Chapter 24 – Phoenix Reborn

Ted Marshal could not think of a better way to spend a Saturday night. Cuddled on the couch in front of the TV with his arms around the woman he loved, after an especially vigorous bout of bedroom gymnastics…yup, life didn’t get much better than this! After Serena had forced the issue, and Ted was finally allowed to admit his feelings for her, life had taken off like a jet fighter going ballistic. The only thing that overshadowed it right now, of course, was the recent deaths of his dear friends, and Serena’s adopted parents, David and Mary Wellington. The thought of his friends made him suppress a shiver. He still had not gotten a definite answer from Serena about the tip she provided. Every time he brought it up, she would look deep into his eyes and kiss him. That kiss always led to another, and then another, and, pretty soon, Ted had forgotten about the questions he wanted to ask. Still, in times like this, in the afterglow of their lovemaking, the questions returned, but it just didn’t seem appropriate to ask Serena how she knew about the video stored in John Lemon’s computer – or how she knew that he was actually a CIA plant called Paul Bedenssen.

Serena, with her eyes alternately watching the TV and watching the clock, didn’t notice Ted’s little shiver. Though she tried to hide it, as the hour grew later, she became increasingly anxious about the imminent return of Michael. However safe and secure Ted’s arms felt around her, she always worried about Michael. She knew he should be home soon, which was why she dragged Ted out of bed and into some decent clothes so that they could wait for his return together. She wasn’t paying much attention to the TV until a familiar looking flash caught her attention. The flash came again and this time, she sat straight up, ignoring Ted’s feeble protest as she slipped out of his warm embrace.

Serena’s back was ramrod straight and her eyes were glued to the TV set. A live news report had interrupted the regularly scheduled sitcom. The camera angle was lousy and the resolution was worse, but the silvery winged shape of Michael’s alternate form was unmistakable. So was the quartet of fighter jets that were busy chasing him all over the sky. “Michael!” she whispered, not realizing that she had spoken out loud.

Ted followed Serena’s gaze and raised his eyebrows as he took in the scene. He almost missed Serena’s barely audible whisper and would have written it off as his imagination if it weren’t for the intent way Serena was staring at the news report. He looked back and forth between Serena’s furiously focused expression and the ongoing dogfight and couldn’t shake the intuitive feeling that Serena and the Angel were somehow intricately related.

Of course he knew about the so-called Angel. Everyone on his flight team did. In fact, it had become a common inside joke amongst his teammates. Half of them believed the reports, and the other half scoffed at them. Until this moment, Ted had been part of the latter half. Now, seeing the Angel on live TV, proved that Ted had been wrong all along, and seeing Serena’s anxious expression brought to mind some implications that were too wild to conceive. So, with some effort, Ted tore his gaze away from the Angel and focused on the attacking jets. As he took in their profiles, his mildly curious gaze turned into a perplexed frown. What the heck were F-16’s and CF-18’s doing chasing after the Angel? More importantly, why were they even co-operating together? As he watched them intently, the professional pilot in him noticed something else. The jets, or more importantly the pilots flying the jets, were flying very oddly. It was nothing he could concretely put his finger on though…but a pilot who was currently in the middle of a dogfight usually piloted his aircraft with more…imagination. The four jets attacking the Angel were moving with razor sharp almost robotic precision. No flight instructor in the world would criticize them, and, really, Ted could only find one fault with them: they were too precise. Close formation flying, and especially close formation combat flying relied heavily on hours upon hours of training with everyone on the team. The level of precision currently exhibited by the attacking jets would have put any flight team that Ted knew of to shame and that was exactly the problem. There should be no way for pilots from two different Air Forces, no matter how friendly they were, to fly that well together.

Ted watched as a missile impacted on the Angel and winced in sympathy. That had to have hurt! He watched as the Angel fell from the sky. It had to be dead! Nothing living could have survived a blow like that! Air to air missiles were designed to blow even the most sophisticated aircraft out of the sky. Ted didn’t even want to think about the kind of damage one would do to a human sized living being!

As the Angel fell, Serena gasped. Ted switched his attention back to her and could see that she was almost in tears. What the hell is going on? All of a sudden, she heaved a huge sigh of relief and Ted swung back to the TV. It’s impossible! The Angel was still alive!

