The Burden of Knowledge

Skye felt himself blink in and out of consciousness, and for the longest time he felt too weary to do more than flitter his eyes. Just as he was starting to feel the rest of his body wake up a little there was a light in his eyes, so bright he had to close them and the sound of voices over him. He felt as if the surface under him were moving.

He was in a hospital. As the hours went on, he lost a few more hours, after he drifted off again. He had thought that after it all happened, he would find himself at a set of gates to see his parents once more, his body renewed. Maybe deep down on some level he hoped that would happen and he would get to see his parents again. Each time he slept, if he slept long enough he had nightmares of the menacing figure of Dai Toyaka dripping in blood, slaughtering those around him.

Skye awoke later with a start to feel a little bit of warmth over him, and heard a voice of a man talking to someone, probably a nurse.
“Once he warms up, he’s going to be fine. The injuries were mild and he’s in shock.” He felt something aching on the top of his head. He tried to lift up a hand to rub it, but the arm felt unusually heavy and the hand was clumsy and clunky, he couldn’t even feel his fingers, and they didn’t seem to be working properly. He slowly opened his eyes, and saw the strangest thing standing over him.

A horse.

Dressed as a doctor.

“He’s awake.” It said turning to him, with a nurse-horse also looking down at him. He was in a hospital with a bunch of midget horses. Skye gave a startled cry and ducked under the blanket. What kind of crazy drugs had they given him? The doctor said something ,sounding confused but went on moving. The sore spot on his head ached as he brushed up against something. He took a few deep breaths. ‘It’s just the drugs’ he told himself. Though as his sight came back into focus, after being out of use so long, he noticed that there was something bright blue on him.

“Just..the drugs…” he told himself again. He went back into a deep sleep, and in the back of his mind reassured himself that this was all a very, very strange drug induced dream. At some point he heard a scream and some swearing. The voice sounded familiar, but he knew it was not Gem or Rusty. He promised himself that when he woke up, if he woke up, he would never take drugs. Ever.

The noise faded out and sometime later he realized the lights were out. Skye tried to force himself to sleep a little longer, but his body seemed to be fighting every step of the way, and the annoying ache had turned into a full on headache. Swearing under his breath he opened his eyes and pulled himself up.

He was indeed in a hospital room, with curtains pulled up around him. However he could see across from him and he noted a figure in bed. He remembered that his friends and some other people had been with him. He wondered what happened to them.

“Hello…..guys.” Had they made it? His heart almost skipped a beat when he remembered his little brother. Had Timmy made it? “Guys?” he asked again his voice sounding weaker. The silence bothered him. “G-guys…please…..please….please say somethin’. A-anythin’.” A panicking grief was starting to set in.

“YES, WE HEAR YOU!” a familiar crabby voice snapped back. He felt pure relief wash over him. Someone else was there. “Now shut up, I’m trying to sleep, Stryke!” The accent registered in his brain. Felix hadn’t been with him so that meant- Toyaka.

“You been sleeping for hours, dumbass!” Skye’s heart leapt again as he heard the familiar West Virginia accent of his best friend. The panic washed away, and he felt stupid for worrying. Of course they made it.

“You –you made it! You’re okay!” he said, fumbling around to push himself up. He tried to move out of the bed and push back the curtain but all that happed was his body collapsing to the ground. Again he saw the blue things, that were sticking out from his body. He felt them hurt as he hit the floor. “Does anybody else feel like we were given some seriously weird drugs?” The curtain pulled back and Skye saw a brown horse thing with a copper mane in a wheelchair (the way he was sitting was just weird, too) looking down at him.

“Yeah those ain’t no drugs, bro.” The horse spoke with his friend’s voice.

“…What. The. HELL. Is. Goin’ ON?” Skye tried to pull himself up but only managed to do it half way.

“Oh hey…you got a horn.” Rusty…or horse-Rusty said with a grin.

“What……?” Skye said, he looked around and looked down at himself with a sense of dread slowly setting in. “Show me.”

“You sure that’s what you want, man?”

“Show me what I look like, Rusty.” He said quietly. He must have sounded threatening because he saw his friend shrink back.

