?: “BASTARD!! THOSE DESPICABLE, UNCARING BASTARDS! CAN'T THEY SEE THAT THOSE MARKINGS DIDN'T COME FROM A SUICIDE?! It was the work of an evil villain, I just know it!!!”
?: “Calm down for now, Victoria. I promise you that even if you could somehow prove your...theory, is correct, those police guys still wouldn't take your side. The man you're trying to protect died before his questioning. The culprit could be anyone! Furthermore...wasn't he discovered to be one of the last remaining co-conspirators with that madman Professor Watts, that sacrificed over 23,000 people?”
Victoria: “It wasn't over 23,000! It was just under it!”
?: “Does it make a difference? In the end, that's still a whole lot of people.”
Victoria: “There's a HUGE difference!”
?: “You're starting to nitpick, Victoria..haah, again. Just accept that he was a criminal that deserved his death and move on.”
Victoria: “Who CARES about whether or not he was a criminal! I DON'T! That man was supposed to be judged by the court of law! NOT by somebody...somebody out for revenge! That man was my father! *Sniff*”
?: “But he committed too many CRIMES! He made so many enemies that just about everyone that witnessed his death supposedly said that he deserved it. He tried to KILL people, Vicky.“
Victoria: “I DON'T CARE, I DON'T CARE! The police, the POLICE need to judge him! Not random people!”
?: “Since he was responsible for helping the criminal Watts kill so many people, he probably would have gotten the death sentence anyway.”
Victoria: “There's no guarantee! He...*Sniff* He didn't kill anybody! Co-conspiring isn't the same as killing!”
?: “Witnesses say that he sent a young boy to 'Dr. Watts, shortly after performing some strange surgery on him. Then the explosion took place, and people died. That boy was never found.”
Victoria: “He could have left! Or it's-It's all a lie! My dad would never DO something like that!”
?: “You're in denial, I understand.”
Victoria: “Whose side are you on Wayne?!”
Wayne: “Logic's.”
Victoria: “*Sniff* It...It must have been the Malierano Family...”
Wayne: “The Malierano's? I doubt it. Weren't they protecting your father?”
Victoria: “Maybe he brought shame to their name?”
Wayne: “..I think you're trying to find a way to point fingers at others. They kill people every day, why would they feel 'shame' for the Watts incident?”
Victoria: “He's my father, I'm not just going to abandon him!”
Wayne: “Accept reality already!”
Victoria: “No I won't!”
Wayne: “...”
?: “AHEM!”
Victoria: “...Oh.”
Wayne: “Oh! Hi mom! How long were you standing by the door?”
Mom of Wayne: “Long enough to hear the two of you both disagreeing on her father's mysterious death.”
Wayne: “Ah, don't use words that'll encourage her!”
Victoria: “It WAS mysterious! He didn't deserve to-!”
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Mom of Wayne: “Now, hold on there pumpkin. Just because I feel that his death was strange doesn't mean I condone his actions. What he did, leading that boy and others to Professor Watts all those years on the Island, was pure evil. He needed to be punished.”
Victoria: “...”
Mom of Wayne: “It also doesn't mean I agree he needed to be killed. Maybe just serve his time in prison or something, I don't know. But he's dead now, and there's no changing that fact.”
Victoria...*Sniff*..*Sniff*...Waaaah! I miss him...he was a great daddy! I hate that everyone accuses him of things that aren't true! He would never do what they say! He's a good guy! Waaaah!”
Mom of Wayne: “But Vicky the evidence-”
Victoria: “I don't care, I DON'T CARE! I DON'T CARE about the evidence OR the eyewitnesses! They could've been hired by the killer!
I don't care about sympathy or other people telling me that I have to move on! I just...I just want my daddy back! *Sniff*”
Wayne: “You've been spoiled badly.”
Mom of Wayne: “Wayne!”
Victoria: “I don't care if he spoiled me! Those days were my happiest...and....now..*Sniff*”
Wayne: “So..what are you gonna do?”
Victoria: “I'm going to find my dad's killer! I swear I'll avenge his death and bring true justice to his name! He didn't do those things the other heroes said he did!”
Mom of Wayne: “Wait a moment pumpkin, you said that you wish to 'clear' his name, but what are you going to do if things turn out to be true?”
Victoria: “It won't be true! It won't-”
Mom of Wayne: “This is just hypothetical, Vicky. We're speaking about a what-if.”
Victoria: “Then...Then, then I will personally apologize to all twenty-three thousand victims on his behalf. Even if it means getting a medium or somebody to let me speak to them in the afterlife!
That won't happen though, because he's innocent. He's innocent and I won't be satisfied until, until I punish his murderer and clear up his good name!”
With a raspy huff, the teen quickly stormed off , leaving a slammed front door to echo off the walls before finally reaching the upstairs bedroom that Wayne and his mother remained in.
Mom of Wayne: “Well, she's gone now.”
Wayne: “Good riddance. Sheesh, she's like a tornado.”
Mom of Wayne: “I don't want you to be treating your friends like that from now, on. You hear?”
