Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High, or any of its canon characters.

Chapter Eleven- Paul's Plan

It hadn't clicked at first once he'd said it. But then it did, and it took all my strength not to keel over. I tried to keep my expression calm, but I think Warren noticed- he looked at me warily as if he thought I was going to be sick.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know," I told him quietly before I left and went home. I had to get out of there.

The next day, I got into trouble with Mr. Mnemonic for arriving late for class. But I barely heard his scolding. I was still reeling from what Warren had told me the day before.

It all came into place, so quickly, so obviously that I cursed myself for not seeing it sooner. Warren's father. It had always been about Warren's father. The blue prints were of the prison. And Lisa Kline. She asked me what Paul truly wanted since my father had been hurt by Barron Battle. And I couldn't see it.

Yet try as I had, deep down, I didn't want to see it. I didn't want to see what he'd become so obsessed with, what he truly wanted more than anything else...revenge.

And Jana Vega- she was always with my cousin, talking in hushed voices. I couldn't believe I didn't figure it out before.

But why Jana? I suddenly wondered. I could understand Lisa being in on it- she was so moony-eyed over Paul, he could get her to do anything. But what was Jana's part in this? What did she have to gain?

xxxxx

During the day, I tried to get Paul alone so that I could talk to him. But that seemed impossible. There was always someone around or someone who wanted to talk to me. Lunchtime came and once again he was with a group of the more popular kids at Sky High, joking around and taking no notice of me. He looked so carefree with them, so…normal.

I was going to have to talk with him though- friends or no friends. I made my way over to him and was nearly there when Lisa and Jana suddenly appeared at his side. Something about the look on their faces made me stop. Even Paul who was laughing, fell silent as he saw them. He nodded once.

Suddenly all three turned to me. Three pairs of eyes glared, burning with an enigmatic fury. I stifled a gasp and glanced away. There was no way I could talk to Paul now, not with those two around. I left the cafeteria, suddenly feeling a little sick.

xxxxxx

I had to do something. Stop him, if he could not stop himself. What on earth was he thinking? How did he intend to exact his revenge against Barron Battle? There was no way he could get into that prison. What did Paul think he was going to do?

But in the back of my mind I knew he'd find a way. He might have even already found one. He didn't look particularly worried at the moment.

If only I could get him alone…but he wouldn't talk or listen to me. Then what? The police? They'd never believe a junior Hero-in-training would try to break into Maxville's Correctional Facility for Super Villains to…

What exactly? Kill Barron Battle?

I thought of going to my father. He'd know what to do.

But then, what could he do that I couldn't do myself? I was a Hero too, after all. Well, sort of. And in a way, Paul was my responsibility. I'd deal with him myself.

It was only when the bell rang between Mad Science and Hero Arts did I see my chance. While the other students were filing out of the classroom, I rushed over to my cousin and grabbed his arm.

"Paul, we have to talk," I said urgently.

"Leave me alone," he snapped, pulling his arm away.

Losing my cool, I grabbed him again roughly. "Paul, sit down. Now."

Sullenly, he complied. "What do you want?"

I waited until everyone had left the room. When I was sure we were alone, I closed the door. Looking him in the eye, I told him bluntly, "I know what you're going to do. I know about Barron Battle."

Paul didn't move a muscle. He sat there completely relaxed and just stared at me.

"Well? Don't you have anything to say?"

"Yeah. Stay out of it." Paul rose from his seat and turned to leave.

"Paul! I am not going to just sit back and watch you do something crazy!" I hissed, blocking his way.

He glared furiously at me. "And what do you think you're going to do?! You're not going to stop me. No one is!"

I didn't know what to do at that point. In a moment of desperation and anger, I blurted out without thinking, "I'll tell Dad."

Without warning, Paul grabbed my shoulders and slammed me into the blackboard. I was too stunned to cry out.

"You do that and you'll wish you'd never been born!" he snarled, baring his fangs. His manic eyes gleamed silver. "You think he can stop me? He won't be able to do anything, just like he couldn't do anything last time! Go home Anna! Go home and keep your mouth shut!"

"Get off of me!" I yelled, shocked. I raised my hands and powered up instantly. A beam of light hit him squarely in the chest and he let go, falling hard on his back.

But he shot to his feet, snarling. For a moment I thought he was going to attack me again, and I tensed, ready to stop him. Suddenly his eyes returned to normal and something in them softened. He swallowed a couple of times.

