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Tale Old as Time Chapter 12

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Chapter 12 - Common Ground

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:
Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?

From The Sonnets of William Shakespeare

Vincent sat behind Father's desk. He never felt comfortable in it, even as he become more and more the leader of this unorthodox clan as Jacob Wells got too old to handle all the responsibilities. Now he mostly led the group, but when the proposal of asking Ben Tennyson came up, he has deferred the final choice to Father. However it now appeared that some of the Tunnel People were dissatisfied with Father's decision as well.

To Vincent's relief Father had taken a nap and still was asleep while he talked to Thomas, Phillip, Luke and several of the other Tunnel Dwellers debated the ruse Ben had played.

"That creature wasn't a fairy, Vincent," Thomas said.

"Not of the type found on Earth," Vincent said. "But they are real."

"But that alien wasn't one. Ben was lying."

"If you want, we can call the children together again and discuss whether Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny are real? Do you want that?"

The adults became uncomfortable. How many legends did they tell there children true knew they themselves had thought them as total myths until today? Sure they had always had Vincent as a reason to believe that every story had to possess some kind of reality, but now they were suffering from an overwhelming fear of it. It had been too much too quickly and for some, too soon.

"There should have been a vote for everyone," Luke said. "Not just the council."

"You want to change our laws, Luke?" Vincent asked, "because of a grievance?"

"I'm worried for Jacob."

"And angry at Kevin? You do not think I can tell?"

"Jacob is too. Asking him to give them a tour was a mistake."

"Jacob needs to learn trust them as do the rest of us. We cannot let fear keep us from accepting Ben, Kevin and Gwen or we become they very thing I was subject too when I was younger. The hatred above that nearly got me killed cannot live here below."

"It's more than that," Phillip said. "Father's discernment has been clouded. It's not just age, it's sentiment for what happened. He's letting emotions confuse him."

"What are you saying?" Vincent asked the edge of his own voice growing harsher.

"That he's still grieving from Devin. We're all sorry he died, but Father is trying to replace him with the wrong person. Both of you have. Kevin isn't Devin."

"We all know that."

"Does he?"

Senility. Vincent had never been hit with it this as harshly before. Phillip and some others were directly hinting Father's participation in the council to be flawed by his faltering memory. Fortunately a new voice spoke up from the back of the chamber to defend Father that Vincent had not expected.

"Father never voted," Jamie said. The head of the Tunnel World's security walked into the chamber from the opposite side. Her life long friend Brooke accompanied her. "The six of us made up our own minds. He only observed us and offered us advice."

"The majority agreed?" Luke looked appalled. "Jamie. You were there that night Kevin attacked Jacob."

"I know. I was very vocal in pointing it out. But in the end, the majority wanted them to stay."

"The vote was four to two?"

"Yes. We accepted it. I know Kevin actions are closer to Mitch* than Devin and I'm not happy with this arrangement either, but we have to go forward."

"Jamie is right," Brooke said. "I'm not going to be afraid anymore. And neither is Helena. She wants to talk to Kevin."

"Is she sure?" Thomas asked softly.

Brooke nodded. "Anthony wants to go too. If you want to be there you can. After all, even Kevin and his friends need to eat."

"Talking is the best way to start the trust," Vincent said. "My advice is, do not avoid them. Interact with them."

"Many of us won't have a choice," Luke grumbled. "He's going to be working with me and my dad."

"Mouse can't wait for Kevin to help," Jamie told him.

"I can."

Luke left without saying goodbye to anyone.

"He's having a harder time getting over the attack than I am," Brooke said.

Vincent suspected it had more to do with something even more personal.

***

Kevin found the tour to be a little boring since he knew every place they went from the first time he had been there. He also found it somewhat annoying since Gwen gave most of her attention to Jacob while Ben talked primarily to Sarah. Kevin hated feeling left out especially when Gwen and Jacob started having a long conversation in French. It turned out Jacob knew several languages, French, Russian, some Spanish and Chinese along with the dead language of Latin and even sign language.

One of their older helpers, a woman named Laura, was deaf. Several Tunnel People learned how to sign to communicate with her. In spite of her handicap, she knew how to use the pipes to send messages back and forth by learning how to tap the pipes.

