False Heroes

Rose piled in as well. This wasn't her first limo ride, the store she worked at often drove its employees to various nerd gatherings in a limo, but this was wholly different. due to recent events, she was even less comfortable this time around. She said nothing and withdrew into herself. She just hoped she didn't go statue on the way because of this.
 
Sun touched Rose's leg. "Are you alright? You seem tense...." Sun hsd asked, and she looked at her. She was reminded of her own dark pass when she did. It made her feel unlucky.
 
Rose smiled a little bit at the touch. Usually, she'd recoil, but she felt like she could trust Sun. "I am a bit tense," she said softly. "This is the most chaotic situation I've been in in a long time. I'm used to being more in control. And it doesn't help that Alec is hard for me to peg. I usually understand how a person is by now, but not with Alec. Those two put together make me uneasy." Rose put her hand on top of Sun's and gave it a squeeze. "I'll be okay, though. I'm not going to blow up on anybody." She glanced at Alex as she said this.
 
Sun nodded and sighed. "I can't get a peg on him either." Sun answered. She let her thoughts take her.
 
Rose nodded. Today was a really weird day for her. She managed to clear her mind enough to try to relax. Holding Sun's hand helped more than Rose would have ever thought. And now that she was thinking about it, she came to a realization. She didn't feel stiff at all, as was usually the case when she relaxed. Since the only thing different was physical contact with Sun, she could only conclude that maybe being in physical contact with someone could stave off her tendency to go statue. It was definitely a theory worth exploring, but that could come later. For now, though, Rose just accepted the situation.
 
Sun yawned slightly. She was quite tired so she fell asleep. Moon took over and his eyes gleamed with a blue color. Moon sang low but fell asleep too. They spoke in unison while asleep" Please.. Don't hurt me daddy...please...please.... "
 
They rode in the limo for around 25 minutes until they came to a suburb after driving around for a few more minutes they came to a large white stone wall that seemed to be about 20 feet high and had a a equally large steel gate in the middle of it. On the front of the gate a symbol was which seems to be a simple chain. Once the limo approach the gate the window a small box opened and the driver placed a code in, once that was done the gate slowly opened to a large well maintained lawn with an large mansion of immaculate white, it was designed to look like a Roman Pantheon but with a few doors here and there. The land behind the house stretched into 3 miles worth of treeline and orchards.


Once the had gone the length of the curved driveway up the hill to the house the estate Alec woke up and casually stepped out once the door was opened by Barkten, who was also taking the bags inside, who also was manning the opening to the mansion...on both sides. Alec node to all and of them and thanked the one that brought him a new dress shirt, which he put on and buttoned stopping at the last two. As they all enter the hall the group was greeted by a few maids and butlers of various descriptions, the entire interior was composed of marble with stylized carpet laid out into different hallways. A wide set of steps seemed to led up to a second floor. Alec bowed to all of them for the greeting and turned to the group "Food will be given to you at your leisure and feel free to request anything your heart desires. Feel free to look about and use the facilities that we have be them pool, gym, etc. We will discuss anything you wish in detail tomorrow...excuse me" a Barkten walked up to him and whispered in his ear. "Ah it seems my family is gone for the day....thank the gods....and they will be returning tomorrow afternoon. In the morning I will be in the study reading and having breakfast, if any of you have questions for me" he looked at Alex with a knowing face "please hold them for that time tomorrow. But I leave you to your own devices and I must retire for the evening goodnight." Alec walked up the steps and went down a few hall until he found his old room, it was well designed Victorian style room with a blue theme about it but simple. He walked to the bed and took off him shoes he then feel face first and went back to sleep
 
Sun found a bench and fell asleep again. She was soo tired after that none of them had energy to stay awake. She decided to kiss Rose on the check as Moon and imediately fell asleep.
 