“You’re not gonna yell are ya, cuz we’ve already had Mr. Fancy Glasses over there yell, and I think people are startin’ to think we’re l’il crazy.” He said.

“I feel crazy right now.” Skye said. Rusty turned to his sister.

“ ‘ey Gem. Mirror.” He heard her sigh in annoyance.

“Can you ask politely?” Her voice sounded a bit, odd. Like she had a cold, or had been crying. Or crying with a cold.

“Oh sorry…mirror please?” He moved his wheelchair back and returned with a mirror in his mouth.

“Why are you holding in your mouth?” Rusty mumbled something, held up his hooves and shrugged. Skye moved back on the bed as his friend spat out the mirror and handed it cautiously over with two hooves.

“Still getting’ used to these things, much harder than hands.” Skye took the mirror and held it up. Staring back at him, to his dismay was a weird horseish face-light blue ,with a green and brown eye just as he had before, a yellow mane, and a horn in the middle of his forehead. He didn’t scream but lowered it right away.

“….so that’s what his magic did to us.” He said.

“I-If it helps, it looks like everyone here is like that,” Rusty said, rubbing his neck.

“…not really to be honest, but thanks for tryin’.” Skye handed the mirror over with both han-hooves, and Rusty tried to carefully pass it back, but he fumbled and it broke halfway over. “shit”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, lookin’ at that mirror will probably just make y’all feel worse.” Rusty said knocking away the shards with his foot carefully.

“Y’all? I’m one person, Rusty.” Skye said.

“I know, but Gem was having a hard time with it too, and me, and well, Mc Snotty (“OI!”). Pretty much the only one who didn’t freak was that girl with him.” Rusty lowered his voice, “to be honest, the way she’s just all cool ‘bout everythin’ kinda …it weirds me out, yanno?”

“That’s Anamaria Toyaka” Skye said, also lowering his voice “Shiro’s sister…or..half sister..or something…I don’t know…. She’s….uh….quiet.”

“Yeah, but who doesn’t wig out just a little when they’re turned into a …horse…pony thing.” Rusty said. Skye shrugged.

“How’s my brother?” He said. Rusty nodded towards the curtains on Skye’s other side.

“He’s been out the longest.” Rusty said, voice quivering, “I think he’s okay just…just…super tired or somethin’. They were fixin’ his wing last I heard.”

“Wing?” Skye asked. “So he’s a…a….a-” He forgot the word, it was on the tip of his tongue.

“A pegasus.” Rusty said, “Like Four-Eyes Mc Whatsit”

“ALLRIGHT HICK, I CAN HEAR YOU” Shiro snapped from the other side of the room, “If you don’t stop calling me shit-“Rusty waved a hoof at him, but then lowered it, face falling.

“Aw shoot, I keep forgettin’ I don’t have fingers anymore.”

“Boys” Anamaria said, “Both of you stop being childish, we have enough problems.” Skye was a little stunned. The last times he heard her speak, at the Psi Convention and the airport, she had a soft mousy sort of voice, and last time he had seen her she looked like she would burst into tears at a harsh word. Now, well she had a similar voice, but it was rather sharp and commanding for someone only a year younger than he. She was also a unicorn , he noticed.

“She’s right.” Gem sniffled a bit and he could hear her shuffling around in her bed. “We need…”sniff “we need to figure out how we’re going to get back home-“ There was a sigh from Shiro.

“As much as I hate to say….it’s Dai, which means, it’s highly possible that we can’t go back.” He fidgeted and moved in an upright position with his bandaged wings resting against a pillow. “Crazy bastard he may be, he is very particular about his magic nonsense. What he did , it would practically be considered an act of high treason in our family…..so if he were going to take that chance, he’d do his homework on it.” Gem made a gasping noise in despair, and for a moment Skye saw a look of remorse on Shiro’s face. “I’m sorry.”

“B-but…he’s crazy isn’t he?” Rusty argued, “He’s nuts, which means, he might have…I don’t know, done something wrong, or forgot something.”