"That is remarkable," Gwen stated.

"We will visit the pipe room right after we've seen the Whispering Caverns," Jacob said. "The depth of the place will astound you."

A sound seeping from another tunnel they passed distracted Gwen. She paused to listen.

"Is that a piano?" She asked.

"Yes," Jacob confirmed.

Seeing her desire to follow the sweet sound, Jacob led the group down the fork to a set of stone steps. As they descended, they saw a grand concert piano sitting in the chamber. At it sat Rolley. He played the strain of music completely by ear. When he finished, Gwen started clapping.

Rolley looked up to see his unexpected audience and grinned.

"Hello there," Rolley greeted them. "Did you come this way just to see me?"

"Gwen heard you playing," Sarah said. "She wanted to listen."

"We'll I'm glad you came by and that you're all together." He nodded to Jacob and Kevin. "And you're trying to get along."

Jacob and Kevin didn't answer. They were actually ignoring each other, which they had both chose as the best way to tolerate the other.

"That music you were playing," Gwen asked. "It was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata?"

"Yes. My favorite. Music has been the cure for my other addiction."

"You hinted you used drugs," Ben remembered.

"Yeah. It's why I understood what Kevin went through. It's why I-."

He stopped himself but Kevin suspected what he wanted to say.

"It's why you wanted to give me a chance?" Kevin guessed.

Rolley nodded. "I messed up badly in my life. I lived on the streets too. My brother got killed holding up a liquor store. I nearly died the same way. If it wasn't Vincent, I'd be long dead."

"Me too," the teen admitted.

"Like you I refused Vincent's help the first time. So I consider us a lot alike."

Gwen smiled. She was glad she had convinced Jacob to steer them in this direction. She asked, "Would you play something for me?"

"What would you like to hear?" Rolley asked.

"My friend Emily plays piano. She just got a scholarship to a performing arts school."

"Good for her. She's following my old dream."

"She loves Chopin. Do you know Fantaisie Impromptu?"

Rolley thought about it. He gestured for Gwen to sit beside him on the piano chair before he paused and studied the keyboard. Rolley's fingers began delicately tapping the correct pieces of ebony and ivory, striking the strings within the piano in the exact musical run of the composition. Gwen closed her eyes as a serine look came over her. Rolley produced the Fantaisie Impromptu in perfect pitch from memory with no flaws until he got interrupted.

"What are you doing?!" Kevin hissed.

Rolley stumbled on a note and stopped. Gwen opened her eyes to glare at Kevin for breaking in on the music. Her boyfriend had stepped very close to Jacob, staring into his rival's eyes in anger. Gwen recognized the look of jealousy on Kevin's face. Instead of trying to step back, Jacob closed the gap between them even more so they were only inches apart.

"Do you always act like Gwen belongs to you?" Jacob asked.

"You were making eyes at her."

"You don't own her," he chided Kevin. "Love involves trust."

"It sure does. So what would Cathy think of you being interested in my girlfriend?"

Jacob make a snarling sound similar to a large wild feline. Suddenly a shield of brilliant pink mana formed in between the two of them.

"Both of you stop it!" Gwen ordered.

"Listen to Gwen," Rolley said specifically to Kevin. "I didn't vote yes so you would ruin it only a few hours later."

"They're right, Kevin," Ben said. "We didn't stick up for you to wreck it this soon."

"Then stop making moves on Gwen!" Kevin snapped at Jacob.

"I wasn't!" Jacob looked as if he was going to lash out at Kevin but he checked himself and sighed deeply. "You're right."

"Say what?"

"I was looking at her the wrong way," he confessed. "When she was listening to the music, she had the same look on her face my mother had when she used to listen. My father described every detail so accurately I got caught up in it."

"Oh," Kevin now felt a little awkward. "I thought you where..."

"Who wouldn't? It something you must know. Likely it has happened before or you would not be so upset by it."

"Yeah. There are other guys. Michael. Cooper. Squire Willard."

"Winston," Gwen corrected.

"Whatever."

Jacob chuckled, "I see why father sees so much of himself in you. It didn't resonate until now."

