Chapter 44

                                    

                                          
Neon's P.O.V.:
He looked at me, right at me. I could only see the glow of one eye, so it was really him. The constant flashes of lightning made it clear. 
I was frozen, I couldn't move, speak, anything. I was paralyzed. I never would have expected him to help us, and all by himself. By himself he managed to rescue all of us. Seeing him in the flesh again felt weird. 
One moment he was there, looking at me, and the next, he was gone in an instant. He disappeared into the night, leaving us once again. 
'What?' I thought. 'No, he was right there'.
He just came out of no where, destroyed the entire facility, rescued all of us, and then left? Just like that? 
"What was that?", Iso asks. 
I couldn't answer him, I didn't know how to speak. 
"That was the man you hoped would help us. That was Shatter", Jett spoke up. 
I heard steps behind us, and we turned around to see Brimstone and everyone else. I guess he had broken them out too. 

Y/N P.O.V.:
I looked down from the trees. Only at her, though. My eye was incapable of looking at anything else. 
I watched as Brimstone came in, and they ran away, escaping. Which was the only validation that I needed.
"They're safe", I said. 
I jumped down from the trees, and looked at her one last time, before leaving. My job was done, and there was no other reason for me to be here. 
I created a portal, and walked through, back to the place I was before. I was met with Mr. Valdez, who seemed extremely jumpy when I returned. 
"They are fine, I destroyed the facility and got everyone out. She is safe", I told him. 
He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god. Thank you y/n", he said. 
He sat back down on the patio of the house, incomplete of course. I watched as he allowed himself to breathe a little, he was probably worried sick. 
I looked at the sword in my hand, remembering that he had given it to me to save them, he probably wanted it back. I stuck the sword out to him, and he looked up at me. 
"No, it's yours. Whether or not your power is too dangerous for the world, it belongs to you. Keep it", he said. 
I put my hand back to the side, accepting the weapon. 
"Thank you, Mr. Valdez", I said. 
"No, thank you. The world needs the protocol, and I need my daughter. You gave both, and I owe you one", he said. 
"You don't owe me anything", I answered. 
He stopped me quickly, "But I do. You saved the most important thing to me. One day, when you become a father, you'll understand what it feels like to know that there is someone who will be there when you can't", he said. 
He was right, I guess I had yet to experience that kind of thing. 
"Also..."
I turned my head back to face him again. 
"I hope you consider going back to the Protocol. Especially now, the protocol will probably be splitting up and going into hiding. The protocol has been compromised, twice now. Once from Omega and now Kingdom. When that happens, the protocol has a contingency plan to ensure the safety of everyone, where everyone splits off to other parts of the world to make them harder to track", he said. 
I was initially going to answer 'no' without even thinking about it, but now that he said all of that, I was briefly considering it. 
"They will have to deal with Omega later, but for now, they have to worry about the enemies on the home world. They can't fight something else if they're being attacked from the inside. That's going to cause a lot more stress and work on their side", he said. 
That made sense, but I was still a little reluctant. 
"Y/N, if anything else, none of the other agents knew about your powers. Only me, Brimstone, Sage, and Tala knew. Brimstone and I agreed to keep it from you, Sage eventually agreed, but Tala had no choice, so if you have any form of resentment for the protocol or for her, it should be on me, Brimstone may have told you it was for the safety of the world, but he would be lying if he said your safety wasn't his main priority", he said. 
I sighed, he was right. I was being childish, though I had a right to be to some extent, it was a little to much. 
"You're annoyingly persuasive", I commented. 
"I take it you'll consider it?", he asked. 
I nodded my head. "I'll think about it", I said. 
"Please, just keep an eye on her. All of the others have a mastery of their abilities, but despite all her training, she is still new to it, and is still learning. She needs someone to be around, and you don't have to actually talk to her, you can watch her from afar until you feel the time is right", he said. 
He nodded back, before grabbing some of his things and putting them back in his car. 
"Well may be I can persuade you further. I have a question for you y/n", he said. 
"What is that?", I asked. 
"What do you fight for? Seriously", he asked. 
"I fight to protect the people who need to be protected", I answered. 
"No, that's not it. You were running until they found you. What made you change your mind? Why then?", he asked more specifically. 
I paused, but eventually answered him. 
"I was going to die in that forest with this jammed in my chest, and then, I held no hope that anyone would help me. But she did, she looked at me like no one ever had, it made me feel like I wasn't alone anymore. Then Sage after helped me even after I attacked her. They showed me that the world still had something beautiful, and not everything was out to kill me," I started. He listened intently as I spoke.
"When I first got these damned powers, I hated them, I hated them and everything that I had been through to get them. I felt like I could never go back to my life after I got them, and maybe in some ways that's still true. But they didn't look at me like I was a monster, they looked at me like I was their equals. I fight not only to protect the weak, but to protect the people who make me feel normal", I finished my explanation. 
It was true. While I always said I fought to protect innocent people, it was only half true. I knew that I also fought to keep them safe, because I don't know what I'd do if they were truly gone forever. I wouldn't, I couldn't live like that again, being alone was a cold and crushing feeling. 
"See, that's part of your issue. You don't know what you feel, and you can't be honest with yourself because you feel as if the truth is wrong. You need to let go, and remember what you fight for", he said. 
I guess this was just the Mr. Valdez wisdom, because it was getting to me. 
"Well, I must be off now, I'll keep in contact with you if you wish to do what we discussed", he said.
He stuck out his hand, and I shook it. It was a mutual respect between the two of us, something I didn't have with many people. 
"Thank you, y/n", he said. 
"Anytime", I replied. 

Word count: 1323
Hey y'all. Guess who had four tests this week. Yep, it was yours truly. Chemistry, Calculus, Spanish, Biology, Literature. All the big ones of course, and kicking my ass. But here, have this as my gift of procrastination. Thanks for reading.