Chapter 14.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said in a whispering tone.

“I know,” I answered simply and smiled into his jacket before pulling away, “So I’m assuming you and Fintan didn’t just come here to make sure we made up.”

“No, I came to tell you something and Fintan volunteered to bring me since the house is being watched.”

“So?” I tugged at the edges of his jacket absentmindedly, “Are we going to break up again?”

He put his hands on either side of my face, “Yes,” he murmured, “Lydia I wanted to tell you that I’m joining the Ministry.”

“Warren you can’t.”

“I have to. I’m going to work with them until I can bring down the whole organization. Those-”

I put a hand to his mouth, “But I can help you,” I tugged again and looked down as my voice cracked, “Let me help you.”

“I’m not going to be my father,” his jaw clenched in determination, “I’m not going to let them hurt you or anyone else because of me,” one hand pushed the hair away from my face roughly, “Don’t you see?”

I tried not to pull away from him. “Yeah,” I finally answered, knowing he wouldn’t be swayed by anything I said.

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Fintan’s going to help…he’s been working as a double agent with the Ministry since before my father joined.”

Fintan cleared his throat and entered the kitchen with his sunglasses hanging from his front pocket, “I’ll do my best to take care of him Lydia.”

I couldn’t argue with that statement. If Warren was Fintan’s father than Fintan’s very existence depended on how well he could take care of him. Warren meanwhile looked disgruntled at the statement, surmising that we thought he needed a babysitter.

“I know,” I answered quickly and managed to pull away from Warren this time, “You guys should go before my dad and Shyla come home.”

Warren nodded but Fintan stepped forward, “Lydia, I’m taking you somewhere tomorrow so be ready.”

I furrowed my brow and didn’t reply. This guy didn’t realize when he was on thin ice with someone apparently. Of course, it would be kind of pointless to blame that on his parents.

I was suddenly enveloped in another embrace from Warren. He burrowed into my hair and inhaled as if he was going to say something more. Instead he pulled a way with a sardonic smile and misty eyes. It was the closest to tears I’d ever really seen him.

They were gone in a blinding white circle and I just stood staring almost shell-shocked. I let out a long shaky breath. So much for long goodbyes, I thought ironically as I opened the nearby freezer. I peeled off the lid of the chocolate ice cream and retrieved a spoon from the drawer.

Knight found me in front of the TV when he came home twenty minutes later. He adjusted his glasses and gently took the empty container and the spoon from my hands. I must have looked catatonic because he waved his hand in front of me with a concerned look on his face, “Lydia, you ok?”

“Yeah, just too much sugar probably.”

He quirked an eyebrow…after all he was someone with the super ability of telling when somebody was truthful. Knight didn’t press the issue just turned off the set and managed to get me onto my feet.

“Come on, let’s get you to bed…”

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Knight didn’t stop his mothering the next morning either. Everyone else was asleep while I was contemplating whether leftover pizza or a bag of sour cream and cheddar flavored chips would be better for breakfast. My eating habits had apparently gone out the window along with any hope of a future relationship with Warren. I didn’t hear my cousin approach, but almost yelped when he put a hand to my shoulder.

“Honestly Lyd,” he said taking shutting the fridge door.

I winced at the nickname, “What?”

“You need to snap out of it,” his voice grew firm, “Go outside, play some basketball or something ok?”

I rolled my eyes, “I don’t need a babysi-”

“Yeah you don’t, but you seem to need someone to keep you in line. Feeling sorry for yourself isn’t going to help,” he adjusted his glasses nervously.

I gasped slightly, I knew he was right, “So I’m supposed to be happy that all of this is happening?”

“Lydia, I don’t even know what “all of this” is because you haven’t told me the whole story,” there was hurt in the tone of voice he used, “I don’t want to be insensitive, but unless you want to share the burden I can’t do anything for you except give you a kick in the pants.”

My almost black eyes met his brown eyes. The hard thing was that nobody would need Knight’s power to tell that he was absolutely sincere. It made me angrier, but I couldn’t debate the truth…that made me angrier still. I let a breath out and felt the familiar pain in my ribs.

