The All-Alex Rejects Chapter 7

Alice and Paeton rushed out of the room. Alex Jr. was leaning against the guard rails. He was looking down over the side.

“Where did Morgana go?” Paeton asked.

“Down there,” Alex Jr. pointed at the bottom floor of the factory. Morgana was rampaging around the machinery, hitting it and tearing parts of it off.

“We must stop her,” Alice said, “If she damages the machines too much, who knows what might happen!”

Mars came out of the room. He was carrying the remnants of the flower. “Sorry, guys,” he said, “I had to pick up the mess Morgana made of her poor flower.” He held out his hand. “Also I found this green thing. I don’t know what it is.”

“That can wait,” Paeton said, “Right now, Morgana needs to take a chill pill!” She rushed for the stairs, as did Alice and Mars. Alice turned when she noticed something.

“Are you coming with us, Alex Junior?” Alice asked.

“No,” he angrily replied.

Paeton grabbed his arm. “Yes, you are!” She pulled him along as they ran to the bottom of the staircase. Once there, they searched around for Morgana. She was not in immediate view. “She can’t be far away.” They heard a loud crashing sound.

“That sounded expensive,” Junior said.

“Come on!” Paeton motioned for them to follow her. They followed the sound to find where Morgana was. She had just smashed down a door to an office. The Rejects got close, but not too close. “Okay, let’s try and talk some sense into her and get her to calm down.” They walked out from behind their shelter. “Hey, Morgana…” Morgana turned to face the other Rejects. “Come on, Morgana. It’s not a big deal. Just because your backstory was horrific and Alex felt you were a mistake doesn’t mean you should take it out on his creative process.”

Morgana growled in response, “Easy for you to say. You weren’t called his biggest mistake.”

Paeton approached her slowly and gently. “Now, Morgana, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk some sense into you. If you harm Alex’s mind too much, he will always view you as a mistake.”

“He doesn’t even know I exist anymore! He’s forgotten about me!”

“Then why are you letting this bother you if you feel he doesn’t remember you and probably doesn’t remember what he said about you?”

“It’s because…” Morgana’s attention was diverted from the angel to her flower. To her crushed, dead flower. She covered her mouth. “Oh my God…what did you do to my precious flower?”

“No!” Mars replied, “See, it wasn’t us…”

Morgana screamed to the heavens, “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill each and every one of you!” Morgana charged towards the other Rejects. They all ran away from her. She chased them up the stairs, back down the stairs, around the important machinery, until they had an idea.

Mars pointed at a door. “Let’s hide in there!” They opened the door and got behind it. Inside the room was a meeting table and a white board with dry erase markers. “Well, at least we have entertainment.” He picked up a teal marker and drew a few angles and then a few parallel dashes. “Anyone up for Hangman?”

There was a loud thump against the door. “I am not certain about the logic of this,” Alice commented, “But it might be better to keep Morgana in here, away from the machinery.”

“Good idea, Alice,” Paeton replied.

Morgana opened the door. She could not find Paeton, Alice, Alex Jr., or Mars anywhere. She scanned the room in front of her…not checking behind her. The four ran out of the room and closed the door behind them. Morgana heard this and rushed to the door. She tried to tear it open, but the door was locked and the hinges were on the other side. “Let me out, you flower killers!”

Alice put her key back into her pocket. “Lucky for us,” she told the others, “all the locks in Alex’s mind use the same key.” They all sat down on the floor.

“So now what?” Mars asked, “Obviously, we can’t use the flower; it’s ruined.” He looked down at his belt. He unsheathed his sword.

“No, no, no,” Paeton said, “Although she’s currently violent, we don’t want to hurt her if we can avoid it.”

“I could go in and fight her to tire her out,” Alice suggested, “Both her and I are equally matched when it comes to fighting.” She then thought about this some more. “No…if I go into self-defense mode, the Thought Police will know we are here and arrest us.”

“Then we’re hosed,” Alex Jr. said, “We can’t do anything about this.”

“Maybe Paeton’s idea of calming her down is not too outlandish,” Alice suggested.

“But how?” Paeton demanded, “She won’t listen to reason, her flower is dead, she hates us for what she did to her flower, and she hates Alex for calling her a mistake.”

“Maybe if we show her love,” Mars suggested, “None of us have ever shown her much love before. Maybe it would make her fall out of her raging.”

“That’s preposterous,” Paeton replied, “Who could possibly give her so much love that she’ll stop being so angry?”

“I can,” Alice raised her hand and smiled.

