WIZARDS VS ALIENS:
HALF OF HEART AND MIND
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
Note: This contains spoilers for the recent episodes "The Quantum Effect", if you have not seen this story, please watch first before reading. Thankyou
Disclaimer: Wizards vs Aliens is trademarked by the BBC
Tom Clarke rose from bed and let out a weary sigh. He walked over to the far right of his bedroom and took a few photos from a drawer. He glimpsed at the photos only briefly, his mind struggling to comprehend why the simple things always give away to complications.
How days such as the one in the photo he was holding, of him and Benny on a nature trail with the rest of the school's student body, a day out that was only a few weeks old, could seem so distant now.
Benny was gone. Recruited to work with MIT in the United States.
He was alive, he knew where he was, but he was out of regular contact. He had found a new path to take, a path away from the struggles Tom was dealing with, what all of his kind were dealing with.
And now he'd have to do it alone. Without relying on what had worked. Magic and science. A perfect symmetry of skill, so vastly different, in personality and prowess, but when combined had proven to be a recipe for success.
Micheal Clarke, Tom's dad, checked in on Tom as he stared at the photo, and saw the look on his son's face, one of longing and struggle, trying to properly come to terms with what he had dealt with yesterday
"Hey" he said, "It's a school day, you don't want your friends catching you in a rut"
"I'll live" Tom replied. His dad frowned.
"Yeah, that's the thing isn't it? People of your age always, at some point in their lives, rattle off any downbeat turn with 'I'll live', and they say it in such a defeatist tone, as if they expect life to be built on nothing but heavy handed moments"
"It's just a lot to take in, it is...I go from raising a child with an alien on the Neverside, I stop a massive alien armada from conquering the planet, I become something that was so much...beyond all Wizardkind comprehension, and in that state of madness, I turned that alien human, restored our child to life, and I'm struggling to find all trace of them now...the only reason I'm even trying is because I was brought back from the edge of irrationality, Benny did that Dad, he was the logical half, the one that saw how far I could go, and how I needed to be..."
"Tom..." his dad began, but Tom was now far too caught up in the moment to let him get a word in, the pent-up frustration had kicked in, the adrenaline was off the scale, Tom had sprang to life, angry at the way life worked. He had let Benny catch a glimpse of this in the last crisis they shared together, and coming down from this state of distress was the only way they could unite in a harmonious matter to thwart Jathro 15's scheme.
"Benny was sound, science and magic, that's how it was supposed to be, that's how we would deal with any threat, the Nekross never stood a chance with us side-by-side...life is all about incredible forces, all consistently at odds with one another, the Nekross, Wizardkind, we're the unknown elements Dad, Benny was...he was...a bridge between the familiar and the strange, he showed me how people solve extraordinary problems with regular ingenuity, all we Wizardkind do is play Go..."
"Don't say it. Don't ever say it. You don't have the right to claim that, none of your kind does" Micheal snapped, walking up to Tom and putting both hands on his shoulders, stabilizing his visibly and emotionally shaken child
"Listen to me, you are not an unknown element, you were created the same way everyone else is...you are of this Earth, you are not above or beyond that. Pay attention to what you are feeling right now...doubt, longing...you will keep feeling these very human things Tom Clarke, and I won't lie, you will probably hold on to those moments, you have no choice, the strain of your current struggles will cause them to linger regardless of what you prefer to think, but what you can do is that you can look at that photo again, look at anything that reminds you of Benny, and you will smile, smile through those moments, smile through the hurt, have a caviler attitude to it all, those are the moments that make you a human being, more so, coping and rising above those moments are what make you a man"
"I don't know what to do Dad. He's gone, we relied on one another, we, oh I won't sugarcoat it, we loved one another, and now he's...somewhere in the world, out of my reach, just like the last person I loved...just like...like Lexi. She was half of my heart, Benny was half of my mind. What now? How can I cope without either of them against the Nekross?"
"What was the last thing Benny said to you? Hmm? Face to face?" Michael asked, "Just as you hold on to those moments of frustration, hold also on to what he said there and then, and it will help you rise above them just as much "
"He said 'I love you'" Tom said, close to tears
"You loved him, you loved Lexi, I think your love for both is plenty for your heart and mind to take in one go don't you think?" Micheal said.
"Dad, your last name should be 'Bolton' and not 'Clarke'" Tom replied, giving his dad an assuring smile.
"Take the photo to school if you want, but don't let it weigh you down, Benny wouldn't want that...oh, and one other thing...Lexi doesn't have Skype, Benny does"
"I suppose there's that" said Tom
Michael kissed Tom on the forehead and walked out of the room, leaving Tom feeling as if both his halves, of mind and heart, could stand a chance of feeling more complete.
At least he could pretend they do. Until the day both returned to him for keeps.
It was that moment, whatever day, whatever year, that he would count down to.