Dark Raven: The Call of Destiny

Cal brought breakfast out to them. Zeph had calmed down, wiped the ravages of the tears from his face and was regarding Jonathan solemnly. He was still shaky from the emotional storm and the intellectual upset. He was carefully sitting on his immense desire to destroy his father because he also did not want to do what the Dragons had programmed him to do. He saw understanding in his father's eyes.

"So - initial storm over?" Both sets of black eyes stared at her. "Ok, I'll just take this back inside -"

"No."

She smiled at her son and set the plate in the grass in front of him. Bacon and rice flour pancakes and fruit. She felt the quizzical look start on her guest's face.

"Don't start." She set a similar plate down for him, handed them both a set of chopsticks and headed back into the house.

"You're not eating?"

She glanced back at him, curls bouncing and shimmering in the sunlight. "Do I look like I have three hands?" she asked sweetly.

"She'll be back with hers," Zeph told him, staying with the Japanese.

"Hi - Zeph -"

"Hikari. For mother I am Zeph. For you, Hikari. I - I need to hear it - to know that it is still me - " He faltered and looked down at his plate. Oh, boy. He'd made a mess of the pancakes while he was talking. He stiffened when Jonathan touched his arm, looked up into the dark eyes so like his own and bobbed a sketchy nod.

"It's all right. It will take time. Hikari." The faint smile that lit the boy's face at the sound of his name brought an incredible joy to Jonathan's heart. He realized that it would take time to unwind the brainwashing the Black Dragons had imposed on the boy. He grieved for the pain and damage inflicted on his son, but was also thankful that Cal had found him; rescued him. The thought of facing his son in earnest chilled him to the marrow. That the Dragons had thought it a fitting fate for them both sent ice through his veins.

"I'm baaaack -" she caught Jonathan's uncomprehending look over her little sing song notice of return. "You don't watch a lot of horror movies, do you?"

There was a choke of laughter from Zeph.

"No."

"Ah. Bad guy ghosts. Sequel. Survivor small child announces the return of the bad guys in a small voice. Not a bad movie. You two planning on eating, or building ramparts?" She was looking at their plates.

"Eating."

Cal put the day back on track after breakfast by shooing her son off to do his school work. "I don't care that you've just found each other. Well, I do, actually. But that's no excuse for blowing off your school work."

The boy looked from one to the other, then nodded and went to his room to collect his books.

"Isn't that a little hard?" Jonathan was irritated at her exercise of authority over "his" son.

She turned to meet his gaze. "No. I told you. Zeph has problems." She held her hand up to forestall his objections. "And yes, finding you will certainly alleviate a lot of the underpinnings of the psychological ones. But not all at once. Part of what keeps him on an even keel, is having a routine. His studies are a part of that routine."

"My life isn't routine."

"Neither is mine. That's why Kaitlin is here. While I'm off doing what needs to be done, Kaitlin keeps things steady at home." She paused for a breath and plunged onward. "Before you come up with all sorts of worries and objections, there is a very real probability that within a few months, Zeph won't need the rigid routine. He doesn't have as rigid a schedule as he did three years ago. As he heals, things can change."

"He was brainwashed."

"I kinda gathered that. And, believe me, if I ever get my hands on the people who did this - they are gonna regret it." Oh, my. Flat eyes. She waited.

"It won't work."

"What won't?"

"Chastising them. They won't understand. They'll take it as a - you'll end up with a vendetta."

She regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. "OK. So, what do you recommend? Running?"

His brows drew together again. "If necessary."

She reached out impulsively and caught his arm. "There is a time to stop running. This is it. For you. For Hikari. If you run now, you will never have a home. You will die for him, but you will take him with you." She blinked. "Oh, my. I hate it when that happens," she muttered and looked away.

He covered her hand with his. "It's all right. You're right. It has to stop now. But I don't know how."

"Well, you might try enlightening me and we'll see if maybe an outside point of view will help."

An outside point of view. Ski was an outside point of view, but he had no answers either. He considered that thought. No. Ski was not outside on that. He had known Jonathan and his problems for so long, his own attitude was to move on and quickly. He gave her a tired nod.

"It's a long story."

"I know. I got the short, expurgated version from Ski. I think I need the long version now."

They sat down again, got comfortable and Jonathan talked. Cal asked an occasional incisive question, but let him tell his story with as few interruptions as possible.

"So, synopsis is that unless we can find a really good way to crater this "honor debt", they just keep on coming."

"Essentially."

"And they want you and Hikari dead. Preferably as painfully and slowly as possible, but they'd settle for fast and painless if it was the only way."

"Yeah."

