Happy Endings
CHAPTER TWO
"How safe is your home, do you think?" Charlotte asked Mia as Stan drove them along a dark, wooded lane. The drive was a long one – Mia lived as far from Haven as she could and still be in the vicinity. She wasn't sure if her home was even on the right side of the shroud of fog that now encircled Haven.
"I don't think he knows about it." Mia told Charlotte and they both knew which "he" she meant. "Mara found me in Haven. I hadn't worn my disguise because no one in this generation in Haven had ever seen me. I was playing tourist."
"Do you really think we can defeat him?" Charlotte asked fearfully. "Sometimes I feel like I've been fighting his ego forever."
"These people are strong, Charlotte." Mia told her friend. "I've watched them and lived with them through so many generations. They support each other and they fight for each other and most of all, they endure. My bet is on them. And your Audrey is no small advantage. It's like you've got Mara back from before she was ill."
"It is." Charlotte agreed with trembling lips. "Except that she doesn't know me anymore."
"There's room for you in her heart." Mia assured her. "I can feel it. She wants to love you and she wants your love. Give her time."
"Heh," Charlotte managed a misty smile, "it's not like I'm going anywhere."
Stan pulled up before a sturdy stone house. The back wall of the house actually touched the fog but Mia could tell that her home was accessible to them.
"Thank you, Stan." She told him. "We'll be okay now. I hope I get to see you soon."
"You two just get this trouble thing figured out, okay? We're counting on you." Stan replied.
"That's the goal." Mia assured him before heading into her home.
"Okay, Charlotte, do you want anything before we get started? Coffee, tea, wine?" Mia grinned wickedly. "I don't have any tycilun but maybe I could whip up an approximation."
Charlotte groaned. "Why do you always bring that up?" She complained.
"Because it's funny." Mia laughed and went into her kitchen and turned on a kettle. "I have several teas. Pick whatever you like."
A short while later Mia led Charlotte down the stairs through a door in her kitchen to the basement of the home. The basement was stone and concrete but it had excellent lighting. Mia paused to start a fire in the fireplace that was along the back wall of the main room. It began warming the room but also just made the place seem cozier.
"These are my journals." Mia told her friend, leading her to a simple wooden bookcase along the back wall. "The blue ones are all about every trouble I've ever seen or heard of. The red ones are my experiment notes. This white one has my very few theories or ideas for experiments. I'm not sure any of it will be helpful, though. If I had a trouble when I did this work I certainly didn't know it."
Charlotte had brought her "go bag" with her and she pulled her notebook out of it.
"Let's start with what Mara did to you. What exactly did she do and what happened?"
"Well, she "arrested" me and since she had a gun I wasn't going to argue. Then she took me to a warehouse – to some kind of storeroom in the middle of it. She –" Mia shuddered slightly at the memories, "she tried to convince me to open the thinnies – but I hadn't sealed them."
"That was me." Charlotte confessed guiltily. "I couldn't let her go back into the void."
"I understand. You were right about that. She was completely out of control." Mia agreed. "Well, when she finally accepted that I wasn't able to open the thinnies she tazed me and then chained me around my waist to a metal pipe overhead. She had a chemical toilet in the room and a few MREs. And there was a spigot for water. Then she told me she'd wasted enough time on me and that she'd be back later and she left."
"And she didn't come back."
"Not for two weeks." Mia confirmed.
"She'd been captured."
"I assumed that." Mia smiled wryly at her friend. "Remember, I know about these people, even though they don't know me. I'd been rationing the MREs since she left. But your daughter made sure there was nothing I could use to pick the lock on the chain and that pipe was solid as bedrock. I was stuck until she came back and injected me with – well I'm pretty certain it was Duke's blood."
"Describe how that felt."
"It felt like acid in my veins." Mia answered, a frown of remembered agony etching lines in forehead. "I felt like I was being invaded on a cellular level. I blacked out pretty quickly and when I came to…"
"You were by the seaplane."
"Yes. And here we are now."
"Do you think Mara actually gave you this trouble you have? Or did you create it from the aether in that blood?"
"Honestly, Charlotte, I just don't know. I felt a pull towards Duke the moment I regained consciousness. Part of that is simply biology, as you well know."
"I'm kind of amazed its has happened with an otherworld person."
"I've had a few families over the centuries I've been here. A surprising number of my children have married into the Crocker line. He's got more than a little of our blood running through those veins." Mia explained.
"That explains how he can absorb and expel aether and give troubles."
"But the other draw, Charlotte, was the aether in him. I think Mara intended for me to have no choice but to take in troubles. She was collecting them for her father, I'm sure of it. I just want to know why she didn't know he is already here."
