32 Family Reunion

"We tried to stop them, Soldier Boy is coming to you. You have to evacuate the Tower! We're almost there." I paused the message and looked at my crew waiting to see what they would say.

Ashley looked like she was about to have a heart attack and A-Train looked unsure and conflicted.

The Deep was conveniently giving Ryan a tour of the studio at this time. Of course none of them knew I had planned for Butcher and Soldier Boy to arrive around this hour.

Luckily they were punctual.

"What do we do? Is he actually coming here?" Ashley asked, desperation evident in her tone.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Of course he is. You heard our dearest Co-Captain, we need to evacuate the building." I replied with a tinge of sarcasm. "Ashley, you and A-Train will see to the evacuation. I will go get Deep and my son." I said and stood paused briefly and turned to A-Train.

"A-Train this will be an excellent opportunity for you to ear brownie points with, well, everyone but more than that I need you to represent the Seven tonight. They need to see that you're back, that WE have this under control. You have to make sure everyone in the building gets out safely." He was honestly looking at me confused.

The past few days we actually had very little contact and he was a bit behind on my sudden 'change of nature' so to speak. I didn't let him express his opinion and just continued talking.

"Ashley will be officially in charge but in we both know in moments of panic people are going to look to you. So I need you to work together with her got it?"

"Yea" he nodded reluctantly.

"And I don't want you anywhere near Soldier Boy, he's extremely dangerous and you aren't at full strength yet. If you see him Do Not Engage. Got it?"

I didn't want A-Train anywhere near this fight so sticking him with evacuation duty and crowd control was a good idea.

This was going to be a life and death situation and I simply didn't trust A-Train to have my back, not yet at least. One on one I could take him no problem but while facing Soldier Boy, Butcher and Hughie, no way was I going to risk having a super-fast knife at my back.

The man gave a confused and reluctant nod and went out with Ashley to ensure the building evacuation.

-

They say in life timing is everything so I conveniently took my time to get to Deep and Ryan and managed to stall just enough that Soldier Boy, Hughie and Butcher met us as we were going out.

Both Ryan and Butcher looked surprised.

"Ryan!" Butcher said. "What are you doing here?"

I put a hand on my son's shoulder as he was standing in front of me.

"My son" I said making sure to accentuate "is staying with me." I paused.

Butcher made to say something but I cut him off.

"Did you know he wasn't allowed to go to school? A boy his age, not allowed to have friends, to socialize, to learn. What kind of person would do that, deprive him of the joys of childhood all because of who he was? What kind of cruel man would do that to him? Hide him from the world like that?" I asked rhetorically.

"Ryan, you need to…" He didn't finish his sentence as Soldier Boy's gruff voice cut him off.

"Where's Noir?" My gaze turned to him.

"Dead. I killed him." As soon as the words left my mouth I felt Ryan twich and look up at me. I squeezed his shoulder with my hand in response.

He stopped himself from saying anything and only gave me a troubling look.

'Yes son! Yes! Good!'

Yes Echo, he's a smart boy, he understood my signal no to say anything. I was happy about it not because it would have ruined my plans, no, they would work just as well even revealing that Noir was alive from the beginning.

I was happy because him not saying anything meant he was giving me the benefit of the doubt, he was starting to trust me more and more.

"Why?"

"Because he didn't tell me about you." I replied firmly then squeezed Ryan's shoulder again. "Ryan, meet your grandfather, Soldier Boy, heroes of heroes and my father."

Ryan looked confused at me and then at Soldier Boy. "He's my grandfather?"

"Oh yes, he's the reason me and you are so strong. We inherited it from him." I said with a cold smile while Ryan just looked conflicted.

Butcher and Hughie looked at Soldier Boy only to see a questioning gaze perched on his features.

"He ain't your kid!" Butcher reiterated loudly.

"Yes I am!" I responded calmly. "I'm your kid and this is your grandson. You have a real family. We don't have to fight. I just want to talk. Whatever Butcher told you or whatever deal Butcher offered you is not real. Surrender yourself now and I promise you won't do more than five years in prison." I said firmly.

"You were betrayed by your team, by Vought and by your government, the midtown explosion was an accident, a Soldier suffering from PTSD nothing more. We can play that up in the media and with my power, with Vought's power you won't stay more than five years in prison." I said with passion in my tone.

"Join me, join us and we can be unstoppable, but you have to end it here and now!"