Chapter 68: Explain…

“Just wanted to give you a warning that he’s on the watchlist,” said Jade’s contact within Graveyard.

“Thanks,” responded Jade. She waved a hand through the air and the hologram of her old friend disappeared. She immediately wanted to call Arson, but before she was able to, she heard noise from the other room and returned to her students in the kitchen.

The group of children stared out the window and Jade strolled over to join them. An archway sized portal opened and familiar faces began to exit the manifested doorway onto the nearby lawn.

“Boy…!” Jade’s single word filled the room with a tangible chill. In the blink of an eye the sensation disappeared from around the kitchen crew students after Jade teleported towards the group.

Arson and his friends, exited the return portal, trailed by Arson’s brothers and sisters, with the exclusion of the boy Jade knew to be named Alexander, as well as a flock of strangers and Graveyard officers.

The mana-manacles that stretched across Arson's forearms filled Jade with a rage that made the air vibrate visibly. Those gathered behind Arson began to pass out one after another, many there incapable of handling the pressure of a true immortal being.

“Why!” Jade yelled, provoked even further by the brand on her son’s neck. Two capitol C’s faced one another, separated by a capitol X, the symbol of a Career Criminal forming a generic sideways hourglass just beside his Adams-apple. A symbol mirrored on the back of his own mother’s neck.

“The charges are lengthy, ma’am,” attempted one of the Graveyard officers, forced to take a knee by the crushing intensity that grew around them.

“I’m not asking you!” Arson’s own gaze was set on his own feet, in a defeated refusal to look his mother in the eye. Still he wore an abashed smile and spoke softly, innately understanding that his mother was truly angry, disappointed or both in that moment.

“Would you believe me if I said it wasn’t my fault?”

…

Arson cursed his luck in the moment he saw his mother’s face. He glanced over his shoulder at those behind him, and was only able to smile after seeing Troy give him a supportive nod from a knee.

The scene behind him was a messy one. His friends were bruised and battered, but not beaten. His siblings seemed fearful of being in his mother’s home, which he didn’t blame them for, and the last group was laughable.

A group of Graveyard officers had found his group just before they’d been able to portal away. As his group tried to leave the anti-teleportation zone, the policing force closed in on their target.

They’d found Arson easily by using satellite tech, even after being struck from the sky. Arson wanted to fight, but knew that Graveyard wasn’t an enemy he was capable of conquering. The men and women behind him couldn’t stand before his mother’s might, but their leaders were a different subject entirely.

Alongside the officers was a group of apparent potential officers. One of which surprised Arson, as he knew the young man. The group he was with seemed dazzled by what they were witnessing for as long as they remained conscious.

Even his siblings struggled, but Arson got an odd feeling from the energy

“Mom, I..." Arson didn’t know what to say in that moment. The stern gaze of Jade made Arson feel as if he’d let her down. Only for his face to make his mother feel the same way.

“What’s wrong,” asked Jade. The question slipped free of her lips, regardless of her intentions to remain a disciplinarian in her son’s direction.

She remembered many situations in her own youth that were completely outside of her control, that she in the end was forced to take responsibility for, or was blamed for without proof.

“I feel cursed. Doesn’t matter how much good I do, destruction follows…” The words left the area silent, and the pressure of Jade’s mana vanished. She closed the distance between her and Arson with a teleport, and before Arson knew it, his mother had him wrapped in a hug. No one but the mother and son were left awake to witness the sincere moment, but the weight of not only their recent separation affected them, but also Arson’s lost childhood.

Tears rolled free of their eyes and Arson unlocked the manacles on his forearms to hug his mother properly.

“Are you ever going to let me know why you didn’t want me?” Jade pulled back from her son slightly in that moment, her face filled with emotion and turmoil to a degree that made Arson feel he’d made a mistake by asking his question somehow.

“Do you truly believe that I gave you up my son,” asked Jade. Arson nodded and his next words shocked even Jade who seemed to know practically everything about anything Arson could think of or imagine.

“My first memory is of your outstretched hand pushing me away, I at first thought it was lady Archon, but now…”

“Your memory is growing sharper, and you can see more of your earliest memories,” finished Jade for Arson, who again nodded.

“Son, your perspective is your own and no one can take that from you, but may I share my own with you?” Arson’s brow furrowed, but he nodded, wondering what and how his mother intended to show him anything. Then his mother closed her eyes and her body began to glow as she pressed her forehead against Arson’s own.

