04-08-2014, 09:17 AM
The room was quiet and his question hung in the air. It had stopped raining some time ago and Connor noticed the sky starting to lighten. The events tonight had already slid into yesterday. It seemed like a dream. He realized how tired he was. Maybe none of this is real. But no. He refused to belief that. Finally he was at the end of his search, his quest to understand this universe, to understand why his son had died. He wouldn't hide from the truth.
Jensen, Giovanni, and Aria hadn't answered right away. Or maybe now that the question was out, time seemed to have slowed. But Aria's demeanor changed, as if she had come to some internal decision. And then she spoke. "Your son, was granted a gift. A gift he did not learn how to use as Giovanni and Jensen clearly have. The sickness is related to that untrained gift. I can't say why, nor do I know. Maybe the others could help you.
" Aria paused for a moment.
Connor just sat there, stunned with that revelation that had finally come. His mind reacted to different parts of her statements in different ways. There was no order, no logic to it. Hayden had been given a gift, she called it. The same gift that these men had. The fall! He must have used it when he fell! But he was so young. Somehow, he didn't learn to control it. He died, overwhelmed by this gift, this power.
Connor felt his heartbreak for Hayden. My poor boy.You were already special. He looked up to the heavens. He didn't need it! We were happy as he was. He felt a deep sorrow that his son had died from being touched with some "gift".
He looked at Jensen and Giovanni and wondered what it was about them that let them survive. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. They seemed like decent men, but so was Hayden. It couldn't be that. Ahh my son, I wish you had lived a normal and happy life, had a wife who loved you, and had been the wonderful father I know you would have been. I wish we could have been better friends. I wanted to see who you were going to be. He felt like he was tearing something.
Aria continued, perhaps more hesitantly"Here in the CCD, the government studies those with the sickness. I'm sure in the United States, it's probably the same in some cases. If the government doesn't find you, we do and we don't study you. Your life is terminated then there and as quick as possible before you become a threat. Or that's how it's supposed to work.
"
Connor looked her in the eye, rage suddenly overwhelming him. Righteous fury poured through him. "Terminated? The governments would have stolen Hayden, to study him, but you...you would have terminated him immediately?!
" He was angry. "What gives you the right!? How dare you assume the right to kill my son!
" He stood there- When did I stand up?- breathing heavily, arms tight at his side, fists clenched. He was all the fathers of all those boys that this group had "terminated".
Jensen had been in the kitchen and made a sound. When Connor looked at him, his face was in his hands. He looked back at Aria and she looked pained. And then Jensen spoke, dousing cold water on Connor's heart. "It's because we can do things isn't it?" Jensen asked quietly. He looked at Giovanni as if for confirmation. "I can barely control what it is I do. In the hands of the wrong person, they could wreck havoc on civilization as we know it.
"
It made a perverse sense....But how could they know? You can't just kill someone because they have power. From everything he could tell, Jensen and Giovanni were good men. They had stayed behind to fight that mist creature. Giovanni had lent support to Jensen. Jensen had offered them a place to get warm, Aria a place to clean up. And Aria had tried to help them, to warn them. Connor looked at her again and he felt so much confusion. Such a complicated woman. She was so small, yet she had such a big job. Working alone, she hunted monsters that people had no inkling of. Dedicated- she was dedicated. What must her life have been to get to this point? Who were these people she was a part of?
Yet when it came down to it- dedication and oaths and whatever else she had taken to be part of it or not- she had shown compassion to all of them. She didn't terminated them. She had said "we" terminate them, but she hadn't. She'd shown compassion and kindness to them. And to him. She had given him the answers he'd sought. She had to have known how he would take it. But she did it anyway.
Nothing made sense anymore- except that things were far crazier than he even knew. He dropped back down to the seat. He didn't know what else to say. It just wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to Hayden, to him, to any of them.
Edited by Connor Kent, Apr 8 2014, 10:58 AM.
Jensen, Giovanni, and Aria hadn't answered right away. Or maybe now that the question was out, time seemed to have slowed. But Aria's demeanor changed, as if she had come to some internal decision. And then she spoke. "Your son, was granted a gift. A gift he did not learn how to use as Giovanni and Jensen clearly have. The sickness is related to that untrained gift. I can't say why, nor do I know. Maybe the others could help you.
" Aria paused for a moment.
Connor just sat there, stunned with that revelation that had finally come. His mind reacted to different parts of her statements in different ways. There was no order, no logic to it. Hayden had been given a gift, she called it. The same gift that these men had. The fall! He must have used it when he fell! But he was so young. Somehow, he didn't learn to control it. He died, overwhelmed by this gift, this power.
Connor felt his heartbreak for Hayden. My poor boy.You were already special. He looked up to the heavens. He didn't need it! We were happy as he was. He felt a deep sorrow that his son had died from being touched with some "gift".
He looked at Jensen and Giovanni and wondered what it was about them that let them survive. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. They seemed like decent men, but so was Hayden. It couldn't be that. Ahh my son, I wish you had lived a normal and happy life, had a wife who loved you, and had been the wonderful father I know you would have been. I wish we could have been better friends. I wanted to see who you were going to be. He felt like he was tearing something.
Aria continued, perhaps more hesitantly"Here in the CCD, the government studies those with the sickness. I'm sure in the United States, it's probably the same in some cases. If the government doesn't find you, we do and we don't study you. Your life is terminated then there and as quick as possible before you become a threat. Or that's how it's supposed to work.
"
Connor looked her in the eye, rage suddenly overwhelming him. Righteous fury poured through him. "Terminated? The governments would have stolen Hayden, to study him, but you...you would have terminated him immediately?!
" He was angry. "What gives you the right!? How dare you assume the right to kill my son!
" He stood there- When did I stand up?- breathing heavily, arms tight at his side, fists clenched. He was all the fathers of all those boys that this group had "terminated".
Jensen had been in the kitchen and made a sound. When Connor looked at him, his face was in his hands. He looked back at Aria and she looked pained. And then Jensen spoke, dousing cold water on Connor's heart. "It's because we can do things isn't it?" Jensen asked quietly. He looked at Giovanni as if for confirmation. "I can barely control what it is I do. In the hands of the wrong person, they could wreck havoc on civilization as we know it.
"
It made a perverse sense....But how could they know? You can't just kill someone because they have power. From everything he could tell, Jensen and Giovanni were good men. They had stayed behind to fight that mist creature. Giovanni had lent support to Jensen. Jensen had offered them a place to get warm, Aria a place to clean up. And Aria had tried to help them, to warn them. Connor looked at her again and he felt so much confusion. Such a complicated woman. She was so small, yet she had such a big job. Working alone, she hunted monsters that people had no inkling of. Dedicated- she was dedicated. What must her life have been to get to this point? Who were these people she was a part of?
Yet when it came down to it- dedication and oaths and whatever else she had taken to be part of it or not- she had shown compassion to all of them. She didn't terminated them. She had said "we" terminate them, but she hadn't. She'd shown compassion and kindness to them. And to him. She had given him the answers he'd sought. She had to have known how he would take it. But she did it anyway.
Nothing made sense anymore- except that things were far crazier than he even knew. He dropped back down to the seat. He didn't know what else to say. It just wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to Hayden, to him, to any of them.
Edited by Connor Kent, Apr 8 2014, 10:58 AM.