Chapter 34: Kryptonite

Dragon's brain was just burning with questions for Éowyn, but she was avoiding him. She had led him and the other Technos to the Krait Village where they were fed and given shelter and they hadn't seen much more of her.

"Dragon I know what you're thinking…"Kyra began, as he began to move towards the door to their hut.

"She owes me an explanation," he cut her off mid-sentence; "I am going over there!"

And before she could restrain him he was marching across camp. It was nightfall now and most the villagers had turned in for the night.

He looked at the interconnected huts made of timber with thatched banana leaf roofs trying to remember which one he had seen Éowyn disappear into that afternoon.

"Third hut on the right."

He jumped. He had been so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn't hear anyone behind him. He turned to the voice, "What?"

"Éowyn , she lives in the third hut on the right."

"How did you…nevermind," he smiled at the girl, "Thanks Pats." He immediately headed towards the right hut.

Éowyn opened the door just as he was about to knock, "If you're going to make a scene I'd rather you make it in here."

He stepped inside quickly, "We need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about really," she said, her voice betraying her.

"Nothing to talk about?! You left so fast that night you forgot your bra! Then you just vanished without a trace."

"We are not talking about this now," she turned her back to him. She vividly remembered that night. It started with a stolen kiss and ended in her running scared.

She and Dragon had just come from working out when he tripped on a weight, hitting his head on a treadmill. It resulted in a small cut that wouldn't stop bleeding.

"I think you need to see a doctor," Éowyn said, giving up on stopping the bleeding.

He relented and allowed her to drag him to see Danni.

"I'm going to wait out here," she said as Danni snarled at her from across the hall once they got to the hospital, "she probably thinks I did it."

"But," he said coming within inches of her face," You've been a wonderful nurse," he said stealing a kiss before she could put her no touching rule into effect. Then he dragged her into the hospital room to watch as Danni cleaned and bandaged the cut.

She watched in silent ecstasy thinking only of how wonderful that kiss had felt. For months she had been able to withstand his advances, but this time she had been caught off guard and it only got worse by that evening when she found herself gathering her clothes from where they were scattered around his floor.

"Where is that dang bra?" she muttered silently, staring at Dragon to insure he was still fast asleep. He was snoring lightly with a smug look on his face. She laughed giving up on finding the bra.

Her intentions had only been to return to her room for the evening to clear her mind and come to terms with what had just happened. But when she got there she couldn't stop thinking of Dragon and how she felt with him. He made her let down her guard, and that scared her. She wasn't accustomed to being so at ease with anyone. She was too independent.

Before she knew it she found herself packing her bags and creeping out to the docks where she hid on a boat until morning when it left the island.

Dragon's angry voice carried her back to the present, "I don't care if you have a boyfriend and a baby! You owe me an explanation!" he finally exploded.

She whipped around to face him then, her anger matching his, "Keahi is not my son, he was Charis'. She was my big sister!"

"I'm sorry!" he said as her face dropped. He hadn't known she had a sister, let alone that it was Charis. Éowyn wasn't big on self disclosure.

She shrugged, "And Kai and I are old friends. That's all."

"Friends? Right."

"You know, friends like you and Danni."

"So?"

She shrugged, "So what Dragon? So I left, it's not like you didn't have an array of girls you could turn to once I was gone. I'm sure Danni was first in line!"

"But I didn't want Danni! I just wanted you. I would've given you anything you wanted."

"I know," she said, her voice going soft.

"Then why did you leave?"

She hesitated as the door burst open revealing an angry Kai.

"Is everything alright in here," he said stepping in between Éowyn and Dragon.

"Everything is fine, he was just leaving."

Dragon looked back and forth from her to Kai, and back to her again, "You are the bravest, strongest woman I know, next to Kyra, but I think I found your kryptonite."

She shrugged, "Really, and what's that?"

"Love."

"What is he talking about?" Kai demanded an answer.

"No…nothing. Just go, both of you."

Dragon shook his head. Clearly she didn't know anymore than he did why she had left him hung to dry, "When you're ready to talk, you know really talk, you know where to find me," he said leaving.

~0~

Bray sat watching his son feed himself breakfast , but his mind was a million miles away.

He understood why Salene slammed a door in his face, and well he more than deserved it he knew.

She had made a good point about the past.

Bray had always had admirers and except for Amber he'd led them all on. He'd maybe even led Amber on later on. He wasn't trying to. He just tried to shield them from broken hearts, which was effortless because they all ended up broken hearted anyhow.

"Let me tell you something BJ, love is a messy thing! Make sure it's the right girl before you go slinging that word around okay?"

Bray junior had no idea what his father was talking about. He only laughed slinging his spoon through the air in his excitement sending cereal everywhere.

Bray laughed at his son, ruffling the little boy's hair before cleaning up the mess that had just been created.

He was getting so big now. He had moved past crawling and learning how to walk. He had even said his first word which was dee. Both he and Amber were unsure if this was short for birdie or Brady, but he said it frequently.

"It's a little early to be having that talk with him isn't it?" Tai-San questioned.

He had almost forgotten she was in the cafe. She was quieter than normal these days.

"It's never too early to start getting a message across," he smiled. "Tai is everything all right with you?"

"No. I have a confession to make. I knew her."

"Her?" he asked confused.