Alex had been silent on the ride over choosing not to comment on Rose's remark about not blowing up on somebody. He'd love to make some remark or deny it, but he was afraid that if he thought about the man he had killed too much that the nameless man might join his collection of ghosts that haunted him. He didn't know what the man had looked like and he could only imagine what faceless monstrosity his mind might conjure up to represent the mysterious shooter.


He decided not to comment on Alec, either. He didn't have Alec figured out like the two girls didn't, but he wasn't too concerned about it... Alec had been the first one to slap some sense into him. Of course... the man's admission to having a file on him had caused him to boil over but that beside the point. He had realized now that him losing his cool had probably been inevitable, and Alec had promised to help work with him on his anger. Maybe Alec could get rid of the ghosts... but then again, he didn't want to have to talk about them.


He grabbed a quick bite to eat from where Alec had directed them, feeling a pang of strong jealousy as he surveyed his surrounding. The man was loaded. He couldn't even afford to move out of the apartment he had watched Kate die in... what he wouldn't give for a lifestyle this extravagant.


After he had eaten, he glanced into the bedroom he had been told was his during his stay staring at the bed longingly for a few minutes before he decided to go watch television on one of the TVs. He nodded off unwilling around one that morning and woke up screaming again at quarter after six ashamed of the fact that his personal demons had followed him and of the fact that he had fallen asleep despite his desperation not to do just that.


He was flipping through the channels lazily with a plateful of pancakes on his lap when people began to stir. Despite his restless and short sleep, he felt moderately rested. Just over five hours. A recent record... he hoped nobody had heard him aside from the hired help that had rushed to his aid in the night only to be dismissed coolly.
 
Alec arose to the morning refresh and elated at around 6, a new day always came with new surprises be them good or bad Alec was always open to discovery. He went for a morning swim in one of the large bathes they keep for just the purpose and then went through a kata or two. He went and took a shower and placed on a pair of warm up pants and a black form fitting t-shirt, he preferred no shoes in the house. He placed on his glasses ad let his hair stay in it natural mess dripping with water. He then walked casually down stairs and passed the room with Alex in it but didn't stop and continued to the kitchen. He returned with a cup of oolong sweetened with honey not sugar...he wasn't a barbarian after all and fruit. He then entered the room where Alex was in and found a soft velvet chair across from him. He sat down and placed his tray on a small table next to it and picked up his tea and a folded newspaper which he began to sip and read respectfully. He looked up from his tea cup at Alex with a slightly amused smile on his face as steam slowly rose from the cup and said "Good morning Alex?"
 
Alex was aware of Alec's presence only an instant before the man settled down onto the couch and addressed him. He dragged his eyes off of the dull infomercial that he had been watching for the last twenty minutes and brought his blue eyes to sharply focus on Alec. The man was up early, and Alex wondered if it had anything to do with his uneasy sleep. He wouldn't have been surprised however if Alec just woke up this early and that it had nothing to do with his nightmarish sleep. The mansion was vast and sprawling so it was entirely likely that nobody had heard him.


He decided not to comment on it, "Good morning, Alec." he replied definitely and he met the other man's eyes to demonstrate that there was nothing of note to talk about.


"Did you sleep well?" he asked pulling his eyes away and shoving a mouthful of pancake into his mouth. He could get used to this food.
 
Alec's gave never wavered, his auburn eyes meeting Alex blue ones. He just took a long sip and placed the tea down and leaned backed, setting the paper aside. "Oh god yes I did sleep amazingly well, thank you for asking, I'd ask you the same but from the fact that you are watching a...." he turns to look at the television "...Mop-0-matic commercial, I'd say you have been up rather late." he then readjusted back into the seat. "So...let's talk. You demanded a few things of me yesterday and I am willing to give them to you but of course nothing is free. So to be fair you get the first question and then after I answer you must answer one of mine. Fair enough? No other strings attached." He then continued to reading waiting on Alex.
 
