Enjoy everyone!

Chapter Quote:
“Which is the true nightmare, the horrific dream that you have in your sleep or the dissatisfied reality that awaits you when you awake?” 
~Justin Alcala
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Chapter 5: Consolation

Blaze 

I walked into mine and the others’ office in Versailles after using the bathroom to find Bartlett, Chopper, Grimm, Snow, Pixy, Cipher, Geller, and Henri all in a pile on the floor, my husband on the bottom facing up.

“What is going on here?” I asked, hands on my hips.

“It’s called ‘Get Down Mr. President’.  The person who suggests it starts it off by pretending to listen to the ‘ear piece’ and when there’s one person left who doesn’t have their finger to their ear, all the others yell ‘GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT’ and then you pig pile on them.  Your poor husband was last one to realize,” Cipher said, a massive grin spreading on his face.

“You are acting like children,” Cassie commented giving an amused smirk.

“We are children in adult bodies.  Hey, we all grew up too fast.  We’re just catching up on what we missed,” Grimm defended.

“Okay, I’ll give you that one.”

“Blaze… help,” Chopper croaked out, looking up at me.

“Boys, get off of him,” I ordered as I tried not to laugh.  One by one, they got off.  Chopper remained on the floor, spread eagle, catching his breath.  I knelt down next to him. “You okay?”

“I’m good,” he assured, propping himself on his elbows.  I kissed him on the forehead before helping him up. “I’m going to get something to eat.  Y’all want anything?”

“Can you bring some cookies?  Preferably just the cookie dough,” Grimm asked hopefully.

“Is there any cake left from Grimm’s birthday?” Bartlett added, his eyes sparkling at the thought of the sugary dessert.  It’d been this massive four-tiered cake for his fiftieth birthday.  I still can’t believe I’m this old sometimes.  It feels like just yesterday I was being thrust into a world war, being branded a traitor, and being chased by the Gray Men…

“Bartlett, do you remember how big that thing was?  Yes, there’s definitely some left,” I replied.

“Can you carry it all?” Chopper inquired.

“Yeah, I got it.  If not, I’ll get someone from the kitchen to help.  I’ll be back.” I walked out of the room and headed downstairs to the kitchen.  Two chefs were cooking lunch for President Duncan James and his wife.  We got along with him really well compared to the last two presidents (thankfully they each only served one term).

“Hello,” I greeted cheerfully, opening on the fridge and pulling out the cake.

“Mrs. Davenport,” the two men said.

“How are you?” I asked, cutting pieces of cake for me and my family.

“We’re good.  And how about you?” one of the replied.

“I’m-” I stopped short when my eyes rested on the television behind them.  It showed police lights flashing, ambulances parked, EMTs running about, and heaps of bodies in the streets.  The caption was ‘Massacre in Belka.’  I felt my heart speed up.  The news station wasn’t saying where it happened, but I knew the place well enough.  I’d been there enough times to realize that was the town near the Belkan Air Force Academy, the town near the place my kids were currently at.

I scanned the crowds for any sign of my kids or my family’s kids.  It was difficult to see if any of my kids were there- they looked like Belkans themselves with their blonde hair and blue eyes.  Same went with Tessa and Charlotte.  Isabelle was the shortest and in the crowd, it would be impossible to see her.  Therefore I looked for the boys: Percy, Henry, and Alec.  They would be the easiest to spot, particularly Percy.  I didn’t see him, but I saw Henry and Alec.  Charlotte was there along with Lydia.  Isabelle came into view with her boyfriend Simon.  Then it dawned on me.  Those three loved each other but would never hang out in a group unless they were with the rest of the kids, so where were the rest of them?

The camera zoomed out and I lost sight of my brother’s kids, but my eyes narrowed in on two, semi-bloody bodies near the front.  I could only see their faces partially but there was no mistaking on who it was.  My legs gave way beneath me.  One of the chefs who’d happened to be behind me, caught me before I crashed to the floor.

“Mrs. Davenport?!” he exclaimed in alarm.  I ignored him; too many thoughts raced through my head.  Why hadn’t my kids called me about this?  Where were they?  Were any of the others… gone as well?

“I need to go call my daughter.  I have to go,” I said, scrambling up, somehow finding strength to sprint back to my office, cake left forgotten.  When I entered the room, the boys had done a pig pile again with Bartlett on the bottom this time.  I ignored them though and my husband noticed my frantic demeanor.