Impossible though it was, the Angel began climbing up into the air once more. This time, it was juking side to side in what was obviously intended to be evasive maneuvers. Ted found himself silently cheering the Angel on. Come on! Don’t fly so predictably! The Angel hovered and held up its arms. No, no! What was it doing?

Red lightening flashed on the screen and the view suddenly whipped across the sky to focus on two flaming wreckages of what used to be modern day aircraft. Before Ted’s bewildered mind could even process what had happened, the view panned back to the Angel and to what was lowering itself from behind the veil of clouds. Ted felt a shiver of primordial fear run down his spine. From Serena’s corresponding sharply indrawn breath, Ted knew that Serena had felt it too. The basic shape of the immense craft reminded Ted of a hunting great white shark. When the alien craft suddenly deployed two large ovoid air foils, Ted felt his irrational fear double. Now, the alien craft resembled the hooded head of a cobra.

“Run, Michael, run! Fly away!” whispered Serena fiercely. So intent was her expression that Ted briefly wondered if she even remembered that he was still on the couch with her, much less in the same room.

Michael? Why was Serena calling the Angel Michael? Could it be? Ted shook his head in denial. No way!

On the screen, red lightening flashed once more and the Angel and the alien ship were now alone in the sky. The Angel fired twin beams of destructive energy into the apparently waiting alien spaceship. It plummeted from the sky with the Angel in sharp pursuit.

“Yes!” cried Serena. “Kill that sonofabitch!”

Ted turned back to gaze at his beloved. This was a bloodthirsty side of her that he never knew about. When Ted returned to the TV though, the reason for Serena’s bloodthirstiness became apparent. From the current camera angle, Ted could see that the alien craft looked somewhat familiar to him. In fact, he had vainly tried to zoom in on just such a ship not all that long ago. The chill down his spine returned with a vengeance. This was the same ship, or maybe one just like it, that had destroyed the mysterious facility where David and Mary had been taken into. The idea seemed ludicrous somehow…but at the same time, Ted felt it within his bones. How much does Serena know anyway? And more importantly, how much is she not telling him? And just how did she know to check John Lemon’s computer anyway? And where was Michael right now? Why did Serena keep calling the Angel Michael?

All these questions and silent musing suddenly came to an abrupt end. The alien ship crashed on a familiar looking beach, south of an equally familiar highway.

“Yes!” cried Serena once more.

Ted didn’t even glance in Serena’s direction this time. The action on the screen seemed to be coming to a climax. The Angel landed on top of the crashed ship and all of a sudden, the dozens of passersby and onlookers that had gathered round were running in all directions. There was a huge flash of light and then the alien ship lay shattered on the beach. The Angel, on the other hand, seemed to glow with an unnatural light. It launched itself in the air, and the glow seemed to get brighter and brighter. Soon, it looked as if it were trailing fire. As the Angel reached the clouds, there was another massive flash of light and the TV went black.

“NO!! MICHAEL!” screamed Serena as she buried her face in her hands.

Ted grabbed the remote off the coffee table and desperately scanned the other stations. It was with some relief that he stopped on another station that was also reporting the incident. The reporter on the screen was explaining that the last blast of light was apparently the result of the Angel exploding.

Ted numbly listened to the ongoing report. He wrapped his arm around Serena and pulled her close. He wasn’t entirely sure of what had just happened, but he felt reasonably sure that somehow, Serena had just lost another family member.

---

“I love you, Tracy!” Tracy heard the cry reverberate through her mind as she watched the Angel explode again and again as the news station continuously recycled the last few seconds of the Angel’s incredible battle. As the images continued, Tracy could hear the muted sobs of May from the back of the van. Her best friend was hurting inside; she knew that. However, at the moment, she just could not bring herself to go to the back to comfort her. She felt something wet roll down her face and onto her clenched hands and wondered when she had started to cry. It was with some relief when she felt more than saw Jade get up off her seat and move to the back where she promptly hugged May close.

