Book 3

THE PROTECTORS

PART III

-Freed-

It had been beyond testing for everyone, to seemingly reach the conclusion of we were made to be without nearly destroying ourselves in the process, but we knew how to deal, and we know how to love. So it had to work out. ...Eventually.

I jumped up in panic. I was sure I’d heard someone slam a door. I went down the hall as quietly as I could. I’d no idea what I could find. What with would-be superhero weirdness they called “their normal” it could have been the Boogie Man. Or

I gasped.

Before I realized what I was doing I was hugging him. ...Which I’d consciously noticed a second later and let him go. I realized I had no idea if he knew who I was, or even who he was, and mentally face-palmed at my slip up.

“Hi Mary” He whispered. I grinned from ear to ear. He knew. It was really him.

“Hi-you’re back!” I hugged him again. I couldn’t help it. He hugged me in return. He’d actually picked me up, not that he noticed. I felt tiny to say the least.

“As of a few hours ago.” He told me quietly. We were in the kitchen. The only luminosity came from the little green numbers on the microwave. He could see perfectly, I was the blind one.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?!” I accused.

I forgot about how Jonny’s warning to not be too over the top at first, since Black Dagger might have been out of it. It isn’t every day you hear “Hey, guess what? You’re a superhero. Cliché I know. And those guys you work for, the ones who practically run political and business organized crime? Yea, they’re the ones who made you. Apparently they have a thing for science. Who knew right? They also are evil and took your memories. …So, how about them Red-Socks?” Given, Jonny hadn’t explained it exactly that way, but that was the gist of it.

“We just fin-” He started to explain.

“WILL YOU TELL HER TO SHUT UP?!” Jonny yelled from his room.

“YOU SHUT IT SHIFT! LET HER REST!” Shads shouted in return.

“NO YOU!” He told his girlfriend. Don’t ask, I really hold no claim to my kid brother, no one does. I’m still surprised Shadow puts up with him, especially since her part alien energy tracking whatever psychicness doesn’t let him hide anything.

“Shift... PLEASE SHUT UP!”

“NO, TELL THEM TO SHUT UP!”

I was wide eyed and shocked at how easy it had gotten back to normal. Black Dagger was smiling a little and shaking his head in their amusingly pathetic, childish behavior.

“How about both of you shut up?”  He ended all of it with one final, exceptionally calm, ‘voluntold’. I heard Jonny huff. Brad laughed, hearing it better than I could. There could have been more than just a ‘huff’.

“You okay?” I whispered.

He mechanically nodded. He motioned for me to follow him, tilting his head towards the living room that acted like the trunk from which the rest of their loft branched out from.

His hair was a little longer, but that was the only physical change I noticed, other than his height and size. I didn’t want to know why that had happened, but I knew anyway. He may have gotten his mind back, but they’d changed him all over again.

“Are you sure?” I recalled seeing him at my doorstep that seemingly centuries away night and how I’d known something was up. The same thing was happening again. His eyes rested in dark sockets, and his movements were too robotic.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Back to normal few hours ago. Thanks for babysitting.” He paused. “It was hard for all of us.” He kept his voice low, controlled. He was watching what he said, for my sake or his own I didn’t know. I decided on the later. I was outwardly cool about it. I would learn more from the others.

“It is done now.” He whispered decisively. “They are gone – and this will never happen again.” He pointed to himself. He never spoke to me again over that, how Jonny was made to be his replacement when he had first realized the truth of what he was and run from it, but it was clear he’d never forgiven himself.

“Great, that means no more stupid-” I stopped talking; my stomach fell by my feet. The muted lights of the city lit up the living room much better than the kitchen. I could see now.

Stargazer was lying on the couch, too still to be alive. Her arms were laid out at her sides, her long hair tucked carefully behind her. I knew she didn’t sleep. Or ever lie down for that matter.

