A/N: I know, it seems short. But this is just the beginning... And I tried to leave it on a high note. You've gotten to know a little bit about these characters, and how Utopia crumbles, and maybe you'll get the next story soon. If I get my schedule down pat and writing is more of an option.
Hope you enjoyed this little ride!
*****LnC*****
Jason found his eyes latched on to every type of monitor he came across. He was searching, desperately, for any hint of his news to hit the wavelengths, or for his sister's picture to crop up somewhere. For the story to get picked up and suddenly be everywhere, and they couldn't stop it. And then everyone would know.
That idea sparked an interesting mix of feelings inside of Jason. For one, he was filled with righteous indignation, followed by an overwhelming sense of justice. His father deserved this. He'd gone too far this time. And then, grief would strike at his heart, for his lost sister, his twin. He ached for her to come back. Jada was practically in a catatonic state since Johanna had been lost, and she sat, spreading paint along the floorboards mindlessly, every now and again telepathically sending severe jolts of pain out to anyone who could feel it. And yet, all the while, his father kept busy, did his job as he continued to see fit and that just made Jason want to vomit.
But then, there was another emotion. One that didn't just flare up suddenly and fizzle away. One that started low in his gut and reached up from his heart and just
settled there-- the only uncomfortable part of it coming with how easily and comfortably the thought sat with him.
It was a realization. A realization that Johanna was dead. Jerome was gone. Jada was mentally unfit. His father was the only thing standing between him and the opportunity to make things right in the world again.
And his father was a murderer.
And underneath that realization rested a certain amount of greed.
His father would be condemned, arrested, perhaps put to death for his crimes. And then Jason would be in charge, free to fix things to how they were supposed to be. He'd have all the power, there would be nothing he couldn't do.... He just needed to wait a little longer-- he glanced back once again at the display across the room, still without catching any tidbit of the information he'd handed over.
It was starting to make him nervous. It had been more than two days now, and still nothing. The longer it took, the more that fear started to gnaw at him. He was so close, and yet still so far. This was the only card he had left to play-- if things didn't pan out for him with this, he was done for. A part of him became worried that maybe he had put his trust in the wrong person, and his message hadn't been received... but then again, there could be a number of reasons as to why the information hadn't shown up yet. Perhaps the censors were better than he'd thought, and they were just struggling to push it through.
He knew better than that though. There was something else going on with this, he could feel it. And the wait was killing him.
Patience, he reminded himself as yet another ad flicked to life on the monitor across the way. It would all work out in good time. It had to. Because if it didn't, then they were all royally screwed.
*****LnC*****
It had been three days, and Jerome Kent Jr. still didn't have any reasonable explanation for the pounding in his head except for the gnawing in his gut. For some reason or another, he just felt like something was wrong. He couldn't seem to reach out to any of his family to make sure they were okay, and that was starting to worry him. He sat numbly, skimming the stations for anything to distract him, get his mind off the terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Elise's hands came around his shoulders soothingly, and he instantly relaxed into her caress. "That feels perfect, Sweetie."
She rubbed his shoulders in silence for a few moments before finally deciding to speak up. He'd been down ever since he'd had that feeling the other day, and Elise couldn't just go on watching him sulk and worry. It was hurting her as much as it was him. "Don't you think you should go back there? Check things out? I mean, honestly, Jerry, you've been so tensed up lately and you have no idea why-- it's ridiculous to live in fear like this."
"I'm not going back there unless I absolutely have to," he cut off that thought quickly. Jerome knew he was not going to get a hero's welcome if he went home-- ever. As long as his father was in charge and Jason was still around, home was never a possibility, and she knew that as well as he did.
"What about my parents? Surely we could stop by or have them look into something--"
He scoffed and launched to his feet. "Your parents? Come on, Elise. They hate me. You know it, I know it."
"They don't
hate you, Jerome. They just... don't know you that well."
"Yeah, all they know is my name, and that seems to be enough for them. Or do you not remember how that first-- and need I remind you-- last 'family dinner' went?"
Elise sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead in frustration. She obviously was not getting through to him with this. "Okay. Then what do you want to do? Who can we reach out to? Because you can't just go on like this, bae."
Jerome closed his eyes and released a long, deep breath. He knew she was right, and it wasn't fair of him to keep this bottled up, put her through this. "I know. I'm sorry. It's just... I don't know what's wrong, but it's driving me nuts. I think it's something to do with Jada, but I don't have a clue what... Maybe I can still get in touch with Lanie, she might have some idea of what's happening out there..."
Elise stopped listening when she saw the breaking news report pop up on the monitor over her boyfriend's shoulder and her heart dropped out of her chest. "Jerome," she spoke softly, keeping her tone as even as possible and her eyes riveted on the screen.
"What?"
He saw her blue eyes frozen in terror as she looked past him and he followed her gaze. When he realized what he was looking at, he felt his stomach clench with the urge to throw up and an icy dread settle in his bones. He swallowed thickly before giving the command in a muddled voice. "Unmute."
