Sell you a Bridge chapter 292

June 14th 2016 Hollow Bastion 7:00 PM EDT

"Daddy!"  Morana's voice was cracked with despair and relief. "You're ok! Are mom  and mama here? Wait, no I can feel them now. I couldn't before...like  you were all missing. It felt terrible. How do normal kids put up with  not being able to feel their parents in their heart." She clung to me so  tightly I suspected before my godhood it would have damaged me, at  least outside my armor. Since I was wearing the suit and WAS a god now, I  saw no reason to interrupt her.

I put my arms around my  daughter and squeezed her back for a second, just enjoying the feeling  of having her back with me for a minute before letting her go and  stepping back, leaving my hands on her shoulders. "They're fine, Rana.  What's going on? We went through some kind of portal, but I could feel  you just fine so we assumed you all wouldn't worry too much. Are you  saing we were cut off from you somehow?"

That was...weird.  I had no clue why we wouldn't be within reach of her through the bonds  when we could feel her just fine. Something about the dark world we were  in? But then why didn't it my connection?  Did it affect the girls? I'd  never even asked. I'd assumed since I could feel Rana they could too,  but maybe they'd been cut off too.

I stroked her hair  gently. "It's ok. Everything is fine. What's been happening back home?  Is everything alright? Is your grandmother ok? How about Tina?" I wasn't  TOO worried about Darkseid managing to get his hands on the former  fury, but with Gojo out of town there wasn't any way to be certain.

She  just nodded. "Grandma is fine. I was just with her before you called  me. Grandpa Gojo had to go on a trip, so she's had us staying with her  to help with Hana. Even Cassie got permission to stay over. Miss. Helena  and Grandma get along pretty well, but she's really strict most of the  time." She trailed off after that sentence as she started to look  around. "Daddy...what is this place? It feels...weird. Familiar maybe?  Like I've been here before even though I know I haven't. I don't think I  like it."

"Really?" I probably should have expected the  castle swarming with heartless to have some connection to my daughter,  but I really hadn't. "What does it feel like? And can you feel any  specific place nearby that seems important?" I wasn't going to go out  hunting around here for secrets right now, but any lead would be nice.  "Also, how easy can you access dark corridors?"

I'd been  poking at the dark near here, and the more I did it, the more I started  to get a really bad feeling. Protecting my friends from it would be  tough, especially over a distance, but I felt a sort of...malice, in the  darkness. Like something was waiting. I was mostly going by feel, but I  was pretty sure I shouldn't try to open any corridors personally. I  felt like going through someone else's was fine but that kind of assumed  Rana, the only other person I knew of who actually COULD open corridors  wasn't having the same problem.

She furrowed her brow for  a second, and a small puddle of darkness formed on the floor, only to  wink out. She shrugged. "No problems I can sense. Why? Are you having  trouble?" I nodded, and she frowned thoughtfully. "That's weird. My  power to access the corridors comes from you right? I doesn't make sense  I can get into them and you can't. Why would there be a difference?"

"Shit."  I said with a grimace. "Bar-I mean, the B-guy. The darkness seems to  belong to him. If he's looking for me right now..." I trailed off. My  powers would sometimes pick up useful tidbits based on falsehoods. The  lie that my only way out was safe was a big one, which explained why I  had twigged to it. Still, it was far from ideal. It also implied that I  shouldn't be using my abilities in the dark, it would be too easy to  track me, which meant protecting them while Rana transported us was out.  We would need to research some method of defending someone from the  dark.

That thought drew my eyes to...well, everything  nearby. This was a library in a void bound castle sitting in the middle  of a dark ocean, clearly connected to the heartless. The owners had been  magical geniuses, and this was probably the best place to actually DO  that research. Any of these books might have information we could use,  which meant I was going to need to do some reading. Luckily I'd done  this dance before. Between speed reading and perfect recall, I was a  book reading machine when I wanted to be.

I sighed at the  realization that we wouldn't be going anywhere in the short term. I'd  check my email of course, but chances were decent if there was anything  that could help I couldn't afford it right now anyway. These people had  access to the darkness enough that heartless were infesting the place. I  was pretty sure they would have some kind of countermeasure to the  stuff that I could use to protect my loved ones. I squeezed my  daughter's shoulder. "Alright, let's go see your mothers, they'll be  furious if I don't bring you over at the soonest possible opportunity.  We also have someone to introduce you to."

We walked back  the way I'd come, following the familiar auras into the stacks until I  came to a small table surrounded by shelves, as which sat my girls and  my mother-in-law, each with a big stack of books. Drea's stack was less  chonky than Zee and Sindella's but that was hardly strange. When we got  close I knocked on the shelf next to me to get their attention. "Hey.  Nerds. If you're done with your stupid book learning I brought someone  to visit." My tone was teasing, and got an eye roll from my sorceress,  until those eyes rose enough to fix on the face of my companion.

