Chapter 10.

Wednesday.

In summary, I was still working as a janitor picking up abandoned cup o' noodles and scraping gum out from under desks. I was bumming a room off my best friend and his wife and I still couldn't have a cigarette without fishing out a lighter. I'd made absolutely no progress in my investigation. Adding to that was the overriding fact that my wife and son were in imminent danger and wanted nothing at all to do with me. Life sucked.

It was not exaggerating to say that I was having a worse time out in the real world than I'd ever had in prison. However, though my mood was bordering on 'I'll kill the next person who looks at me' I was glad to end the working day and head to Lydia's house to pick her up and bring her back to the Sky High campus for some tests. The first step to turning all of this around was to make her remember all of the stuff that had apparently been wiped from her memory.

The front door of Lydia's house opened after ringing the doorbell two times. I was surprised to see Magenta answering instead of Lydia or, Prometheus forbid, that smiling goon Mr. Leopard.

"You're here," she deadpanned, shifting her hand to her waist with a bitter glance.

I motioned up and down and nodded, equally sarcastic.

She opened the door a little wider and turned, "Well come in, I guess."

I stepped in behind her, resisting some scathing response. Fighting fire with fire was always good with Magenta, but things got carried away pretty quickly. Had we been left to our own devices, we probably would have killed each other in high school.

The house looked different. Walls painted different colors, pictures moved or taken down altogether and there was new furniture. I didn't like it much- it was too foreign and the evidence of Leopard's residence (mainly a pair of trainers at the front door) was annoying.

"So…where's Lydia?" I asked, following her into the living room. Fintan was sitting on the ground and looked up at our entrance.

"Does she have to go with him?" he asked Magenta as he fiddled around with the pieces of a boring looking puzzle.

Magenta sat down next to the kid and ruffled his dark red hair, "She thinks she does."

They both sighed in unison.

"Wow- I'm really understanding the whole early development of anger issues in this kid," I offered ironically and sat, wondering how often Magenta babysat for Lydia. Now that I watched the two in front of me I could really see the similarities.

"I'm afraid that's just genetic," Maj replied with a smirk, "His dad's a pyro."

I smirked back and lapsed into awkward silence, wondering what would happen if and when this whole mess was taken care of. There was more to worry about after the villains disappeared…like how the heck I was going to get my own kid to like me. Maybe I just wasn't meant to be a dad at all.

Lydia entered the room, interrupting the flow of thought. I looked over at her, wondering how she'd react if I insisted on a hug as a hello…that or a kiss…or a…

"Warren- are you listening? We can go now."

"Yeah, right," I replied to my estranged wife and stood up. "Well, see you later," I offered to Magenta and Fintan.

They grunted in unison as a response.

"You think it'll be safe letting Maj babysit?" I asked as we got in the car. Apparently the junker had more capabilities than I'd thought, because Lydia insisted it'd get us to Sky High.

"She's spent more time with him than you have," she answered shortly and then bit her lip, "Sorry Warren- I'm just edgy."

"Right."

"Look, I'm agreeing to do this because of what Fiona said, but I have some conditions."

"And they are?"

"First, if this fails and we find out you've just been making all this crap up then I don't want you to try and see me again- or Fintan."

I knew better than to argue.

"Second," she paused as we took off down the faux 'in construction' exit and pulled off, concealed jet engines hurtling us up into the clouds. I felt like the car would tear apart if I moved an inch, "If I'm letting Medulla do this, then I want something in return."

"Other than full custody I'm assuming," I tried to joke. It fell flat.

"I want you to show me the night Knight died."

I looked at my hands, curled and overlapped in my lap. They wilted at her words and moved to lay flat against my thighs. I nodded, hardly vocalizing the "Yes."

"Good," she answered and we drove the rest of the way without another word.

000000000

"It's definitely been tampered with," Medulla admitted, glancing at the results from the scans. "As far as I can see there's nothing much wrong with your memories from this dimension, but when I checked further I discovered that your memory banks for alternate dimensions have been almost completely wiped. Whoever did this was quite the expert Lydia- Nothing short of genius could have completed the wipe so cleanly. I suspect a memory modifier is to blame. No machine could have done a job this intuitively."

I looked over at Lydia, relieved that I wasn't the one who'd gone crazy. Her eyes narrowed and she looked over the paper Medulla had handed her. The eerie reflection of the green light from Medulla's brain scan machine kept revolving over her face. Medulla moved to switch the machine off and turn on the lights in the office.

"I just don't believe it. What am I missing? Wouldn't it connect with other memories and give me some sense of loss? I don't feel like I've forgotten anything," she set the paper on Medulla's desk and slumped into his rolling chair. I fiddled with a jar of mutated fruit flies and waited for his answer.

