177: A Company of Fools: Growth, Revaluations, and Bonds II

[Hey, Fours, we're here in the lab. Where are you?] I asked the gravegyle through the mental link as Iris and I walked into the lab.

[In the vault, Pretender. Watching that princess for you still.] Fours replied.

[Thanks, she wasn't any trouble was she?] I asked.

[No, she just sat down at the table and looked over your research.] Fours replied.

[Okay. Well, sit tight, we'll be there in a minute.]

I turned to Iris and saw that her eyes were closed. She was taking a couple of deep breaths and holding them, then letting them out. Trying to calm herself for the confrontation that was about to happen. She finally opened her eyes and looked up at me.

"I'm ready." She said confidently.

"Good, she's in the vault." I said.

"I know, Bo's kept me informed of her movements." She replied and started towards the vault.

I followed closely after her through the lab, keeping a close eye on her body language. Despite the confidence she showed earlier, she was tense and unsure, but regardless of whatever was going through her head, she was still moving forward.

'You really are her friend Tri-clops. Jane's lucky to have you.' I thought glad that Iris was in front of me and couldn't see the small smile that tugged at my lips.

When we reached the vault, Iris paused at the entrance for a quick second, seeing Jane seated at the table, her nose buried in my research notes. She was so focused on them that she hadn't heard us approach. Iris took a deep breath again and steeled herself as she knocked on the vault door, getting Jane's attention.

Jane looked up from my notes, her cheeks turning a shade of red. Slightly surprised and a little bit embarrassed that she'd gotten caught looking at my things.

"Chase…Iris…Back already?" Jane asked, trying to put up her noble airs.

"Jane, it's two in the morning. We've been gone for almost sixteen hours." I informed her. Jane's eyes widened with shock as she stood up from the desk.

"Sixteen hours? Ra's breath! I didn't think I was here that long…" She breathed.

"Time flies when you got a good read, I guess." I said, then pointed at my notes. Jane's blush deepened, having me point out that she was looking at my work.

"Yes…well…your research into splicing history was…surprisingly thorough." Jane said. She looked to the ground and clutched the hem of her dress. "In fact, there is something I need to say to you about it."

"Well, before you go bashing my work, Iris has something she needs to say to you." I said, pushing Iris a head of me with a gentle, not so gentle push.

Iris stumbled forward and stopped in front of the table. Jane stood behind. She looked back at me and glared, but I just gave her a thumbs up and smiled encouragingly at her. She turned and looked back at Jane, who was looking at her slightly perplexed.

"Lady Jane. I've known you the entirety of my life. There isn't a single memory in the last eighteen years that doesn't involve you, either directly or indirectly. I was raised to be your guardian, your protector. So naturally that puts me in a position of servitude, your lesser, and like all your servants I fell into the trap of turning a blind eye to your faults thinking it was not my place to tell you otherwise.

Despite the fact that over the years I have come to see you as something more than…than just my ward and my mistress…I came to see you as my friend…" Iris voice started to crack and she teared up the longer she spoke until Iris had no choice but to wipe the tears from her eyes.

I reached out to comfort her but caught myself. This was her moment. If I interjected and tried to lessen the emotional burden, then it would cheapen what she wanted to say. Clenching my fists, I forced them to my side and watched Iris and Jane's exchange.

"…but I see now that friendship was false. Had I truly been your friend, I would have spoken up sooner. Told you sooner that you were wrong. About Chase, about techno-splicing, about the doubts you were having about yourself. Instead of having a tough conversation, I just fed into the lies and falsehoods that people have been feeding you for years. Keeping my true feelings buried deep…until I couldn't hide them anymore. I don't regret what I said yesterday. It was the truth. What I regret is that I waited so long and chose the worst possible moment to finally say it. For that, I am sorry, Lady Jane."

Iris took a deep breath and wiped the tears that were streaming down her face. She was trying her hardest to claw down so she could finish what she wanted to say. Her words were finding Jane, at least. Jane stood behind the desk, her own tears falling but refusing to wipe them out of some sense of pride.

"If you no longer want me as your guardian, Lady Jane, then that is fine, but I have to say this. You are wrong for being so closed off about change. Yes, techno-splicing is different, but it has its uses. It is a tool, just like traditional splicing is. Like you, I was so resistant to changing and using new tools that I nearly cost Chase his life today…" Iris turned to me, lookjg embarrassed and defeated, then turned back to Jane and drew her mana-lock. "…had I used this enchanted gun that Chase had made for me…he wouldn't have gotten hurt trying to save me. I refused because I thought that after yesterday, the only way I could redeem myself was to act in a way that you would find acceptable, but it's not. I want to learn about Chase's shaping technique, I want to learn how to use guns, and I want to see the world as Chase does! To be able to hear that I can't do something and with confidence sat I'll find another way then! I want all that and I want to be your friend!"

Iris finally broke down completely and fell to the floor sobbing and crying. Jane rushed around the take and fell to her knees, pulling Iris into a tight embrace.

