Both of them salute and just before they step out the door, Hawk calls Spitfyre back in. "I really am sorry, Cadie. I know what you two must be feeling, because Annie and I lost our first child also. That's why we wound up breaking up. She kept the secret from me until she had a miscarriage late in the pregnancy. It hurt that she didn't trust me enough to let me know that she was pregnant, and that she wouldn't tell me until after she had lost the baby."
"I saw that you were doing the same thing to James. Lifeline and I were the only ones here who knew that you were pregnant. He convinced me that you had a contact here on the base, and would tell James when you found out yourself. When you didn't, I began to fear the worst. At least you had the good sense to let him know before you lost the baby. You had a good chance of carrying the child to full term, even though you had a rough first couple of months."
"I know that both you and James are workaholics, and that you'll probably concentrate on your work even more now in an attempt to forget. Please, don't do that. I'm switching you to reserve status for a little while, so that you can grieve for your lost daughter."
"Hawk, I..."
"Don't argue with me, Cadence. I know what I'm doing. When Grand Slam gets back off this mission, he also will be switched to reserve status for the same reason."
"Hawk, what I was trying to say was that when I did find out, I did contact someone here on the base. That person knew that Grand Slam had left, in search of me, but did not know where he had gone. I did not know if anyone else knew where he was, but if I had, I would have gotten a message through to him; somehow. There was no way that my child would have been a bastard. I know what it's like to be one." She hangs her head, hiding her face as she confesses one of her deepest, darkest secrets.
"My father left when he found out my mom was pregnant, they weren't married and she kept telling me that it was because he knew I would be a girl, and that I was worthless because I made him leave her. She treated me like garbage because she couldn't deal with the fact that he was never really interested in her; that she was just a one-night stand type. She hated me and I really did not figure out why until I found out that I was pregnant.
I was definitely going to let James know about his child. He had a right to know. This was his child as much as mine. I would not have put my child through the shame and heartbreak that I knew not knowing her father would cause, for any reason.
The reason I left was that I needed some space to think some things through. I was scared. I didn't know how he'd react. I had to build up my courage to tell him. I didn't really expect you to accept my resignation. I was getting ready to come back when James popped through my door."
Hawk can hear the sincerity in her voice, knowing that she is telling him the truth, letting him see a hint of the pain she has dealt with all of her life. He gets up and comes around his desk, enfolding her in his arms, hugging her tightly. "I never knew that you were from such a background. If I had, I would have done something different, and maybe all this would never have happened. Do you know anything about your father?"
"Not a thing. Only that by being a female, I drove him away from my mother. Or so I was made to believe. But when I met James, I realized that the real reason she hated me was because she knew that one day there would be a man who loved me for who I was and not what she wanted me to be. That I would have everything she didn't.
She kept trying to either kill me, or drive me to commit suicide. I can remember, clearly, the last party I ever went to. It was my eighth birthday, and a whole group of kids that I thought were my friends were there. She came out in the middle of everything and told me, point blank to my face, that she had no idea why I was celebrating, because I should not have been there. I was nothing but a mistake that never should have happened. That's when she cut my face and left this scar. She cursed me loud and long, and it wasn't long after that that all the invitations to parties and get-togethers that I had received were rescinded. I haven't been to a party since, and I haven't gotten close to anyone because of all the betrayals that I have been victim of."
"What happened between you and James, little bit? He wanted to spend as much time as possible with you; he was so determined to make you love him. I think he knew on some level that there were some really dark, evil, demons that you kept hidden inside, that you were afraid to let go, and that the only way that he could help you was to make you confess them to yourself, if not another person. He was so absolutely certain that he was the only one who could save you."
"He was right. Because for some odd reason, I was born with some special abilities, some that you might call supernatural. I can cloak my presence from people and things, which I did when I left; I can shield myself, see the future once in a while, talk to animals, and transmorph, not to mention teleporting. I have some old books containing some prophecies that I have been doing research on; and I found one that seemed to be related to me. I trust that since you wouldn't accept my resignation that you left my quarters exactly as they were?"
