Z23

The Ghost Walks Again

By Marzena

Chapter 4: Keeping Jedda Safe

"Absolutely not."

Hadea stood by the big windows in her room, her arms crossed over her chest defensively, her blue eyes shooting daggers at Sheila for coming to her with something like this.

"Absolutely yes," Sheila insisted, taking a few steps in her sister's direction, glaring at her. "You are the only one who can do this, and you will do it."

"Why should I?" Hadea snapped back. "And what makes you even think the girl will listen to me? I don't think she likes me very much. I'm probably the last person she wants to interfere."

"And yet you're the only one who could get through to her," Sheila insisted. "You and Jedda, you're not that different. In fact, I would think the two of you are very much alike. You're both grieving. And you both keep shutting people out."

"I'm not grieving!" Hadea fiercely replied, now looking even more defensively. The look spoke for itself.

"No, you're a regular little Miss Sunshine," Sheila shot back and rolled her eyes. To get through to Hadea was like trying to get through stone walls sometimes.

"Honestly, Sheila, I ..."

"Honestly?" Sheila raised an eyebrow. "Well, you want to talk honestly, then let's talk honestly. You had a history with the Phantom, you had a thing with the Phantom, he meant something to you, and now you're devastated and you're hurting and you're grieving. Am I right so far?"

Hadea opened her mouth but in the end, she gave in, sighed and walked away from the window. She let herself fall into the nearest armchair and buried her face in her palms for a moment. Then, looking up at her sister again, she merely nodded.

"I'm sorry," Sheila said, coming over to her and putting her hand on her sister's shoulder in comfort. "You should not have to go through this. And I wouldn't ask you to put yourself out there, but … we're all really worried about Jedda. If she faces the situation with anger and devastation and maybe even a longing for revenge, she won't win. She can't win. We can't withhold her from her destiny, but we can keep her safe. And we need your help in doing so, Hadea. Please. If you don't want to do it for Jedda, then do it for the Phantom. He would have wanted her to be safe."

A moment of understanding between the two sisters passed. Then Hadea got out of the armchair, facing the window.

"What's the girl going to do?" she quietly asked.

"Finding out what's going on at the secret hiding place of the Falou tribe", Sheila replied. "You know, Jedda and Phantom had been on a mission to see the Falou. There's something going on there, and since the Phantom's been protecting the Falou for centuries, I'm sure Jedda will continue doing so. Her father died trying to find out what's going on. So whoever's behind the attack on the Falou – Jedda will face them. And right now, she's in a bad position if she wants to win."

The Phantom had died while trying to fight off an attack on the Falou. He'd been getting himself on one of the enemy ships but had to abandon that plan and jump off, falling into the gorge by doing so. Still, he'd managed to almost save himself but then he'd gotten hit by a laser weapon which resulted in his final fall – all the way down into the gorge, a fall into certain death witnessed by his daughter all the way up in the skull copter.

"Did Jedda say anything about who she thinks is responsible?" Hadea asked, trying to think the whole thing over, now that she was going to get involved.

"Not much. They paid a visit to the Falou and saw a hovercraft leaving but the Falou apparently didn't know about that. And when they went to see them again to get at the bottom of this, the Falou were being attacked," Sheila explained. She'd gotten very little of this from Jedda. It was bits and pieces Dynak had gathered and Flash had been told about by the Phantom himself before he and his daughter had gone on their second trip to the Falou.

"The Falou are the ones with the life-saving elixir, aren't they?" Hadea inquired, pacing along in the room. "So my guess would be that someone's after the elixir."

"We were only told that the Falou are protecting a secret and that the Phantom's protecting them. If there's a powerful elixir, my guess is nobody's supposed to know about that", Sheila reminded her, eyebrows raised.

"I'm the Queen of Netherworld. There's very little about such things that I don't know."

"Don't tell that to Jedda. She might think you're after whatever the Falou are protecting. And I wouldn't put it beneath you, sister."

Immediately, Hadea stopped pacing and turned to face her sister, glaring at her. "If I had wanted that elixir, I would have made it mine a long time ago. But since I'm neither sick nor dying, I never had any use for it and I still don't. But you know as well as I do who might have an interest in it – even if he only wants it to bargain with someone else."

"Father," Sheila slowly said, processing the thought. Yes, it did make sense. And if Hadea knew, others could as well, including Ming the Merciless.

"Indeed."

"That makes protecting Jedda all the more important," Sheila reminded her, giving her a look. This was a mission intended for watching over Jedda. A face-off between Hadea and their father wasn't part of the plan. Getting their hands on anything valuable the Falou might posses wasn't either. With someone like Hadea, you had to make sure she knew what the plan was.

"Don't worry, Sheila. I have it under control," Hadea replied with a tight smile, obviously reading her sister's thoughts. Although she was a schemer and not exactly the world's most honest person – and way to power-hungry for her own good sometimes – underneath it all she was a good person. But most of the time, she kept that side of her too well hidden.

"I really hope so. Don't screw this one up, Hadea. If you do, Jedda will pay for it."

"I won't," Hadea firmly stated, standing in the middle of the room, her head held up high and her gaze directed outside. But Sheila knew she wasn't looking out of the window. She was seeing the Phantom. And, hopefully, promising him to keep his daughter safe.

Later, when Sheila walked into Monitor, she saw Flash, Lothar and Mandrake working on something with Dynak. She joined them, and when she felt Mandrake's gaze linger upon her with an unspoken question, she slowly nodded.

"We have to find … the body," Flash told his wife, avoiding her gaze. It was still so hard for all of them. And talking about it made it even harder because it also made them face the cruel reality – that the Phantom was really, truly and forever gone.

She just nodded, not knowing what to say. Would it be better not to find the body and still have some hope or to find it and have at least some clarity?

"So … she's in?" Mandrake quietly asked when they finally had a moment for themselves.

"She is," Sheila nodded.

He raised his eyebrows. "But can she control herself?"

She didn't blame him for asking. They were talking about the Queen of Netherworld, after all.

"She will," she firmly replied. "For Phantom's sake."

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