***I'll be busy tomorrow, so here's the next chapter.***
The last hum of the printing press faded under the low murmur of city traffic. The office lights of Insight glowed soft gold, warm against the cool blue of the night outside. Peter sat at his desk, Felicia still perched across his lap, her fingers idly tracing circles on his sleeve. The world beyond that moment felt far away—no villains, no breakups, no masks. Just them, laughing quietly about Alison's teasing photograph.
Felicia smiled, brushing her thumb over his collarbone. "You know, Peter, if that photo ends up on the front page, I'm suing."
Peter chuckled. "For what? Emotional damages?"
"For privacy invasion, obviously. Can't have the whole city knowing you're irresistible to me."
He was about to quip back when the bell on the doors dinged.
Felicia froze. Peter straightened.
And then Ethan walked in.
His expression didn't falter, not even for a heartbeat. His eyes took in the scene—Felicia on Peter's lap, their guilty, startled faces—and without breaking stride, he simply said, "Good to see the staff enjoying themselves."
Peter blinked. "Ethan—what are you doing here?"
"Visiting," Ethan said mildly, hands clasped behind his back. "I was in the area, I saw the lights."
Felicia stood, brushing imaginary dust from her pants, trying to recover her usual confidence. "You've got a talent for showing up right when things are interesting."
"I try." Ethan's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Thought I'd stop by, see how my favorite editor-in-chief and our most talented thief-turned-head of security were doing."
Peter cleared his throat. "If you'd told me, I'd have brought you along."
Ethan shrugged. "I had a few things to take care of on my own, besides, I needed a walk. It's fine."
Something about the way he said it—the tone so calm, so practiced—made Peter's unease stir again. Ethan always sounded like he was narrating a plan. When he sounded like this, it usually meant troubling times ahead from experience.
Felicia sat on the edge of the desk, crossing her legs. "So, to what do we owe this late-night intrusion?"
Ethan took a seat opposite them, folding one ankle over his knee, perfectly poised. "Can it really be called an intrusion if I technically also work here, not that I'm ever here. Relax, I'm here to talk."
Peter tilted his head. "About?"
Ethan's gaze flicked between them. "Did you tell her about Leah? Or about I.M.A.G.I.N.E.?"
Felicia frowned. "Leah? Imagine?"
Peter rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly sheepish. "Not yet. We were kind of… distracted."
Ethan's mouth curved faintly, but there was something almost wistful behind it. "Understandable. Still, it's relevant to both of you." He leaned forward slightly, his voice softening. "Leah's situation caused me to think of a new plan of sorts. I guess she reminded me of myself at some point."
Felicia's teasing expression faded. Ethan rarely referenced the personal, and when he did, it felt like a thin crack in an otherwise perfect wall.
"What about her?" Peter asked quietly.
Ethan moved past them toward the small meeting alcove—a glass-walled room with a whiteboard bolted to one wall. "Come in. Easier to show than explain. She inspired me. Or rather, she made me think. You can save people in the moment. We just need to make more moments."
The door clicked shut behind them. Ethan turned on a single overhead light; it cast the room in a pale cone of illumination. He picked up a marker, uncapped it with a flick.
On the board, he wrote one word in precise black strokes:
I.M.A.G.I.N.E.
He turned it toward them. "Isaac Maddox Aid for Growth, Initiative, Nurture & Empowerment."
Felicia raised an eyebrow. "You already made an acronym? Catchy."
"I believe in branding, and it is catchy," Ethan replied smoothly.
Ethan's voice shifted—still calm, but carrying a subtle current of conviction that made every syllable sound deliberate. "This will be a nonprofit conglomerate. A foundation for abandoned and at-risk youth. We'll give them what the city can't: shelter, education, mentorship… and a chance to rebuild themselves."
Felicia's lips curved into a skeptical half-smile. "That sounds almost too good to be true. What's the catch?"
"There's no catch, and if it sounds too good to be true, then let's just make it true," Ethan said simply.
