Chapter Fifteen:

Epilogue

Eleven Years Later…

As usual, for every year that we start a school year, my classmates stood up and said what occupation their parents had. It seemed that, even in the tenth grade, elementary traditions like these never really died out. I already knew what jobs my friends' parents had. Joel's mom was a paediatrician, Danny's mom was a Senator, and Lisa's dad was a judge.

And then it was my turn. I stood up in front of the class like everyone else, despite how stupid and childish I thought it was. To be honest, I sometimes didn't know how my parents ever found each other, since their jobs were so different, and I couldn't really remember a time that they weren't doing them. Still, they were there for me.

"My name's Kayce Grey," I said. "My dad's a musician and a record producer, and my mom's a firefighter."

I went back to my seat and let the boredom continue. My mom had tons of medals from the city of New Marias to commemorate her bravery. I mostly thought it was stupid. She ran into burning buildings when everyone had been ordered out, and got whoever was inside, regardless of the heat.

She's gonna get killed that way, I thought with a frown. Still, she never paid attention to the medals. When she was done work, she'd come home, cook supper, and we'd talk about all sorts of things. We never ran out of things to talk about, really. A favourite topic of mine was Egypt.

Dad was almost always home, unless he was helping a struggling artist or making songs of his own. We were pretty close, but not as close as mom and I. I think he got that mother/daughter bond that we had, but I still had my father/daughter bond with him. Proof of that was the fact that I couldn't bring a male friend over without my dad interrogating him. No one really came over to my place anymore.

When everyone'd finished telling that useless bit about themselves, we watched a bit of history. Mostly about Empire City. We watched a few video clips that people'd put together several years ago. There were a few clips of Cole running around healing people, fighting off Reapers, Dust Men and the First Sons. It didn't matter how old I got; Lucy and Cole MacGrath were still my heroes.

There was another video clip with a voice over. As a newswoman reported about the appearance of strange people appearing all over Empire City who had superpowers, there was this video clip that had a teenager with red hair leaping off of a building. She landed on top of one of the Reapers who were rounding people up, and then her hands suddenly sprouted flames, like a flamethrower and toasted the Reapers. Then she threw up a shield of fire to block the bullets coming in at her, and precisely shot a Reaper in the face, who was holding the cameraman. She disappeared as soon as she came.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that you were on T.V.," Danny whispered to me.

I shook my head. "Empire City's still being rebuilt. There's no way I could be there, either!"

"Just joking, Kayce," he said. "She looked way more angry than you do."

I've been known for my natural frown. It's my normal face, but everyone thinks I'm always displeased or something. It's gotten me into a bit of trouble, but I'm not exactly one to run around pretending there are rainbows and butterflies everywhere.

Around lunch, the fire alarm went off. As we'd been taught since elementary, we quickly started to file from the building.

"I didn't know there was a drill today," I said to Lisa.

She shrugged. "Probably just trying to catch us off-guard."

Joel came up behind us. While Danny and Lisa were more my height, this guy was a damn monster when it came to height. I was envious, to say the least, despite the fact that I was about 5"6'.

"The science lab's on fire!" he whispered quickly to us. "Some kid got carried away in chem. 20. Friggin' idiot!"

I swore harshly. Chemistry 10 was my next class, and in that very lab! I liked it because it was easy enough to get through.

Some ninth-graders were ahead of us, taking their sweet, sweet time to get out the doors. We rolled our eyes and tried to push through, but they weren't taking the warning seriously.

I heard cracking above us. I think I was the only one who did. Joel started pushing through the younger kids and telling them to get moving, when I realized that the fire'd already spread.

The roof started falling. Kids were screaming and trying to push out the door. Joel was swept out by the crowd, roaring at us to move. I looked up and saw a gigantic beam on fire start falling towards us. The screams increased as it free-fell towards us all. Lisa tripped beside me, and no one was helping her get up. Everyone'd passed us already, and now it was just Lisa, me, and a beam on fire.

We were terrified. I was paralysed, unable to move. Lisa screamed and covered her head. As if it was instinct or stupidity (because I don't know, myself), I raised my hands in the air and stopped the beam above my head. The flames burned my skin, but I held it up nonetheless.

"Go!" I ordered Lisa.

I think she was too scared to deny that request. She got to her feet and sprinted to the exit, passing a man who was coming in. He kicked me hard in the chest, and I dropped the beam. He stepped over the beam and the flames, as if it didn't bother him. A woman behind him totally avoided the flames. Holy God, they looked like they belonged in a circus!

"Joan MacGrath," the man said, "it's been a long time."