"So how is it that you aren't drawing troubles and life from every person you encounter?" Charlotte pressed her.
"Mara may be gifted and tuned to aether but I've got willpower she never had a chance to develop." Mia answered. "I was determined to survive and defeat my brother. Somehow this trouble of mine will make that possible, although I'll confess I'm not quite sure how."
"Intent is the crucial factor in creating a trouble." Charlotte nodded her understanding.
"Does that help you?" Mia asked. "Can you use my trouble to work out a construct that will safely remove aether from these people?"
"I think it does." Charlotte told her, jotting down notes. "But I'm going to need to do some research. I'm going to need to go back to the hospital and my lab there soon."
"I suppose we could call Stan for a ride again."
"So you don't have a car?"
"It's in Haven where I parked it. And it's not registered to Widow Jensen. Being a hideously disfigured recluse has its drawbacks."
"How many personas have you juggled?"
"Not as many as you inflicted on your daughter – what were you thinking?"
Tears sparkled in Charlotte's eyes.
"It was the only thing I could think of that would satisfy the Council's determination to punish her and still keep her from her father's exile. I was trying to save her but…"
"Well, it produced Audrey." Mia noted. "And she's pretty amazing."
"She is, isn't she?" Charlotte smiled again, a mixture of pride and sorrow and wonder all wrapped together. She finished her notes and replaced the notebook in her go bag and the two women headed back upstairs.
"How about a tour?" Charlotte asked, glancing down at her friend as they emerged into the kitchen. She never saw the person standing behind the door. She was knocked unconscious with a single blow to her head. Mia surged forward, placing herself between her friend and the attacker.
"Leave her alone!" She demanded with considerably more courage than sense. "You don't want her right now anyway."
"You are so right about that." Her brother told her in a voice rich with menace and malice. "It's you I've come for. I can deal with her later."
"Just leave her alone." Mia repeated. "She's trapped on this world with all your other victims. Haven't you done enough?"
"She killed my daughter." He answered, kicking the unconscious woman viciously although the brunt of the kick was taken by Mia who intercepted the blow. Her brother leveled the gun he held on her and Mia braced for a bullet.
"Oh no," he said silkily, "I'm not going to kill you – not yet anyway. You have an ability I want to make use of."
He waved his gun towards the door and Mia obeyed the unspoken order, her heart heavy with fear and resignation.
"How did you find me?" Mia asked.
"Once I knew you were alive it was easy. I have that girl's trouble now. I took it in the lighthouse. It's very useful having a connection to anyone who has ever been in the Void."
"You killed her!"
"Of course I did – I needed her trouble and I needed Duke Crocker vulnerable. I didn't expect Mara to capitalize on his weakness too but that clever girl picked right up on it. I can't tell you how proud she's made me."
Mia looked at him, horrified even though she wasn't surprised by his callousness.
"She was an innocent."
"She could have opened the door to send me back to the Void." Croatoan snarled. "And her trouble is useful to me, as I've already said."
Mia slid into the vehicle and, following Croaotan's instructions, handcuffed her wrists with the short chain of the cuffs going through the door handle on the passenger side. She spared a moment to hope they didn't crash for any reason because she'd probably lose her hands if they did.
"What is it you want?" She asked her brother as he started driving. "Why do you hurt these people?"
"These creatures don't matter." Croatoan told her casually. "They're merely useful test subjects."
Mia waited patiently for him to elaborate and after a few moments he continued.
"I want what I've always wanted." He said finally, resentment and bitterness threading his voice. "I want them to realize my genius. With what my Dove did to the Crocker boy I'll be able to achieve that. I just have to get my girl back and then…"
"Mara's gone, Cal." Mia said gently.
"I know." He answered shortly, rage flaring from him like a solar flare. "You're lucky you had nothing to do with that."
"I was – incapacitated at the time." Mia said carefully.
They pulled up before a yellow farmhouse on a bluff overlooking the sea. It wasn't very far from Mia's home, which disturbed Mia more than it probably should have.
"But I will win her back." He declared grandly.
"Audrey isn't Mara." Mia pointed out, again with gentleness. Not only was she sympathetic to her brother's very real grief, but she was also concerned that she was going to push him into a destructive rage.
"I know that!" He replied heatedly. "I'll have to show her how much I love her."
"Well that's going to be hard to do if you're busy torturing her friends." Mia finally snapped. "Audrey loves these people and she loves this town – and they love her back."
He handed her the keys to her handcuffs and stepped back, covering her with his gun while she freed herself from the cuffs.
