After class, Ben finds himself approached by Kemp.
"Do you have a moment, Ben? I need to talk with you."
Ben
He had been shouldering his pack when Mr. Kemp spoke to him, causing him to look up at him.
"Of course." he said, pausing.
Kemp:
“I haven’t really had a chance to talk to you in general since you arrived. I want to correct that. I also want to update you on the situation surrounding your parents. There has been a communication from your mother, one which we deemed safe. If you wish to view it in private, I will make a room available.”
He pauses for a moment looking at him.
Ben
His attention sharpened at the mention of his parents and he felt a little thump at the news of correspondence from his mother, causing him to nod his head.
"Yes please. I would appreciate that."
He is brought to a room, and seated with a portable screen in front of him.
“I will be waiting outside the room, and we can continue our conversation when you are ready. Just knock on the door.”
Once he presses play, a screen lights up with his mother against a black background, looking somewhat haggard but not abused.
“Ben. They have allowed me to send this communication after I insisted and with the intervention of one Lady Grey. She apparently insisted as well. We ...”
She pauses.
“I apologize for placing you in this position. We should have never let you become tangled up in all of this. It was never our ...”
Another pause.
“It was never my intention. You are better than either of us ever were or have been. I have been led to understand that there are individuals who have assured your safety to the best of their ability and have placed you under their protection. I am glad of this. You can be so much more. Don’t follow me. You are so much more than just a child. You are the better me. I love you and always will. Be safe, Ben. Don’t get sucked in to my problems.”
Ben
He took a seat in the room, lighting somewhat dim, and pushed the button. Surprise and distress flash across his face at the first sight of his mother's face and the haggard expression on it.
"Mom....." he whispers, hand coming up slightly as if to be able to reach through the screen and touch her.
He listened to the rest of her message until the machine paused after it ended, sitting there as her words echoed in his mind.
Finally he hit the power button and turned the machine off, then got to his feet after a surreptitious wipe of his eyes and went to the door and knocked once.
Kemp opens the door.
“I’m sorry it’s come to this, Ben. I really am. I wish it hadn’t. I wanted you to see the message unfiltered, before I tell you what we have figured out about the activities of your parents recently. It would be unfair not to let you know, both the good and the bad.”
Ben
He looked at Kemp for a long moment and shook his head.
"No, don't bother. I would rather keep the memories of them that I have and move on with my life. I assume that they will not be free from prison for some years so I will make my own way and remember the love that they showed me."
Kemp:
“I would truly like to do only that, Ben. However some of these actions are likely to impact on you and others here soon, and it would be better if you have context for that impact rather than being caught unaware. I am not talking about their record in general, but about specific parts of it which we have only recently started to figure out.”
Ben
He sighed and nodded.
"Whatever you need to do then. Go ahead."
Kemp:
“So we need to start this story a good ways back. Some of this is reconstructed, filling in the gaps between facts found from many sources, including your parents. Shortly before you were born in fact. Your mother was newly pregnant. And both of them decided to pay a visit to a certain individual. An individual who has connections with many others here. Someone who was around even in my early days. You have probably heard the name. Enkidu. They were there to have you ... altered.”
Ben
He had, of course, heard of Enkidu. His parent had had a file that he had read as well as on a number of the "heroes" and "villains" of the city. His last bit thought caught Ben by surprise.
"Altered? What do you mean by that? In what way?"
Kemp
“You are aware that Enkidu ... creates, modifies - we aren’t sure exactly what - those like us. You’ve seen Dash and Blake. Lamar. From more research we are now suspecting that he may have had some involvement in Grey, in Mariel. In others here. And, Ben. In you. Not sure exactly what it was that was changed, but something was done. You have the markers.”
Ben
"But that doesn't make sense. I have my parents abilities which I inherited. So unless I was born without my powers and he somehow transferred my parents powers to me, I don't see what he could have done."
Kemp:
“I’m not sure either, although maybe there is something which hasn’t manifested yet. Nonetheless, the pattern is clear. And is repeated in each of you.”