“I’m sorry Knight…I know I can be a real self-obsessed jerk sometimes.”

“Now you’re just fishing for compliments,” he answered with a quick smile, “If you don’t want to tell me what’s going on I understand…but you really need to just try and move on.”

“Ok,” I consented, ashamedly looking at the tiled floor.

Knight wrapped an arm around me in a half-hug, “Gosh you scare me when you act this way.”

“When have I acted this way before?” I asked curiously.

His joking expression fell, “Well I suppose you wouldn’t remember…in the other dimension, after Will tried to kill you and you guys broke up you acted pretty much the same way.”

“Ah,” I was sorry I had made him bring up that topic, “Well that’s comforting, now I know exactly how beautifully I cope with trauma.”

He laughed, “Yup. Now get out of here!” he slapped by back playfully, “I think the basketball is in the front closet.”

“Fine, but it’s so your fault if the doctor gets me in trouble for doing physical exercise.”

I went to change out of my pajamas and into my long gym shorts and a t-shirt. I hurriedly pulled as much of my short hair as I could into a ponytail and grabbed the basketball from the front closet. I almost thought I could hear Knight laugh as I opened the front door and went out. It was still early morning and there was at least an hour before we had to go to school. I hoped not to disturb the neighbors from their own sleep as I dribbled the ball back and forth. There was something about the pattern that was immediately soothing; even if my aching body protested every movement.

“Nice shot,” Fintan’s voice sounded.

I whipped my head over to look at him, trying not to seem startled. I retrieved the ball and held it against my hip. Wiping loose hairs out of my face I cocked an eyebrow at him questioningly. “So…when you said we were going somewhere I didn’t expect you to be talking about this early in the morning.”

“Well it worked out with my schedule.”

“Yeah,” venom came into my words, “with your double agent, blowing up buildings and then working for the government schedule?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” I glimpsed Warren’s own stand-offish tone in Fintan’s words.

“I’ve always wanted to use the, “yes, because I’m your mother line”, now seems as good a time as any,” I replied sarcastically. A sharp stabbing pain in my head made me wince, “Not now,” I murmured softly and put my free hand to the spot.

“That happen a lot?” he seemed relieved to change the topic.

I nodded with clenched teeth, “Yeah, more lately.”

“It’s from your inter-dimensional travel. The memories from the other dimension take up space in your brain’s filing system and your mind can’t figure it out. You shouldn’t technically have those memories, there’s no time coordinates your mind can pin them to.”

“Well that sounds like a bunch of-” another shooting pain made me stop mid-sentence.

“It’s a bit confusing…the only real way to stop it is erasing the memories of the other dimension.”

I glanced up with eyes wide, “I don’t want to do that.”

“Then you’ll have to learn to deal with it,” he adjusted his sunglasses, “You’re pretty lucky, Knight has three years worth of inter-dimensional memories to place, you can imagine the headaches from that.”

“But he never says anything about it,” the pain began to subside.

Fintan shook his head, “No, I’m sure he doesn’t,” he paused, “Well we better be going, don’t want to be late.”

I smirked, “Isn’t it impossible for you to be late if you don’t want to be?”

He let a smile pass, “Maybe,” and the white glowing oval appeared. I hoped inwardly that we wouldn’t be going anywhere that shorts, a t-shirt and messy hair didn’t pass.

“The Supervillian Permanent Lockdown Facility?” I exclaimed incredulously in a hoarse whisper.

“We have a scheduled visit with Baron Battle,” Fintan said to the secretary calmly, “It should be listed and verified under the government arranged meetings?”

The young woman nodded, “Your identification card should work as a pass. Just make sure you signal the camera on your way through the third gate or the security system will kill you.”

Fintan nodded nonchalantly while I gaped. He tilted his head to watch my expression and looked like he was suppressing a grin. This was his world, his type of game. The problem was the only thing I could concentrate on was the fact that I was going to be meeting with Warren’s dad in a manner of minutes.

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“Get into a fight?” the deep voice asked as hazel eyes took in my bruises.

