Many Years Later:

"You're a fool." I sneered down to the sniveling body at my feet.

He looked up at me, his eyes so glossed with tears that I could see my own reflection staring back. I looked utterly horrific, bloody and sweaty with a look of malice plastered on my face. It was almost enough to make even me wince if not for my being so blindly fueled by rage.

"Please!" his voice quivered between pants for breath.

He was equally as bloodied as myself with one distinct difference, the blood covering me, unlike the sniveling fool on the floor, was not my own. I could tell he was scared beyond belief but couldn't find it in me to care. All that had transpired over the last month of my life had been entirely his fault. This sniveling coward staring up at me with terrified hazy eyes was the sole reason I had been running around the galaxy for the plumbers when I swore I would never again get involved.

It had been years since I'd severed all ties to my former life. Sometime amongst our glorified teenage heroics, Kevin had snapped. Unlike every other time there had been no warning signs. No rhyme or reason. No hope of saving him. In the middle of what I had thought was nothing more than an ordinary battle with a substandard villain he had suddenly frozen, clutching his head as if in agony. Then before we even knew what was happening he was after Ben, his eyes blazing with a rage more powerful than any I had ever seen to date. I don't think I'll ever get that image out of my mind. I frantically tried to reason with him, to separate them, to no avail. He was out for blood, and was close to getting it, when Paradox had appeared and then disappeared with Ben in the blink of an eye. With Ben gone he turned to me, his rage filled eyes melting into regret and longing. He took a step forward, opening his mouth as if to beg me to understand, as if expecting me to! But before I had the chance to hear a single word the Plumbers were there, dragging him back into the blind rage I had hoped never to see again. He disappeared that day.

For months after I had held out the hope that he would return. That he would have the best damn explanation imaginable and that all would return to normal. He never did. And as time passed and all leads to his location dried up, so did my hope. I no longer had the desire to fight, all I wanted to do was forget. So I left. I said goodbye to Earth and joined my grandmother on Anodine in hopes of beginning anew.

Up until recently Kevin had been the farthest thing from my mind. In fact the most distressing thing I'd had to deal with in a long time was recurring nightmares involving an eerily familiar child. That was until the Plumbers had managed to find me. They begged me for help in locating a common criminal who had managed to slip through their fingers again and again. I declined. They wouldn't give up, hounding me with their requests and reminders of my past, of Ben, of Kevin. I was almost at my breaking point when one of them had finally told me who it was I was charged with tracking – Argit. With that one name my life had changed, reverted back to a time I'd sworn never to revisit.

Just like Kevin, Argit had disappeared after that night. Now that he had resurfaced after all these years he was my best lead to the one thing I'd been longing for all these years – closure. I'd reluctantly agreed to find him, fueled by my own personal motives and years of rage.

Now, after months of his clever evasions, here he was, sniveling at my feet just as he had in the past. I glowered down at him, my patience all but gone after months of an ongoing chase that inevitably had led me deeper and deeper into my past – and for some reason only worsened my nightmares.

"Please," he pleaded. "I know people, I can be useful."

"For your sake you'd better hope so." I icily returned. "I'm looking for information regarding an old friend of yours. Kevin Levin."

His eyes widened, then flew from mine towards nothing in order to avoid my question.

"So you do have information." I said, more reaffirming it to myself than him.

He refused to meet my gaze, his body stiff as a board despite the injuries I had inflicted.

"I got nothing to say." He muttered under his breath.

It was my turn to stiffen. Angry beyond belief and filled with refusal to be denied after so many years, I pressed my foot into the back of his neck. He cried out, his face pressing into the ground painfully.

"I don't know anything! I swear!" he whimpered under my foot.

After all these years the only thing standing between me and answers was a two-bit criminal. I pressed down harder with my foot, the gravel slicing his face as his cries grew louder.

"Okay! Okay!" he screamed. "I can lead you to where he is but after that you're on your own!"

I removed my foot, allowing him to peel his bloodied face off the ground. "You double-cross me and it'll be the last thing you ever do." I smiled icily.

"You know I don't remember you being quite so… coldblooded." He shivered as he slowly dragged himself to his feet.

I glared at him silently.

"All right, all right. Let's go then, geez." He sighed, leading me away.

I stepped through the rift Argit had led me to and a wave of déjà vu hit me like a brick wall. The halls looked so familiar it was frightening. I knew I'd never been here before but I also knew exactly where I was going. I found myself standing outside what I somehow knew were his chambers only moments after arriving in the palace. I inhaled deeply and pushed open the doors, my heart dropping so fast I could've sworn it fell through the floor. Sitting on the massive and familiar bed was the child that had been haunting my dreams all these years, the child I'd seen so briefly that night so many years ago when I first reencountered Kevin.

His eyes shot up, filled with expectance then widened so much I feared they would fall out of his head.

His resemblance to Kevin was striking. I wanted nothing more than to race across the room and take him into my arms, but my feet were cemented to the floor.

My head felt like it would split open at any moment. Ever since returning to Anodine and embracing my heritage I'd been having nightmares surrounding this child and splitting headaches. I'd always assumed it was part and parcel of the whole transformation to a full Anodite, but now I was beginning to wonder if that was really the case. The more I stared at him the more my head felt like it was in a vice, and the more I never wanted to look away. There was a battle raging within my skull. Over what I had no idea, but god it was painful.

The child smiled up at me from the bed, "mom!"

With one word the pressure in my head was gone, replaced with images and lost memories flooding in as if a dam had been broken. A million emotions washed over me at once as I slowly remembered every painful detail. Rage, sorrow, guilt, it was almost too much to handle. Then I felt an all too familiar hand rest on my shoulder.

"I'm sorry." I exhaled under my breath almost inaudibly.

How could I have forgotten? How could I not have trusted Kevin that night he'd lost himself? How had I not seen he had regained memories that had always been lost to me?

His arms wrapped around me and tears flooded my eyes. I remembered. I would never let myself forget again. I had a son and was finally with the man who I had always loved, whether I remembered it or not. The pieces of me that had been lost had finally returned, filling an uncomfortable hole that had always been present in me.

I spun around in Kevin's arms, crushing my lips to his and melting into his frantic kiss. It was as if no time had passed since the last time I had been in this room. Small hands tugged at my pants irritably and I broke the kiss to sweep him up into my arms.

"I told him you would come back." Devlin grinned at me, a young beautiful version of his fathers impish grin.

I beamed at him as I held him in my arms, Kevin protectively refusing to release his hold on me as if afraid I'd suddenly disappear. "And I'm never leaving." I smiled.

"By the way," Kevin chuckled into my hair. "What exactly did you do to Argit? He's terrified of you!"

I shrugged with a smirk and Kevin shot me his trademark grin. I was finally where I belonged after what seemed like a lifetime. The next person who tried to take it away would undoubtedly cause the dark persona that had tortured Argit to resurface, and I was glad. No one could ever again cross me. I was stronger.

I'd learned how to protect things I cared about, and now I'd regained the things I wanted to protect. Its amazing what a simple summer vacation had led to, I smiled to myself then to Devlin: perfection.

The End.

A/N: I rebooted my old computer from back when I was first writing this story and found what I had written as a final chapter. It's taken me far too long but this story is now officially done! Congrats and Thank you for reading it to the very end and be sure to comment your thoughts! xx