“Blaze, what’s wrong?” he asked, walking over to me as I threw papers off my desk trying to find my phone.  I found it and my hands were shaking so badly that I could barely scroll through my contacts.  I went for Shiloh first.  Maybe, just maybe, I’d been wrong.  Her phone rang and rang and rang but she didn’t answer.  It went straight to voicemail.  By now I was almost having a full out panic attack.  My family had gathered around me, trying to get out of me what was wrong but all I could muster out to say was ‘news’.  Snow got the message and went online.  Geller, Rald, and Pixy followed him.

I tried Lux next.  I hadn’t seen her so I prayed she was okay.  I sank down into my chair when I heard her groggy voice say, “Hello?”

“Are you okay?” I asked quietly.

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

“And everyone else?”

“We’re all okay.”

“I saw Shi and Percy on TV and they weren’t…” I couldn’t get the sentence out but my daughter picked up on my meaning.

“They’re alive.  She’s asleep right now.  I heard her phone buzzing but she slept right through it.  I can wake her up if you want?”

I didn’t want to wake Shiloh up after what she went through last night but I wanted to hear her voice.  I needed to hear her for myself. “Yes, please.”

“Hey mom,” Shiloh said softly.

“What happened to you and Percy?”

“I don’t honestly know.  We were all at a club when bombs went off in nearby buildings.  Ours was fine but everyone ran out onto the streets and we got caught up in it.  I got separated from the group because I was trying to grab onto Tessa to get her to our group but missed and got lost.  Percy found me but we somehow ended up right in the front where these men were firing guns at innocent people… a man got shot right next to us.  He told us that he couldn’t save himself but that he could save us, put some of his blood on our faces and chest, and told us to get down.  So we did.  We pretended to be dead until I heard Will and Jem shouting my name.  How did you know that it was just me and Percy?”

“I saw you on TV… you’re sure you’re all right though?  No injuries?”

“None, just shaken up.”

“Why didn’t you call me or your father or at least texted us that you were okay?” I demanded.

“I’m sorry mom.  I was so tired that I didn’t even think about it.  We got to bed at three.”

I placed my head in my hand. “Next time, just shoot me or your father a text saying you’re okay.  Please.”

“I will.  Sorry I scared you,” Shiloh apologized guiltily.

“I’ll let you get some sleep.  We’ll Skype with you later.  I love you so much.  Tell Lux and the twins I love them too.”  My daughter returned the sentiments and we hung up.  Chopper knelt down next to me.

“So?” he asked anxiously.

“They’re all right.  They’re all right.” I explained briefly how Shiloh and Percy pretended to be dead.  Major left the room briefly.  Bartlett followed.  We all knew they were calling their son.

“Do they know who did it?” Cipher questioned.

“None.  If they do, they didn’t tell me, but they’re so tired I’m not sure they’re function correctly at the moment.  We’ll ask them later.”

“Do the police know?”

“That would be a negative,” Snow answered. “I’ve been reading about it, and no one interviewed can shed light on who the attackers were and the attackers themselves left no indication on who they were.”

“So do we have a new terrorist group?” Henri asked.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s new or old.  We’re taking them down.”

“If the kids get wind of who their attackers are, they’re going to want to help us find them, and it’s better to keep them safe so I say if they give us a clue to who these people were, we don’t let it show that we’re interested,” Henri suggested.

“I don’t want to hide anything from them,” I said.

“If those terrorists find out that the legacies of the Razgriz were at that shooting, they’re going to go after them again to see if they know anything that could help us.  If they don’t, they may let them off the hook.”

“That’s a… good point.  But they could also use our kids as hostages against us.  We need to keep an eye on them without them knowing they’re being watched.”

“I will work on that,” Geller offered.  I smiled appreciatively at him.

“They’ve been there a little over a week and trouble has already found them,” Bartlett commented.

“Let us hope that is all the trouble they find,” I muttered.

Chopper snorted. “They’re our kids.  Trouble will always find them.”
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Jem

When Will and I knocked on Lux and Shiloh’s door, the former opened, looking tired and a tad hung-over.

“Hey, how is she?” I asked.

“Exhausted, perturbed, but okay.  She’s asleep right now.  Mom and dad called.  They saw her and Percy on TV when they were faking being dead.  Mom was freaking out,” Lux said.

