"Your whole family knew," he whispered "Carly knew that someone of her bloodline was going to be the Child of Stone. So she took her son to sit with me, and they read the book together. And when he turned nine, she took him down to Scary, to see if he could set him free,"

Gray took ragged breaths, and tried to keep his head from spinning as Simon regaled the history. That extra chapter that the story had always been missing.

"He couldn't. Because he wasn't the Child of Stone. So when he grew up, and he had his daughter, he took her to my spot, and they read the story together. But when she turned nine, she couldn't do it either. She took it harder than her father did. She was beginning to believe that she was the Child even before Scary's existence was confirmed by her father,"

Simon pulled away from Gray and sat next to him. "Then she had a son. A strong willed, arrogant, adventurous boy named Grayson. She started reading him the book before he could even crawl. He lived and breathed the story. I remember the day when she told him that they'd go searching for the statues. He was so excited. But then... then they never came back,"

Gray covered his face. And took a deep breath. "My mother had colon cancer," he whispered. Simon put a hand over his shoulder. "Nobody knew. Not until way too late. She got sick and..."

Gray looked up at the ceiling, tears stinging his eyes. "And she never got better,"

"She'd have been so proud of you," Simon assured him "You did the one thing that she wanted since she was just a child. You are the Child of Stone,"

There was a crash from the living room, and the two of them looked up to find Scary sitting in the living room, next to an overturned table, a couple broken glasses, and a slightly upset Oscar.

Luft threw his arms around him. "I've been looking everywhere for you," Luft sighed.

Scary patted him on the shoulder, making Luft yelp.

"What?" Scary looked at him. Then he saw the blood. "Dammit, Luft. What happened?"

"I tried to kill the new guy, and Simon didn't recognize me," Luft chuckled.

"Oh, I recognized you," Simon corrected him. "I'd have aimed for your nuts if I didn't,"

Scary tilted his head around, and spotted Simon and Gray sitting in the next room. To Gray's surprise, Scary glared at them.

"Hold still," he said to Luft, then he drew his wand out of his sleeve and waved it slowly over his head.

The light seemed to slowly drain from the room and the tip of the wand absorbed it all, glowing and projecting a light, as blue as the deep sea. The magic seemed to drip from his wand, onto the cut, and the skin stitched itself back together.

Luft smiled and wiggled his shoulder. "Thanks Scary,"

Scary merely nodded. Then he stood up, his joints popping, and glanced at his surroundings. He saw Oscar and nodded at him. "Thank you,"

Oscar nodded back. "I suppose you're welcome. But you're not welcome to stay. You must all leave before the Committee finds you here and pins me for assisting you,"

"You don't truly believe you can stay here, do you Oscar?" Scary stared at him. "The only reason you aren't dead already is because they knew I'd come to you. You're just bait. Which is why I didn't want to come here in the first place," he shot a withering glare in Simon's direction.

"Come on Scary," Simon looked up at him sheepishly. "You know it was either come here, or let you die. And too many people have waited too long for you. I wasn't about to just watch that happen,"

Scary huffed angrily, and swiped back his hair in frustration, so that it spiked up in the front, but he didn't continue the argument. Instead he turned to Oscar. "You have to come with us,"

"I can't," Oscar told him, gesturing around the homey little cottage. "I can't live on the run like you can, Scary. I'd prefer to take my chances at home,"

"Dare knew better than anyone that you'd be the first one to see me, Oscar," Scary snapped. "Now that he's free, you're the first target!"

"I know," Oscar wandered over to a vase on the counter and emptied the flowers, and water, onto the carpet. "Which is why I'm staying. To buy you some time,"

"Don't play the hero, Oscar," Scary demanded. "We need you if we're going to win this thing,"

"It isn't me you need," The craftsman ran his long, thin, fingers over a spice rack and produced a small vial of black liquid. "There's only one person you need right now.

"When you disappeared, the Committee began hunting us down. One at a time," Oscar explained, carefully measuring out a dash of the liquid into the cap of the bottle. "They found me first, but simply left me with a tracking curse. They know where I am, every second of every day. In case I would lead them to any refugees,"

He began to pour the potion into the vase a drop at a time. "Not everyone else was quite as lucky. Blaze and his father were confronted by Rivet and his sons, but they escaped,"

"What about Creepy?" Scary demanded. Gray realized just how little the hero knew about the past, he didn't even know what came of his own sister.

Oscar averted his gaze, and lifted the vase off of the table. "I'm... sorry, Scary,"

"Dammit!" Scary swiped his arm across the table in a fit of heartbroken rage, clearing the top.

Oscar set the vase back down on it's empty surface, and shook his head. "Katherine Black hunted Creepy down personally. There was a fight and..." He bit his lip for a second, and chose his words carefully. "There was barely enough left of her to bury,"

"What about everyone else?" Simon whispered, as Scary wasn't in the headspace to ask more questions at that moment.

