Chapter 12: Complaint
Mastermind's laboratory was a far cry from his old one. I'd only gotten a brief look at it, but that lab was set up with beakers, papers, and most importantly, handcuffs for kidnapped Rainwings. This one just had a desk with a few pieces of paper and a chair. Yet somehow the place seemed cluttered. There was stuff lying everywhere - past drafts of experiments and result charts lined the walls. Unused drafts of lab reports were scattered all over the floor.
Mastermind was sitting at the desk, writing something when I opened the door. "Silhouette, what did I tell you? I must not be disturbed while I am writing my report," he grumbled.
I could have closed the door, or even said something, but I just stood there.
Mastermind annoyingly sighed. "Fine," he said. "What is it you want?" He stopped writing, turned around, and looked at the son who he hadn't seen in over a year. I made sure my expression was filled with as much angst and anger as possible, to establish that I still hated him with a fiery passion.
"My…my son," he sputtered, starting to cry. He got up and went to give me a hug, opening his arms out wide.
"Why didn't you tell me about Stone?" I asked, backing away from him.
Mastermind stopped advancing towards me. His smile dipped for a second, before returning immediately. "I'll tell you. But don't you want a hug first?" he asked playfully.
"I don't want a hug," I coldly told him. "I'm not here for hugs or any loving stuff like that. I'm here for information. And I want to know - why didn't you tell me about Stonemover?"
Mastermind stopped smiling and began to furrow his eyebrows, remembering the memories he'd had with his own brother. "Stonemover…is he dead? That's how you found out, isn't it? He's dead."
"No, he is very much alive," I told him. "You probably wouldn't even care if he died, though."
"I would!" said Mastermind defensively.
"Oh yeah?" I asked. "When was the last time you spoke to him, then?"
Mastermind pressed his lips together, which happened to be a habit that we shared. "A long, long time ago," he said.
"Can you just please tell me why you two hate each other?" I desperately asked him. "Why you didn't tell me about him?"
"Well, son-"
"Don't call me that. Call me Starflight."
"Starflight, we didn't hate each other. We just…had some issues. See, Stonemover was the perfect one. The older brother, the faster brother, the animus brother. The one everybody loves. He took the part that I wanted to play. So I had to find another part. And the nerd…it was the easiest one to fill. I still resent him for being born first, for stealing the part from me.
"And it was hard, having everyone only expect you to be a socially anxious, geeky nerd."
"Yeah, and then you grew up and proved everyone right."
But at the same time…watching you grow up as a nerd like me is amazing."
"Don't compare yourself to me. Ever. I am nothing like you."
"True. You look more like your mother. Your mother, Farsight, she was something else. Did you know she-"
"Stop. Please stop."
"Stop what?"
"Stop avoiding my question."
"I'm not avoiding your question!"
"Yes you are! You're doing what you always do - you're changing the subject, rambling on about this and that when all I want you to do is answer my question!"
"Always do? When have I done that? When?" Somehow, both of our voices had remained controlled. We weren't screaming or arguing. We were just having an extremely intense conversation where all the things we said happened to be hateful.
"You've always done it! You never talk about me - you always find a way, somehow, to spin the conversation back to yourself and you never ask me how I am and you don't know anything about me and-"
"Hey, Tailspin, stop talking with Mastermind and get over here!" a voice behind me yelled.
I stopped talking. I turned around to see a young female dragonet who looked to be on the cusp of becoming an adult. She was holding a piece of paper in her hand.
"You are Tailspin, right? The dragon Glory said she'd sent to review my complaint?" she asked.
"Um…" I said.
"Complaint? Silhouette, what is this?" asked Mastermind.
Silhouette walked over to us and slammed the piece of paper down on the desk. "It's a complaint I filed against you. I want someone to watch over you and act as your supervisor."
"What? WHY?" asked Mastermind. "I don't need a supervisor to help with my experiments. I'm a professional scientist."
"This isn't about the experiments. This is about me," said Silhouette.
"You?" asked Mastermind.
"Yes, this is about my mental health and my happiness," said the dragonet. "The truth is, you've been a terrible teacher, and your general suckiness has also been dragging down my self-esteem with it. You haven't taught me anything, and frankly I'm miserable whenever I'm around you. Therefore, I filed this complaint to try and get someone to watch over you and make sure you weren't being cruel to me. If you didn't want that, I suggested that you be removed from your job and sent back to prison."