Tracy reached under her top and pulled out her pendant. It was a special kind of pendant. Her father, at her strange request, had taken the expended bullet to a friend and drilled a hole through the base. Tracy had then run a spare jewelry chain through the hole and wore the ensemble around her neck. She looked at the bullet while facts ran through her head and tears down her face. She had no concrete evidence, but she did have her intuition and some strange facts. Fact one, the night of May’s abduction, Michael had apparently stopped a bullet that should have killed him. Now that Tracy thought about it, he had seemed very agitated moments before the Demons had burst into the dance hall too. Fact two, Michael was easy enough to beat on the training mats at Sifu Chang’s school, but he was uncommonly good when he sparred with Brandon – whose chosen pseudonym of Dragon was in honor of Bruce Lee. Fact three, Michael was hiding something, something dark. Not only was he not at either regular school or Sifu Chang’s school, he also was not at home very much. As Tracy put her thoughts in order, she realized that there were dozens of little clues, all pointing in one direction. She just had not wanted to allow herself to put them together the way she was now because if she were right, the truth would result in agonizing heartbreak. She looked at the TV screen one last time before closing her tear streaked eyes and finally allowed herself to acknowledge what she had known subconsciously all this time but never allowed herself to truly admit. Michael and the Angel were one and the same. Somehow, like a comic book superhero, Michael had an alternate double life. A lump seemed to catch in Tracy’s throat as that realization finally filtered through her conscious mind and forced her to admit one last truth. With the death of the Angel, that also meant that Michael was dead too. Tracy lowered her face into her hands and cried.

Jade heard some muted sobs and looked up to the front of the van just in time to see Tracy break down into tears. She glanced over to their guest only to see similar tears run down his face too. What the hell? Why was everyone crying? She tightened her grip around May and kept her eyes on the TV screen. When the Angel had exploded, May had cried ‘Da Gueur’ and then burst out crying. That was understandable because you didn’t need to be an empath to know about May’s feelings. For someone who could read other people’s emotions like Jade could read a book, May had a tendency to wear her own emotions on her figurative sleeve. Ok, so that explained why May was crying. Why the heck was their guest, Dominic, crying too? And then, just when Jade thought that she and Tracy were the only two sane people in the van, Tracy also started to cry. What was the big deal anyway? Her radio crackled and a voice came on the line.

“Mobile HQ, this is Dragon, over.”

Jade picked up the handset and said, “This is Crystal in Mobile HQ. What’s up Dragon? Hope you have some cheery news cause I’m drowning in all the tears here!”

“Oh really? What’s going on there anyway?”

“Oh, not much…except that everyone in here has been crying non-stop ever since that big explosion…oh about 15 minutes ago. What’s up with you?”

“Well Tinman and I decided to hang around the Lakeshore. Tinman got tired of hanging under the copter so we stowed his suit in the back and then got back into the action.”

“Was that wise? Fearless Leader wanted you the head to base.”

“That’s ok. She can discipline me later…if she can.”

“You’re feeling pretty cocky tonight, aren’t you?”

“I finally got to pound on some Demon butt. How do you think I feel? Besides, Fearless Leader can’t complain too much. She’s the only one on the team who didn’t come through unscathed.”

“Yeah, I saw the wound. What happened anyway?”

“She got cocky. If I hadn’t used my teke power to nudge the gun aside, she’d be sporting a pierced navel right now.”

“Wow. Tell me, are you ever going to let her forget it?”

“Never!”

“Then what happened?”

Another voice came on the line at that moment. “Hey Crystal, Tinman here. After I cleared the first floor, I went upstairs to offer up any assistance. I got there in time to make the last Demon dance to the tune of my Gatling and then turned him into a cocoon.”

Jade mouth quirked up into a grin. She knew she’d always liked Jeff! “Really? Cool, I wish I could’ve seen it up close. Watching through the monitors just doesn’t cut it.” Jade sighed wistfully. She had wanted to be in on the action tonight, but May had thought that she would be able to keep an eye out on the team with her gift. It hadn’t worked out that way of course.

“What about with your gift?”

“Well, I need to know someone pretty well before I can see them with my gift.”

“You cut me to the bone! I thought you knew me! Tell you what, let me buy you dinner one night and I’ll tell you my life story.”

Jade laughed out loud and said, “Not like that, you goofball! Besides, you’re not my type!” Jade knew that after this mission was finally over, one of the tasks that the group would have to do was more meditation exercises. Out of the three team members in the field tonight, she could only ‘see’ May, and not very clearly at that. Sifu Chang had mentioned once that she had to concentrate not on the person, but on their ‘spark’, whatever the heck that meant! Besides, she had an embarrassing tendency to fall asleep during meditation.

