Renegade Reborn by J. C. Fiske Page A

life of me, Rolce, cannot understand why you all didn’t come here straight away! After news of Heaven’s Shelter’s demise, we, we feared the worst, we thought you were all gone!” Douglas McCarley said. “Have you all settled in?”
    “Yes, there’s more than enough room, for everyone. It’s amazing what you have done with the place since the battle,” Rolce said.
    “The battle that you helped us win. As far as we’re concerned, Rolce, this is as much your home, as it is ours. Here, right this way.” Douglas said, escorting Rolce into his office. Once inside, he closed the door and sat down at his desk, while Rolce slipped into a chair across from him.
    “Now, I hate to bring it up, but I need to know what happened. Our scouts searched the area sometime ago. They didn’t bring back good news. Please, Rolce, give me, us, some closure. Please, tell me what happened with my brother and my nephew,” Douglas said.
    “Could I, possibly get a drink?” Rolce asked.
    “A drink? You?” Douglas asked.
    “I’ve never been one for liquor. The taste and feeling never sat well with me, but, I feel I’ll need a little help getting this out of me,” Rolce said.
    “Well, if you’re looking for booze, you’ve certainly come to the right place. Me? I don’t touch the stuff, not anymore. Being leader and all, I need to always be in the right state of mind. The addiction, the thirst for the drink, runs in the family. I will not become my father,” Douglas said. “Eh! Morry! Get Rolce something strong!”
    “Wha?” Morry called from the hallway.
    “I SAID GET ROLCE SOMETHING STRONG!” Douglas ordered. Suddenly the door to Douglas’s office opened a creak and Morry’s head popped in.
    “Damn it all, Dougie, what in the blazes are yeh shoutin’ on ‘bout?” Morry asked.
    “I said, get Rolce here a stiff drink,” Douglas said.
    “Well, why didn’t ya say so!” Morry said, as he plopped down beside Rolce, and out of a pouch, pulled out three small highball glasses and planted them on Douglas’s desk, suddenly looking up at Douglas, and pulling one away.
    “Right-o, none for you, Dougie, you be good now!” Morry said with a waving finger as he poured Rolce, then himself a drink. With a quick cock of his neck, Morry downed the whole thing in one gulp and began pouring himself another. Rolce took a look at his drink, then at Morry.
    “You always carry glasses and liquor with you?” Rolce asked.
    “Sure do,” Morry said, as if this was as normal as wearing pants. “Go on, Rolcie boy, it’ll grow ya a third testicle!”
    “Just what I need . . .” Rolce said, as he mimicked Morry’s method, held in the drink for less than a second only to cough it up, hunch down, and spray it everywhere.
    “Whew, there now, take ‘er easy. Not a drinker, eh? Dat’s right, you Drippies are all into your herbs an’ such, lemme see if I can’t get you some tea or sometin’,” Morry said, rising to his feet.
    “Never mind, forget the whole thing. I just better come right out with it.” Rolce said. Morry sat back down as Rolce took in a deep breath and began.
    “So much happened at once that day, so fast, but I’ll do my best to share with you all, what happened.” Rolce said, and with that, he got to it, and recounted the events to the best of his memory. When he finished, neither Morry, nor Douglas could look him in the face.
    “Drakearon . . . so, he really is back. IAM help us.” Douglas said.
    “What Drakearon said, it was a mouthful, but there is one, just one inconsistency in Drakearon’s story that leads me to think he is not to be believed…” Rolce said.
    “Which is?” Morry asked.
    “If Drakearon knew that Gisbo was the Man-Phoenix all along, why did he take all those Renegade and Strife recruits back then, looking for the Man-Phoenix? Why did he bother to use my father as he did? Something, something doesn’t add up, but why would he lie about all that and say he planned it all from the