[h1][center][color=b71d5d]Andy[/color] & [Color=00ffff]Vicky[/color][/center][/h1]
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Andy heard that Vicky was at C.A.G.E. At first she didn’t think anything of it. Then she found out what it stood for and she found herself shaking. She closed her eyes and tried to not think about her own past with Northwood. That place had been a hellscape. They had been power suppressed with crude collars. Getting out of there had been one of the best days of her life. She had gotten free. This place was what she feared most in the world and knowing it was around caused her stomach to cramp. 

It took a day, but Andy decided that she was going to talk to Victoria. She’d walk into that hated, horrible place and tell Victoria that her actions would not be held against her. Andy actually appreciated it. So she made her way there and asked to have a visit with Victoria. 

[I]“You’re popular, miss van Dyne. You have another visitor.”[/i] One of the nurses said as she delivered the message to her room. Victoria chuckled in response. [Color=00ffff]“Clearly you don’t know me very well. I wasn’t expecting anyone, who dropped by?”[/color]

On her way to the visiting lounge, Victoria was truly baffled. Out of everyone on the list… Andy Drummond wasn’t even on the list! [B]Edward Arca[/b] was on the list, perhaps coming to apologize or gloat! Vicky’s head was all over the place as she neared the room. Did she change her mind about the events in the Framework? She wasn’t feeling like Victoria needed more assurances, was she?

Shaking her head, she willed herself to focus. No sense worrying about it when the answer to the questions was sitting a few paces away. She turned the corner and stepped into the lounge. [Color=00ffff]”Miss Drummond? I must say, though not unwelcome, this is a surprise. I do not mind a social visit, although I hope you don’t hold it against me if I ask what brought this up?”[/color] Victoria greeted and asked, moving to sit down by the table.

Andy’s skin itched and she felt a little sluggish, a side effect of the whole place being basically one big power dampener. At least Victoria wasn’t collared. She smiled as Victoria came in, joining her at the table. [color=b71d5d]"Hi. I, uh, well I wanted to talk to you. I know I told you that I didn’t blame you. And that is still very true. I’ve been in a position where I didn’t have control over myself. Something else had control. I don’t know what happened while I was away, because I went somewhere else.”[/color] Andy caught herself going off on a tangent. 

[color=b71d5d]"Anyway, that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because even though I know you blame yourself for killing me, it got me out of the Framework. It gave me the chance to help Zari and then the rest of the group.”[/color] It also had given her the satisfaction of beating the shit out of Usagi. [color=b71d5d]"We often do things that we don’t consider the consequences of those actions. We just go through life doing whatever we want. Sometimes we find out the consequences quickly and they are negative. Other times, we may not even realize that there were consequences. I don’t think we should live our lives completely focused on what the consequences may or may not be, it’s important, but can’t be our only focus or we would get stuck in some serious decision paralysis and fatigue.”[/color] Andy paused again, realizing she was going off tangent again. [color=b71d5d]"Sorry, I’ll try to get to my point. In this situation, the consequences of those actions did not negatively affect me. In fact, as far as I’m concerned it was a net positive. I don’t know what all you’ve got going on, but I wanted to make it clear that I do not blame you at all for what happened. Zari doesn’t blame you either. Being controlled does not put any guilt upon you for possible negative consequences of what happened.”[/color] She nodded, satisfied. 

It felt like it took all of her dampened attention to follow, but Victoria managed. Smiling, she raised her hands as if wanting to slow the verbal machine gun. [Color=00ffff]”Thank you. You didn’t have to take the trip here to tell me that again, though. I agree that what happened was a lucky occurrence. I mean, we know of at least one version of events where things didn’t end up as well.”[/color]

She sighed, looking at her hands, [color=00ffff]”I’ll admit, I respect you a lot for not being even a little bit bitter about it. I don’t think I would have been so forgiving in your place, even if I wouldn’t have perhaps acted on it. Heh. That and I don’t know many others who can lay Leah out in one move. But it doesn’t change the fact that I, a supercomputer with legs, got outplayed by a wouldbe villain, whom I let hide under my nose, on a team I led. Me being here has nothing to do with blaming myself, so you can put that thought to rest.”[/color]

She looked back up, her spirits lifted a little none the less. [Color=00ffff]”I went here to get help growing more resilient against such interference in the future. Well, that and I have some mommy issues, apparently. It’s something between parapsychology and coding on the spectrum, but next time, I want to be able to get us out in the first place. Then, perhaps, I may be happy with the outcome.”[/color] Given that Andy seemed to have the need to further reassure her, Vicky opted not to tell her about the whole self-shutdown attempt.

