Dark Dawn

Rascal - Farewell?

"Fancy, fancy, I'm impressed. If only your friends could use that spell to unlock all the secrets you're hiding."

"Nothing is ever hidden. Most people are just too focused on what's in the light to notice what lurks in the dark."

That had been almost five months ago. It was the night that Erica had died. Yet, that moment stood in my head for a particular reason.

Why had Missy given up so easily? She could have easily attempted to detain us longer, but she didn't. Why? I suspect that she was hiding something. Taunting us, not by showing that she had more control, but by showing that she had more knowledge.

I think I know why, and it reminds me of June 8, a day that I remember for two reasons

I was sixteen at the time and was staying in Dallas for a corporate meeting discussing the action that SHIELD would take following the Budapest crisis. For once Tori wasn't with me and that gave me quite a bit of freedom. That particular Monday, my afternoon was free so I met up with a long time friend of mine.

Before Camp Half-Blood, or SHIELD, or any of that stuff, when Erica and I were relatively new to the planet,  I got to know a nice young girl named Blaire. Blaire, as it turned out, was really good friends with Natalia Oakes, daughter of Earl Oakes, head of SHIELD. Through Blaire and Natalia, I ended up getting acquainted with the ins and outs of SHIELD before moving away from Dallas to Manhattan.

Back in Dallas for the conference, I checked in with Natalia, who was the rising leader of a teen political activist group, but I spent a good bit of time with Blaire. We had kept in contact, but this was the first time that Blaire and I had seen each other in years.

At lunch that day two things happened.

As Blaire and I were entering casually talking, sometime around 12:36, I unintentionally used the adjective "good" instead of the adverb "well." Usually, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But, according to her, it was the first time she had ever, in person, on telephone, or even in a text, heard me make a grammatical error.

She continued to tease me about it and even slipped the word "date" into the conversation. I argued that it could hardly be a date because we probably wouldn't see each other again for years. She reasoned why not, and I added that I had never been on a date with a girl in my life. Then she replied with something along the lines of, "Well, that just changed."

Thus, the first of two things happened. I went on a date for the first (and last) time ever. That was when I got the call.

At first I didn't answer, but it kept coming. When I finally picked up my phone the call simply told me that SHIELD had been compromised from the inside. HYDRA now ran things. I was forced to make a decision, and I chose HYDRA.

It turned out to be a good move because, even though SHIELD tried to eradicate the traitors of HYDRA for the next few months, it didn't go so well. HYDRA controlled the jail, HYDRA controlled the corporate tech, and most importantly HYDRA controlled the planes, guns, and bombs. SHIELD didn't stand a chance.

At that moment I realized that the truth I had believed for so long was a lie. I thought that whoever had knowledge had power. But the truth is that whoever can distort the truth, whoever can manipulate the facts, whoever can control the knowledge, that's who has the power.

Missy gave up because she had figured out how to manipulate knowledge and she was enjoying it. She fed us a lie somewhere, but what frustrated me was that I didn't know what it was. But I realized that Missy wasn't the only one manipulating knowledge.

The others thought that I was building a TARDIS during my spare time. Well, that's only halfway true. More accurately, I've been testing my new device. It's not called a TARDIS first of all. I figured copyright would be a problem. So, I dubbed my new invention the Radioactively Advanced Particle Transportation Or Relaxation device. RAPTOR for short.