Looking around Babasaama's office, he noted that nothing had really changed. It was still a messy collection of magical knickknacks that made no sense to him. Anytime someone brought up cleaning out her office, she would always threaten them with spinning or start talking about her youth, which always cleared the room. No one wanted to know about the old hags love affairs.
He found a dusty pile of chairs and pulled one out for himself and his wife, after she gave him an annoyed look for got grabbing her one and coming up and taking his.
He noted that his old guild master was watching his movements, she looked up at him from her desk in utter fascination.
"So now that you are seated, how did you survive?" The old woman asked, almost on the edge of her seat.
He was confused, did she know about his involvement with Raven Tail and not care? "First tell me why you thought I was dead." He crossed his arms as his wife let out a giggle.
Her eyes went sad. "Warner, I know about Raven Tail. After the guild's destruction, Laxus Dreyar came to me and told me of your involvement. At first I was angry. I thought that you had been misguided and that I has failed you. That was until Laxus told me what you are trying to uncover. Now that I know better, I can clearly see how all of the pieces fit together. I know what the King did to you, I just wish that you had trusted me more with this information." She looked away from him, down at the desk. "We mourned your loss. A grave stands for you in the cemetery down the road, as well."
Well that explained why the entire guild looked at him like he was a ghost. "I did not mean to make you worry. It was for the best. If you knew, you would be targeted."
She nodded. "Now please tell me, how are you still alive. King Fiore broadcasted the destruction of Raven Tail only hours after the guild was destroyed."
He couldn't help but chuckle. "Did everyone really think that that blast would have been enough to destroy us?" The old woman gave him a serious look and his smile disappeared. "I can't tell you the entire story. Most of it is classified within Raven Tail. We survived by chance and evacuated the guild hall before the blast."
"How did you know that the blast was coming?" She asked.
This time Carma spoke. "We have our ways of digging up information. We were a spy guild after all."
"Were?" The old hag asked, she looked very confused over Carma's words.
"Things change with time. We still have our sights set on getting information out to the masses, but dark times are coming. After everything that has happened there is no other way." He hated having to speak in riddles. She looked like she wanted more, but he couldn't give it to her. It was too dangerous. "I know you want answers, but I can't them to you now. I came here because I need answers from you."
He watched her expressions change, now she wasn't very happy at all. "And what makes you think that you'll get any answers out of me?"
"All I want to know is any information about a former member of this guild. Her name was Winoona Fertus."
As soon as his mother's name was said the old hag dropped her hand, her anger seemed to fade into complete sadness. "Why do you want to know about her? She passed away a long time ago."
"She had a connection to all of this. We were just wondering if she left any clues behind, just as Sasha Peter's of Phantom Lord did." Carma said.
Babasaama sighed. "You know that girl always had her head in the clouds. She was an expert shot before she could walk. I wasn't surprised when she passed her S-class test. Heck, she was only 12." The old woman looked like she was lost in an old dream, but he couldn't pinpoint why. "I remember going out behind the guild and watching her make modifications to her guns. She made so many different changes to her weapons that the magic council had to be called in to inspect them on more than one occasion. Always feisty that one, always ready for a fight, but smart enough to know when to back away." The woman continued on, as if looking off into the distance. "You know a lot of the stuff in this office used to be hers. She was always messing with stuff."
Without a word, he stood and started looking at some of the knickknacks around the room. What moments ago seemed like junk was now priceless to him. He could feel her eyes on him, but he didn't care. If these things belonged to his mother, he wanted to see more. His eyes fell on an old cabinet and without thinking, he started to open it, looking at the contents without permission.
"Be careful with that, it's old! Winoona used to send me random letters from time to time." The old woman giggled. "There is even a picture of her and her boyfriend in there somewhere, was his name Arthur, no Armin, no that's not it either."
He had never wanted anything more in his life. Remy and Ivan both said that his parents never dated, but his mother may have just said that they were together, so that she could send the picture out. He started sifting through papers without a word.
Babasaama stood on her chair, angry. "Excuse me, boy. But those are my things. You have no right to go through them!"
He ignored her. His mind was so intent on his task that he was almost in shock when he started spinning. She spun him back over to his seat, much to his annoyance. "What the hell was that for?"
"I told you to keep your grubby hands off of my things!" She said angrily.
"They aren't your things." He grumbled under his breath.
His wife cleared her throat. "Anyway, you seem to know a lot about Winoona, did she grow up here at the guild?"
The anger melted away from the old hags face. "You could say that. After he mother died in that accident, she was all I had. Now she's gone too and all I have left are things." Now he was confused, very confused.
"You were close to her mother?" Carma asked, with more interest.
"Well of course I was. She was my granddaughter so of course we were close. Why are you asking all of these personal questions when you have other matters to attend to?"
He was frozen to his seat, if he didn't know any better, he would have sworn that he stopped breathing. This couldn't be right. It just couldn't. There was no way that this woman was related to him. No way at all.
Right now she was look at him, waiting for an answer, but he didn't know how to. If she was related how would they even function? Everything now felt really awkward to him.
"Are you not going to answer me?" She said annoyed.
He stood up. "We're leaving." He couldn't face this, it was too much too soon. As much as he need information, he needed to wrap his head around this. All of his life, he had pushed away the idea of having a family. His parents and their parents were dead, so he didn't have anything to hold onto until Carma came around, well really when Gunner came around, but that wasn't after years of rejection. This woman, while kind to him in the past, also stirred up many bad memories as well. He just didn't know what to do.