 “She’s okay Mary.” He told me in a quiet, meant to be calming voice. It didn’t work because I hadn’t listened. “She is just too weak to be up.” He walked past me, bending down next to her. He set down his water and then picked her up. I couldn’t help but notice how extremely careful he was and how her arms hung free and her head lolled against him. He turned to sit down, molding her against him like he was a living chair.

“Stargazer?” My shaky voice showed how scared I was.

Her gold, glowing eyes opened just slightly. I grinned.

“You okay?”

She blinked. Brad said something, but I don’t remember what.

She isn’t even glowing. I sat near them, eventually finding my feet. We were all on the couch, and it was obviously a big one because if he’d been big before, he was then downright massive.

 “What happened?” The shock was wearing off slowly.

“She worked a miracle...that took a lot out of her.” His voice was deeper too. Her eyes closed, her head turning into him just slightly. She was barely there. Jonny had told me about how weak she would let herself get, and I’d been hanging around enough to see it to some extent. But nothing like that.

“What kind?” I asked softly.

“Back to life” He said slowly. I gasped, looking at him and then to her. He continued talking, his voice smooth and constant. “When I was still…not me…I thought it was good a good idea to bite a bullet for her, and from what I have been told, I died from it.” He stopped talking and watched my face. I knew I was probably as white as a ghost. He was off too, an aloof air about him as if he was living life in third person. “She brought me back.”

She weakly smiled. “I couldn’t let him go.” She whispered. “He is mine...”

“Whoa” I hated that I had nothing more creative to say. I wasn’t exactly majoring in creative literature but that definitely deserved more than a simple ‘whoa.’

“Whoa.” He agreed.

I smiled broadly, shock finally gone. She’d been stupid and I was very thankful for stupid.

She smiled too, before her eyes closed.

“Well...wow. Uh, huh, I didn’t know she could do that.”

“She didn’t either.” He stated. He pushed her hair back from her face. He’d come close to crooning at the next words. Him...crooning. I didn’t believe it at first either. “But she did it anyway... I knew it too.” He kissed her forehead.

 “Knew what?”

“That there are angels.”

I nodded, smiling in understanding and agreement.

“You’d think that she’d be smarter.” He hinted, talking mostly to her.

“Nah, stupid attracts stupid, but it’s a good sort.” I put my hand on her arm and barely hid my surprise at the fact it was almost chilly. “I’m glad you’re both stupid.” I assured her.

 “...Sacrifice is one of the inferences to love.” She mumbled. I smiled. Even like that she was still a living fortune cookie, in my brother’s words.

“Is she asleep?” I asked him, noticing how she’d become too still and quiet.

“Give or take.”

“What does that mean?”

“She is unconscious, but not necessarily asleep.” He tried to not sound anxious so I wouldn’t be. (He isn’t as good a liar as he thinks he is guys.)

 “So...Is Jonny ok?” I bit at my lip, too worried to wait for a better time to ask.

He went into a mask.

“Yeah, he saw a lot, but he is good...Shadow kept him level from what Star told me. But...” He looked towards their rooms, his eyes worried. I knew why. They all needed to get free of that, but freedom for them had come with a price. Jonny had spent months undercover with the company that had given him and Brad their abilities. Having to play therapist to a super assassin while simultaneously training to be one himself, and gathering the intel needed to dismember the operation had left its mark. How deep those scars went would only be revealed in time.

“Hey, in my opinion you guys are all crazy so if he goes a little more overboard I doubt it matters.” I assured him. He laughed, a tiny bit forced, I did too. I couldn’t help the yawn that followed.

“Go on to bed.”

“You don’t need company?” Not that he was alone, but silence isn’t known for its healing qualities so soon after the event.

“I’m ok. We’ll talk more tomorrow. Thanks again Mary.” He watched me as I stood up. I looked at him, thinking back to the giant  had shared a bus seat with, and then to Stargazer.

“Don’t mention it- really don’t...I’m glad you guys got it done and are okay.” Not that she necessarily looks it, but she saved him!