The seventh day of his life played out before his eyes as if he stood in the hospital room on that day.

He saw the men and women gathered. Even the hooded man that he was beginning to believe was a figurehead within his family; a man he now knew from the vision was his grandfather Carter had been there that day.

The vision continued and Arson watched as destruction encompassed the hospital room, up to the point where Arson’s mother in fact reached toward her son, rather than pushed him away, before she herself disappeared.

At that point Jade pulled herself away from Arson and the two stared into each other’s eyes, and a prompt popped up before him, held within his Overlay. A crimson box filled with white gold trim and words slowly manifested itself; the words found there an absolute shock to Arson.

“Quest Completed: Find your Family! Reward: Calculating…” The words left his mouth and he couldn’t help but look between his mother and his siblings and friends, but he hadn’t missed the quick inhalation of breath that had come from his mother at his words.

“What, did I do something wrong?” Jade shook her head.

“No… it's just that quest rewards are indeed a good thing, but often come with potential downsides depending on just how valuable they are.” The two continued to speak and after a while those behind Arson on the ground began to wake up. The Graveyard officers the first to rouse themselves and speak.

“Sovereign Arson Omni, it is my duty to inform you of the requirements of both your probation and community service assignment,” said the sergeant. Arson nodded, and picked up the manacles on the ground to hand them to the officer. The man gave the cuffs a strange look, and nodded to himself as if confirming something mentally before he spoke up again.

“Your probation requires that you work for both the affected party, in addition to your own community, since you are a candidate for an off-realm headmaster’s acolyte, time served will extend from any realm you are in as long as all of your property damage payments are made in a timely manner,” said the sergeant. Arson tried to listen while the man’s explanation continued, but knew he was going to have to ask Anastasia to recap the instructions for him.

Headmaster’s acolyte…?

He looked at his mother, who no longer frowned, but wore a large smile. She knew what headmaster the man had indicated, but Arson was left in complete disbelief.

They can’t mean Headmaster Max, can they… Wasn’t my mom her last acolyte almost a millennia ago? It wasn’t until the sergeant spoke up for the last time that Arson refocused on what the man was saying to him.

“Honestly I hope things turn around for you, young master. We saw your broadcast for the Skeleton horde event while in route to get you, and I’ll be putting my money on you for this season cycle's tournament of scions,” said the man with a smile of his own.

“Who is this guy? Have you seen anyone like him on the list for the tournament of scions?” asked a young man next to Cyrus in a whisper. Arson smiled when Cyrus responded, and extended a hand toward the sergeant.

“It can’t be…” muttered Cyrus to himself just before Arson spoke up, speaking his own name in full since the officers detained Arson.

“I appreciate that, sir, but please call me Carter Gestalt for confidentiality purposes, Sovereign Arson Omni is known within the realm in ways I can’t afford to be connected to currently,” said Arson. The shock on Cyrus’s face was enough to make Arson want to burst into laughter, but the feeling was suppressed by the nods of confirmation his siblings gave one another.

The officers left, and a new silence fell on the group. Both because of the face off between Arson’s friends and siblings, in addition to Cyrus and the others not having had left with the officers.

“You're going to participate?” Arson turned toward Ash and nodded. He didn’t recognized what emotion was held in her eyes, fear not something Arson believed to be real, not having had feared anything but the loss of his friends.

Ash couldn’t remove the sight of Arson’s rampage through the Raid Corp branch office. She struggled to believe that he’d done all of that, and hadn’t been able to move his arms freely the entire time. Now she was expected to compete against him in a tournament, she doubted she’d have won even if he didn’t compete?

“Good luck, little brother, you're going to need it,” said Ash, summoning a new flame, she believed would give her the upper hand in any battle. She’d originally been scared by the change, and how much pain came alongside the use of the purple gold flame, but as Arson smiled back at her, they both knew neither would back down.

“Good luck to you, sister. Growth and Grace,” said Arson with a nod in Ash’s direction.

“Growth and Grace…” Ash took off into the sky in a burst of flames that stretched off into the distance. Arson expected his other siblings to follow Ash, but noticed that no one else moved.

“What?” Arson directed the question to all there. He had a lot to do, and was worried about Jack, his Living Hand construct. The construct lay seemingly dormant on his back, and hadn’t moved since he used it to stop that strange attack from the sky.