“No. He is crazy, but when he wants to be, he’s damn competent.” Shiro said annoyed, “Hell we’re lucky to be alive, really. Knowing his sick twisted mind”

“Quit…quit tryin’ to mess with us man” Rusty said, starting to look panicked, “she’s upset enough…”He was probably trying to convince himself of this, like Skye was. Shiro was untrustworthy, one of the enemies. That’s what Felix had told him, what he had learned from his time with his dad’s family. The Toyakas were responsible for his father’s death, according to the file he found in Dex’s office.

“TRYING TO MESS WITH YOU?” Shiro leaned forward looking furious and one of his wings flapped ungracefully, “d-do you think I want to be here, stuck in this place with you, stranded forever, you idiot!”

“BOYS! For heaven’s sake!” Anamaria said, “No, Shiro was targeted just as you were for similar reasons. Dai, as far as I know, never liked him very much.”

“But…”Skye said trying to speak above Shiro’s angry muttering. “They’re still related aren’t they? Still family? Still on the same side?”

“OBVIOUSLY Dai didn’t think so, halfwit or I wouldn’t be here.” Shiro was fuming. Anamaria shook her head in annoyance.

“Same side?” She said sounding uncharacteristically derisive, “Am I to assume that’s the way the Stryke family works? You’re all on the same side, and all have the very same opinions. There’s no one who disagrees, no one who thinks the head of household is wrong. Everyone always works together because you’re all related? Hm?” Skye gritted his teeth, infuriated by her words and the mocking way she said them.

He thought of Leandra’s treatment of him and his brother, and her dislike of his late grandfather. Her cultist father and his distrust of Skye and his family’s ‘branch’. He thought of how his father was seen throughout the family and community as a troublemaker, and a failure, and how some of the relatives had never bothered to show their disdain for him even after his death.

How Dex had told them that night , when Skye finally confronted him, that one of “the Stryke’s own “ had put money toward Elliott Stryke Sr. and his wife’s death, and Skye remembered how he knew exactly who it was months later when he was in the hospital hearing Rexford Hamilton tell he , Timmy, and Felix that they were disowned.

“No” he said angrily, “we don’t, in case you didn’t know, my father was their kicking bag, and my grandfather was hated constantly for mistake he made years ago. And everyone knows Rex is crazy as hell”

“Then why should you assume any different of us?” Anamaria said, “Are we not just like you?”

“No!” Skye said defiantly, “Because……because…you…”

“Yes, we have a poor leader and an unfavorable reputation.” She shrugged, “and you don’t?” Skye stared back angry and furiously trying to think of a response. But he had none. The Strykes had a reputation that he had seen in action when he lived there, as being self righteous and incredibly proud. But the Toyakas weren’t like other families. That’s what Felix had told him. “They’re like a bloody army for their mad leader.” Many people he had talked to had similar things to say. The Toyakas were, vicious, willing to do whatever it took, and out for themselves.

“Whatever…..” He said sighing heavily. “Let’s…give the past stuff a rest, all right.” He said. Shiro laughed harshly.

“You’re only saying that because you won’t admit she’s right.” He said. Ana shot her brother a severe look making him falter and sink under the covers sheepishly.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea. The past is past and the old family grudge means nothing to a world that doesn’t know it.” Skye nodded, reluctantly agreeing for now. He looked back to the curtains where his brother was, wishing he could see him.

He had to know, and it made him downright uncomfortable to be kept guessing. He had almost lost his brother not even a year ago, when he was admitted to the hospital for a tonsil removal. He was told something had gone wrong, in a routine operation that should have been easy. For one horrible hour, he thought his brother had been dead. He remembered horrible things that had been looming in the back of his mind for years, too much for him to cope with. Something inside him had almost shut down, as he felt that once the only remainder of his immediate family was gone, he had no purpose, no use.

Skye tried to sleep, tossing and turning and trying not to hit his stupid horn on anything so he wouldn’t get another headache. He awoke every now and then and watched the curtains listening for something. Soon his patience was rewarded with the sound of breathing.

Timmy was alive.

That was enough to allow him to rest for the time being. His body was worn out by all the emotions going through him. Though, a question remained in the back of his mind. How had all of them survived for so long out there? How did they not freeze to death?

