An Age of Valour
by the Lady of the Mists
Chapter Twenty-seven: Reunion
To say that Hayden looked surprised would have been the understatement of the millennium. He actually lost all of the colour in his face and he took a step back, away from her, his arms dropped to his sides as his blue eyes—eyes that she hadn't realised until now were in the exact same shape and colour as her own—went wide. Opening his mouth, he stuttered a few incomprehensible words before he finally shut it, taking a few deep breaths as he gazed at Lydia.
"Hayden," she whispered, staring at her older brother, a lump starting to form in her throat as she took a step towards him. He actually took another step back, flinching away from her. "Hey . . ." she said, chuckling slightly. He looked at her. "Don't be a baby. I'm not gonna hurt you."
Hayden relaxed slightly as she said that and she took another step towards him and another and another until she was right next to him, staring up into her brother's face. "Lydia . . ." he whispered, looking more vulnerable than she had ever seen him. Granted, she had only known him for a little more than a week, but he had always appeared strong and dependable, as though he could have carried the entire weight of the world on his shoulders and it would be nothing. Now, he looked scared and anxious as she looked at him. "I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you. I just . . . couldn't find the words. I didn't know if you were safer not knowing."
"Shh." Lydia stood on her tiptoes and embraced her brother for the first time in almost twelve years. She was stunned at how natural and familiar this felt, as though no time had passed and she was still a one-year-old baby being held by her older brother. Hayden's arms hesitantly went around her and he pulled her tighter to him. "It's okay," she reassured him. "It's okay, Hayden."
How long they stayed like that, holding one another, long lost brother and sister reunited, Lydia had no idea. The moon already was higher in the sky by the time that they sat down on the ground and started talking, shining down on the two siblings. Lydia was leaning against the tree while Hayden sat across from her.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Lydia asked him at long last, looking up at him. His blue eyes looked to her identical ones. "When we met, why didn't you tell me who you were?"
"Would you have believed me?" Hayden asked her quietly. "You were so fixed on the idea that Mom died giving birth to you, Lydia, and that Jack was your uncle. If I had told you then and there that I was your older brother and that Jack was your father, would you have believed me?"
Lydia opened her mouth to protest, but she fell silent, considering the question thoroughly. "No," she said at long last. "No, probably not." She paused as this sunk in. "Why do you call him by his first name? You call our mother 'Mom,' but you don't call Uncle Jack 'Dad.'" She winced. "Sorry, hard to break the habit."
"Don't worry about it. I call him Jack because he doesn't feel like my father. Because of what he did, I was forced to grow up in a country away from my little sister and alone." His eyes were filled with rage. "If he had just had the common sense to stay away from William, then maybe we wouldn't have been broken up. Maybe we would've been a family. Maybe Mom would still be alive!" His voice shook the trees slightly and Lydia pulled her brother against her, letting his head lay on her shoulder as she held him. He was shaking with rage, but it lessened as she held him. "This is strange," he observed after a minute.
"What is?"
"You comforting me," Hayden said with a wry smile. She frowned in bewilderment. "I'm the older brother, I'm supposed to watch and take care of you, not the other way around."
Lydia chuckled. "Why don't we take care of each other?" she suggested as he sat up. "Hayden, why don't you come with me and my friends? Please?" she asked pleadingly. "I just got you back, I don't want to lose you again."
Hayden stared at her for a long moment. "I want to say yes," he said finally. "I do, Lydia, but . . . I can't. There are some things that you don't understand, that I hope you never have to. This is the work that I have to do. I won't be far, if you need me."
"What work?" Lydia demanded. "With the Defenders? Are you working with Un—with our father?"
With a small sigh, Hayden shook his head. "No," he said quietly. "I can't explain it to you. But I promise you, I'm not going to be far away. Lydia," he said softly, seeing her crestfallen expression. "I'm not going to leave you alone, okay? Not again. Not ever. No matter what happens, I'll always be there when you need me." He wrapped his arms around her as he held her to him and Lydia laid her head on her brother's chest. "I love you."
Lydia looked up at Hayden, wide-eyed. "Nobody's ever said that to me before," she whispered softly. "At least, not that I can remember. I guess our parents said it to me when we lived with them, but I don't remember. William never said it to me." Hayden's eyes were hard as she said that and his arms tightened around her. "I love you, too."
Hayden smiled faintly, but the hard look in his eyes didn't vanish. "Man, you've had a tough life, haven't you?"
"Hasn't been so bad lately," Lydia admitted. "It's gotten better since I've left Rosewaters Isle." She leaned back against the tree, staring up at the stars. "Hayden?"
"Hmm?"
"What was Mom like?"
Looking at her for a long moment, Hayden sighed as he leaned against the tree with her, looking at the stars. "I was three when she died," he said at long last. "I don't remember much, but . . . I remember she used to take us outside, on clear nights like this one. We would sit down on the steps at our house in Cherrygrove and look up at the stars. And she would sit with us and trace Pokémon in the stars. You had such little hands, then," he said, grinning at her. He looked down at her hands. "Still do."
Lydia smacked him playfully and he grinned. Then she sobered up, her thoughts drifting to her other sibling. "Do you know about Alison?"
Hayden looked at her. "Yeah," he said quietly. "And she's still alive, Lydia, but I don't know where. If I saw her, maybe I'd know her, but . . . I was never as close to her as I was to you. Alison was always so different. And she was only a year old when I saw her last."
