Rise and Fall- The Fight Inside

Like Father, Like Son

As the ship staring coming closer to the destination, Grainger's mind wondered. It has been about a year since Arsen and Ben were born. He wondered what they would look like. Last time he had seen them, they looked exactly like Sofia. 

"What's wrong?" Reagan asked, picking up on Grainger's emotions.

"Nothing." Grainger stated.

"You are a terrible liar." Reagan laughed. 

Grainger smiled and explained, "I just haven't seen the twins in a long time. I am worried that they won't have the life that they deserve and I wasn't even a part of it for a year." 

"I am certain that they will have a great life and that you will make an awesome father." Reagan reminded him. 

"Yeah." Grainger sighed. 

They were seconds from landing on Aquaiss and that meant minutes before he would see his son again.  The landing came up fast and Grainger had not fully prepared himself for as rough a landing as this was. 

"Ready?" Reagan asked retorically as she open the main doors.

Grainger didn't reply but he did follow her out of the ship. His heart pounding with anxitey. He was worried for what would happen next. Would Arsen remember him? Would he love him? Would future Arsen remember what had happen before this? How was Grainger going to explain that he killed his mother? Would Arsen even love Grainger? A million questions flooded Grainger's head like a Tsunami. Imeditaly, they had spotted a small pod floating on the water. Reagan and Grainger rushed to the scene and Reagan carefully open the pod. 

"He is asleep. I put him in a comma like state so he didn't need any food or water." Reagan explained, pulling him out of the pod. She handed him off to Grainger and searched around the inside of the pod. She pulled her hadn out with a small syringe. She uncapped it carefully and pushed the needle into Arsen, releasing the awakening agent. Arsen awoke slowly.

"Hey, boy. How are you?" Grainger whispered. Reagan laughed at Grainger's baby voice. 

"You are going to make one heck of a father." Reagan joked. Grainger laughed at her comment and continued to analzye Arsen with his eyes.

"He needs a better name." Grainger commented.

"You don't like Arsen?" Reagan questioned.

"Well his brother's name is Ben so he needs a cool name too. Besides, Sofia and I already had names picked out." Grainger suggested.

"Like what?" Reagan continued.

"Well, you got Ben right. He was going to be Ben Logan Cross and Arsen was supposed to be Ryland Jack Cross." Grainger expressed.

"That's got a nice ring to it. I like it. It suits him." Reagan brought attention to.

Grainger smiled brightly at Ryland, raising him up into the air. He was stunning. Grainger's predictions were right, he did look a lot like Sofia. However, Ryland had Grainger's brilliant blue eyes and brown hair. The shape of his nose, eyes, and lips were all Sofia's features. 

"Are Ryland and Ben identical?" Gringer asked again.

"Of course. Where did you get the name Ryland from?" Reagan wondered.

"My father's name was Ryker Cross and so I figured I'd pay tribute to him and his title by naming Ryland after him, sort of. Anyways, Ryland and will be the first set of identical twin boys sense my father and my uncle." Grainger answered.

"Yeah. Mom and Aunt Anna were identical and Valarina and Olivia were identical." Reagan murmured. She wanted so say this put knowing that their parents, Anna, and Valarina were touchy or sensitive topics, she held back. Grainger narrowed his eyes in response to her statement.

"I feel that Ragnarok isn't the best place to raise a child. I want Ryland to have the best childhood ever so he doesn't have to suffer like I had." Grainger progressed.

"I know of a galaxy a little while from here called the Milky Way. The main planet there is called Earth and it is were we left Ben. They don't have 'magic' there so you'll have to leave that behind and start a new life." Reagan suggested.

"That's perfect, we can even get Ben back." Grainger cheered.

"I don't mean to rain on your parade but no one from our galaxy can ever meat Ben." Reagan told Grainger.

"Why not?" Grainger snapped.

"The ageing process is different on Earth. Here, you might be only 20 but when we get to Earth  you will be somewhere around 28. Grainger, there is a big time gap. Earth rotates a lot faster then any of the planets in our galaxy meaning that time passes faster there as well. Ben will be almost 9 years old. He would be a baby and we told his new mother not to tell him anything about who he really is. This is why we need to start a new life on Earth." Reagan explained.

"I want to at least see him." Grainger demanded. 

His blood boiled with anger and fear.  What had become of his son? Nine years old? That was a big number. 

"Should I prepare the ship?" Reagan interrupted.

"Yes." Grainger growled. 

Reagan scurreied off to prepare the ship. Grainger held Ryland out in front of him. He tilted his head side to side as Ryland laughed. He tried to picture a more grown up version. Images flashed in his mind but there was no telling what Ben would look like until he got to see him. 

"Come on!" Reagan shouted from the ship.

Grainger pulled Ryland closer to him as he made his way back to the ship. He climbed aboard and sat down next to Reagan as always. He strapped himself in and held Ryland carefully on his lap. Reagan turned her head to look at Grainger. He nodded his head a confirmation to begin take off. The ship rose up in the air then jetted forwards. Grainger laid his head against the back of the chair. His head pounded. On his lap, Ryland threw his arms around, laughing and cheering as the ship picked up speed. Grainger glanced forward to watch Ryland. He was the only thing that could put a smile on Grainger's face.