Renegade Reborn (66 page)

There was much cheering, and hooting and hollering at this idea, as Grandfield pumped his fist to the sky, and began hooting and hollering, rallying the crowd.

“Then as your party leader, Grandfield Groggo, that’s me by the way, as your party leader, before we begin, I want to bring forward the man who made this all possible! Gisbo Falcon! Get your ass over here, and, and . . .” Grandfield started, turning this way and that, but the Man-Phoenix of Thera was nowhere to be seen.

“Gisbo? Where’d he go?”

Elsewhere, at that moment, Gisbo Falcon sat in the dark control room. Whether Vadid knew it or not, when he had died, all of his knowledge and memories, went straight to Gisbo, including, how to run the tower, or as he called it, the air ship.

He knew he shouldn’t have used the Drakeness to teleport away, but he had to. He just, had to get away from it all . . .

Slumped in the spinning chair, Gisbo stared up at the monitor, saw his friends and the people of Oak County celebrating, and heard the hoots and hollers through the speaker system. He saw kegs crack open, saw the glow of grills fire up, saw fireworks fire off, and before he turned from the screen, he saw Rolce wrap Kinny up in his arms and kiss her tenderly. He smiled at this special moment of reunion. If anyone deserved happiness, it was Rolce and Kinny, but he found he couldn’t look very long. All it did was bring thoughts of Kennis to his mind, along with a reunion, that would never come . . .

Quickly, he spun his chair around, and stared at the closed elevator, finding it far more interesting. It was then, out of reflex, as he had so many times before, Gisbo slid his hand down toward the back of his right boot, and from it, pulled up a flask, his emergency stash.

The Drakeness, it had healed his beaten body, but his heart, was another matter. It felt heavier than ever before, but fortunately, the solution was just a few swigs away . . .

With a trembling hand, he popped the top off, and was about to raise it, when he stopped himself.

“
Rule one, no hard liquor, ever, ever again. Rule two, never drink alone . . .”

Vadid’s words echoed in his mind, and suddenly, the flask felt very heavy in his hand.

Is this how you’re going to honor your Grandfather’s sacrifice, Gisbo? By undoing everything he worked so hard for?
Gisbo thought.

It was true. His heart felt heavier than ever before, but to fix it, he couldn’t run from it. There were other times, future times, where he knew he would, where he would fall back to the liquor, but Gisbo decided, right then and there, that this wasn’t going to be one of those times.

Vadid, even Malik, deserved better.

With a clatter, Gisbo let the flask drop from his hands, watched the reddish brown fluid spill out of it, and with his face in his hands, Gisbo fought the toughest battle of every warrior, the inner battle.

As his friends celebrated on the monitor behind him, he let the memories come, faced them, and healed his heart the right way, the only way . . .

Gisbo wept.