"Yes." Hawk holds her closer as she lets him in on a secret that no one has ever shared with her. She no longer cared if he condemned her as a freak or a witch or something along those lines.
"In the locked part of my bookcase, there are a group of books that are so ancient; most people don't believe they are real. Hold on a second."
She teleports to her quarters and retrieves the one that she needs, teleporting back to Hawk's office. She looks through it for a second, and then lays it out on his desk. She points to a passage that she has had marked for a long time, trying to decipher it. He reads it.
Small and powerful, she will be abandoned by the one that is of her blood before she is born; Alone, she will be despised by the one who should love her but cares not, using her for a slave that she should not be; Thrice she will call to death, and thrice shall death stay from her before her eighteenth year.
In her six and twentieth year, she will find the one for whom she is meant; Parted they will be, and tragedy will strike; her past, returning to strike a killing blow, shall come back on the hater; Death will not succeed, but her beloved will conquer all to become the king of her heart and of her life.
She interprets for him as he reads each line. "I did a lot of researching while I was by myself, and I realized that there were certain similarities to my life. I concluded that the first line could refer to my father, who left before I was born; the second line, to the hatred that I received from my mother because of it, and the treatment as a slave that I endured; the third line, to the three suicide attempts that I made when I was a teenager that never succeeded.
The fourth line, I do believe, refers to James. I turned twenty-six two days before we were set up as sparring partners by Snake Eyes and subsequently sent by you on that mission together. The fifth line, I believe also, refers to either the kidnapping or when I left to find myself, and the loss of the baby, possibly. The sixth and seventh lines, I still have no idea. I'm still trying to figure them out."
They spend the next week trying to decipher it all together, and Spitfyre gets an idea of what might be coming to put the group in danger.
The intercom squawks. "Hawk! We need you in the Com center immediately! Things have gone to hell on that mission in Kuala Lumpur! Flint says that they have taken heavy casualties, and that they had failed in their objective. They are returning, and he said to tell you that Grand Slam, Clutch, Stunner and Thunder are in critical condition, and will need immediate tending when they get here; and to get all available medical personnel ready. They are stable for the time being, but that can change at any second."
Spitfyre looks at him; "Go. They need you there. My secondary MOS is as a combat medic, so I'll go to the infirmary and see what I can do there. Maybe I can help Lifeline with them."
Hawk nods and both of them rush out of the room and run in different directions, him running to the Com Center and her, hauling butt to the infirmary. She is there when the plane touches down, grabbing the first stretcher off of the plane, and helping to haul the injured into the infirmary. She expends most of her energy stitching up wounds, cleaning them up, and setting broken limbs.
Hawk swings by the infirmary as the last of the injured are being taken care of. He watches as Spitfyre's shoulders slump as she shuffles out of the operating room with Lifeline, and as she leans against the wall and pulls the mask off of her face, tears forming at the edge of her eyes. They had lost Stunner. The British girl grenadier was one of her closest friends.
The alarm sirens sound. The base itself was under attack! There is a single figure on the commons calling out to the soldiers. "I want the witch, and only the witch. The rest of you can go, but I want her."
Spitfyre sighs resignedly and takes the pistol that Hawk holds out to her as she stalks by him. He keeps quiet, knowing that he has never seen her so pissed off before, and not wanting to make her mad at him. He didn't want to be a target for her wrath. He'd seen firsthand in the gym what kind of damage she was capable of when she was mad.
"All right! I'm here! What do you want?" She steps out from behind the group of soldiers in the front of the infirmary, shielding them from what she knows is going to be a very large amount of wild and untamed power flowing. A large silver violet dome seems to form around the two combatants in the middle of the playing field.