He began to outline it, his tone precise, methodical. Peter realized he'd rehearsed this—maybe not aloud, but in thought, for hours. It wasn't just an idea. It was a full-on plan. Ethan started writing it out.
"Then you'll understand soon enough. I've been developing the structure—a foundation, technically, but built like an organism. Self-sustaining, immune to corruption, and rooted in community aid."
Felicia smirked. "You're talking about charity like it's a hostile takeover."
Ethan smiled faintly. "Because it should be. Every good deed dies in committee. You want results? You build control into the kindness. Most problems in the world could be fixed by a tyrant or dictator, it's just that they're also corrupt, which causes them to make more of a mess."
He turned back to the board and began sketching a network: circles connected by straight lines. "Each circle represents a node—a self-contained division under the I.M.A.G.I.N.E. umbrella. They coordinate, but they don't depend on each other. If one fails, the rest can adapt."
Peter crossed his arms, leaning against the wall. "You've been planning this for a while."
"Since we last met."
Felicia blinked. "Wait… you drew all that in a few hours?"
"I'm smart," Ethan said. "And I read too. That helps."
Ethan turned back to the board and drew a quick diagram — a simple pyramid with "Charity" written at the top, and three blocks below it labeled Food, Shelter, and Medical Aid.
"This," he said, tapping the marker against the triangle, "is the most common model for community aid. Feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the wounded."
He stepped aside and underlined the words once. "It works for a time. But look closer."
He drew a thin red line cutting through the base. "This model bleeds resources. It depends on donations, government partnerships, and moral willpower — all of which fluctuate with the news cycle. When the story dies, so does the support."
Felicia tilted her head, half-interested, half-suspicious. "So what? You're saying compassion has a short shelf life?"
"I'm saying compassion without infrastructure will eventually collapse." Ethan erased the top half of the triangle with quick strokes. "Every good idea dies because it's built on guilt or pity, not growth. You can't shame people into sustainability."
He wrote in large black letters across the board:
I.M.A.G.I.N.E.
Then below it, he added the four pillars:
Shelters. Homes. Academy. Futures.
"This," he said quietly, "is my correction."
He circled each word in turn, his tone sharpening with each explanation.
Shelters
He pointed to the first. "Urban hubs. Hybrid designs—modular shelters integrated with medical clinics and digital infrastructure for tracking aid distribution. No corruption. No black-market resale of supplies. Everything logged, verified, and secure."
Peter nodded slowly, absorbing it.
Ethan continued, his voice crisp and deliberate. "Think of it as a living system. Each shelter can function independently but syncs to a central database for oversight. If someone steals food meant for the homeless, we know where it went, when, and who signed for it."
Felicia gave a low whistle. "You make kindness sound like a business."
"Efficiency," Ethan corrected without looking up. "Kindness is only sustainable when you make it efficient."
Homes
He drew another cluster on the board, smaller circles branching from the first. "I.M.A.G.I.N.E. Homes. Micro-orphanages—twenty to thirty children maximum per location. Staffed with vetted caretakers, psychologists, and live-in mentors. No overcrowding, no state neglect."
Felicia's skepticism softened, just a little. "That's actually… kind of beautiful."
Ethan didn't react. "Every adoption is followed up two random visits a month. Every household will be thoroughly vetted and monitored. Not because I distrust people, but because I understand them."
He wrote another note under it: "Stewardship, not charity."
Peter stepped forward slightly, voice quiet. "That's what makes this different. You're trying to change how people think about responsibility."
Ethan turned to him, eyes sharp. "Exactly. We can't save everyone, Peter. But we can build systems that don't let the next generation fall in the same holes the previous ones did."
For a second, his mask slipped—a flicker of something personal beneath the calm. But it was gone before either of them could read it.
Academy
Ethan moved to the next heading. "Education is the spine. Traditional academics fused with applied science, engineering, ethics, and civic design. The goal is comprehension and gaining skills. So it will behave as a sort of trade school."