*****

Twilight had thought that once Winter Wrap Up was done she would have a lot off her mind. She was wrong, now since the discovery of the ponies in the snow; she had more on her mind than ever. The discovery had left many of them, those who had seen it, quite shaken. She would have wondered if this had something to do with what was going on in the Crystal Empire, but they weren’t Crystal Ponies. One afternoon, she found herself off the ground after she spent so much time pacing.

Shining Armor hadn’t said anything else about his situation, except for, that Cadence was stressed and he had to keep things under control in the Crystal Empire. That bothered her. She wished she knew what he meant about Cadence being stressed. She had seemed fine we they last saw her and she had even given Twilight tips on de-stressing. Something had to be going on.

“Are you okay Twilight?” She heard Spike ask.

“Yeah….I’m fine, just go back to bed Spike.” She said, “I was just…uh thinking.”

“It’s the middle of the night. Shouldn’t you get some sleep?”

“I’m fine, just go back to bed.” Twilight insisted. He shrugged and went back to bed and she went back to her pacing. She decided that pressuring Shining into telling her would only make things worse, and she didn’t want to bother him while he was dealing with all this. She should deal with what she could handle. That is, the strange ponies.

And maybe she should try getting some sleep.

*****

Dr. Horse looked over the scans he had done, still a bit confused about his newest patients. They were mostly fine physically aside from bruises and wing problems, which was odd after the state he had seen them in splattered with blood (though not too terribly wounded). The only thing that bothered him was their mental state. They acted strange, like they weren’t used to their limbs, and couldn’t walk properly. The youngest of them was extremely sluggish, only seeming to wake up once in a while, and he was pretty certain it was not healthy for a colt older than three to be sleeping more than twelve hours a day. None of them had even mentioned their names.

He had tried to talk to the older ones, and ask them questions about what happened, but they always shrugged and said they couldn’t remember. He didn’t buy it. They would occasionally be heard talking about things he didn’t understand (unless they saw him and they would just go quiet) and the earth pony mare certainly wasn’t crying about nothing. But he was advised not to push the issue. Nurse Redheart had told him it would probably only cause them to clam up more or feel threatened. When he returned to their room he was surprised to find that the colt had moved. He sat at the foot of the light blue unicorn’s bed. But, he was sleeping, again.

“Well, it seems some progress has been made.” He said going over to check on him. Though he wondered. Did the colt actually move of his own choice…or had the unicorn moved him. There was a wheelchair hastily shoved next to the bed. “Did he move here by himself?” The older colt stiffened.

“….he woke up. And uh…he wanted to be closer.” He said. Dr. Horse nodded. Right.

“Son, did you move him? You have to be very careful-”

“He said he wanted to move.” The unicorn insisted, “Besides, I’m his brother.”

“I understand but you’re not a licensed doctor, are you?” He noticed the unicorn look down rubbing his hooves together nervously.

“No…” The little one curled up tighter as Dr. Horse got close.

“Ah d-don’ wanna move.” If it weren’t for the fact that he was a pegasus, Dr. Horse would have sworn that the child could have been part of the Apple family with that drawl, the sunny colored hide and freckles on his face “a-ah w-wanna stay w-with h-him.” The older sibling gave a ‘what-did-I-tell-you’ look. Dr Horse sighed.

“Fine, but just let me have a look at your wings.” The child nodded and tried to move his wings, only succeeding in a few weak flaps. Dr. Horse used a spell to hold out one bandaged wing and look over it. He carefully inspected the wing and then changed the bandages and moved to the other, feeling the older brother’s eyes on him as he worked. He had to admit; the child was quiet and cooperated better than the other pegasus of the group.

In the end he was relieved to move on to the easier patients, but disappointed that he didn’t get anything out of the strange bunch.

*****

“Are you sure you want to do that darling?” Rarity said as Twilight told her what she was thinking about.

“I can’t stop thinking about them, lying out there in the snow, I guess I just want to know they’re allright, and maybe I can find out what happened.” She said. She had been worrying about what had caused the shocking sight in front of them and what it might mean for Ponyville. In her worst dreams she had seen some horrible shadow lurking just inside the forest. She went to Zecora and asked if she had seen anything happen, anything dangerous around.

