Author's note: Thanks for the reviews on chapter 20, I hope you like this one! If for whatever reason you skipped that chapter (which I'd understand because it's so damn long) I recommend you go back and just read Xav's section because this follows on from there.

Please let me know what you think of this chapter, or your predictions of what's going to happen in the next one :)

15th March 2014

After a long afternoon of sitting with Victor and Xav, attempting to analyse the note her father had left her, Ireland retired to hers and Xav's bedroom.

The room looked a lot different now that she had moved in. Before, the walls had been dark blue and decorated with posters of half naked girls on motorcycles, and the black carpet was so covered in clothes that you could barely even see it – Xav was a messy person, whereas Ireland had always been a perfectionist when it came to clean and minimalistic. There was a huge TV in the corner, surrounded by games consoles, and the tall bookshelf was full of medical textbooks and video games.

It had been unbearable for Ireland to live in so she had made some small changes, ignoring Xav's opinion on the matter. The posters went first, the only thing on the wall now being a single photograph of the Benedict family taken a few months before Ireland and Xav met. The whole room seemed brighter now due to the white fluffy rug in the centre of the room, the thin white curtains, and the various lamps around the room. She'd let him keep his corner with all the games consoles and the TV, but she always made him straighten it all up after he finished playing on it. His textbooks and games were still on the bookcase, but the lower three shelves were now dedicated to the historical romance novels Ireland had recently grown to adore.

Xav would never admit it, but Ireland knew that as much as he complained about her 'neat freak ways', he appreciated the lack of clutter and how he could actually find what he was looking for now.

Ireland stood in front of the bookcase, looking at the rows of books she had. A lot of them she had read, but Xav was constantly going out and buying her more as a nice little treat so there were still many unread ones. As she tried to decide which one to start tonight, Xav entered the bedroom and closed the door behind him with a quiet click.

Xav looked tired. His body was slightly slumped, hair sticking in every direction from him constantly running his fingers through it, and when he met Ireland's eyes she knew that he had something to say to her. He'd been on edge all afternoon as they discussed what Oliver's next move may be and she had felt tension between them, although she didn't know why. It'd almost been like she was angry at him, and by the frown that now appeared on his face, it seemed that she had been correct with this assumption.

"What's wrong?" She asked slowly, not wanting to say the wrong thing and make him angrier.

Xav shrugged and in a nonchalant tone told her, "I'm just wondering why you don't trust me after everything that we've been through. I mean, it's not like I'm your soulfinder that you should trust with anything, right? Oh no, hang on a sec..."

Ireland sighed through gritted teeth; she hated it when people spoke to her like that, like she was five years old and wouldn't understand them otherwise. "It would help," she said, pronouncing each word perfectly, "if I had any idea what you're talking about."

"I know you, Ireland," he spoke quietly. "I know when you're lying. You know what your dad meant in that note, didn't you? Yet you won't tell anyone. Not even me. Go ahead, try and lie to me. I dare you."

She shook her head, finding it so hard to accept that the day had started out so great with the two of them going skiing and had ended up with this distance between them. She wasn't going to try and lie to him, didn't want to further make the confrontation difficult. "Okay, I lied to you all. I know what my dad meant in the note."

"Then tell us!" He exploded all of a sudden, face bright red with fury as he threw his hands into the air. "You saw how worried everybody is, this could help us find him and put him in prison – or even kill him – for good, Ireland! He killed my dad, you can't seriously think we're just going to give up and not do anything." He paused for a moment before his eyes widened as if in realisation. "Oh, God. Do not tell me that you still feel some twisted loyalty towards him and you're trying to protect him. I couldn't forgive you for being loyal to him, not this time. Not after what he's done to my family."

"No Xav," she was quick to reassure him. "I'm not loyal to him at all. I want him to suffer for everything he's done, not just for Saul. I'm loyal to you, to your family – that's why I can't tell your brothers what the note means. You'll all be out for revenge and it puts you in more danger... The note tells me where to meet him and the fact that he put it in a code only I understand shows he only wants me to go there. I know how to handle him, your brothers don't."

"So, what? You're going to go meet him by yourself even though he disowned you and will most likely kill you?" Xav was looking at her like she was insane. Maybe she was, but it was the best plan she had.

"Yes," she nodded her head. "I'm just trying to keep your family safe, I don't want anybody else to get hurt just to get to my dad. I have to go, Xav. It says so in the note."

Xav took a few steps so that he was stood directly in front of her, putting his hands on her waist. He leaned forward so that their foreheads were touching. "Cupcake, you've already done so much for my family," he gently said. "You don't need to act like a hero in this matter too. Just tell Victor what the note means and let the net handle it. Please. I don't want to see you hurt again. That day I walked in and saw my dad dead and you almost dead... I can't see you like that again; I can't lose somebody else. Please, Ireland."

Xav both looked and sounded desperate, and so, so, sad. She didn't like to see him like this and it almost made her agree with what he was saying but she stopped herself before she said the words, knowing that she just couldn't do that. "Xav, you have to understand. He won't let the net get close to him, they don't stand a chance against him. Think of the last time we all went up against him – so many people died and he managed to slip away. He'll easily do that again, especially considering he knows the place he wants me to go to well. I know what I have to do, Xav... I have to kill him. He can't go to prison, I have a feeling he'll somehow manage to get out because of all the connections he has and how many people fear him. And what if he gets out early? He'll just come after us again. So I have to kill him and I'll able to if I go alone because he'll let me get close enough. I know my dad. He'll want to confront me, tell me how disappointed he is... He won't just kill me on sight."