He paced slightly as he talked, gesturing with the marker like a conductor's baton. "A student doesn't just learn to fix a circuit. They learn why a circuit fails. They don't just study history—they study power, cause, and consequence."
Felicia smiled faintly. "You're describing yourself."
Ethan paused, smirking. "Then maybe the world needs more of me."
Peter couldn't help but laugh quietly while Felcia scoffed.
Futures
Finally, he drew a large box around the word and underlined it twice. "This is the exit strategy. Scholarships, internships, professional mentorships. We funnel the brightest minds where they'll thrive."
He drew two arrows branching off from the box and labeled them: INSIGHT and NEOCORE SYSTEMS.
Ethan continued, "I'm hoping Insight will become a gateway for media and ethics. NeoCore, the hub for science and technology. We can give these kids direction and connection—the two things they lacked growing up."
Felicia tilted her head. "That sounds almost personal."
He glanced back at her, expression unreadable. "Everything worth building is."
The board now looked like an organism—lines connecting ideas, divisions pulsing outward like veins. Ethan capped the marker and set it down, stepping back to admire the structure.
"This," he said quietly, "is how you stop the world from collapsing under its own neglect. We focus on one problem and fix it."
Felicia leaned against the table, her voice softer now. "It's a beautiful dream, Ethan. So what do you get out of it?"
He turned toward her, smiling as if she'd asked his favorite question. "Nothing."
"Yeah, sure."
"Then you should look harder," he said lightly. "And tell me when you find it. Because if there's something to gain, I'd like to know too."
Peter spoke up, trying to ground the tension. "It doesn't matter what he gets out of it. This would help a lot of kids—kids like Leah. That's what matters."
Ethan's gaze flicked to Peter—steady, calm, unreadable. "Exactly."
He turned back to the board and began erasing it with slow, deliberate strokes. The sound of felt against glass filled the silence.
As he set the eraser down, Ethan said, "Speaking of Leah—she needs a hospital. When you talked to her before, I observed her condition. I believe she has early-stage liver and kidney failure. Likely malnutrition, maybe infection or two."
Peter's head snapped up. "What? You're sure?"
"The yellow tint in her eyes, the swelling at the joints. It's obvious." Ethan's tone was clinical, detached. "If she gets treatment immediately, she'll most likely recover. I'll handle the expense. Just make sure she's taken in tomorrow morning."
Peter's face was a mix of alarm and gratitude. "Ethan, that's… thank you."
"No thanks necessary," Ethan replied softly. "We can't save the world just yet, but we can start by saving one child now, can't we?"
Felicia studied him for a long moment, her gaze narrowing slightly. "So why didn't you tell Peter this before when both of you were near the child?"
He looked at her, the faintest shadow flickering behind his eyes. "You might not believe it, but it slipped my mind at the time."
And just like that, the mask returned.
"Bullshit. This just proves you've got another angle." Said Felicia, glaring at Ethan for clearly manipulating her and Peter.
Ethan watched her, expression unreadable, one calm exhaled before he capped the markers. "I'll send the finalized plan tomorrow. Peter, you'll handle the hospital trip. I'll start establishing funding pipelines."
Peter nodded. "Got it."
"Good." Ethan started for the door, then paused with one hand on the handle. "You two make a good team. Try not to ruin it. I'm honestly rooting for you."
The door closed behind him.
For a while, neither of them spoke. The whiteboard still glowed faintly under the light, the last traces of Ethan's handwriting ghosted across it.
Felicia finally sighed. "You trust him too easily."
Peter rubbed the back of his neck. "He's complicated. But I'd like to believe he's trying to do something good."
Felicia smirked faintly. "Or something big that just looks good on the surface."
Peter smiled tiredly. "Sometimes those two things are the same thing. If it can really help, then it's worth a shot."
They looked toward the board again—its white surface now blank, but somehow still full of his presence.