Andy smiled. She was glad that Victoria was getting help. Not just for the Arcade stuff but more things. [color=b71d5d]"I think some form of parental issues are near universal. Parents, even if they aren’t in our lives, seem designed to fuck us up. I lived most of my life without any clue who my mom was, and finding out was, uh, well almost apocalyptic.[/color] If and when the group found out the whole truth about Andy it would be best to be as honest as possible leading up to that. And calling meeting her mom for the first time nearly apocalyptic was the truth through and through. 

[color=b71d5d]"If you want, if you need, I can ask Zari to help with the code stuff? She loves to do that sort of thing.”[/color] Andy was nearly computer illiterate. She had no idea how to do more than the basic programs like Word, and even that was a bit of a nightmare and she seemed to always have a headache after. However, she liked to listen to Zari talk, so she had some idea that at least Zari could help. And since Victoria hadn’t permanently killed Andy, Zari would be more willing to help. Also, if it helped prevent something like that from happening again Zari would definitely help. Though, Andy would expect just the chance to do some coding would be enough to make Zari want to do it. She wouldn’t think through all of the other stuff. 

Andy rubbed her arms, under her jacket they felt numb a little. Like when the limb had fallen asleep but the pins and needles hadn’t started tingling just yet. [color=b71d5d]"Anyway, I’ll head out soon unless you want to chat longer. I’m glad you’re getting help. Everyone needs help sometimes.”[/color] She smiled. [color=b71d5d]"When I first met Zari she was trying to do some things alone. If she had done it by herself she probably would have failed. It required help from a big group of people. I was also alone. Trying to do everything by myself. But I met Zari and a bunch of other people and we saved the world, twice. I could not have done that alone.”[/color] 

[Color=00ffff]”Well, my mother put a failsafe in me which is what Arcade used to control me, and unknowingly almost unleashed Ultron upon the world again, so, in the range of apocalyptic? Not that that is something I wish to be a contest.”[/color] Victoria shuddered.

She looked aside with a sheepish smile. [Color=00ffff]”Weeellll… I don’t think me and your significant other work too well. I mean, I did call upon her once in this manner, but I would hesitate to call it anything more than an alliance of convenience. She didn’t take well to how I led our team, I may have blown up on her a few times for how she went about expressing her disapproval, and… I don’t know if that is a bridge that can be rebuilt.”

“And besides, she may do too good of a job and make me immune even to herself. Part of why I am okay leaving that bridge burnt is that I need to know there’s people that [i]can[/i] bring me down if I go rogue, and having those people not be on friendly terms with me makes that decision easier for them.”[/color] she huffed. This wasn’t a topic she wanted to discuss. Definitely not after whatever the thing with April was. Leave well enough alone.

[Color=00ffff]”If you’d like to talk outside of here sometime though, I’d like that.”[/color] she smiled, [color=00ffff]”You got to tell me where you got that jacket at least, it looks amazing. But I’ll let you off from here, Dorian mentioned that the dampeners don’t feel right.”[/color] She got up, a thought entering her head. [Color=00ffff]”That said, I believe this may be the one place where I may shake your hand?”[/color] she offered her right.

Andy doubted that Zari would ever be [i]friends[/i] with Victoria, so she wasn’t worried about any bridges being mended. She smiled and shook Victoria’s hand. [color=b71d5d]"You’re right. It is probably the safest anyone has ever been around me since I was eight.”[/color] Minus her own time at Northwood. 

[color=b71d5d]"Unfortunately, the jacket was a gift from Ash Drummond, she’s who I take part of my name from. Without her I wouldn’t be here. I would have frozen in Rochester, New York before meeting Zari. But she died many years ago. I believe she got it from a thrift store in upstate New York, that’s all I could tell you.”[/color] Andy’s smile was gone as she spoke about Ash, her voice soft. When was the last time she had said her name out loud? How many years total? How many months relatively? Had it been a full year relatively even?

[color=b71d5d]"As for this place, I feel slow. I feel like the world has sped up and I can’t keep up. And I’m used to a hum of electricity inside and out of me. There is none here. It’d be like suddenly losing your hearing.”[/color] She stood up. [color=b71d5d]"I’ll see you back at school.”[/color]

Seeing Andy’s face droop, Vicky didn’t dig deeper into the family history and simply nodded. [Color=00ffff]”I guess I’ve had practice when I was pretending to be human. It doesn’t really bother me, I’ve lived like this for over two years. Well, take care. And thanks for coming by.”[/color]