I nodded awkwardly and let some pieces of my short reddish hair fall in front of one of the injuries. He cocked an eyebrow and smiled. It was painful to realize the smile was the same I’d seen on both Warren and Fintan’s faces. How far my life had become entangled with that simple smile…

“Well,” Baron cleared his throat, “I don’t know what to tell you my dear,” he folded his handcuffed hands on the white table, “Warren seems to have chosen his path already and there’s little I can do to change what will happen, especially from within a prison cell.”

I nodded, “I know…I just wanted to tell you what was going on with your son,” Fintan hadn’t yet volunteered his reason for bringing me here, “I wasn’t expecting any miraculous revelations,” I chuckled, “I suppose I just wanted to understand all that’s happened.”

“Sometimes, there is no understanding. All we can do is try our best to live not regretting the past. I spent the first three years in here thinking about what I might have changed. But, there’s no changing history.”

I glanced at Fintan with a rueful smile, “At least not without a drawn-out bureaucratic process.”

“Sometimes,” Fintan offered, “The past is best left as it is whether or not we understand its true significance.”

“You mind if I add that to my book?” Baron asked hopefully, his dark eyes twinkling.

“No be my guest,” Fintan answered with a smirk of his own. He had told me that Baron was working on a philosophical book. The thought amused me, but I supposed he had to do something with his spare time.

“Fintan told me you’ve been reading my letters,” his tone was playfully accusing.

“Well,” I blushed, “Warren actually gave them to me to read.”

“It’s alright, I just wondered if maybe you’d like to read the last one. It’s actually the reason Fintan and I wanted to arrange this little meeting…so that you could hear the end and maybe share it with Warren if you have the chance.”

I nodded and Baron fumbled in the only pocket on his yellow jumpsuit, “They let me keep it when I was put in here…and I’ve carried it with me ever since,” the older man, curly brown hair now cut short, cleared his throat again before opening the correspondence.

Hana,

It’s done. The Commander stopped me, just like I thought he would and once the sentence is passed I’ll have peace in a jail cell. I hope this doesn’t sadden you…I’d never live with myself knowing I’d hurt you in anyway. So for now, this small moment, let’s forget the past arguments, the hurt, the wounds and concentrate on important things.

It may sound false, but I’ve never been able to imagine a life that I’d trade this one for. My greatest dream was fulfilled when I met you and when Warren was born. You two are enough to make the past years seem like only unimportant seconds. I wish there was another word in the English language to express the way I feel about you both…love just doesn’t quite seem to fit. All I know, is if I had to do it all over again to make sure you were both safe, I would.

I’m determined not to feel sorry for myself. The only sadness now is brought by the thought that you may never read this letter, may never hear from me again…that alone is almost too much to bear, but I will bear it. I’ve seen the future Hana, and it’s beautiful, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren living free of any threats or shadows of evil…free to make up their own mind about what cause they will serve. It’s a gorgeous picture.

All my love, All my being,

Baron

I wiped at my eyes and glanced at Fintan. He had removed his sunglasses to subtly wipe at his own. I wondered if he’d ever heard or read the letter before. There was the line about seeing the future that made me ache with curiosity. Had Fintan shown him a glimpse? Baron simply folded the note and put it back in his pocket with a shaky smile. A thought came unbidden to my mind, maybe all of this, these strange tempests in time, were meant to be. Of course when your father can see the future, fate loses its magic. But for now, I had only one thing to concentrate on, and that was a plan to see Baron’s dream fulfilled and the Ministry destroyed.

The End

Thanks to everyone for the amazing reviews and feedback. I've been so blessed to have you all reading this story. I'm very thankful to have such wonderful reviewers! I hope this chapter served as some sort of thank you for all the great comments! (I put some more Knight in ;)

Finally, the answer to the question many of you are probably asking...Yes I do at some time plan on posting another story in this series. I'm not sure when that will be, but I wouldn't expect it any sooner than September unless a plot bunny lands in my lap. For now I'm taking a break from the Sky High fandom...but it won't be permanent I promise! I just need a break to concentrate on other things at the moment.