Chapter 23 - A Ghostly Vapor

"All of this?" she questioned, feeling breathless at the site.

The Neverseen led her to their room where they stored the poison--which sounds more like a virus from what they've told her about it--they want her to release over human cities and ports. There was a tank that filled the entire cave filled with the gaseous mixture and the cave was huge.

"You can't expect me to spread all of this over millions of square miles." She looked at Fintan with her brows furrowed. "Whether I even wanted to or not, I can't. It's way too much."

"Then I suggest you learn how to by tonight," he answered.

Red raised her eyebrows high. "Tonight?"

Fintan smirked and nodded. "Be ready by tonight or else say goodbye to your family." He looked to the members and nodded for them to take Red back to her cell but she stood her ground, resisting against their pulls.

"No! I can't do it by tonight," she said, technically telling the truth but also having her own agenda in mind.

One of the members punched her in the jaw and Red fell to her knees, weakened from the doses of sedation they've been giving her to be able to subdue her easily.

"You will, Miss Vacker."

Sophie?

No response.

Red sighed before punching the wall in her frustration. She's been stuck with the Neverseen for a week already, going over the plans continuously, memorizing the locations for the virus to be teleported to for maximum spreading of it.

Yet, in that week, she hasn't been able to come up with a plan that would actually work. She doesn't recognize the base they're in so they must be in a completely different one that wasn't in the textbooks--an unfortunate courtesy of her time travel companions who also had to study the Neverseen in school.

And no matter how hard Red tried to focus, her mind always wandered back to Kie. She thought of all their shared moments, wondering if it was all fake just so he could get close to her. She noticed little details in her memories that pointed to him being in the Neverseen, or at least hiding something major from her.

Red punched the wall again and let out another scream. She slid down the rocky surface, the scratches from the sharp edges against her back momentarily distracting her from everything.

Red?

She quickly looked up and scanned her room, looking for the owner of the voice.

Red? It's me.

Red released a breath slowly, mentally preparing herself for the conversation she was about to have with her mother.

Sophie. Have you been blocking me?

Of course not, Sophie transmitted and Red felt her shoulders relax a bit. I've been trying to reach you since you . . . left.

Red stayed silent, not knowing what to transmit for a few seconds. I'm somewhere deep underground, otherwise I would have been able to teleport out of here.

You can teleport? Sophie asked before transmitting, Oh, right. Why didn't you tell me you were . . .

Your daughter? Red finished for her.

Yeah. . . .

Because it's not important.

What?! Sophie's voice was loud in Red's mind and Red quickly realized that the drugs the Neverseen had her on must have greatly impacted her telepathy ability. But if she's able to transmit now, that means they must have lessened the dose or not given it to her at all in order for her teleportation ability to be returned at max strength.

Though, if Red's abilities return back at full capacity . . . it gives her a chance to use them against the Neverseen instead of for them.

How can you say that? You're my . . . d--daughter.

Red decided to ignore Sophie--and Sophie's stutter which pained Red more than she wanted to admit--and responded with, If I transmit a map of the base to you, do you think the gnomes and dwarves would be able to find the base easier? At least the general location?

Um . . . I don't know, probably.

Good, Red told her. The Neverseen want me to teleport a poison or virus in the Forbidden Cities to kill off the weak.

That's horrible!

And they want me to do it tonight, Red continued. So they're going to take me above ground to do it. If you can find the location, all you have to do is teleport here with other Black Swan members and help rescue Fitz and Biana.

Okay, Sophie transmitted before Red heard a knock at the door.

I have to go now.

Wait--

But Red had already cut off their connection just as someone walked into the room. Red's jaw clenched when she saw who it was.

"Hey," he said, standing in her room in an awkward stance.

She didn't say anything, only staring straight ahead, still sitting on the ground with her back against the wall.

"I um . . . just wanted to check on you."

He sighed when Red stayed silent.

"Please talk to me," he whispered.

Silence met the air between them for several more moments and Red found herself closing her eyes and resting her head on her knees.

"I was supposed to get you to like me," he said and Red almost felt startled, forgetting he was in the room. "But then you came to me first and I didn't know what to do."

Red's mind flashed back to the first time she remembered meeting Kie, their first day of school in Foxfire.

"And I wasn't expecting you to be pretty at all." He smiled. "And I thought you would think I was weird because of my eyes so you wanting to be my friend totally changed my view on you."

Red's breathing was slow as she kept thinking about the beginning stages of their friendship.

"You kept pushing me away," she remembered.

"I was scared of you," he replied, unable to keep himself from smiling when he finally got a response from her. "You were completely different than the person I grew up believing you were. I thought you were playing mind games on me or something."

"No, Kie, that was always you."

Red exhaled slowly as Neverseen members escorted her down the twisting pathways to lead her out of the base and to the place where she was supposed to spread the disease over human cities and ports.

She had already transmitted everything she saw of the base to Sophie but she hasn't gotten a response yet and she was running out of time and ideas.

