The Catalyst

Chapter 3: Fears of Past, Present, and Future

I know this is a really long chapter, but PLEASE stick with it - it's actually very, very important.

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Chapter 3: Fears of Past, Present, and Future

          Dameon went through the next week in a fervour of anticipation. For the first time in months, he felt his heart awaken at the thought of the visions his father had painted, the castles in the sky that suddenly seemed within reach again. At the news that he got every day as he returned from school, that the Enhancement Solution was progressing in leaps and bounds. Except for the part that involved anyone who took the solution dying almost instantaneously. As of yet Dameon's father had not appeared to have done more than slowed this effect by a few minutes, and sometimes Dameon got the strange impression that his father did not want to change that part just yet.

      Yet there were other changes as well. Changes in his father that had not been quite as welcome, and had completely unnerved Dameon. Unbidden, his mind drifted back to the day a week ago that he had been attacked by Milo's gang, and first learned about the Enhancement Solution. The night that he had first noticed any kind of difference...

      Dameon lay down on the soft mattress of his bed, and as it registered his added weight, the cover thinned out dramatically to adjust to his personal preferences. He curled up on his side, forcing his eyes closed, still trying to block out Ajax's fearful eyes; Milo and Cala's primal, vengeful ones. Ten minutes passed as Dameon attempted and failed to wrestle his unruly imagination under his control when the door to his small room creaked open, and the silhouette of a hulking figure was outlined in the light that crept in.

        "Dameon?" The hoarse whisper sounded out, "M'boy? Are you asleep?"

        Dameon lifted his head, blinking away the spots erupting in his vision from the sudden light. "No." he confessed. He wasn't sure, but he thought that his father's eyebrows drew down into a frown.

        "Well get going then. I can hear your bed creaking from the kitchen, that's how much you're tossing and turning. Whatever ya may think, I can tell you that you are very tired, so get to sleep."

        Dameon didn't reply, unwilling to alert his father to the true reason that sleep was eluding him. But as usual, his father guessed what was on his mind.

      "Ah, it's still about the test subject? Good lord boy, you must understand that no amount of crudden worrying is going to change the fact that it was necessary. For the greater good."

        "It's not just that." Dameon protested weakly, "It's also...the fight..."

      The hard lines of Tenebris's face softened ever so slightly, and he stepped into the room, making his way towards the bed. "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times m'boy. The strong survive. The weak cannot. Are you weak?"

        Dameon looked into what he could see of his father's eyes, so much like his own. And he knew the answer, certain of it. "No. But I'm not as strong as I could be either."

     "No." Tenebris agreed, "But you're only thirteen, and it will change. But m'boy, in a world with the Enhancement Solution, people like that - that gang boy would not even exist. You see, everything I do, it all comes back to you." His gaze once again grew distant, "I told her so when she didn't accept the greater good. But even then she didn't give in..." Dameon knew better than to ask about whoever his father kept rambling about. He already knew that he would not get any kind of answer.