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61 - Secrets Come To Light
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“Xena Lightlark?” Lexie glanced at her friend in confusion. “Why does this say Xena Lightlark?”
“That’s what I want to know.” Xena started pacing the up and down, running her fingers through her dark hair. “I mean, what the heck? How am I a Lightlark? My birth parents were mundanes. At least that’s what they told me at the orphanage.”
“You don’t remember them?” Lexie asked quietly. Xena never spoke about her birth parents before and Lexie never pried.
Xena shook her head. “They died when I was like three. My earliest solid memories are from the orphanage. Maybe a few stray images here and there but mostly everything I remember is from after their death. And I never remember either of them using powers. So how come it says I’m a Lighlark? The Lightlarks haven’t even been on earth for probably half a century or so. They all moved to the Fae planet and have been holed up there, doing system knows what, probably being experimented on and having their brains cracked open and oh my gosh, I’m freaking out, Lex they’re going to have to cut my hair to do that, won’t they?"
“Relax,” Lexie nearly laughed because she'd never seen Xena this panicked before. But she resisted the urge because her friend truly looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack and Lexie knew this was very serious for her.
She took Xena by the arms and led her to the bed, making her sit. “Deep breaths don't freak out yet. No one is going to cut into your brain and you'll get to keep your luscious locks."
“No, I won't. The minute I apply to any school everyone is going to know who I am, because of my affinity, and then they’re going to come after me. Even if I don’t apply, they’ll probably know.”
“Who’s they?”
“I don't know. Whoever it is that captures Lightlarks and ships them off Planet Fae.”
Lexie giggled then both from the visual of Xena being shepherded off by Fae men in black, and also to ease her friend's concerns. Maybe if Xena saw her being amused by the assumptions she was making, she too would relax too and see how probably ridiculous they were.
“I doubt that’s how it happens,” Lexie said. “The System can’t force you to go to Planet Fae. It doesn’t force you to do anything.” Except pre-affixation, of course, but Lexie didn't want to make it about her. “Remember what the [Saintess] said, months ago? About how even when people are affixed as healers most of them choose not to use their powers?”
Xena’s expression was still filled with panic but she nodded slowly. "Yeah?"
“Well, Zee, if they can’t force people to be healers, even though we’re in desperate need of them, then they probably can’t force you to use your powers or go to Planet Fae either. I’m sure most Lightlarks go to Planet Fae not because they're forced to, but probably because they just like it better than here. It’s supposed to be a paradise.”
“How would we know? None of us have ever been there.”
“Yeah, but we’ve seen it in pictures and videos. Plus according to Veronica, the Lighlarks are treated like royalty there. Probably get paid a shit ton too, considering the exchange rate. But there’s nothing to suggest that you’re going to get captured and sent there by Fae child abductors.”
Xena sighed and finally collapsed on the bed, lying flat on her back with her arms splayed out. She stared at the ceiling.
“This wasn’t how System Day was supposed to go.” She groaned.
Lexie lay beside her, also staring upward. “Yeah, tell me about it. But it’s not the end of the world.”
“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one potentially getting your head cut open.” But she didn’t say it with as much conviction as she did the first time. Maybe Lexie's soothing words had gotten through to her.
The worry never left her features though. “But what if it’s true? What if the Fae are actually as shady as we think and I have to go live with them?”
Lexie thought about it. The Fae were a polarizing figure on Earth 9. Some people practically worshipped them for the magical advancement they brought to earth and for helping get rid of the Guardians. Others loathed them or at least were highly suspicious of them. And then there were those in between.
Lexie didn’t know where on that spectrum she fell. She didn't have much of a frame of reference for the Fae, except the Fae culture stuff she was reading, and going off that she just thought they were smug, slightly annoying, and condescending creatures with a confusing culture. But they were seemingly also well-meaning. Much like the system they built, they were a hodgepodge of good and bad, but far from what she would call evil.
More so controlling in a patronizing way, in the way that it was clear they thought they knew better than humans. Perhaps the Fae saw humans like the system did, like children who needed strict direction and supervision.
Lexie didn't think they were malicious creatures but that viewpoint could have malicious results.
Then again maybe she didn’t really care about them one way or another. At least for now.
“Do you still have that thing you carry around?" Xena asked suddenly. "What’s it called again? A cellphone?”
Lexie raised her eyebrow at Xena’s question. “Yeah. Why?”
“I wanted to contact someone. Did you know you could communicate with that thing?”
“You don't say,” Lexie said wryly as she reached over to grab the cell phone from her drawer. It was, as always, at 87% battery. “Who do you want to contact?”
“Someone I used to know back in the orphanage. He'll know what to do."
"Oh," Lexie nodded. “Is there another way you can contact him? Because from what I know, this thing is basically a prop and doesn't work. Not here at least."
