You're not the victim anymore!
- Seraphina to John
This is the 210th chapter of unORDINARY.
Summary[]
All eyes in the room turn to Seraphina, shocked that she would stand up to John with no ability to defend herself. She walks over to Alden to help him up, but Zeke pins him down with his foot. He asks what she thinks she is doing, but to his surprise she looks him in the eye and tells him to move his foot. John tells Seraphina that she's talking out of line, and has no right to give orders to his people. Seraphina turns to John and tells him that the student needed to go to the infirmary after he was knocked out. John asserts that the injury was well-deserved. Seraphina inquires if John hurt the guy for trying to defend himself, and he angrily answers that he put out a decree that all who joined Safe House were his enemies. He was now enforcing that decree. Seraphina stands up and asks if her being here made her his enemy too. John accuses her of becoming his enemy long before that with her betrayal. Appalled, Seraphina demands that he ask himself who really betrayed who. Still unwilling to take any blame, he staunchly asserts that she was the traitor. Seraphina sighs and says that she can accept his scorn for her, but the other members shouldn't have to suffer his wrath. John disagrees on the grounds that every member was a a liar, abuser, and coward. Seraphina asks John how many of these supposed scumbags he actually recognizes. He handwaves the inquiry by saying he's seen enough cruelty for his denouncement to be justified. This Safe House was nothing more to him than a desperate attempt to escape from their just desserts, led by a bunch of Royal frauds. Seraphina brings up the fact that said Royals have done their part to try and address his legitimate grievances, but John is having none of it. As far as he's concerned, Seraphina's defense of those Royals only makes her as bad as they are, and he lists all of their abuses of power. Seraphina makes it clear that she hasn't forgotten, but counters with the atrocities John responded with. She asks when he'll finally be able to move on from seeking payback. John, refusing to see anyone besides himself as the victim, declares that no amount of suffering and appeasement will make up for what they've done. He fully commits to the thought that the Royals are only acting righteous in order to undermine the new authority that crushed them. Seraphina tries reminding him that he's the one who turned down their offers to cooperate, but he's quick to answer that they only did so out of fear of his power.
Though clearly realizing the futility of reason, Seraphina asks John if he'll ever see any form of altruism as anything other than fake. John asks why a Safe House wasn't established during his time as a cripple. Nearly choking on anger at the utterance of that lie, Seraphina shouts that there is a Safe House now. The Royals had learned from their mistakes a thousand times over. She asks if John wished for them to turn back time and start reforming earlier, so that he could continue to play pretend and run in fear from his own issues. This insult drives John to grab Seraphina and warn to watch what she says. Seraphina stands her ground, and continues her character assassination of her former best friend. She defiantly tells him he's not the victim anymore, and demands he tell her when he's going to start facing problems instead of blaming them on others. John crosses over into a raving state, blaming every hypocrite except himself as he prepares to slug Seraphina. But before he takes a swing, she grabs his wrist and looks him in the eyes. John flinches as the memory of the moment he knocked out Claire starts flooding back. During a moment of self-reflection, he wonders why things always seem to take a turn for the worst with him.
Blyke then bursts into the room, catching John completely off-guard. As soon as he sees Seraphina being menaced, the enraged Blyke blasts John out of the window and orders him to get lost. Despite this hasty exit, John managed to copy Blyke's ability and uses both it and Phase Shift to land unharmed. He looks back up to see Blyke standing at the window he went through, and the two stare each other down, in anticipation of a great and violent brawl.
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