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Angelo had just pulled Yvette to where he and Jono were standing, when he noticed that
Rich had disappeared. He thought that Rich had been knocked out when all of a sudden as the
tendrels were waving about, one fell to pieces. He heard Black Tom exclaim, "What in Sam
Hein?" The other root fell to pieces, and then Angelo saw the movement of a black shadow in
the darkness. It must have been Rich. He had made his skin so sharp that the light seemed to
be reflected into him.
Sean had started to come to from what had happened to him. "What's going on?
Where's Skitz."
Angelo was about to answer when Yvette finally said, "His temper. He must lost control
when I was hit." She was rubbing her side, where the tendrel had hit her.
Angelo then continued, "And I don't think he plans on letting your cousin succeed,
judging by how then tendrels are being taken out." All of a sudden, it appeared that Black Tom
had made himself flurescent, and that a shadow appeared to be standing a few feet from him.
That had to be Rich.
He saw the shadow had shielded it's eyes, which appeared as a glowing bluish-brown.
Black Tom reached for Rich and said, "So, there is the problem. I shall take care of you." A
glow was forming from Black Tom's hand as Rich had finally adjusted to the light.
Sean yelled to Rich, "Watch out, lad." Angelo watched as Rich waved his hand and
scream of agony filled the air. The living shadow that Rich was could now be seen easier, due to
the red outlined hand. He also saw Black Tom holding his arm in agony.
Angelo could only watch, as did the rest of them, at the sight they were witnessing. He
had seen many scenes like this before, but this was totally unlike Rich to do that. He heard
Yvette said, "My God."
Angelo saw Black Tom was about to try and strike Rich, when Rich swung his left hand,
then his right, following with backwards somersault. {Bloody hell!} Jono exclamed as the
nearly shredded form of Black Tom fell to his knees.
Rich had just landed and lunged forward with a head butt. Angelo only winced, as
everyone else averted their eyes. Finally, there was two thuds as Angelo watched the two parts
of Black Tom's body hit the ground. Just as quickly as the pieces hit the ground, Rich's claws
went through them so quick that the pieces dissolved. The shadow that was Rich had finally
stopped moving, covered almost head to toe in the blood of Black Tom Cassidy. They all
watched as Rich returned to his normal look, as Yvette's ability had finally left him.
Angelo and everyone approached him slowly. Rich looked around, as if he was in a
daze. Angelo knew the look on Rich's face. It was the face of a person whose loyalty was so
strong to something that one would kill for it. He saw that look many times in L.A. He was about
to say something when Rich's face changed and went from no remorse into a fit of sadness.
They all heard in Rich's sobs, "What have I done?" Rich collapsed to the ground right near what
was left of Tom Cassidy's face.
Sean looked at Rich and said, "You might have done the world a favor, and saved all of
our lives."
Rich looked about and said, "But, I-I-I killed him. I didn't have to kill him, but I did. I
didn't want to kill him, but I did."
Angelo looked at Rich and thought he understood why Rich acted the way he did. "He
threatened your life. You fought in self-defense."
"No, I fought in rage. I lost control of my temper, and that man suffered for it. I didn't
want to kill him." Rich almost broke into a fit again when Yvette walked over to him.
"You were worried about me. You were protecting me. When you thought that he
injured me, you reacted just as I would have if he hurt you." She helped Rich up and he seemed
to lean on her support. Angelo could tell that Rich was shaken up.
For the first time since they were all outside, Jono finally spoke up. {I think you might
want to get cleaned off. I don't think you want to be covered in Tom's blood for too long.} Rich
nodded and Yvette helped him to the dorms. Angelo always wondered how bad Rich's temper
was, and now he had seen it.
As they headed back to main building, Sean asked him, "Angelo, you've seen that back
in L.A., does the pain ever go away?" Angelo didn't know how to answer that. He had never
taken anyone's life. He shrugged and continued back to the dorms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jubilee was still comforting Penny when Angelo finished telling everyone what had
happened. To hear about it once was bad enough, but to her about Rich's temper and rage
taking control a second time made it more unpleasent. She wondered what would have
happened if Rich had her abilities and personality at the time. He probably would have levelled
the school in one pyrotechnic blast. She snapped out of that thought when Jean said, "If the act
was in self-defense, it shouldn't plague him so."