"RANA!"  Zee yelled, bolting from her seat to rush over and grab our daughter. I  could feel the relief and joy through the bond as they clung to each  other. Zee had know Rana was coming, but I think it had blindsided her  how much seeing our girl affected her. I knew it had blindsided me. It  was easy to forget that the bond I shared with my daughter was forged  from my connection to two of the people I loved most.

Speaking  of people I loved, I looked around. "Hey has anyone seen Kit? I've been  so swept up in all the crazy I hadn't had a chance to talk to her. I  wanted to make sure she was alright. That whole mess must have been  awful." I felt awful for not even checking on her yet, but this insanity  had taken up quite a bit of my attention. This place was weird and  dangerous, and that took precedence over politeness, or even emotional  health, at least in the short term.

Sindella sighed. "That  poor girl. She left to wander the stacks. James went after her, I think  he wants to look out for her. He blames himself for what happened to  her, despite knowing how silly that is." Her eyes flicked to Rana. "Now.  If you don't mind, perhaps you could introduce me to my granddaughter?  Admittedly a strange thing for me to say given my relative age and how  young my daughter is, but I'm still very excited to meet her." She gave  my daughter, who was being crushed by her own child, a welcoming smile.

I  made a promise to myself to track down Kit right after this, before any  research got done. I'd already done enough damage by putting off  talking to my cousin. Still, it wasn't like she was in the wrong to ask.  I put a hand on Rana's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "Of course.  Morana O'malley, this is Sindella Zatara. Your mother's mother. I  didn't think you would ever get a chance to meet her but it seems like  our lives can sometimes be crazy in a good way, as well as all the bad  ones."

Rana's eyes widened in shock as she stared at  Sindella like she was a ghost. It occurred to me that she'd inherited  part of Zee's heart, and that Sindella's loss had deeply affected my  sorceress. Judging by the sheen of tears in her eyes, Rana had inherited  some of those issues, and was feeling them resolved now as she met her  grandmother for the first time. Zee released our daughter and stepped  back, pushing her towards Sindella. "Go on baby. Go meet your grandma.  I've been telling her all about you."

As they approached  each other slowly, I leaned down to kiss Zee and then Drea softly. "I'm  going to go look for Kit. Once we're done talking though, I have some  research directions I could use some help with, to prepare us for  getting the hell out of here." Zee looked excited, but didn't question  me as I walked away, content to hear about it later. I was glad, I'd  been putting this off, I think. Not consciously, but I'd been focusing  so hard on my tasks that I completely blocked out Kit, and looking back  on that it was easy to see it was a defense mechanism.

I  silently cursed my ability. Being able to see through lies was fine, but  being able to see through your own lies was shitty, even if it only  really worked as confirmation once I figured it out myself. Tracking  them down was simple enough. Jim was with Kit and her boyfriend Eddie,  sitting at a table, reading quietly. My mentor's aura looked relaxed and  happy. Being around her was soothing for him, being able to see she was  safe, if still slightly battered. When I arrived, I waited for a second  and then cleared my throat.

Kit looked up in surprise,  and when she saw me, her eyes widened. "Morgan." She said, voice thick.  "Hey. You looking for a specific book? We have more than a few piled up  here. The old ghost is still a total nerd>" She gave Jim a wan smile.  "But I'm sure even he won't mind sharing the work load."

I  shook my head. "Eddie, Jim, can you two give us a minute? I want to  talk to my cousin." Kit flinched, and I could see the guilt and  self-loathing in her aura. We might not hold what happened in the  dungeon against her, but she held it against herself. She thought we  hated her. That I hated her. Even if she was grateful we came to save  her, she thought it was just out of obligation, and there was a healthy  dose of guilt for putting us in Neron's crosshairs too.

Eddie  meanwhile looked deeply unhappy at the idea, but Jim put a hand on his  arm and squeezed in warning. The demonkin wasn't family, and if Jim  wasn't part of this, he knew it was going to be Falcones only. Kit  nodded reassuringly at him when she saw his reticence, giving him an  encouraging smile that I would have actually believed if it wasn't for  her aura. He gritted his teeth but nodded, standing up and stalking away  to wait somewhere else. Jim followed after silently.

I  turned to my cousin. "You guys are pretty serious. Nonverbal  communication like that requires a lot of trust." I walked towards kit,  and she tensed up. I didn't slow down though, walking up to her directly  and stopping in front of her, looking her in the eyes. Before she could  do anything I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around her, and she  gave a surprised squeak as I pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry  Kitrina, and I'm so glad you're ok. Everything was all my fault." She  went limp, clinging to me tightly, and then she started to cry.