No ferocious monsters, just a unicorn with a sled. She briefly wondered if that unicorn might have been the one …but then she dismissed it. She just couldn’t imagine that another pony could do something like this. Why they would want to?

“Besides if there is a threat to Ponyville , it’s my responsibility to take care of it. I’m the Princess.”

“About time you acknowledged it-“

“Rarity” Applejack said warningly. “I agree with Twilight. I think we should go see how they’re doin’ , if they’re allright, and find out what happened to ‘em. Apple Bloom has been just beggin’ me to be able to go visit Zecora, but I just can’t rest thinkin’ there’s something out there that might hurt her.”

“I wasn’t disagreeing dear. And I do agree. I’ve been telling Mother and Father to keep a careful eye on Sweetie Belle. I simply couldn’t imagine if something happened to her.” There were a few mutters from the rest of the group.

“Yeah, it would be cool to see if they’re okay.” Rainbow Dash said as a few eyes turned on her.

“Hey maybe we can throw a hospital party for them” Pinkie Pie suggested.

“…I don’t know about that, they probably still need time to rest.” Twilight said. She imagined that a surprise party might do more harm than good. After whatever they’d been through, surprises might not be a good idea. What had they been through?

The mares decided and made the trip to the hospital and Twilight explained to the desk pony that they were coming to visit some ponies.

“Names?”

“We don’t know, we just know that we found them on Winter Wrap Up…”

“Ohh those ponies…” she said sighing, “Let me get Dr. Horse…” She walked off for a moment and came back with one of the head doctors.

“Hello, we’re here to see-“

“-how the Winter Wrap Up Ponies are doing?” Dr. Horse finished.

“Don’t you know their names by now?” Twilight asked. Had they been calling them the Winter Wrap Up Ponies all this time?

“No, actually. None of them have told us. We’ve tried asking who they are, who their parents are, nothing.” He said. “They just keep evading our questions, saying they can’t remember. I think one of them told me ‘no ahblo ingles’ at some point…whatever that means.” He led them toward a room. “Normally we would only let family see them, but they don’t seem to have any family.” Twilight frowned not sure she had heard right. No ahblo ingles… was that some sort of code or cipher?

He led them into the room. The first thing she realized is that she was relieved they were alive. She would have hated to hear that the ponies they worked so hard to save died anyway. She looked around at them all. The first thing she noticed was that they were all in pairs, two unicorn and pegasus pairs and one earth pony pair.

“This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, and the Elements of Harmony, they found you out in the snow.” The nurse said. Twilight tried not to wince at being addressed as such, and she noticed some of the surprised looks the Winter-Wrap-Up ponies had. The last thing she needed was for them to be afraid of her.

“Thank you, but, we’d like to talk to them alone if that’s all right.” The doctor and nurse looked surprised but did as she said. Aside from the sound of the door locking it was all quiet. “Well, I’m glad to see you’re all okay. “

“….uh thanks,” the light blue unicorn stallion was the first to talk, and the accent he spoke with was similar to Applejack’s. “For savin’ us. If it weren’t for you we probably would have frozen to death.” The others nodded and muttered quiet ‘thank you’s.

“No problem” Rainbow Dash said. “We couldn’t just let you lie out there.”

“Now, we have some questions to ask you” Twilight said, noticing as they looked nervous again. “First off, what happened to you?” There was a heavy silence, only broken by the sounds of coughing, throat clearing and shuffling of hooves. The smallest of the ponies, the yellow pegasus colt curled up, seemingly looking like he was sleeping. Rainbow sighed in frustration and Applejack gave her a nudge. “We know that something terrible happened, and you’re all really scared, but we want to help you.”

“It’s….more complicated than that.” The other unicorn, a violet colored young mare who spoke in a high class accent said. She sat next to dark blue pegasus with bandaged wings. “Nobody would believe it.”

“We’ve seen a lot of stuff, like chaos taking over the world, and faced Nightmare Moon which everyone thought was an old mare’s tale. “ Rainbow Dash said confidentially.

“This is different though.” She said, “It’s so…completely crazy that even we couldn’t believe it at first.”