I held my chest, which felt like it was going to explode. "Who… are you?"

"You don't recognize me?" The man took his hat off, which matched with his trenchcoat. He was a really, really old man, with a hooked nose and dangerous eyes. "Well, it has been some time."

"How would I recognize you if I've never met you?" I snapped as I got up. "My name's not Joan MacGrath! It's Kayce Grey!"

The woman came towards me, her hood covering most of her face, but her skin was a sickly colour. "Oh, please, Joan. I know it's you! Age has been good to you!"

The man grabbed my head and slammed it against the wall. My hands were stinging from the fire, and were practically useless now.

"My name's Alden. She's Sasha. You nearly killed both of us."

I spat out some blood. "The leaders of the Reapers and the Dust Men…" I managed to clench my fists. "Cole kicked your ass! I don't know who 'Joan' is, but I'm not her! Shouldn't you be dead? The Beast wiped-out Empire City!"

"And we escaped by way of water," Sasha said. "Took us a while to find you, though."

I slammed my fist into his face, and he flew over the beam and out the door. I knew that I could never punch that well before, so what happened?

Sasha leaped at me. I dodged and sprinted up the stairs, towards the chemistry lab. The two were in hot pursuit (no pun intended). Alden raised his hand, and a bit of the floor gave out. I leaped as far as I could and just barely made it across. Sasha screeched as some of the fires got too close for comfort to her. In the distance, I heard the sirens of the fire trucks.

Mom! I thought excitedly. No, wait… What could she do? These're… These're people from Empire City, who went through all sorts of shit there! Mom's just a firefighter!

I was trapped in a classroom, which was a little too close to the chemistry lab. I was cornered, and my heart was pounding wildly.

Alden put his jaw back in place. "Nice punch," he said. "But it's the end of the line now."

"Why don't you just use your powers?" Sasha asked. "It'd be so much more fun to kill you at your strongest!"

"I don't have any powers!" I yelled.

Alden shook his head. "Fine. Then I'll rip you apart, limb by limb!"

I covered my head, unable to watch them come ever closer to me. Suddenly, a window shattered, and someone landed in front of me. It was my mom, and she hadn't even changed into her uniform. On that note, how'd she get up to the second story without a ladder?

"I thought I smelt crazy bitch," my mom said, smirking at Sasha. "Though I prefer them well-done, myself."

"What the—?" Alden and Sasha took a deliberate step back. "Joan MacGrath?"

"Joan Grey, actually," mom corrected. "I'm married now. Do you mind explaining why you've cornered my daughter? I'm not exactly in the best mood today, so choose your words wisely."

They didn't even speak. Sasha attacked my mom, viscously latching onto her shoulders and drawing blood. I screamed for my mom, but I didn't know what to do. What could I do?

"Don't think I forgot how to fight you, bitch!" mom seethed.

I saw Sasha's face suddenly become terrified, and before she could let go of my mom, the latter put her hand on Sasha's face. Sasha erupted into flames, and mom threw her into the fire. She screamed a while longer before it turned into nothing.

"I'm sorry about the last time I fought you, Alden," mom said, as if the death she just caused didn't phase her. "I wasn't exactly myself. Back then, I had a…" She looked at me. "I had a dormant split-personality. It won't get in the way this time!"

Alden laughed. "It's been years, MacGrath! Cole isn't coming to save you this time!"

"No?" Mom looked around. "Hm. Whatever shall I do?"

Alden used an invisible force to raise a beam and throw it at mom. She grabbed it out of the air and held onto it tightly, as if the flames didn't so much as tickle her. Alden tossed dozens more, but mom batted them away from us with the beam that had first been tossed, and then smashed Alden's head in with it. The old man fell to the ground, but I couldn't tell if he was unconscious or dead.

Mom dropped the beam and quickly came over to me. Unlike me, her hands weren't burnt at all.

"C'mon, Kayce," she said. "Get on my back. I'll get you outta here."

I listened obediently and climbed onto her back. Mom perched on the window she'd just broken and leaped out. I screamed as we free-fell down. Mom let me go as we went above a giant trampoline, and I landed safely on top of it, much to the firefighter's surprise. Mom didn't hit the trampoline, but rolled on the ground and came up safe, as if such a thing was natural.

As I got off of the trampoline and was taken to an ambulance, my mom came to make sure I was okay.

All I could say was, "W-What the hell?"

Mom smiled her natural smile. "When you get home today, I'll tell you everything. It's about time you left these kinds of schools, anyway." She kissed my forehead. "I'm proud of you, Kayce. You did great today."

I could already tell that my life was about to take an interesting turn.