Sun woke up and their hair was a total disaster. Sun never cared though. She never sat down to just take care of herself since she didn't own a home. Her body seemingly took care of itself. She never smelled since her body's cells rapidly replaced themselves in only seconds. She rubbed her eyes and sat. She was still outside, through the whole night. Sun walked into the House and noticed Alec and Alex speaking, she quietly manuvered around them without being seen and sat in a corner and tried to count the items in the house.
 
Alex shrugged and he met Alec's eyes again... he felt a little surprise that they remained locked on his as if "What can I say? I don't need much sleep... and some of us can't afford maids so mop-o-matics are likely in my future." his eyes went cold. This man was an interesting one and he could sense that they shared many similarities. He had made the assumption that they both had keen eyes and they were critically aware and dissecting other people and their own surroundings. He suppose he would have to see. This conversation promised to be an taxing one.


He could feel himself bristling at the thought of answering one of Alec's question and he let out a sigh of irritation, "Only on one condition." he sighed feeling his stomach twist itself into little knots at the thought of answering questions, "If the answer to my first question is no, please don't pursue it."


"This file... you weren't lying... she's not in it right?" he swallowed heavily before he spat out the next words, "Kate Baker?" the words tasted bitter on his tongue and his mouth had taken on a foul taste. He didn't care if Bill was on the file as much as Kate. His father, bless his soul, could rot in Hell.


"I guess it's your turn now."
 
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He looked up over the rim of his glasses and raised an eyebrow "Yes, a Kate is listed as a relation of yours...I'm not sure of what kind but that is all the information we have of her. My turn......how many people have you killed with your power?' He locked eyes with Alex again.
 
A relation. He felt his muscles begin to untense. That was all anybody knew about her and he was undeniably relieved. He was also grateful when the question that followed was not about her,


He cleared his throat, "Three... the shooter on the roof yesterday was my third." he felt the familiar edge of guilt crawl through him as he considered the shooter. Sure, the shooter had tried to kill him but he didn't even know the man's name.


"Why do you have a file on me?" he held his tongue to prevent himself from asking a stream of questions about the file that had cost a man his life yesterday.
 
He looks at Alex for a moment before he begins. "I am going to trust that by three people you were meaning in your entire life but we can come back to that later. I have you file because I am doing research on you and your abilities. Next question, why do you hate your powers and please don't be coy, no one rages that much as Enlightened without good reason and your power seemed to be a key in your rage-o-meter yesterday."
 
He felt his lips draw in a thin line, "Would it be coy to say that I'm pretty sure that you already know the answer to this?" there was a long pause after his question and he knew that he was going to have to say more about it then he already had.


"I'm a man with incredible powers and a short fuse. Accidents happen. Do I have to say anything more? You know what happened with the shooter on the roof." he said in a surly voice. He was dancing around what really upset him about his powers but he didn't care. He would not talk about Kate. The air took on a distinct coppery scent and he blinked rapidly hoping that if he concentrated on other ideas that the stench of blood would go away. It was all in his head.


"Why are you doing research on Enlightened exactly?" he wanted to know specifically why he had been chosen to be watched but he didn't want to hear that the answer was because he was biokinetic. He wanted to know why people like him were being watched. He felt intruded upon and used. He felt an insidious thought grow in his head as he considered that it was Alec's fault he had killed the man on the roof. He didn't ask to be a subject of research and Alec had no right to be compiling a file on him... but he dismissed it weakly. He had still lost his temper, it wasn't as if Alec had told him to do what he had done. He need to keep himself composed. It didn't take much for him to lose his temper... especially when he edged around the thought of Kate and what had happened to her.
 
