The Unknown Destiny

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-six: The Greatest of all Powers

The pain from the bullet was tearing through him, but Lucas tried to pull his mind away from it, to stare up at the ghostly form of his uncle. "Keith?" he gasped again, trying to pull him into focus. How could he possibly be here? Shawn had said that he wasn't allowed to visit them, not for awhile yet. He was breaking a million rules before, so how could he be visiting him now?

"It's all right, Luke," Keith said, kneeling down beside him. His brown eyes were filled with concern as he met the blue ones of his confused nephew. "You need to let go of your fear, Lucas. You have to let it go, to save yourself, to save your sister. Have faith that your destiny lies upon a different fate than mine. You have to believe that."

Lucas, still confused by all of this, shook his head, not realising that the pain was leaving him as though as it had never been. "How can I?" he whispered, choking out the words. "Every demon that we go up against, every day that I continue to be a witch, I take the change of getting killed. And it's so much worse for Mom, knowing that she could lose her only child like she lost you. There's no one else to help her if I die, no one for her to have reason to keep on living."

"Your mom has plenty of reasons to keep on living, Lucas," Keith said firmly. He was smiling. "She knows that what you're doing is for the Greater Good. Karen is strong, Lucas, where do you think that you get all of your strength? It is that strength that led you to becoming the head of this family and the eldest sibling." Lucas managed a weak smile. "Besides, she's going to have another reason to live very soon. Actually, she already has it, but she'll only discover it very soon, if she hasn't already. Your sister is enough of a reason for her to keep on going."

Lucas shook his head, becoming more confused by the minute. "But Keith, Mom likes Susan, sure, but they're not really that close. Why would she be a reason?"

"It was not Susan that I was speaking of," Keith said mildly. Before Lucas could even ask what he meant, he continued, "Lucas, to stop this demon, you need to believe in the greatest of all powers: love. Love for your siblings, for your mom, for Brooke, whatever love that you need to face your fear, to conquer it, take that now. Even love for your daughters that Susan saw in the future and your son that she did not foresee."

Taking a deep breath and staring at his uncle, Lucas realised that his fear was ebbing away as though it had never been, replaced by the love that he felt for everyone in his life and everyone that he had ever cherished, even in the smallest measurement.

Opening his eyes, Lucas struggled to his feet; the bullet wound gone. But it had never been there, he now realised. It was merely an illusion. Now standing up, Lucas glared at the demon, who was staring in shock at this. Clearly, no one had actually ever vanquished their fear against him.

"No," he whispered as Lucas faced him down. "NO! THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!"

"This party's over," Lucas told him through gritted teeth, using his power to throw the demon into the wall. Thrown off balance, the demon tried to use his power again on Lucas, but it had no effect. "I'm not afraid anymore. Your kind took away the person that I loved like a father and now you think to take away my sister?" he continued. "Not as long as I draw breath."

Hearing the beeping of her watch, Susan managed to turn her head towards her wrist and saw the watch beeping the twelfth hour, when the Demon of Fear's power ran out.

The demon howled as he was swallowed whole by the fire portal that had opened up beneath his feet and vanished into the flames.

Susan felt her bonds and gag vanished and she stumbled forward straight into her brother's arms. Lucas caught her just as she was about to fall and she wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging to him. He stroked her dark hair, glad that she was safe.

"Oh, god, I was so afraid that I'd lost you," she whispered, sobbing hard into her brother's chest, harder than she had even on the day that Keith had died.

"It's okay, Sue, I'm all right," Lucas whispered to his sister. "It's all right, it's over. You're safe now." Susan nodded into his chest, but he could still feel her trembling. "I love you, little sister," he whispered, resting his chin onto the top of her head.

"I love you, too," she whispered, "but I don't know what I'd do if I lost you, Luke," she confessed, her voice choked by her sobs. "He knew that, even before I did. He knew that one of my greatest fears was to lose one of you guys. I don't ever want to lose you."

"You won't," Lucas told her firmly, smiling as he recalled his uncle's words. But what had he meant by another sister, one that he didn't even know about? "Have faith that we will survive and that our destinies are to be different than Keith's." But still he held her against him, comforting his little sister. "It's okay, now, Sue, let's go home."

--

Karen and his mom arrived to the manor before his brother and sister did, which, considering that his mom told him that she hadn't called Lucas and Susan had left before she did, was reason for concern. Nathan immediately started to head out to look for them just as the door opened and Lucas and Susan spilled in.

"Are you guys okay?" he asked, relief surging through him, though he noted Lucas looked a little worse for the war and Susan looked as though she'd been crying.

