10 Chapter 10 - Kaitlynn

I wasn't expecting any visitors after Silas and Emma left, so I was surprised when a nurse, who probably had heard the rumors that I was able to walk again, opened the door. I focused my power into my upper vertebrae, letting the signals my mind was trying to send move through them. I sat up and looked at her for a second. She was obviously trying to keep her jaw from dropping to the ground.

"Y- you have a visitor Ms." she stammered. It was more than I actually expected from a person who probably knew how hard it would be to medically solve paralysis.

"I wasn't expecting anyone…" I muttered to myself. "Who is it?"

"What kind of question is that? It's your family. Your father is on his way up now." I felt the color drain from my face when she mentioned my father. She turned around to leave the room, not realizing the absurdity of what she had just suggested. It was only seconds for me to lay back down and close my eyes before the door opened again. This time, I didn't use my power to sit up, I didn't focus, and I didn't even try. He wasn't worth the effort.

There was a time when I would have sat up in an instant, even for a while after he became Void Star. He used to be a good guy. Just thinking about it made me smile, then I realized the thoughts forming in my head were of the past. I remembered the present and much more recent events. How he would ignore all the casualties of his fights with High Solis and her heroes.

"Well, is that the greeting you give your stepfather?" he chuckled as he entered, seeming almost like his old self. Just the smiling man that I had finally let into my life. When my Mom remarried with him, I was glad it was actually somebody I connected with. That is, until he turned into a mass murderer with a god complex.

"Nope. It's a greeting for the city's most well-known villain and murderer." I would have got up and punched him, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing I actually cared that much about him in any way. I simply turned my head as he sat on one of the seats next to my bed. It was the same one Silas always sat in.

"You know, I don't really understand why you hate me all of a sudden," he rambled, "All I'm doing is avenging Hallie and the society that ignored the twisted system that supports her murderers."

"I hate you because I haven't seen you in the past two years. Ever since I told you what you are doing is wrong, you never showed up. Now, you got Silas mixed up in your grief-driven quest for revenge." I thought maybe saying that I hated him out loud would snap something and he'd break his calm facade, but the words didn't have the force behind them I wished they could.

"You can stop pretending now, Kaitlynn. I know you finally managed to find some way around your paralysis," he grunted, getting right to his point. So it was bothering him. Good. I waited for him to continue with some long, very villain-like monologue, but none came. He simply sat there in silence for a minute. "Kaitlynn, what did I do to lose you?"

The question caught me off guard, and had to look him in the eye as I thought about my answer. I closed my eyes and exhaled, focusing and conceding this one stubborn point to him. I sat up and looked straight at him, catching his gaze and saw something on his face I didn't expect to find. He was smiling.

After another deep breath, I answered, "You lost me when you couldn't accept losing Mom, Rolan." I saw the flinch. His name, rather than the title he had earned for most of the year before he went on his dark crusade. Dad.

"It's too bad to hear that," he breathed, slowly rising from where he sat. "I'm sure that since your friend is now simply a puppet for me, you'll reconsider your position. But until then…" He trailed off, letting my mind finish the statement for him. I might have even considered pretending that I didn't absolutely loathe him for Silas, but my thoughts were quickly interrupted.

The door swung wide, to reveal Metallette, otherwise known as Hannah Railon staring at my father and I. "Well, I was going to ask you a few more questions, Kaity, but I think they've all been answered." With a click of her watch, her demeanor completely changed as her costume spread across her arms and body. I marveled at the spatial control that had to go into making each of the hero's costumes.

With a flick of his wrist, my father had dismissed her by pressing gravity around her away from the door. His gravity manipulation could apply deadly G's in a second, so I felt the need to speak up.

"Don't even think about it…" I growled at him.

"She's a part of their system. She needs to die." He had gone full supervillain, nearly in a trance. He was one of the most succinct villains I had ever heard of, and I knew he wasn't going to listen much longer.

"You aren't going to kill her, because she is my friend," I pleaded, playing my last card, "Dad."

He stopped for a second, his focus breaking for only a second. It was all Hannah needed to irritate him though. A small orb of metal flew back through the door and struck him in the side of the face. He turned back to her and roared in his agitated rage.

"You are lucky this time, hero. I'm going to let you live," he snapped. He flicked his wrist one last time and left the room, not meeting my eyes. I knew that he would keep her immobile against a wall until he was gone, but then she and I would be having a chat. Apparently being paralyzed means people can come and talk to you whenever they want to.