“Guess we should’ve at least texted them,” Will remarked sheepishly.

“She said that.  She sends her love by the way, dad too.  How’s Percy?  Has anyone seen him?”

“We knocked on the door but I think he’s still out cold.  We’ll check again later.  Did any of you think it was weird that Axel just happened to be there when the bombs went off?  And how he disappeared during all the commotion?” I queried.

“I was actually wondering the same thing.”

“If anyone can ask him without sounding impertinent, it would be Shiloh, but I don’t think she’ll want to do it.  She’ll feel bad asking after all the help he gave us last night.”

“You guys questioning Axel?” Percy walked up to his in sweatpants and a hoodie.

“Just not trusting his motives.  And yes, maybe it does have to do with his heritage but we’re giving him the benefit of the doubt since Shi trusts him,” I said.

“She inherited that from your mother,” Percy chuckled. “Isn’t she the one that got Geller and Henri to help her with the war and escaping Rald?”

“Yeah, our mother made interesting friends, but they’ve all turned into family so if our baby sister got her good judgment, then maybe Axel is one of the good guys,” Lux answered.

“Has your mom called?”

“Yeah, freaking out.  She’s upset we didn’t tell her we were all right.  Have your parents called you?”

“Yeah,” Percy rubbed the back of his head. “Mom was threatening to come out here to make sure we were actually okay.  Barely managed to convince her out of that idea.  Anyway, I just came over to see if Shi was awake but since she’s not, I’ll come back later.”

“Do you want to leave a message?”

“Nah, I’ll see y’all later.  I’m going to bed.”

“Why did you wake up in the first place?” Will asked, scrunching up his face in confusion.

“I needed to pee really badly and then I was wide awake and now I’m crashing again.  See y’all later.” Percy left the three of us.

“Shiloh won’t be up for ages,” Lux finally said.

“Why’s that?” I questioned.

“She’s more shaken up from last night than I think she even realizes.  She had lots of nightmares, kept waking up.  I couldn’t fall asleep last night so I was usually awake when she woke up.  Listen, I’m going to Skype mom and dad.  You want to join in, help me alleviate their fears and worries some more?”

“I think mom and dad would kill us if we didn’t so yeah,” Will muttered. “Think we’ll wake up Shiloh?”

“No, she’s dead to the world right now.  Seems to be sleeping fine now.  Come on.”
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Shiloh

I woke up to Lux, Will, and Jem talking to our parents on Skype.  I stayed in bed a few minutes, allowing myself to fully wake up.  It’d been a rough night’s sleep, and Lux knew about it.  If she told anyone else, it would only be my brothers.  I forced myself to roll out of bed and join my siblings.

“Hey sweetie, how are you?” Mom asked.

“I’m okay, tired, but okay.  You?”

“We’re good.  Worried sick about you four.  Have y’all heard anything about who the attackers were?”

“No.  No one seems to know who they are or where they came from.  I was too busy playing dead to notice anything that might help.  I don’t know about Percy.  Maybe he saw something.”

“No, he didn’t.  Bartlett and Major already talked to him.  I’m just glad your four are all right.  The president assigned us to look into the matter since it put Osean lives in danger and since it appears to be a terrorist attack.  That’s sort of our specialty nowadays.  Speaking of, we need to get working on that.  I’ll let y’all go.  Be safe, always know where each other are, and I’ll talk to you later, okay?  We love you.”

“Love you too, mom. Love you, dad,” we responded simultaneously.

“Is it just me or did it seem like they were hiding something?” Lux asked.

“Maybe they know something about the attack we don’t?” Jem suggested. “I mean, their job kind of entails dealing with top secret stuff.”

“But I want to know what it is,” Lux grumbled.  Perking up, she added, “Oh, Percy came by to see you Shiloh.”

“Oh?”

“Didn’t say why he came over.”

“I’ll go see him.” Leaving my siblings, I shuffled over to Percy’s room.  I heard music coming from inside.  Hopefully he was awake.  Percy’s been known to fall asleep to rock music so for all I knew, he could be sacked out in his bed.  But he was awake.  He seemed surprised to see me actually.

“Hey, Lux and the twins told me you came by earlier.  Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I just wanted to see how you were holding up… privately.  Especially since what we went through last night was-”

“Terrifying?”

