You stand in the sterile, white visitation room beneath the Pentagon, the air humming with suppressed energy. The door hisses open, and Amanda steps inside, her expression a careful mask of concern and confusion. Donald’s voice echoes from the intercom, tinny and final: “Twenty minutes.”

She approaches the transparent barrier that separates you. “So… you’re speaking to me now?” she asks, her voice softer than you remember.

You lean forward, the cool surface of the table under your palms. “I’ve had time to reflect on our last visit,” you say, your voice steady, measured. “And I’ve realized there is a chance that you don’t know… that you were kept from the truth.”

Her brow furrows. “What are you talking about?”

“That you came to see me at all when I was first brought here… the fact that you brought him with you.” You let the name hang, unspoken, in the charged air. “Maybe you don’t know what a monster he is.”

“You mean Rex?” She shakes her head, a sad, dismissive gesture. “Me… you’re just confused.”

“Confused?!” The word cracks out of you, sharp as a whip. The careful control slips. “I grew up in hiding, being moved from place to place as I was being hunted down by what was left of Rex Robot’s regime. I watched as they slaughtered my mother… I was only a boy when I saw her die.”

Her face pales. “No, that’s impossible. I didn’t even know you existed. I never saw Zall after… your mother never told me she was pregnant. We were both surprised when you revealed yourself, remember? Rex didn’t know…”

You stare at her, this woman who shares your blood, who fought a tyrant and then fell back into his arms. A bitter laugh escapes you. “You actually believe him? Who are we talking about here? The man who conquered the Flaxan world, enslaved the Zaxal royals, and ruled my home with an iron fist… who drove you to rebel… drove you into my mother’s arms after you helped overthrow him? Or this innocent man you’ve fallen in love with all over again? Father, please,” you says, the title still strange on your tongue, meant to placate.

“They simply can’t be one and the same. You’re lying.”

“What reason would I have to do that?” Your voice drops to a raw whisper. “If you truly didn’t know… if he knew of my existence… and kept it from you… you’re as much a victim of him as any of us.”

For a moment, you see it—a flicker of doubt in her eyes. But it’s snuffed out by a defensive, hardened love. “No. You are a liar. You’re mad at me over a situation I had no control over… you’d say anything to hurt me… to hurt Rex.” She straightens, her voice gaining the fervor of a true believer. “Rex was overwhelmed with the burden of fixing your civilization. Your people were invading our world… getting stronger and stronger. You would have eventually taken over. What Rex… what we both sacrificed to save this world from your people… we can never get that back.”

You look at her, this hero who has known her own curses, her own transformations, and you feel a profound, aching sadness. Not anger, not anymore. Just loss. “Where he went… the things he did. Is that really something you come back from?”

Her jaw sets. The monster in the now adult woman’s heart, the one who turned into a monster to fight monsters, stares back at you, unwavering. “Rex lost himself… got carried away with changing your people… making them a peaceful people… he crossed a line or two along the way, but in the end… he gave all that up.” She stands, the chair scraping softly. The connection is severed. “This conversation is over.”

She turns and walks to the door without looking back. You don’t call after her. You just watch her go, the ghost of your mother’s smile and the echo of Robot’s cold logic hanging between you, a legacy of love and ruin you both inherited, but only one of you is willing to see.