“…ya know maybe before we get into the heavy stuff we should ask names.” Applejack suggested. The young earth pony mare gave a weak sarcastic little laugh.

“Believe me, we’d love that too, but well…..our names are different from your names. They won’t make sense until you know the rest of the story.”

“And…uh….I don’t think you’ll like the rest of the story.” The male unicorn said.

“Okay we get it, it’s terrible” Rainbow Dash said, “Can you guys just quit beating around the bush and tell us already?” She hovered in the air above the rest of them.

“Rainbow!” Twilight , Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy said all said at once.

“Dear, we understand that you and your friends have been through a lot. We promise that, unless you did anything, which we don’t think you did that we won’t judge you, if that’s what you’re afraid of.” Rarity said. The younger group of ponies all looked at each other , again, and the young unicorn stallion sighed.

“If you say so.” He turned to the pegasus on the other side of the room. “Toyaka…wake up, we’re going to need your help in telling this.” The pegasus grumbled and pulled himself up.

“I wasn’t sleeping….” He clumsily rubbed his head with his hooves and readjusted his position. “okay….okay…..let me think. It’s a bit of long story but well we came from somewhere else, and our bodies were…erm….in a very different form. It was one he- er a real shock waking up in these bodies. We’re not …er not ponies”

“Not ponies?” Twilight , as well as her friends repeated, some shocked and others curious. Twilight herself felt rather confused. She couldn’t think of anything else they could be.

“No….we’re different but that’s a whole other story to get into later.” He said.

“Could your other bodies use magic?” Twilight asked.

“Yes and no…?” the pegasus said, “Some of us have abilities that others don’t. There’s two sorts…Psi who have inborn …mutations I think is the right word…”

“Mutations? Rainbow Dash asked, “So you have super powers like the Power Ponies?” The pegasus laughed dryly, almost bitterly.

“Super powers….I wouldn’t quite say that. ANYway ….some of us have these powers which we gain at childhood and slowly adapt to. Others don’t have them and, well the two groups reacted to each other about as well as you’d expect at first, fighting, hating , sometimes killing each other…”

“Oh my….” Rarity said.

“Ponies had the same thing, it’s what the Hearth’s Warming Eve was all about” Applejack said, “Setting aside our differences and learnin’ to get along.”

“Yeah…..see our …uh ‘people’ didn’t have tha-“

“You called yourselves people?” Rainbow Dash said trying to hide her snickering. “What kind of name is that?” The pegasus growled, probably annoyed at being interrupted again.

“I don’t know why do you call yourselves ponies?” he snapped. That stopped Rainbow’s snickering.

“because…well…we always have! It just …” she struggled with her answer, ”It’s just what we’ve always done!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight said. She had to admit, she really couldn’t think of why ponykind called themselves ponies either. They just….did. “Please continue.” It felt weird not being able to call the other ponies something.

“Okay…so our people, well we haven’t quite worked that whole peace bit out. After Psikind was hunted and hated for a good while, we went into hiding and developed secrecy codes. Nobody trusted the mundane enough to try and hash things out. But then again that’s what happens when someone hunts you down , tortures and kills you.” Twilight and Applejack exchanged looks as Applejack mouthed “kill?”. Murders were fairly rare among ponies ever since the beginning of Alicorn rule. It was considered something that monsters did, more often than not. Torture was equally as foreign. Twilight could understand what the Winter Wrap Up Ponies meant when they said she and her friends wouldn’t like it.

It would only get worse from there.

*****

The search parties lasted nearly all night and were all infuriatingly fruitless. Nobody had seen or heard from Skye Stryke or his friends. Marina couldn’t fault the parents who went home to their little ones. Every time she saw someone coming out her heart would leap in hopes that with them would be her nephews and Theresa and Duane’s kids and every time it crashed back down when the searchers returned alone with a solemn “sorry”. All she could think about is what she should have done when Skye took off to find his brother.

By the time the sun rose over the small community, she felt almost crushed enough to cry. In the end only she, Felix, Caleb, their friend and Theresa and Duane were out looking.

