Chapter 14.

My father had quickly registered Knight at Sky High, so the next morning we walked to the bus stop. I saw Ethan from halfway down the block, vivid in a bright green shirt. Both he and Magenta turned to face us as we approached, Maj with her customary cup of coffee. I wondered how awkward it was for Knight to pretend like he didn't know any of these people, when in actuality he had spent quite a bit of time with them in an alternate dimension. If it bugged him he didn't show it. Maybe he was just a good actor.

"Hi guys," I said as Ethan looked at his shoes. With all that had happened I had almost forgotten about his recently announced feelings for me.

Magenta grunted, narrowing her eyes at my cousin, "This is Knight, he's my cousin… he just moved in with us," I adjusted my backpack and stared at the pair with discomfort, "He's going to go to Sky High."

The bus pulled up and we piled in. Ethan sat behind Maj and we sat across from her. The bus driver did not ask who Knight was, and I wondered how many non-supers had snuck into a Sky High bus before. I was pulled out of my thoughts by Magenta's questioning tone.

"So is that Night like it was a dark and stormy night? Or Knight like a medieval knight?"

"Knight like K-n-i-g-h-t," he answered, not giving into Magenta's sarcastic tone. Maybe knowing them before wasn't such a bad thing, he had experience.

"I like your hair," she said suddenly, obviously lacking some clarity of thought because of the brightness of the morning. The storm system must have moved off during the night, "It's kinda like Warren's except longer and no red…" she continued vaguely.

"Is Warren your boyfriend?" my cousin replied nonchalantly, knowing perfectly well he was not.

Ethan guffawed and I zoned out of the conversation, glancing out the window every couple of seconds. It had been so weird that Warren had worked at the same Chinese restaurant that we had called…what was it again? Oh yeah the Paper Lantern, what a name. I wished I could have kept my mouth shut but the promise to try to do something about our less than friendly relationship had forced me into action. Without thinking I'd followed him out onto the front porch of my house.

"Warren." He turned around with an annoyed expression, eyeing my strange attire with amusement. Before he could let a sarcastic comment out of his mouth I rushed on. "Warren, I just wanted to apologize about what I said." He wiped a few loose strands of steadily dampening hair out of his face, but the rain continued to pour. "I really shouldn't have insulted your intelligence like that, or your comic books…sometimes I just let my mouth get ahead of me…" I finished the sentence lamely and waited for some sign, some action that would signal forgiveness. I think I was expecting everything to work out, for him to widen his eyes in remembrance and sweep me off my feet... As if.

"Yeah well, we all do stupid things, some more than others." he smiled wryly at the dig. Then he had shrugged and turned back to his car without a second thought and left me fuming at his arrogance.

I reemerged from my thoughts as the bus braked in front of Will and Layla's stop, my right hand playing with the punched out hourglass charm.

No matter what the bard had said in his sonnet, that incident last night had convinced me of one very important fact: Love was indeed time's fool.

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I sat down across from Mr. Mardos, my senior advisor, and struggled not to smile. There he was before me, same brown eyes same wiry gray hair and eyebrows, same disapproving glare. It was probably the thousandth time that day that I'd realized how good it was to be back here in my reality. Mr. Mardos on the other hand looked like he'd rather perform a root canal on an alligator than talk to me about my future plans.

"So, Miss," he glanced down at his paper with his familiar forgetfulness, "Tudor, I hope this session will be more productive than our last."

"I think it will be Mr. Mardos," I answered cheerily, handing over some papers that I'd worked on the night before in a fever of hero glee. I wouldn't mention that the hero glee had been the product of trying to watch my cousin and father play the same card game several dozen times.

He glanced over the first two; they were in fact some preliminary sketches of what my costume would look like. They were exactly what he had been egging me to do from the beginning of the school year. The other sheets contained some ideas for theme music, sidekick garb and a few nifty devices…heck after doing all that I didn't half-blame Warren for liking comic books, it was a lot of fun to come up with all of that stuff. Of course, to be absolutely honest I hadn't really wanted to do it, but it was a necessary step in the process. I needed all the help I could get.

Mr. Mardos looked up at me with watery eyes, "Allergies, pardon me," he said and furiously dabbed with a tissue. I just leaned back in my chair and waited, one thing was for certain, I would be a superhero and my uncle could have my career decision on his conscience for the rest of his life. For indeed, without his influence, I would have never changed my mind.

