Chapter 16, enjoy!

Warnings: None

Unbeta AF


Can You Keep A Secret?

Chapter 16

I Didn't See That Coming


"Make yourself at home," Stephanie said to Diesel, a smile on her face, as she led him into the kitchen, where Brittany busied herself, putting the finishing touches on a cake, "You're just in time, Agent Diesel, Brittany's chiffon jam cake is to die for."

'The secret is to make sure the cake doesn't fall after baking, so I have to let it sit in the oven for two hours,' Brittany typed out as she spread strawberry jam on top of the ringed cake and dusted it with powdered sugar, 'Guests get first slice, Stephanie.'

"It's just Diesel and thanks," Diesel said as a slice of cake and a cup of coffee was presented before him, "And again, thank you for taking time out of your schedule to talk to me, privately, so, who wants to go first?"

"I will," Stephanie said, turning to Brittany, who shrugged and cut a slice of cake for Stephanie and Alejandro, "Shouldn't take long, right?"

"Nope, it won't," Diesel put some sugar in his coffee and busied himself eating cake, "This is great, Ms. Brittany, thanks."

Brittany nodded her head, her odd eyes bright with happiness, before she picked up two plates and left the kitchen. Stephanie sat across from Diesel at the kitchen island and asked, "So, you wanted to ask questions?"

"Yeah," Diesel said, putting his fork down, "How are you doing? I know I'm not FBI, but my Agency works closely with the federal government. Anyone bothering you? Have you felt anything off?"

Stephanie shook her head began to talk. As she spoke to Diesel felt out for any signs of magics or gifts. The woman really didn't have any and she seemed to not be hiding any. Surely this couldn't be the one who released that magic. Nonetheless, he hummed and hawed and nodded his head as she spoke, expressing her relief Vanessa Wilkes was in jail for life, but afraid of the fanatics that were still out there.

"Agent Jeanne did say something about that, I have connections, I'll see if I can use them to help you both out," Diesel said with a smile as he finished both his cake and talking to Stephanie, "Thanks for the talk, glad you're on the mend too. It's Brittany's turn now."

"I'll go get her, Diesel," Stephanie said, but she seemed to pause for a moment, giving him a long look, with intense eyes, as though she wanted to say something, but she got up and left. Well, that was pretty weird.

"Agent Diesel," Diesel turned his head and a grin broke out on his face, a big one, "Long time since I've seen you, I thought it was you, when you first came by."

"Agent Alejandro!" Diesel said, as Alejandro walked into the kitchen, with Brittany peering behind him, with a raised eyebrow, "Man, I thought you had fallen off the face of the earth! The Agency said you were taking a 20 year break!"

"I still am," Diesel got up and hugged the taller man and then looked over to Brittany's confused face and said, "Sorry, we actually work together."

Alejandro closed the door to the kitchen and locked it, saying, "It's alright, Diesel, she knows about Unmentionables and what we do."

Diesel's eyes widened and he hissed, "Alejandro Manoso, the Puzzle Man who never breaks rules, broke the biggest rule and told an outsider about us?! What in the hell man?!"

"I think she's one of us," Alejandro said and then he turned to Brittany and said, "Try to talk to him…"

Brittany gave Diesel a hard stare and then a voice, warm, like a summer breeze made its way through Diesel's head, 'Can you hear me, god, it's me…Brittany."

Diesel slowly sat down on the island chair and looked at the woman before him, "Telepathy, that's a rare one," was the mystery magic from the bunker from her? "I-is that it?"

'I can see the past too,' Brittany's voice drifted into his head, 'It all started after my time in the bunker, I lost my voice, I can't even mouth words or letters. Shortly, afterwards, I began to see things, visions of things that have past," the woman sat down and Alejandro sat beside her, "With my right eye, the one that's silver, can I try with you?"

Diesel shrugged and said, "Sure, I want to see this," he was curious, seers like this were extremely rare in the Agency.

Brittany covered her black colored eye and looked at Diesel with her silver one. He watched, with wonder, as her pupil blew out and she went stiff. However, Diesel noticed that Alejandro was concerned, when blood began to roll down her nose, "Has this ever happened before?"

"Once," Alejandro said, as he wiped at the blood, just as Brittany slumped forward, removing her hand from her face, panting hard, "Bella, are you okay?"

'I'm okay,' she easily sent both men her thoughts, 'I just…sometimes, it can be a little too much,' Brittany turned to Diesel and thought, "I-I saw you being proud of losing your first tooth and getting money from the tooth fairy.'

That was a lie, but Diesel nodded his head and said, with a smile, "Cool! Yeah, got a cool toy with that money, Brittany," what had the woman really seen? "Alejandro, if she's really an Unmentionable, the Agency will have to know about this."