“You’re killing me, Crystal!” came Jeff’s lightly toned reply. “Oh well, I’ll get over it anyway. What is your type anyway? Big, brawny and dumb?”

Jade cast a quick sidelong glance at May before answering Jeff. “Never you mind buddy!” Somehow, Jade knew just whom Jeff was referring to with his ‘big, brawny and dumb’ comment. She was glad no one else had clued in on it though. She knew she had to be really careful when she was around May if she were to keep her secret. She just wished the big lug wasn’t so clueless! Patience, she chided herself. She knew that she would have to wait a couple more years - at least until she started growing a more womanly figure. Hopefully by then, the big and dumb lug with the scaly name would forget his useless crush and start to notice her. At least she hoped he would!

The object of her thoughts suddenly came back on the line. “Crystal? You better switch your screens to our feed. There’s something happening here.”

Jade hit a few buttons on her TV and hooked into the video feed provided by the main camera on the Nightcopter. The picture was a moving skyline, as if Brandon were slowly circling and Jeff was controlling the camera. “Ok, what am I looking at?” She didn’t see anything of interest.

“Hang on, I’ve gotta climb. That big explosion at the end there must have done something to my controls. They’re sluggish as hell.”

Jade waited until she noticed something odd on the screen. It appeared as if one patch of sky was brighter than the rest.

“Are you getting that?”

“I think so. What is it?”

“You got me. It’s way too early for the sun to start coming out. Oops, looks like we’re not the only ones who’ve seen it. We’ve got some company.”

“Maybe you guys should get out of there.”

“Nah, its ok. There’s so many news and cop copters out here by now, they’ll just think we’re just another newsie.” There was a long pause and then Brandon said, “Uh oh, that one there has military written all over it. They’re sending a broadcast to clear the air space. I don’t know how much longer I can stick around.”

Jade felt a momentary spike of fear and then she said, “Clear out, Dragon. We don’t want the military to get too close a look at the Nightcopter.”

“Roger that. We’re switching our TV to a news station. You should too. There’s something going on up there and maybe a one of the cameras on the ground has a long enough zoom to pick it out. Dragon out.”

“Be careful, Dragon. Crystal out.”

Jade switched the TV to another of the local news stations and nudged May out of her stupor. “May, there’s something happening. Check it out.”

May reluctantly raised her head to look at the screen. What she saw there made her stop crying almost instantly. The patch of sky that the groundside camera was focusing on was bright and was getting brighter by the second. For some inexplicable reason, her heart started to beat faster. She felt someone else’s interest and knew that Dominic was scrutinizing the screen as well. She spared him a quick glance and knew that she would have to have a long talk with him soon. Despite the crowd she was running these days, it wasn’t every day she ran into someone with the gift. She had felt the small spark within Dominic from the moment she expertly put him on his butt earlier that night. She was almost positive that Dominic himself didn’t even know that he had the gift. That was why she had asked Tracy and Jade to detain him. She hadn’t had time yet to scan him thoroughly, but, if her hunch was right, then Dominic represented too big of a potential asset to let slip through her fingers. She felt some grief stricken emotions emanating from the front of the van and called out to Tracy, “Tracy, change to channel 25. There’s something happening.” The grief coming from Tracy was almost overwhelming and May’s heart went out to her friend. She was such a gentle soul, crying for the loss of May’s Da Gueur.

The sky was getting even brighter now, and May looked closely at the screen. It looked as if the light was getting smaller. May gasped as she realized that was exactly what was happening. Like a round circle quickly becoming smaller, the light coalesced until it was no more than a bright dot in the sky. She wished the unknown cameraman would zoom in more on the dot, and then as if her wish were heard, the view on the screen zoomed in until the dot filled the screen. The light slowly faded and May thought she could see something behind the light. She squinted, trying to see around the glare, when all of a sudden, the light vanished. She closed her eyes for a second, and when she reopened them, she saw an incredible sight.

“That’s impossible!”

May glanced back at Dominic as he voiced the exact same thought that she had. She looked back at the screen and her breath caught in her throat because there was no mistaking that silvery winged form. All around her, the emotions of her friends burst open like an overfilled balloon. Joy, wonderment, and amazement topped the list. They mirrored her own emotions as she realized, that, somehow, her Da Gueur wasn’t dead after all. So caught up in the moment was she, that she didn’t even notice when the emotions of her best friend plummeted and changed to something else.

