Chapter 9

Fi sat holding Carey's hand in silence, occasionally squeezing it or leaning over to brush his hair out of his eyes. She kept hoping he'd wake up, but at the moment it didn't seem to be an option. In the time that had passed since his arrival he hadn't gotten any better, if anything, his breathing seemed even more labored than before. She couldn't help but wonder why he was hurt. *Clu and I were fine when we were brought over here, not even a scratch. Why is Carey different? What did he do to deserve this?*

"Fiona?" Clark's soft voice shook her out of her thoughts. It was so much like Carey's voice, so relaxing. She looked up, acknowledging his presence. He came over to her side, looking sadly at his younger brother. Fi saw the sad look on Clark's face and the tears gathering in his eyes, but she couldn't bring herself to want to comfort him. There was something else on his face, guilt, which prevented her from feeling sorry for him. *He caused this, now let him deal with the consequences.* She said nothing to him, just kept on doing what she'd been doing before. Clu then came into the room and silently sat next to her, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder. He had noticed how much Fi and Carey cared about each other, even if they hadn't and he knew how much Fi was hurting.

Clark tried talking to Fi, but she just ignored him. *She's never been so cold to anybody before. Well, it serves me right for hurting my own family. I should've known something like this would happen, that they would never forgive me.* He looked at his brother once more, heard his labored breathing, and felt his heart break. Tears fell from his eyes as he sobbed silently. Carey was hurt, maybe even truly dying, and Clark wasn't allowed to do anything that would save him. He turned his gaze back to Clu and Fi, and was a bit surprised at the glares they were giving him.

"Why did you hurt him?" Fi's question broke the silence. "How come you hurt him when you brought him here, but we were fine?"

"Um… I had to knock him out," Clark said sheepishly, "he tried to jump and truly kill himself. I tried to stop him, but he kept moving around to make me let him die. I had to knock him out for his own safety. I guess I just swung him against the wall too hard."

"You swung your brother against a wall to save him?! How could you save him, he's dead anyway?!" Fi almost screamed in exasperation.

"He's not dead, none of you are. You're only half-dead, cause you could go back to the mortal world still. If he'd jumped he would have died totally, going straight into the spirit world" Clark explained, his voice weak and tired.

"He's still dying Clark!" Clu added, "Look at him. Look at how beat up he is. Do you actually believe he's gonna survive that blow so easily? He's going to die if you don't do something!" Clu broke down as the tears started flowing again.

Clark looked guilty and defeated. "I can try, but I don't think I can heal him enough" He concentrated on seeing his brother healthy again, but only succeeded in fading a few bruises and easing Carey's breathing a little, giving himself a headache. "I…. I can't do it… sorry", he sobbed out, extremely frustrated. He walked out of the room, Clu following him.

Fi was left alone, holding Carey's hand tightly. Just as she was about to leave, she heard a moan followed by a cough. "Carey…" she half whispered. "You're ok!"

"Yeah, pretty much." He said, still drowsy.

She jumped and wrapped him up in a tight hug. "Oh Carey, we thought you were gonna die…" she breathed into his shoulder.

"Yeah me too", he said with a slight moan. "Ow, Fi, you're choking me"

"Sorry" she loosened her grip a bit. He started to get up but she pushed him back down.

"Come on, I can walk, lemme up" Carey whined, straining against Fi. "I wanna go and see Clu"

"There's something I have to tell you first" she said. She took a deep breath, gathering up her courage for what she was about to admit. "Carey, when I thought you were gonna leave me, I realized there were so many things I didn't wanna leave unsaid. I realized that maybe I would never get to tell you something I've kept hidden for so long. I love you Carey. I have ever since a couple of months before I left the tour. And I always thought I would have time to tell you, until today."

Carey couldn't believe it. She's said everything he'd been wanting to say. She loved him back. He just sat there staring, his mouth agape. She stopped talking and looked deep into his eyes, as he did the same, and there she found her answer. She leaned down and softly brushed his lips with her own, giving him a sweet tender kiss. He responded quickly and kissed back, pulling her closer as the kiss got more passionate. When they finally broke apart, all he could do was stare. The feeling running through his body was like a primal fire, nothing he'd ever felt before.

"I love you too, Fi" was all he could say. They sat in silence, just enjoying the moment until Carey insisted on seeing his little brother. She let him up but made him lean on her as she led him out to where his brothers were. He happily complied. Clu ran up to them the moment he saw Carey and hugged his brother.

"Bro, I thought I'd never see you again." Carey sobbed as tears of joy ran down his face. "After what happened yesterday, I thought I'd lost you forever. "

"Me too, Carey, me too," Clu said, also crying.

"I love you little bro"

"I love you too" Clu said, happy to be back with Carey, as he pulled out of the embrace.

Then Carey saw Clark, whose eyes were read and puffy, his face tearstained.

"Bro…" Clark started, trailing off at the look in Carey's eyes.

"Don't call me that. This is all your fault. Don't pretend you even care about us" Carey spat out the words.

"But Carey, there's something I have to tell you. Maybe it'll make up for all you've been through. Sit down, all of you."

They sat down, Fi's arm once again around Carey, and his around her, and they all turned their attention to Clark.

"Wait… before you say anything, I wanna know why you brought all of us here," Clu said.

"Yeah, what do you want from us?" Fi added.

"Ok, that's a reasonable request. I'm probably not supposed to say any of this, but I'm tired of doing everything I'm told." He took a breath before continuing "As Fi probably told you, I work for the Assembly of Evil Forces. They get into my head and make me do errands for them. Like bringing you here. You're all here because they needed you for a reason."

"Wha…" Clu interrupted. Fi clamped a hand on his mouth and shushed him.

"Clu, they needed you here as bait for Carey. The Assembly figured that by taking you, Carey would probably do something like what he did today." Clu's eyes widened at the same time as a scowl appeared on Carey's face.

"They needed Fi here as bait also, because they realized that as long as Carey had Fi, he wouldn't do anything stupid. The email was just a trick."

"But why couldn't they just take me directly?" Carey inquired skeptically. "It wasn't actually hard to do. Why all the complications?"

Clark sighed. "They didn't want you here Carey. They wanted you truly dead."

"Why?" Carey responded, awestruck.

"Because they wanted Fi", Clark continued, "and they could only get her if you were dead. You see, even though you don't realize it, you're helping Rick protect Fi just by being alive. He couldn't do it alone. Once you were dead, the added protection would be gone, and they would be able to get rid of Fi once and for all."

They all remained silent, not knowing what to say. They just scooted closer to each other, especially to Fi.

"Carey, since you tried to bring yourself here willingly and I had to injure you to come her, I've been allowed to let you go back to earth" Clark said.

"All of us?" Carey asked incredulously.

"Unfortunately, only you and somebody else can go back. Only 2 people can go" Clark continued, dreading what he had to say.

"I thought the assembly wanted me." Carey said, putting his other arm around his baby brother.

"They were after Fi, but they needed to get rid of you first. Since they couldn't, I'll let you choose to take someone back." Clark explained, knowing his brother wouldn't like it.

"But if I can only take one of them, that means…" Carey hugged both Fi and Clu tightly, pulling them closer.

"You've gotta choose who will stay behind: your best friend or your little brother."