Noise erupted as they all spoke at once and Mara only caught bits of each tirade. She heard so many words. Barn, Sacrifice, Vince, Gone, Alone, Dead, Lost you and dozens more. Words that seemed to have no connection yet in this case all meant the same thing.
"Why?"
Putting her fork down, Mara sat back and rubbed her belly. "My mother never knew how to cure Troubles. She wasn't even thinking in the right vicinity at all. The kill switch that is the Barn is nothing but a 'restart' button on the experiment that is Haven. She wanted to find the cure, but not for you guys. She just wanted to be able to have a concrete resolution for her project.
"I figured the cure out over 300 years ago. It was never about the Troubles, those were just a side effect. Everything was about the Aether. The Aether carried the Troubles, it's what handles the programming that helps several people here. Some gifts were never twisted and there are several families in town who have no idea they're 'Troubled'. Those ones are the ones who never had their gifts altered. Done correctly, that's the way any gift should work.
"The cure rested on finding a way to create a way to remove Aether from a person. I lacked resources here- no lab equipment like back home- but none of the herbal or mineral compounds I created, nothing had any effect. The only way to remove Aether from a person is to have Aether do the job. I began the process when I created the Crocker Trouble."
She sighed, playing with her hair. "He was a volunteer. I never gave an unwilling person a gift, ever. People came to me begging for help. I wasn't here to torture people. I just wanted a safe place and to have a life where I could take care of people. I wanted to be safe and away from my mother.
"I did ask for a volunteer, though. I made the request myself once I understood what the cure was. But the cure took generations and the catalyst was an accident. A woman who came here accidentally." She realized she'd gotten dangerously close to revealing information that belonged solely to Duke and focused, pushing to steer the conversation back on track.
"Anyway, the point is that my mother never, ever got close to finding a cure for the Troubles. One of the main reasons I was brought into the Barn, with the cycles and lives, was because she needed a stall. Troubles were changing and mutating as families with different Troubles started marrying each other. Left unchecked, the Troubles could go severely out of control, possibly destroying the whole town and making the experiment a failure. I was put here when the Troubles become active because she's using my own nature against me. I already lived here and she knew I wouldn't sit back and let people suffer and die when I could help. The personalities were just ways to keep me from knowing too much, if I wasn't carrying the information I couldn't work the problem.
"She followed me here, and threatened to do things to me to force William to turn my gifts into Troubles and then used me to stall for time. I'd have stayed anyway, but as myself with access to my abilities and time to crack the problem, I would wreck everything for her. So yes, the Troubles will come back. I don't know how long the cycles are now, but she never knew how to remove Troubles."
Everyone looked stunned, but she could feel Nathan. His utter terror, the way his chest felt like it was imploding when he thought of his children being afflicted.
"Whoa, whoa, stop! Everyone stop assuming things! No, she never knew how to cure Troubles, but didn't you hear me? I do. Yes, it's taken a long time and I'm sorry. I'm one person working without help, tools and I've been a prisoner for hundreds of years. But Nathan, calm down. James will be fine. She took me out, but my mother couldn't remove the Aether from James. He's immune because she used the same boy, just took out the DNA, the 'person' aspects of me and replaced them. And I do know how to remove Aether from a body now."
Duke's hand rested on her leg and she smiled as her eyes slipped closed. Being able to feel really was something people took for granted.
"How, Mara?" He continued to stroke her leg as he spoke.
"You, Duke. You're not a creator of Troubles or a Trouble factory. You're gifted, but you've had so much malprogrammed Aether in your family line that all of that needed to purge- not just the big blowup, which I did catch part of and I heard about what sounds like everything else when I was out shopping, but all of it. I believe that's why you went to the Void. There was still so much unprocessed Aether in you, it brought you to where the Aether comes from. The only Aether in you now is your own. You can remove Troubles correctly now, without taking a life. Then I can take the Aether and make it dormant.
"But with her gone, some people would be better off just having their original gifts fixed, and I can do that." She sipped her tea calmly while they all processed that. She found she rather enjoyed her next bite of food.
So, apparently she did like causing trouble, a little bit. Mara deserved some fun, too.
After what felt like an eternity, Audrey's voice washed through the silent room.
"Fix me."
Mara nodded, understanding. Audrey wasn't really any different than Mara. She wanted to help people, and she needed to have the tools to help them in the best way possible. If that meant buckling down and learning how to do what Mara did? Audrey would do it.
Mara was immensely proud.
"Of course, if that's what you want. After dinner."
"Will you take it out of me?" Nathan's voice was pleading, and Mara felt like she was about to kick a puppy.
"No, Nathan. I can't take it out of you."