“I’m sorry about this” she said, “But we’ll find them. So help me God, I won’t stop lookin’ til we do.”

“We’ll keep our eyes out.” Duane said. Marina noticed that Theresa wasn’t saying anything, just looking hopeless and angry.

“I never shoulda let them go…” she said.

“I know…same here…” Marina said.

“I never should have let them run off with him.” Marina looked up.

“Wait…wait a moment….what?” she said. , “Theresa, what are you talking about?” Her husband started to say something but Theresa held up a hand.

“I’m sorry but, well. Let’s look at facts. Ever since….ever since last year there’s been nothing but trouble surrounding the Strykes, and then, my kids went off for the summer to my mom, and catch up with him, and then they wind up threatened by guards in an office in the middle of the night, helping Skye Stryke. Then, on their way home, they get kidnapped by Skye Stryke’s older brother. Then they come home, and now they’re gone after going out somewhere with Skye Stryke. Notice a pattern?”

“Are you saying-“

“I’m saying that maybe, as much as Duane and I like the kid, he’s been nothing but a dangerous influence. Everything weird that has ever happened to them can be tied back to your nephew. You can’t deny that!” Duane finally got a word in over his wife.

“I think we should leave before we say things we all regret.” He said. But as he led her out, what he said to Marina cut like a knife. “I’m sorry for your loss, Marina but try to remember that your kids aren’t the only ones missing.” Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed like “and it was because of your sister’s kid” was what he wanted to say. The last people left leaving Felix and Marina alone.

Her best friends blamed her.

No, they blamed her nephew, which to be honest still felt just as bad. The two of them walked to her home in silence. Marina had the brief urge to yell at, or throttle Felix for not being there. But she knew that wasn’t fair. Felix was gone, trying to get a job and he had no idea anything had happened.

She had known Skye and Timmy since they were born. It was true that a lot of things seemed to befall her sister after she married Elliott Stryke, and because of that Marina had spent an entire year after their deaths trying to not hate her late brother in law and trying not to blame herself for telling Melanie to pursue her feelings for him in the first place. So she could understand how her old college friend was feeling. But still she didn’t want to accept it. Skye was a good kid! He had always been a good kid, and it certainly wasn’t his fault he was born into the Strykes’ mess. She paced around the island thinking about what to do. Felix had already tried calling Skye’s phone, but there was no answer.

A though occurred to her as she passed by the phone for the fifth time. Before Skye and Timmy returned to the United States, she got a call from none other than Elliott Stryke’s estranged older son Dex, saying that the boys were coming back, and they would need her. It had been very strange since, the last time she saw the punk, he hated his father and did whatever he could to make the Strykes miserable. Then Skye came back and told her everything he found out, and she wanted to wring Dex’s neck even more.

She dialed the number, which she had copied down after she got the call, being still wary enough of Dex to want to keep tabs on him. She had a lot to say to him and none of it was fit for anyone under …maybe fifteen to hear (good thing Felix was an adult). “Pick up you little…”

Voicemail.

“DAMN IT!” she tried again and got the same. “That slippery bastard!”

“Not picking up?” Felix said.

“Of course not” she said , “hell knowing him I wouldn’t be surprised if this had Toyaka fingerprints all over it.” The two of them paused for a moment and looked at each other.

“….maybe we’re looking for the wrong person.” Felix said.

“You think?” Marina looked back at the phone. “Well….it beats waiting around for my parents to call. “ They both headed for her car, and then tore out of the driveway. She had not been looking forward to hearing whatever her parents had to say, no doubt it would be blaming her, as if she didn’t blame herself enough already. Better to get something done than wait around squabbling over whose fault it was. “Felix, do you have the numbers of anyone else in the Toyaka family?”

“A few….I have Dex….we already called him ….and I have Shiro, don’t know why.”

“Shiro , the kid from the airport?”

“Yeah….”

“Try him, for all we know maybe the kid knows something and we can get it out of him.” She said. Normally she wasn’t one to advocate browbeating children for information, even bratty rich ones, but right now Melanie’s kids were missing, her (possibly ex) best friend’s kids were missing and she was running on a night of no sleep. It didn’t seem like a bad idea at this point.