"Yeah, but, she's just able to see the past and telepathy, nothing too big," Alejandro said, but then Brittany's body stiffened and it had the man turning to her, "What is it?"

'I think..I can see other things too,' she thought, in almost a whisper, 'With my other eye, I um, tried it with Lester, early in the morning, once, and I saw him serving us tacos for dinner,' Brittany looked away and said, 'Sure enough, that very night, Lester had made us a taco bar. I thought, maybe it's déjà vu, so I tried with Carlos and-I saw him and Stephanie and another man who had tears tattooed on his face, talking about car security. Didn't think much of it, until three days later, Stephanie and him were coming into the house talking about expanding Rangeman to car security and they had spoken to Hector. Stephanie told me about how cool the tattoos the man had on his face-'

"A fucking seer," Diesel said, through clenched teeth, "Nothing to tell the Agency, my ass, Alejandro, how often do we get seers at the agency?"

"Never? I take it, the Agency will have to know," Diesel nodded his head and looked to Brittany's confused frame.

"Ms. Brittany, you're a seer, you can see the past and the future," Diesel said, making the woman blink, "I can't tell you how important it is my job hears about this, and how important it is, that you are kept safe. I think, you're the target of something evil that's looking for a certain magic, your magic."

Diesel could feel her aura, it was almost like a cool, summer sea breeze, calm and comforting, powerful and familiar, so familiar, yet different. This…this was her, it had to be her, right? It was almost the same magic he felt, and yet. There was no ache in his heart, no ache for something. Something was off here.

Brittany looked over to Alejandro and grabbed his hand, fear in her eyes. Alejandro looked to the woman and gently told the woman, "Hey, we're not going to let anything happen to you."

'I know,' Brittany thought, looking at the men, 'Thank you, both of you,' she sighed and ran a hand over her face.

"We'll keep you safe," Diesel said, with a smile, as he held his hand out for Brittany to shake, "Promise!"

Diesel frowned on the inside, as, when he touched the woman's hand, nothing happened. What in the hell? She had the magic! Why wasn't she…making him ache!?

Could there had been, a third person in the bunker? Impossible, the only person beside the woman had been Wilkes and he was dead. Something wasn't right.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"Who is that blond man?" Heidi asked Stephanie as they rested inside a pool of water, surrounded by roses, "That blond man, with the blue eyes, is he an FBI agent?"

"I don't think he's FBI, but his name is Diesel," Stephanie said her head resting on her arms and her curls piled on top of her head as she enjoyed the warm, floral scented waters, "He's a nice guy, smells like Christmas, he's no Carlos though."

Heidi bit her lip and looked forward. Diesel, such an odd name but, there was something about him. Something that she longed for. She was quite happy that the man decided to stick around, coming and going as he pleased, to protect Brittany. She spent her time, looking through Stephanie's eyes, when the man spoke, basking in his laughter, his smile, his everything. The urge to take over Stephanie's body to talk to him was so strong...

She had never felt this desire before, this want to be with a man. At least, what she could remember from her past life, which was hazy at best. To be honest, she could only recall five other times she was able to interact with someone. The first person had been a man, a kind man, who grew obsessed with the woman in his dreams that he wished to wed her, but when he found it impossible, he had sought out help to free her, only to be accused of being a monster and killed.

The second had been a child, a sweet girl, who she had fallen in love with, only for her short life to have been taken from her by an illness. She had died in Heidi's arm. It had broken the woman's spirit and she hoped that she would never have another person to speak to but then that loneliness came, gnawing, hard, but then, she wasn't along anymore.

A monk from far away had been the third person, and he ignored her, thinking her to be a temptation, no matter how many times she begged for him to talk to her, to try to show him she was not evil. He tried to purge her from his mind with a hammer and nail but..well…she slept for a long time after that, waking up to a man, an artist, who painted her roses and herself in real life, telling people who admired the painting that she was an angel who came to him in his dreams. For some odd reason, though, Heidi had to make him forget about her, the more he grew in popularity with his paintings of her, the more she felt herself to be in danger around him and so she slept, waking up to be the friend of a girl, a slave, apparently, in a new country.

They had been very close, she helped the girl learn to read to and write, and the child had told her it dangerous for her to know how to do this, so they had to keep it a secret. She watched the child grow into lovely young woman, escape her life of chains by running away, with Heidi's help. She married a nice man, they had a family which grew as the woman grew older, until finally, the woman died of old age. Ellen Thompson, that has been her last friend, before Stephanie, She had lived a long, wonderful life, before dying with Heidi by her side.

Five people, now six, who knew nothing of her past, all random people, from different parts of the world. Why had she only been able to talk to these people? Why not anyone else, why not more people? It was so strange, the woman mused, so very strange.