When the bell rang I left the room feeling remotely satisfied with the conversation. I'd never even considered the idea that Mr. Mardos really did want to help me. I approached my locker and retrieved my books and my lunch. Knight had been assigned a sidekick schedule so I hadn't seen him all day. The administration really didn't know what they were missing out on, but Coach Boomer knew very little about the value of a hero who could tell when someone was lying or telling the truth. To him, if your power wasn't remotely showy there was no way you'd make the coveted hero assignment.

At least Knight had Magenta, Ethan and Zach to show him around, they were probably the best people in the school to do it. I pushed open the doors to the cafeteria and drank in the general chaos. It was so good to be back. Our table was currently occupied only by Magenta and Knight. The black and purple haired girl was looking at my cousin in a way that made me nervous; she was supposed to be dating Zach after all.

"Hey guys," I said and sat down between them with obvious intentions of stopping their conversation.

Magenta rolled her eyes and started picking at the food on her cafeteria tray, "Gosh Dia, way to butt into a conversation."

"Really? I'm sorry."

She waved me off and began shoving down some disgusting looking vegetable with gusto. The rest of the group was approaching from the other side of the table, Warren hanging two feet back and trying to look (I think) like he wasn't with them. Will and Layla sat down across from me, and I almost didn't mind the cheesy looks they were giving each other. I was in fact almost overwhelmed with happiness at seeing Will without a sneer on his face and Layla back to her cheerful self.

They said hi again to Knight and the low hum of conversation began, broken only intermittingly by the loud voice of Zach. I looked at every face in turn and almost didn't have time enough to finish my food; it all just seemed too mundanely wonderful to be true. When the bell rang, much sooner than I would have liked, Knight walked with me out into the hall.

"Wow…I'm glad we changed it Lydia," he started quietly, "I never imagined it could've been like that…so…so…"

"Normal?"

"Yeah, I'm just happy Fintan was able to help us out. Some people at the agency don't like him…you know, how stubborn he is," Knight laughed unguardedly, "I guess he gets that from you," he stopped suddenly, realizing that he had said something he shouldn't have. Dark eyes widened behind the rectangle squares that were his glasses.

"Why should he get that from me? Knight?!" I yelled after him as he hurried away to join the other sidekicks on their way to their classes.

I wouldn't find out the answer to that question until we were alone at home after the school day was over. He went straight to his room and made a phone call while I paced in the hallway. I'd been wondering what exactly he'd meant by that simple statement all day. I suddenly yelped as my father's hand came down unexpectedly on my shoulder.

"Poor Knight, don't worry he'll be alright…"

"How did you know?" I asked with puzzled expression.

"Word gets around, especially when time doesn't mean much to you. Explanations aside hun, Fintan ok'd me telling you."

"Telling me what?" I asked exasperated.

He took hold of both of my shoulders, "He didn't see any ill affects in you knowing and neither did I…of course we could just go back and erase your memory of it if we ever did find some anomaly, but time is usually more stable than that, it kind of snaps back into place unless you really coax it…"

His rabbit-trails were becoming annoying, "Father," I used the more formal term to get his attention, "What are you trying to tell me?"

"Well, when Knight said Fintan inherited your stubbornness…"

"That really wasn't what he said exactly."

"Do you want to know or not?" he smiled, and Knight's door opened revealing his bashful face, "Fintan is your son. Inherited some pretty unique powers, time-jumping, invulnerability to fire…" he paused at my surprised expression, "It's all in the future dear, you'll just have to wait for it. I wouldn't have told you any of it, but…"

"But I loused things up," Knight interjected ruefully.

"Not really, Fintan thinks it's all for the best and as head of the agency it really is up to him."

"This is all too complicated for me," I said with a wry laugh. I wondered at the full implications of what my father was saying, especially the bit about my son's invulnerability to fire. A thought came unbidden to my mind, maybe all of this, the strange tempest in time, was meant to be. Of course when your father can see the future, fate loses its magic. But for now I had only one thing to concentrate on, and that was my homework.

Time or not I still had to graduate high school.

The End

AN: And there it is, I hope you all enjoyed this story, I know I appreciated your reviews very, very much! Please take a moment and tell me what you thought!

A couple people have asked me if there is going to be a sequel. I don't know at this point, but keep an eye out for it. I have some ideas, but I want to solidify my plans before I determine whether I'm going to write a full second story.

Thanks again for your support!