"Lydia, I'm telling you the person who did it was an expert. You've been avoiding thinking about certain things. This helps not to trigger any of the wiped subjects. For example, do you remember how you learned to use your latent chronokinesis?"

She leaned her head back against the chair and looked to be thinking, "Well of course, I was…It was during high school and I figured out…I mean I-" she stopped, "I don't remember."

"How about how you met Knight or the grown up Fintan?" I offered, having overheard some mention of alternate universes in the making of their acquaintances.

Frustrated, Lydia closed her eyes and massaged her head, "I don't know, I don't know. I just met them right? A long time ago. It wasn't anything special."

"You don't remember meeting me in another dimension either, but you did," Medulla offered, "You see, most people are like this. Once an alternate dimension has been changed they will have no recollection of what has happened in the other. Otherwise we'd all be walking around with two or three different versions of an event in our heads. The mind just couldn't handle it." He pointed to his own melon-sized forehead with a sly smile, "But, some people are able to recall these alternate occurrences. Most of them have some kind of chronokinetic ability, or in my case, a remarkable brain."

I rolled my eyes and set the jar down. "So why would someone just wipe those alternate memories anyway?"

"Machine wipes are rather clumsy and tend to take out a person's complete recollection. Memory manipulators however, can hone their skill and use their connection with a person to pick certain things to hide. They don't destroy the memories, only lock them up so that the person affected cannot access them. The person who did this might have picked those because they were the easiest to lock up since they're completely separate from this dimension's events."

"That doesn't sound very convincing," Lydia replied, opening her eyes, "You think it's something else."

"My hypothesis would be that this memory manipulator chose those recollections specifically. I'm afraid I would have to agree with Warren on this one and say that someone is out to get you- and because of the memories that are gone it would seem that your forgotten uncle Secondhand is the most likely suspect."

"Warren says he's in jail."

"That doesn't really matter. He could have a sidekick installed in your life already. This person who's been manipulating you is probably someone close."

"Leopard," I immediately replied, eager to pin some kind of dastardly deed on the over-smiley giant.

Medulla shook his head slowly, "I don't believe so. The tests for staff members at Sky High are quite rigorous. I'm in charge of much of the interviewing process- at least the part that determines whether someone is a danger."

"He could have manipulated your memories."

Lydia groaned, "Seriously Warren, just admit you're jealous and get over it. This isn't helping things at all."

"The likelihood of someone manipulating my memories is quite slim Mr. Peace," Medulla replied coldly. "Now if that's all, I could get to work grading some papers."

"Actually," Lydia replied, sitting straight suddenly, "I was wondering if we could borrow the mind-war equipment. Warren has something to show me."

"Well you have the keys already Lydia. It's not like you're a student, though your husband's maturity level seems to prove otherwise."

I stuffed my hands into my pockets wondering if Medulla realized he was acting just as immature. Shaking my head I headed to the door, dreading what would come next. Lydia followed me out the door and led me down the abandoned hallway to the room that now served for training sessions of the telepathic sort. They had only received the equipment the year after our graduation, though we had tried it out before at Xavier's school for the gifted. Then the purpose had been to guard your mind- this time I would have to break down my barriers and let Lydia into the last memory I wanted anybody to enter.

We went into the room and I flinched when the lights turned on.

"You know," I started as she turned on the machines. They looked a little like the fancy driers at those hair places old ladies go to. "I promised your dad I wouldn't ever let you know."

"We're a bit past those promises, don't you think?" she asked, continuing to set up for the exchange.

"I just thought you should know."

"Thanks Warren," she offered, sounding a bit more genuine, "I'm sorry to make you do this- well I'm not really sorry, but I figure this will be just as hard for you as it is for me, maybe more since you were really there."

I sat in one of the chairs that she gestured to, grasping my shaking left hand. "Well," I offered hoarsely, "You've lost enough memories. Maybe it's time to get some new ones."

Lydia sat down across from me, close enough that I could see the faint freckles over her nose and smell the hand sanitizer she'd used in Medulla's lab. I reached forward and slid my shaking hand around the back of her neck. Unresisting she leaned forward, eyes as frightened as I knew mine were. I took my time kissing her, remembering the familiar way she felt and tasted. Lydia might hate me after this- and now I was more afraid than ever of that because, as she kissed me back urgently, I realized what I'd always known. She still loved me.

She stared back into my eyes with new confidence as we broke away.

I pulled the helmet down over my head and strapped it tight before taking hold of her hand, gripping like it was the last time.

AN: Next chapter will be Warren's memories of the night that Knight died and the mission they went on to stop the villian who previously had Mortis Angelus. Let me know if you're still out there reading and thanks to all the people who have reviewed!