CHAPTER 29

Franz Thomas paced around Marshal Gessner’s office, trying to repress his anger. He knew blowing up at Hermann wouldn’t do any good, but still, he couldn’t help but feel helpless in this situation. Why hadn’t he told him anything?

“Will you stop making all that noise?” Hermann asked with a sigh, glancing up from the stack of papers on his desk. “You’re distracting me.”

Franz groaned in frustration, but he listened. “I apologize, but I still feel like you betrayed me to some level. You should have told me, Hermann.”

“If I knew how badly you would take it, I would have told you they were leaving, yes.” He answered in a nonchalant tone, looking back at his paperwork.

“They’re in danger, and I’m sitting here acting like a glorified bodyguard.” Franz continued. “You should have sent me as well, I feel useless.”

“Franz… you fail to see the bigger picture. You are crucial to Azeris’ existence, I would not risk you in a reconnaissance mission so far from Adelind, especially when your powers are less suited for it than Jasmine and Agnes.”

“So you would risk them, then?” Franz demanded with a frown, challenging him.

Hermann clicked his tongue. “I trust that they will succeed, which is the difference between you and I.”

Franz clenched his fist, but said nothing. Frustrating.

“Now, I have to call some governors.” The Marshal continued. “Please, be silent.”

Franz’s nails dug into his palm. Why was it all falling apart so quickly? It had been going so well just this morning, and he had felt on top of the world. Reuniting with his sister had given him the energy, the resolve to keep going. But now? Franz was pretty sure he had reached close to rock bottom. His friends were far away, and there was no way to help. Allfather, there wasn’t even a way to contact them. All this secrecy and caution was well and good, but for the first time since he’d gotten here, Franz felt like Agnes had been onto something all along.

---

Hours of phone calls ensued, and Franz was pretty sure he was about to fall asleep from boredom. Granted, hearing Hermann chew out some politicians was entertaining for a while, but it got stale eventually. From what he understood, about half of the governors had refused to pledge to Gessner’s demands— and his demands were steep.

Governors were the elected officials who ran Azeris’ regions— so they administered on the subnational level. The old king had the power to fire them if his demand was approved by a majority in the Senate, but now that it was gone? Hermann demanded complete loyalty to him and only him, and obviously, some refused but relented after a threat. Some, however, never budged no matter what threat he sprung up, and those were his real problem.

“Traitors, all of them. I’ll have them fired, arrested, and tried.” Gessner hissed. “They refuse to see that I’m saving the country. If they had their way, Azeris would be history!”

Franz simply stayed silent, looking at the city through the window. The sun was starting to set.

“No matter, I’ll just have to call Loeb and the other generals, I suppose.” Hermann continued, resting his head against his fingers. “Thank you for staying, Franz. You are dismissed, but come here at the same time tomorrow, we have work to do in the city.”

He nodded and struggled not to celebrate audibly. Finally, he’d be able to see his sister again. They still had a lot of catching up to do. The young man quietly exited the room and hastily made his way to the room his sister had claimed. Being a castle, this place had no shortages of old rooms the royal family used to sleep in. Granted, it still felt odd to sleep in the same home your old oppressors did, but it could be seen as a victory, a sign of what was to come.

Franz knocked on a door, and his sister answered from the other side.

“Franz?”

“Yeah, I’m done for today. Can I come in?” He asked.

“Obviously. You don’t have to ask, dummy.” She said with a laugh as he opened the door.

Seeing his sibling this grown-up still felt odd. Franz was happy, but he couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness too. He hadn’t been here to see her grow up from a kid into a teenager. Ria had changed.

Franz hugged her tightly, then collapsed on a chair to the opposite of her bed.

“Hard day?” Ria asked with a sad smile.

“You could say that, but I feel like it wouldn’t be fair.” He said as he cracked his neck. “I’d be a spoiled brat.”

“Implying that’s not what you are already.” She joked.

“Ha-ha, very funny.” Franz deadpanned. “But seriously, I’m good, it’s just boring. I stood around and did nothing the entire day, but I do have a great home and eat three meals a day, so I can’t complain.”