At first, Tracy couldn’t even begin to describe her joy at seeing the Angel/Michael alive. She didn’t understand it, but somehow, the light in the sky had reformed itself back into the alternate form of Michael. However, those feelings of happiness quickly clouded over as she realized the full implications of her suspicions. If she was right, and she was sure she was, then the Angel and Michael were the same and that meant that she and May were in love with the same person. At first, she felt hurt at Michael’s betrayal. How could he say he loved her when he really was in love with May after all? However, she quickly pushed her hurt feelings aside. Wasn’t this her original plan after all? Her best friend in the whole world in love with the best boy she could find, wasn’t that her original intent? It wasn’t as if she and Michael had a chance in the long term anyway. Any relationship she would have had with him was bound to end sooner or later. Tracy sniffed once and then dried her tears. She would keep Michael’s secret for now, she resolved. May had been by her side for so long now, and Tracy loved her so dearly. May had been her brick when Tracy had to go through one of the toughest challenges of her life. Now it was time for Tracy to do the same for May. No matter how much this was going to hurt her, Tracy vowed to make sure that May would have the happy ending that she so richly deserved. With her eyes finally dry, and her hands steady, Tracy turned off her TV as she started planning for the future.

---

When Michael was seven years old, he entered into a wonderful new world – comic books. He had always been a rather quiet kid. Despite the many attempts by his parents to help him break out of his shell, Michael still preferred to sit inside the house, curled around a book rather than sit outside into the sunshine. Perhaps it was his asthma, or perhaps it was just a natural aversion to outdoor activities. David and Mary were both perplexed but chose to accept this as another side of their son’s personality. Being naturally extroverted and outgoing people, it was sometimes hard for them to understand but they tried.

One day, while walking along Queen Street with his parents, Michael saw a store that had the most wonderful looking display in its window. There were heroic looking people dressed in fantastic costumes fighting against what were obviously villains. David caught his interest right away and offered to take him in. His own enthusiasm was not lost on Mary though, and she rolled her eyes as she told them to go in and enjoy themselves. She would go ahead and meet them at the Eaton Centre where they would catch the northbound subway back to where they had parked their car. As they vanished into the store, Mary called out vainly after them, “One hour only!” but wasn’t sure if her errant husband and son even heard her. She vowed to give them two hours before she hunted them down.

Michael emerged from that wonderful world two and a half hours later, his arms were laden with comic books. David also had an armful of comics and they chatted amiably about their selections as they walked towards the rendezvous.

“You seem to have quite the collection there, Michael. What made you choose those particular titles?” asked David. He was trying hard to keep the mirth from his voice. When he himself was a kid, he had been an avid comic reader. His comics of choice were mostly DC. Michael, on his very first excursion into the comic world, had selected Marvel. It was funny how that worked out, but the last thing David wanted to get into with his son was the age old DC vs Marvel debate. He was genuinely curious at Michael’s selection though. Most kids tended to pick up titles like Superman or Spiderman, or any one of the more light-hearted stories. Aside from a few exclusions, Michael seemed to have gravitated to a couple of titles that had darker connotations. For example, the Silver Surfer at the beginning of his career was not exactly a good guy. Then there was the Archangel – a blue skinned fellow with metallic wings that he often used on his opponents. A part of David worried that perhaps he shouldn’t let Michael read such mature content, but the other more dominant part argued that Michael was a lot more mature than other kids his age.

As with virtually every other question that Michael answered, he gave this one some serious thought before answering. “Too many of the stories in there seem to be about good guys doing good things. That seems to be too easy to me.”

David arched an eyebrow and said, “Oh?” This wasn’t the kind of answer he had anticipated! He had expected, “Because he’s cool!” or “He looks awesome!” but Michael’s answer showed quite a bit of depth.

“I like the Silver Surfer because he didn’t start off being a good guy, you know? That came later.”

David nodded in understanding. “What about the Archangel? He started out as a good guy.”

“Yeah, but Archangel is different. At first, I didn’t even make the connection between him and the Angel from the early X-Man days. It took me awhile, and eventually I had to ask that guy at the front desk. Basically, Angel started being a hero but then became bad for a while before turning good once more.” Michael seemed to be struggling for a word to describe the concept in his head.