“Er…No offense, Alice,” Mars said, “but Morgana doesn’t know you as well as the rest of us. If one of us shows her love, she’s going to be much more receptive to it.”

“But which one of us?” Paeton asked. They looked amongst themselves. They all got the brilliant idea of who could calm her down. They turned to face him…only to find he wasn’t there. “Where did Alex Jr. go? None of us saw him leave us, did we?”

Mars’ face went pale. “You don’t think he’s still in the room with Morgana, do you?”

“Nah,” Paeton disproved, “I dragged him out of there when we trapped her in there.” They heard a loud crunch. They turned to face where it was coming from. Across the factory, there was a light on in one of the rooms. Paeton turned to Mars. “Mars, come with me.” She turned to Alice. “Alice, you stay here and make sure Morgana doesn’t break out.”

“I can do that,” Alice assured. Paeton and Mars got up and walked over to the room. As they approached, there was a strong scent of coffee that filled the air. When they entered the room, they saw Alex Jr. sitting alone at a table, facing away from the door. Mars and Paeton looked around. There was a refrigerator, a microwave, and a coffee maker.

“I think this is a break room,” Mars said. They approached Alex Jr. He was drinking coffee and eating a box of cookies. “Hey, buddy.”

“Go away,” Junior replied. He took a bite of cookie. He chased it down with the coffee. “Ick. This coffee tastes terrible. It needs some of that cookie-flavored creamer.”

“Look, Junior, we need your help. We think we can get Morgana to calm down if one of us shows her love. Since she cares about you the most, we think you would work the best.”

“No.”

“What’s gotten into you, Junior?” Paeton asked, “You would usually jump all over the opportunity!”

“Well, Paeton,” Alex Jr. said, “I just found out that my dad was an asexual waste of space who was never surrounded by women. So what chance do I have of being surrounded by women? Face it, my dad was a terrible person.”

Paeton turned the chair around, grabbed Jr.’s wrists, and clamped them to the armrests. “Listen, Junior! I don’t care what your dad was like or what he did; all I care about is you stopping Morgana from her little psychotic episode already in progress.”

Junior pulled his wrists out from Paeton’s hands. He turned his chair back around. Mars turned to Paeton. “You can’t act like that to him,” he said, “He’s going through a rough time. He needs to be treated kindly.” Mars looked at the box of cookies. “Mind if I have one?”

“Go for it,” Junior replied. Mars took a white chocolate macadamia cookie. “Now go away.”

“Wait, Junior…I want to show you something real quick.”

“Fine. But it better be quick; I gotta get back to drinking my crappy coffee.” Alex Jr. got up and followed Mars. Mars led him up the stairs back to the room with the filing cabinets. “Mars, I’ve been here already. This was where I learned what a terrible person my dad really was.”

“No, Alex Jr., you didn’t. You learned that your father was not the man you thought he was.”

“Which means that he was a terrible man. He didn’t love my mother. He wasn’t surrounded constantly by women. He wasn’t anything like I thought he was!”

“True, he wasn’t what you expected…” Mars opened up a filing cabinet. “But that doesn’t mean he was terrible.” Mars took out a folder from the first cabinet. “See here…” He opened up the folder. “This is Candy, Alex’s daughter in Universe Alpha. He became a stay-at-home Dad in Universe Alpha so he could take care of her since her mother was often so busy at work.”

“So?”

Mars got out another folder from the next cabinet and opened it. “This here is Minerva, Minnie for short. She’s Alex’s daughter from Universe Beta. Since she was an angel like him, he helped her learn how to fly on her own. It took years of practice but Alex never gave up on her.”

“And?”

Mars got out another folder. “And here is Trip, who is Minnie’s best friend. Since his mother and father were often so busy with their jobs, Trip barely got to see them. And so he looked to Alex as his fatherly figure.”

“Again, I’m not sure what the point is.”

“Well, maybe this last point will explain it.” He put the three folders back. “You see these cabinets? All of them are filled with files like this. Every. Single. One of them. And each of those folders has a character of Alex’s, a character who Alex created and took care of as if they were his children. He gave them the love and attention they all deserve. He even took care of us by giving us a home in his mind to keep us warm and safe. So, Junior, even if your father wasn’t the master of seduction you thought he was, he was still a great man. He was a loving man who cared for all his characters as if they were his children. So no, Junior, he wasn’t a terrible man.”

Alex Jr. looked at the filing cabinets. His face went from anger to saddened understanding. He opened up one and looked at the files. He started crying. “But since he wasn’t surrounded by beautiful women, what chance do I have?”

