Authors: Matt Stephens
"Feels good to have people happy again." Yasi let out a happy sigh, like the universe had been set right again.
"I came through the Underside when Vandark was here; and I couldn't get over how quiet it was on the Steps." Vincent agreed. "When I heard about all the things that was disappearing up above, I started to worry. You guys never would have taken that sort of stuff if you weren't in a bad way."
Yasi nodded. "Gives me chills to think about how easily Vandark would have done it. For a little while there, I honestly thought he was going to buy our loyalty... with chocolates."
Vincent grinned. "Based on what I saw, they were just enjoying the treats, and biding their time."
Yasi smiled. "Harder to tell when you're chained to the Bad Guy's Throne."
Vincent peeked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Wish I'd shot him a third time, now."
Yasi bared her teeth. "It wasn't as bad as he could have made it. Of the three of us, you and me are the ones... not dead."
Vincent nodded. "Does Keeper think it was a bluff?"
Yasi rubbed her face. "Keeper figured it out. You weren't just protecting our city; you were protecting yours too. She's agreed to keep her mouth shut; as has everyone who knows the whole story."
"A lie?"
"An omission. We're Lostkind Vincent. Such secrets are common."
Vincent's response was simplicity itself. "Thank you."
~oo00oo~
The Healers escorted him to the back of the room; where Keeper's cot waited.
He made his way toward the old woman and settled next to her, when he suddenly noticed a new painting on the wall, in an out of the way spot. It was a drawing of him and Yasi; instantly recognizable as the moment they had reunited on the Subway; arms around each other. He had no idea that the Gremlins were even close enough to see; but the drawing of them was sweet and honest and wonderful in the emotions it conveyed.
"Rule Three." Vincent said, quiet and victorious. "Be Beautiful."
Keeper's eyes opened slowly at the sound of his voice. "S'about time you got here." She creaked. "I'm an injured old woman you know, it's not nice to keep me waiting this long."
"I'm sorry I took so long; but it's hard to push your way through a party that size." Vincent said, grinning as he knelt down next to her. "What are the Healers telling you?"
"They say I'll live, but I won't be pretty. At my age, I care less about that than I used to." She struggled. "Help me sit up."
Vincent came forward and did so, helping her upright.
"I've been hearing the stories, and I suppose I should be very impressed with you." Keeper grunted as she settled.
"Oh please don't be." Vincent insisted. "We have such a comfortable relationship disliking each other; I'd hate to try and mess that up."
"I agree." Keeper nodded, pleased. "You got back fast. I think Yasi half expected you to be with Connie by now."
"And I half expected Yasi to be with Dorcan." Vincent shot back. "Dorcan stepped quite nicely into the role Yasi always wanted for him."
"So has Connie; by taking in young Tecca." Keeper nodded. "Timing, Vincent. Things come at their own time; and sometimes that means missing a chance you would have killed for in earlier days."
Vincent smirked; because it was true. A year before; Dorcan would have given anything for Yasi to respect and notice him the way she did now. A year before; Vincent would have given anything for Connie to be as accepting of all things Secret, the way she now accepted Tecca. But that passage of time had changed them all.
Her lightning quick eyes focused on him. "Now; one thing I'm not getting. You set up a connection between our Round Table Communicator, and your Archives Room at the Planner's Office? How did you do it?"
"I saw the set-up you have here, and the method is the same as stage magicians used to use to fake conjuring ghosts." Vincent explained. "It wasn't that hard finding the secret of a hundred year old magic trick, so I was able to set it up."
"How'd you find the frequency we use?" Keeper demanded.
"I work in the City Planners Office, remember? The television equipment in your Round Table Room is from the 1950's. Nobody's watching those channels, or frequencies anymore. It wasn't hard to track the frequency down. All that information still exists, it's just completely forgotten. What do you think I've been doing for the last week?"
Keeper burst out laughing; before clasping at her chest, breaking down into a cough. When she settled; she looked up at him. "There was a time, when I was convinced you couldn't be trusted, just because you were from the Upside. Ironic, when you consider that I used to be one myself, back in the caveman days."
Vincent chuckled at that.
Keeper softened. "Now, that's the Chief of the Underside talking. Can I speak to you as Yasi's mother a moment?"
Vincent took a deep breath, preparing himself. "Of course."
"Yasi told everyone that your plan was to bluff the Riverfolk; make them think this place was about to be exposed." She looked at him evenly. "As long as we all agree on the story; nobody need feel awkward about the facts."
Vincent looked down. "I heard some of the Shinobi talking about Yasi while we were setting up the counterattack... Do her own people really think of her that way? She's not like that."
"She's not like that with you. Yasi's only ever had two kinds of people in her life. The ones that needed her protection; and the ones she protected them from. You think like that long enough..." Keeper broke down coughing a moment. "It was nice to see her getting close to someone; but when we learned it was you; we were worried. We didn't know about you yet; except that you had all the keys to all the doors."
"It's
why
you called me, back when we first met." Vincent pointed out.
"Yup. And if you decided to tell the world about us back then?" Keeper challenged. "What do you think would have happened?"
"The same thing I expected to happen yesterday." Vincent retorted.
Keeper settled. "Things are different now."
"I wonder." Vincent admitted.
"No; they are. Yasi has never accepted help with anything, from anybody she wasn't related to." Keeper said. "I think it came from being an only child... And the child of the two people in charge of her whole world, no less. She never accepted the help of others; she had to do it all herself. It made her strong. It also made her isolated. The great truth of the Lostkind is that everything we have, and everything we are, is what your world has discarded or misplaced. We took that and made it beautiful; but without that, we are non-existent. You managed to prove the point quite nicely, because you were not of our world, but you were what was needed to save it. You followed the rules, Vandark didn't, and you prevailed. It wasn't a Rambo plan; it was a Lostkind plan."