He’d thought maybe he’d experienced a tribulation, but after his mother had shown him what’d occurred before they’d been separated, he knew the purple storm had to be something else entirely. This left him wondering where the attack had come from, and when he’d have the time to figure that out.

“What are we supposed to get into now, boss. Vacation time is over, right?” asked Rob. His inquiry triggered a chain of nodded heads, from far more people than Arson felt he should give an answer to, and he begin to stare down the less familiar parties one after another.

This seemed to make each of his targets give him an answer to unasked questions, that made Arson worry over his immediate future.

“Umm, we would like jobs, sir,” said a man next to Cyrus. The men and women around them all nodded, with the exception being Cyrus himself, who only nodded after the man closed his jaw with a hand and forcibly made him do so.

“Xani said she would like to work on developing a side project I am willing to share the ownership of,” said Auto, with a nodding Xani still in his arms. The two obviously didn’t want to separate and after what they’d experienced Arson didn’t want to get in the way. Their smiles were enough for him to move on mentally from the oddity that was Xani being comforted, by anyone.

At least until he found his brother’s actions to be unsure. Then Arson had many a plan that would stop his brother’s growth entirely. Some of his external plans would even have that same result unintentionally now that Arson thought about it.

He’d been struggling with his revenge against his siblings with every day that passed since he’d been back. Their presence at RaidCorp, the worst coincidence he’d ever experienced. Now he had to face down nearly all the people he’d plotted against for season cycles, while they stared back at him with hopeful expectation held in their own gazes.

“Don’t look at me like that, you owe me a date, and a whole lot of explanations,” said Troy the moment Arson’s gaze landed on her. He didn’t change the seriousness of his stare, instead he gave a nod of his own and moved on again. This continued until he figured out their many expectations.

Aura wanted to shadow him. She’d also held witness to his shackled handling of the RaidCorp guards, and apparently didn’t care what anyone thought, her little brother was awesome in her eyes. Her words touched a part of Arson that made him decide to leave her out of his revenge schemes completely, as unfortunately for Arson the honesty of her words could be felt down to his soul.

Season cycles of lying nobles and royals gave him an inner lie detector that he trusted above all else. It told Arson that Aura truly wanted to spend time with him.

Autumn wanted to create an attraction within the wilderness that surrounded an area near the dump's perimeter, inspired by her event at RaidCorp. Her only requirement for the service she provided the dump with each cleared portion of land to continue, was Arson’s consistent involvement with her project.

Arson decided that building a completely natural spa with his sister wasn’t a bad plan and grudgingly gave this a nod of approval as well. The progression continued like this for a while longer and Arson could only come to terms with the fact that his revenge, may have pushed him at times during the trials not to give up, but it may be time to let his old fixation go.

In that moment, Arson had a realization that took weight off his shoulders, and made him excited for the future. Then things got strange…

“Hey boss, just got a payment from RaidCorp,” said Jasmine.

“No, wait, make that two payments from RaidCorp…”

“Nope, three. Whoa, what is going on?”

“Lane what did you do?” Jasmine looked over at the smiling broadcaster, and pulled her into a hug before she started to jump up and down.

“Turned our exit into a photo shoot, RaidCorp had to buy our clothing inventory to sell our brand in their shops or they were going to lose money,” said Lane while being bounced In a bear hug.

“I didn’t know your brand was being sold at RaidCorp, I would have bought some while I was there,” questioned Axis with a furrowed brow.

“It isn’t,” managed Lane still being bounced.

“But it is now,” said Arson. Axis scoffed before she bursted into laughter and Arson tried not to get annoyed. He knew even Axis had something to ask of him in that moment, but decided not to push. Just like his other siblings whatever was on her mind may be a good thing as well.

“Hey Arson,” came from Axis just after he got done talking with Jasmine about the money they made. She’d also requested more people to aid a new project she wanted to start, and Arson stuck Cyrus and his brother’s group with her until he figured out what they actually wanted to be involved with within BHC.

“Hey, what’s going on Axis, you aren’t about to force me to do something I don’t want to, are you? I feel like I may sleep for days after this,” said Arson playfully, hoping the words would dissuade her of making any kind of request. He couldn’t help but smile at her when she smirked up at him and shook her head.

“No, I just wondered if you knew who sent that storm after you?”