"OK." He looked at her oddly. The corners of her mouth quirked up. She giggled. "Don't look at me that way." The giggles got worse over his reaction. She fell over onto her back in the grass, laughing. "I'm sorry," she gasped between chuckles. "I know it's not funny. But your look was."

"I'll try to keep that in mind."

"Good."

The laugher died away. "Oh, dear. So, what we basically have to do is either convince them you're dead, both of you. Or find a way to - You said the Yakuza is in on things at the moment. Why?"

He gave her the short version of protecting Tanaka and daughter.

She sat up and stared at him wide eyed. "Boy, when you set out to right wrongs, you just take on the world, don't you?"

"I did what needed to be done."

"Not disagreeing. Just - He takes after you. Nothing in half measures if he can help it. Give me some time to think. There has got to be a way to turn this to your advantage."

"If they'd just give it up - I'm tired of killing."

He sounded lost, hopeless. Impulsively, she put her arms around him, holding him as she had Zeph. "We'll figure something out. I won't promise milk and honey, but I will do my best." Suddenly she was aware of him on an entirely different level. His eyes were velvet soft, warm, yielding, wanting. She took a breath and released it, fighting every response her body was putting forth. She waited for him. He smiled and let her go. Now was not the time.

Cal left him sitting in the grass. She went to look in on Zeph who was gazing into some undefined distance, his pencil poised over the first math question of the day. It had been poised there for a while, she surmised.

"Zeph -"

He looked around at her. He smiled. "I - uh - thinking."

She nodded her understanding. "Zeph, if it would help, will you talk to me?"

He frowned. "Hurts."

"I know. If I can isolate you from the memories, will you let me?"

His frown deepened. "How?"

"Hypnotism," she said with a sigh. She remembered the last time they'd tried to unlock his memories that way. It had not been pleasant.

"No."

She came over and knelt beside his chair so she could look up at him. "Zeph, there may not be much time. We need to know what happened to you and how and why. We need everything you can remember, to protect you and your father. I need a handle on the Black Dragons so I can stop them."

Zeph looked frightened. "No. No way. Not - No."

She held out her hands to him. "Zeph, do you trust me?" she asked softly.

"Yes." The word was out of his mouth before he could think about it. She was his mother, the only one he had known for 8 years. She had saved his life, loved him, wanted him when he knew no one wanted him; that no one could love him. He swallowed hard and kept his eyes locked on hers.

"We have to do this."

"Why?"

Her eyes dropped. "You know what I have told you every day, at least once, since you opened your eyes in the hospital."

Cold fear clutched at his heart. "Yes." His voice was a whisper.

"Very soon, something is going to happen. I cannot stop it. You cannot stop it. Jonathan cannot stop it." She blinked back tears. "I do not want it to happen, but it will. I love you, Zeph. I will always love you. I will watch over you, no matter what happens. But I cannot always be here for you."

He reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her around to look at him again. He searched her face and saw her truth. "Sick?"

"No. This goes back to before you were born, before Jonathan knew Ski, before I was quite old enough, by American standards, to have a child. I incurred a debt of honor. That debt will soon come due."

"His fault!"

"No."

"He comes. You go. No!"

"Zeph - Yes, his coming is the trigger for payment. But he has nothing to do with it. Together you are far stronger than you are apart. Zeph, I need to know what you know about the Dragons." She caught his hands and held them as they began to move in agitation. "I will never let them harm you. If taking out every last man, woman and child is what it takes to make the two of you safe, I will. But your father will never forgive me."

"Stop them."

"I will find a way."

Looking like he wanted to say and do anything else in the world, he nodded his acceptance. "Yes." He was nearly bouncing in agitation.

"Come on, let's go for a swim." She changed the direction of their interaction.

"You will come with me?" he shot back in Vietnamese.

"Of course. I will always watch over you."

"And play with dolphins."

Jonathan was surprised when the two headed past him, Cal's cast covered in what looked like plastic wrap. He followed them to the beach.

"Lessons?" he murmured behind Cal.

"Swimming lessons!" she agreed with a laugh.

Zeph plunged into the waves with little regard for their strength. Jonathan frowned watching him, seeing a fearlessness he had not expected. Cal followed him into the water. There would be hell to pay if her cast got too wet, but it was so much fun. Jonathan sat in the sand and watched them play together. His son - his son - the words kept humming through his head, through his body, like his heartbeat.

He swallowed hard and tried to think. For everyone else he could think outside the box - but not on this. Thinking was difficult. He wanted to react, to *do* - but there wasn't anything he *could* do at the moment. He sat and marveled at the sleek water mammal his son became in the water.