"I want you dead, you little bitch. You've been a thorn in my side for too long. Your father decided that he couldn't handle the fact that I had a lot more power than he did, especially after he discovered that I had stolen his. Then, when you were born, you stole all of my powers and now I want them back. I want your power coursing through my veins, your blood on my hands. By blood, you may be my daughter, but in reality, you aren't anything more than a stupid little piece of gutter trash that someone threw out on the side of the highway."
Spitfyre stands still in the middle of the field, summoning up every smidgen of power that she can raise. She reaches out mentally to Hawk and the rest of the unit, asking them to focus their energy, their love; and if she could use them as conduits for the power that they collectively possess.
Spitfyre watches as a very evil, cruel smile blossoms on her adversary's face. "Ahhh, the beloved one is dying. His fading energy will be just what I need to defeat you."
Spitfyre starts glowing with a light, an aura, similar in color to the shielding wall; "You will not touch him!" She erects a comparable shield around Grand Slam's unconscious form, making sure her enemy had no way to get to his energy. She was willing to give up her life to let him live.
She knows that she had used the last of her energy and was almost out of power, when she suddenly begins to feel the power begin to well up.
She looks around and notices how the guys are chanting her name, letting her know that she had their full support.
The enemy, her own mother, snarled and started throwing bolts of pure power at her. Cadie, Spitfyre, just stood there and lazily raised her hand, deflecting the bolts. She yawned. "Is that the best you can do?"
Her mother focuses her power and pours it all into one last bolt of energy. As she is doing that, Cadie looks at her critically, "You know, you forgot something."
"What?"
"Four words. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
She cuts loose with the bolt of energy, and Cadie steps out of the way and ducks, kissing the dirt. The energy blast ricochets off of the dome and keeps bouncing around, finally coming to rest, like a boomerang, in its creator, searing her into dust.
Cadie lets the shields she erected fade as she falls to her knees, exhausted. Hawk is the first to reach her, scooping her into his arms and carrying her into the infirmary, setting her down on a stretcher in the hallway.
"No," she tells him, fighting to get up. "I need to see Grand Slam. There is something I need to do before I can rest; something I must tell him." Hawk and Flint both support her up the stairs to the room where Grand Slam lay on the bed, comatose. She shrugs them off and stumbles over to the bed. "James, come back to me. Please, my beloved, come back to me. I can't live without you. I love you. I fought my way back for you; now you do the same for me, please," she begs him.
Her tears fall on his face as she leans over him, willing him to live. She then places her hands gently on his shoulders, avoiding the bandages, and dregs up whatever vestiges of power she still had access to, using it to heal what damage she could. She could only hope that what little she did heal would help turn the tide and allow him to live.
She slumps wearily into the chair by the bed that one of the men had thoughtfully moved to the bedside for her. She lowers her head, crying. She remembered that when she had been unconscious after the first battle in the dojo, that Grand Slam had been by her side the whole time. He'd never left. She knew that he could tell that she was there. Day after day, she returns that favor that he had given her when she was in hospital.
One day, when she goes out into the hallway to stretch her legs, he begins to stir. Hawk makes sure that there is one of the guys there, just in case, and orders Cadie down to the canteen to make sure that she got something to eat. He resolves to get Lifeline to give her a sedative later so that she can get some rest.
When she gets back up to Grand Slam's room a couple of hours later, she is surprised that the guard is not at the door, and it is shut. She pushes it open a few inches and sticks her head in. Grand Slam is sitting up and smiling at her, awake and aware. He beckons to her and says, "Come to me, my sweet. I want to hold you and to feel your lips on mine."
She runs over to him and throws herself very gently into his arms. She cries with joy and he holds her close and kisses her like he'll never stop.
"Have you decided on a date for our wedding, yet, princess?" he asks her.
"Not until you're out of here. Thunder is scheduled to get out today, and Clutch will be in here at least another week. I'll think about it when we're in our quarters, perfectly fine and healthy."
"What about Stunner? I saw her take a devastating hit."
