Several hours passed by without anything being accomplished. Parker didn’t know how he was supposed to teach Lara how to teleport when the only ways he’d done it were by accident.
Parker explained how he’d teleported from the school to her office only happened, he assumed, because of the locket he’d been holding that was Hailee’s. He could see Lara’s mind go back to the moment she saw Parker with the locket.
Lara walked out of the room after a while taking deep breaths. Parker didn’t know what else to tell her. Between that and the only other real time being when he grabbed the door downstairs he didn’t know what to tell her.
Time seemed to drag by as Parker sat by himself in the conference room. He walked over to the window he’d jumped out of and looked down as far as he could. “What was I thinking?” Parker asked no one.
“We all agreed,” a voice said from behind. Parker physically jumped and spun around; fists raised ready to attack. “Calm down,” the voice said.
Parker stared at the person and was trying to figure out who he was but couldn’t quite put a finger on it. He knew the man looked familiar and couldn't figure out from where. “Do I know you?”
“Know me? Probably not. I haven’t seen you since you were probably about two years old.”
Parker blinked rapidly. Who was this man? “What do you mean since I was two? How would you have seen me…” As he spoke, he realized who the man was. “I’ve seen you. In pictures at my house. You were in my parents' wedding!”
“I wondered if you would know that,” the man asked.
“Yeah…” Parker trailed off trying to remember his name. “Your name is… Jacob… Jacob… Blackwell! Wait, your Oliver, Dexter and Zoey’s dad?”
“So, you know my kids? How have they been? I haven’t seen them since we dropped them off at the subway.” Jacob seemed sad when he talked about dropping them off.
“They’re fine…” Parker couldn’t believe that his parents were friends with the triplets’ parents.
Jacob’s eyes opened wide. “Did they make it to Earth 2 all right?”
“Yeah, they’re here. Haven’t you felt the need to go find them since we’ve been here? I mean it’s been almost three years now.”
“Look around. How am I supposed to be able to find them?”
Parker looked at him confused. “You’re literally with, probably, the one person in this world that can actually figure out a way to legitimately find them…”
Jacob laughed to himself. “Does she really look like—”
“Do I really look like what?” Lara interjected.
“Nothing ma’am,” Jacob said sternly and stood straight up.
“Don’t be shy. Speak your mind.”
Jacob looked terrified. What was Lara doing to these people to have them under her control so completely? He couldn’t believe how terrified Jacob looked as he scrambled for words. Before he could give her an answer, she whipped him through the air, crashing through the window and to the ground below.
“What did you do?” Parker screamed as he ran to the window.
“Calm down. Jacob will be fine. He’s an Air Imperial.”
Parker stared down at the ground where he had landed previously but couldn’t see if Jacob was all right or not. “How do you know he’s okay?”
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“I just do. He’ll be fine.”
“What was the purpose of that?” Parker’s breath was rapid.
“They have to understand who’s in charge and that if you turn against your leader, there are consequences to your actions.”
Parker stared at her, baffled. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Lara had always been a bit over the top, but this was insane. “You know, there’s other ways to go about that,” he suggested.
“Go ahead. Tell me a way to get my authority through to them in a quick and timely manner.”
Parker didn’t know what to say back to her, so he changed the subject. “Where are my parents at? I know you have them!”
Lara laughed in his face. “As if I’d just tell you.” She walked around the room, so she was standing directly in front of him. “You will tell me how to teleport and then, if you don’t frustrate me, I’ll explain how to sense a core and if I’m feeling generous, I might tell you where your parents are. But that’s doubtful.”
Parker stared at her, anger rising. He wasn’t surprised it went this direction, but he had to figure out how to move forward here. He didn’t actually know how to teleport so how would he convince her that he did?
“So, have you teleported at all since you’ve been on Earth 2?”
Lara looked at him with squinted eyes. “Earth 2? What the hell is Earth 2?”
Parker looked at her confused. “This place. This world you created. It’s Earth, but not. That’s why we call it Earth 2. Not all of the people are here, not all of the buildings are here. Was that your plan?”
“You know my plan. I told you my plan. I created a world where my daughter was supposed to be safe and her father would be dead. However, things didn’t work out that way, did they?”
Parker knew he had to tread carefully now. He was sure she was still furious about Hailee’s death; everyone was. “I guess not…” Parker didn’t want to add on anything, so he decided to try and convince her he knew how to teleport. “Remember when you taught me the first time? You have to focus on wanting yourself to be in a specific spot, nowhere else.”
“You’re joking right?” Lara sneered. “You think I haven’t thought of that already? I taught you that!”
“How else am I supposed to explain it then?” Parker whined. “I just focus on where I want to be and that there’s nowhere else I could be, and poof, I’m there.”
“That doesn’t make sense as to how you found me then. You would have to sense my core in order to know where I’m at so you can teleport to me. But you’ve said it yourself, you can’t sense cores so there should be no way you could find me. So, explain yourself.” Lara’s anger was beginning to show.
Parker’s heart dropped into his stomach. She had him. There was no way he could work his way out of this one. He thought about Alexis and Caleb, wishing he was right by their sides. His heart raced as he stared at Lara with no answer to her question.
-----
Parker appeared in a chair in the old common room. Alexis screamed and nearly fell out of her chair. Caleb and Master Sora stared at him wide-eyed.
Parker spent the next thirty minutes explaining everything that happened while he was gone. He didn’t know how to explain to them completely because he could tell they didn’t understand why he would agree to help her when she was the enemy. He just knew that sometimes, you had to do things that you didn’t want to if you wanted to grow more powerful.
“What do we do now?” Alexis asked.
“We need to keep moving,” Caleb stated. “Lara knows how to sense cores, or at least she claims she does. Which means, if she figures out how to teleport again, then we’re going to be in trouble.”
Master Sora stared pensively at the old fireplace. “Are you sure it does?”
The three of them stared at him confused. Why is he asking them? He’s the smartest one in the group.
“Why come after us when she could track Warwick?” He stood up and paced around the room. “He’s the one she wants so maybe she’ll just ignore us. She doesn’t know that we’re doing what we can to actually try and stop her.”
“I think Master Sora is right,” Alexis said. “She has no need to come after us.”
Parker and Caleb looked back and forth at each other. Parker knew he wanted what they were saying to be true but if Lara had proven anything so far it was that she can get a little unhinged. “Shouldn’t we still be careful?” he asked.
“I’m not saying we don’t need to be careful,” Master Sora quickly responded. “I’m just saying that I think she’ll target Warwick instead of us.”
Caleb’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what if she takes care of him and then comes after us?”
Everyone froze and stared at him. “Why would you say that?” Alexis asked. She knew he was right, but she hated to think about it.
“He’s right,” Master Sora stated. “I think the best we can do is keep moving and trying to stay vigilant.”