Sun was eavesdropping on their conversation. But after hearing the word research she started shaking. Remembering the expiraments that was done on her before she ran away. She remembered the expirament in which they tried to break everybone in her body and watched it repair itself. She remembered being countiously electrified to the point where even a electric chair could kill her. Then she remembered the horror. She remembered when Moon was created how at 8 years old he took over Sun and murdered 16 adults and about 7 children her age. She felt no guilt but remorse for those who where in that place at that time. She also remembered the helmet that was on her head which amped up her powers, she ran from that specific machine the machine that her father created. Sun started crying and made her mistake by getting up and walking over to where Alec and Alex were standing, but she wasn't really paying them any attention and just went over to the sink and spoke in a adult voice which she never used. "Why...why am I this..... My name....Sun...Moon...Aura....our names are those but my Real name Alice Sun Luna...... The pyscho path...but.....raaagh!" She started and then hit the sink leaving a nice size dent in it as she sat on the floor and stared at a cabinet.
 
Alec stood up and walk over to an arch that looked over the vast lawn. "Alex....have you ever sneezed before? And with that sneeze have you ever impaled an 8 year old play mate with a mercurial shard found from the bridge of your own nose?" He turns to Alex and pauses for a moment "No? Didn't think so....ever perhaps send your fist through someones face because they pushed you, or perhaps you have been trained to kill anyone who threatens your family, be they young, old weak,or strong? No, again? Why am I asking you all this? Well its quite simple. Enlightened like you disgust me, born with incredible power and the power to help not just hurt. My abilities kill, maim, bruise, damage, rupture, poison oh the list goes on but I cannot heal anyone like you can, well not naturally. I had to earn the right and knowledge to heal yet you were born with it. Why do I have you on file? I have you on file because you have the potential to help others, to set things anew for the Enlightened people make use seem less like monsters and more like helpers. I find Enlightened like you, misfits, abusers, and others. I find them and give you training to either control your powers and live better lives or use your powers to help. But no you like many Enlightened feel it is a 'burden' to carry such gifts. Mr. Alex believe me when I say I know the horrors of our powers first hand perhaps a bit differently then you, for instance I cannot kill the way you do but both of us 'feel' the kill with our bodies. Yet here you are full of rage because of something that happened in the past with your powers. And honestly if they cause you so much trouble, take a gun and end your issues. But if you truly regret what you have done DO something. We are all Enlightened here, we may have different view but we are not cursed with this ability." He was starting to sound more and more like his father but he meant every word. "Take some pride however little in your gift, own up to the lives you have taken and do something that may change yours for the better." He let out a sigh and turned back to Alex looking him dead in the eye.


"But I must admit I relate to you in many ways, the anger, the self hate, this 'Kate' you speak of is truly dear to you yet she has not called nor was she with you at the apartment....I sadly feel I can relate to yo there as well, but throwing it all away is not the answer. That being said, you being researched is two fold. I have noticed your healing potential is amazing but there is something no Enlightened can survive that has recently been discovered, a metal....which I cannot produce with my own body in theory. And it is being harnessed by ordinaries." He starts to walk out the room. "Follow me when you are ready, down the hall, two lefts and a right, its my lab, bring company if it makes you feel better, besides the others may want to see this. Oh, and don't think I forgot about my next question." He noticed Suns raged reaction and sighed "Bring Sun as well but you may also need Rose, she tends to calm Sun down. I will explain in more detail in the lab."
 
He listened silently as Alec told him so much and he felt a great pang of regret and shame for how he was acting until he touched on Kate. It was like striking a raw nerve. And then before Alex could even formulate a response to all that Alec had said, he had said a set of directions and disappeared. Alex sighed and clenched his fists.


"Alex." the gravelly voice said and his heart stopped for several seconds. He regretted killing Kate... but he had never regretted killing Bill. He had never stopped being afraid of the man however. Even his ghost still reduced Alex to no more than a fearful child.


He ignored the voice rising to his feet and he about near swallowed his tongue when he saw the man's ghost standing in the doorway. Bill was a massive man in all ways. He was the kind of man who had to duck for doorways and who had a large stomach that preceded him through said doorways despite the face that his arms were thick and still showed remnants of muscles and of impressive and intimidating strength. He had been an intimidating man before he had been killed and now his mind's projection of the man had made him far more of than simply intimidating.