"So was I."
That comment caused Hayden to look at her quickly and he considered this as he studied her before wrapping his arm around her. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah, you were. I promise, I'll keep an eye out, but for some reason, I think this answer lies right underneath our noses."
"You, too?" Lydia said with a chuckle. Hayden smiled. "Where'd you grow up, anyway?"
"Saffron City, in Kanto," Hayden answered. "Good place for psychics, but I hated it. The orphanage that I was at had no privacy and I shared a room with about fifteen other boys. Believe me, getting my Pokémon license was a way out of that place."
"What was your first Pokémon?" she asked, eager to know more about his life before she knew him. All she really knew about him, anyway, was that he was her brother.
"Believe it or not, an Eevee," Hayden said, smirking. Lydia's eyes grew wide at this. "Eventually, she evolved into an Espeon. We went to the Indigo League together, with the rest of my team. Left most of them behind with a Pokémon researcher back home so I could start again, with only Espeon. I was gonna enter the Johto League here, but . . . then I found out about you."
"Why don't you?"
Hayden shrugged. "There are other things that are more important than being a master, Lydia," he said quietly. "Like family and protecting the world."
"In order to do what's right, you have to give up the things you want the most," Lydia said softly. She looked up at him. "Why do I have to learn to use my powers so badly?"
Hayden hesitated, then gave in. "Because . . . you're gonna be in more danger than you realise, in the end," he said quietly. "And knowing how to use them is the only way that you'll survive." He paused. "Jack knows that you're psychic, Lydia, and I don't know if he'd try and use you against William to win this war, but you can't trust him."
--
She was back in the dream, back in the place that lay between the living and the dead. There had only been one time she'd been here before and that was when her mother had contacted her through her dreams. Was this the same thing? Was her mother trying to reach her?
"Mom!" Lydia called as she scanned through the mists, searching for her long-dead mother. "Mom! Mom, are you there?" Her heart raced in anticipation as she searched for her mother. "Mom?"
"I'm here, darling." Her mother's voice bounced off of the mists, coming to her as Lydia stared through them, praying that she would be able to see her mother this time. Unfortunately, the mists would not part, would not let Rosemary Talon see her daughter or let her daughter see her. "You've done well, my darling girl. You've found some of the truth."
"Why couldn't anyone have just told me the truth? Wouldn't it have been easier than all of these lies? I am so sick of everyone twisting around the truth just to manipulate or protect me!"
"They mean well, Jack and Jared . . . they have been through so much, daughter." Her mother's voice, kind and compassionate, wrapped Lydia in its warmth. "It's been hard on everyone."
"What about Alison, Mom? What about my sister? Is she all right? What happened to her?"
"I have very little time to explain, Lydia, so you have to listen." Rosemary's voice was firm this time, harder than she had ever heard her mother's voice. "When Jack left to go find your sister and William kidnapped the three of us, we had no idea that your sister's kidnapping was only the beginning. He wanted to turn all three of you against your father. It was the worst punishment he could have invented for your father, sweetheart."
"It worked, didn't it? Hayden hates Uncle—Dad. I could feel it when he talked about him." Lydia didn't know whether or not Hayden's hatred was justified, but she did believe that he loved her and that he would do anything to protect her.
"Your brother doesn't hate your father. Quite the contrary. It's just easier to hate him than to face his feelings of abandonment. Growing up in that orphanage with no one to depend on and no one to turn to was hard on him."
"I wish that we'd grown up together," Lydia whispered softly. "Maybe he wouldn't feel so alone, then." The thought of growing up in an orphanage with Hayden was a far better alternative than growing up in her vindictive uncle's house.
"Things would be easier, better, then, yes," her mother agreed. "But nothing is ever easy. There is always a price to be paid in the end." She paused for a long moment. "But Hayden's hatred of Jack is only on the surface. Underneath, there is a deep compassion for him. Hayden's wariness for your father may be justified, when the time comes. In the end, you must decide for yourself whether or not your father can be trusted. I can only tell you this: he has changed from the man I fell in love with. Whether or not this is good or bad, still remains to be decided."
"And what about Alison? Mom, you said that William was trying to turn all three of us against him and with Hayden he nearly succeeded!" Lydia could feel her mother's presence fading away. "Mom, don't go!" she shouted. "Mom, what happened to Alison?"
"I'm sorry, sweetheart," her mother whispered. "It's time for me to go." Her voice was fading away. "Trust Hayden, Lydia. Believe in him. Your bond with him is strong. You will find your sister. It's your destiny. Only you can unmask her when the time comes, because you have seen something of the truth but haven't acknowledge it."
"What do you mean?" Lydia realised that her mother was gone and she looked wildly around through the mists. "Mom! Mom, don't go! Mom! MOM!"
"Lydia, wake up!" Jesse was shaking her as she thrashed in bed and she sat straight up, her hand sailing through the air. He jumped back just in time to avoid it and Lydia took several deep breaths as she stared up at him. "Are you okay?" He looked scared.
After a long moment, Lydia nodded. "Yeah," she said softly. "Yeah, I'm fine." She pulled her knees up and hugged them tightly. "I'm okay."
Jesse stared at her for a long moment, then nodded as he slowly left the room, where she saw his father and sister standing outside the door. "She's fine, just let her be," she heard him say as he closed the door. Conversation continued, but she ignored them.
Her mother said that she would find her sister. It was only a question of when and where.