Mastermind just stared at her, mouth agape, for a second. "Starflight," he slowly said, "meet my apprentice, Silhouette."
"Starflight?" Silhouette asked, studying me with a curious look. "You're Mastermind's son?"
"Unfortunately, I am related to him, yes," I said. "You said you were filing a complaint against Mastermind?"
"Uh, yes. I'm sorry, but your father treats me horribly," she said. "I hope you don't have any hard feelings, but-"
"Can I join?"
"Huh?" Silhouette asked.
"I want to join in the complaint," I told her.
"What? But don't you love your father?"
For the first time since I'd opened Mastermind's door, I smiled. Then I began laughing. I was cracking up. I banged one claw on the desk repeatedly in delight.
"Uh…why is that funny?" Silhouette worriedly asked me.
Somehow I was actually able to speak.
"Did he tell you that I loved him? That I couldn't see him because I was busy?" I asked.
"Actually, yeah. That's exactly what he told me," Silhouette said.
"HAHAHA THAT IS THE BIGGEST LIE EVER HAHAHAHAHA!" I gleefully exclaimed. I burst into another round of laughter. I began to cry, I was laughing so hard.
Silhouette just looked at Mastermind, who had his head tucked down in shame. "I…I told you one white lie, and then I could never gather the courage to tell you that I…I'm sorry. Please forgive me," he said solemnly.
Silhouette looked at him with a disturbed expression on her face. I was right next to her, laughing. Together we represented the highs and lows of the emotional spectrum.
"Let me guess," I asked Silhouette. "He ignores you whenever you give him an idea, he is generally rude to you, and his experiments are morally questionable."
"That's…100% accurate, actually," said Silhouette.
"Yup. Same way he treated me. No, he treated you better." My laughter was gone because now I was being dead serious, but I was still smiling. The happiness I'd felt from that laughter had not worn off just yet.
"And I thought you'd changed," I bitterly said to Mastermind, turning towards him.
"I have, son, trust me, I-" Mastermind started, but he'd made a mistake.
"There it is again. 'Son.' What did I just tell you two minutes ago? See, you just proved my point. You don't listen to me, and you never have listened to me. And then when you get a second chance to start over with Silhouette, to show me that you've changed, you just keep on neglecting her just like you neglected me."
Mastermind was silent, his head still bowed in shame.
"You wanna know something, Mastermind?" I said, starting to cry again, my smile now long gone. "I did come here for information, but I also came here because I hoped you'd changed. But you disappointed me. Again.
"So I want to understand what I need to do to make you change. Because I don't want this young dragonet to have to be apprenticed to a maniac like you. I JUST WANT YOU TO LOVE DRAGONS AND I WANT YOU TO CARE ABOUT DRAGONS AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU CAN'T!"
I screamed the last sentence of my speech, tears flowing now. I could hear Mastermind quietly sobbing. Even Silhouette was beginning to cry.
"I'm sorry, Starflight. I'm sorry for everything," he quietly said to me. Once again, he spread his arms out for a hug.
Once again, I backed away. "I'm not hugging you. You haven't earned the right to that yet," I said.
"Please," Mastermind begged, "tell me how I can earn it. I…I need to hug you. That's all I want."
"How about you put actual effort into improving yourself and then we'll see," I angrily told him. Then, without saying goodbye, I turned tail, opened the door and left.
Standing outside was a Nightwing who looked about a year younger than me.
"Um…", said the Nightwing, "do you know what's going on in there?"
"Just come back tomorrow, Tailspin. Now's probably not the best time to review the complaint," I told him bluntly.
"Wait, what? Why? Who are you? And how'd you know my name?" asked Tailspin confusedly, but I ignored him. I was too busy flying and savoring the sunset to help out another dragon.
The sky turned pink as the sun descended down below the horizon like a mouse going into its hole. This was the first sunset I'd seen since I'd been unblinded, and it took my breath away. Before going blind, I had no idea how beautiful sunsets were. Now I knew.
It was in the backdrop of this majestic sunset that I began my long, solitary, fatherless journey back to Jade Mountain.
