Four mornings later, Simon and Tori had the routine down. Simon usually got up first and slipped outside to take a bath in a stream he had discovered a few meters from the cabin, if Tori wasn't awake by the time he got back, he would wake her up. She would go to the stream while he prepared their morning cereal. Once they had eaten, Tori would wake up Chloe, who was having more and more 'conscious' moments, and get her to eat.

That morning was no different, except that Chloe demanded that Simon and Tori take her to the table, she wanted to it eat like a normal person.

"We're anything but normal," Simon joked, but helped her anyway. She hadn't seemed to notice Derek's absence, she was more than a little fuzzy on a lot of things, and Simon couldn't help but wonder if it was because she saw him.

Simon was busying himself with washing dishes, Tori had dug out the pack of cards she had become so attached to, when Chloe spoke, "Tori, why are you being nice?"

"What?" Tori asked, her hands frozen mid-shuffle.

"Two months ago it was like pulling teeth to get you to be civil, now you're acting like I'm your little sister." Chloe blinked clouded blue eyes at the witch.

"I figure, we're the only girls, and once you stopped being all damsel-in-distress, you were okay." Chloe hugged the taller girl. "Hey, hey. I said okay, not awesome."

Chloe shrugged, then balanced herself back on her chair. "Let's play cards." She suggested.

"All right," Simon agreed and sat down opposite Tori, who resigned herself to playing. "What game?"

Chloe thought for a second, "Crazy eights."

Tori shuffled the cards and dealt. For a few minutes, they managed to relax. Pretend like they were a group of normal friends, the supernaturals, the Edison Group, even Derek seemed to fade into the background, but not for long. Simon was well on his way to winning, Tori had about a dozen cards in her hand, and Chloe couldn't find anything to play, when Chloe suddenly shrieked, "That's cheating!"

Simon looked around automatically, but found no one. "Who's cheating?"

"Liz," Chloe answered. "She told me your cards."

Simon went from tense to slightly more relaxed. He didn't know if he could handle Derek being in the room. He still didn't believe his brother was dead, despite the proof. "Well, tell Liz to stop."

She relayed the message, and added, "Liz thinks Tori's going to win anyway."

Simon looked at Tori's hand, a ton of cards. "Tori, really?"

Ten minutes later, Tori won the game with a triumphant smirk. "That's right, I won!" She cheered.

"Ever hear of a sore loser?" He asked, but kept watching her, a smile on his face. Tori stuck out his tongue.

Chloe yawned. "I'm tired." Tori put her back into bed, pulling the patchwork quilt over her small frame. "Tori?" She mumbled.

"Yeah Chloe?"

"Liz says apple trees are dangerous." And she fell asleep.

Tori spun around to face Simon, "Okay, what's the big deal about apple trees?" She demanded.

"Like I know anymore than you." Simon snapped.

"Do you have any theories?" She asked him.

"Nope. None at all. I'm not the idea guy." Simon said.

"We can't do this." She muttered.

"We have to," Simon hesitated, then repeated Derek's words from a few nights ago, "It's not going to get better if we don't do anything about it. We can't let all of those people die in vain. We can't let Andrew's sacrifice mean nothing."

"Since when are you that deep?" Tori teased, and Simon could see that she was feeling better.

"I'm not. That's what Derek told me." Simon told her, keeping his eyes down.

When it got late, Tori climbed into bed. "You gonna stand there all night?" She asked Simon.

"Maybe," he answered, "I don't think Derek's," Simon swallowed and forced out the word, "dead. Call it gut instinct, or denial, but I think he's still out there."

"And he could be, you never know."

Simon turned away from the window and laid on the bed. "What happened to little Miss Cynical?" He teased.

"I put her in a box, but I could always go find her," Tori mumbled sleepily.

Simon feigned horror. "NO!"

Tori let out a sleepy chuckle. "Night."

"Goodnight."

The moon was full, the stars were bright, bathing the little cabin in brightness. A figure came out of the woods, cloaked in darkness. He swayed for a moment, then approached the door. He did not hesitate. He knocked three times.

Knock.

Simon was awake instantly at the sound, seeming to be as loud as a gunshot. Tori was still asleep, she could snore through anything, so he shook her and her eyes opened, as did her mouth, but Simon quickly motioned for her to stay silent.

Knock.

Tori's eyes went wide, fear was detectable in their dark depths. "Let's go to the bathroom and hide." He mouthed. Tori nodded. Simon and Tori slipped out of bed, Chloe in their arms, and hid in the bathroom.

Knock.

After the third knock, it was silent for a few moments, then they heard a man's voice. "Simon? Simon, it's Dad."

Simon jumped to his feet, but Tori grabbed the back of his shirt, "Spells," she hissed. Simon didn't like it, but he stayed where he was, as Chloe twitched, and sweat began to cover her face.