“Really?” The girl asked, stretching out the word.

“Yeah,” Franz said. “Yeah.” He reassured her. Or was it himself?

“You look worried, though, I can tell. Your leg?”

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Franz looked down at the carpeted floor and noticed that his foot was tapping rapidly. “Ah, you remember?”

“Duh, I do. You did the same thing when mom and dad didn’t come home the night we decided to go to the Hoovers.” Ria said, her eyes settling on the floor. “I still dream about it, you know?”

“I do too.” He said.

“You kept telling me not to worry and that they were going to walk through the door any minute now, and you stayed up all night. Even when I woke up, your foot was tapping on the floor.”

“Let’s… talk about happier things, yeah? How did the Hoovers treat you?” Franz asked, settling his hand on his leg.

“As well as they could. They hid me under their floorboards for a few months— I was small enough to fit back then. Eventually, things got too hot, and I had to run to Hulvestein, but you know that already. How about we talk about you, Franz? You never came back. You promised me.”

Franz flinched. He hadn’t expected her to bring that up. “I also promised you I’d bring them back.”

“You knew they were dead eventually, even I figured that out. Tell me the real reason, Franz. And don’t lie to me, you’re a terrible liar.” Ria growled, glaring at him.

When had she gotten so strong? “Ria, can we not do this today, I wanted us to catch up and have a nice time.” Franz looked away.

“This is us catching up.” She insisted.

He sighed. “It’s not going to change anything. I’m happy you’re here now.”

“Tell me!” Ria screamed. “Tell me why you left me all alone when you were all I had left! You for sure weren’t in the camps, from all the letters you sent to Elmar.”

“I was trying to do good, Ria.” He finally said. “Healing people who would accept my help.”

Ria sat there in silence for a few seconds. Franz could feel the tension in the room, so palpable he could choke on it.

“So you left me, your sister, for people you’d never met before? Did I get that right?” She said with an ice-cold tone.

“Yeah. Yeah, I did, and I’m sorry, but when you have a power like mine, you don’t let it go to waste.” He asserted. “I thought you’d understand.”

“I… I understand.”

“You should know— wait, what?” Franz asked, shaking his head in surprise.

“I get it, I just needed to know. It ate at me, thinking that you simply didn’t love me anymore or blamed me for mom and dad dying. Now that I know it wasn’t the case, I think I can forgive you. You were trying to do good.”

“Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me.” Franz said, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest. “I love you, Ria.”

“I love you too. Come hug me, doofus.” She said with a slight smirk.

---

An alarm blared throughout the room.

“Ah, shit, shit, shit,” Franz muttered. “How in the world is it morning already…” He continued, turning off the alarm. He felt his left arm slump from the side of the bed, his fingers lightly touching the carpeted floor.

Franz considered staying asleep for two more minutes, but he knew that eventually, two minutes would turn into five and then ten. The man slowly got up and opened the curtains. He had expected the sun to blind him, but instead, he was greeted by a dark cloudy sky. Franz stretched, cracked every bone in his body, and made his way to his bathroom. He took a leak, washed his hands and face. Then, he looked at himself in the mirror. A young man with dark hair and eyes looked back.

“I need to shave…” Franz said with a sigh. He applied shaving cream and started shaving his beard until nothing was left. He still couldn’t grow out a proper one, which annoyed him to no end.

Another thing that annoyed Franz to no end was the fact that his bathroom had no shower and that he had to travel all the way to the baths to actually clean himself. The man who designed this place must have been mad, which wouldn’t be unique as far as kings went. After a quick shower and getting into his suit, Franz looked at one of the many clocks dotting the palace and noticed that it was time. Gessner had summoned him again, hopefully for something other than being a bodyguard today.

A tired Franz knocked on the Marshal’s door, waited for approval, and then entered. Veronica was already in the room, standing tall. Franz noticed her hair had been longer as of late since she hadn’t bothered to cut it. It still suited her.