"Yeah, we, uh, had a little run-in with the Demon of Fear," Lucas explained just as Karen and Deb headed outside before coming into the manor with some boxes. He raised his eyebrows at them before returning his attention to Nathan, deciding that whatever they were doing could wait until after explanations had been clarified.

"You sure that you're okay?" Nathan asked, worried. "I mean, it's after twelve, so he shouldn't be coming back, should he? We're safe now."

"Don't worry, he's gone, or at least defeated for now," Susan said with a sigh. "Can't really vanquish him, can we? But Lucas did kick some demon butt pretty good," she added, grinning just as the boys' mothers walked in and out again, carrying some boxes. "Hey, what are you guys doing, anyway?" she wanted to know.

It was a pretty good question when Lucas realised that some of his stuff was poking out of the boxes. The women looked at each other. "Well, Deb and I have been doing some talking," Karen said at long last, looking at her son. "And we think that it's for the best that the three of you started living together."

"What!" Lucas, Nathan, and Susan all said together. Nathan and Susan looked at each other in amazement. They had known that it'd be easier with the Power of Three under one roof, but hadn't really expected it to actually happen, so soon after Keith's death.

"Mom, are you kidding me?" Lucas demanded. "I can't just leave you with everything that you have going on right now. I can't leave you alone."

Karen smiled and shook her head. "The three of you need to be together here, Lucas," she told him. "This place is your heritage; Keith grew up here and so did many generations of Scotts. And you've been spending most of your time here anyway. Besides, I'm not going to be alone," she added. "Deb is going to be living with me. But if we find that any of you are going to slack off on your grades or anything," she told them warningly, "this is going to be revoked. This is a privilege, which can be taken away. Start skipping school or slacking on grades and you'll start having parental supervision again. You three understand me?"

"Yes, Mom," Lucas said, used to his mom's rules.

"Yes, Ms. Roe," Nathan said after seeing the look in his mom's eyes.

"Yes, Karen," Susan said, grinning wildly.

"Good," Karen said with a smile back at Susan. "Now, we'll let you three get settled in." She hugged her son tightly. "You keep coming over, though, all right? I don't want to lose contact with you just because you're moving out."

"You won't, Ma," Lucas said with a grin. "Promise." With a smile, she and Deb left, leaving the siblings alone in the hallway. But not for long, as Susan spotted Brooke standing in the doorway, looking edgily towards the siblings—or more importantly, Lucas.

"Uh, I think we'll leave you two to talk," Susan said. "Come on, Nate," she added more insistently, pulling him upstairs.

Lucas watched his brother and sister go before turning to Brooke. "What was that about?" he asked her.

"Well, Susan knows that I need to talk to you about something," Brooke said quietly, looking up at him. Lucas frowned. "Lucas, there's something that I need to tell you."

"Okay."

"I really hadn't confirmed it until this afternoon, when the demon attacked me, but . . ." Brooke stopped and switched her sentence. "He knew what my greatest fear was, Luke. It was . . . for me to lose our baby. I know that sounds stupid and I know it wasn't planned, but . . ."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Lucas said, stopping her. He was looking stunned and shocked. "You're pregnant?"

"Um . . ." Brooke gave an uneasy laugh. "Yeah. I am. I didn't mean for it to happen, but Lucas, I can't get rid of the baby. It's too precious to me and I know we're in high school and I know we're too young for this, but I can't . . . I just can't get rid of it." Her eyes were starting to tear up by the time that she had finished this speech.

Shaking his head, trying to clear his thoughts, Lucas said in disbelief, "But—but what about birth control? I thought that you were on that."

"I was," Brooke said, stressing the word for emphasis. "Up until the day that I took the first test and it came out positive. After that, I stopped using it because I didn't want to jeopardise the baby's health. Why do you think that I suggested using alternate birth control?"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I wanted to make sure, which I wasn't until that demon said that my greatest fear was to lose the baby. Lucas, I'm sorry, but I can't get rid of the baby." Her face was earnestful, as though trying to make him understand.

Lucas slowly nodded. "No, I understand, Brooke. You don't have to explain it to me." He let out a slow breath. "But what are we going to do about college and stuff?"

Brooke's gaze turned hopeful. "You're going to help me?" she asked, relieved.

He laughed, pulling her into a tight hug. "Of course I am. Do you think that I'd just off and leave you like Dan left my mom?" he asked her, smiling. "Believe me, Brooke, this baby is as precious to me as he is to you." Lucas kissed her tenderly.

With a small smile, Brooke gave him a slightly seductive smile. "And what makes you think, Mr. Scott, that this child is going to be a boy?" she inquired.