“Well, duh. They can’t work unless you connect it to an Undernet.”
Shock slammed into Lexie. “Wait, what?” This was the first Lexie had heard of it. Not of the Undernet, Xena had explained a while ago that it was a series of platforms and networks people used to contact each other and get information without the system noticing. So like a Dark Web. But Lexie didn't know that connecting her phone to the Undernet would make it work.
"How do you know that?" Lexie asked Xena gripping her hand. Xena seemed a little taken aback by her exuberance.
"My friend from the orphanage, his brother told us. He was a huge tech nerd and also pretty paranoid and would talk about how the system was secretly recording all our conversations and texts. He said that this was one way to communicate without the system knowing."
“How?” Lexie was suddenly filled with a different kind of energy, needing to know everything instantly. A brand new opportunity had just been presented to her. She’d always just assumed that the phone couldn't work in this world without the ISTS, because of the different energy requirements or lack of electricity or the proper cell service. And now she was finding out that there was a way…
"Why did you never tell me?" she demanded of Xena.
"Why did you never ask?" Xena said in a similar tone. "And why are you so bent out of shape about this?"
"No, I'm not, it's just..." She took a deep breath to calm herself down, releasing her grip on Xena's hand. Lexie was getting ahead of herself. There was still a high possibility that the connection wouldn't work interdimensionally, she reminded herself trying to temper her own hopes. After all, Xena was only talking about the phone being used to talk to people here, on Earth 9, and not across dimensions on Earth 2.
But now that the little nugget of hope had taken hold of her mind, it was hard to let it go.
And if there was a possibility that she could contact someone on Earth 2 through the Undernet, no matter how small that possibility was, then she had to know.
“Does it work across dimensions too?” she asked. “ I mean I know you can communicate across with the ISTS–”
“The who?”
Shoot. “Nevermind. But did your friend mention anything about this working across dimensions?”
Xena slowly shook her head watching Lexie as her heart sank.
“He didn’t say anything about it,” she said. “I mean I guess it might be possible but I can’t be sure until we go see him.”
“Your friend?”
“No. A guy that my friend knew. A techmage that doesn't work for the heroes association and knows how to work these things to connect them to the Undernet. He lives in Moulding, near the village where the orphanage was. It’s only a short trip away and if we leave right now–”
“Hang on.” Lexie finally put her hand up allowing her to think clearly for a second. “Xena, you’re not actually thinking of heading to Moulding, tonight, are you?”
“Why not?”
Lexie blinked at her. Did she just ask me that? Moulding was a fairly high-crime city, far east of Arcadia. Most of the regional news crime reports seemed to be generated from that locale. That was why hero activity was so concentrated there, because of all the villains who ran rampant.
“We can’t go,” Lexie said again. At least not at night. Perhaps it was manageable in the morning when the heroes did their surveillance and the criminals presumably slept, but at night, crime was exacerbated.
“We can't go tonight at least,” Lexie amended when it looked like Xena was going to argue. "We can probably go tomorrow morning early."
Lexie thought that would appease her friend but Xena didn't seem mollified. “Why, not now?”
“Xena, it’s like nearly ten o’clock. That’s past my official bedtime. And I can’t just leave home without telling my dad. I promised I wouldn’t do that to him.” Even beyond my own cautiousness, Lexie was held back by her loyalty to Aiden. If Aiden found out she'd endangered myself like that it would break his heart.
At the same time, it meant a lot for Xena to come and ask her this favor and she didn’t want to let her down either. Plus knowing Xena, she might just set off on her own anyway and that was even more dangerous.
“We’ll go tomorrow," Lexie said. "And we won’t go alone. We need to take an adult with us."
“Not your Dad. He’ll tell Emma and I don’t want to tell her yet.”
Lexie wasn't planning on telling Aiden, but the thing about not telling Emma about Xena's parentage still surprised her. "Why not? You think she’ll judge you or something?”
“I just don’t want to,” Xena said firmly with a look that sent a clear warning that she didn’t want to debate about this.
Right then, back on track. “I won’t tell Aiden, but we do have to take an adult with us. Maybe Uncle Max if he’s feeling in the mood, although I’m not sure you’ll be able to keep the reason why we're going to Moulding from Uncle Max and he may not approve." Uncle Max could be pretty lax about certain things, including giving kids guns, but Lexie didn't think he would be so accepting of Lexie's phone getting connected to the Undernet, something criminals used to evade the law. That might be a step too far for him.
Not to mention, Xena was already shaking her head, at the suggestion, which meant that Lexie couldn't tell Max either.
She sighed. “Fine, he’s out then.” She brainstormed for a few seconds then said, “How about Gunther? Dewie’s chauffeur.”
Gunther had given them rides a bunch of times, and the girls were fond of him. He was a nice guy but quiet and unobtrusive, didn't ask questions and just did his job. And while he may not really have the build of a body guard, Dewie mentioned that he used to be a soldier back in the day and did carry concealed firearms.
