(Invincible) Invincible Bond: Chapter 10 - Get Away

Chapter 10 - Get Away

Summary: The escape from Mars. Debbie shares a secret with Eve.

When he and Eve finally managed to find the astronauts, they were surrounded by Martian guards that held spears pointing in their direction and were in audience with the... king?

Mark was on his guard with Eve ready for a fight at every moment as well, her back pressed closely to his.

The King sat on his throne and looked down at Mark before asking, "How did you manage to repel the squids?"

Mark was confused, both about the action the king was asking about and the creatures in question. He tried to respond with his best guess, "Umm, you're talking about those nasty things that looked like brains, right?"

The king nodded and said "Squids" again. Okay, so now Mark knew one thing, and then the king asked, "Are all humans like you and your friend?"

Mark tilted his head, again unsure of how to answer the question and trying his best, "I mean, sort of... I am half Viltrumite and she is on a whole other level of awesome..." Mark said while pointing over his shoulder at Eve, who gave him a little shove at the untimely flattery before finishing with, "You know what I'm talking about, right?"

The king stood up from his throne, looking enraged as he bellowed full of confidence, "I'm the emperor of Mars, of course I know it!" Mark would have even believed it if the king wouldn't have turned to one of his advisers with a confused look. The adviser returned the same look and shrugged.

The king treated it like it never happened and still with the same confidence turned back to stare down Mark. Mark had to hold back on rolling his eyes and instead tried to diplomatically say, "So we will just take our guys and be on our way."

The king turned to Mark, enraged again, and shouted, "The sentence for species like yours on this planet is death!"

Eve finally turned to glare at the king, "Death?! For what?"

The king glared right back at her, "We cannot risk the option the squids might capture one of you and use you to spread again."

Mark could see the logic of it, and he understood the king wouldn't move from his position, so with a smile on his face he said casually, "So there is only one way to solve this."

IB IB IB IB IB

The next thing Eve knew, she used her powers to gather all the astronauts in a sphere and began following Mark at the top of her flying speed while her boyfriend broke through one defensive line after another.

To her, it was obvious he was trying not to hurt anyone, but still, this plan seemed a little half-baked. She turned to Mark and said in an exhausted tone, "Run away from the authority, really?"

Mark flew next to her as they were now on the surface and getting closer to the spaceship that brought them, Martian soldiers hot on their tails. Invincible turned his head toward her and tried to defend himself, "To be fair, that authority just tried to execute us for being human."

Eve sighed and had to admit, "You've got a point." Then she raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "And what would your plan be if I wasn't here to help?"

Mark shrugged and admitted without shame, "It would have probably ended up the same."

Eve sighed again. She took that back; this idea was never even put in the oven to begin with, far less baked. But still she had to admit that even now she couldn't think of any plan that would end up with everyone safe and happy. At least not without the use of force.

She decided to just let it go as they finally reached the spaceship. Mark and Eve stayed outside and made sure that all of the astronauts entered the ship and began taking off.

Eve was the first one in after the astronauts gave the signal they were ready to take off, and as she turned to call Mark, she saw him flying toward the soldiers, picking something up from the ground, showing it to the soldiers, and with a wave, flying back into the ship just as it began to ascend.

Eve frowned at Mark, which was now easier for her boyfriend to see thanks to the lack of helmet on her head, and asked sternly, "What the hell was that?"

Mark smiled widely at her and offered her what he was holding.

It was a rock.

She looked at Mark whose smile didn't waver when he said, "A gift to you from our first vacation together."

Eve looked at him for a long moment without moving, afraid that... No, she can't hold it. Without the ability to stop it, Eve doubled over in laughter.

Mark's smile faded away and he asked slightly worried, "Umm... did I do something wrong?"

Eve stood back up straight and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, her smile never leaving her lips as she said softly, "No. It's just that most girls won't count a rock as a suitable gift."

Mark frowned and raised the stone higher as if trying to point it out even more while saying, "But it's from another planet!"

Eve laid a hand on his cheek and said warmly, "What matters is it's from the bottom of your heart. That means the entire world to me, any world."

Mark opened his mouth to argue, probably about the value of the stone knowing it's from Mars, and Eve hated to burst his bubble, but... "You do know I can't actually tell anyone where you got this stone, right?"

Mark slumped over and said quietly, "Shit. Forgot about it."

Eve began to laugh again; she would make it up to him later, but after the entire Mars thing, it felt too good to unwind with a good laugh. She looked down at the rock in her hand, and while she kept laughing, her heart did fill up with warmth.

IB IB IB IB IB

Eve was sitting in her room and looking down at the rock in her hand. Was she in love with Mark?

She knew she loved him as a friend. She liked him a lot as a boyfriend. But that feeling she felt when he gave this stone to her, it was so familiar. She had to admit it was a while since she felt something like that with Rex, and even then it wasn't anything as strong as what she felt toward Mark on that ship.

But it was too soon, right? It wasn't that long ago she was still dating Rex, and then he cheated on her, only for amidst all the turmoil she and Mark to begin dating. Not that she regretted that decision! She enjoyed every passing day with him. Even so, it has to be too soon for her to start going so deep into it.

