You Might Never Get to Go Home

Scene from: "Sodality" (season 5)
Made with: "The Sims 3: Into the Future"

BACKGROUND
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An already-scared 13-year-old Tabby finally got the one thing she desired most at that point: a chance to see her mom again.  There was so much for the two of them to talk about.  Tabby could barely hold back the tears when it came time to confess just how in-deep she was. 

Hea: "They know me here.  And they know the Beliah Amendments are rubbish.  So...they're making things as comfortable for me as possible right now."

Tabby: "Mom!  The plan didn't work!  I...I had to improvise!"

Hea: "The plan did work, dearest!  They won't pursue John as long as we're vouching for him from in here!"

Tabby: "I attempted to sell the Pusher's Ruby, so I wouldn't be caught by Icy Finger with it!  The pawn shop owner thought it was stolen!  He called me a terrorist!"

Hea paused for a second in shock.  The plan was for Tabby to get caught loitering, and face a misdemeanor at worst.  But pawning Marlquaanite rubies in shopping malls was a pretty serious felony under the Kirby Act.  Hea completely understood why Tabby would do what she did; but this was not the sort of thing SCALLOP could negotiate down significantly.  Tabby was looking at two years minimum in juvie, provided she didn't commit any additional offenses. 

Hea leaned in.  This moment of truth was all too familiar to her.  It was the same moment of truth experience she herself had when she had to reveal her pregnancy to her mother Dae Pang all those years ago.  Out to prove she was nothing like her mother, Hea let it be known just how unconditional her love for her daughter was. 

Hea: "I will always love you.  And so will God, even if it doesn't feel like it!  Never forget that!  But the state...they won't forgive easily what you did.  I'll get out of here in a few months.  Maybe some house arrest, but whatever.  They know to handle me with kid gloves, lest John have reason to take vengeance.  But our lives have been forever altered.  Team Gray will rise again, sweetie.  But we can't pretend it'll be the same dynamic as before.  Our every move will be under watch now. 

The Statists, those stupid neo-nazis!  They will be watching.  They hate what we stand for; and will find any excuse to send us back to prison!  At least, they will be watching me.  I'm getting too old for these fighting games; and I don't wanna run anymore.  You will have to pick up the torch for me at some point.  But realize, it could be a while before you're out.  And your old way of life is gone.  Forever.  The good girl is in you.  Never lose sight of that.  But the world will never see you or treat you that way again.  To them, you're just another young felon.  They will treat you like that.  Possibly the rest of your life.  It breaks my heart to see you turning into Maid Marian; but this broken system has given us little choice!"

Hea could barely hold back the sobbing.  It was Tabby's cue that it was okay to cry.  The one consolation both mother and daughter had was that at least they'd be incarcerated amongst friends they could trust.  That is, Hea would be.  Hea would be thrown in with the rest of the Sodality, for as long as it took to have the state make a final decision on the fate of the Beliah Amendments.  If SCALLOP's legal team succeeded, the amendments would be repealed.  The Phexos, Marlquaanites, and their relatives who had committed no other crimes would be paroled and sent home.  But if the Beliah Amendments were upheld, every member of the Sodality faced the possibility of life in prison.

Tabby would stay in the SCALLOP Juvenile Containment Center for the duration of the Beliah Amendment hearings.  Once a decision had been made, however, she'd be transferred to a state system to answer for her crimes - where anything could happen.

Hea: "I put you up to this, to protect John.  Because of that...it will be at least 8 years before I can let you live in my house with me.  Terms and conditions of release if I'm paroled.  I just didn't expect it to go this far.  Dear, I'm so thankful you didn't get the book thrown at you!  These sharks...they'd've put you away for life!"

Tabby: "If the Icy Finger got me, Mom, I'd be dead anyway.  Sarah Ruben from the Sneakernet Underground is one cell away from me.  She says I should join them when I get out.  She saved her professor from the fascists running Arkansas now.  He will live to teach again.   But she got herself captured.  If not for her inactive Leaper DNA, she'd be in the state system by now."