"Simon, I'm alone, I wasn't followed. Use your spells to check," the man, who identified himself as Kit Bae, Simon's father, urged.

Simon and Tori looked at each other. Both knew they couldn't check. "Don't," Tori whispered, struggling to keep a cool head. "Don't trust."

Kit was silent, waiting for a reply, when none came he called, "Jiminy Cricket!"

Simon was out of the bathroom and opening the front door before Tori could even think about stopping him. She scooped the shivering Chloe into her arms, and after depositing her, none to gently, on the bed, Tori turned and studied Simon's father.

Kit wasn't a tall man, barely standing over his son, his hair was ink black, his eyes were dark brown with an Asian slant. He looked healthy, though his pants were splashed with mud. He was on the thin side, looking like a short bean pole.

Simon had his arms wrapped him. "Dad, I don't believe it," he bubbled, and Tori understood how important this was. Derek was gone, Andrew was gone, to suddenly get his Dad back must have felt like a miracle, but Tori was still suspicious. Through her life, if she had learned one thing, it was not to trust. "Where have you been? What happened? Why are you here? How did you know where to find us?"

"Slow down," Kit's voice sounded different now that it wasn't being heard through a door. Calm and soothing. "I'll tell you the whole story once you introduce me to these ladies." Simon spun around. "Right, Dad this is Victoria Enright, she's - "

"Diane Enright's daughter."

"I'd rather you didn't say that." Tori told him. "I have disowned my backstabbing, lying, creep of a mother."

"You must be very powerful," Kit said. "A half-breed plus genetic mutations." Despite his falling out with the Edison Group, Kit had the Genesis II project bred into him. He wasn't sure he liked it, but he needed to be sure the kids were safe.

"Half-breed?" Tori sounded insulted, like he'd just called her a bitch.

"The daughter of a witch and sorcerer," Kit explained. "Not a good combination."

Tori tried to squash her anger, but couldn't. All of her life people -her mother- had been telling her that she wasn't good enough, and now this total stranger, who was supposed to help them out of this mess, was telling her that she had been born not good enough? Wind seemed to flood through the cabin, anything that wasn't nailed down began to rattle.

"Calm down Tori!" Simon yelled over the force of the wind.

Tori clenched her fists. Deep breaths, she told herself, deep breaths. Little by little, the wind died down until it was gone.

Kit, breathless, collapsed into one of the four chairs. "You are powerful."

Tori smirked an 'I-told-you-so' smirk. "I know."

Simon sat across from his father, and motioned for Tori to take one of the other chairs, which she did. "At least we know that one of us isn't completely useless."

"Useless?" Kit caught the word.

"One day I tried to use my powers and I collapsed. I don't know what happened. We'd been on the run for a while so De- we just chalked it up to exhaustion. The same thing was assumed for Tori, and we didn't want her to try anything, in case we got the same result." Simon avoided Derek's name, not knowing how to bring it up, but wanting to put it off for as long as possible.

"Losing your powers? That shouldn't be happening." Kit frowned.

"That's what you get when you genetically modify supernaturals," Tori scowled, bringing out the 'cynical Tori' Simon had teased her about just hours ago.

"Genesis." Kit was not surprised that they knew about it. "In the beginning, I thought that we were doing the right thing, that the testing would make life better for supernaturals. Obviously not, though." Kit shook his head. "Although, Simon was never involved in any of the testing, as you seemed to be saying. I didn't know that his mother was pregnant until after she'd had the baby."

"Oh," Tori said, it was the only thing she could think of to say. Simon hung his head, almost like he was ashamed of the news, but Kit just kept going.

"And who's that?" Kit pointed to Chloe, tossing and turning on the bed.

"Chloe Saunders, necromancer." Simon said, "she's sick. I have no idea what's wrong."

Kit came closer to the blonde, and her bloodshot blue eyes flew open. "Apple trees," she cried. "Apple trees!"

Kit chuckled. "Calm little one," he whispered, placing a hand on her forehead. "Get better." His hand glowed blue for a moment, then Chloe fell asleep.

"What did you do?" Simon demanded.

"I healed her, I think." Kit said.

"You think?" Tori gave him a look.

"She just had a simple virus that she probably picked up from a spirit. Shamans are usually the best to go to, but sorcerers and witches have some healing spells."

"You can get viruses from spirits?" Simon was curious.

"Necromancers can. Anyway, I'm sure she was healed. I haven't used my powers in so long, but it's not a problem."

"What is your story anyway?" Tori asked impatiently.

"In a second," Kit assured her before looking to his son. "Where's your brother, Simon? Where's Derek?"

I haven't read The Reckoning, but this was nothing like the actual books anyway. But, I'd like to annoy you with something: I have gotten a lot of 'don't kill Derek' reviews. Note: I haven't called Derek dead. I don't own Darkest Powers or Pinocchio. Enjoy.

~DI4MGZ~