“Yeah, sleep well.”

“You need to sleep BD.” I muttered, minding my vocabulary too. I walked away and landed into my bed, surprisingly asleep within minutes.

 She stirred and put her hand back in mine.

“Star...Are you okay?” I asked quietly. I ran my free hand over her arm as she sighed, nodding slightly. That hadn’t been the first thing I said to her, but it wasn’t like I’d been trying to make conversation. I was exhausted, mentally and physically, she was more so, but I didn’t want to go to sleep for a lot of reasons.

I couldn’t wrap my head around the last month. There was too much. It had all worked, they were completely gone, everyone was outwardly fine, and we’d lived through it- more importantly she had. I was officially over with reruns, reminders, and anything that would keep me from being completely hers. But it was harder to accept that than it may seem. I’d lived all I could remember with them in my head. It’d take a long time, longer than this book, to get all the remnants of the glass out.

I hugged her tighter. I am never letting you go again. I promised. She was in my head, my sudden peace all too present for her not to be. I slowly moved my hands over her and pulled her up to me, hoping to find her conscious. Her eyes fluttered open.

“I love you Dagger...” She gently breathed.

Then the whole thing fell back into place.

“I love you too Angel.” ...I paused and said a well-deserved ‘Thank You’ for my angel before my mind drifted back to what I’d been trying very hard to not think about.

I knew all she’d let me know about what she’d been through, what I’d put her through. Other than getting ticked at them and myself, I’d got my worry back. Everything she’d done to help me, to save me, all that they had done to her, and that I’d done to her - I just held her closer to me, as close as I could. She’d seen it in my head because she held my hand a little tighter.

“Nothing hampers this.” She leaned her head against my own, unable to support herself.

“Nothing” I established.

Her expression changed to being unreadable. Her soul took on a shade of amber I’d never seen before.

“How many?” She whispered. I frowned. “How many Dagger?” She asked quietly. I understood, though I can’t tell you exactly what that made me feel like. She wanted to know how many people I’d killed. It took me a minute to answer her. She watched me with understanding, accepting, but unyielding eyes.

“Five.” I fought back the too real memories. Three had been members of a large Middle Eastern terrorist group that hadn’t paid up for the company’s service. One was double agent with MI-6 that wanted too big a pay raise. (No, not James Bond.) And the last was a private nuke supplies dealer who had gotten sloppy about covering his tracks. ...I hoped she didn’t come into my head and see. I missed the time when all I got was headaches, because then I’d that and my stomach felt like crap.

“Close your eyes...” She breathed.

I did, even though it only made me see what was replaying my head a lot better.

I felt her fingers in my hair, and then her lips on my eyelids. She kissed each twice. I opened them and then she kissed me, her touch cool and fluttery.

“Be free my one.” She dimly smiled and fell against me, unconscious.

I held her, trying to understand what had just happened. She’d done something everyone has the power do, but that only she could do for me. With each kiss she’d...I can’t even describe it. She’d somehow taken all of the guilt away; somehow made it all better...With the last of her strength she made it where I was undoubtedly, unconditionally free. Forgiven.

 I fell asleep holding her. At times I thought everything that had happened wasn’t real, that I hadn’t gotten her back. Then I would wake myself up to make sure she was still with me. She would, if she was awake, smile faintly and nestle against me, recognizing the fear in my eyes. She spoke only once. I woke up to her soft, out of it voice pleading with me to stay with her. The quiet, beseeching words made me realize, or start to see, how much she had not wanted any of that, but had gone with it for my freedom. And all she asked in return was me.

“I promise Star- I am never leaving you.” I whispered. Her golden eyes opened and she motioned for me to move her. She wrapped her legs around me and put her head on my shoulder. Her arms locked through mine in a feeble but prevailing attempt to create a lock around me that nothing of this earth and I would suspect out of it, could break.

“You’re not letting me either.”

She faintly nodded.

 “Never.” She whispered before falling back into her form of sleep.