"Look what this is doing to you," I whispered. "Paul… just come home with me. Give me a chance to make you see how crazy this is."

He stared at me for a moment, looking sorry. "I'll come with you," he said softly. "But you're not going to change my mind."

"My God Paul, you're going to get yourself killed!"

"No, I won't! I'll be all right."

"Paul-"

He suddenly hugged me fiercely, surprising me with his sudden affection. "You were always such a worrier. This is exactly why I didn't tell you, why I couldn't…" His voice trailed off. "But how could I tell you anything anymore? With you making friends with Peace, on top of everything else?"

I became indignant. "Paul it was never-"

"Look, I just needed…I had to stay away from you for a while. I couldn't risk you finding out. Or him, for that matter. But now you do." He exhaled slowly. "What am I going to do about it now?"

I tried to pull away enough to look at his face, but he wouldn't let me. It didn't matter though because I knew my cousin. Paul wasn't sure what was going to happen- if he would survive or not. And he didn't seem to care.

He let me go at last. "You can't tell anyone, Anna. They'll only get in the way. They'll get hurt. You don't want that, do you?"

"Of course not. But I don't want you to get hurt either."

"It's already started. It can't be stopped now."

Exhaling sharply, I glared at him. "You're not going to do this. You're not."

Paul stared me down for a long time, not even blinking.

Finally he said, "I'll walk you home." He grabbed his book bag and walked out of the room. Warily, I followed him.

xxxxxxxxxx

Paul sat next to me on the bus, the first time he'd done so in weeks. Jana who'd recently been his bus seat partner, looked at him in confusion and blatant disapproval. Paul nodded to her once and she turned away, not completely appeased.

As the bus flew over the city of Maxville, I thought about what I could say or do to make him abandon this insane plan of his. I thought maybe once I got him home, I could debilitate him somehow and threaten him with the authorities if he didn't give it up.

A million plans went through my head and it wasn't until we stopped walking that I finally noticed that we were home.

"Anna?" my mom's voice called from upstairs.

"Yeah, I'm home. Paul's here too."

I heard my mom's footsteps coming down the stairs, a little too fast. Then there she was, wearing a rather dressy olive green blouse and black pants.

"Paul- hello there stranger! I thought you'd given up on visits." My mom looked surprised but pleased to see him.

"Hi Aunt Diane. Yeah, sorry about that. I've been busy," he said, giving her a sheepish but affectionate smile.

"Well you're here now, that's all that matters. You'll have to excuse me, I'm just out the door. I'm meeting your father at your grandmother's, so we'll be home very late tonight. There are some mini pizzas in the fridge if you guys are hungry. You'll have to eat one of the TV dinners tonight, Anna."

"No problem. Thanks Mom."

"Thanks Aunt Diane."

The moment she was gone, Paul's smile faded and a blankness replaced it. I asked him a little hesitantly, "You hungry?" It sounded so ridiculous as soon as it came out of my mouth, given the enormity of the situation. But I needed any form of normalcy I could get.

"No," he said shortly and turning away, went upstairs to my room. I followed him. Once we were inside I turned to him, resolute.

"When are you planning to do this?" I asked him straight out.

"Soon."

"How soon?"

He paused for a moment, then said, "Two days."

"Two days?! For goodness sake-"

His face was hard. "I have to do this Anna."

"You don't have to do anything!" I practically screamed, losing my temper.

"Look, who are you really worried about?!" he retorted, losing his. "Me, or Barron Battle?"

I hesitated. I suddenly realized I was worried about both of them. I didn't want Paul to get hurt, but I also didn't want anything to happen to my father's enemy either. Whatever he'd done, he was still a human being.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt. Period."

"Oh, he won't get hurt. He's going to die."

"Don't you realize what you're saying? What you sound like? What makes you any different from him?!"

"I have a reason!"

"I'm sure he thought his reasons were pretty damn good too."

"How can you be taking his side even now?" Paul raged. "Do you think Uncle Charles is the only one he hurt? Lisa's mother is dead because of him!"

That stopped me for a moment. "What?"

Lisa's mom was a sidekick, Rebecca Kline. She tried to stop Barron Battle from bringing down the Maxville City Bridge. She didn't survive."

"I'm sorry. I had no idea."

"Right. You never bothered about the 'whys', did you?"

I ignored his last statement. "And what about Jana? What's her part in this?"

