Legacy

Back then... (Chapter 13)

Oliver was sitting at his desk, looking at the screen. The email was risky, but the call had been riskier. Del knew this was stupid, and if he did it, then... then it was bad.

"Del, I'm at work."

"I'm painfully aware, Oliver. But I need to see you. And not to reminisce. This is serious."

"Fine. There's a bar in the old city we can meet at. The one close to that hotel we stayed at the last time we were here."

"See you there."

Oliver looked at his phone with a mix of excitement and guilt. He had been faithful to Michael, of course; he wasn't that kind of monster, but Del... Del was the love of his life and no one else was going to erase that. They had remained friends after college, declaring they'd be better off pursuing their careers first and their love later, but later never came. The military had financed Del's career, and in turn, Del gave them his younger years. He was a doctor in the Veteran's hospital, and the first person Payne went to when he met with Michael. Del knew every step of their journey, and even kept an eye out for possible military applications Oliver could benefit from. The fear in Del's voice made Oliver drive 30-minutes in fifteen.

After the meeting with Del, Oliver made his way to the facility. He visited the lab, then knocked on Reese's door. The young psychologist was so dedicated to his work he had moved into one of the now empty apartments. When the door opened, he was taken aback, and so was Clara. She blushed, then asked if everything was ok. Oliver smiled.

"Can you fetch Reese, love? I need to talk to him."

"Yea, sure. Hold on a minute."

She went into the bedroom, and five minutes later Resse came out, putting on a t-shirt as he walked to the living room.

"Uncle Oliver. Why don't you sit down on the couch; Clara, can you—"

"I'll make coffee." Said Clara. "Do you want a cup, Ollie?"

Oliver nodded. "Please." He turned to Reese. "I just left Del."

Reese tilted his head. "Uncle Del? At this time?" he sighed. "Uncle—"

Oliver lifted a hand. "I know, I know. And no, it's not that. It's worse. Del left a meeting where one of the generals was talking about a new kind of weapon. He mentioned kicking himself for laughing at the kid who had developed it and told them to prepare for a new era of warfare. Del contacted me as soon as it was safe to do so."

"I thought Uncle Del was just a doctor. How was he at that meeting?"

Oliver chuckled. "Your uncle Del was never 'just a doctor'. He's one of their chief bioengineers. He just loves helping people, so he does that in his spare time. Which, coincidentally serves as great cover."

Reese frowned. Clara had walked to the couch to wait for the coffee to finish brewing and sat down as Oliver finished. Reese held her hand tight.

"I'm sorry; Oliver... what?"

"He went behind my back. I don't know why, but he went behind my back. And now I don't know what to do next, I... I destroyed almost everything. Everything he built, just... gone. I couldn't..."

There was a loud knock in the door. Clara ran to it, and every one of the participants walked into the living room. Sam was trembling, Raul was holding her, and the rest had glazed eyes. Michelle's voice was barely audible, but Oliver knew what she'd said.

"What... us?"

Oilver stood up. "I can't be seen with you. Or helping you. The serum now only exists in the blood of the people present in this room, minus one or two. Michael's samples and notes are destroyed, I saw to that before I came here. However," he looked at Reese, "if you're planning to run with them, you need to be on their level, kiddo." He reached into his jacket pocket and took out a syringe. He looked at Reese. "The last one."

Reese stood up, took the syringe, made sure there were no air bubbles and stuck the needle in his vein. "What now?"

Oliver looked at him. "I don't know. There's no way to tell if it's going to work, or even how it's going to work. But we need it to work fast because you need to be gone within the week."

"Gone? How—how are we going to be just gone? I—they're going to notice! Someone is going to notice an empty facility when they come here!" Michelle started to sob loudly, "They're going to notice!" Marten was holding her tight; he looked at Oliver.

"We need to leave. We need to survive, Mister Payne. There is no other option."

Alice had been quiet, stoic. She looked at Jackson, then shrugged and sighed. "We have to die."

Everyone looked at her, and Sam began to scream at her. Alice tried to talk over her but couldn't. Suddenly everyone was talking over each other, and Oliver was getting overwhelmed. He held his head with his hands and screamed.

"STOP TALKING AND LISTEN!"

Everyone in the room held their head and doubled over. Oliver opened his eyes wide and began to breathe. The noise died down.

"I'm—I'm sorry. That is not what I was expecting."

Kai-Linn lifted an eyebrow. "Got a little of the merchandise before destroying it, huh?"

"My apologies. It seems not all powers are, useful, for lack of a better word. But now that we can talk, Alice is right. You need to die. Everyone with powers needs to die."

The emphasis he put on the last six words made everyone look at each other. Marie started nodding. "Of course. The serum is in our blood and if we're alive, we're going to be hunted. We do need to die."

Oliver nodded. "Exactly. Such a tragic accident."

Understanding started to dawn on all twelve people. Slowly, murmurs began, and those murmurs became a plan hatched until well after the sun came up. Morgues with similar bodies would be broken into. Unclaimed people. Then, a tragic gas line problem; the contractors cut corners, after all. All they needed was a week. Everything needed to be normal for one week.

After they were done talking, Michelle stood up. "This needs to work, Oliver. I want Anna to be born somewhere she won't have to hide."

Sam nodded. "Yea; Adrian too." She looked at Raul and smiled, tears in her eyes. Raul and Marten hugged their wives, and everyone retired to their homes. Payne headed to the apartment he shared with Michael, hoping their plan worked. He called Del on the way and asked him for his boat. Del said, of course.

Oliver walked into the apartment and Michael was already waiting for him. The fight wasn't pretty, and Oliver's disheveled appearance made Michael hurl accusations that weren't true but provided Oliver the perfect alibi. He admitted to doing things he never did, and Michael moved out the next day. Michael had promised to make him feel the betrayal he effected, sooner than he thought. Oliver hoped it wasn't that soon.