That should be good enough.
Xena wasn’t shooting down the idea at least, which was progress.
“We’ll text Dewie to see if it would be okay. Of course, he’d have to come along too, at that point because we wouldn’t be able to keep him away. So we go Moulding to meet this guy and then we leave once we’re done. No detours."
Xena mulled it over. “Fine. But just so you know I think you’re being over the top about this whole thing. I lived in Moudling for years and my friend and I used to go to that neighborhood all the time and nothing bad happened.”
“Yeah. No offense, but this friend of yours sounds sketchy as hell too.”
Not that Lexie was judging anyone for being on the Undernet, especially seeing as she kind of wanted to get connected to it too if it helped her communicate with other dimensions, butt in her experience, most people who were trying to circumvent the law to that extent probably had a lot of shady things to hide.
Or they were just the excessively paranoid type, which Lexie had never been. What on earth is the government going to do with my cringy texts and calls anyway?
“He’s not sketchy,” Xena yawned as thoughh the tension had made her sleepy. “You’re just a lame-o who doesn't like cool people.”
“Right. And you're supposed to be the cool one here, Mrs. Almost-had-a-panic-attack-because-of-an-imaginary-problem?”
“You said it, not me.” And then Xena's eyes widened again, as though she just considered something else. “What do we do if we don't have time tomorrow? What if they come for me tonight?’
“They won’t come for you. I don't think anyone's coming but if you're that worried, you can sleep over and if anyone comes in through my window, I'll kick their ass."
“With what? Your little frog friend?”
Lexie raised her chin. “His name is Sir Toadword Hoppignton, thank you very much, and he’s not so little anymore.” Lexie had managed to make him more solid and increase his size slightly by simply pouring more mana into one of the notches on the pathways. Though it wasn't much, it was nice to see him look less transparent and more lifelike. He was a handsome little fella too, if she said so herself. Maybe Lexie should see if she could get him to wear a tophat and a bowtie like Dewie did.
“Just sleep here,” Lexie told Xena. “Text Emma and tell her that we had an impromptu sleepover so she doesn't come looking for you. And then we text Dewie and ask about the chauffeur. Everything will be fine.”
“Yeah, “she said. "Everything will be fine." But she didn’t sound so sure about it.
There was a moment of silence. Crickets chirped outside the window and the downstairs was entirely quiet. Lexie wondered if her dad had gone over to Max's for his self-defense classes, or if he'd gone up to sleep. She also wondered if she could manage more cake, but her stomach was already sick of the sugar.
“You want cake?” she asked Xena who predictably shook her head. She’d never been much of a sweet tooth.
Then Xena smirked. “Dewie’s going to eat his heart out when he finds out we had a sleepover without him.”
“Don’t you dare tell him or I’ll eat your heart out.”
Xena merely smiled and continued considering the ceiling.
Later that night, they asked Dewie and his answer was a solid yes. And it didn't even take much to convince him.
“You sure?” Xena asked. “Your mom won’t be bothered that you’ll take her chauffeur?””
“They’re pretty…happy about my awakening," he responded. "I think they would probably promise me the moon right now I asked. What time do you want me to come pick you up?”
“In the morning,” Lexie said. "Like maybe 9:00 am. The patrols come out at 10:00 in Moulding."
"Alright. Sounds good."
"Thanks, Dewie."
After they hung up, Lexie calmed Xena's anxiety some more until the other girl fell asleep. And then Lexie worked through midnight on her cards. If they were going to go into a dangerous neighborhood then she needed all the defense she could get and she had been working on a few defensive card combinations throughout the summer that she was hoping to craft into separate cards of their own once it was ready. These cards were good in a pinch for defense even though they were not intuitive. But they would have to do for now.
The next morning she told Aiden a little white lie about hanging out with Xena and Dewie for a System Day celebration. Apparently, that was a tradition that teenagers all across Orinia participated in. Aiden said 'sure' without question and Lexie felt more than a little guilty. She told herself she was doing it for a good cause and she would be safe. Besides, Aiden already told her he'd put a tracker on her that he checked every once in a while, so if she was in crisis, she would just SOS him and he would be able to find her.
The next stop for Lexie before Dewie's arrival was Uncle Max’s house. Predictably, he was in his garage bunker, a large metal room with guns equipment, and artillery lined up on each wall. Max was bent over a table with a welding mask on, drilling a hole into metal.
“Uncle Max!” she said, yelling over the sound of the drill. “Can I get the gun? I need it.”
Lexie half expected Max to ask follow-up questions about what it was for or remind her of the safety precautions. But he didn't miss a beat and simply pointed in the direction of some metal cabinets.
"Fourth drawer," he said distractedly, going back to his welding. “Don’t kill anyone unless they deserve it.”