"So you're running away again. That is typical of you Warner. Always running off when things don't go your way, I swear after everything I did for you as a child, you should be more grateful." The old hag said, rather annoyed. "If we are done, you may leave. Just don't come back and try asking me anything."
Carma gave him a look, he could see it in her eyes. She was asking him why he was okay with this. He would tell her later. "Then I guess this is it then, old hag. My wife and I will show ourselves out then. Carma." He motioned for his wife, but she looked so conflicted.
"Warner, are you sure you want to walk away from this?" She said, there was a sadness to her voice.
"You know as well as I do that it is for the better." With that she came to his side and made to leave. "I will not bother you anymore, just be warned that dark days are coming. What you see and hear is not going to be pretty."
The old hag nodded from her chair, but remained curious as they left out the door without another word.
She sat in her chair for a long time. What was that boy's deal? Why was he looking at her things like that? What was with that exit? Why was Winoona so important to Warner and why did his wife look so sad about them leaving? What did that Carma girl mean when she asked the boy if he was okay with leaving things be? It just didn't make sense. Heck, after how rude the boy was to her, how could she even care about his words now.
Maybe it was best to forget Warner. Not his final word to her, but just him. He would never return to Lamia Scale and he had no urge to really tell her anything. It was probably best to think him dead.
She wondered what Laxus would think of this information, Raven Tail was not dead after all. He would definitely find it interesting.
It was mid-afternoon before Lisanna and Bickslow came to pick up Xenia and because it was so late, Ivan told them that they had to stay for supper. He wasn't complaining. It was hard nowadays for them to get together. With all of the preparations for the upcoming war, they had little to no time to spend together as a family.
As Lisanna and Ivan worked in the kitchen, he and Bickslow sat in the living room with Xenia on the floor again.
"I can't believe that she said her first word for you two and it wasn't even me." Bickslow said flatly.
He chuckled. "I know you may not like it, but it made Ivan's day."
"I know." He grumbled.
"So are we now in the final stages?" He asked. It was kind of weird being on the outside of this. Sure, he still knew a lot, but Bickslow was in charge so he had even the dates down in his head.
"Pretty much, the first operation should start in about 2 months." He heard the boy sigh. He could easily make out what his boy was saying. They had planned for a war, but now that they were all settled it was kind of hard to go back to being uprooted again. Even if they had a score to settle.
He was about to speak, went the door burst open and two teenagers entered the house, high on sugar and caffeine.
"Vik, I told you to be home around 11 this morning. Where have you been?" He asked his youngest son.
"It's okay, Mr. R. Vik was just at my house." Kitt said from behind him.
"He was only supposed to spend the night." He said dryly.
Vik didn't look at him, instead rummaging through his pack trying to get his dirty clothes for the laundry. "Sorry dad, we didn't get much sleep last night, so I didn't wake up till late."
Now if that didn't set off alarms in his head, nothing would. When did this happen? Were the boy's even dating? He knew they couldn't get pregnant, but the idea of protection came to mind.
Looking over at his oldest, he could see the same questions going through his head.
"Kitt did you want to stay for dinner?" Bickslow asked before he could even say anything.
"Sure, what's on the menu?" The boy said plopping down on the couch.
He was still rattled, but this was something he could answer. "I think they're making a couple of Shepard's pies for dinner and a pecan pie for desert."
"Knowing Lis, there will be rolls and potatoes too." Bickslow said.
It became awkward in seconds as he looked over the other boy. Vik had run off to put his stuff in the washer. He could hear it start from down the hall.
Vik returned talking to himself. "Man, I got a headache. You're still here?" He asked his friend.
Kitt nodded. "They asked if I wanted to stay for supper."
"Oh. Do you want something to drink?" He had to commend himself for raising the boy to be polite. It was a huge difference from what he had been like before.
Kit jumped up from his chair. "What kind of ale do you have?"
That was not what he was expecting. "Now enough with the jok…"
"Didn't you have enough to drink last night?" Vik said over his him. Now this was a new development. Both of them were underage.
He was about to chastise his son's friend for drinking, but Kitt beat him this time. "You drank more than I did, Mister Hangover."
"What?!" Both boy's stopped in there bickering to stare at him. "The two of you are underage, what if something happened? Really how could you be so irresponsible?"
"Come on dad, nothing happened." Vik said, but his voice hitched a little. Something did happen, something his son didn't want to tell him.
"Viktor Resus, you will tell me everything that you did last night!" He said sternly.
"Dinner's ready!" Lisanna said bursting into the room. "Oh, is it a bad time?"
He was about to get angry, but then chuckled evilly to himself "No, we can all talk things out over dinner." He would get his answers, those boys would tell him everything.
To Be Continued…
Author's Note
For those that have read Window to the Soul, most of have, so this won't be a shock, I never gave Winoona's bio for this reason. It would have spoiled everything for the next fic. Looks like Vik and Kitt are in for a wild dinner at the Resus household, I hope they can handle it.
Just to let everyone know, this series is going to be updated twice next week. I have some extra time on my hands and thought I should give some more time into this series, at least for next week. One should be on Tues, while the other will be on Thurs. If an update is not up, check my profile as I will post up a reason there. The only reason would really be an emergency though, so expect chapters.