New Arrival

Chapter Four

Discussions

"Alright Mr. Mason," Dylan groaned, sitting in a chair near the back of the room due to the fact that he'd been the last to get to the conference room, "what was so important that you needed to see us all immediately?"  The anxious tension in the room was palpable as Hex paced back and forth at the head of the table, Trance's concerned gaze never leaving his worry creased face.  "Mr. Mason?"

"Well, OUT with it boy, you interrupted my daily exercise," an impatient Tyr grouched.

"We need to go to Tarn Vedra."  Dylan coughed in surprise, while Tyr's fingers immediately stopped drumming against the table.  Harper did a double take and Beka jumped slightly.  Trance was the only person there besides Hex with no reaction at all.

". . .My exercise can wait," Tyr replied after a minute.

"Nobody knows the way to Tarn Vedra," Harper pointed out in his squeaky, excited voice.

"Mr. Harper's right," Dylan replied.  "And I LIVED there."

"Damn, I CAN'T believe you called us all here for THAT," Beka grumbled.

"Maybe we should just let Hex TALK," Trance stated flatly.  Dylan glanced first at her and then at Tyr.

"What's your vote, Tyr?"  Tyr looked up at Hex before replying.

"I think we should let him speak.  He isn't foolish enough to call us all up here for a prank."  Dylan sighed and shrugged, and then gestured at Hex, as if to say "continue."  Hex nodded and did just that.

"I have reason to believe there is information as to a threat that could be coming our way on Tarn Vedra."  Dylan nodded and sat up a little straighter.

"Acknowledged, but what kind of threat?"

"A very big one."  The tone of Hex's voice said it all.

"Ravonas?"

"Yes."

"Well, that is apparently a fairly big threat, but the fact remains that no one knows the way to Tarn Vedra."

"I do," Hex replied.  Silence descended on the room for a total of three minutes.  Finally, when the silence seemed like it would stretch on for longer, Tyr interrupted it.

"You, boy, are full of surprises."

"Indeed you are," Dylan replied, "but in this case, I don't see why we shouldn't follow up on it.  If you really know the way to Tarn Vedra, I don't see why we can't check it out."  Harper looked around nervously for a few seconds before speaking up.

"Well, uh. . .not that I don't believe ya big guy, but. . .it's TARN VEDRA we're talkin' about here.  How d'ya know the way?"

"When you travel around with nobody to trust in but yourself, you tend to get pretty good at trusting your instincts," Hex replied.  "I'll get us there."

"You don't even know how to FLY," Beka said, sounding frustrated.

"Not exactly," was Hex's reply.  "But I guess you won't know unless you let me try."

"Dylan, you can't be serious about this," Beka fumed.

"Beka, I'm not saying I believe him.  I'm just saying that if it really is a big threat, can we really risk not checking into it, even if it is a wild goose chase?"

"And if this wild goose chase turns up nothing, and we find out we've wasted the only time we had on it, what then?"

"Then I'll handle my business," Hex cut in sharply.  "It would be my mistake, and I would fix it."

"Oh please, you're a kid, what can you do," Beka replied, not meaning to sound dismissive but coming across that way anyway.  Silence again descended on the room, but at the same time, Hex seemed to change.  There was nothing visibly different about him, not unless you looked into his eyes.  They seemed. . .older, wiser, than they had before.  The aura he gave off added to that, and when he spoke, his voice seemed to have the wisdom of ages behind it.

"Things are not always as they appear, Ms. Valentine.  Sometimes, someone that looks like a child can do quite a bit more than someone that looks like an adult."

....................................

"Do you know where Ravonas is now," Trance asked as she strode down towards Hydroponics with Hex, hand in hand.  "I mean, we haven't even seen him since that attack.  Why would he come back now?"

"He sees an opportunity to get what he wants," Hex replied, squeezing her hand slightly.

"What does he want?"

"Pain and suffering."  The pair fell into silence for a few minutes, and then Trance decided she should bring up something.

"Beka didn't mean anything by what she said, you know that," she said, half statement and half question.

"Yeah, I know," Hex sighed, "but there's just too much going on right now, and I got upset.  I know she didn't mean to be dismissive like that, she's just used to kids being weaker than adults."  Trance smiled slightly and squeezed his hand.

"It's alright, nobody blamed you."  She continued to walk, but he stopped, and she didn't realize until she was jerked backwards, his hand still clutching hers.  "What is it?"

"Darkness.  Great darkness.  Ravonas has found himself an ally."

"Who is it?"

".You know the ally."

"I do?"

"When you looked into my eyes the first time, what did you see?"

"I already told you, I saw-"

"ALL of what you saw."  Silence descended on them yet again, and then, finally, Trance spoke.

"I saw.an age.far older than myself.  A wisdom that spanned millennia."

"What do you see now?"

"Now?  .Concern.love.anger.and fear, mostly, but there's always so much going on in your eyes it's hard to tell."  Now it was Hex's turn to fall silent, and then his head dropped, chin touching his chest.  "Hex?  What's wrong?"

"I shouldn't have come here," he replied suddenly, startling Trance with both the words and tone of utter hopelessness in his voice.

"Hex.if you hadn't come, we'd never have met.."

".I know, and I don't mean it like that at all.  You are probably the best thing that's happened to me in my extremely long life.  What I mean.is that I've lived an alternate lifetime, Trance, one that, due to a sheer stroke of luck, didn't come to be.  Were it not for one instant of anger and rebellion.I would be in Oblivion, and you would be dead, as would the rest of the crew."

"So," Trance replied, sounding a bit confused as to what that had to do with anything.  "You just said that it didn't come to be."

"I also said it was a stroke of luck that kept it from happening," he sighed, his eyes closing.  "I can still see you falling.falling.I thought you would just keep falling.and I wanted to kill Ravonas.and I wanted to smash things, anything.but above all that.I knew it was my fault, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had caused it."  It was only then that Trance noticed the tears slowly trickling down Hex's face.  She smiled softly and wiped the tears from his cheeks, and then gently titled his head so he was looking into her eyes.

"No tears, my love, no tears.  No matter what happened in that timeline, no matter how bad it got, no matter what you or anyone else did, it wasn't your fault.  I have no idea what it was that happened, but I know with an absolute, concrete certainty that it wasn't your fault.  Whatever happened, you could never, ever be at fault for my death."  She placed a brief, soft kiss on his lips and continued, "You love me too much."  Hex let a soft chuckle choke past his lips and he wrapped his arms around Trance's waist.  "There, that's better," she said softly, returning the embrace tightly and not letting go.  "I don't want you to ever say those words again, ok?  Don't even think them."  He looked into her eyes and saw the love there, saw the love she felt for him and the undying intensity of the warrior spirit that resided within her body.

"I love you Trance.  I love you with all of my heart and all of my soul," he told her, conviction dripping from his voice like water from a melting ice cube.  She smiled and kissed him again.

"I know, my brave, fallen warrior.  I know."

And then, the alarms sounded.