Vincent nodded. "I... am a bad liar Keeper. Outside the Chapel; they're trying to figure out where to put the statue of me. I'm more the one that put the place in danger than the one that rescued it."
"You're both." Keeper said easily. "It is our way. We pass into legend. This whole place is a collection of secret stories that we agree to tell each other. Consider it part of your entrance."
"And Owen?" He asked lightly; almost afraid to ask.
"Owen will be seen to appropriately." Keeper dismissed. "You really want to get into all that again?"
"I suppose not." Vincent admitted. "But... I've never known Yasi to leave loose ends; and Owen's one of them..." He left the ending of the thought unspoken.
Keeper finished it for him. "And so are your friends. The ones who helped you do this." Keeper sighed; understanding his worry. "Yasi had an idea that might make things easier for all concerned."
Vincent nodded. "What is it?"
"Well; if you were Lostkind yourself; then your word would be enough to vouch for your friends; and of course; anything you did? It would be up to our security chief to decide if what you did was forgivable or not."
Vincent struggled not to lunge forward. "Yasi had this idea?"
Keeper laughed, and coughed. "Welcome to the Underside."
Vincent smiled, not pretending to be surprised. "I was hoping somebody would say that."
"There's a lot of work to do... And we need people we can trust." Keeper smirked wryly, painful though it was. "I think it's fair to say you weren't working for the bad guys."
"That I can vouch for." Yasi piped up from behind them; though neither of them turned as she came over to them and dropped immediately into a cross-legged squat on the floor. "We've managed to get word out that the war is won. Everyone's partying like it's okay to be alive again."
"Go enjoy the party." Keeper creaked. "You two earned it."
"I'm a responsible Leader now." Yasi protested. "I can't get drunk and go table-dancing like I used to."
"Oh please, just one more time." Vincent said immediately.
"Yasi, take him out there and let them throw a parade." Keeper ordered, running out of energy. "Keep an eye on him until we can figure out what to do with him that won't bother me too much."
"My mother's very first words to me when I was born." Vincent quipped.
Yasi kissed her mother's forehead, and led the way out.
~oo00oo~
"What about Tecca?" Vincent asked as they made their way back to the party.
Yasi reacted. "I haven't seen him since I sent him up to you. What about him?"
"Connie wants to adopt him." Vincent offered. "But I think he's worried you're going to come upstairs and seek revenge."
"What gave him that idea?"
"I might have told him that was exactly what you were going to do." Vincent admitted sheepishly.
"If he's found a place that ain't here; then speaking as head of Security, we don't much care." Yasi said with finality. "Ordinarily; we wouldn't let him go; but he's a child and he matters to someone who matters to you. As you have some pull with the Lostkind right now; so that's the end of it as long as he behaves himself from now on."
~oo00oo~
Tecca came into Connie's apartment by the window. She was stretched out on the couch, dozing; but came awake when she heard him come in.
They sat without looking at each other for a long time. Tecca spoke first. "You're still here?"
Connie nodded. "I planned to get out of New York, because I knew if this didn't work, Vandark wouldn't give us a second chance. But I couldn't leave without you. I just couldn't."
"Did he tell you?" Tecca asked weakly. "Did Vincent tell you what I did?"
"He did." Connie confirmed.
"So when you said you wanted to… adopt me; you didn't know yet?" Tecca looked like he was expecting to get slapped down again. It was a look Connie had seen on many homeless and poverty-stricken children at the Clinic.
"Tecca, you made a mistake." Connie said simply. "You're not even ten years old, kids make mistakes. Grownups do too." She held her arms out to him and he came forward into the hug willingly. "Vincent called me. His plan worked. The bad guys are out of the picture now."
"If I'm still alive; then they've decided to let me go. I go back, or talk to any of them; they'll end me." He whispered. "You willing to protect me from them too?"
"With nothing but my teeth if I had to." Connie promised. "That's what moms are for."
With the terrified look in his eye starting to fade, Tecca steeled his courage and broke the hug. "You still got the papers?"
~oo00oo~
Weeks passed, and life slowly went back to normal. Connie was glad to hear that Vincent had made it back safely, and Vincent was glad to hear that Tecca had agreed to stay with her. Vincent had relayed the Shinobi's warning, that he never return to the Underside, or have anything to do with them. The decision to make Tecca part of her family had confirmed that Connie would never become part of the Underside herself; which did not dissuade her at all.
Vincent was happy for her. Connie had the life, the stability, and the family that she always wanted, and any lingering doubts or guilt she may have felt about the way she treated Vincent over the Underside had been resolved by time, and her support in the final confrontation.
Local radio shows had covered the rash of unusual thefts for a few hours, and talk radio had argued and debated the finer points of Gill's Press Conference for the better part of a day. Public Opinion was behind Gill's bold statement about the environment; and the news that he had been fired soon after had caused still more debate. The general assumption was that Gill had made such a suicidal gesture for that reason.
Gill landed on his feet. After his bold gesture cost him his job; a pro-environmental firm had offered him a job on the spot. They saw the benefits of hiring someone who understood the way the infrastructure worked; and Gill admitted that he enjoyed being around people who cared about things more than he did.
Drew and Connie were speaking again; the anger over long kept secrets fading quickly. Drew was a Banker by trade; discretion was his business; and he loved his sister too much to hold a grudge. Benji and Tony had gone on to another topic once something shiny went by; and nobody took them seriously anyway. To them, the Underside was just another place they knew about but never planned to visit.