“Junior…” Mars held Alex Jr. “Just because your father wasn’t a sexy and charming man who was surrounded by beautiful women doesn’t mean you can’t. You shouldn’t give up on your dreams just because of that. If you want to be loved by many women, you gotta try your very best to do so because your father’s genes don’t affect that at all. In fact, Morgana already loves you. That’s a start, right?”

Alex Jr. looked up at his friend. “You’re right, Mars.”Mars let go of Alex Jr. Alex Jr. straightened his vest and tie. He licked his hand and fixed his hair. He turned to Mars. “Thank you, Mars. Thank you so much.”

Mars and Alex Jr. went back down the stairs. Paeton was waiting for them. “What took you so long?”

“Oh,” Alex Jr. said, “Don’t worry about that, Paeton baby.”

“Don’t…call me ‘Paeton baby.’” She thought about what Alex Jr. just said. “He’s back.” She smiled. “Alright, lover boy. Let’s get you to Morgana so you can calm her down.

Alice was still blocking the door. “Morgana stopped attacking the door. She now seems to be attacking the room itself.”

“Let me take care of it,” Alex Jr. requested. Alice opened the door slightly to let Alex Jr. in. He saw Morgana standing on the table. The chairs were knocked over, papers were strewn about. Alex Jr. looked at the white board. The Hangman drawing Mars started now had 4 bodies hanging on it. “Morgana?”

Morgana turned to Alex Jr. “YOU!” She charged at Alex Jr. Alice closed the door. As Morgana approached, she raised her hands in an attacking position. Alex Jr. clasped her wrists before she could do anything. Morgana stared at Alex Jr. She bared her fangs at him. “Let go of me, you flower killing-” Alex Jr. kissed her. Morgana was taken aback at this. She closed her eyes and kissed him back.

Alice opened the door so the others could see how it was going. Morgana started to calm down. Her hair became tame once again. Her hands lost their reptilian scales. Alex Jr. let go of her wrists. With her hands free, they wrapped their arms around each other.
When they were done kissing, Morgana pressed her face to Jr.’s chest. “I love you, Alex Jr.” Morgana admitted. Alex Jr. stroked her beautiful black hair.

The two exited the room. Alice was the first to greet them again. More specifically, Morgana. She hugged Morgana tightly, practically ignoring Alex Jr. “Oh, Morgana, I am so glad you are back! You do not know how worried I was about you!”

“We were all worried about you,” Mars said. Mars sadly looked at the ground. He held up the watering can containing the dead flower. “I’m…I’m really sorry about what happened to your flower, Morgana.”

She walked over to it and held it in her hands. She looked like she was ready to cry. She held her head. “Mommy will miss you,” she said to the late flower. She proceeded to walk out of the factory with the others following. Outside, she looked at the ground. There was a spot that looked rather soft. She walked over to it and sat down. The other Rejects stood behind her. She put the watering can next to her. She cupped her hands like shovels and dug a hole in the ground. She then removed her flower from its dirt and set it in the hole. She then covered it up with the dirt she dug up. She stood up.

Mars looked at Morgana. “Hey, Morgana,” he said, “If it helps, I found this while cleaning it up…” He reached into his pocket and took out the green almond-shaped thing he found.

Morgana’s eyes widened. She smiled so wide, Mars could view her molars. “That’s a seed! My little baby had its own baby!” Mars dropped the seed in her hand. She knelt by the watering can, made a hole in the dirt, and dropped the seed in. “I’m so happy! I’ll have another precious flower with me!” She covered up the seed in dirt.

“Are you gonna water it?” Alex Jr. asked.

“Ooh! Good idea.” She picked up the watering can and walked over to the water. She set the can next to her and got some water from the nearby stream. She poured it on the dirt in the watering can. Instantly, three stalks grew out of the dirt.

“That’s a fast-growing flower,” Alex Jr. commented.

“I bet it’ll be beautiful, Morgana,” Mars said.

Alice looked at the sun in Alex’s mind setting. “It is getting late. We should spend the night here in the factory.” Everyone agreed. They all turned to go back into the factory. Inside, they went to the meeting room because it had a nice, soft carpet for sleeping on. Alice removed her shoe and pulled out an electric plug. She put it into the nearby outlet. “I will take the position of watchout while you all sleep.” The other Rejects went to sleep.

Everyone bid each other a good night. “Goodnight, Morgana. Goodnight, Alex Jr. Good night, Mars. Goodnight, Paeton. Goodnight, Alice.” Alice turned off the light.