Daughter of Zeus ✔

11.2

"You lied to me." He waited for a more pronounced reaction and got one when Ada added, "You lied to my mother."

Crackling energy filled the room. The hairs on his arm stood up. He hoped his explanations might bring her some relief, but he had failed. Her negative stress responses were part of her altered personality, a fact she seemed to miss.

"Not only that, but you blocked these abilities."

"This curse," he softly corrected her.

She glanced at him sharply, ignoring what he'd said otherwise. "Your dam, did you ever think that it might burst some day?"

He had thought about that, every day, especially after he'd heard the news about the accident with her husband.  He had no words to fully explain how each action cost him. Each decision was another layered compromise, and he could only hope for a good outcome for the future. The ugly truth was that safeguards sometimes failed. He found that out time and time again. Though, instead of going into detail, he merely nodded.

Ada scoffed. "I doubt that. All this time, I've been blaming the wrong asshole."

On the last word, a tug moved his pistol. His hands hadn't moved, and neither had Ada's, but an invisible force tried to remove the laser pistol from his jacket pocket all the same. She was getting too powerful for her own good. He needed to react and soon. If he waited any longer, she might kill him.

He concentrated and connected with his granddaughter, finding the right neural pathways—blinking furiously red—and taming them. The change hurt, he could tell. She was powerful and therefore naturally immune to most preternatural influences. But he was older and stronger. His reversal of her reaction left Ada slumped on the couch, blue eyes twitching.

For a moment, he thought he had pushed her mind too far. Then her eyes cleared to their normal hazel color, and she blinked through her tears.

"I couldn't let go. He held my hands, but I didn't want to. Why didn't I let go?"

He put a hand on her arm. What was she talking about? An errant memory could've fired as a result of the re-set.

"What's wrong, my dear?"

Her eyes emptied. "I..." She cleared her throat. "I forgive you. I don't know for what, but I forgive you."

He sighed. She was alright. His fix had patched over her near-nuclear response, which he should've anticipated. The patch also included an erasure of his admission about suppressing her powers. Obviously, she wasn't ready for the entire truth just yet.

Lying to Adina, driving her to use her abilities to stonewall Sammies---it had cost her. He had never imagined tinkering with her head. Decades ago, the thought had abhorred him. Now, he wished he had used it with his daughter. Her abilities had been too much, and they had changed a sweet girl into a sociopath. The same rage seemed latent in Ada. Kressick hated forcing any sort of change, but he was glad to have done it before she hurt anyone.

"I'm grateful for your forgiveness." And he was. He helped her sit up. "I'm sorry, but the lies had to be told, for your sake and your mother's."

Her tears fell freely, something he hadn't seen from her often. "But, why?"

"Your father has more answers than I can give."

She swiped at her eyes. "I said I forgive you, not him."

He smiled. So even after his interference, she had retained most of her personality after all. To enact a full personality reversal might result in a loss of her powers, and he had only reversed her proclivity to violence. She would have to fix the ugliness within on her own.

The rest of their conversation was a question-and-answer session about Kressick's history.

Where was he born? London. Did he have other children besides Moretz? No. She smirked at that.

"Daughter in Cambridge, huh?"

He shook his head. She needn't know how true it had once been. Or how much like Adina she was.

"Do you have abilities?" she asked.

"Yes."

"What can you do?"

"I can control the electronic impulses in others," Kressick said.

"Mind control?"

He nodded.

Ada tapped a finger on the side of her head. "You haven't used your power on me, though, right?"

"No."

Amnesia, of a sort, was a by-product of his power. People never remembered his invisible fingers wiggling around in their brain, and he threw switches as he pleased. Ada, though powerful, was no different.

"Did you use it on my mom?"

"Never."

Which wasn't a lie. Kressick loved Gemina, and she loved him. It had been a love built on lies, but at its core, real affection could be found. At least, those were his feelings. What he could never tell Ada was how he had faked his feelings for her mother their first year together.

During that time, he could hardly stand Gemina. Her hippie ways were dangerous and selfish, but she promoted them anyway. He was a practicing Prominent, even if he didn't believe in all the ordinances. Everything had changed with Gemina's health scare, and she had changed. He had seen her move from a proud woman to a fragile one, in need of care.

Though he hadn't planned on it, he cared for her in every possible way, beginning with the purchase of the Clean and Clear. Gemina never used it and teased him for buying it for her. He had begged her to use it, and she teased him all the more. Somehow, she had become a part of him, and he let himself love her with all her annoyances.

Maybe he could tell Ada later. At present, complete honesty could wait.

They talked for another hour. After a while, she brought up a subject he'd been dreading more than any other.

"Wait, you're my grandfather and you...and my mom..."

Finishing the sentence was unnecessary.

Very carefully, he considered a suitable answer. Failing to find one, he merely shrugged, hoping his features conveyed the appropriate amount of guilt. Throughout the years, using people had become second-nature. Boundaries of morality hardly hindered his actions, and Gemina was no different. Sure, he had loved her, but ultimately, he had been using her.

Disgust colored Ada's face, and he tried putting what he felt for her mother into words. The longer he spoke, the more disgusted she looked.

"I guess I understand," Ada said.

It was clear she only said that to end the conversation.

She stood abruptly, citing the late hour. When she left, Kressick reviewed the files he had on nearby deviants and Specials. None of them were as talented or as motivated as the gatecrasher Moretz had complained about. She might even accept food as payment.

He messaged Shylar:

No need to follow her. She's coming back here with her things. Find the girl. Keep me up to date on your progress.