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To heather mcdaniels – Thanks for your review! I'm hoping so too! It might take another week or two before I'm at that point though. I'll let you all know when I will start doing that. Hope you like this chapter!
To scienceficfan24 – Thanks for your review! Sorry, I know it sucks when stories you like end, but eventually they all do. Hope you like this chapter!
Enjoy!
Hal sat alone on the steps of one of the many building that circled the courtyard. He had been doing a lot of that over the last nine days. Ever since Anne told him he had to wear the sling in order to make sure his shoulder healed properly, he had nothing to do, except of course the physiotherapy he had to do with Lourdes to help his shoulder get its strength back. To say he was getting bored and restless would be an understatement.
"Hey." The young man turned his over to the left when he heard Maggie's voice coming from that direction. He smiled when he saw the blonde coming towards him and replied, "Hey."
"What are you doing here?" Maggie asked as Hal moved over to give her space to sit beside him, which she immediately did.
"Just thinking, and watching." Hal answered, moving his head to look back at the crowds for a few seconds before turning his gaze back over to Maggie.
"You could probably do that without looking like an outsider hiding in the shadows." Maggie said with a slightly teasing voice.
"True, but then I'd be surrounded by people who think I'm a threat and should either be kicked out or killed." Hal replied with a serious tone that instantly caused Maggie to drop the smile. She lowered her head as she tried to think of a response to that, but raised it when she heard Hal mutter, "'Outsider'. Yeah, that sounds about right."
"You're not an outsider Hal." Maggie told him. Hal then looked back over at her with an are-you-serious?, kind of expression, but Maggie didn't take back her statement as she continued, "You may be a little different now, but not in the way it matters. You belong here Hal Mason and anyone who says otherwise is a fool."
Hal slowly gave her a half-smile as he listened to her, though he didn't really feel worthy of her defending him. He didn't really feel worthy of anything if he was being honest with himself. Between what he did when he had the eyebug, and what he had done when he lost control of his powers, he had hurt so many, gotten so many people killed. That wasn't going to just go away. Nor would anybody forget about it anytime soon.
"What are you doing over here? Nothing to do today?" Hal changed the subject, putting the focus on her as he no longer wanted to talk about what was going on with him, and wanted to distraction.
"Not until late tonight. I got stuck with sentry duty. And I came over because I saw you sitting here. I didn't want you to be alone. You've been alone too much lately." Maggie answered, her voice becoming more sympathetic at the end. Hal however, began to feel a bit defensive.
Ever since he revealed to his Dad and Weaver that he was indeed alive and returned to the 2nd Mass, he felt that he was being closely watched. Considering the circumstance and what happened in the past, Hal didn't blame them. It was annoying and a little nerve-wracking, but completely understandable and reasonable. However, as time went on, instead of getting better, it only got worse, especially with his family and Maggie. Apparently, they knew him better than he gave them credit for, or he had really sucked at hiding at what was going on.
Despite that though, Hal continued to hope that his family would stop pushing and prodding. He just wanted everything to go back to normal. But they kept pushing and he finally broke, and it got worse. Not the questions and the attempts to get him talking about what was going on with him. They had backed off on that front now that they knew what happened when he was with Karen. However, it became clear that they were even more worried about him than they were before, and he knew it was only a matter of time before there was another confrontation.
"I'm fine Maggie. You don't have to worry about me." Hal told her, his annoyance seeping into his voice a little.
"Maybe, but we do. And, you're not the most honest person when it comes to your wellbeing." Maggie pointed out, causing Hal to instinctively smirk. He couldn't really argue with that.
"You know what's kind of funny? About 6 months after the invasion happened, before we met you and Pope and his group, it was Matt's birthday. He told me and our Dad that he wished everything would go back to the way it was. I totally understood that. I mean, we were in a war, our Mom was dead, Ben was missing. I wanted to go back to the way it was, but not as badly as I do now." Hal revealed quietly, turning his gaze to the ground.
