Author's note: Just three more chapters after this one, then the story's over! I can't believe it, haha.
Friendly reminder to please leave reviews :)
16th March 2014
The air in the car was thick with tension and worry for the night ahead, so much so that Ireland, sat in the passenger seat, felt as if there weren't enough air for her to breath calmly. Instead, her breathing was in short, quick pants and she couldn't seem to rectify that problem.
She glanced over at Xav and saw his attention was focused solely on the road, his jaw twitching every few seconds or so. It was clear he was just as, if not more, jittery than she was right now. This wasn't a surprise of course. He was about to come face-to-face again with the guy who had tortured him, abused his soulfinder, and killed his dad. There was definitely bad blood between Oliver and Xav and Ireland was scared Xav was going to let this get the best of him and that he would explode at the sight of Oliver.
"When we get there," she said, speaking slowly; it was the first time they'd spoken since leaving the house in the dead of night, "just follow my lead. Don't antagonise him further, he'll already be unhappy that you're there. In fact, just don't say anything to him, okay? Let me handle him. Xav. Do you understand?"
Xav's hands clenched tightly on the steering wheel and he stopped the car abruptly at a red light. "I understand where you're coming from, but I can't say that I agree. You've told me how he used to treat you, surely you can't expect me to stand back if he goes for you? Especially considering what happened the last time you two saw each other."
Ireland's mind quickly flashed back to her standing up to Oliver, him shooting her and disowning her. She shook her head to rid her mind of the image. "Well of course you can step in if he gets aggressive, but only then. Okay?" She didn't even want him to step in then but knew that even without her permission he would. Knew this because she would do the same for him.
Xav twitched and set off down the road again. "Fine, Ireland. I'll hold my hate for him in as much as I can, but I'm not going to promise to stand there silently."
Ireland nodded her head to say she understood this but didn't reply with words. She was trying hard not to think about all the things that could go wrong tonight but it was no use. Her biggest worry was Xav losing control and her father taking it out on him, hurting him. She didn't care what happened to her or Oliver, but she couldn't stand the thought of something happening to Xav.
The rest of the car journey to Seattle was done in a stony silence as Ireland stared out the window at the passing cars, the lights of the buildings and streetlamps. She directed him to the neighbourhood the house was in and had to take a moment to compose herself when Xav parked the car outside of her old house.
This particular house hadn't been a home to her. The only homes she'd ever had were the one she grew up in when all her family were still together, and the Benedict house she now lived in. The third house they'd occupied when in Seattle, they had only lived in for two months, and it didn't seem like anything had changed in that time.
It was in a nice, family-friendly neighbourhood which made it easier to hide in because nobody would suspect them of living somewhere like this. It was a rusty red brick house, with a wide front porch and a garden full of just blooming flowers and a neat lawn. The living room curtains were closed, but they could see that a light was on; the light suddenly flashed three times.
"He knows I'm here," she said in a numb state. She was getting even more nervous now at the thought of seeing her dad again. "We should go in."
She got out the car and waited until Xav had locked it and walked around to meet her on the side-walk. Together, side by side but not close enough to touch, they walked up the gravel pathway in the garden and reached the front door. Ireland tried the handle and was unsurprised that it was already unlocked, showing her father had been expecting her. She could have come any night, but somehow he'd known she'd come sooner rather than later.
Inside, the house looked the same too. They had never redecorated so it still looked like a model home, with laminate flooring and bare white walls. Everything was pristinely clean and Ireland's sneakers squeaked on the floor as they took a few short steps towards the living room door.
Ireland entered first. The room, just like she remembered, was completely devoid of any furniture. The only thing in the room was her father. Oliver stood dressed all in black, his beady eyes trained on the doorway so he saw her straight away. His face was expressionless and he didn't even cast a smile for the daughter he had once pretended to love so dearly.
"Ireland," he spoke in a slow drawl. "I knew you wouldn't let me down." When she stepped further into the room and Xav came in behind her, Oliver's eyes narrowed slightly. "Hmm. I thought you would have been intelligent enough to know that I intended for you to come alone. How disappointing."
