Chapter 11: Ghosts of the past.
Sitting with his parents and sister, introducing his long lost son to them, was a dream come trough for Sonny. It didn't happen the way it was planned, there was way too much water that had run into that ocean for it to be sane. But sometimes, it was better late than never. Beth and Evan had planned to take D'Jok around the sanctuary and show him how it worked. When Sonny was away, they were the ones entrusted to keep it safe and hidden from the worlds eyes. A task they preformed with an execellente touch. Sonny sighed. He had to deal with this metaflux permanently, but also, he didn't want to scare D'Jok. He was obviously frightened of it. But right now, D'jok was in conversation with his grandparents, whom had fallen in love with their grandson. So far all was good.
«Thank you Sonny».
Sonny's trail of thoughts was cut short when his father came up beside him and spoke to him.
«For what Dad?»
«You have no idea how happy we are we got to meet D'Jok. Living here, sure was no guarrantee we would ever meet him».
«You know I would have made sure you met him one way or another» assured Sonny.
«Yes, but you're hardly ever around either. Don't get me wrong Sonny, we're not complaining, we just would like some more familytime with you».
Sonny nodded this. He knew he wasn't all that much with his family. The pirates were his family away from home, and it had been that way for years now. Now, Sonny's family had an addittion, and amost welcome one. Sonny had decided to try to free more time for both his parents and sister, and D'Jok. Corso was more than fit to cover for him in a time of need.
During the day, they had a lot done. Sonny had placed the new sphere of metaflux in a safe lab he had here, under close guarding. No one but him knew the acess code for the lab, so there was no chance of the sphere getting stolen.
Sonny had thought a lot about the past as he dealt with this flux. The price of it's making.. it had been too high. It had cost him the life of his wife, and his own as he knew it. General Bleylock had basically taken all that was dear to both himself and Clamp. For a long time, Sonny also thought that Clamp had fallen victim to Bleylock and gotten killed, as his wife was. For years, the images of the ship that carried his pregnant wife being shot down, had haunted Sonny, and robbed him of any form of good sleep. Sonny had become almost dependant on the pirates sleeping device to get by.
His closest friends, in his team, Corso, Bennet and Artie, all had learned to see when Sonny needed help getting relaxed enough to sleep or otherwise was in need of help. They had developed their own ways to assist him, depending on how close to him they were. Corso had the most personal ways off course. Being who he was, he was very close to his boss.
The friendship between them had been the rarest thing. But the bond had solidified into being unbreakable by now. Sonny couldn't imagine his life without Corso.
D'Jok spent the day with his grandparents, and the afternoon, he went with his father to the most highly guarded location in the entire shiloh archipellago. The sanctuary vaults. Sonny had codes for everywhere, and the system to get in was beyond imagination. D'Jok had thought the pirates got by with older technology. The sanctuary proved it wrong. The technology by far exceeeded anything Technoid had created to date.
«Wow Dad, I think Thran would have loved to see this» said D'Jok as he looked around.
«Sadly, you can't tell him about it D'Jok. This place is something I need you to swear to secretsy on. It's in all the pirates best interrest I ask this of you. I'd hate to have to erase this from your memory, but if it needs be done, I would do it D'Jok»
Sonny was deadly serious as he spoke. They got into an underground vault. Sonny used both retinal and voice scanner to get in. D'Jok gasped. He saw a familiar sphere. The snowkids Metaflux. But, what had happened to it?
«Dad, I recognize the sphere, it's the one containing the flux you collected from the snowkids back at genesis a few months ago. But what's happened to it?».
Sonny looked at the once purple liquid, that had gone greyish of colour.
«the metaflux can't be destroyed D'Jok, not the way you would think. The metaflux was always unstabile, that's why it could be made to be undetectable. I still don't know myself, how that came to be. It was a coincidence. But it made the flux even more dangerous. It's taken me some time to figure out how to destroy it. But what you see, is the flux decomposing. It's broken down to it's natural form. That way, I can finally destroy it, but it must weaken more first».
D'Jok was lost for words. Sonny put the new sphere, much smaller than the one collected from the snowkids, next to the sphere. It wasn't that strong, but still, the colours were bright enough to signal danger.
«How long do you think it will take before it's all gone Dad?» asked D'Jok.
«I don't know D'Jok, but trust me, it's stored safely here, I do check on it regularly. Once it's gone,I'll let you know, Ok?»
Sonny looked at his son with a smile, before he turned, and together, father and son left the vault, and locked it securely.
The metaflux would never again be seen to the world, other than as a bad memory...