He watched Cal as well. He had known from carrying her that she was a nicely put together bundle of female. The tank suit she wore outlined the essentials of a very nice body. He found that she was difficult to ignore. Wet, her coppery hair hung nearly to her waist. Her skin was pale, touched with freckles. Her laughter was infectious. He was finding her immensely attractive. Yet he knew next to nothing about her, about how she treated his son - he slowed down the momentum of his thoughts.

Not true. He knew a great deal. She treated him with love, with kindness, with firmness. She dealt with a psyche damaged to a point that most people would not have been able to handle. And she handled it well. She worked with his son, worked to make him as whole and healthy as she could. The crisis this morning would help. But where did that leave him?

He watched the two of them splashing and enjoying themselves and felt isolated, outside the loop. His finding Hikari put the boy in danger. He had a vision of the house exploding in flame again, knowing what it felt like when he believed Ski had been inside the house; when he believed Ski had died. How could he endanger the boy like that? He felt a lump rise in his throat. How could he not want to be a part of the boy's life?

He let himself fall backwards into the loose sand and stared up at the sky, squinting at the sun. He closed his eyes. Aki. Where was Aki when he needed her? Dead. Stupid question. And why did he feel such a desperate need for her right now? Because that is *our* son, he answered himself. Hell.

He was half dozing, trying to puzzle out some answer to their situation when a splash of water landed on his chest. He sat up and met his son's twinkling eyes.

"Not asleep," he called back to Cal who was just walking out of the surf.

"I wasn't wet either."

Zeph looked down at him, a smile still curving his mouth, his eyes sparkling. "No," he conceded. "You are now. Swim?"

"No trunks," Jonathan responded in the same sort of verbal short hand.

Zeph frowned. "Buy some? Swim - tomorrow?"

Jonathan's face softened radically and he nodded his acceptance. "All right."

"Dolphins - didn't come today," Zeph added, a wistful note in his voice.

"Maybe tomorrow."

"Maybe we'll head for a beach where they've been sighted tomorrow," Cal inserted as she joined them. "I think I got my cast wet, what d'you think?" She displayed her sodden cast. The plastic wrap had not done the required job.

"I think the doctor is going to be annoyed with you," the man responded with a shake of his head.

"Yeah, me, too. Zeph, go get dried off and dressed. I think your mom has to go see a man about a cast.

They both watched the boy run back up to the house, disappearing into the cool interior. Cal looked back down at Jonathan. She carefully knelt down beside him.

"Any thoughts?"

"Quite a number. None of them helpful."

"We'll manage."

Again each became aware of the proximity of the other all at once. Cal's eyes were fastened on his. Her breathing picked up tempo. He was incredibly good looking, and having his attention fastened on one just - she swallowed, took a breath through her mouth, her lips parting slightly. He leaned forward, reaching for her, putting an arm around her shoulders and gently drawing her to him. Their lips met. She tasted salty from the water, with a troubling touch of something he couldn't place.

She pulled back with a sigh. "Your timing is lousy."

"What?"

"There's something wiggling in my cast. It makes it very difficult concentrate."

"Doctor's office. Not biting?"

"No, but it'll probably be dead by the time we get there." She gave a choke of laughter. "The doctor is gonna hate me." The laughter got the better of her.

Jonathan managed to get the fish responsible for the wiggly feeling out of the cast before they went to the doctor.

Cal was sternly lectured on swimming in a cast and looked properly contrite. She advised the doctor that she had a 14 year old with her and she didn't like to leave him in the water unsupervised. Was there anything they could do? The doctor advised waders and no swimming. Cal pouted. The doctor pointed out that a waterproof cast was expensive. Cal got out her checkbook.

"Water proof me, doc." Her grin won the man over and waterproof her he did. He advised that she might want to stick with swimming pools for a few weeks until her ankle healed.

"If he'll accept me as a substitute," Jonathan offered as they drove home.

"I'll see. He'll want me on the beach for a while, until he's really comfortable with the water. He's not as used to oceans as he wants me to think. Or you to think. Whichever. He's had very little experience with open water."

"Dolphins?"

"It's a catch phrase with the two of us. I promised him a long time ago that he'd get to swim with dolphins. I think we were watching something on whales and dolphins on one of the cable channels that does all animal stuff. It looked like fun. Lots and lots of fun. He asked. I promised. Here we might even have a chance of doing so."

"I don't know about dolphins. I think the water's too warm. But sea turtles are another matter. I know a quiet place where you can usually find a few of them to swim with."

The delight on her face was contagious. "You're wonderful."

He felt both warmed and startled by her enthusiasm. A part of him wanted to back away. He knew so little about Calliope Jones, so little about her work, her life, her - yet, she was a part of his life if he wanted to continue to see his son. Something in him accepted that for now, Hikari - Zeph - whichever, was not to be taken from her, not if he wanted to keep him safe and healing.