"Kyra. I think she sent you to my camp on purpose. She knew I'd free you."

"Why tell me now?" he said trying to get a hold of his emotions.

"I think she's coming."

He didn't need this now. Not when he was trying to prove to Salene she wasn't second best. He was so confused. Maybe this is exactly what Jay was feeling. He suddenly understood the other man very well.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I can't be sure, but for months now I've been dreaming."

Bray knew to take her dreams seriously, "I can't believe this," he said gathering up his son into his arms, "Who told you her name?" he demanded to know. Like someone had put her up to this.

"I just know. And one more thing," she said with caution, "Danni is with her." She left out the bit about Patsy and Mega. They weren't his concerns.

He left the cafe in a hurry at that last name. He didn't know why he was angry. He wanted Kyra back and he needed to resolve things with Danni. But then what about Salene?

~0~

Dragon's words haunted Éowyn even into her sleep. He was right. Kai was right. Everybody was right. She hated feeling too attached, too dependent, and too involved. She was a wild horse that didn't know how to be tame.

A knock on her door made her frown. It was barely morning and Blaze had just brought Keahi over. It was too early to begin arguing with Kai again, "Go away!"

"Éowyn it's me, Kyra."

"Did Dragon send you?"

"I'm here on neutral terms."

Reluctantly Éowyn allowed her to enter.

"You know I hardly got a wink of sleep last night," Kyra said sitting beside the girl on the bed.

"That makes two of us," she said rolling her eyes.

"Did you have to be so hard on him?"

"Neutral ground huh?" she raised a brow at Kyra.

"He's my brother, my twin matter of fact, if he's not happy, I'm miserable. Besides it's my fault he's here in the first place; chasing the one thing he doesn't have."

"Thanks a lot! Like my life wasn't complicated enough!"

"I know, he told me about Keahi and Charis. What happened?"

"The medicine man thinks it's the new virus. The thing is my sister was the only case, but now months later another villager."

"Impossible. They would've had to be in the city at its release for that to happen."

"I was and I'm not dead. Charis never left the island except for once. I'm told she went to trade with an island in a nearby archipelago. Lani, this new case, had gone missing and returned shortly after my sister's trip."

"You think this Lani poisoned your sister?"

"They were sworn enemies since we were all kids. Keahi's father is Lani's boyfriend, Blaze. Big, angry guy you met yesterday."

Kyra nodded, "What did you do to him? He was pretty pissed off."

"Besides bringing outsiders into the village? I told his stupid cow of a girlfriend that Charis would always win even after death because Keahi was Blaze's son."

"You're bad."

"I hate her. My sister could still be alive if it weren't for her."

Kyra sighed, "Danni is a great doctor. If you want we could have her back up your medicine man's theory or prove that..."

"Lani's a murderer."

"There's one more thing I came to tell you." Éowyn cringed as Kyra went on, "Josh created the virus."

"I thought Mega did."

"Josh is Mega. A founding Techno who lost his way like Ram, but I reprogrammed him. He doesn't remember much."

"Memory loss or no memory loss Blaze will kill him if he finds out. I kind of told him this guy Mega created the virus and since he thinks it was the virus that killed my sister and has Lani sick…well,"

"I'm telling you as a friend, in confidence, no one else has to know."

"No one else will know."

Kyra nodded ready to take her leave when Éowyn found it in herself to open up some more.

"I didn't leave because I didn't love him."

Kyra smiled, "I know that. Even he knows that."

"I just…I got scared. I thought if I just disappeared then he'd forget about me and Danni could finally have what she wanted. And we'd all be happy."

"And now what are you thinking?"

"Running away never results in happy endings."

~0~

Josh was confused by Danni's malice towards the woman before them. Éowyn obviously felt the same way as he'd observed yesterday on the beach, but both women seemed all too friendly to be feeling that way. As the tension began to thicken, he spoke, "If you won't do this for her, please do it for me," he looked into her eyes.

Danni grunted. How dare Kyra openly volunteer her to do Éowyn a favor. She was sorry that Charis had to die, but she didn't have to involve herself. Maybe this Lani deserved to die if she had intentionally made a pregnant woman sick to the point of death.

"Don't you want to prove Josh isn't responsible?"

A man entered the guest hut followed by Kyra and another man breaking up the tension. Dragon was absent.

"Blaze, this is Danni. The doctor I told you about," Éowyn introduced him. Danni instantly put on a sweet smile.

Blaze acknowledged her, shaking her hand, "Anything you can do for my Lani would be appreciated."

"The medicine man won't like being undermined," the other man who had entered with Kyra spoke up. Josh noted a hint of nastiness in his voice.

"Why are you even here?" Éowyn questioned.

"It was voted this morning that since I'm the husband of Charis, I should be leader, since you clearly aren't stepping up to the plate," the man answered.

She was going to retort, but Blaze put up his hands, "Now is not the time you two!"

"How do I test for the virus?" Danni asked Kyra.

"Remember that string of tests I had you do awhile back?"

Danni nodded, "You knew all along Mega was planning this?"

"I realized too late unable to save the city."

"Can she do this or not?" Blaze asked impatiently.

"I know what I'm doing," Danni finally relented, "You just lead the way."

Josh thanked her silently with his eyes and she offered him a weak smile. Both of them praying it wasn't the virus.