A doubt crept into her mind: if now is too soon, when will it be too late? She didn't want to lose Mark just because she wasn't willing to move on and accept she was falling in love with him despite how fast it feels.

Mark promised that he would wait for as long as it takes, she tried to remind herself, and while it eased some of the doubt within her, it didn't get rid of it completely.

She was drawn back from her rogue thoughts when the door of her room opened and Debbie glanced inside.

Right now Mark was talking with Cecil, and Nolan was on some mission on the other side of the globe. Eve liked the sound of some one-on-one time with the older woman. So she smiled toward her and said, "Come in, Debbie."

Debbie walked inside the room with a smile of her own and said gently, "Hi Eve, how are you?" Then her eyes landed on the rock in Eve's hand and she asked, "And what are you doing with that rock?"

A smile spread across Eve's lips without her having the option of stopping it as she replied, "Mark gave it to me as a gift. It's from Mars."

Debbie looked confused and she said in a tired voice, while putting a hand on her forehead, "Honestly, I don't know if I should be proud of him or concerned about my next Mother's Day gift."

Both of them chuckled for a bit before Eve said softly, "I don't think you need to. Even if it's just a rock, the way he said it..." She thought about what she wanted to say before the words just slipped out, "It's perfect."

Debbie smirked and said teasingly, "Well, at least my son knows how to charm his woman."

Eve smirked right back at her and retorted with a snarky, "I wouldn't go that far yet."

Both of them began to laugh again, but Eve, with all her attention to the woman across from her now, noticed the laughter didn't quite reach her eyes.

With a concerned voice, Eve asked, "Debbie, is everything all right?"

Debbie was surprised for a moment before she forced a smile on her face, which Eve saw through easily due to her own experience with it. Still, Debbie's voice was casual, "Everything is fine, dear, thank you."

Eve stood up and got closer to the older woman saying softly, "Debbie, I know that look on your face; I wore that look often. You helped me by taking me in; I feel the least I can do is help with whatever is bothering you."

Debbie looked conflicted for a long moment before sighing heavily as she said, "If I tell you this, you can't talk about it with anyone else."

Noting the change in the usually warm woman's demeanor, Eve could only nod her agreement.

Debbie sat heavily on her bed and waited until Eve carefully joined her before speaking, "Cecil brought in the demon detective Damien Darkblood to investigate the Guardians' murder."

Demon detective? It was the first time Eve was hearing about him, but then again it's exactly Cecil's style to not tell any of them about someone like that.

Debbie seemed to drift into her mind as she kept talking, "I was shocked when he came to talk with me..." She took a deep breath and finally said, "He thinks Nolan did it."

Eve's mind froze. No! It can't be possible, how can it be? Nolan is Omni-Man, the only hero who was held in the highest regard without being a part of any team, someone who saved countless lives, someone who on many occasions worked shoulder to shoulder with the Guardians of the Globe.

Why would he want to hurt them, far less kill them? That was just ridiculous! Eve shook her head to return to reality and immediately tried to reassure the older woman, "He has to be wrong..."

Before Eve could even finish, Debbie's eyes focused back on her face as the woman began to raise her voice and speak with a touch of madness, "But he had so much evidence, so many explanations that filled the right holes in Nolan's version! The blood on the suit! The secrets he began keeping!"

Eve's heart sank; this thing obviously did more than bother Debbie—it was eating her from the inside. The woman was trying to hold on to the belief that her husband would never do anything like that, but then the evidence against him was so compelling that the task became harder with every proof uncovered.

Eve caught Debbie's hands so she could use the touch to ground the hysteric woman; she managed to make her voice calm and level as she said, "It will be fine, Debbie! We will find out the truth and deal with it when we do. There has to be an explanation, or something to ease your mind."

Debbie tightened her hold on Eve's hands and began taking deep breaths, saying calmly, "You are right, Eve, we will just have to look for the answers ourselves."

Eve smiled at the other woman and said with conviction, "That's the spirit. I'm sure Mark will hel..."

Eve was cut off by a firm and hard-as-diamond voice, "Mark can't know anything about it."

The heroine jerked back in surprise, the only thing coming out of her mouth was, "Why?"

Debbie sighed before explaining, "Mark always idolized his dad; as hard as I'm taking it, he will take it even worse, and I think we both know that he will do something stupid once he finds out. So it's best if we wait until we are sure about everything."

Eve supposed Debbie had a point; Mark did have a tendency to act a little recklessly. If they told him now, he might go and do something like confront his dad, which she could see no scenario in which it would end well.

Best case scenario, Nolan denied everything and Mark believed him, making him mad at her and his mom. Worst case scenario, Omni-Man was a monster and Mark ended up dead. Eve wasn't under any delusion that Mark had a chance against Omni-Man.

So with all that in mind, she agreed. Debbie smiled and said from the bottom of her heart, "Thanks, Eve. I was afraid of all of that."

Eve smiled back at her and said sincerely, "Well, you're not alone in it anymore. It's the least I can do after everything you did for me in the last few days."

This family took Eve in when she was at her lowest, without any demands or expectations. Even if things changed now, she had no intention of getting away.