Corso was worried. He didn't like that Sonny had taken D'Jok with him to the sanctuary. Usually, Sonny would always bring him along. This time it was different. Sonny had brought D'Jok instead. Corso wished he had not felt jealous of the kid because ot it. But D'Jok was Sonny's son, and it was understandable to everyone that Sonny wanted to get to know his son. Afterall, it had been 16 years now that Sonny didn't know his son at all, he was looking to make up for that lost time, and who could blame him? Certainly not Corso. But the recent events worried him. They still had no clues as to whom the unknown enemy was. Nor had they any idea as to who the target was. Though, Corso had his suspicions. If he was right, they needed to keep a close eye on Sonny, as he would be in danger without knowing where it came from. But, it didn't mean that it necessarily was Sonny that was the target. It could just as easily be the snowkids. Corso was frustrated. He read through the reports again. For so many years now, before they got the immunity, something the majority of the pirates thanked Sonny for, there had been no attacks on the pirates from within their own ranks. Sure, there were members that had come and gone, but the standardproceedure had been to erase their memories before they left. This time, it could not be Bleylock. Sonny had seen him take a huge fall off a fifftystorey building. Some would say that Sonny had thrown him off the building, wich was incorrect. Sonny had barely managed to prevent genesis from suffering the same disaster as Akillan, by risking his own life, throwing himself off the building, to grab the sphere, containing the snowkids metaflux. He had been lucky, and managed to grab on to a flagpole to stop the fall. Bleylock had thought he was lying dead, crushed, somewhere lower down, and had been shocked to see Sonny holding on by one arm. He had climbed on to the flagpole, to try to push sonny into slipping his grip, and falling to his death. Sonny had fought back, and Bleylock had slipped. Sonny had proven to be physically stronger and managed to hold on, as Bleylock had slipped, and fell into the death he had intended for Sonny to suffer. Since then, it had been quite peacefull to be a pirate. Bennet came in.
«Corso, you might want to inform sonny of this» he said and handed Corso a report.
Corso read through it. Then, he looked at Bennet.
«We don't have any proof this is true, but prepare to secure all activities planned, especially the next mission. I got a feeling that our friend will strike there. We need to find out who's his target, and why».
«We're on it Corso» said Bennet, and got back to checking datas.
Corso looked at the screens.
«Whaterever you plan on Sonny, you got to be carefull. If what I'm thinking is true, you're in far more danger now than ever before, so is D'Jok...»
There is an expression saying that time flies when you're having fun. D'Jok realised the truth in it. He wished he could spend more time with his grandparents and aunt, but Sonny said they had to go.
« Already?» D'Jok pouted.
« Having fun huh?» smiled Sonny.
«I barely just met my grandparents and aunt, can you blame me for wanting to get to know them?»
«ha ha ha, off course not D'Jok. No one blames you for that» said Sonny laughingly.
But then he grew serious again. He had told his parents and sister of the recent events on Shiloh and asked their advice. They had been unonymous. He had to be carefull and watch his steps.
«Someone is out to either harm you directly Sonny, or have the trust you have worked so hard to build with the snowkids torn down» said Beth.
« True, if Aarch had been someone else, he might not have continued his stay here after the first near accident occurred» said Sonny thoughtfully.
« It was real nice of him to let me go with dad on this trip» said D'Jok.
They made ready to say goodbye and head back to Shiloh, when Evan, D'Jok's grandfather approached him.
«D'Jok, we want you to have these, you're family, and when you're far away, it will somehow make it seem we're a lot closer to you than you might think. I've learned, during my years here, that you should take nothing for granted, especially if your son is the most wanted man in the galaxy. Here, take this as a gift from a family that thought you to be lost, but who are thrilled that you're still here» he said.
He handed D'Jok a box. D'Jok looked over at Sonny, who nodded. Open the box. D'Jok opened it. Inside, there were three pictures, one showed D'Jok and Sonny, a unique father and son picture. The next one was a family portrait, with his grandparents and aunt and father. But the last one, D'Jok teared up when he saw it.
«Dad..»
«Yes D'Jok?»
«How.. did you manage to do this?» D'Jok asked.
The last picture was one that had been impossible to make, but Sonny had somehow managed to. It showed D'Jok in front, and behind a gingerhaired woman and sonny. A family photo. D'Jok stared at it.
«This is how it was meant to look, before Bleylock and the cursed Metaflux destroyed it all» said Sonny silent. D'Jok looked into the box. There was more. A book, when D'Jok opened it, he was stunned. It was the balckbones familytree, generations back. The last addition that had been made, was Sonny and Niobe, as a married couple. D'Jok saw that his picture had been entered below the ones of his parents. In the bottom, he found a locket. He opened it. It was evident that this was a personal gift from Sonny. The locket contained two small miniaturephotographs. One was of D'Jok, the other, a rare portrait of Sonny after he joined the pirates.
«Dad – I»
«It's yours D'Jok, like it was always meant to be. Your bracelet was a gift from a loving mother, who would have done everything to be here. She can't be here with us, so, she found a way to leave me the task of being there. I wish deeply from my heart that you could have known your mother D'Jok, but it's not something I am able to help you with. All I can do, is to tell you about her, and that, I will do».
D'Jok nodded. It had been an exhausting 24 hour for him. Meeting his grandparents and aunt had been beyond what he could have dreamed of.
On the flight back, D'Jok fell asleep on the co-pilot seat. Sonny smiled when he saw that. D'Jok. His son made him proud everyday. He was a football star, but still, he was just a teen. He had the whole life in front of him. Sonny swore he would do anything to support his son, encourage him to fight for his goals, and be the best person he could. Sonny knew it wouldn't always be easy, life was full of traps that you could fall into. D'Jok would stumble and fall from time to time, it happened to absolutely everyone. The trick was to jump back up and keep fighting. Sonny enganged autopilot. He pulled out a cover from under a seat, and put it around D'Jok. Then, he laid back in his own seat and closed his eyes. Upon their return to Shiloh, there was things that needed be adressed, but Sonny was confident they would solve it. They would find the villain this time too. With that thought, Sonny driftet off into sleep...
hold on for the upcoming one, you will start to be able to conclude who the one causing trouble is, and why. Keep reading. And please, rewiew.