Flashf0rward

Chapter 24: Eye For An Eye

Ivy

Sitting in my room, I looked at Julie and Max, the two of them wide-eyed at what I'd just told them. The rest of the village didn't know what exactly the smoke was yet, and Wren had decided to keep it that way for now. But the way I saw it, my friends had to know. "God...so that Matthias guy could strike at any minute?" Julie said, a bit scared.

I shook my head. "I honestly have no idea. That guy is unpredictable. I had no idea what was going through his head when we first met. All I know is that he's dangerous. And if he's close to us, it can't be a good sign for the future." Max bit his lower lip, his hair changing colours rapidly to show his stress. "So what do we do?"

Thinking to myself, I sighed. "There's nothing we really can do other than wait." I scoffed. "God, I sound like my brother." Then, I realized that there was someone else who had to know about this. "Guys...I need to go somewhere." Julie frowned. "Didn't your brother put you on house arrest?" I shrugged. "We have bigger problems to worry about. It'll just be for a few minutes." Max smirked. "That's what you said last time."

Walking out of the cabin, I decided to go and visit Yuko first, see how she was doing. Walking down to the spot where Katrina had taken her, I found the small cabin. Knocking on the door, I waited, and an older woman with long black hair tied up in a long ponytail answered. "Oh, hello Ivy." I smiled. "Hi, Ms. Norman. Is Yuko here?"

Before she could answer, a boy who couldn't have been more than five years old rushed up to the door and hugged Ms. Norman's legs. "Vee! Vee! Eye-vee!" Ms. Norman smiled. "That's right, honey, it's Ivy." I kneeled down and stared at the small boy with bright blonde hair and shining green eyes. "Hey Markie. How you doin?"

He hid behind Ms. Norman's legs and giggled. "Gooood." I smiled and poked his nose. "That's goooood." I said in the same tone of voice, and he laughed. "Go and play with the others, Markie." Ms. Norman said, and the kid waddled off. "Yuko's upstairs, go right on in." She said, and I nodded.

We had been out here for a long time, and most of the families who'd survived had settled down, or some people who were alone found others to have families with. The younger kids, and the kids who were born after the Singularity, which some of us called "Generation Zeroes", needed a place to stay while their parents did work around the village. That was where Ms. Norman came in.

She used to be a teacher back before everything happened, and she ran a daycare/school for most of the boys and girls who were growing up. It was where I'd gotten most of my lost education growing up. Soon, I became too old and had to move out, but Ms. Norman and I remained good friends, and I occasionally helped out with some of the kids as a counsellor.

Walking upstairs in the two-story cabin, I saw some of the little ones run around me, and I smiled down at them. Seeing things like this every day gave me hope that we might be able to make it after all. Walking into the girl's side, I saw Yuko sitting on one of the cots, reading a book we'd managed to recover.

Once she saw me, she smiled brightly and rushed over, hugging me. "Ivy!" I hugged her back. "Hey, Yuko...how you doing?" She smiled. "Good, everyone here's really nice, and it's so awesome to...be around people again, y'know?" She looked up at me, and I nodded. "I understand, trust me."

Her face turned serious for a moment. "Some of the older girls have been whispering...is something wrong? Is it about that man that found us?" She whispered, and I shook my head. "No, it's all fine, I promise." She rested her head against me, and sighed. "Ok..." I didn't like lying to her, but I didn't want to start any bad rumours around here.

After saying goodbye to her and Ms. Norman, I walked out of the daycare and headed towards the location I'd meant to go to in the first place. The small, one-room cabin I'd first visited a few days ago. I sighed, raising my hand to knock on the door, then hesitating. I paused for a good minute, then knocked.

There was no response. I knocked again. "Go away." This time, a voice muttered from inside. I sighed. "Connor, it's me. Please open the door." I could hear an audible groan. "Aren't you supposed to be grounded?" I grit my teeth. "Connor, I just want to talk. I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean for this to happen."

A small laugh came from inside. "Yeah, like I haven't heard that one before." I leaned against the doorframe, then said the one thing I knew would make him come outside. "I wanted to say thank you." There was a few moments of dead silence, then I heard footsteps from inside as he came and unlocked the door, opening it. He looked down at me with deadly serious eyes. "You have two minutes."

Sitting at his small table, I watched as Connor sat on the chair across from me. I laced my fingers together and put them on the table. "I wanted to start off by saying that I really did trust you. That wasn't a lie. You can say all you want that's stupid and naive of me, but that's what I believed. I also wanted to say...thank you. For saving my life more than once."

Connor sat there silently, then looked away and cleared his throat. "I...suppose I should say thanks as well. For doing the same for me." Seeing how he wasn't fond of admitting it, I couldn't help but smirk. "You know you can keep eye contact with me, right?" He turned back. "Your two minutes is still going down."

I shook my head. "Right. That night we were camping under the willow tree...you mentioned helping me and my brother back on the day we defeated Gerrard. And you avoided asking about your eye. I just...wanted to know. Call it a favour." He frowned and leaned forwards. "What do you mean by that?" I sighed. "I get to know about you, and then I owe you one. Anything you want."

He narrowed his eye at me, then seemed to consider it. "No tricks?" I shook my head. "None." Connor sat back, then crossed his arms and sighed. "The day we escaped from Reservoir was also the day I saw my sister again for the first time in...God knows how long. We had been together ever since the world went to hell. As soon as Reservoir captured us, we were separated."

I listened with morbid curiosity. "They tested me, turned me into one of the many mindless slaves your brother must have fought. Tobias controlled my mind for so long, but I never forgot about Alicia." He turned to me. "That was her name." Looking down, it seemed it was painful for him to even say her name.

"When Gerrard began his attack, Tobias freed all of us to help you. I carried your brother up to his chamber while Alicia carried your unconscious body in her arms. We decided to all escape, every metahuman inside of Reservoir, but we didn't count on those things being more powerful than ever." He winced slightly.

"Those hypermorphs, it seemed like there were thousands of them that just kept coming. We fought hard. We had the same power, since we were twins, and we could fight against them as one. I never got a chance to say how happy I was to see her again." He covered his patched-up eye with his hand, as if the pain came back with the memory.

"She was...swarmed, trapped by those things. I tried to get to her, but one of them knocked me back on my feet." He pointed to his scarred face and eye. "It gave me this. The next time I saw her, she was dead." He looked down. "I never forgave myself for that day. I wasn't strong enough. I vowed that would never happen again. So I locked myself away. From everyone. So I couldn't fail anyone again."

The room was left deadly silent after that. I didn't know what to say. I could see that a tear was running down his one good eye, and knew he was mourning in silence, almost every day. Something inside me made me get up and walk over to his side, sitting in the chair next to him. Wrapping my arms around him, I embraced him gently and leaned my head on his shoulder. I felt his muscles stiffen up, but then gently relax. He was letting me in. It was good. He needed to.

He looked at me after a while and sighed. "Thank you...for listening." I nodded my head. "Of course..." Backing away a little bit to give him his space, I cleared my throat. "Matthias is back. He's parked his army right next to Sanctuary." Connor's eye widened. "That son of a..." He looked down.

"You shouldn't have given up our position, Ivy. Not even for me." I frowned. "The hell are you talking about? I wasn't going to let you get hurt, got it?" I said to him, and he turned to me a bit surprised, with a strange look on his face. I tilted my head. "What's wrong? You're staring at me funny again." Connor shook his head. "Nothing...thank you." I smiled a little, and sighed. "Let's just hope everyone else is as calm as we are."