"In the front door, straight back to the kitchen, then down the stairs to the basement." He ordered her tersely. Concerned that her bluntness had pushed him too far, Mia obeyed in silence. As soon as she was through the door to the basement – a solid metal and heavy wood door – he slammed it shut and locked it.
"This is a variation of a panic room." He said through the door. "You'll be fine as long as you remain in the rooms down there. There's plenty of food and unlimited access to water. If you show you can obey and make yourself useful, I might even let you live. Audrey isn't the only person I might want to coax into cooperation. So don't give me a reason to kill you, right? Oh, and if you force these doors or a window, the house will blow."
Mia felt her brother's presence leave the vicinity and cursed his parentage, upbringing, and personal hygiene habits in seven different languages.
"I am so bloody tired of being a captive!" she finished, her nostrils white around the edges as she struggled with rage, a sense of helplessness and terror for the people she loved – with Duke being right there at the top of that list.
Once she'd vented the worst of her emotions she examined her new prison. Her brother had been remarkably generous. She had a "living room" right off of the stairs. It came equipped with a pair of recliners and bookshelves loaded with reading material. She recognized some of her favorite authors from both worlds on the shelves and shuddered uneasily. Her brother had been rummaging around in her mind.
Two doors on one wall opened up on a bedroom and bathroom respectively. The door on the far wall opened into a small kitchenette with laundry facilities. Mia's unease grew. It wasn't like her brother to be kind to those he felt had betrayed him. Why was he making her captivity so comfortable?
"You're right." Her brother whispered in her mind. "Audrey isn't going to be happy if I'm torturing her friends. So I'm giving you an opportunity to please me and earn your life. More than that, I'm giving you an opportunity to stick around and comfort Duke – you'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"Get out of my head!" she shouted, knowing she had no power to enforce her wishes. Her brother laughed but the laughter faded away as he turned his attention to other matters.
Mai went to the bedroom and laid herself down on the bed. Cautiously she stretched her awareness along the tie between herself and Duke. He was furious and she knew that they knew she was gone.
"— the hell did this happen?" Mia "tuned in" in mid tirade.
"I don't know." Charlotte sighed, holding a cold pack to the lump on the back of her head. "She said he didn't know about her house – but he obviously found out somehow." Tears filled Charlotte's eyes. "She's dead by now."
"No." Duke said, his anger subsiding slightly. "No, she isn't. I can sense her. She's okay – not hurt, a little afraid but not in pain either."
Charlotte paled.
"That's almost worse." She whispered through lips gone numb with fear. "That means he has a purpose for her."
Mia began to withdraw, knowing that Charlotte was right and afraid that the purpose her brother had in mind was going to be detrimental to Duke.
"Don't go." He called out, feeling her retreating.
"Duke, he wants to use me against you in some way." She warned him silently. "No matter what happens, don't let him. Please."
"She's gone."
Mia heard his words faintly as she returned her awareness to her immediate vicinity. She could feel his frustration and ached because she was the cause of it but she was convinced that the more she severed her connection with Duke the better off he'd be. And she needed to focus on barricading her mind against her brother. She ignored the amusement that her brother sent through his link to her at that thought and set to work. She'd always been his superior in the mental gifts…
Back at the police station Duke was explaining himself to the others.
"No, she isn't dead – I'd feel that. But she was closer to me for a few minutes and now she's pulled away. She's trying to block this connection she has to me."
"She's afraid he'll use it against you, Duke." Charlotte said sadly, "and she's right."
"So what do we do now? We can't let him keep her." Duke could hear the frustration and sense of powerlessness in his voice. He hated it but he couldn't keep it out.
"There's a bigger issue here." Dwight pointed out. "And that's you, Duke. Croatoan has two real targets right now – you and Audrey. How do we keep you two from him?"
"We get them out of Haven." Nathan said unhappily.
"No, I can't go. I have to stay here and help…" Audrey protested automatically.
"You have to. If you go with Duke you should be able to penetrate the shroud. I doubt Croatoan's influences reaches past it. Then we can focus on helping Charlotte get a new barn up and running."
"We need Audrey to create the new barn, though." Dwight pointed out.
"We need Audrey to create an aether core but there's no reason for her to be here until we have the aether to do so." Charlotte countered. "Her father has a plan for her and we don't want him to implement it, whatever it is."
"I'm not going anywhere without Mia." Duke said firmly.
"What would she say?" Audrey asked him shrewdly. "What did she say to you before she pulled away?"
"She said Croatoan wanted to use our connection against me and she begged me not to let her." Duke admitted unhappily. "But I can't just leave her with him."
