Fiat Lux 2: Life After Death

Summary: It's been over two and a half years since my boyfriend murdered me. After I came back, one of my friends and I decided to team up to take down The Family, a supposedly clean group of supers with a dirty past.

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Chapter Three

All the Small Things

Warren and I seated ourselves at the table and waited for Dad to continue.

"He's been sending orders to the rest of The Family from a small city in Indiana," he said with a sigh. "I can't find what name he's living under, so you would probably have an easier time flashing this around." He handed us a picture of a man that looked a lot like Warren, though paler rather advanced in age, dressed smartly in a business suit. "I would tell you not to go, to just let things alone, but I know you wouldn't listen anyway. So I'll just give you this advice. Searching for answers is all well and good, but those answers aren't always the ones you want." With that, he got up and left, leaving us to mull things over between ourselves. We sat in silence for a long time as Warren studied the picture.

"So, when do we leave?" I asked after a while. He looked up at me.

"What's with this we stuff?" he asked. "I'm not putting you in any more danger than I already have."

"That's not how this works, Bub," I said. "I didn't illegally hack through all those government files just to be left out as things started coming together. No way. I'm in this too deep for you to just be thinking about danger now, so forget all this chivalrous nonsense and let's figure out when we're gonna set out." He sighed, coming as close to admitting defeat as he ever did.

"We can set out in about a week," he said. "That should be enough time for us to get everything together and say our goodbyes." I nodded.

"Sounds good," I said. I looked at him sharply. "And don't even think of skipping town before then without me." He laughed and nodded.

"Deal," he said. "Now let's find a computer and do a little more research now that we have a codename to go off." We headed to my room, which I had taken great cares over the past couple of years to seed with all sorts of electronic gizmos. I locked the door behind us before heading over to a cluster of computer monitors, switching them and their respective gadgetry on. I sat in the chair and watched as each of the monitors blinked to life. Warren made for the wall of filing cabinets and began writing a new file of what we had on Inferno. I pulled up a few different databases and began looking through anything I could find connected to that name. I found nothing. It was like someone had purposely erased the name from every document, government and not. Even the file in which I had found the name seemed to not exist anymore. Which was supposed to be impossible. I said as much to Warren.

"So what do you think's going on?" he asked, leaning over the chair to look at one of the monitors.

"I think The Family might be in bed with someone very high up," I said. "Someone we missed on our original run-through of the file."

"And Inferno's not in any of these files?" he asked. I shook my head. "I wonder how high up this thing goes."

"It looking more and more likely that this goes… all the way up," I said, typing furiously to bring up the right file.

"Do you mean-"

"The very top," I said, finding the file I was looking for. The picture of a middle-aged man in glasses came up on a monitor. "Alex North, the head of the International Super-Council."

"You think the head of the ISC is helping out one of the cleanest villains in the world?" Warren asked, looking at me as if I were crazy.

"It would explain why The Family is able to stay so clean, yet get away with things like destroying your family," I said. At the mention of his family, he straightened up and nodded.

"That makes sense," he said, still studying the monitor. I jumped as somebody knocked on the door. Warren frowned, but kept his composure, as he always did. I turned off the monitors before opening the door to find Layla with carrying a tray of veggies.

"I thought you guys could use a snack," she said, walking in. she set the tray on my bed.

"Dad called you," I said, crossing my arms and staring her.

"He's just worried about you," she said, almost pleading. "And I'd have to agree with him. You don't know what you could find. You could die!"

"What, again?" I asked facetiously.

"Yes, but this time you most likely won't survive," Layla countered. "If something happens, what's your backup plan? How long do you plan on being out there? Where will you stay while you're out there? Have you really thought out all the small things?"

"Let me think," Warren said. "We'll be there as long as it takes for us to find Inferno, we can sleep in the car, and we're hoping for something to happen, so that would be a good thing. I think we've thought this through pretty well, don't you Tish?" I nodded.

"But what if you don't find him?" Layla said. "What if you spend the whole summer there and find nothing?"

"We'll stay as long as it takes," I said. "And if he runs, we'll follow him."

"But what about school?" Layla asked. "What if you don't make it back in time for our senior year?"

"I've died once," I started. "And that was supposed to be the end. By some miracle that I still don't quite understand all the way, I made it back here. But I'm on borrowed time as it is. Why spend another year in school when I can start bringing down the bad guys now?" Layla sighed.

"Alright," she said. "When do you leave?"

A/N: Yay! Another chapter done! Way to go for knowing that Looking for Angels was done by Skillet. And be sure to look for that phrase in a later chapter, because I might be using it again. So, does anybody know who did All the Small Things?

L8s.