"You are my friend! My first and best! I'm so sorry, Iris! I'm so sorry!" Jane cried. The two of them sat and cried. I said nothing and just watched them, only looking away when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

It was, of course, Fours. He was handing from the ceiling watching the screen unfold like I was. I made a small gesture to my crystal to tell him to return, and he nodded, silently returning sons not to disturb the girls' touching moment.

The girls stayed like that for a good while, whispering apologies for even the smallest slight they committed against each other over the years until all they could do was cry. When their tears had run dry, the two wiped their eyes and helped each other stand.

"Would it be alright if I called you Jane from now on?" Iris asked. Jane smiled, one of the few genuine smiles I had seen on her in the tike that I had known her.

"Yes, of course, Iris." She replied happily.

Iris looked like she would rocket through the roof in that moment and hugged Jane tightly. While getting permission to call Jane just by her name doesn't seem like much to me, I knew it was everything to Iris. After the hug was over, Jane turned to me, and her expression turned serious.

"Now there is something I need to say to you, Chase." Jane said seriously. I nodded and crossed my arms, waiting for her to bash and degrade my new shaping technique.

"Go ahead." I said, waving to her. Jane took a step around Iris, her face turning red as she looked down at the floor. She started to open her mouth, then suddenly clamped it shut and shook her head, then looked back up at me and into my eyes.

"Your shaping technique…its…genius!" She exclaimed.

"What?" I muttered, more than a little shocked at what she said.

"It's genius." Jane repeated. "At first, I was skeptical when you claimed that you blended traditional and techno-splicing technique. I figured you just said you did without doing any research, but looking at your notes, seeing all the books you checked out just to try and research more…I realized I judged you harshly and unfairly."

"Jane…" I started only for her to raise her hand to stop me.

"Let me finish, please, or else I'll start crying again." She said. I nodded and let her continue. "I didn't want to believe that you could do something like that, I didn't want to believe that something like that was possible. I realize that was just jealousy now, you were a splicer born in a country that despises us, you were taught nothing about splicing and its history, whereas I had the best tutors and education money could buy. You were constantly dealt a losing hand in life, but you took every experience you had and turned it into fuel to better yourself. I can still remember the say we met. It was only a few months ago, but it feels like an eternity. You weren't even a blip on my radar. I thought you were nobody. I didn't know you had all that talent…"

Jane's entire body tensed at the mention of talent. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Whether from rage or embarrassment, I couldn't tell. It's probably a weird mix of both.

"…So much talent. Had you been lazy and squandered your talent, I probably wouldn't have been so jealous or mad. I had people all my life telling me how great I was while you had people telling you that you were a disappointment. The difference in our lives and the reality of our talent is so backward that it's almost laughable. The proof of that is all around us."

Jane walked back over to the table and grabbed several of my notes then walked over, and held them up in my face. The papers were a mix of my notes on Jiggles, Pogs, Twilight, and Midnight's performances during our earlier tests; evaluations of past alterations to splicing techniques, and a run down of my first shaping attempts.

"This is genius! All of it, genius! You are…a genius. And no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I learn, I am nowhere near your level, and I never will be." Jane said, letting her arms drop, and my papers fall to the floor.

"I'm nowhere near as great as you make me out to be. You make it sound like I'm some sort of demi-god walking among mortals. I'm an eighteen year old punk from St. Louis Missouri. The only reason I try as I am as hard as I do is because I'm scared. Scared that if I'm not strong enough that I'll lose you, and Iris, and Bo, and all the others." I said softly, then turned my head to look at the notes on Shaping. I had strewn all over the walls. "As miraculous as you just made me out to be Jane, all it would take for me to break is the loss of one of you. I'm not strong enough to survive the loss of another loved one. You say you don't have talent? You're basically running Sho'lajah for me. All I'm doing is popping up every once in a while and making enchanted items. I'm not good at clerical work, I can fight, I can shoot a gun, I can make an evo, but I can't balance a checkbook to save my life. Bo, Jade, Nate, Sin…all of them are relying on me to make this company something and that is something I can't do without you and all the things you are so much better than me at that I should be calling you a genius." .

"Do you really mean that?" Jane asked, looking down at the floor.

"Yes. Without you, Sho'lajah is done. Without you, Iris and I are lost. That is what you are a genius at: giving people hope and a direction." I replied. Jane chucked and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"I think you might be confusing me with you right now, Chase. Because you made me realize that if I want to be better, I have other stops being so closed minded…." She stared up at me confidently, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "…I want to learn how to learn about techno-splicing, about lysdale scripts, how to shoot a gun, anything and everything you can teach me I want to learn!"

"Sure…anything for you…LPP." I said. Jane chucked and slapped me on my chest for using that nickname.

"You better not call me that around others again." She said half-jokingly.

"I won't." I promised, suddenly feeling even more exhausted than before. Iris raced over and tackled Jane onto me and held the two of us in a group hug.

"Oh, thank the gods you two made up!" She exclaimed. Jane and I looked at each other, then laughed.

"Let's head home, you guys. Today was long, and I'm beyond tired." I said, pulling away from the girls and heading towards the entrance of the lab.

"Sure, you two can tell me how your day went." Jane said. She hurriedly followed after me with Iris in tow.

"Yeah…about that…"