Concerning Abernathy And Indefinable Loyalty 

Mun Note: This is something I have a bad habit of discussing on Discord / via IM without actually setting it down properly, but it is an integral aspect of who Abernathy is and how he operates. It also ties into why he is so determined to find Graves in his verses, so I’ve delved into that a little more deeply as well. This ties into his CoG verse so fair warning on spoilers.

Abernathy has a very strict sense of morality – when it comes to what is right and what is wrong he knows exactly where his stances are and would not hesitate to answer any questions on that score. He believes firmly in maintaining his own integrity, as it is one of the few things he considers to be genuinely respectable about himself. 

Despite this, Abernathy will compromise himself on account of his loyalties without really thinking about it. When he throws his focus into doing whatever it takes for someone who has his loyalty, there is no questioning in his mind about how moral his actions are. He doesn’t think outside of himself and the needs of that person – when he does, it is usually on account of what that person might think or feel about the lengths he has gone to. 

Abernathy is not someone who is familiar with being liked or even particularly cared about. He has developed a conscious acceptance of the fact he will always be someone who is easily overlooked or traded in for a more impressive model and he has made that his shield. There is power in being underestimated and overlooked, and Abernathy has built his life around these concepts – even his war contributions were done in shadows. As a scout and a sniper his job was never on the front lines – he was the man in the belltower, the comrade sneaking through the bushes – but he was never the one giving orders, he wasn’t charismatic and he never took or even wanted the limelight. 

So when Abernathy thinks about what someone might feel about his actions – if the biggest drawback he can find is that they might hate him – that they might not ever forgive or understand what he did – it doesn’t deter him. He is used to operating in the zone of the annoying cousin, the unwanted sibling, the diligent but otherwise unremarkable coworker – having the displeasure of someone he has gone to great lengths for doesn’t upset him or hold him back because he never expects more in life. He doesn’t do these things for praise, for recognition or even for gratitude. He does them because in his heart, in his very bones he knows that he has to. 

Abernathy can’t put it into words – he can’t explain where his loyalty comes from, why its so dogged or even why he will go so far as to cripple himself and expect nothing in return – all he knows is he has always been the one to make the sacrifice play and in truth if he was forced to address it, it’s because he values the people he is fighting for so much more than he does himself. He sees himself as a small price to pay for a better person – and that’s why when someone has won his loyalty he will throw away everything he stands for without thought. It’s what comes naturally, after all. 

The reason this is so important to understand is Abernathy was never close to Percival Graves. They were not on good terms or even bad ones – they were coworkers in adjacent departments who addressed one another civilly when the situation called for it. There was nothing in their relationship that would drive Abernathy to set himself in the line of fire for Graves under normal circumstances.

When Graves was revealed to have been overtaken and impersonated for who fucking knew how long, things changed. MACUSA buried Graves and celebrated the capture of Grindelwald as though that was the end of it and it set Abernathy off. His loyalty has always been bound to his brother – and the fate of Graves had enough similarities to shift his stance on the man from neutral to loyal – and the moment that happened, right and wrong when it came to finding Graves went out the window. 

If pressed, he would say he was motivated by guilt. That it was shame that drove him to do what he did, because it is easier to put into words than to say loyalty drove him to serve Grindelwald, to mutilate himself in Grindelwald’s name, to stay in the shadow of a maniac and destroy his own career for a man who barely acknowledged his existence. Even to himself, it doesn’t make sense sometimes – but at the end of the day Abernathy doesn’t have space for regret in his actions. He is prepared for the punishments and the fallouts, as the only outcome he will not accept, is the idea that they have all failed a man who never once failed them.