The set was unresponsive, and he continued to watch the scenes unfold before him in silent terror. Jerome raised his voice and repeated himself, starting to shake. "Unmute!"
The sound came on instantly and it was too much. Words were flying at him faster than he could really comprehend, everything was loud and obnoxious-- Jerome's sensitive hearing couldn't take it. It didn't matter. He could hardly hear over his racing heart anyway.
Johanna. He felt his mouth grow dry at the sight. The image of his sister's mangled body was uncharacteristically crude and flattened on the display, and yet it somehow was the one thing jumping out at him. It was all he could see, and suddenly the intense feelings of unease he'd been having made sense.
"Elise," he whispered, unable to get any other sounds past his tongue and out his mouth. Funny how he could feel such dryness in the back of his throat and yet his cheeks felt wet.
She seemed to understand what he was asking, though she was having trouble voicing it herself. She cleared her throat and wiped away some of the dew from under her eyes. "It seems... They're saying someone in the Kent family killed her."
It took him several long moments of collecting himself before he was finally able to filter out the sounds and piece together what had happened. Processing it would be an entirely different matter, one to be dealt with later. Here and now, it was all he could do to think at all.
"Now if you're just tuning in, you're probably wondering about these images on the screen. This came in only just this morning-- that Johanna Kent, of the ruling House of El, has been brutally killed. Images appear to indicate that it was a matter of brute force that delivered the final blow. With there appearing to be no Kryptonite involved, our only logical conclusion is led to be that she was murdered by one of her own kind."Jerome's heart skipped a beat. Her own... that meant his family. Someone in his family killed his little sister. A rage started to boil up in his chest, replacing the anguish and lingering tears in his heart.
He had a perfectly clear idea of who had done it.
"I have to go back."
Elise's stormy eyes went wide. "Jerome, no! You can't go back there! If you think that somebody snapped a-and hurt her--"
His dark brown eyes flashed at her, and he raised his voice at her, nostrils flaring violently. "She's not hurt, she's dead, and it's not just anybody who did it, it was my father!"
"Even so," she prodded, "What makes you think they'll do anything less to you? If he did do this? You know what he's capable of. What he'll do to you."
"I never thought he would take things this far."
His voice cracked mid-thought, and suddenly Jerome was sinking, curling in on himself in anguish as he was brought to his knees. Sobs wracked his body, the only comfort coming when Elise knelt down beside him on the floor, encasing him in her arms. He could feel his body shaking, stuck in between that strange place between complete hysteria and existential awareness. His sister was dead. She was killed; murdered by her own family. He was her older brother-- he should have been in charge, been there to protect her. Instead, Johanna was left fighting for what was right all on her own. His heart clenched painfully at the realization that it could have been him that was dead right now. It
should have been him.
The thought only made him cry harder.
Elise felt her heart break a little more for Jerome as she tried her best to soothe him, whispering soft hushes into his ear and telling him it would be okay-- even though in reality, they both knew nothing would be okay. But that didn't matter. She had to hold it together, for his sake. He'd already given up so much, by renouncing his father, his family ties, running away from a terrible situation and trying to create a new life with her. She knew what she'd been getting into when she met him, but what could she do about it? It had practically been love at first sight. And it hadn't mattered who his family was or that his father specifically happened to be the authoritarian governor of the sovereign of Utopia-- that their genetic line had been in charge since the catastrophic Temporal Event in the mid- 2300's and the ban on dimensional travel had been put into effect. They were just kids, hopelessly in love and not caring who saw. And if people looked down on that-- because he was a direct Kent descendant and things were tense between the Supers and Non-Supers, then that was their problem. It was easier this way, in many ways.
But she also knew that the guilt of leaving had to be eating away at him right now.
"Jer," she begged with him quietly after several long minutes. "This is not your fault, you know that? Whatever she did... well, it wasn't deserved, but it certainly doesn't mean it was unprovoked. Who's to say the outcome would have been any different had you been there?"
"He-- he would have tried to kill me instead," he spoke softly on a sniffle, wiping a hand across his face to try and sober himself up. The tears still came, but the panic was slowly ebbing away.
"I know, but how would that have helped any? Then you and your sister would probably end up dead, and nothing would have been prevented."
Jerome knew she was right-- as usual. He would have told her so, but a sentence on the news suddenly grabbed his attention from the display set and he focused back in on it again.
"It has now been confirmed that these pictures were taken four days ago--"He jolted to his feet. "Four days?!"
"--And it makes you wonder, really, what were they thinking? They're hiding a murderer, just to protect one of their own? I bet they all knew about it all along, and it's a scandal that it's come out into the media at all. The Kent family literally just tried to get away with murder."
"Oh how the mighty have fallen. Makes you wonder what else they're hiding."