“Thank you, Veronica, you are dismissed.” Hermann said. This time, he was typing away on a computer.

The girl nodded and quickly glanced at Franz before she left. He puckered his brow. Not even a good morning?

“Good morning, Franz. I hope you slept well.” The Marshal said, looking at him.

“Good morning, and sure I slept alright. What was Veronica doing here? Not another last-minute mission, I hope?”

“Nothing of the sort, she was just on guarding duty for the night.” He replied, waving his hand to dismiss his worry.

“The entire night? You didn’t sleep?” Franz asked with widened eyes. He sat across Hermann’s desk.

“No time for that, I’m afraid, I was busy with matters of the state— but let’s get to our task at hand. I called Doctor Biermann yesterday, and he told me a few interesting facts about you.”

The metahuman tilted his head. “Like what?”

“Like the fact that you wish to help people with your power, of course. And who wouldn’t with an ability like yours?”

“Yeah, I want to. I thought you would disaprove?” Franz doubted.

He spread out his hands, a gesture that surprised the metahuman. “Why would I not? It would be a great venture, especially now in these times of strife, which is why you’re coming with me today, my dear Franz.”

“Where to?”

“Saint Burke children’s hospital.”

---

This was perhaps the most agents Franz had ever seen Hermann be surrounded by, and he was one of them. Stepping out of the car, he felt the intensity of the crowd encompassing the driveway. It seemed that someone had alerted the press about their plans at the hospital.

A bright flash blinded him— cameras from the press.

“Marshal Gessner, is it true that you’re here to show off the capabilities of Franz Thomas?!”

“Marshal, what are your thoughts about yesterday’s suicide bombing in Effinveil last night? Any comments? Was it the MSA?”

“Marshal Gessner, how can you trust metahumans after the massive betrayal they committed against our country? Can I get a statement?”

They were bombarded by questions from various journalists clustered around the hospital’s entrance. Franz and the other agents pushed through the crowd, and Hermann turned to give a statement after stepping through the hospital doors.

“My fellow Azerians, you putting all this attention on me is taking it away from the real issues— look at this!” Hermann said, pointing to a child getting wheeled out of an ambulance. He sounded completely different from when he spoke with Franz, and his voice had much more authority to it. It was booming, but not loud. Commanding, but not harsh. The voice of a ruler.

“You! Bring him here!” He yelled out at the medical staff. They turned their heads, probably not expecting the Marshal to be here.

“We can’t we have to get him medical attention as soon as we can—” One of the medics started.

“Franz! Look at him.” He interrupted them.

Franz listened and stepped forward to the gurney and looked at the boy. He was probably seven or eight, and he looked terrible. He was barely breathing, and his white shirt was soaked in blood.

“What happened to him?” Franz asked, struggling not to tear up. He was a child.

“Four stab wounds. He might not live if we—”

Four?! How? Franz put his hand over the child’s head, making him utter a groan that was barely audible. He ignored the flashes and the clamoring in the background and focused. Franz felt— no, he sensed the boy’s body desperately trying to plug the holes and heal him, but it was too slow. He would die.

Red blood cells clustered around each wound, trying to clot and block them. Franz sped them up, first two-fold, then four, then eight. Within seconds, the wounds closed and turned into scabs. Scab became swollen skin, and swollen skin returned to normal. The kid was still out of it— he had lost a lot of blood, but he could fix that as well. Franz used his power again, sensing around the child’s bones— more specifically his bone marrow. Without all the studying he had done back at the research center, he wouldn’t have known that ninety-five percent of blood cells were formed there. Franz knew that he was ready, all it would take was a simple push. He sped up the process that created blood inside of his bones, and soon, the kid came to. He was healed.

Franz took deep breaths and took his hand off of the child’s head. A deep silence had settled in the hospital lobby. People peaked their heads out through the crowd to see what was happening. He swallowed, turned to the mass of journalists, hospital workers, and simple passersby, and muttered.

“He’s fine, now.”

The crowd roared once more, this time in celebration.

But this was just the beginning.