"He seems nice," Heidi said, suddenly, turning to Stephanie, "I hope he stays a bit longer, he is nice on the eyes, no?"

"Yeah, I guess," Stephanie said as Heidi went silent, "He spends a lot of time with Alejandro and Brittany, meetings and things, secret meetings, kind of weird."

"I suppose it is weird," Heidi agreed, knowing that the reason why the trio had meetings was because of their gifts, "Nothing too serious, I suppose, don't fret about it, Stephanie."

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"There's darkness in your heart, man, and I have a weak spot for those with such a darkness…"

Ardan was not like his brother Vercingetroix. He was not strong, built or easily liked. He was cunning, yes, smart, yes, but when it came to strength and power, he had none. He had used his cunning to pin his brother for a crime he didn't commit, got him booted from the tribe. Ardan had felt not a drop of guilt when he had done it, something inside of him relishing his cruel deeds, something that grew as his time in tribe went by.

Una, the lovely Una, had been a fleeting thing. A hallow victory stolen from his brother. The woman had been a shiny trophy but when the façade of the trophy faded, all that remained was dull metal. She was simple, content to herd the goats and scolded Ardan when he would rather spend time writing things down and reading than do physical work.

"Vercingetroix would not have been like you," the woman had sneered to him once, as they lay on their bed of hay, "He would have been happy to help the tribe." They both were very much unhappy with one another but only in death could they remove themselves from this marriage.

As 'luck' would have it, for Ardan at least, death came to save him. While he was out mapping and listing the properties of plants, a raid had occurred at the village. No one was spared, not even his wife Una. The hidden Gario-Celt tribe was no more, but Ardan felt nothing but the sense of freedom. He was free to leave this place, leave to go to places where his intelligence could be of use. He never looked back at the remains of his ruined village.

He travelled, swindling and using his smarts to get what he wanted, growing richer and gaining knowledge as he did. However, on one occasion, the last time he used his intelligence to cheat, he had been beaten and stabbed by the victim and his body tossed into the mountains so that he could die a cheater's death; alone and with no dignity.

As Ardan laid there, dying in the night, a figured had appeared. A man, who looked to be withered and old, covered in tattered clothing and limping with a gnarled stick. The man had looked down at Ardran's dying form and had told the man he liked what he saw in the man's heart.

"Darkness, greed, betrayal and not a drop of guilt," dark eyes of black looked at the dying man, "Death would waste you, man, I am in need of a new host, the host I am housed in grows weaker, and you, with such darkness would house me for many years, let us become one."

Ardan did not want to die, and so he shook hands with the old man. As he shook the man's hand, the old man faded away and power, dark and slick, entered his body and he found himself healing, getting stronger with strange powers, powers that could get him whatever he wanted.

Ardan had truly died that night and was reborn a man with powers of darkness. If he wanted to, he could crush cities with his feet, have them cowing to him in fright. He could be the ruler of all lands but a voice, dark and nagging, almost stopped him.

"No, no, man, not until we get what I want first," the voice hissed to Ardan, "I seek a creature, a deity, the one who is called the Mother of the Stars. She is in these lands, I have chased her down, she has hidden herself well, I want her found. She can offer us more power, we need her, find her and then we will rule all the lands."

Ardan could do that, Ardan could find this Mother of the Stars, and if she offered him more power, even better. With that, Ardan set off to search the lands, with the power inside of him, sleeping and eating were not needed, the only need he had was the need to find this creature.

And find her he will…

Meanwhile, in the same lands, far from his brother and the dark deal he struck, Vercingetroix found himself once again, in the field of dark blue flowers, at the same structure, with the woman looking at him as though he was a child in the way of their parent.

"How is it that you are here, once again?" The woman asked, and Vercingetroix gave her a sharp look and said, tapping the end of his spear to the ground.

"I am Vercingetroix, the warrior king, whatever I want, be them riches or answers, I get," The man said proudly, puffing his chest out, "I demand an answer to my question; what are you?"

The woman looked at Vercingetroix, cracked a smile and said, "With a name like that, how do you not laugh at yourself, oh warrior king? You are quite funny, with your demeanor, human, mayhaps I will let you stay for longer, this time. Put your spear down and come, enjoy some wine with me, warrior king, if you are to bother me, I would rather be bothered feeling nice and happy."

Not getting kicked out into the snow was a start, Vercingetroix thought as he rested his spear against the structure and entered it, getting offered wine and a place to rest was an even better start as well.

TBC…..


Oooo, more story building...next chapter, evil is afoot! Also Why can't Diesel sense Heidi? Good question, call it a knee jerk reaction for her to keep safe. Him not sensing her is a very good thing.