"Vince was the jealous type?"

"Elliot Burch."

"Right," Ben said. "She was your mom's boyfriend too."

"And a rival. It's hard to believe he's still alive. Even after Coral told us about him meeting you're grandfather and Kevin's father, I can hardly believe it." Jacob started to smile becoming relaxed after his exchange with Kevin. However, when Jacob looked at his brutish counterpart, something in the look in the dark haired teenager's eyes made him register a hidden truth. His uttered, "You're father is dead."

Kevin became surly again. "That's none of your business."

"Kevin..." Gwen began.

Gwen got up and tried to take Kevin's hand but the teenager pulled back from all of them and walked out of the chamber. The redhead followed right after him to make sure he'd be safe and wouldn't get in any trouble.

Jacob, Sarah and Rolley looked at Ben for an explanation.

"Kevin will be mad if I tell you the details," the teenager warned. "It's not pretty."

"Is it like my mom's death?" Jacob whispered.

"You're mom died a lot worse but it still isn't something Kevin likes to talk about."

"He should," Rolley advised Ben. "If more of us knew Kevin is hurting from a painful loss, then more would understanding of why he so angry."

"Gwen is the only one who can convince him to talk," Ben said looking at Jacob. "Give him a little time. He might tell you."

"And if not, he'll tell my father," Jacob mused. "I remember my father almost reached him before. If only he hadn't been so enraged."

All this time Jacob had chosen only to hate Kevin. The blonde haired man thought his father had been totally wrong to insist they had anything in common. Maybe it was time to learn what made him and Kevin so much alike.

Above - NYC Plumber's Base

For Max Tennyson opening up the old mothballed Plumbers base felt like visiting an old friend's home. Unlike a shuttered house, the base still looked fresh and clean, maintained by machines to keep it in working order.

For Diana it reminded her of a cross between a hospital, a military installation and a subterranean cave. For Coral it felt a little like home.

"My mother has a chamber that looks like one of theses rooms," the teenager half alien explained. "She keeps all her old work equipment in it. She also has a Plumber's ship to be used in an emergency."

"You're mother is retired?" Diana asked.

"Semi retired. She's a very close friend with the current Magister Patelliday. He's a Piscciss Volpan too."

"And a friend of mine as well," Max said.

"I thought you were retired also," Coral added.

"Me? I can't stay away. Fortunately being considered semi active keeps me out of the stuffy uniform most of the time."

Max brought them into the room that had to be the center of the bases communications. In the center of the room stool a circular table with several digital and physical keyboards built into the sides. Max inserted the small micro drive into one of the terminals modified for use of Earth technology. The information on it came up on a series of flat screens on one wall as well as projected as three-dimensional images on the table. Two renderings of a Vulpimancer and a Lunar Loboan appeared on the table top as three-dimensional holograms.

Although fascinated by the images in front of her, Diana concentrated on reading the data on the screens that cross referenced the coroners reports with the Plumbers intel on alien species.

"I'm glad I came here. This gives me some extra information," Diana added. "The strength and weakness of the creature's involved. Can I access police records from here?"

"Pretty much anything you want," Max told her. "The Plumber's computer systems tap into even secure Military channels."

"Is this what makes your relationship you have with Colonel Rozum very icy?"

"It's the Area 51 incident."

"The one Lieutenant Steel said was classified but Ben made pretty obvious."

"The government had aliens in custody without due process. It's a violation to Plumber Interstellar law."

"Let me guess. It wasn't to him because he thought they were all a threat?"

"It's why a lot aliens who live here use I.D. Masks," Coral said. "Although they say Bellwood is a little safer."

"Not by much," Max said softly.

The elderly man seemed sad for a few seconds, long enough for Diana to recall the grief Vincent had on his lion like face whenever a memory of Catherine came to him. However the beast man's sorrow had dulled to a serene expression while Max's seemed a very fresh.

"Did someone you know die recently?" Bennett asked.

"You're good at reading people."

"Detectives have to be."

"His name was Pierce Wheels," Grandpa Max recalled. "I helped train him to be a Plumber. He only graduated from the Academy a month ago. We don't know who killed him. Only that we know it wasn't an accident. He was murdered."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know I pulled you off another case."