"We won't stop looking for her." Nathan promised, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder and looking him in the eye to impress his sincerity on Duke. "I swear."
Duke turned away from them all and punched the wall, cracking the drywall and bruising and scraping his knuckles.
"Don't let it hit the ground!" Nathan warned as blood welled on Duke's hand. He covered it with his other hand, his anger rising that he couldn't even vent his frustration with a little mayhem anymore.
"I've got it." He said brusquely. Audrey went over to him and put her hand on his shoulder, radiating sympathy.
"I don't want to go either," she told him quietly, "but I think they're right. You do too or you wouldn't be so angry."
Duke sighed and gave in to the inevitable.
"Find her." He ordered Dwight and Nathan.
"Promise." Nathan agreed, his hand over his heart. It should have been utterly cheesy but somehow Nathan made it sincere.
"You got it." Dwight added a beat after Nathan. "She's important too."
"Fine. Then let's do this."
"Wait." Audrey protested. "How do we know when to come back?"
"Give us three weeks?" Dwight suggested. "Then return on the south highway – someone will be waiting for you. If we aren't ready yet, they'll tell you."
"We'd better be ready by then." Nathan observed darkly. "Because Haven will probably be running out of vital supplies by then."
"Yeah, that's all this situation needed." Duke groaned. "A time limit…"
"I'll drive you to the fog wall." Nathan told them. "Soonest is best. Croatoan is bound to try and stop us if he figures out what we're doing."
"Yeah." Duke found himself staring to the north and a little west of where they were. "She's that way." He told them, pointing.
Dwight and Charlotte remained behind to get a security detail set up on Charlotte so she could work on the parameters of the new barn while Dwight focused on finding the aether stash and keeping the new troubles under control. Far too soon for any of the occupants of the Bronco Nathan pulled up in front of the fog wall, behind an abandoned white car.
"Be safe." He told Duke before turning his attention to Audrey. "Keep an eye on him." He told her with a tinge of black humor. "You know how he gets when he's hurting."
"Be careful, Nathan." Audrey replied, pulling him into a long kiss with more than a little desperation in it. "I expect to find you here in three weeks."
Then acting on the conviction that it was better to rip the band aid off quickly, Audrey pulled herself away from Nathan and took Duke's hand. Duke didn't look back, he just walked into the fog wall without hesitation. Audrey looked back once before the fog engulfed them, hoping with all her heart that she'd made the right decision.
Back in the basement of an isolated yellow farmhouse on a bluff overlooking the ocean, Mia felt her brother's amusement at all of their attempts to thwart him and her heart sank further.
"Do you think I don't know how each and every one of you will react?" He taunted her silently. "I've been watching you all – even you, dear sister."
Mia rolled over in the bed and pulled a pillow over her head in a futile attempt to block her brother's malicious pleasure. Tears dampened the other pillow on the bed. Her brother held the upper hand and they both knew it, but Mia wasn't going to give up. She wasn't going to tamely sit by while her brother used her against Duke and Haven. She loved Haven as much as any native of the town. She'd been here longer than any of them and she felt an almost maternal possessiveness for this tiny concentration of humanity.
"If you love them then you'll help me bring Audrey around." Her brother urged, his mental "voice" insidiously practical. "I'll take her and return to our world and show them all what aether can do. I'll leave your little hamlet alone."
"And Duke?" She asked, hating herself for even considering it. "What about him?"
"I have use for him – he'll go with me. But if you behave I'll let you come too. He'd like that, I think."
Mia sat up in the bed, clutched her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth, crying and arguing with herself. Save Duke? Fight for Audrey? What the hell was she going to do? In the back of her mind she felt her brother's amusement and satisfaction. He was quite happy that he hadn't killed her know – this emotional torture was almost enough to satisfy his sadistic streak.
Deep, deep down in her mind Mia constructed a bunker and in that bunker she sat and plotted while the superficial, emotional persona on the surface agonized over the choices she had to make. Cal knew her, yes, but he knew the "her" of 600 years ago. He didn't know how much she'd grown while surviving on this primitive planet, nor did he know how deeply she'd learned to love her short lived spouses and children. He hadn't changed in the Void. He was still the same petulant, vicious, vengeful narcissist he'd been her entire life: The big brother who had hated her for being born, for taking the attention away from him, for being gifted in the mental abilities. So she gave him what he wanted; her pain and grief and most of all, the image of her helpless against his scheming. And deep in her mind she settled down to figure out exactly what it is she could do with this trouble Mara had foisted on her. She was going to save Duke, and Audrey, and Haven and she was going to eliminate the threat of her brother once and for all.