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘redemption’.” David said with a smile.

Michael brightened and said, “Yeah, that’s it!” He rummaged around in the bag until he pulled out what he was looking for. “Just like this story!”

David looked over at the series of comic books that Michael was displaying. In bold colors and lettering, the picture on the front showed a character with its arms spread out on either side and totally engulfed in flames. The title read, ‘X-Men, The Dark Phoenix Saga’.

“There you are! I was about to come hunting for you two!” The voice of Mary carried from across the busy street and David looked up to see his wife fast approaching them. She waited until the light was green and then crossed over. She was trying her best to look cross, but David knew that Mary could barely control her delight as she took in the look of sheer enthusiasm on Michael’s face.

“Hi sweetie!” said David and he gave his wife a hug.

“Don’t you ‘Hi sweetie’ me you big lug!” retorted Mary with a big grin. She gave Michael a hug too and then looked at the comic books he was holding in his hand. “Hmmm, the Dark Phoenix Saga, eh? One of my favorites too from when I was a kid!”

Michael looked at his mother in wide eyed amazement. “You like comics too?”

Mary chuckled and said, “Of course! What, you think only boys like this stuff? Besides, Jean Grey has always been one of my favorites, and the way they tie her story in with the whole Phoenix legend was pretty cool. I always thought that it would cool to be able to be reborn like a Phoenix if I were to die.”

Michael smiled up at both of his parents. He tried to memorize the look on their faces, but that last word seemed to echo in his mind. To his dismay, he found that he could no longer make out the faces of his parents and the word ‘die’ kept echoing in his mind.

<<Young one…Young one…Young one!>>

What…who…where…

<>

Back? What happened? Wait, I was dying, wasn’t I? I had sucked in too much power and I was trying to get up as far away as possible. What happened?

<>

What? Oh, yeah.

Michael stretched out his senses and received a huge shock. He was right back to where he roughly was just before he exploded! The only difference now, of course, was the numerous helicopters and other various types of aircraft all over the sky. Many of the aircraft in the air looked to be military types. Not wishing another confrontation with the military, Michael quickly drew his transparency camouflage around himself and headed off in a random direction. The fight with the mysterious jet fighters was still fresh in his mind and he remembered how the jets had somehow known where he was, even under his camouflage.

What the hell happened, Big Bro? Why am I still alive?

<>

Really? So this is a first?

<<Indeed. However, before we think too much about it, might I suggest that you get home as fast as possible? However you managed to come back from the dead, you seem to be very low on energy. I believe a recharge to be the most desirable course right now.>>

Yeah, good point. I do seem to be pretty low, huh? I just want to make sure that no one follows me though. I still haven’t figured out how those jets knew to find me.

<<My Pracetorian masters had a device that they used to locate us whenever they needed to pass on directions and instructions. Perhaps these jets had something similar.>>

Really? That doesn’t make any sense at all. Why would they have Pracetorian technology? And more importantly, why did they attack me?

<>

Shut up and get home, eh? Ha, alright, I see your point.

Michael flew for several minutes without a word, but something still bugged him. Um, Big Bro?

<<Yes, young one?>>

Um, I did something bad, didn’t I?

<<What do you mean?>>

That Valean sting ship. It didn’t even try to defend itself. I struck the first blow and I murdered those Valeans.

<<They were your enemies, young one.>>

Enemies or no, it wasn’t even a fair fight. I was just so confused, and lost in my rage, I didn’t even give them a chance. After that first shot, I should’ve wondered why their shields weren’t up to begin with.

<<Young one, in this you are not the only one at fault. I could have stopped you, but I too seemed to have been a little out of control myself.>>

You?

<<Yes.>>

Wow, I didn’t think you had it in you to lose control. I…I feel really bad about what I did, Big Bro. What I did was murder, wasn’t it?

<>

Yeah, now I wish I listened to you. I…I can’t get that vision out of my head.

<<Which vision?>>

The sight of that Valean holding up his hand and saying, ‘My life is yours.’ He was giving his life to me! Why?

<<Again, young one, I have no answer. I am just as puzzled by the actions of the Valeans as you are.>>

Well, I guess we can’t answer everything right now. Serena is sure to have caught the whole thing on TV. She’s going to be madder than a squirrel eating a roasted chestnut. There’s the house now. I better get down there and get the lecture over with.