Emma said to Jean, "Rich is a very emotional person, and the last thing he wants to do
is harm, let alone kill. He was very upset when Emplate forced him to attack Jubilee." Jubilee
remembered that day. She had been the med center for about a day. She was the first one who
saw Rich awaken from the coma he had been in, when he used Emplate's own devices and
weaknesses against him. She saw the look of regret in his eyes when he remember what he had
done.
Scott just said, "It can be very painful to do something that you don't want to do. Even
more painful if you can't control what your doing."
Emma then continued, "But he recovered from that, and during the days after the attack
and when we returned from Monet's home, he was recovering mentally. He did his best to cope
with the killing."
She noticed Sean sighing as he said, "He went to same spot every day and put a flower
there, as if he was trying to make peace with me cousin." Jubilee had wondered what that was
about on the day of the attack, and now she knew.
"But something happened before he had fully recovered, correct?" Jean said as if
knowing. Jubilee remembered what happened during the second attack. She felt it was time to
speak up.
"From what we all discovered, Rich's family had a skeleton in their closet that they were
hiding from him. I found out about it when Rich confronted it," Jubilee stated. She still
remembered that day.
"Aye," Sean said, "the scary thing is that we all knew about it, because Rich's father
informed us about it." Jubilee was amazed, but then the day Rich's father was here, she was
half with it.
"Was this the relative that he thought was dead?" Scott asked.
"Yes, and I remember the look on Rich's face that day." Jubilee finally said as she
started telling everyone of the second attack, and how Rich's breakdown had started.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jubilee walked with Rich and Penny as they headed to the place where the confrontation
with Black Tom had happened just a couple of days earlier. She, as well as Paige and Emma,
had gone with Monet to her family's house for Christmas. It was during that time that Black Tom
was discovered at the school. It was that time that Rich killed Black Tom. With what Black Tom
had become, it was probably for the best, but Rich was still getting over it. It wasn't until Rich
came to a stop that she said, "Is this where it happened?"
Rich removed his glasses and wiped some tears from his eyes. She already knew the
answer, but he answered "Yes." He placed a flower on the ground and stayed there, kneeling.
Penny, or as almost everyone called her 'Yvette', walked over and said, "He has done
this everyday since the attack. I think he is recovering from the attack. I don't understand why
he does this ritual."
"Maybe he's just trying to ease his conscience. I think I know how something like that
could feel." The truth was she didn't. She had been faced with the choice to kill someone
before, but she didn't because she didn't want to be haunted by the ghosts. She noticed that
Rich finally stood up.
Penny looked at him and said, "Do you need some time alone?" Jubilee could tell that
Penny really cared for Rich. She worried for days about Rich as he slowly became more stable.
Penny was the first one to tell her what had happened. Jubilee was glad that she had not
witnessed it.
"No, Yvette, I don't need anytime alone. I think I need to find a way to relax. Care to go
for a walk with me?" Jubilee could tell that Rich was hoping for the answer to be yes.
Penny looked into his eyes and said, "I'd love to." Both smiled as Jubilee watch them
walk off. Jubilee was not going to intrude on those two. Actually, nobody ever seemed to worry
about them, mainly because Rich was a gentleman.
Jubilee started looking at the site. It was eerie to think that Black Tom Cassidy had
managed to replace Mondo, and even planned on taking control of the school. Jubilee then saw
what was left of Black Tom's face. She could have sworn that it was still alive, just waiting for
her to get too close, and then she would be a prisoner. She wondered why Rich kept that at the
site. She said to herself, aloud, "Maybe it's there as a reminder. That's it, a reminder."
She heard movement in the forest. It could have been Rich and Penny coming back
from their walk. She then noticed the sound came from the opposite direction that they had gone
in. She decided to investigate it. Sean had always told them to contact him if something strange
was happening, but when did she ever follow the rules. She walked over to the area she heard
the sound in and looked around. Nothing. She started to think that she was spooked by the site
when someone grabbed her from behind. "Strange. I did my best to hide, and still you found
me, Ms. Lee," said a strange voice.
She screamed in reaction. She didn't have a chance to fire her sparks at her attacker,
due to how quickly he caught her. She was turned to face the man. He had short white hair and
his eyes appeared to have a glow in them. How did this man know her name, but she decided to
voice the more important question. "Who are you?"
The man looked at her with his cold eyes and held her with a superhuman grip. He said,
"You may call me.."
"Bastion." She was taken back by what was just said, as was the man, for the one who
said the name was Rich. He appeared to have tears in his eyes, as if he was seeing a ghost. It
was just then everyone else had arrived.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