Hea breathed heavily.  Tabby would not believe what her mother was about to say.

Hea: "This is gonna break both our hearts.  I know the Sneakernet Underground is horribly misunderstood.  They're good kids, good men.  Navyrope Foundation's legacy at work.  But the wicked in power have beaten them.  Robbed them.  Reduced many of them to rags.  They now look like homeless gang-bangers.  And are treated worse.  I will support you and them any way I can.  I want to help.  But I can't provide lodging.  I'm not allowed to provide you a home.  A family.  Keep your faith lenses on.  But otherwise, go with Sarah.  She will be your sister."

Hea bowed her head, tears streaming from her eyes as she finished her thought:

Hea:  "That, Tabby, is your family now."

Tabby: "I will do it.  I love you mom!  No matter what happens!  If only dad were..."

Hea: "It'd make no difference!"

Guard: "Time's up!"

The women hugged one last time.  They would try to establish contact as often as possible; but it was clear to Tabby that going home was no longer an option.  She'd have to make her own in the world once she got out.  It'd be terrifying, but it was her calling.  Fortunately, she now had a "sister" in Sarah, willing to show her the way.  The minute the news media broadcast that story about her arrest at the pawn shop, the Tabby that everyone knew at the homeschooling association died. 

The new, hardcore Tabitha Pang of the Sneakernet Underground, was about to be born.  These new heroes would have to operate from the alleyways and shadows, looking as trashed as some of the gang-banging scum they would protect the public from, even as they fought a war of a different kind to liberate education from state monopolization.  They would do the work that the Navyrope Foundation and Sodality of Gerosha were too high-profile to carry out.  The Sodality's wars were almost over.  The Sneakernetters' war had only begun.  The second generation would soon have to take up the torch, once one of their soon-to-be leaders was finished serving her sentence.  The first generation was spent.

Hea: "I'm ready."

Tabby: "I'll return to my cell now."

Hea was returned to the SCALLOP Women's Containment Center.  The guard escorted Tabby, gently this time, back to her cell.  Sarah asked Tabby through the window between their cells for confirmation that Hea would cooperate with Sarah's scheme.

Sarah: "So...you get your mom's blessing to join the club?"

Tabby: "Yes.  I'm in."

AFTERMATH
============

Unfortunately for Tabby, the SCALLOP Juvenile Center would come under attack.  The Icy Finger would make a point of showing they were more powerful than SCALLOP.  They blew a huge hole open and walked into the building, killing guards in a total slaughter.  With some quick thinking, Tabby was able to save Frank, Tobias, Sarah, Jordan Sterlie, and herself.  But to do so, she had to have them ambush and beat up an Icy Finger operative.  She had her friends steal the keys from him while she used his gun to cover their escape, and the kids made off in the goon's car. 

From homeschooled symbol of purity incarnate to a gang leader in only a month.  Tabby was convinced the Hand of God was at play in a very strange way.  Otherwise, she was most assuredly on the Highway to Hell.  She would get five-year-old Frank to a safe place, where his freedom could be negotiated for.  Jordan, only 8, could also be negotiated and vouched freedom, given the circumstances.  They were young kids, but survived a holocaust.  The Icy Finger used poison gas to kill almost every single child in the Juvenile Containment Center. 

However, Tabby was facing the threat of additional charges of armed assault and grand theft auto.  It would earn her an additional year, resulting in her spending a total of three years behind bars.  The whole time, she and Sarah were a team.  But after SCALLOP's system was compromised, the girls knew they had little choice.  To vouch for Jordan and Frank's release; Tabby, Sarah, and Tobias would have to turn themselves in to the state and reveal everything.  Fortunately for them, the family they ran to for help was willing to clean them up and get them prepared to surrender themselves properly.  Rick Thambings was like a grandfather to Tabby in short order - and a good thing too, since John Domeck was in Italy and could no longer fulfill that role.