She tried escaping but the members were hardly affected by her infliction and her pyrokinetics barely let her make a spark. She realized then that her abilities weren't returning to what they were before.

She still fought as they dragged her out of the cave, earning bruises and cuts everywhere. In the final steps before the forced her down to her knees, she regretted everything she had done and wished she never travelled back in time, wishing she had never been so selfish. But it was too late now.

"Are you ready?" Fintan asked but Red stayed silent, defiant. She looked up to stare Fintan down and also realized that Kie was standing beside him with Brae on the other side.

She felt the tap of the melder zap against her shoulder and she let out a groan.

She took one last look into his green eyes. Emotions flashed across her eyes; judgment, shame, sadness, defeat, anger, and most surprisingly, desperation. The Neverseen member made her fall to her knees, and she kept looking at Kie in his eyes, wanting his face to be the last she sees before she turns into a monster.

Wanted to look at the man who did this to her.

He looked guilty.

Good, Red thought bitterly, let him feel what he should be.

But he still said nothing as the melder, once again, zapped her shoulder, sending jolts of electricity with excruciating pain through her body. Punishment, for resisting.

She closed her eyes and spread out her arms. And she started what the Neverseen wanted her to do, regret and fear building in the pit of her stomach knowing that this time, the Black Swan might not be able to reverse the damage.

Fintan sparked a flame around her, making it impossible for her to escape without burning herself. Then he did the same for Fitz and Biana, making it clear he could take their lives at any moment if he wanted to.

She quickly transmitted every image of the open ground she had seen so far to Sophie, hoping that maybe she would be able to teleport to the base in time.

Red barely heard Fintan tell her to begin. Nevertheless, she reached down mentally and felt the presence of the poison floating around in the cave underneath. She thought about individual atoms flying about, bouncing off each other, and how it would look like to bring them up through the crooks and crannies of the space their enclosed in, up into the air. And, slowly, the gas began to make its way up.

"Don't try anything funny," Fintan warned.

Red didn't respond, however, too focused on the task at hand. As the poison began to rise, it swirled all around them, forming a whirl of strong wind up above. Red looked at Fitz and Biana, remembering the reason she was doing this. She thought about her past, remembering why she came back in the first place. For a better life. But, she can't afford to be selfish now. She can't worry about how baby her will grow up, with or without her biological family.

Suddenly, screams and grunts were being heard all around them. Slowly, Neverseen members were starting to fall to their knees, hands to their heads, screaming in pain. Red let out a choked laugh.

They're here. The Black Swan are here.

Red smiled then realized tears were starting to form in her eyes. She took in a deep breath and exhaled. Red knew what she would have to do. To help others, for the greater good, you have to take sacrifices and hurt yourself in the process--ignore the minority for the greater good.

"What are you waiting for!" Fintan screamed at Red, clearly learning from past mistakes and not underestimating the Black Swan. "Hurry up and spread the poison!"

Red's hope started to return. Maybe she didn't completely screw up.

She recalled Fintan saying that the poison doesn't affect elves, only hurts humans, which is how none of the elves are being affected by it currently. So if it were to only stay in the Lost Cities

The Black Swan thought they defeated the Neverseen before, but they were wrong. She can't afford to let them make that mistake again. And if they do, at least Red can take a precaution to make sure the Neverseen can't distribute the virus anywhere.

In order to make sure that, if the virus somehow made it to a human, it couldn't harm them, the material of the virus would need to be canceled out or combined with something else to be made harmless. And, if elvin DNA sequencing was immune to the effects of the poison . . .

She knew what she would have to do. To help others, for the greater good, you have to take sacrifices and hurt yourself in the process--ignore the minority for the greater good.

In the process of all her thinking and trying to control the poison cloud above their heads, Fintan must have left to go fight the Black Swan, as well as almost the rest of the Neverseen, and left Kieran to guard her.

She blinked slowly, letting out a shaky breath, before looking back to him. He looked confused about how she was behaving. She looked . . . scared and alone.

"This time," Red told him, already feeling weak from controlling the gas, "I win."

And she sent all of the gas straight into her.

"NO!" she heard him scream, but quickly lost all of her senses as a huge volume of poison just entered her body.

She imagined the molecules of the poison meeting the molecules of her body. Imagined them breaking apart and joining together, turning into something different, harmless. It felt surprisingly soothing, doing this, watching--making--something that was once so dangerous be completely safe. She didn't know how long it took her to completely eradicate all of the gas, but by the time she was done, she felt peaceful. Content with the blankness around her, feeling satisfied.

As soon as the last bit of the gas was rendered useless, everything stopped within her and she went to sleep.

* * *

Chapter 24 - Gone, but Here

Sophie's mind flashed back to seeing Red's limp body in the hands of a young, uncloaked, Neverseen member. Thousands of emotions had run through her when she saw Red, her daughter, start to break apart into billions of tiny little pieces, and float away. Sophie didn't know what was happening, why Red was turning to dust—she wasn't able to ask the young boy, who she wasn't able to get a good look at, before he, too, faded away. But she knew Red gave herself so that she could save everyone.

