No Turning back (attn: Demus)

[Matalina]

It had been only a few days since Aiden and Kate had talked to Taylor about what was really going on at the Ranch.  He had suspected that there was more to it than just the horses but Taylor couldn't really say what his mother did.  Aiden knew one person who would know, he too was a Darkfriend and close to his mom. Demus was his next source of information, he wanted to be like his mother and Demus, they seemed to share that bond as well, as colleagues as well as friends and more.  Aiden was glad that his mom was happy, it had been a while since she had been.

 

Aiden found Demus walking into his house, he ran to catch up.  "Demus, can we talk a miniute?"  Demus smile lite his tanned skin, it was a lot darker now that he worked her, than when he had arrived, it had always had color, his mother said it was because he was Domani like Rachel and Miss Gretchen.  He hardly remembered them but he did a little.  Aiden walked into the house behind Demus and closed the door polietly.

 

"I've talked with Taylor."  Aiden flashed a sign a bit awkwardly at Demus and the reaction he got was a bit more frightened than he'd have expected to see.  "I know what it means, and I don't think I did it right I'm still practicing, but I know what it means and I am one."

 

Aiden

[TaeaDawn]

Demus found himself completely at a loss.  It was automatic to flash the message back to the young man after seeing his fingers making the signal, but he wished the gesture had been delayed and he could take it back as soon as he realized what he'd done.  Oh, burn him for a Light fool, he had no idea how to respond to Cari's son flashing Dark friend signs at him and obviously wanting to talk about it.  He'd have to talk to her tonight, have to let her know her son was going to get himself in trouble if he did that too often or to the wrong person.  He might flash it at the wrong time and as akward as he was with it, he just might draw attention to it.

 

He took a deep breath and thought about what to say.  "Taylor told you want that sign means?" He asked with a hint of doubt in his voice.  "And what exactly did he tell you?" He hoped it wasn't what he was saying, that somehow the boy had seen the sign by mistake and Aiden was making up some sort of meaning to it.

 

Demus :P

[Matalina]

Aiden knew it would take some convincing to get Demus to actually start training him and he really hoped he could convince him not to tell his mother.  He wasn't ready to deal with that.

 

He didn't smile, it wasn't a pleasant thought to know that you now were on the other side of the fence.  He knew life would be different but how different he would never know for sure.  "Taylor told Kate and I that it was a sign for Darkfriends to identify one another with out saying it for the world to hear."

 

He didn't want Demus to interrupt so he continued on quickly, "I've know things were off for a while now.  Mom, comes home with new cuts or she slinks off to the basement and comes back in a violent mood that only few things seems to satisfy."  He didn't know what those things were but he knew that she usually went off to do other things, he never followed, he didn't want to know how disturbed his mother really was.  She was had to understand, but both he and Kate knew she was having troubles, her personalities were getting stronger, they knew that.

 

"We swore to serve the Dark ... Great Lord loyally in front of Taylor, not that a 9 year old is the best of witnesses, but it's also why I'm here.  I want to serve him as you do, and my mother.  I want to learn what you know and help in this fight.  I know I'm little now, but there must be something I can do to help.  If you and Mom think it's the right way, then I must beleive it is so too."

 

Aiden

[TaeaDawn]

Demus pushed himself up from his chair, stretching his legs and trying to think of something to say.  It wasn't right for a 9 year old to be knowing about these sort of things.  He loved Cari, he'd come to terms with that on his own, but she had a lot of trouble and her kids were going to pay for it now.  They've seen enough of her to know things weren't right and now Demus was trying to figure out how to keep things from getting even worse.  Of course, he had been this protective of her kids since he had first come to the Ranch, when he had barely known Cari but even then he had tried to shelter them from what their mother was really like.  There was no way around this.

 

"You swore oaths in front of Taylor?"  He shook his head.  "Wait.  We?  Kate as well?"  He started pacing, then went over and sat across from Aiden again.  "Look, it doesn't work like this.  You don't do something like this because I might be something or your mother might be something.  This is something you decide for yourself because YOU think it's best.  No one else." 