"I'm sorry, James. Lifeline and I and the rest of the surgical team did what we could, but we lost her anyway." She tells him, tears welling up in her eyes. He hugs her closer to him and kisses her.
"I'm sorry, little one. I know that she was one of your closest friends."
"I saw that you were doing the same thing to James. Lifeline and I were the only ones here who knew that you were pregnant. He convinced me that you had a contact here on the base, and would tell James when you found out yourself. When you didn't, I began to fear the worst. At least you had the good sense to let him know before you lost the baby. You had a good chance of carrying the child to full term, even though you had a rough first couple of months."
"I know that both you and James are workaholics, and that you'll probably concentrate on your work even more now in an attempt to forget. Please, don't do that. I'm switching you to reserve status for a little while, so that you can grieve for your lost daughter."
"Hawk, I..."
"Don't argue with me, Cadence. I know what I'm doing. When Grand Slam gets back off this mission, he also will be switched to reserve status for the same reason."
"Hawk, what I was trying to say was that when I did find out, I did contact someone here on the base. That person knew that Grand Slam had left, in search of me, but did not know where he had gone. I did not know if anyone else knew where he was, but if I had, I would have gotten a message through to him; somehow. There was no way that my child would have been a bastard. I know what it's like to be one." She hangs her head, hiding her face as she confesses one of her deepest, darkest secrets.
"My father left when he found out my mom was pregnant, they weren't married and she kept telling me that it was because he knew I would be a girl, and that I was worthless because I made him leave her. She treated me like garbage because she couldn't deal with the fact that he was never really interested in her; that she was just a one-night stand type. She hated me and I really did not figure out why until I found out that I was pregnant.
I was definitely going to let James know about his child. He had a right to know. This was his child as much as mine. I would not have put my child through the shame and heartbreak that I knew not knowing her father would cause, for any reason.
The reason I left was that I needed some space to think some things through. I was scared. I didn't know how he'd react. I had to build up my courage to tell him. I didn't really expect you to accept my resignation. I was getting ready to come back when James popped through my door."
Hawk can hear the sincerity in her voice, knowing that she is telling him the truth, letting him see a hint of the pain she has dealt with all of her life. He gets up and comes around his desk, enfolding her in his arms, hugging her tightly. "I never knew that you were from such a background. If I had, I would have done something different, and maybe all this would never have happened. Do you know anything about your father?"
"Not a thing. Only that by being a female, I drove him away from my mother. Or so I was made to believe. But when I met James, I realized that the real reason she hated me was because she knew that one day there would be a man who loved me for who I was and not what she wanted me to be. That I would have everything she didn't.
She kept trying to either kill me, or drive me to commit suicide. I can remember, clearly, the last party I ever went to. It was my eighth birthday, and a whole group of kids that I thought were my friends were there. She came out in the middle of everything and told me, point blank to my face, that she had no idea why I was celebrating, because I should not have been there. I was nothing but a mistake that never should have happened. That's when she cut my face and left this scar. She cursed me loud and long, and it wasn't long after that that all the invitations to parties and get-togethers that I had received were rescinded. I haven't been to a party since, and I haven't gotten close to anyone because of all the betrayals that I have been victim of."
"What happened between you and James, little bit? He wanted to spend as much time as possible with you; he was so determined to make you love him. I think he knew on some level that there were some really dark, evil, demons that you kept hidden inside, that you were afraid to let go, and that the only way that he could help you was to make you confess them to yourself, if not another person. He was so absolutely certain that he was the only one who could save you."
"He was right. Because for some odd reason, I was born with some special abilities, some that you might call supernatural. I can cloak my presence from people and things, which I did when I left; I can shield myself, see the future once in a while, talk to animals, and transmorph, not to mention teleporting. I have some old books containing some prophecies that I have been doing research on; and I found one that seemed to be related to me. I trust that since you wouldn't accept my resignation that you left my quarters exactly as they were?"