"It's fine. You need the help. Nativist are everywhere on this planet. Especially the Forever Knights. Ben hopes that with his cover blown, he might be able to get humans and aliens to trust each other."

"Doesn't that sound familiar," Diana said.

"I'd hope for it too," Coral said removing her mask to show her true appearance. "These things are kind of itchy."

"Our priority is to help Ben," Max said to Diana," but Coral's is to call her parents."

"What?" she burst out.

"You came down here without telling them, didn't you?"

"Sort of," Coral shied. "I left my dad a message."

"Then I think it's time we called him and let him know everything."

Below - The Whispering Chamber

The rest of the tour had been mostly uneventful. They visited the Pipe Room, which seemed to be like an enormous spider web of metal with the center watched over by Pascal's son Pip.

Pip seemed like a nice young fellow, with shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a patched up sweater and jeans with a stethoscope around his neck. The medical device actually belonged to his father Pascal.

"We use it to listen for that are sometimes getting drowned out by louder ones," Pip explained. "You have to have good ears to pick them without aid."

Still he acted coolly towards Ben, Kevin and Gwen. Sarah glared at him as if visibly trying to warn him not cause any trouble. Gwen made the teenager more comfortable by asking all sorts of questions about the Tunnel World's communication system and its history. Ben worried she would cause Kevin to get jealous again, but whatever private conversation Gwen had with him calmed him enough for the tour to resume peacefully.

After visits the Cavern of the Winds, the subterranean waterfalls and the ancient spiral stone stare case, Kevin brought up the topic he never raised the last time he had been below, and “You didn’t build all this Father found all of it."

"Yes," Jacob said. "Father and Mary used to tell about the other older people who pasted away, passing the secret of this place from one generation to another."

"Some of the things we've found down here, date back to the American Revolution," Sarah said.

"But some things look even older than that," Gwen said.

"The Indians were likely down here," Ben figured.

"Indians don't build spiral stone stair cases," Kevin noted. "Or pillared archways. Didn't your dad find stuff like that farther below?"

"Yes? You think it's older than the American Revolution?" Sarah asked.

"I sure do. A lot of other people might have been here first. And I'm not talking about humans."

They finally arrived at the Whispering Chamber.

Ben and Gwen looked about them, awed not only by the size of the cavern, but the sounds of conversation that drifted by as if carried by gusts of wind. They all stood out on the ancient wooden bridge that spanned the fissure beneath, a drop off that appeared to go on forever.

"The voices are all from above. They float down on the breezes," Jacob said. "Some can be quite personal."

"I called it the eaves dropping room," Kevin recalled.

"This is incredible," Gwen said brushing her auburn hair back from her eyes as she looked down into the darkness.

"How deep is it?" Ben asked.

"No one knows," Sarah said. "We think of it as bottomless."

"I got to find out." Ben reached for the dial on his Ultimatrix.

"Ben!" Kevin and Gwen exclaimed in unison.

"What?" He asked. His teenage friend and his cousin scowled at him. Ben lowered his arm and sighed in disappointment, "Right the rules. I need permission and it has to be connected to protecting the Tunnel World."

"Jacob can give you permission!" Sarah insisted.

"Sarah," Ben began. "I don't think-."

"Go ahead," Jacob said. "I'll take responsibility for letting you go."

"And your doing this why?" Kevin asked with renewed suspicion.

"Curiously," Jacob admitted. "Luke and I once lit pieces of coal and threw them down it to find out how long we would see them fall. Once Mouse took an old rusty flashlight and tossed it down there. The light is swallowed as if it is some gigantic mouth ate it."

"So you'll let me go?" Ben asked in excitement.

"Yes."

"Sweet!"

The young hero began turning the dial on his Ultimatrix again when Kevin snapped, "Ben! Change over there!"

"Why?" He asked.

"Because if you mess up and turn into the wrong alien, like Armadrillo, you'll break the bridge."

"You are seriously paranoid," Ben told him.

"But he's got a point," Gwen said. "The Ultimatrix isn't prefect."