Maggie was silent for a few minutes, not really sure what to say. She understood what he was trying to say and wasn't really surprised that he was feeling this way. The blonde knew that Hal had been through a lot since the invasion happened. His Mom was killed, his brother taken and harnessed, his girlfriend taken and harnessed, thinking his father was dead for three months, Karen manipulating them, Ben taking off, being in a coma only to wake up and find himself paralyzed, being controlled by Karen, thinking Anne and Lexi were dead, and now all of this. Honestly, she was a little surprised he was still alive and kicking. If it had been anyone else, she was sure they'd be dead by now.
But it all hadn't happened to anyone else. It happened to Hal Mason. The young man with a pure heart, who cared about everyone, who was usually always smiling, who took whatever life handed him and powered though it. Yet, despite everything he had suffered, he kept moving and did his best to hide how much he was actually struggling, refusing to ask for any kind of help from anyone. The fact that he had such a hard time opening up, that he felt like he couldn't talk to anyone broke her heart. He didn't deserve any of this.
"I'm don't blame you for wanting that. A lot has happened since the aliens attacked." Maggie told him. She had meant the words to be comforting, but she quickly realized from the way his shoulders tensed up and his eyes hardened slightly that he saw it as pity.
Before he could start shutting her out, Maggie said, "Don't do that. Don't clam up. I didn't mean to sound, like I'm pitying you. I'm, sympathizing. There's a difference."
The corner of Hal's mouth twitched upwards in a half smile as he heard her stammer a little, but he didn't say anything else, nor did the tension in his shoulders leave. He knew that Maggie knew that he hated being pitied, he knew that she would never intentionally pity him, nor would he do the same to her. Lately though, that was the one thing he felt he had been getting, from his friends and family at least. From the other members of the 2nd Mass, he felt their anger and mistrust.
"Maggie," Hal started, but before he could say anything else, a loud explosion filled the air. Seconds later, people began screaming and guns began firings.
Without a word or even a glance, both Hal and Maggie jumped to their feet and ran towards the source of the noise. It was a little difficult as the fight that had apparently broken out had people running in all directions, most heading towards the buildings for safety, the others heading towards the fight like Hal and Maggie were. It was complete chaos, much worse than the other times the Espheni had attacked them, but the two young adults had no idea why, not until they reached the gate. Then, they saw the problem.
Part of the wall, only about ten feet away from the gate on the left side, was gone. Rubble stretched out for several yards on both sides of their now broken barrier and on the ground, laid at least five people, come were actually covered with parts of the wall. From the distance between Hal and them, he couldn't tell if they were still alive or unconscious, but seeing that others were already checking on them, he turned his attention to what else was going on. Behind the wall, was a large horde of skitters charging the open spot in the barrier, trying to get into Chinatown. The remaining fighters were trying their best to protect the camp, but they were quickly becoming overwhelmed.
Maggie immediately grabbed her gun that was slung over her shoulder and ran towards the fight. Hal however, stood still and stared. He hadn't been involved in a fight against the aliens since they attacked and destroyed the Espheni base weeks ago. The young man wanted to help them fight, but he couldn't. Not with his arm in a sling. Even if he did take it off and help, he's still run the risk of losing control and letting the skitter know about him. And if they knew and escaped and reported to their Overlord, or worse, Karen. Then they'd be in even more trouble than they are now. So the best thing for him to do now was to get out of the way.
Hal rushed over to the closest building and pressed his back against the wall so he wasn't in anyone's way and was safe but could still see everything that was happening. Those that were running away from the chaos were pretty much all gone, safely hidden in the buildings. The only people left were the fighters who were still running towards the battel. There weren't as many soldiers as there were when they were in Charleston but they still had a fair amount. Watching them all gather at the wall though, Hal could clearly see that they were far outnumbered, yet he stayed in his spot even though he wasn't fighting. It was one thing to use his abilities on an attack that could theoretically could've been done by anyone and destroy all the skitters so there were no witnesses, but it was another to do it while the Espheni were attacking them. Even if all the skitters were killed, the Overlords would know something strange happened and come looking.
"Hal!" The young man turned his head and found his Dad, Anne and Cochise running towards him. The second they reached him, his Dad shouted, "What happened?"