A part of Ireland had expected to feel something when she saw her dad again, to maybe feel drawn towards him, like their shared blood should mean he deserved yet another chance. She'd expected to struggle to kill him. But it wasn't like that at all. She did wish there were another way apart from killing him, but was resigned with the fact that there wasn't.
She didn't feel anything as she looked at him. Maybe a tinge of sadness and regret that she couldn't have a normal dad, but she didn't feel love or loyalty or nostalgic about him at all. She didn't even hate him, not really, not even after everything he had done. She felt nothing. Kind of made this all a lot easier, she had to be honest.
Ignoring his comment about Xav, she instead asked, "what do you want, dad? Is this your chance to ask me to join you again?"
Oliver waved a hand in the air, lips pursed. "No, no. I know that ship has sailed and that I've lost you forever. That doesn't matter to me. The fact you betrayed me so makes me know that I don't want you as a daughter anymore. You are more of a Benedict than a Hawk these days, a black mark upon the Hawk family tree. I don't need, nor do I want, you by my side anymore."
Still, she felt nothing. Xav took a step forward and she knew that it was in anger that Oliver dared speak to Ireland like that. She put a hand on his arm and shook her head at him, which made him stop. Keeping hold of Xav, she looked back at the man who had created her, yet was also the man she no longer felt any familiar connection to.
"Then what do you want?" She demanded of him, voice steely. She sounded like the Ireland he had raised, the cruel and heartless one. "You don't have anyone on your side anymore. They're all either dead or in prison. Both of your remaining children have turned their backs on you and Evan willingly went back to jail, happy that you could no longer get to him. You say that I am no daughter of yours anymore, but you never acted like a father to me."
"How could you say that?" He snapped, angry. "I fed you, I clothed you, I gave you money to get whatever you wanted. I gave you the freedom to bed any of my men, even though I didn't want their filthy hands on you. I listened to your opinion on matters, gave you chance after chance after chance to prove yourself-"
"Real parents don't make their children prove themselves worthy!" She let go of Xav as she shouted, aware that her body was thrumming with frustration. "I was just another weapon for you; you never loved me. I always had such faith in you and you repaid me by hitting me and putting me in the confinement room.
"You killed Saul Benedict, dad." She took a deep breath. "You achieved what you wanted to. Now, you should turn yourself in and finally earn some respect from me. You can't continue like this forever."
"Turn myself in?" Oliver let out a burst of cold laughter. "No, I'm just getting started. I'm going to kill every single Benedict, even the babies. I will make you watch – it will be your fault. I was content with just killing Saul, but they manipulated you into being one of them so now they all must die. After, I'll kill you. And then? Who knows. Maybe I'll finally take that step towards destroying the net."
"Do you know how cliché that sounds?" It was Xav that spoke, a forced amusement tone to his voice. "Every rogue savant seems to say they're going to destroy the net and do you know how many have been successful? Zero. But I'm sure you already knew that considering you funded most of them in their efforts. You won't be the exception, Hawk. You'll be just another statistic."
Oliver glared at Xav so forcefully that Ireland knew he was furious at being talked down to, knew he was seconds away from launching himself at her soulfinder. "Dad," she quickly said to divert his attention. "Why did you even tell me to come here then, if you don't want me to join you? I deserve an explanation."
"You don't deserve a thing," he spat at her. He then contradicted himself by giving her an explanation; Oliver always did like to talk. "Well I was going to manipulate your mind again, just enough that you'd go back home and kill your own soulfinder, then let me into the house. But this is even better. I'll actually get to watch you kill him, just like you were supposed to do not so long ago."
A moment later, she felt the darkness from his mind try to slither its way into her mind. Ireland froze, eyes wide and mouth open in a small 'O'. She threw up wall after wall to mentally block him, imagining impenetrable steel that nothing could get through. Like mist, the darkness seeped to the edges of the walls, trying to find any way in. It burned her and she cried out in pain, feeling her walls start to slightly crumble.
As quickly as it had started, the pain stopped and the darkness left her mind like a soft gust of wind. Confused, she pulled herself out of the haze she'd been in to see what had caused her dad to stop worming his way into her mind.
