truth be told, Jude didn't really want him to help. He wanted to sit down and talk with him. He wanted to introduce him to everyone, to show him his room, to tell him all the things he'd missed.

But regardless of what he wanted, his dad was right. It was a mess. People were going to need help.

"They have manpower," Jude said. "Organization is probably the best. Keeping people moving." His dad was good at handling people. Jude knew that much. "Help get people out of the portal. They're going to register everyone. Pictures and names. And then they're going to sort people. Keeping people moving out of the way of the portal so we can get everyone out."

Jude glanced over his shoulder, eyes scanning the volunteers.

"I know some of the people helping, and the guy handling security for the police."

See where he was most needed. It was going to have to happen at some point, and truthfully? Jude suspected the island had things mostly handled. They'd done it before. This wasn't the first mass evacuation, and it wouldn't be the last most likely.

"Come on," Jude said, nodding towards the far side. "The Manta Carlos police sent out some officers for crowd control. They don't expect any trouble, so it's pretty lowkey."

There were a few officers hanging around the edges, mostly handy in case anyone came through who was going to need a null bracelet slapped on. No one seemed to be starting trouble, but there was no telling, right?

And, of course, there was Angelo. Other Angelo, talking with another officer to the side and helping coordinate at least part of what was going on. When he spotted Jude, he glanced over, his eyebrows furrowing together as he noticed Jude's distinct lack of arm.

And then, of course, he noticed Basilio.

He was awfully hard not to notice.

"This is Basilio," Jude said, handling introductions. "I figured I should introduce you two now, rather than later."