Chapter 2.9 - The Truth, Part II

“Are you sure you want me on this?”

“I know that you don’t usually do fieldwork, but we really need every able-bodied officer we have. Goddard, Wainwright, and I are all past our prime now, so you’re our highest ranked officer. I don’t want to send a bunch of rookies into this. You know what you’re doing. I trust you to get this done.”

So here he was, leading a raid of the secluded manor they were fairly sure was being used for criminal activity. After receiving Dylan’s information, they had scouted the place and seen the man called Avery coming and going several times. This was definitely the place, and tonight they would take it down.

“Is everything ready?”

Miraj nodded. “We’re all good. All that’s left to do is get inside.”

Dylan took a deep breath. “Alright.”

He walked up to the front door and began to rap sharply, but the door opened as soon as he applied pressure. He frowned, but stepped inside, followed by his team. As soon as the last of them was inside, the door closed behind them. Dylan just had the time to think, that’s not right, before everything went black.

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He woke up in an unfamiliar room with a pounding headache.

“Good, you’re finally awake. I was worried that might have been too high a dose. I didn’t want to kill you, after all. At least… not yet.”

His blood turned to ice. He knew that voice. The words it was speaking didn’t make sense, but he knew that voice. He looked up, and sure enough - “You!”

“Why do people always say that? On movies, in books, on TV shows? Is it for dramatic effect? Personally, I think this moment is already dramatic enough. Don’t you?” Tara Rose smiled at the father of her children, showing a lot more teeth than she ever had before.

“I can’t… What… How?”

“Oh, so you want my supervillain monologue? I guess since you’re tied up anyway, I might as well. I need to waste a little more time before I finish this up. How much do you know about your grandfather?”

“He was evil. That’s all I need to know.”

“Maybe he was evil. I don’t really think I can judge on that point. But he took me in as a child. He raised me as his own. He made me heir to his estate and everything that went with it. And all he ever demanded of me was that my heir be of his bloodline. He told me about his daughter, his real daughter, and how she was a disappointment to him. He told me that she ran away many years ago, and he never looked for her because he knew she would never be worthy. After he died, I tracked her down.”

“How did you find us, though?”

“I sent out pictures of both your mother and your grandfather. I offered a reward to whoever found me a descendant of Chance Porter, and I got your name and your location.”

“Then you got me to give you an heir of your precious bloodline. But why leave us after the babies were born?”

“What use do I have for babies? I knew you would raise them up fine until they were children. Then I could take whichever one showed the most potential. Speaking of which, I should be getting a call about that any moment now…”

As if on cue, her phone rang. She quickly checked the caller ID, then smiled at Dylan. “I’ll put this on speaker so you can hear.” She hit a couple of icons on her screen. “Avery?”

“Tara? Is that you? Wow, I always had a bad feeling about you, but I didn’t think it was this bad.” Ayla Doe’s voice echoed from the phone.

“What have you done with Avery?”

“If Avery’s the bulky fellow you sent to kidnap Beckett, I knocked him out. Men like that never expect sneak attacks.” There was a slight shuffling noise on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, he’s out cold.”

“Are the kids okay?” Dylan asked from the chair he was still tied to.

“Yeah, they’re fine. A little bit shaken, but I think they’ll be alright.”

He sighed, relieved. He hadn’t known exactly what was going to happen, but he’d known it would be a good idea to ask Ayla to watch the kids tonight.

Tara, meanwhile, was shaking with fury as she ended the call. “I guess I’ll have to do the job myself. As soon as I dispose of you and your cop buddies, I’ll stop by the house.”

Dylan was starting to get nervous. They hadn’t planned for this, and it had really just been a stroke of luck that he’d thought to get Ayla to watch the kids. He had to figure out some way to get out of this. He had to - “Stop! Police!”

Dylan had never been so thrilled to see anyone in his life. He would never have expected that Miraj Alvi would be the one to provoke such feelings, but he would probably have been glad to see Nick Landgraab in that moment. “Can you get me untied, please? I know you were an Eagle Scout, but I wasn’t.”

Miraj untied him while the other officers kept their weapons trained on Tara. As Dylan stood up, still a little bit wobbly, he spoke. “It’s over, Tara. You’re going to prison, and none of my children will ever be your heir.”

At that, resolve hardened in her eyes. “No. If I go down, you’re going down with me.” Before anyone had time to react, she reached into her pocket and pressed a button.

The world exploded. That was the only way Dylan could describe what happened next. Everything went white and he was suddenly thrown backwards, landing heavily. For a moment, he was blinded, but he heard the crackling of fire. He got to his feet and began to run in the general direction of the exit. He didn’t really know how he got out, only that he somehow found himself standing outside with the rest of the officers he’d brought with him. They’d been virtually unharmed. He had the most bruises of the lot of them, since he’d been the closest to the blast… besides Tara.

“We have to go back in for her. She might be a criminal, but she doesn’t deserve--” That was when the roof caved in. Dylan stared at the ruins of what had been such a beautiful house mere hours before, and suddenly felt like crying.

“Come on. There’s nothing you can do for her now.”

He nodded numbly and let his friend lead him away. Part of him was strangely relieved. It was all over now, it said, so now things would be back to the way they were. The rest of him disagreed. It was all over now, yes. But he doubted things would ever be the same.

Author's Note: Geez... where to start?

Well, Dylan's family structure roll is Single Parent. That means his complete rolls are:

Family Structure: Single Parent
Number of Children: 3
Primary Income: Law Enforcement (Forensics)
Generational Goal: Perfect Careers
Miscellaneous Fun: Hidden Heritage

Those will be up on the Rolls and Traits page shortly.

This chapter was shot right before Dylan got his promotion to level 6 of his career and joined the forensics track, which means he will no longer be doing fieldwork. He's working on the skills he needs to max out for his Perfect Career.

Tara Rose (for the record, that is her name in game) will be up for download on my Download a Doe page soon, if you want her. She's been evil all along: when she first moved into the house, before she even got pregnant, her very first wish was to steal candy from a baby.

Edit: I just realized that I've published several pages that haven't been linked on the blog, because I don't know how Blogger works, apparently. I fixed that, so feel free to check them out.

The triplets will be children in the next chapter, so here are their CAS pictures and traits. I didn't get to pick their traits, because I was not about to train three toddlers in a house with only one adult who's trying to do Perfect Careers.

Alaric is now a perfectionist.

Jade is now a couch potato.

Finally, Beckett is now over-emotional.

The next chapter will be a short interlude, then I'll start to focus on the children. I'm really excited to start getting into their plots!