"We don't even know which one of them did it yet-- my money would be on the one and only Jerome Kent, Sr, himself. Although I wouldn't put it past the twin."
"Then there's the older son. Jerome Jr? He's been out of the picture for nearly a year now, but who's to say even what happened to him. He took off about as soon as the conflicts began. Or maybe he's just been "missing" in action all this time, too."
"What about the oldest girl? She's been off her rocker ever since she was a toddler, and has that unhinged feel to her-- but she'd probably not be strong enough for this sort of physical abuse."
"Did you see that bruising on her skin? Ugh. Terrible."Jerome felt his blood run cold as a realization struck him like a bullet. "Oh, god."
Elise frowned at him confusedly, standing up herself and brushing some imaginary dirt from her pants. "What is it?"
He turned haunted brown eyes up to meet hers. "This is it, isn't it? This is how it's going to begin."
Elise paled as she realized what he was implying and tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear nervously. "You don't think they'd actually use something like this to get the war started, do you?"
"Wars have been fought and lost for less. And there's a lot of reasons why the people are rebelling-- this is just the pot stirrer they needed to gain the last of their support."
"We've been in a state of cold war for years, Jerome."
He wished he could believe her, but the moment the thought struck his brain, it stayed with him. The Revolutionaries were going to use this to their advantage. He didn't see how they couldn't. The only other problem with that was Jerome didn't want to be dragged into the middle of it.
The more he thought about it though, the more sure he became of himself. This was going to be the motivation they needed to start an all out civil war. So far, it had all been about counterculture and rebellion, drawing the public's attention to the fact that the Kents were no long ruling in their favor, and hadn't been for some time now. People had begun to take sides.
There were the Sympathizers who were still believers in the ideals of Utopia and that the Supers were on the right side of the law, even if they were a bit misguided at the current time. Then there were the Revolutionaries, who touted the ideals of Utopia and claimed that the Supers were no longer honoring their commitment to society. It was the responsibility of the Supers-- an essential part of their social contract-- to maintain Utopia and its standards. And if they no longer could hold up their end of the bargain, then it was about time that their power be taken from them.
Then, of course, came the Extremists. Who believed that Supers should be completely ousted, overturned, imprisoned, and in some of the more drastic cases, executed. At first, the concept had gotten them no supporters, but as time went on and things quickly began to roll downhill, the tide shifted. The Extremists were gaining more and more support. As were the Revolutionaries.
Jerome sighed. How he'd wished to have been born as a normal, non-Super. Especially throughout his teenage years, as the conflict had begun to grow worse and he was expected to do more and more. He'd put up with it for nearly ten years before finally snapping and running off like this. He'd been on the run like this for almost a year now, with Elise for most of that time. His family had never even met her-- excepting Johanna, who had met with them twice just to check in.
A thought idly came and went, one he'd been considering more and more often lately. But this time, with the world on the brink of an all-out civil war, Jerome actually gave it more than a couple seconds of thought. He finally turned and took his girlfriend's hands in his own nervously. "Elise. I love you. You know that, right?"
"Of course I do. And I love you too. But we have more pressing matters right now--"
"No time like the present."
"Jerome," she sighed. "I get it, you love me. Now go find Lanie. This is more important."
"Elise," his tone grew sharper, and with a patronizing eye-roll, he finally got her attention. "Things are about to get really messy around here. And not just here, everywhere. I don't know if we'll have to do anything with this upcoming war or not-- I'd rather not-- but in any case, I want to have someone to come home to. Someone I love, and cherish, and that I could protect at all times, keep you safe."
Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Jerome, I'm lost."
"Marry me."
His reply stood alone in the echo of the screen chatter behind them. Elise felt her heart stop then start again. "What?"
"I can't lose you like I just lost Johanna," he explained. "I would die without you. You're the only person who keeps me sane in this life. And I love you. God, do I love you! And I'll have a reason, if I ever do need to leave, to come back home to you. My wife. A lot of the world is going to start changing, but you and I, we're the one thing I want to stay the same. So, Elise Janelle Westbrooke, will you please,
please marry me?"
Elise started crying again, though for an entirely different reason than before. She nodded, barely able to bite back her grin. "Yes. Yes, I will marry you, Jerome."
Jerome managed a grin and kissed her soundly in return. "Thank goodness. I was really worried that would backfire on me."
She laughed, a light sound that filled him with delight. He was glad he could still make her laugh, even on the worst of days.
"Let's go now. Before any more of the chaos breaks out."
He grinned at her. "Yeah?"
"Yeah. I want you to be my husband already." She caught a glimpse of the display monitor once again and sobered up. "Unless you want to wait-- maybe until after a funeral or something so you can recover."
He shook his head. "I'm not going to be wasting any more of my time without you. If anything, this just goes to prove that."
Elise nodded, lowering her head and ignoring the words on the screen for now. Soon enough, they'd have to face the music. But for now... she managed another grin.
"Okay. Let's go get married."
***** fin *****