"Luft went back," Oscar explained. "Simon was a tree. Blaze and Acorn are still in hiding. Those are the only people I'm certain are still alive. Along with the men you need to find right now,"

Scary wiped his face off and turned his attention back to Oscar. "Who?"

"Nico Macias, also known as The Puppet Man," was the reply, as Oscar went back to work in the pottery. "His brother, Marcus Macias, is the only one who's ever met the leader of the High Committee and lived to tell the tale. But Marcus refused to spread the word. His information would go to Scary Skelitin, or it would die with him,"

"Why do we need to find Nico, if his brother is the one who actually has the information?" Simon asked.

Luft raised his hand. "I can answer that. I was there when Nico came to see Oscar," Luft floated off the ground and levitated over to a shelf on the nearby wall to tell his part of the story.

"You see, the information did die with Marcus. He tried to make his way back to his brother, but died on the way, from the effects the fight had left on him," he explained dramatically. "Nico had been afraid about how suddenly Marcus disappeared, so he was already looking for him. And he found Marcus just as he was dying,"

Scary began to piece two and two together on his own. "Puppet Man... You don't mean to tell me that Nico took Marcus's dying mind and put it in one of those sick dolls he carries around,"

Oscar cringed at the way Scary described the process, but couldn't find a true fault in his explanation. "Essentially, yes," he nodded reluctantly. "Though it's a little more complicated than that. The puppet itself doesn't necessarily live. It leeches life out of Nico to remain active,"

"You see Scary?" Simon whispered. "This is why I had to bring you here. Do you see how much people have given just waiting for you to get back?"

Scary bit his lip and glared at Oscar. "How do we find Nico?"

"This is all they gave me before going into hiding," Oscar replied slowly. He took a lock of Scary's hair and yanked it out of his head.

Gray cringed at the sight, but Scary did not react. Maybe he really was the indestructible hero Gray had always imagined him as.

Dropping just one hair into the vase, a small cloud of smoke burst out the top. And a coin shot out, spinning up over all their heads.

"Heads!" Simon called.

"Tails," Luft announced.

Scary caught the coin out of the air, and examined it's rough surface. Simon sped over and glanced at it himself.

"There's a skull on it, that's heads!" Simon punched the air and pointed at Luft. "Suck it!"

Gray glanced over Scary's shoulder and saw that Simon wasn't kidding. The coin was a dirty bronze. And on its face was the carving of a skull, with a spider clinging to it. He felt like he'd seen it once before...

"This is it?" Scary demanded. He clenched his fist over the item hard enough that Gray was afraid it might bend. "That's all they left?"

Oscar glanced back into the vase and turned it upside down. "Looks that way,"

"So... when do we leave?" Gray chuckled into the tense silence.

All of Scary's frustration suddenly erupted, as he whirled around to face Gray. "There is no we kid. At least not one with you in it. Go home,"

"Hold on, hold on, hold on," Gray gaped. Was he hearing what he really thought he was hearing? "I risked my ass, set you free, broke my hand, and now all you have to say is GO HOME?"

"None of which I asked you for," Scary reminded him.

"I SAVED YOUR LIFE FROM A CYBORG!" Gray howled.

Simon nodded, even though he knew that he had technically saved Scary and Gray from Rivet. He liked Gray, and didn't want to leave him behind.

Scary stepped close to Gray, leaning forward. His close proximity was much more intimidating than Simon's had been

"I won't argue that you're the Child of Stone, kid," he whispered. "But the Child of Stone's job was to set me, and might I add, not Dare, free. You did your job, and extra. We don't need you anymore,"

Scary's words cut deep. Gray had always looked up to Scary. Always wanted to be like him. This man that he'd looked up to for as long as he could remember...

The pain was unspeakable. Like a part of himself hated Gray to the core. The most important part of himself.

Gray bit his lip as his face heated with emotion. "Can you at least... fix my hand?"

Scary didn't even glance at his arm. "No," he turned away. "It won't work,"

Simon looked like he might cry, as Scary gestured him and Luft from the room.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Gray asked.

"Exactly what I said," Scary replied, over his shoulder. He looked at Oscar. "If you change your mind, you'll know how to find us,"

Oscar merely nodded, and watched Scary leave. Simon lunges forward and gave his friend a lightning fast hug before diving out after Scary.

Gray looked down at his hand. "What did he mean?" He asked Oscar. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know the answer.

Oscar looked at Gray. "It means that he doesn't care about you. He cannot heal you in any way if he does not care,"

He looked down at the table Scary had knocked over upon waking. "It means we have something in common," he sighed, with a weak smile.

After everything that's happened over the course of the day, he couldn't handle that. Gray sunk down against the wall. And started to cry.