Globe Tracers 4: Raven Rises

Chapter 13: Our True Power

Raven

Back in the mental room...

Jessica just sat, digesting what I had shown her. Finally, she spoke up. "I... I don't know what to make of that. So that's why we were alone for so long."

"How about saying you're sorry to start?" I asked.

"Sorry? For what? I defended myself- you- and Trent."

"You directly disobeyed Patrick. You didn't see how much it all meant to him- or you didn't care?"

Jessica looked around slowly. "I was trying to save Trent..."

"And what gave you the right to save one person by killing another?"

"That man was a monster-"

"Like you and I are so different. Your violence drove away the only man in- so long- to care about us. My behavior made Kyle talk about how to eliminate me."

"I don't think Kyle really understands what you are."

"What I am? Need I remind you, YOU are the alternate personality, not me. I don't know how you stayed awake while I slept, but that doesn't change who was born and who just sort of- happened." She looked away. "All I know is, I wouldn't be alone if not for you."

Jessica was crying now, matching my own tears from having to relive Patrick walking away. "So..." she somehow sobbed. "So what do you want?"

I looked up. "Patrick is gone because you chose violence over him. YOU, not me. The irony that the worse fighter made that choice doesn't escape me. YOU are the reason Allen is dead." Jessica opened her mouth to speak, but I spoke over her. "Look me in the eye. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me you don't think you should have had the power to stop Tyrin." She closed her mouth and looked down. I continued, seeing as she wasn't going to object. "I... we both have to change. Big time. I know how to fight, and you know how to make people like you." I sat back. "It's like we're just two sides of a whole person. So- could we merge?"

"If we do that- whatever that means- who will we be?"

I stared into the distance for a few seconds. "No idea."

She shook her head. "I don't want that. Maybe if we were someone else but- I want to live my life as me."

"Well... if I teach you how to fight better... somehow... can you teach me how to joke and stuff like that? How do I not scare people? Just start by telling me that."

"We don't need a deal for me to say that," Jessica breathed deep, trying to stop her crying. I had long since stopped trying to explain how either of us could do things like "cry" in the mental room. "I guess you have to think more about how the person you're talking to feels than how you feel."

"So when Kyle told me he wanted to go slow becoming his sister- I should have accepted that?"

"Yeah probably," she said in a rather frank way.

"But it feels wrong. It feels like he should love me now," I said.

Jessica looked down. "I... I don't know how to explain this right now Raven. I... I need to think."

"I need to have a family that doesn't want to kill me!" I snapped.

"Kyle doesn't want to kill you!" she shouted back. "He wouldn't do that. You don't know him. He misspoke. He just lost his dad- we all did. Stop taking everything everyone says to the most extreme and literal conclusion." Jessica clenched her fists. "We just dropped "hey, we're a split personality- heck if even we know what that means" on his head, what do you want him to do? If I had to guess what he wants to do is give us separate bodies so he can deal with us as separate people. This has to be confusing as I'll get out for the poor kid."