Wayne: “Fine. It's only her, anyway. I'm nice to everyone I meet for the first time, including her. It's just...over time I saw how obnoxious and spoiled she acted, and now with her hard-headedness...I mean, look! Even the HEROES verified that he was holding some shady back-deals. Even MADAME TIME was able to 'see' him sending a kid in the direction of the explosion. That guy's a rotten cri-”
Mom of Wayne: “That's enough! I know how you feel, Wayne. I really do. But as you grow older, you'll discover that worrying so much over things out of your reach will only make that long-smooth hair of yours turn grey that much faster.”
Wayne: “...So you don't care about his actions? We ate lunch...dinner with a...with a criminal..it just...feels strange is all.”
Mom of Wayne: “Oh no, don't think I'm not upset about it. When I first heard the truth, I didn't want to believe it, much like Victoria...but then I thought about the sudden money he said he'd come across 'at certain times' and I just...put it together. I broke so many dishes that day, everything I remembered him ever eating from whenever he stopped by with his daughter for a chat.”
Wayne: “I know, I hid in my room back then. Did you stop caring though? Even though it's been two years, he was still somebody that we knew personally. You both would keep telling each other about your worries...”
Mom of Wayne: “I spent quite some time during these last two years remembering my past conversations with him. I wonder now, if maybe he was asking for advice regarding these shady dealings he was involved in. Did I give him advice that helped him commit crimes?”
Wayne: “NO! That isn't your fault, you didn't know about his actions! His words...you don't know if they have any ulterior meanings at all I-I mean...didn't he use to always ask you about his daughter Victoria? I can't see that having an ulterior meaning behind it.”
Mom of Wayne: “Heehee, It's alright. I just harbored some guilt for a while but now I'm completely over it! I gave him some strange advice about how to raise children, how he should approach his job, etc...but it was never with the intended purpose to help him abduct people. They were just casual conversations. Even the police said I didn't have to worry.”
Wayne: “You-You went to the POLICE?”
Mom of Wayne: Heehee, that was near the beginning when I first found out about it. I met his wife there and consoled her. She mentioned that her family received some...large amount of compensation prior to his death and only after the deed occurred did she discover what the anonymous sender meant by 'compensation'. She was heart-broken, but because of his actions...maybe her pain wasn't that large? Either way, she and Victoria have enough money to live off of now.”
Wayne: “Mom...”
Mom of Wayne: “You want to know what bothered me the most, and still eats away at my imagination sometimes?”
Wayne: “What is it?”
Mom of Wayne: “That boy Madame time watched with her power rewinding, He was only 10 years old. A ten year old child was sent to his death. You might not know this, but Madame Time went to the explosion sight and tried using her powers, but...”
Wayne: “She...did? I never heard of this! What happened? What did she discover after she...mom?”
Madame Time: “Pain...*Sniff* So many people...screaming in pain...I couldn't bear with it, but my powers don't allow me to stop watching, and neither does my job with the police. All those children screaming...I saw 4 year olds begging for help, 5 year olds, 6 year olds, 7 year olds screaming as their parents and they, themselves disintegrated...how did those children learn to beg? What were they made to endure? What were they forced to learn, in order to survive? I saw so...so many children...disappearing. Their souls...I felt their souls' despair collecting around a point like a black light, and when I traced that black energy to it's gathering point...I found the boy...*Sniff*”
She began to tear up at first, however her strong willpower allowed her to keep her emotions in check...until she recalled the rest of her experience. Tears broke through her willful restraints like a dam bursting from the pressure of a huge body of water.
They made her voice incoherent, forcing her to temporarily halt the retelling in order to regain her calm. Wayne allowed his mother to clean up, before continuing, seemingly lost in thought on his own.
Madame Time: “He was drenched in blood, I couldn't tell if it was his own or somebody elses. I couldn't find the Professor, but he had been doing nothing but screaming while cradling his head. So many spirits would attack him, like they were trying to blame him for what happened. Haha, for a second I ran up to the boy, trying to shield him from them! I completely forgot it was only a 'memory' of the event that transpired there. That was just how immersed in it, I was.
Then, *Sniff* I saw something...something dark and...I don't really know. It had one single, strange eye and its outline was shaped like the screaming boy. What was even scarier was...although this was only a memory...it turned its head to face me – as if It noticed my presence...then it said the word 'Begone' and I blacked out. When I woke up, I was still at the site with my teammates screaming over me. They said I entered my trance like usual, but started to scream and cry like I'd gone mad. Usually I could share the 'memory' I'm watching with others, but I couldn't do it this time. Then I just...collapsed and bled through my eyes, ears and nose, looking much like the boy I tried to protect.
*Sniff*...We never did find any bodies, just a whole lot of names on lists and so many blood stains surrounding a 'point' in a set of circles.
When I try to imagine that boy's family...I can't help but imagine you in his situation. How would they feel, if they learned everything that I saw? Should...Should I tell them?”
Wayne: “...”
Madam Time(Wayne's Mother): So yes, I do care about it. That case will forever haunt me. Until I find out just what happened to that boy, I'll probably continue to have a hard time on my cases now.”
Wayne was patient. He allowed his mother to finish without saying a single word. Now, it was over and she equally awaited her son's response to this untold reveal.
However...
Only one thing was on Wayne's mind right at that moment.
Wayne: “Wait...mom..YOU'RE MADAME TIME?!”
Mom of Wayne(Madame Time): “.....Ah, shit.”
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