Ben walked back to the stone tunnel they had come out of to change.

"Do you mean the Ultimatrix doesn't work right all the time?" Sarah asked Gwen.

"The only one that didn't give Ben too any trouble was the upgraded Omnitrix he had before this one. But that was before he broke it," Gwen explained.

"Along with me," Kevin muttered under his breath.

Ben found the alien he wanted on his active list and pressed down on the dial. His body morphed into an Aerophibian, the red and golden skinned alien who resembled a humanoid manta ray.

"Jetray!" Sarah squealed in recognition.

Jetray grinned and winked one of his green eyes. The creature flew up into the air before telling her, "I'll be right back."

Jetray plunged into the abyss, disappearing into the darkness. His four friends remained on the bridge looked down into the maw of the earth that had thoroughly swallowed up his form.

"How can he see down there?" Jacob asked Kevin.

"Jetray can fly at hyperspace levels. He can see in complete darkness and be doesn't need air to breathe," Kevin stared at him. "You know, you could get us in trouble for breaking the rules to get us kicked out?"

"Kevin!" Gwen snapped. "Ben is right. You are paranoid."

"I'm just saying because he looked ready to claw me."

"Because you looked ready to punch him."

"This is a way to say I'm sorry," Jacob offered, "for last night and for this morning and for before. Basically, Cathy said I was acting like Bottom."

Sarah laughed.

"Bottom?" Kevin questioned.

"The character from a Midnight Summer's Dream who ends up with the head of a donkey," Gwen explained.

"Oh," Kevin understood. "Shakespeare's way of making someone a jackass."

"Yes. As much as I might regret it, I have to forgive you."

"Regret it?"

"I don't know what having you here will cause. I might not want to be your friend, but my Father is right. We - I think need your help. I had this dream vision last night. Its happened more than once. I thought Gwen could help interpret it for me."

"Oh. So you really want Gwen's help?" Kevin glared.

"Vincent let me see his dream," Gwen reminded him. "Maybe if I saw both of them, they'd give me some more clues about who is controlling the Loboan."

Gwen was about to ask him the details when Luke entered the cavern looking extremely enraged.

"Sarah!" Luke yelled. "What are you doing here?"

"I was helping Jacob give them a tour," she responded. Then she scowled. "Did Pip tell you?"

"It doesn't matter! You're not supposed to be here! And where's Ben?"

"Down there," Sarah pointed. "He turned into Jetray."

"I let him go," Jacob explained. "As a way to make peace with each other."

Luke's sudden look of consternation changed his demeanor for only a few brief second. As the betrayal sank in he snapped, "One little pretend game of Ben play acting as a fairy and you've flipped?"

"It's more than that. I thought the dream I that other night had meant my father would die because of Kevin," Jacob stared at the dark haired teen and his girlfriend. "It was the other reason I attack you. As angry as I was this morning at the council, the dream vision began tormenting me again. But Kevin and his friends aren't not the invaders who will threaten us."

"So this dream wasn't about the wolf?" Gwen asked.

"About some other invaders. They will come below. I fear they will kill Vincent," Jacob said. "My father senses I am very afraid. That's all he knows."

"We won't let anything happen to Vincent," Kevin said. "No matter what you think of me, I'm not gonna let anything hurt him. That's my promise."

The jealous rage that had almost gotten Kevin in trouble only an hour ago now seized Luke.

"Fine!" Luke snarled. "If you want them to be your friends, don't ask me for help anymore! You're on your own! Come on Sarah!"

Luke took Sarah's arm to lead her off the bridge but she held fast to the rail and pulled back.

"No! I'm staying!" Sarah shouted.

"You're not supposed to be here! You're supposed to be in class!"

"Jacob said I could stay!"

"Not as long as Kevin is here!"

"You want to hold a grudge that's your problem! Kevin's not responsible for what happened to our dad! Stop acting like it is!"

"This isn't the time Sarah! Come right now!"

"Luke! Leave her be!" Jacob ordered.