"No clue! Heard an explosion and found this!" Hal yelled back. Even though they were standing right beside each other, the gunfire was so loud that they had to shout in order to hear each other.
"Skitters should not be able to create explosions, unless of course they have a bomb but they usually have their Mechs doing that, or their beamers." Cochise pointed out, his voice also extremely loud so he could be heard. His words however had Hal furrowing his eyebrows. The Volm was right, if the Espheni wanted to blow something up, they used beamers or Mechs. Skitters never used weapons when they fought, they just straight out attacked. But during the entire time that Hal has been watching this battle, he hadn't seen any Mechs or beamers.
It was then that they all heard the sound of an engine, but it was coming from above them. All it took was one glance and Weaver, who had also joined the fight, yelled, "Beamer! Everyone duck!"
The warning came just in time for the soldiers closest to the vehicles and buildings. For those who were by the wall and out in the open, it was too late. The beamer only fired one shot, but that was all that was needed to make matters ten times worse. The shot was aimed and hit the large crowd of both skitters and humans right by the wall. Hal had closed his eyes, turned his head and ducked when Weaver called out his warning, but after the explosion, he looked back to the wall and felt his stomach drop.
The smell of burning flesh and smoke filled his nose just seconds before his eyes fully registered the sight in front of him. There were bodies all over the pavement, humans and skitters, and more of them were on fire. He couldn't tell if they were dead or unconscious though. Screams then began to fill the air, replacing the sound of gunfire. There were other soldiers and skitters that were caught in the blast that weren't killed or knocked out, but they were also on fire. The burning skitters were running around like headless chickens while the humans were either dropping to the ground and rolling to put themselves out or were screaming in pain and shock.
Hal couldn't breathe. The fires, the smoke, the screams were overwhelming all of his senses, and he wasn't the only one. Those that had managed to get out of the way before the beamer fired were doing the same thing. Or at least, some of them were. The others rushing towards their injured comrades to help them as well as resuming the shooting at the attacking aliens. It wasn't until Hal heard the beamer's engine getting louder once again that he was able to pull his gaze away and up at the sky, just in time to see the beamer circling back towards them.
Screams and shouts got louder as everyone else realized that the alien spaceship was coming back. Once glance at the skitters that were still alive and not on fire getting ready to charge them again before looking back at the beamer, gave Hal an idea. Once that would take down both the beamer and most, if not all, of the skitters. Once that wouldn't reveal his abilities to the enemy aliens, one that would keep his presence secret from the Overlords and Karen. Quickly making up his mind and not giving himself anytime to change it, Hal stepped forward.
Tom's heart was beating wildly in his chest, just like it always did in a fight, but when he saw Hal stepping onto the street into the line of fire, it went into overdrive. He started making his way through the chaos, intending to call out to him and pull him back to safety when he saw Hal raise his hand towards the sky. He raised his head and found that the beamer that had shot at them was coming back. That motivated him even more to get not only Hal but Ben to safety as well, but then he noticed the expression on his oldest son's face. It was like he was concentrating on something. So Tom stayed back and watched.
Within seconds, Tom saw something strange happen. The beamer flew down closer to them, closer than it had last time but it didn't fire at all. It left them completely alone. It actually didn't fire at anything. What it did do though was charge right into the horde of remaining skitters before coming to a stop as it crashed a little ways into the building in front of it. Right after that, Tom saw Hal's knees buckle, but he managed to stay standing.
"Your eldest son was right to keep his survival a secret from the Espheni, Tom Mason." Tom looked over at Cochise in slight shock. He was so focused on Hal and what was happening that he didn't even notice Cochise come up beside him.
"What do you mean?" Tom asked, turning his full attention to the Volm.
"If the Espheni found out that not only was he still alive but that he has abilities that he can use against them, they would not hesitate to kill him." Cochise explained.
Tom's entire body suddenly flooded with fear as their alien ally's words registered in his brain. He still knew next to nothing about what exactly Hal went through. And he still had several questions, including why Hal didn't want to use his powers. Now, he had his answer and it frightened him to the core.