Paul let out a dry laugh. "Jana…she must have had it worse than any of us. Both her parents were Heroes. George and Paola Vega. Paola is just…messed up in the head now. She's barely in the real world half the time. George is dead. It was at his funeral that Jana first powered up, when she first realized what she could do."

"Oh God…" The implications of that were too horrible to picture, which meant I could picture it all too clearly. Jana, wanting her dad to come back so much, that she… I gave an involuntary shudder.

"So now you know. Still think Barron Battle should be allowed to live?"

"Yes," I told him solidly. "I do."

Paul was furious. "Anna, you're impossible!"

"Will you shut up and listen! I don't want my cousin to be a murderer! I couldn't ever look at you the same way again if you did that. Don't you see? This won't make you a Hero- you'd be no better than any of the prisoners in there, no better than Battle! It won't bring their parents back. It'll just land all three of you in prison for the rest of your lives. Is he worth that?"

"It's the perfect plan. No one will know it was us. Not unless you tell someone," he added with narrowed eyes.

"I wouldn't have to. They'd find out the truth one way or another. Paul, this is a suicide mission, plain and simple. It couldn't possibly end well, even if you did manage to kill him. You'd be going against the authorities, everything a Hero stands for. You'd be going against yourself."

"What are you talking about?"

"You, Paul. You'd know what you did. Do you think you can live with that, killing a man who was already paying for his crimes? Is that the kind of Hero you want to be?"

Paul turned his heated gaze to the floor and as he did so, the realization came to me. I'd have to stop him by any means necessary. Even though Paul was a better fighter than I was, I could use the element of surprise. I'd overpower him, make him unconscious somehow and then get help, someone who'd believe me. I had to. Seeing my cousin like this, I knew that I didn't have a choice. My hands slowly started to warm as I began to power up….

Suddenly Paul's head snapped up and I powered down in the blink of an eye. But to my surprise, Paul's eyes were brimming. Slowly, he made his way to the edge of my bed and sat down. "Anna, I don't know… I can't stop this. Not now" But for the first time, he sounded unsure.

Inadvertently, I lowered my hands. "But you can Paul. Just don't do it. Please Paul. Please. Think of your mom and dad. Think of my dad."

"Just…stop?" Paul gazed at me with an almost beseeching expression. "Why should I?"

"Because you're stronger than this. Revenge is the stuff of villains. You don't want any part of it. Trust me."

I was standing before him now, my hands on his shoulders. His face reflected some kind of internal struggle. I stared at him and waited, not daring to breathe.

The silence seemed to last forever. Then finally, he sighed heavily. His eyes looked sad, lost, but then he looked at me and suddenly he was Paul again. He mumbled, "I'll go talk to Jana and Lisa. I'll tell them what you said."

"But are you going to give up on this plan?" I asked desperately. "Talking to them isn't enough, Paul. I need your word that you won't do this."

Paul didn't answer and he wouldn't look at me.

"Look at me," I murmured, holding his face and forcing him to meet my eyes. "You have to promise me this. You have to."

My cousin gazed at me, slightly glassy-eyed. Then he said in a somewhat dull tone, "I promise."

I watched him carefully for a little while. Then I exhaled slowly and put my arms around him.

Reluctantly, he hugged me back.

"I'm sorry Paul," I whispered.

And I truly was. Because I knew….Paul giving up his plan, his tears, his promises, all of it... was a lie.

xxxxxxxx

It was getting dark. Paul was quiet. So was I. As I watched him worrying the edge of my bedspread, I kept thinking about how he had lied to me all of this time. For the past two weeks I'd tried to get through to him, tried to…fix him, like I'd done so many times in the past. But it was all for nothing. He wasn't the Paul I knew anymore, the one whom I grew up with and looked up to my whole life.

And looking into his dark, hollow looking eyes, I wondered…if the Paul I'd known my whole life wasn't the biggest lie of all.

"Anna?" Paul's voice broke through my thoughts.

Coming back to the present I looked up at him, giving him a forced sympathetic smile.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him.

"I'm all right." Sighing, he stood up. "It's getting late. I'm going to head home. And I still have to talk to Jana and Lisa, get them to understand."

I was furious at his words. I wanted to shake him, make him admit the truth. But I struggled to remain calm. "All right. I'll come and see you tomorrow. Don't worry Paul, it'll all work out. You'll see."