Jacob stepped in to break up the altercation. However Luke's fury made him forget they're life long friendship. He punched Jacob in the jaw, making him stumble backward. Kevin caught him be the arm to keep him falling over, fearing he'd lose his footing and plunge off the bridge. Jacob's animalistic fury made him snarl at Luke, making Kevin worry he might have to hold Jacob back. Before things could get worse, Gwen wedged herself in between the Luke and her friends. The teenage girl's eyes and hands glowed a vibrant magenta hue.

"Stop!" Gwen warned.

Luke didn't like Gwen being in the Tunnel World, but he also had an even larger aversion to her powers. Adding to this was the fury on Jacob's face. Jacob might look human but when his father's side of him took hold, he resembled an enraged feline. At that moment Jetray landed a few feet away from them. The Ultimatrix timed out, reverting him to his default human form.

"What's happening?" Ben demanded.

"Luke was just leaving," Gwen ordered.

"No Gwen. I'll go," Sarah said as she started to cry. "But I'm telling my mother."

Sarah thrust herself past her brother and hugged Ben.

"Thank you," she whispered to him. "I had fun."

"Uh... You're welcome?" Ben stammered.

Sarah kept walking away. Luke back up and off the bridge, not apologizing for what he had done, yet looking somewhat ashamed. He followed his sister out of the Whispering Cavern.

Vincent, who had sensed something wrong far before Luke had arrived, ran into the chamber. His voice had the underlining growl of his animal nature, as he demanded, "What happened?"

Somehow Ben could tell this wouldn't be an easy explanation.

"I think we'd better find a place to talk," Ben requested.

Above NYC Plumber's Base

"Where have you been young lady?"

Since the base only had three people in the control room, Pearl's words echoed around it much easier. Coral smiled trying not to let the display of the sharp teeth in her mouth look frightening.

"I'm sorry mom," the fish girl apologized. "I wasn't thinking."

"Your father didn't tell you those stories for you to go swim off up the Atlantic seaboard to find Vincent," Pearl complained.

"It's not like I didn't find him. Now he knows everything."

Pearl sighed and looked at Max, "I'm sorry about my daughter coming to New York Magister Tennyson. I hope she didn't cause any trouble for you."

"The trouble was already here," Max explained. "I'm helping me grandson with a case. A case that ironically involves both Vincent and Diana."

Now Pearl gazed at Diana Bennett. Her luminous pink eyes as well as her sea green lips still had emotional anger in them. Still, she kept most of it under control as she spoke to the detective.

"You do understand my concern, Miss Bennett," Pearl said. "As far as Earth based authorities believe, Elliot is dead. People on the island we live don't know who he is and we want it to stay like this."

"Pearl I know Elliot didn't murder anyone. To keep Vincent safe, I wouldn't even consider letting the public know. Joe Maxwell has been helping me hide Vincent's existence for years. You can trust us to never say anything."

"Please mom?" Coral asked. "I'm sure dad wants to say hello to Max and Diana."

The Pisciss Volpan let out a small huff and brushed one of her fins away from her face. She stared off to the side of the view screen before tapping out a message on the keyboard in front of her. After a minute of silence, they heard the sound of someone opening a door off to Pearl's right.

"Pearl? What is it? Did you find Coral?" a man asked.

"Yes," Pearl said. "She's with a couple of old friends of yours."

Elliot Kaczmerak came up beside her. Diana saw he had shaved his beard, leaving only a mustache. And his dirty blonde hair had been cut much shorter with deep grey side burns. Elliot looked a Max and Diana in silence for several seconds before speaking to his Plumber friend first.

"Max!" He smiled. "I haven't seen you in almost ten years!"

"Yeah. Been busy with my grand kids and other things."

"Saving the universe?"

"That's more of my grandson's job now, but a Plumber never really retires," Max put her arm around Coral. "And this little girl of yours is hardy the guppy I remember."

"Yes and I'm likely to lock her in her tank for a month as punishment," Elliot scolded. "You were told not to go off on your own."

"Dad! I'm not a guppy anymore," Coral insisted. "I did fine. I found Vincent and his girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Elliot stared at Diana again.

Bennett tried not to flush as red as her auburn hair. When she recovered, Diana confirmed, "It has been twenty years Elliot."

He nodded. "And how is Vincent?"