"You want to kill him," Xav spoke as if in a daze. "You really think you could do that. Kill your own dad."

"Yes," her voice came out as a whisper. She cleared her throat and continued at a normal volume. "Yes, I can do it. He's not controlling me anymore and I'm not expecting there to be a good side to him. I know who he is and I don't like him. I can do it," she repeated.

Xav was silent for a moment and she could tell he was contemplating this. She hoped he'd agree it was their best option at ending all of this. Of course she wasn't asking for his permission, she was still going to do it, but it would be nice to have his support in some way and know that it wasn't going to cause even more tension between them. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath for a second, before looking at her again with determination in his gaze.

"I'm coming with you."

"Xav-"

"No, listen to me," he interrupted her. "If you don't let me, then I will tell Vick that you know where your dad is and he'll use his power on you. I don't want to take your will away from you, but I'll have him do it if I have to. Then everyone will go for your dad. I know you can fully take care of yourself – hell, you're a better fighter than I ever will be. I don't want to go to protect you.

"I want to go so we're together. We swore that nothing would get between us again, that we'd do everything together. So why does this not count as well? Ireland, let me go with you. If I have to sit home while you go after him, not knowing what's going to happen to you, it will drive me crazy."

"I understand that." She really did. She could totally imagine that she would hate being left at home while he went off on what could seriously be a suicide mission. "I just don't want him to hurt you, or worse..."

"He might do that to you though! If he's going to kill you, at least I'll be right there with you so we die together. I don't want to be like my mom, a zombie of grief. But, hey. We're only looking at the worst outcome here. We could easily win and walk out of there alive."

"Okay," she said with a light sigh. She didn't want him to go with her, but it felt right for them to do this together. "I'll tell you what the note means and we'll go together. But you have to promise me you're not going to tell any of your family, Xav. I mean it."

"I won't, I swear," he promised. Letting go of her he went and sat on the edge of the bed and after she joined him he pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket. The note from her dad. He smoothed it on his knee and Ireland leaned into him so they could both clearly see the code written there.

SE, H3, by the end of MH, CS no show, BW.

"What does it mean then?"

"It's quite simple, really," she replied, not meeting his eyes. She still wasn't happy with all this. "SE, that means Seattle. I wasn't sure at first, but the second part confirmed it. H3 – it means the third house that we lived in when we were in Seattle two years ago. We always moved around a lot even if we stayed in the same city, and only stayed in the same house for a couple of months at the most. I remember dad saying he was still going to own this house so he could use it in the future if he needed it. Then he says 'by the end of March', giving me a deadline of when I go to him. Consequences if I don't show up... Then BW is what the consequence will be. Took me a moment to get it, but I'm pretty sure he means Blue Williamson. He'll kill her if I don't go to him. And I'm sure he means that he'll kill her if I send a group from the net after him too."

She gave Xav a silent minute to take all of this in. She couldn't tell from looking at him what was running through his mind, and couldn't help herself from hoping he wasn't speaking to his family telepathically to repeat what she'd told him. But no, he wouldn't do that. Xav took promises seriously.

"Alright," he finally said, nodding his head. He looked sideways at her. "We'll go tomorrow night, that gives us plenty of time to prepare and figure out how we're going to get out of the house without alerting anyone. God, I just want him dead already."

"Me too," she said. Even though Oliver was her father, she was answering honestly and that almost broke her heart.

Zed stepped away from the door he'd had his ear pressed against when Xav and Ireland finally stopped talking about Oliver. He'd caught a passing thought from Xav's mind by accident – 'she knows... Better tell me what the note means' – and even though he'd known it was wrong, Zed had found himself creeping to stand outside their bedroom door and he'd heard every word they'd said. Some parts of the conversation had been incomprehensible from them talking quietly, but he had definitely heard the note's meaning plain and clear.

Hearing the last part that included Blue, he'd nearly burst into the room. He wanted to grab Ireland, shout at her to tell him exactly where Oliver could be found. How dare she not tell the family? She'd showed that she cared about them by looking after them all the time, but it didn't surprise Zed that she'd kept this secret from them. After all, she was a Hawk by blood and she'd grown up being told to do things her own way.

His first instinct as he went back into his own bedroom was to call Trace or Victor and tell them what he knew. But then he remembered what Ireland had said about the so-called consequences Oliver would enforce if the net went charging after him. He would kill Blue, or have somebody that worked for him kill her.

God damn, if anybody went after his Blue he would go into a major murderous rage. If he lost her, he was pretty sure that he'd be angry enough to have the power to destroy the whole freaking world.

He collapsed onto his bed, glaring up at the ceiling as all these feelings and thoughts rushed through him. It took about half an hour but eventually, he came to the calm realisation of what he had to do.

He was going to follow Xav and Ireland when they left tomorrow night and if they failed, or if he could get close enough before they did, he was going to kill Oliver Hawk for what he did to Saul and for having the nerve to threaten Blue.

A hint about the next chapter: There's kind of a tragic ending to their confrontation with Oliver.