Paul looked at me warmly, but he didn't smile. "Yeah. I hope so. Goodbye Anna."

"Goodbye Paul," I said softly, trying to keep the break out of my voice.

Paul left the room. A few seconds later I heard the front door slam.

I waited until I could gather my thoughts into something that resembled coherence. Then I got up and went to the phone. I dialed a number.

"Hello, Arrian residence."

"Dad?"

"Annie! Hi, what's up?"

"Dad…it's about Paul."

My father's voice immediately became more serious. "What about Paul? What's wrong?"

"I think he's… no…I know he's -" I stopped and sighed heavily. I didn't know how to say it.

"Annie, what is it?" Dad's voice sounded almost agitated. "Has Paul done something?"

"No…I mean, not really. Look, how soon will you be home?"

"I'm at Grandma's, honey. I'm waiting for your mother to get here- even if I left now, I won't be home for at least a few hours. Anna, just tell me. What's wrong with Paul? Has he done something?"

"It's-don't worry about, okay? I'll talk to you about it when you get home. It's not something we can discuss over the phone, not properly. It can wait."

"Are you sure? If it's important, you should tell me."

"When you get home," I insisted. There was no point in worrying him when he was too far away to do anything.

"I won't be home until late-"

"I'll wait up for you. It's a Friday night, remember?"

My father gave a chuckle but it sounded strained. "Okay. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thanks Dad. See you later."

I hung up. There was nothing else I could do at the moment. I'd wait till my father got home, tell him what Paul was going to do and let him deal with it. There was nothing more I could do for my cousin. He'd made his choice.

As I waited for my parents to get home I decided to keep myself occupied with something, anything to keep me from losing it completely. I idly scribbled down some homework for a few minutes. Then I nuked a bowl of macaroni for dinner, settled myself on the couch and stared listlessly at a game show on the television.

I finally gave up on the TV and switched it off. I knew there no escaping it. I wouldn't be able to rest until it was all resolved one way or another. Miserably, I just let myself play the whole scenario again in my head. All the lies he'd told me and the cold empty look in his eyes, as if nothing else in the world seemed to matter except the terrible, terrible thing he wanted to do …

I sat straight up, suddenly going cold as something was made clear to me.

I scrambled for the phone. Breathless, I dialed Paul's number. I prayed for him to answer the phone.

It rang only once before someone picked up, though by this time I was a wreck.

"Hello?"

"Aunt Nia? Is Paul there?" I asked, my voice on the edge of hysteria.

"Wha- is something the matter, Anna?" my aunt sounded worried.

"Huh? Uh, no. No, sorry."

"Well, it's just that it's kind of late, and you sound very upset-"

"I'm fine, I'm fine- is Paul there?" I interrupted.

"No Anna, he isn't," Aunt Nia said, sounding mildly annoyed now. "He went to a late night movie with some friends-"

"What friends?"

"Um…the Scott Read boy I think, and a couple of others. Honey, if you're upset that he didn't invite you, don't be. You know how boys are, they want their bonding time…"

She was still talking, but I'd stopped listening. My mind raced. Scott Read was one of the boys from Paul's neighborhood a few blocks away. Paul and I knew him well enough, but the thing was, Paul never hung out with him before. Scott was just an average boy with no superpowers at all and therefore nothing to make Paul even remotely interested in being his friend. It made no sense.

"Aunt Nia?" I suddenly interrupted as she was rambling on. "Did Scott come over to the house?"

"What? No, Paul went over to his place. Why?"

"I have to go Aunt Nia. Goodnight," I said shortly as I hung up, staring into space. The cold realization finally sunk in, but I had to be sure. Calling Information, I got Scott's number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mr. Read, this is Anna Arrian. I'm a friend of Scott's. I'm sorry to be calling so late, but I was just wondering what time Scott would be coming back home from the movies."

"Movies? Scott didn't go to the movies. He's right here watching TV. Would you like to speak with him?"

I hung up, staring at the phone for about five seconds. There was no doubt in my mind now.

Paul had played me yet again. His lies had gone far deeper than I realized. The plan wasn't going to be executed in two days.

It was happening tonight.

In a rush, I made one more call. It was the only person I could think of who might be able to help on such short notice. Dad was just too far away to get here in time.

A familiar voice answered, husky with sleep. "Hello?"

"Warren, it's Anna," I said in a rush. "Your father- he's in danger."