"Fine. His son is a grown man."

"Catherine's son," Elliot added.

"His name is Jacob."

"Is he anything like her?" Elliot asked with a bit of a pensive tone.

"He looks like her, but he's got a lot of his dad in him."

Elliot still had a very faint longing on his face. Pearl didn't look remotely upset about it. Diana could relate. Vincent still got that gaze in his eyes as if straining to see the distant figure of Catherine down a long dark tunnel. Like Vincent, Elliot still missed her and still loved her.

He quickly changed the topic. "You do understand that I'm still considered a wanted criminal."

"We both know you didn't do it," Diana stated. "Vincent saved you're life. You got blamed for killing District Attorney Moreno. I owe you for protecting him even if it meant you'd go to jail."

"Or dying. But in the end you got to kill Gabriel."

"How did you know?"

"I told him," Max said. "I explained to Elliot the Plumbers couldn't do much beyond keeping in the loop about the case but when the news announced it, I made sure he found out."

"I had no choice," Diana said. "He was going to come after Vincent and Jacob even if he was put in prison, which I somehow doubted would happen. It's taken years to clean out all the men he had working for him in the police department and the District Attorney's Office. But I think we missed someone."

"What do you mean?"

"The case we're working on. I think it's connected to Gabriel. I don't know how yet, but I'm going to find out."

"Then it's a good thing you have Max with you," Elliot said.

Pearl added, "More than that. Ben Tennyson is the best protection your friends will have."

"As for you young lady," Elliot told his daughter. "We want you to come home right away."

"But dad. I can help," Coral insisted.

"No," Pearl shook her head. "You're not a Plumber."

"Not yet. But I can be," she glanced at Max. "Magister Tennyson can teach me."

Max's expression became pained. After losing Pierce, he didn't exactly want anymore new trainees. He kept equating Pierce's death with some failure on his part, even though it was an emotional reaction. He wanted to tell Coral no and send her home, but at the same time he worried she had the capability of disobeying and getting herself in worse trouble. Between the Lunar Loboan and Lieutenant Steel, he felt the best way to protect her didn't mean sending her home.

"I think it might be better to keep Coral with us until this case is over," Max said. "I'll make sure nothing happens to her."

Coral let out a small squeal before putting her webbed hand over her mouth to suppress her smile.

"There will be rules," Max continued, "You're going to take orders for me like I'd be one of your academy instructors. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" Coral saluted him before sheepishly grinning and telling her parents, "This is okay with you isn't it? I really want to train to be a Plumber. Magister Patelliday has known for months."

Elliot sighed, "This is so dangerous. And if this case is connected to Gabriel, you know how worried we'll be."

"As worried as you'd be about me going out on patrol," Pearl reminded her husband. "She's got too much of my side to hold her back. You might as well be trying to lock her in a fish tank."

"You promise to be careful," Elliot said.

"I will dad."

"And you're still my little guppy."

"Dad!" Coral's cheeks flushed a shade of pink not much different than her eyes.

"Diana," Elliot said. "Be careful. You've got good instincts. I don't like the idea you could be right about Gabriel."

"Neither do I," Diana agreed.

After a few more minutes of small talk between Max and Elliot, the connection terminated. Max looked at Diana.

"This hunch you have about Gabriel, maybe if you'd fill me in on everything you have about the case with Vincent, we can cross reference it in the Plumber database and find a link."

"All I have is a couple of Latin phrases and a feeling in my gut," Diana said. "Let's see where that takes us."
I'm really so sorry this is taking so long. i've had this chapter ready for months. then i changed my mind about the story direction and have to write a new chapter 13. Also I have suffered a loss. My proofreader is not responding to my emails. I think the worst has happened. People just don't disappear like this especially when I used to give her a little money for her troubles. You don't ignore a deposit to your bank account.

I've done my best on my own. I've already made a sudden shift in the story by Jacobs sudden change in attitude. I had to try to get this plot moving back to the enemies. But what should be fun is my plan to involve Belvedere Castle and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Because the Forever Knights are not going to like having the rival Forever Legion on some of their turf.

Chapter 13: [link]
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bbb35's avatar
Amazing work! As always :D