"Yes." Hawk holds her closer as she lets him in on a secret that no one has ever shared with her. She no longer cared if he condemned her as a freak or a witch or something along those lines.
"In the locked part of my bookcase, there are a group of books that are so ancient; most people don't believe they are real. Hold on a second."
She teleports to her quarters and retrieves the one that she needs, teleporting back to Hawk's office. She looks through it for a second, and then lays it out on his desk. She points to a passage that she has had marked for a long time, trying to decipher it. He reads it.
Small and powerful, she will be abandoned by the one that is of her blood before she is born; Alone, she will be despised by the one who should love her but cares not, using her for a slave that she should not be; Thrice she will call to death, and thrice shall death stay from her before her eighteenth year.
In her six and twentieth year, she will find the one for whom she is meant; Parted they will be, and tragedy will strike; her past, returning to strike a killing blow, shall come back on the hater; Death will not succeed, but her beloved will conquer all to become the king of her heart and of her life.
She interprets for him as he reads each line. "I did a lot of researching while I was by myself, and I realized that there were certain similarities to my life. I concluded that the first line could refer to my father, who left before I was born; the second line, to the hatred that I received from my mother because of it, and the treatment as a slave that I endured; the third line, to the three suicide attempts that I made when I was a teenager that never succeeded.
The fourth line, I do believe, refers to James. I turned twenty-six two days before we were set up as sparring partners by Snake Eyes and subsequently sent by you on that mission together. The fifth line, I believe also, refers to either the kidnapping or when I left to find myself, and the loss of the baby, possibly. The sixth and seventh lines, I still have no idea. I'm still trying to figure them out."
They spend the next week trying to decipher it all together, and Spitfyre gets an idea of what might be coming to put the group in danger.
The intercom squawks. "Hawk! We need you in the Com center immediately! Things have gone to hell on that mission in Kuala Lumpur! Flint says that they have taken heavy casualties, and that they had failed in their objective. They are returning, and he said to tell you that Grand Slam, Clutch, Stunner and Thunder are in critical condition, and will need immediate tending when they get here; and to get all available medical personnel ready. They are stable for the time being, but that can change at any second."
Spitfyre looks at him; "Go. They need you there. My secondary MOS is as a combat medic, so I'll go to the infirmary and see what I can do there. Maybe I can help Lifeline with them."
Hawk nods and both of them rush out of the room and run in different directions, him running to the Com Center and her, hauling butt to the infirmary. She is there when the plane touches down, grabbing the first stretcher off of the plane, and helping to haul the injured into the infirmary. She expends most of her energy stitching up wounds, cleaning them up, and setting broken limbs.
Hawk swings by the infirmary as the last of the injured are being taken care of. He watches as Spitfyre's shoulders slump as she shuffles out of the operating room with Lifeline, and as she leans against the wall and pulls the mask off of her face, tears forming at the edge of her eyes. They had lost Stunner. The British girl grenadier was one of her closest friends.
The alarm sirens sound. The base itself was under attack! There is a single figure on the commons calling out to the soldiers. "I want the witch, and only the witch. The rest of you can go, but I want her."
Spitfyre sighs resignedly and takes the pistol that Hawk holds out to her as she stalks by him. He keeps quiet, knowing that he has never seen her so pissed off before, and not wanting to make her mad at him. He didn't want to be a target for her wrath. He'd seen firsthand in the gym what kind of damage she was capable of when she was mad.
"All right! I'm here! What do you want?" She steps out from behind the group of soldiers in the front of the infirmary, shielding them from what she knows is going to be a very large amount of wild and untamed power flowing. A large silver violet dome seems to form around the two combatants in the middle of the playing field.
"I want you dead, you little bitch. You've been a thorn in my side for too long. Your father decided that he couldn't handle the fact that I had a lot more power than he did, especially after he discovered that I had stolen his. Then, when you were born, you stole all of my powers and now I want them back. I want your power coursing through my veins, your blood on my hands. By blood, you may be my daughter, but in reality, you aren't anything more than a stupid little piece of gutter trash that someone threw out on the side of the highway."
