Back to work

Hey. Kallaway here. Sorry for breaking the trend of Daniel and I taking turns writing, but he's been... in a bit of a slump ever since what happened with Tyler. When he came to after Tyler made his escape, he just sat up against the wall for a while, looking miserable. He wouldn't say a word to any of us. At least not until Raoul got up as well and approached him.

"You were a fool to trust such a broken man," Raoul informed him.

Daniel looked up at Raoul for a second, before lowering his gaze again and responded.

No," he said. "I was a fool for breaking him."

Raoul turned and left after that. I went and sat down next to Daniel.

"Hey man," I said. "Do you wanna talk?"

"No," Daniel said.

He remained seated for a while, blankly staring at the crushed remains of his machines.  Jane eventually came up to try and talk to him, but he calmly told her that he wanted to be left alone. She hesitantly went back to talk to the others. Ren and Elie soon came up to address me.

"We're gonna head back to the University now," Elie said. "You guy's coming with?"

Daniel silently shook his head.

"I'm staying," I said.

"Okay," Elie said. "We'll be in touch."

"We'll keep an eye out for Tyler," Ren assured me. "If anything comes up... anything at all... we'll let you know."

"Thank you," I said. "And if you run into him at any point... please don't hurt him."

Ren sighed, resting a hand on his sheathed blade as he did.

"I can't promise you anything," he said. "But I'll try not to."

I turned to Elie.

"Tell my cousin what happened here," I said. "Ask if he can... um... keep an eye on destiny. Let us know if he catches a glimpse of Tyler."

"Professor Malkator isn't the easiest man to talk to," Elie said. "But if it's a message from you, I'm sure he'll listen."

"Thanks," I said.

"We'll se you later," Elie said. "Stay safe."

"You too," I said.

"Goodbye," Ren said.

They returned to where Kimiko and Jane were waiting, and they got ready to set out. Kimiko turned to me and waved.

"Sorejiya mata!" she said.

"I have no idea what that means," I said.

Daniel closed his eyes and sighed.

"It means 'see you later'," he said, before opening his eyes and looking up at Kimiko. "Jiyaane."

"Oh, right," Elie said. "We eft my car at the Black Garden."

"We're a couple cities away right now," Daniel said. "You'll need to catch a bus or something."

"I'll call up Paris," I said. "I'm sure he'll be willing to give you guys a lift."

I called him up, and he arrived shortly after. Everyone said one last goodbye, before departing. I went back to check and Daniel, who was still sitting in the same spot.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Of course not," he replied. "Would you mind giving me some space? I just... need to think."

"Sure," I said. "I'll check up on you later, okay?"

"Whatever," he said.

"I'm gonna go see if I can get a hotel room," I said. "See you later."

Daniel sighed, and on my way out, he call after me.

"There's a futon in the next room," he said. "You're welcome to use it."

I turned back to him.

"You sure?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Thank you," I said.

I spent the next couple days checking up on him, only to find him in the same state of apathy. At least he was feeding himself. Kind of... he seemed to be subsisting mostly on ramen cups and cheap beer. Paris had returned as well. He had been caught up on what had happened, and told me he'd handle checking up on Daniel for a while.

I left after that, making a trip to the office of Tony Helioson. By this point, Tony had read my last post, so he was fully aware of what had happened. He assured me that he was currently investigating what had happened to Tyler. Apparently, there had been a handful of sightings of a man with a treelike right arm. He's going to keep looking into it, and update me if he learned anything else.

I just got back to Daniel's base the other day, to see that he had seemingly gotten over his apathy. His office was now filled with whiteboards covered in mathematical equations and scientific formulas and a bunch of other stuff my head couldn't process.  On his desk was the skeleton of what appeared to be a new Extractor that he was constructing. He was standing before one of the whiteboards when I came in, jotting some stuff down next to what looked like a blueprint.

"Is he okay?" I asked Paris.

"He's in a zone right now," Paris said. "I wouldn't bug him right now if I were you."

"Yeah, well, you're not me," I said.

Paris just shrugged as I went and approached Daniel.

"How you holding up?" I asked.

"Just fine," he said, as he wrote out an equation I couldn't make heads or tails of.

I took a deep breathe before continuing.

"What happened with Tyler wasn't your fault," I told him.

This comment was met with a snapping sound. It took me a moment to realize it had come from the marker in Daniel's hand, which was now bent at an obtuse angle.

"Didn't I?" he asked coldly.

"Of course not!" I said. "Dawson was there, egging him on. Getting under his skin and encouraging him to take that step."

"I'm the reason he was craving power in the first place," he said. "I'm always searching for ways to increase my power, to grow even stronger than before, but I've never consider how strong of a shadow I was casting. How weak I was making people like him feel."

He spread his arms, gesturing to all of his whiteboards.

"And look at me!" he said. "I still can't stop! I'm still seeking power, after everything that happened!"

He lowered his arms and fell silent. I noticed a few seconds later that he was visibly trembling, and tears were forming in his eyes.

"This is my fault," he said. "I created that monster."

I placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder, and turned him to face me.

Then I slapped him.

"Pull yourself together!" I snapped.

Daniel was stunned by what I had just done, and Paris seemed worried and confused.

"You didn't create Tyler any more that Raoul created me!" I said.

"What?" Daniel asked.

"I didn't realize this until recently, but Raoul was there," I said. "The night I killed my father. And the night I killed that orphanage owner. He was there. I saw the world shift into photo negative, just like it did when he used his powers in that court room. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a voice encouraging me to attack. To seek revenge. Revenge for my mother. Revenge for all the kids that lady mistreated. But I didn't realize it was him back then. It wasn't until I saw him using his powers upfront that those memories came back."

I took a deep breathe, pulling myself together. I realized I was on the verge of tears as well.

"Raoul was trying to make a monster out of me," I said. "He encouraged me to commit those murders, and even earned me an innocent verdict when I was brought to trial over it. And he would have continued driving me down that dark path if I hadn't have made that choice."

"What choice?" Daniel asked.

"I chose not to go any further down that path," I said. "I didn't wanna kill anyone else. I wanted to become a better person. I heard that voice a few more times, trying to drive me toward violence, but I chose not to. I chose to be better. I made a choice. Just like Tyler did."

I let that sink in for a few seconds.

"Tyler chose to claim that power," I said. "That's not your fault. You tried to talk him out off it. But he ignored you. He ignored both of us. There's no point in blaming ourselves for that."

"Than what should we do?" Daniel asked.

"Whatever we can," I said. "There has to be some way to save him."

"And what if there isn't?" Daniel said.

I remained silent for a while.

"I don't know," I eventually said. "I just hope it doesn't come to that."

We both remained silent for a while. Daniel's cell phone went off after a while, but he just sent it to voicemail.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"Agent Touchshriek," he replied.

"Are you ghosting the SMSC," I asked.

"Whatever missions they have more me can wait," he said, sighing. "So can all of this."

He gestured back to his equations.

"I need a break from things," he continued. "I'm gonna go nap."

He left the room after that. At least he's recovered a little bit from his slump, but I don't think he's stopped blaming himself for all of this.


Before I sign off, I just have a couple things to say concerning Tyler. First of all, if any of you reading this see him, Please let us know where and when. The giant wooden arm should be a giveaway.

And, more importantly, if you see him, be careful! I have no idea ho far gone he is. All that eldritch power could have gotten to his head, and after that first display of his strength, it's safe to assume that he's at a very high level of dangerous. Stay safe...