The wanderling they planted began to sprout and out came a dark trunk with red streaks lining it as whimsical branches began blooming scarlett petals with teal dots peppering them.

It was only the Black Swan and Council that was there for her funeral, considering the general public didn't know someone had travelled back in time. Plus, it seemed like Red's funeral should be more of a private moment.

"She was brave," Biana commented, holding Baby Vacker in her arms. She gave a tight chuckle. "I thought she hated me."

When Fitz and Biana were reunited with their friends and family, Sophie explained everything that had happened since they left—including the part where she found out Red was her and Fitz's daughter.

"Indeed, she was brave," Councilor Oralie spoke, Kenric was standing beside her, holding their son in his arms. "Even though she wasn't here with us for long, she will always live in our memories and stay in our thoughts as the her of our time"—she nodded towards the baby in Biana's arms—"grows up."

"That sounds so cheesy," someone said. Though, no one looked towards the voice—no one except Baby Vacker.

"Red!" she called out with excitement, looking at the grown woman dressed in freshly new clothing—red, of course.

Sophie looked at her daughter and forced a smile for her. "Yeah, Baby," she choked back a sob. "It's . . . Red."

Baby Vacker seemed confused, no one but her seemed to see Red herself standing right next to Kenric, looking at the other baby.

"Hmm," Red mumbled. "I was definitely cuter than him as a baby."

Baby Vacker giggled and Red smiled as she made her way toward her.

The ceremony continued on, with everyone saying their piece about Red and saying their goodbyes. Soon, it was only Fitz, Sophie, Baby Vacker, and the Red that no one seemed to see.

"Could I . . . hold her?"

Sophie looked surprised at the reluctancy in his voice as he eyes Baby Vacker. He looked nervous.

"Of course," Sophie answered and handed him the infant.

Baby Vacker giggled as she was put into her daddy's arms, feel safe with him. "Your eyes are pretty," she told him.

He smiled and Sophie couldn't help but laugh.

"You have my eyes, too," he told her and Baby Vacker gasped.

"Really?!" she asked excitedly.

Fitz held her close to his chest, unable to keep his eyes off her.

"I can't believe Red was . . ."

"Our daughter?" Sophie finished for him and he nodded. "Yeah, me either. I figured we were somehow close in the future but . . . not related."

"Um . . . what was her name?" he asked and Sophie frowned, watching her daughter.

"I . . . don't know," she admitted. "She never told me."

Baby Vacker yawned and looked at Red, who was standing behind Sophie. "What's your name?"

"Mommy," Sophie answered, not realizing Baby Vacker was really talking to Red.

Red smiled. "You just need to know me as Red."

"Okay," Baby Vacker replied before closing her eyes and falling asleep in her father's arms.

"I've always liked the name Tieanle," Sophie said and Fitz smiled.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Tieanle . . . Scarlett?"

Sophie nodded. "Tieanle Scarlett Vacker."

Red loved the name. It wasn't the name she herself grew up with, but then again, it gave her hope that this time, things will be different for her.

Tieanle Scarlett Vacker definitely seemed happy.

* * *

Epilogue - The New Future

"So . . . let me get this straight," Tieanle mumbled, looking into Red's eyes. "You're me . . . except from the future, but you changed your future so technically this would be your present?

"Pretty much," Red said. "Though, technically, the time I traveled back from still hasn't happened."

Tieanle raised her eyebrows before shaking her head. "That was all a little confusing."

Red smiled, taking a seat next to Tieanle on the bed. "Aren't you glad I didn't tell you when you were, like, eight?"

Tieanle let out a small laugh. "Yeah. You still could have told me a little sooner, though."

Red glared at her, rotating back and forth in the chair.

"Wait . . ." Tieanle said with a creased brow. "Why am I the only one that's able to see you then?"

Red sighed, raising her eyebrows. "Oh wow. I'm not a big science geek when it comes to this"—Tieanle wanted to point out the fact that she technically did spend a very long time studying time travel—"but I think it has something to do with how, since I'm technically you, I never really disappeared, and I'm just living my life as how it would be with the events I changed, but since I'm technically not here, but I'm technically here through you, you're the only one that can see me because you connect to me."

"Umm . . . that kind of makes sense?"

Red laughed. "Don't lie to yourself. That made no sense at all."

Tieanle laughed, too. "Yeah, true."

A couple moments of silence passed between them when Tieanle frowned. "So . . . I guess you had a pretty rough life compared to me?"

Red nodded. "Yeah."

Tieanle. "Are you ever going to tell me about it?"

Red smiled and shrugged. "We have thousands and thousands of years together, Tie. I'm sure I'll eventually find the right time to tell you all about my sad, sad life."

Tieanle forced a sympathetic smile. "That'd be great."

Though they led very different lives, they both knew one thing.

They both had a role in each other's lives, with or without the Neverseen.

~*~

Overall, the whole doc is 130 pages (Though the actual story is probably more around 115 pages).

Thanks, lovelies
Nuela