"And you've always called me the monster. You're just like me. Like father, like son." Bill's voice called lowly and it was laced with derision. He had always used that tone in real life when he hadn't been yelling. But unlike when Bill was alive, his lips were now sewn shut with a thick gray string. Alex had last seen Bill in his coffin, the mouths of the dead were always sealed shut for the funeral. The fiend's jaw moved as it spoke even though it didn't need its mouth to communicate now that Alex's troubled childhood and obsessive fear had given him the ability to speak even though Bill had long since been buried. The ashy lips strained against the string that had been holding them together and he watched mutely as the lips tore apart easily and the puff of cotton that had been stuffed in Bill's mouth began to edge out.


"You need to pay for what you've done to me, you ungrateful bastard!" Bill roared and the corpse's ashy lips fully separated and the cotton swab fell out into oblivion. It had never existed so it vanished before it would have hit the floor. In the cotton swab's place was Bill's black tongue which snaked out between the shredded lips as he spoke. The man took a giant leap forward into the room and his neck swung backwards to an absurd angle. His head lolled backwards and the flap of skin that held his father's head to his body began to tear revealing more of the gruesome gash that Alex had left the man with in order to kill the man.


"You'll pay!" he howled wildly as his arms reached forward and clawed for him. His icy cold hands seized Alex's skin and he felt the finger nails claw into his flesh as the corpse's thin layer of flesh holding Bill's head to his body gave way and the man's spine thrust out as Bill's head sagged backwards so far that those horrible black eyes were looking the exact opposite way that his body was facing.


Alex jerked away and shouted desperately forcing the specter away. And Bill's ghost was gone. He glanced at his arm and saw the small crescent-shaped marks on his arm fading away. He took a steadying breath. Bill was just a ghost. The marks had been his own body creating them in his fear. He was also nothing like his father.


He took off after Alec. He was going to try harder. He had been sitting around whining, moping, and feeling angry for too long. He was not like his father. He would try things this way.


He staggered into the room that Alec had directed him towards hoping that he didn't look too crazed or dishevelled from his recent walking nightmare.


"Kate won't ever call." he explained ignoring the pain. He needed to tell someone, a deep breath. He could do it, "I grew up in a home with an abusive father. It's probably nothing for you, but I spent my childhood in fear. Everything I did was wrong. Everything I did put my bastard father Bill into a 'mood' as my mother called them. My mother tried her best to protect me from his anger and his beatings, but we couldn't leave. We didn't have the money and even if we did then Bill would always find us. He never would have let us go. We were his.


"So I spent my childhood dreaming of the day I would be able to get rid of him and take my mother somewhere safe. I always imagined I could whisk her off to some distant country someday outside of Bill's reach. But that day didn't come. I escaped the home by going to college. I ignored the fact that there was no escape for my mom. I met Kate pretty much the moment I left. It was fate. She was perfect. She was everything I had ever wanted or needed and I let myself get swept up in the most incredible love that I couldn't even imagine how things could have been better. After a week I knew I loved her and that I always would. After a year we got married.


"Then I discovered my powers after a bad car accident that should have killed me. For the first time in the four years since I had left home, I remembered about Bill and my mother. I knew now that I could save my mother from him the way she had saved me from most of his beatings by offering herself up instead. I killed him.


"But when I got back to Kate..." he paused. He was still unsure of how it had happened, "I was going to tell her about everything because I was feeling so conflicted... I grabbed her hand and..." he trailed off. He hoped the next part didn't need to be said.


"So much blood. I didn't know a human being had that much blood." he said casting his eyes to the ground. There it was. It didn't feel any better to say how he had brutally murdered the best thing in his whole life. He swayed slightly and leaned against the wall.


"I'll do something." he said in a quiet voice after a long silence.