His face fell, and his voice was strained. "Why?"
"Because it's saving your life, Nathan. I can keep it from making you numb, I can rewrite it, but you're reliant on the Aether in almost every aspect of your life."
"What do you mean?"
You weren't just given a random Trouble, Nathan. The Aether was put into your family because of an illness, a genetic illness. I swear to you, I give you my word that I will keep away the numbness, but you need the Aether inside you."
"What would it do to me?"
She wanted to lean back but the bench was uncomfortable. She was considering how long it would be before she could politely excuse them with the excuse that Duke needed rest.
"Pain, Nathan. The kind of pain that makes you crazy, the kind of pain that makes you kill yourself. Besides, it's also handling a lot of your memory, and I wouldn't endanger you on either front."
Audrey took his hand and he nodded slightly at her. "But I won't go numb again? My kids won't?"
"No, you won't. And once I fix Audrey, all of your kids will be immune anyway. I'm sorry, I know you haven't asked me for much and I don't like refusing you, but you're too important to everyone here to risk."
Duke stroked her leg again to get her attention. "But what about the other people? Would we be able to fix them before the Barn comes back again?"
"It really depends on what they set the timing for. With Vince as the Controller, I know he won't have the patience Byron had, and he loves the idea of people being in awe and fear of him, of being a legend. There is no possible way he could handle 27 year cycles. I know you guys think time just zips by in the Void, but it's not true. The Void-time is uncontrolled. Sometimes it felt like a few months, most times, especially testing times, they felt like a hundred years. But If we started right away, I can draw up a good schedule and we can start fixing people whenever you want. If we work right, we could have every Trouble gone and only gifts. There would be nothing for Vince or Croatoan to do. Nobody would need them."
Gloria was listening intently. "Can you tell us how your father got involved? And why you came to Haven in the first place? It sounds like you were here quite awhile before the Barn."
Mara played with her hair, thinking. "There are some things I want to talk about with Duke first, but I will tell you, I promise. Just not right now. But Audrey, I can fix you tonight if you like. And I'd like to call Dwight if you don't mind, Duke. He could help a lot with fixing the inactive Troubles, I know he'll want to see you."
She stood and began clearing the table. When Duke moved to help she pushed him back down with a small hand and kissed his head. "Not you. You rest. I have dessert in the warming rack and after everyone eats I want you back in bed."
He trapped her against him, careful to keep only the skin of his arm wrapped around her bare thigh. "Now we're talking. If you want we can go right now."
She smiled. "We have our family over and we have a baby date, don't forget."
His eyes lit up as he remembered the planned scan. "Right! Yeah, I'm definitely tired, all the dead time really took it out of me, so I'm going to take awhile to heal. We'll need a lot of rest time. Oh hell, what happens to my stuff now? How do you become legally un-dead?"
Nathan reached to grasp Duke's hand. "We'll take care of all the paperwork. As soon as it's official, I'll sign the Gull back over to you."
Mara came back to grab the rest of the dishes and the pan, salad bowl balanced on top. Duke gave her an impressed look. "Damn, you're good. You know all the waitress tricks."
She smiled. "Lexie waited tables occasionally. But you know, technically the Rouge and the Land Rover are mine now. We may have to barter."
"Woman, are you leveraging me?"
"I'm negotiating." She talked as she cleaned the dishes, leaving the kitchen cleaner than when she started.
"Well, since we're going to have a baby and you're about to be my wife, what's mine is yours anyway."
"There's that. Also nothing finished getting changed out of your name. I'm sure Gloria will just sign the deed right back over to you. You weren't gone for so long that they can't just say 'oh oops, misidentified the body! He was on vacation, he's done this before, our bad' and everything will go back to normal."
Removing a baking pan from the oven and vanilla ice cream from the freezer, Mara set up everyone a dish of hot berry cobbler. As she brought the dishes to the table, Mara tried to keep her voice calm. "If I'm interested in a specific piece of land, can you guys help me find out who it's owned by? Now that I'm just me, I'd like a few things I'm attached to personally. I know it's not developed, it can't be."
They looked at her curiously as she sat. "How do you know, Mara?" Audrey asked just before she put a spoonful in her mouth and she groaned, making Nathan widen his eyes at her.
Mara rolled her eyes at Duke, nodding toward the pair. "I know because it's protected. It's the place I lived before the Barn, when I originally lived here. I set all kinds of wards around it. I doubt anyone's more than walked by it since the last time I was there."
Duke played with a strand of her hair. "If you want, tomorrow we can go by, you can show me and I'll help find out."
She gave him a sweet, grateful smile that made his bones feel soft and his blood race. He could get up every day just looking for a way to earn that smile.