Spitfyre stands still in the middle of the field, summoning up every smidgen of power that she can raise. She reaches out mentally to Hawk and the rest of the unit, asking them to focus their energy, their love; and if she could use them as conduits for the power that they collectively possess.
Spitfyre watches as a very evil, cruel smile blossoms on her adversary's face. "Ahhh, the beloved one is dying. His fading energy will be just what I need to defeat you."
Spitfyre starts glowing with a light, an aura, similar in color to the shielding wall; "You will not touch him!" She erects a comparable shield around Grand Slam's unconscious form, making sure her enemy had no way to get to his energy. She was willing to give up her life to let him live.
She knows that she had used the last of her energy and was almost out of power, when she suddenly begins to feel the power begin to well up.
She looks around and notices how the guys are chanting her name, letting her know that she had their full support.
The enemy, her own mother, snarled and started throwing bolts of pure power at her. Cadie, Spitfyre, just stood there and lazily raised her hand, deflecting the bolts. She yawned. "Is that the best you can do?"
Her mother focuses her power and pours it all into one last bolt of energy. As she is doing that, Cadie looks at her critically, "You know, you forgot something."
"What?"
"Four words. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
She cuts loose with the bolt of energy, and Cadie steps out of the way and ducks, kissing the dirt. The energy blast ricochets off of the dome and keeps bouncing around, finally coming to rest, like a boomerang, in its creator, searing her into dust.
Cadie lets the shields she erected fade as she falls to her knees, exhausted. Hawk is the first to reach her, scooping her into his arms and carrying her into the infirmary, setting her down on a stretcher in the hallway.
"No," she tells him, fighting to get up. "I need to see Grand Slam. There is something I need to do before I can rest; something I must tell him." Hawk and Flint both support her up the stairs to the room where Grand Slam lay on the bed, comatose. She shrugs them off and stumbles over to the bed. "James, come back to me. Please, my beloved, come back to me. I can't live without you. I love you. I fought my way back for you; now you do the same for me, please," she begs him.
Her tears fall on his face as she leans over him, willing him to live. She then places her hands gently on his shoulders, avoiding the bandages, and dregs up whatever vestiges of power she still had access to, using it to heal what damage she could. She could only hope that what little she did heal would help turn the tide and allow him to live.
She slumps wearily into the chair by the bed that one of the men had thoughtfully moved to the bedside for her. She lowers her head, crying. She remembered that when she had been unconscious after the first battle in the dojo, that Grand Slam had been by her side the whole time. He'd never left. She knew that he could tell that she was there. Day after day, she returns that favor that he had given her when she was in hospital.
One day, when she goes out into the hallway to stretch her legs, he begins to stir. Hawk makes sure that there is one of the guys there, just in case, and orders Cadie down to the canteen to make sure that she got something to eat. He resolves to get Lifeline to give her a sedative later so that she can get some rest.
When she gets back up to Grand Slam's room a couple of hours later, she is surprised that the guard is not at the door, and it is shut. She pushes it open a few inches and sticks her head in. Grand Slam is sitting up and smiling at her, awake and aware. He beckons to her and says, "Come to me, my sweet. I want to hold you and to feel your lips on mine."
She runs over to him and throws herself very gently into his arms. She cries with joy and he holds her close and kisses her like he'll never stop.
"Have you decided on a date for our wedding, yet, princess?" he asks her.
"Not until you're out of here. Thunder is scheduled to get out today, and Clutch will be in here at least another week. I'll think about it when we're in our quarters, perfectly fine and healthy."
"What about Stunner? I saw her take a devastating hit."
"I'm sorry, James. Lifeline and I and the rest of the surgical team did what we could, but we lost her anyway." She tells him, tears welling up in her eyes. He hugs her closer to him and kisses her.
"I'm sorry, little one. I know that she was one of your closest friends."