<<If Serena did in fact watch the fight on TV, I am sure that lecturing will be the last thing on her mind.>>

Really? Well, we’ll see soon enough!

---

Serena sat alone on the bottom step of the stairs, her eyes never leaving the front door. She had sent Ted home only minutes before because she wanted to greet Michael alone when he finally came home. When she saw Michael’s alternate form magically reforming on TV, he joy had been boundless. That was when she finally noticed the look of unanswered questions on Ted’s face. She kissed him then, like she always did whenever he had that look. This time, however, the look didn’t go away. He didn’t make an issue out of it though, and she promised to fill him in on everything after she had a talk with Michael.

There was a click at the front door and Serena looked up just in time to see the lock flip over to the unlocked position. Then, the additional bolts further up the door slip open on their own accord. Serena knew of only one person in the whole world who could do something like that! She jumped to her feet, snatched the door open and pulled a piece of invisible warmth into the house. Tears rolled down her face as she kept sobbing Michael’s name over and over.

“Umm, Serena, are you alright?” Michael’s disembodied voice sounded concerned.

Serena cried for a few minutes more before releasing Michael from her bear hug. She sniffed and vainly wiped the tears from her face. “Alright? Of course I’m alright…now, that is. Drop your camouflage. I need to see that you’re alright too.”

“Umm, Serena, remember our no peeking rule?”

“What about it?”

“Umm, you do know that I’m naked after I change back, right?”

“Who cares about that right now?” Serena found Michael’s hand and pulled him into the living room. “I need to see you so drop it!”

Michael gave an unseen shrug and said, “Ok, you’re the boss,” and dropped his camouflage.

Serena gave a huge sigh of relief as she gazed into his face. She tousled his hair and then gently nudged him onto the couch where she had watched his incredible battle. “Now, tell me what happened.”

Seeing no other alternative, and feeling a real need to unburden himself, Michael did just that. He started at the beginning and left nothing out. When he got to the part about blasting the Valeans, Serena’s eyes started to mist over once more. She cupped his cheek and asked, “How do you feel now? You’ve gotten your vengeance.”

Michael blew out a shaky breath before answering. “I…I don’t know. I feel so empty. I…I feel so bad…I murdered those Valeans. They never had a chance!”

“Michael, if anyone should feel bad it’s me.”

Michael gave her a questioning look. “You? Why?”

“I should’ve stopped you. I never should’ve let you carry out your crazy plan. Because I didn’t, you almost died tonight. I’m so, so very sorry!” Serena hugged him close and said, “I wasn’t a very good big sister so the fault is all mine.”

Michael pushed Serena back and protested, “Serena, it’s not your fault. It’s all mine. I was so angry…so filled with hate…I…I miss Mom and Dad so much! I knew killing the Valeans wouldn’t bring them back, but I just couldn’t stop myself. And now that I have killed them, I feel a hundred times worse than before!”

“Oh Michael! David and Mary would never have wanted you to go to such extremes! They were professionals and they knew the risks every time they went out of a mission. I miss them so much too!” She hugged him again, and this time, reveled in the warmth of his body. She tried her best to memorize the exact feeling of his body so that she could always look back and say, ‘This is my brother, if not of my flesh then of my soul.’ A sudden impish thought occurred to her and she just couldn’t resist saying it out loud. “Hey little brother, I guess we’re not quite even anymore.”

Michael pulled free and asked, “About what?”

“Our no peeking rule. It just occurred to me that I’m one up on you now. That doesn’t strike me as very fair. Tell you what, the next time I take a shower, I’ll leave the door open and you can peek to your heart’s content – just for old times sake! What do you say to that?”

Michael stared at her with such and incredulous look that Serena couldn’t help but laugh. His mouth opened and shut several times before he joined in the laughter. His laughter set off Serena even more and before she knew it, tears streamed down her face. As if at an unspoken signal, Michael also started to cry. They fell into each other’s arms again, and alternated between laughing hysterically and crying heart achingly. If it hadn’t been for David and Mary Wellington, neither of them would have met nor become so close. Together, on the couch, Serena and Michael grieved the loss of two people who had meant so much to both of them, and celebrated the legacy that they left behind.