 

He could see Aiden getting upset and it was the last thing he wanted.  Still, he wanted to make sure Aiden knew what he was saying.  Oaths in front of a 9 year old could be passed off as nothing, but then again a single witness that they hadn't seen could make trouble.  And there was never any telling how the Dark Lord knew which were his servants and which weren't.  Was it enough to say an oath?  Or did you have to do a deed to make it real?  He feared all too well that it was the first.  He'd been sent to find too many Dark Friends who had spoken oaths in the night and had never expected to have to deal with it in the light of day.  "Why do you think this is the right thing to do?"  The Great Lord help him if he didn't like the answer.     

 

Demus Nolorean

[Matalina]

"We talked with Taylor.  He was raised to beleive the Great Lord would bring new life to the world and those who serve him loyaly and to some eternal life.  Not that I want that." He smiled at Demus.  "What does the light stand for?  Good?  Why?"  Aiden knew his lessons well he knew that good wasn't always good.  "I mean Hawkwing started taking over the world to better it, how is it different from what the Great Lord wants to do?  Everyone says that he's evil bad but how do they know."

 

Aiden sat down on the floor to think.  "We didn't choose this because our mom is one or because you are or even Taylor, though it does help to do it. I choose to follow this path because I beleive I can help, help bring the Great Lord to power, and if I get rewarded okay, but mother has taught me to watch and learn and while my mother is strange, for a lack of a nice word to say she isn't always that way.  She's a good person inside.  We've all seen it.  You aren't always a bad person." 

 

But that really wasn't the reason either he and Kate just wanted their mother better.  "But if I serve well maybe the Great Lord will see fit to help Mom."

 

Aiden

[TaeaDawn]

He took a deep breath and tried to figure out what to say next.  He'd give a lot to be able to help Cari out but as much as he was a true follower, he didn't believe the Great Lord was ever likely to reward someone like him, no matter how many  Lightfools he took out of the world. 

 

"I..." It was easier to try to take on the first part than the last so he went with that.  "Yes, I can be a good person but listen to what you said.  I can be a good person too.  Meaning that you already believe that the things I might be doing are 'bad'."  he shook his head then.  "Look Aiden, I can't make a choice like this for you or for Kate.  It's not one I would have liked to have seen because there is a lot of danger in it, but you have to decide for yourself what side to take.  But doing it because you think they'll help your Mom... if the Great Lord was willing to help her out, don't you think he would have already?  Don't you think if he was going to give us all rewards like that, that i'd have asked for it  already?"

 

He wasn't making any comment about Cari and what she believed... he wasn't even acknowledging that she was no matter that Aiden knew already.  "I chose this life because in the end I didn't believe in the 'good' side and the 'bad' side.    "  He looked at Aiden and made a choice then to share his past with the boy, something he'd never done before.  "When I was little my father was a Child of the Light.  My mother was Domani and though she loved my father with all her heart, the other Children talked about her behind his back, making lewd comments about her because of her origins.  When my father died, she left to go home because they wouldn't allow her to be just a widow.  She was always going to be a whore in their eyes, just because of where she was from.  These were the 'good' men.  These were the men that were supposed to be upholding the Light.  They wouldn't even look at her for who she was.  So I left with her.  I met a Darkfriend in Arad Doman after we had moved.  He was a great guy and nobody suspected what he was.  A great guy.  He gave to pepole who needed help.  He helped pay for some kid off the street to get medicine when he was sick.  Things I saw with my own eyes.  And this was the 'bad' guy.  In the end, I came to believe there was no good or bad.  Whoever wins this war will rewrite history to say that they were the 'good' guys.  The things I do... are not good, but they help win wars.  And yes, in small ways I am rewarded for my services.  But you and Kate both need to think about what you're doing Aiden.  This isn't a path to take lightly."

 

He wasn't talking down to the boy and he wasn't certain he was even trying to talk him into or out of it.  But it was a dnagerous path to take in a world of Lightfools, even sheltered at the Ranch as they were.  Blood and bloody ashes.. how was he going to tell Cari about this?

 

Demus 

[Matalina]

"See you make the same point I see.  Mother helped you for no reason.  I know my Mom is not always good.  I see the things other people have done in the name of the Light.  I hear about it at school.  I mean look how my big brother had to run away from the Children of the Light because he was different.  He was a part of them and they wouldn't accept him."