Ben
He took in what Kemp was telling him and finally shrugged.
"Well, there isn't much that I can do about it. Not going to worry about it until or unless something manifests."
Kemp:
“True in the broadest sense, Ben. I think, however, that there might be further problems on the horizon. I think that it is unlikely that it was done without purpose. And I think that purpose is quite possibly coming to fruition now. One thing that you were not told, something that technically speaking I should not be telling you is what your father has said in interviews. I don’t really care that I am not supposed to tell you as I do not hold to the theory that a man should not know things which concern him. There is no recording of those sessions, so I suppose you would have to take it on faith that I am accurately reporting on what Grey told me. In theory, she could place it directly into your mind - however she really does not like to do that.”
Ben
"You haven't given me any reason to believe that you are lying to me so until that time I will trust that your motives are honest enough to listen to what you have to say." he said, looking the man in the eyes and waiting.
He pauses a long while.
“Quite some time back a deal was made. Your parents with Alchemy - who connected them with Enkidu. Early testing in your mother’s pregnancy had shown a likelihood of a rare genetic disorder, the upshot being that your life expectancy was going to be quite low. They were told that she knew someone who could fix the problem, however that service would come with a price. A continuing price.”
Ben
He took a half step back as the news that Kemp shared hit him with unexpected panic.
"Disorder? What kind of disorder? And what price was required? What did Enkidu get my parents messed up in?" he asked, fists clenching and unconsciously the gravity field increased slightly.
Kemp:
His voice was even and calm and he didn't move.
"I don't know all of the particulars myself, as I understand it it involved premature aging and Neural degeneration. Eric might be able to describe things better, I was never much of a science man myself. From what we gather there were at least two things demanded. One was the retrieval for Alchemy of certain items which he would not reveal. Another was a sample of your genetics delivered to Enkidu to keep. As well as ... genetic material from your mother and father. The third, as I understand, was a continuing arrangement with Alchemy and Nyx for 'services rendered'. They made choices, Ben. Choices for your benefit as they saw it, but choices nonetheless."
Ben
The field increased every so slightly.
"My parents criminal activity....when did it start?" he asked, a furrow on his brow.
Kemp
“No one ever said you weren’t perceptive, Ben. I think you know the answer.”
He said gently.
Ben
He took a deep breath and consciously relaxed, letting the increased gravity field melt away.
"I need to meet with my parents attorney, face to face." he stated.
Kemp:
"Yes, I suspect you do."
He pauses a long while.
"Ben, while you were their motive, and they may in essence have been blackmailed they still did the things that they did, and their choices cannot be undone. You realize that right?"
Ben
"Yes, of course I do. None the less, I need to meet with the attorney. I at least want them to know that I now understand." he said quietly, although what else was going on in the depths of his mind only a telepath would be able to tell.
Kemp:
“Of course. I have already asked Grey to contact them for you - we will arrange the meeting at your first convenience. I am not quite sure what she has on Eidolon, but when she is insistent on something like this, they tend to bend.
He pauses.
“I may not have gone through the same as you, but trust me when I say I have been through much and do understand.”
Ben
"Set it up for as soon as possible and please thank Ms. Grey for me." he said, running a hand through his hair and giving the older man a faint smile. Best to keep them content with him for now until he knows the real truth one way or the other.
kemp
“I am trying, Ben, to be as straight with you in this process as possible. In all of this you are a victim not a perpetrator. And I’m hoping one that can manage to go on to live a normal life once we get past this. Everything will be done that we can do to make that happen.”
Ben
"I appreciate your efforts Mr. Kemp. It sounds like things have been messed up for some time and have caused a lot of collateral damage. I hope that the others get the help they need." he said, thinking of some of the other students.
His eyes lose focus slightly.
“Grey says she will have the meeting set for early tomorrow.”
Ben
He nodded his acknowledgement.
"Thank you. Now, unless you need me for anything else, I think I will go relax for a while and think about what you have said."
(I’ll start a lawyer thread, if you want that thread?)
Yes, it won't be a long one I suspect