It seemed that Xav had charged at Oliver and had tackled him to the floor. The two were fighting for dominance, punching and kicking as they rolled on the floor. Oliver, who was a lot bigger and stronger than the younger man, and had a lot more knowledge about fighting, quickly got the upper hand and was straddling Xav's chest, one hand wrapped around his neck and the other punching his face.
Xav was struggling, trying and failing to throw Oliver off him. His face was bloody and his breathing was getting more rapid from his air supply being cut off.
Ireland moved quickly, swinging an elbow into the side of Oliver's head. His hands fell away from Xav and she kicked her dad in the centre of his chest to push him off Xav.
Oliver quickly scrambled to his feet, face twisted into a grimace of pure hatred as he charged at his daughter. Ireland dodged his blow, following it up with her own punch in his gut. Oliver kicked out, sweeping her feet out from under her and she fell to the ground with a grunt of blunt pain. He reached down and grabbed her by the front of her shirt, pulling her to feet and throwing her into the wall.
Ireland had been taught by Chéng since she was little just how to recover fast and keep moving, and she called on those lessons now and took a deep breath before standing up, spinning around, and flinging herself at Oliver. She was aware of Xav scrambling to his feet and running out of the room. Oliver saw him too and Ireland took this brief moment of distraction to jump onto her dad's back, wrapping her legs around his waist and getting him in a headlock, bracing the muscles of her arm tightly. At this point she had a choice: strangle him, or snap his neck. Both were things she knew exactly how to do from all her training. It was ironic that he'd insisted on her learning all this and now she was using it against him.
She thought back to when she was eleven years old, in a training session where she had done this exact move on Evan. Oliver had been at the edge of the room and had applauded her, his clapping echoing in the room. He'd looked so proud of her, his little killing machine. For that, she wouldn't forgive him. She was rough and brutal but if she'd had a different upbringing she could have been sweet. He'd taken the innocence from her without a second thought.
Her slight hesitation gave him the momentum he needed to lean forward and flip her off him. She landed on her feet and blew hair from her face as she looked at him. "Everything that happened was your fault, not the Benedicts'." Her voice sounded tired and her body ached all over. "We've been after revenge for years, but it was your fault. Mum and Quinn dying, Evan going to prison, me betraying you... None of that would have happened if you'd been a good man. I don't know what made you like this, or whether you were just born this way. But when you chose to help people go against the net, you chose the fate of all of us. But I managed to escape and you hate that, don't you? You hate that I am happier without you. I am proud to be more like a Benedict than a Hawk if you're the perfect example of what a Hawk is."
Oliver's jaw was clenched, his eyes seeming to darken. "So." He smirked at her. "Is this the part where you kill me? Bare in mind, I know all of your moves. You have no weapons, I have no weapons on me for you to steal, so I really don't see how you're going to achieve this... That is, if you're capable of killing me. You were always the weak one, the one who's heart was too big and who cared too much. Could you really kill the man who raised you?"
"If she can't, then I sure as hell can." Xav's voice came from the doorway behind her and a moment later he appeared at her side, training a gun in Oliver's direction. "Found your weapons room upstairs, Hawk. Believe me, I won't hesitate to pull this trigger – you killed my dad; I have dreamed of this moment."
Oliver held his palms up, his face making it look like he found all this hilarious. "Oh, well, if that's the case, then go ahead and kill me. I wish you all the good luck in the world with your future with my daughter. You're going to need it; she's a handful. She slept with half my men, lost interest easily, betrayed people she was supposed to be close with. What makes you think you're different?"
"I'm her soulfinder," Xav said calmly. "Surely you remember what it's like to have that? Could you have betrayed Delia?"
"Don't ever talk of my wife, you have no right!" Oliver snapped. "You act so arrogant, but you're nothing. Your whole family is nothing. Your dad tried to fight me and let me tell you, it felt amazing to slice his throat open. Seeing the look in his eyes when he realised his life was about to end, hearing your mother scream and your niece cry – it was all music to my ears. Did you know he died slowly? In agonising pain, too. He suffered in those last moments, it wasn't peaceful." He laughed loudly and clapped his hands once. "Now Karla will suffer for the rest of her life. Isn't that just-"
A gunshot went off with a loud bang, followed by a bullet tearing its way through Oliver's head, a few centimetres from the centre of his forehead, cutting him off mid-sentence. His face froze in a grimace as his body fell to the ground with a thud.