(Sorry about the mini-novel. I wanted to show how scary Bill was to Alex before I had him confess so things got long.)
 
Alec listened quietly to Alex, taking in every detail. As he did he moved around his white sterile lab, a few test tubes here and there. A stack of papers neatly placed on the corner of his work bench. As Alex was finishing he place on a lab coat and gloves, then turned to Alex "Of course you will do something, if I thought you were a failure to begin with I'd have killed you myself long before I tried to light your cigarette." Then he looked at Alex, his eyes hard but a knowing kindness was shown a bit as well. "Mine doesn't have a name, I have no Kate, no Bill, my father never beat me just to beat and my mother is a stern but kind woman. My sibling are hellions in their own right but we wouldn't let harm happen to each other if we could. And clearly I'm rich, so life is good, right?" He said this with a smile that slowly faded. "93......93 people to this date I have killed with my power, 25 children 68 adults, some I killed on purpose some I killed on mistake but I killed them all the same." He sighed a bit and turned look for a few files.


"The perfect man should have the perfect children right? You said you first got your powers around college correct? By the time I was that age I had mastered my powers 4 times over. Training was the way of this house, you earned EVERYTHING through training. Food, water, heat, money, compassion, none of these were freely given to me once I turned 7. That limo we rode in? That is my limo, this estate is mine, though I do refer to it as the families since I allow them to stay here when they come to the city. Every test you could think of was administered, combat both with and without my powers, poison resistant training, academics, cultural knowledge, you name it and I probably can do it or know it or at least have read a book on it." He chuckles a bit to himself. "Through out that time however I had to learn the harsh realities of life, some of the test we did required 'competition' we would survive against hunters, ordinaries given the idea that we were valuable resources for them, my father hired them, gave them free reign of the yard. Sometimes of course we had to fight Enlightened, some weaker with very little in the way of dangerous powers and some who were quite capable and had fearsome abilities such as psychics or people with powers in your area. Do I resent my father for this, their was a time yes, I tried to kill him, of course that's foolish, a boy does not simply try to kill one of the most powerful Enlightened in rage. But over time I have learned that this was to prepare myself for something more. I have tools no one else has and the capability to use them. I learned with a little forethought or training an obstacle can be overcome....or destroyed. Enlightened have it rough but my father showed me we are just as dangerous if not more so than Ordinaries, but in the end we are all the same species of poor, hungry creatures and we need to get to the point were we can coexist or we will be at the precipice of a very very ugly war.


He moved to the back and found a safe which he opened with a few codes and scans. He took out prongs and remove a small silvery rock, about the size of a golf ball. I glittered with dark blue metals inside. He placed it slow on the counter in front of Alex. "Its called Oridecon and it is the first known poison that targets Enlightened cells."


(And its all cool)
 
After what had to be the most restful sleep she had ever gotten, Rose availed herself of the luxurious shower in her suite. After she was clean, she got dressed and headed to the room Alec said he'd be using yesterday. She didn't see Alec or Alex, but she did see Sun sitting on the floor. She crouched down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you okay?" she asked. Normally, Rose wouldn't have bothered someone who looked so miserable, but she felt that her and Sun grew some sort of bond. Though how strong it was, she didn't really know, seeing as how they had only just met. Rose wanted to find Alec so she could ask him some things, but right now, she felt that taking care of Sun had a higher priority.
 
"Rose!" She called out and hugged her tightly. She was half way crying but laughed a little bit. She was happy to see her . It pulled her mind off of the terror of her past.
 
Rose hugged back. Unable to resist the urge, she cooed softly, "It's alright, I'm here." She rubbed Sun's back gently in an effort to calm her. Rose smiled a bit and chuckled. She never thought that she would be like this with anyone. The fact that she could so easily be this close to Sun suggested that Rose could consider the girl, with all her personalities, a friend. She couldn't lie to herself; this felt good.
 
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