“Yeah… here, come on in,” he offered, moving away.  I entered the room and sat at the foot of the bed, my back against the wall.  Percy scratched the back of his head and asked, “So how are you doing?”

“Besides a few nightmares and jumping at anything that even remotely sounds like gunfire, I’m okay.  You?”

“Kind of the same deal.  It’s not the fact that I almost died that’s giving me nightmares.  It’s the guy that saved our lives.  I can’t get it out of my head.” I didn’t say anything.  I didn’t know what to say to that.  I stayed silent. “And then there’s the fact that you and the others could’ve easily died.  You’re my family.  I’m an only child so you’re my… unofficial siblings.  I don’t know how well I’d handle it if I lost one of you.”

“You’d move on.  That’s the only thing you could do.  Remember the good times, maybe bring the terrorists to justice, and live your life the way we would’ve wanted you to,” I said.

Percy stared at me. “Is that what you would do?”

“I’d be like my mom.  Let’s say you died, and for the record please never let that happen.  I’d sob for hours, bottle up my emotions after that, bring whoever killed you to justice, and then wait until something else pushed me over the edge to cry again.”

“Your mom is like that?”

“When my dad died, or she thought he did, she was in such hysterics they had to sedate her.  Mind you part of her hysterics was that she’d been dreaming of his death for weeks before and had convinced herself she could’ve stopped it.  Then she never cried again until she snuck out to Versailles Palace in the middle of the night where my father was staying, which she didn’t even know it was him.  She thought it was her friend Henry whom she’d been imprisoned with when Rald captured her.  But she went after Ofnir and Grabacr with a passion.  They were the leaders of the Gray Men at the time and she was determined to bring them down.  And she did.  She shot all of them down at the final battle of the war.”

“Your mom is terrifying when she flies,” Percy remarked.

“Imagine how the enemy felt,” I laughed.

“I think I’d just eject.”

“But my point is you can’t wallow in it.  If any of us died, we wouldn’t want you to.  Yes it would hurt.  Yes it would be horrible.  But you can’t let it control you.”

“How do you know all this?”

I shrugged. “I guess it comes from not knowing my godfather after he did so much for my mom, my dad, and me.”

“Blaze was pregnant with you when the Emmerians and Estovakians were at war, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, and if it weren’t for my godfather, she would’ve died giving birth to me.  And then he died trying to keep Emmeria.  He held me in his last few minutes.  I wish I remembered that but I was just a newborn… mom told me the story when I was thirteen.  She thought I was finally old enough to understand what had happened.  I cried all that night because I was so upset that I’d never met him and that I never would.  But then I realized he wouldn’t want me to be upset.  He’d want me to live my life and be happy.  So I did.  I never forgot him, and his wings are in my room back home along with some of his medals.  Then I have a picture of him holding me when I just got out of the NICU as a Christmas ornament.  Those are as close to him as I’ll get, and I’m grateful I have that much.”

“He’d be proud of you.”

“I like to think so.  You okay now?”

“Yeah.  Thanks Shi.”

“Hey, we’re family for a reason.  I’m going to stay in bed all day.  Today is just a lazy day and hey, with no classes, I don’t see a reason to get up.”

Percy laughed. “Sounds good.  Maybe I’ll come join later.”

“I’d enjoy that,” I said. “If you don’t, then I’ll see you at dinner.”
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Percy 

When Shiloh left the room, I opened my laptop again.  I hadn’t wanted anyone to see what I was looking into.  I didn’t even know what I was looking into.  I’d told my parents about the Iron Cross symbol that I saw one of the gunmen wearing.  They’d dismissed it as a symbol that probably meant something to that specific person.  I wasn’t so sure.  But before I discussed my ideas with anyone else, I wanted to know what it meant.  I wanted to know what was going on.  I couldn’t ask Henry and Charlotte for any stuff they might have on the topic.  They’d question me about it and if I didn’t tell them, they’d tell the others about my suspicious activities and then they’d send Shiloh after me because we all know if you want to get something out of someone, you send Shiloh after them.  She’s just one of those people that you will spill your whole life story to her, whether you know her or if she’s a complete stranger to you.  Blaze was the same way at Shiloh’s age and apparently still is.

No.  What I was doing needed to stay a secret until I knew exactly what the Iron Cross meant and what finding out about it led me to.
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What is Percy getting himself into?  Review :)