Annette Hebert considered herself to be a woman of principles, she took her ideals, her morals, and…somewhat fluid scruples and used them to forge her own destiny. In her youth she had participated in multiple feminist rallies, joined Lustrum's cause, had been directly involved with disbanding and firebombing several brothels "utilizing coerced customer service representatives," and had backed up Marquis Marche out of the understanding that there were far worse monsters than him in the wings.

There was a reason Lustrum had appointed her to be one of her most trusted lieutenants after all.

Of course the land of milk and honey had to end when several of their sisters decided to start dismembering random men for…reasons? She had never quite figured out what the hell their end goal had been but if past experiences were anything to go by it was likely unreachable and or idiotic.

Of course while Lustrum was scratching her head trying to figure out what the hell her followers were doing, the "Heroes" had to fuck everything up to the point that if she ever met Carol Dallon in person again she would shoot the bitch in the face out of spite if nothing else.

The Brockton Bay Brigade violated the very spirit of the unwritten rules and attacked Marques in his home and he fucking owned the bastards up until that bitch Brandish nearly murdered his seven year old daughter. This of course forced him to surrender because unlike the bitch threatening to gut a little girl he had a conscience and surrendered in exchange for a promise of his daughter's safety.

The heroes rejoiced, Lavere was unmasked and sent to the Birdcage, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Except those idiots who had violated the unwritten rules had unmasked themselves as they patted themselves on the back for a job well done, and renamed themselves New Wave.

Then the fucking obvious happened and one of their number was shot to death by Nazis the following day.

Oh my, who could have possibly seen that coming?

Annette had tried, seriously tried to adopt Amelia after all of this but once again Carol, the total bitch that she was, insisted she take her in, once again for reasons despite her obvious disdain for the child. Thankfully the courts had instead awarded custody to her sister, who all told was actually a fairly likable person. Annette discretely donated some money to the child's upkeep and unlike how her sister would react; Sarah accepted the handout with exhausted grace.

If one were to question Annette's perpetual hate-on for Carol Dallon, they had obviously never had to do business with the woman.

Regardless, when Lustrum was thrown into the Birdcage, an action that had baffled many considering while she had never condemned her follower's actions, she had also never condoned them, Annette had pretty much given up on the government making rational decisions in relation to capes.

All that being said, when her precious little girl had approached her with that infernal crystal cube and shown off her new telekinesis abilities and precognition Annette did not quite know what to do.

She decided to be supportive, and after several hours of questions with this 'Revan' she began realizing that there was really nothing she could do to stop her daughter's journey.

Oh how she wanted to, more than anything really, her baby walking the streets of this dying city all on her own? To hell with that, she was Taylor's mother and she would insist she stayed home where it was safe, but what could she do to stop her from leaving, really?

It ended up that simply bargaining with her little girl kept her in place, she had no method of defending herself, she was vulnerable, what would she and Danny do if something happened to her?

All logical, successful arguments that had kept her daughter at bay for nearly five years, then Taylor knocked on her door, entered her office, and extended her hand holding a metal rod forward.

"Mom, look, I did it! I can protect myself now!"

With a snap hiss both ends of the rod ignited in amethyst light, and Annette felt her heart drop as she stared at her jubilant little girl with trepidation.

"Oh…little owl…."