After dessert, they gathered in the living room, Audrey on the couch next to Mara, who was playing with a pouch of orbs. It was so strange, being surrounded by people who wanted her to use Aether. It was like she was in some kind of backwards Haven, or like she'd gone back in time. People were happy to have her there and wanted her around, wanted her to help them. No chains or stun guns, nobody trying to hide her Aether or make her give up her body. She wondered if it was time, the fact that she'd helped them or that they saw her as more of a person since she was so damaged. It was hard to look like a terrifying demi-god when you were visibly deformed.
Whatever the reason, they were treating her like she belonged and Audrey wanted her to use the Aether on her. Mara was perched delicately on the edge of the couch as she opened the pouch, shaking out two orbs and focusing on all the things that needed to change inside Audrey. She needed the Aether to bond to each cell, all through her body. She needed enough Aether to bring her up to the level she needed to be. She ran calculations in her head, counting out the number of orbs she would need to repair Audrey. 21 orbs. Going set by set would take forever, and she was already hurting. She started absorbing the orbs one by one. "Nathan, would you please go grab my medication from next to the bed?" Mara shivered as she absorbed another set, stretching to calm her twitching muscles. The excess twice in one day made her jumpy.
When Nathan brought her the bottle, Mara thanked him and took the pills before going back to her work. Everyone was staring in fascination, but Gloria finally asked, "What are you doing there, kid?"
Mara stretched her shoulders, realizing for the first time that she was sore from their fall through the Thinny as the excess of Aether pushed at her. "If my calculations are correct, Audrey needs a total of 21 orbs to replace that temporary patch and make her whole again." Her eyes furrowed as the words rang in her head, sounding too much like what Charlotte had said to Mara, the lie she had convinced her daughter of just before she destroyed her body and tried to destroy her life. It made her shiver. "Not to say that Audrey's not perfect the way she is, but to make her more sturdy and give her full access to her abilities.
"But doing that two by two would take forever, so I'm streamlining the process. It's the same thing I did this morning when I went after Duke. I absorbed all the Aether I had so that it would be ready when I needed it. As soon as I'm done absorbing them, I'll be able to fix Audrey all at once." Only six more to absorb. She could manage this. She took the rest in, waiting for it to settle and stop the shivering, but she realized when she looked up and Audrey gasped that she had probably taken in just a bit too much for one day- her eyes were black, she could tell by the way the room looked.
"Sorry, it's just a lot to carry at one time, it alters my natural levels. It'll settle down once we're done. You ready, Audrey?"
Audrey nodded though her face was pale and apprehensive. "I won't hurt you, I swear." Mara tried to assure Audrey as she shifted herself to kneel on the floor by Audrey's feet. "Give me your hands, please."
Audrey took a slow breath, holding her hands out. Mara took them in her own and slowly, gently started pushing the Aether outward, following it with her mind as it bonded to each cell, making itself at home inside Audrey. As it flowed ever outward, Mara spoke quietly.
"Audrey, you'll be able to do things, and some will happen automatically as you learn, things like affecting the weather or your eyes changing when you get upset. The only thing I ask is that you not try to use the power on your own until you're trained. Accidents happen and they're not fun. It's not pleasant accidentally hurting someone. I will train you, I'll teach you everything you need to know, but please don't try to take initiative, not yet. You know the basic formula for giving a gift or a Trouble, but it's easy to choose the wrong gift for a specific Target."
"I understand." Audrey already looked stronger, her hair and eyes brighter. Power crackled around her like static electricity.
"Okay, I need to touch the back of your neck for the rest, are you feeling okay?"
"I feel good. Go ahead."
Mara pressed her hand against the nape of her neck, spreading the rest of the Aether through Audrey's central systems. When she was done, she fisted her hands to hide the shaking. "You okay?"
Audrey smiled happily. "I haven't felt this good in a long time. Thank you."
"It's my pleasure. If you have any issues or questions, just call anytime."
Audrey squeezed Mara's hands. "Thank you. I appreciate this. I appreciate everything you've done the last few days. I'll be a good student."
"And I'll try to be a patient teacher. One day, you'll have to train James. He's gifted, he'll need to learn to use it properly."
Everyone hugged and kissed all over Duke as he turned red, amusing Mara, and each of them squeezed her hands and kissed her cheek. She pressed a gentle kiss to James' head as he slept in his carseat and they walked them all to the door.
Mara stopped Nathan with a hand on his arm. "If you need anything, call. I mean it. Duke being home doesn't mean I don't have time for you. Promise?"
Nathan touched his hand to her face. "I promise. You too, okay? Trust me, too."
"Always have, Wuornos. Always have."