 

He hung his head, Aiden was feeling slightly defeated in having to explain himself to Demus but he knew that Demus was only looking out for him.  "I know this is dangerous.  And if you and mother teach me, Kate and I will be just as careful as you are."  He didn't say both of them because he didn't suspect his mother was as careful as she could be, how could she with those personalities in her head.  He shivered at the thoughts of what else could lie inside her head.  "I know you would ask for help for mother too.  It can't hurt to try.  I don't need to be rewarded to do what's right, even if the world doesn't beleive it's the right way.  Every bad person I've known is better than most of the good ones."

 

"I just want you to teach me so that when it's dangerous I will know what to do.  I want to do this, Demus, I really do, and so does Kate."

 

Aiden

[TaeaDawn]

There was no way he could change Aiden's mind and he wasn't the boys father to try to force things.  Bloody ashes, he wasn't even a lightfool.  His father had been a Child of the Light just as Jeffrey had and his family had received the same sort of loyalty that Jeffrey had.  It was the first thing that had helped him to understand the real difference in right and wrong.  But he cared about the kids and didn't want either of them to make such hasty decisions about something that would effect their entire lives.  Still, he had something in mind that just might help them both out.

 

"Look... it's your decision.  But the first thing you do, don't show that symbol until you practice it a little more.  You need to make it very subtle so you don't draw attention to it.  If you're looking for the right people, they'll see it no matter how small you make it.  Second, don't talk to anyone else about what you just told me.  I don't want you to talk about it at all, but think.  Think hard and long before you make this sort of claim again.  I'm not telling you it's right or wrong, but this is important.  You tell your sister the same thing."

 

"And lastly... what do you want to learn?  Because I can teach you things whether you claim to be a Darkfriend or not."  He gave Aiden a small smile then, the first her had permitted since the conversation began.  "It's only fitting since your Mom trained me so well."

 

Demus     

[Matalina]

Aiden smiled.  "I don't know.  I want to know more about what Mom does when she's away, and what you do cause she teaches you  too."

 

Aiden decided before they went any further he had to make sure Demus wouldn't tell his mom. "Please don't tell my mom.  We will tell her after she can't make us turn around.  I'll take the punishment she gives, but I want to do this.  Demus, we've thought about it along time.  We know what's at stake and we want to be a part of this.  Please don't tell Mother yet."  he nearly got down on his knees to beg but he knew better than that.

 

Aiden

[TaeaDawn]

Well that certainly was a problem.  Maybe they'd be willing to take the punishment for what they were doing behind Cari's back, but was he?  He had no idea how she would react to finding out her children had decided to follow after the dark side of her.  She was a loving mother, true, and one of the most ruthless people he knew.  If she decided to be upset with him there was little he could do about it.  It also meant trying to keep some of their training secret and it was hard to keep secrets around the Ranch.  Oh sure, everyone had their little tricks, but the place was full of people who made a living on paying attention to small details. 

 

He took a deep breath.  "Yes, but what happens when she finds out i've been teaching you behind her back?"  he asked.  "You say you are willing to suffer the punishment, but I have no doubt she would go a tad lighter on your hides than she would mine."  He didn't know how to say no to this though.  How to deny Aiden.  Curse him for a light fool, he was apparently no better able to say no to Aiden than to Kate.  "I'll keep your secret, but keep in mind what you're asking of me.  Anyone you ask to hold a secret for you holds a piece of you and you a piece of them.  If I chose to tell your mother without your knowledge it would be harder for you to get her acceptance.  If you told her without me, it would put my relationship to her in question, and certainly her trust in me.  Consider that lesson number one."  He said with a smile

 

demus

[Matalina]

"So either way I'm going to be messing something up."  Aiden sighed.  "So what's lesson number two?"  He was eager to get started, he wanted to learn quickly and he knew he needed to tell his mother sooner rather than later, and figure out how much training was too much.  Aiden had much to think on.

 

OOC:  Let me start a thread with Kate to do this same thing, and then you can send them to "spying" on everyone in the ranch as a first assignment and that's how cari will find out, she'll talk to you and ask you to do something with them to put their new lives in perspective.

 

Aiden