Ireland went numb, not knowing how to react. Should she scream and cry in horror at seeing her dad die, despite how much she despised him? Or should she cheer and sob in relief that this was finally over?
She slowly turned toward Xav, expecting him to say something about the fact that he had just killed her dad. Instead though, he was looking at the doorway with absolute shock and disbelief written all over his face.
Confused, Ireland turned too and looked at what he was looking at. Zed stood there, a gun in his shaking hand and his face pale. It came to her then, the truth of what had happened: Zed was the one who had shot Oliver.
"He killed dad," Zed said in a broken voice. "He threatened Blue. When I heard him saying those things... I couldn't stand it... I'm sorry... Oh god..."
"What have you done?" Xav gasped, looking terrified for his brother. "Zed, what the hell have you done? You'll go to prison for this, be taken away from Blue, you won't get to go to college. Your life is over, what have you done?!"
"You two were going to kill him! I heard you talking!" Zed protested desperately. "That's why I followed you here, because I wanted to make sure it was done. So I took the emergency gun dad had locked up in the garage. I didn't think this far ahead, to what I'd do afterwards. I was just so angry at him. If I hadn't done it, you would have."
Ireland knew exactly where he was coming from and could tell that Xav did too. Neither of them had thought about what the consequences of killing Oliver would be, hadn't even taken a second to consider whether or not the net would let them off with this crime.
"The neighbours probably called the police when they heard the gunshot," said Xav. "They'll be on their way already."
Xav's family had already lost so much, and Zed was still just a child even if he didn't look like it. Reacting quickly, Ireland took charge.
"Xav, take the gun you have and put it back where you found it. Make sure to wipe your prints off it," she added. She walked over to Zed and took the gun from him, wiping it all over with her t-shirt to rid it of his prints. She gripped it properly in her own hand, making sure to rest her finger against the trigger. "Zed, go wash your hands to get rid of any residue and wipe down your top." When neither of them moved, she snapped, "now! Do it!"
"What are you planning?" Xav asked abruptly. But he was intelligent and she knew that he already knew the answer to his own question.
"Zed's still a kid, Xav. He has his whole life ahead of him, finishing school and going to college. And you're going to become a doctor so you can't have this on your record either. I, on the other hand, will no doubt go to prison eventually for my past crimes so one more crime won't make a difference. The net will believe that I killed him after everything he did to me.
"When the police get here, we'll tell them the truth about the note and Zed following us. But we'll tell them that I killed my dad. It's the only way, Xav."
"No! I can't let you do this, I can't let you rot away in a cell." Tears sprung in Xav's eyes, his instinct to protect her evident.
"It's the only way," she repeated. "Do you really want your little brother to go to prison for this? Before you say anything, no, you're not taking the blame either. We knew that the net would come to me once my dad was dealt with anyway, at least they might go easier on me because I did them a favour by killing him. I love you, Xav. I will do this for you and your family because you are all that I have left; your family is my family now too. Please, just do what I say before the police get here."
Xav paused for a long moment before coming over and cupping her face in one hand. "I'll do everything I can to help you stay out of prison. I'll say anything to the net, they might excuse you because of the darkness your dad put in your mind. Okay?" He kissed her lips briefly. "Thank you. Thank you for doing this for my family."
"We don't have time to talk," she gave him a small, sad smile. "Go."
Xav nodded once before pulling away from her. He put a hand on Zed's shoulder. "Do not ruin this. Let Ireland take the blame for you, don't throw your life away. Go do what she says, quickly. And I swear to God, you better be grateful and you better pray the net goes easy on her. I'll never forgive you if they don't."
The brothers left the room and went separate ways without another word. Alone, Ireland looked at her dad's dead body. He looked vulnerable in death, no longer evil but just like a normal man. Like the father he should have been. He was dead and the Benedict family would finally no longer have to be afraid of him. They'd got the vengeance they deserved and could now get on with their lives.
"It was worth it," she whispered to her dad as if he could hear her. "You dying was worth their happiness."
A hint about the next chapter: Ireland's fate is revealed; Zed faces the aftermath of what happened.