Dawn just looked down at the tiny soldiers below her and she thought about her next move. Now it would be even easier for her to simply crush them and take Tucker away so that they could finally be together but she was not the monster that they thought she was. She had too much of Jessica inside her and she didn’t particularly want to hurt them. But she would if they tried to stand in her way again. But there was not much they could really do to stop her now. Beforehand their rifles had been too small to cause any problems for her but now she didn’t even think that any other handheld weapon could truly hurt her. She thought that their heavy vehicles and air force would still be able to harm her but she thought that she could also deal with them. She felt like she could take on an entire army and come out with her head held high. She was still not very happy about the fact that she was so big now but it seemed that she was only moments away from getting what she truly wanted as she saw the source of her soon to be happiness.
Almost immediately Dawn squatted down and went to pick up Tucker. He did not move as her colossal hand scooped him up and she brought him up into the air. Her emotions were beginning to get the better of her when she realised that she finally had her father in her hand again. He looked incredibly small in comparison to her now but she didn’t seem to care too much. All that was important to her was that she had Tucker again and she was never going to let him go. At least this time when he was with her she wasn’t going to lie to him or keep herself composed. She was going to act like his daughter and love him as much as she could. She didn’t hesitate in giving him a hug, although he was small she could still feel him in her arms and it was more than she could take as she began to sob tears of joy. All the tears fell to the ground and now that they were even bigger they caused havoc on the little people below her. The tears were beginning to wash away the retreating soldiers, Chloe had to grab Agent Barnes and stretch them up into the air so that they weren’t drowned by the salty tears. Dawn was oblivious to the havoc she was causing, right now her entire world was limited to just her and Tucker.
“Oh daddy,” said Dawn feeling like a little girl once again. “I’m sorry I lied to you but now everything’s alright. We’re together and I’m not going to let anyone take you away, we can finally be together as father and daughter, like we should have been. I promise that I’ll never lie to you again.”
With that Dawn walked away from both the tear and the facility. Both Chloe and Agent Barnes wanted to stop her but there was nothing that they could do. In only a couple of strides Dawn was already too far away for them to reach her. Chloe could have possibly stretched after her but even walking Dawn was too fast for Chloe to reach in time. Dawn could now walk several hundred metres with a single stride and it only took a few seconds for her to be miles away from the facility.
By the time Dawn was miles away she did not notice that the area around the facility glow bright yellow, everyone in the area was engulfed by the light but when it disappeared everything was literally gone. The facility itself, the soldiers, equipment and both Chloe and Agent Barnes were completely gone and the rift was continuing to grow. From where Dawn could see she could see numerous other rifts but she simply ignored them. Instead she sat herself down on a nearby hill, before it had been slightly smaller than Dawn but now it seemed like her ideal chair. It was just the right size to sit comfortably on and she rested Tucker in the palm of her hand. A huge grin appeared on her face as tears continued to stream down her face. She was finally happy and she was going to make sure that absolutely nothing would destroy this moment.
“W-who are you?” asked Tucker. He knew that what she had told him before had been a lie and now he was ready to hear the truth. Everything had been happening so fast that he could hardly think at all. It all seemed to be some kind of dream but he could not ignore her soft skin and he knew for a fact that she was real.
“I’m sorry that I lied to you before,” replied Dawn in a soft voice and she wiped away her tears and composed herself. “My name is Dawn but my last name isn’t Clarke, its Snape. I’m sorry that you had to find out like this but I’m your daughter.” She smiled at him in hopes that it would calm his nerves but she still couldn’t get over how small he seemed to be in comparison to her. Her sudden growth spurt had saddened her but it didn’t seem to matter to her now that she had Tucker all to herself without any military troops or vehicles in sight.
“I’m your father?” He was still wrapping around the fact that he was in the hand of his colossal daughter, just the fact that he even had a daughter was mind blowing. “So me and Jessica somehow…”
“Please Daddy.” She had to interrupt him there when she heard Jessica’s name. “I prefer it if you don’t mention her name.”
“What? You don’t want me to say Jessica?”
“NO!” Her voice had been louder than she had expected and she saw Tucker take a couple of steps back in fear. She instantly saw her mistake and she wanted to rectify it immediately. “I’m sorry Daddy.” Her sweet and calming voice had returned. “I didn’t mean to scare you; you know I would never do anything to hurt you. It’s just that she makes me so angry.”
“But why? What did she do to you to make you so angry with her? She’s the nicest person I’ve ever met and I can’t imagine her doing anything to hurt you. Especially if you’re her daughter.”
“She kept us apart and never gave me the opportunity for us to meet.” She sighed and looked down directly at the ground for a moment before looking at Tucker once again. “She took you back to your home planet and left you there. A few months later she gave birth to me but she never came back so that you could see me or even tell you that I existed. She didn’t even tell me about you until it was too late, by the time I knew that you were my father you were already dead and she took away any hopes I ever had of meeting you.” Some more tears rolled down her cheek.
“I-I died. JESUS CHRIST that’s something that you don’t tell a person!” He was angry that Dawn had told him that last little bit. It meant that he knew that he was going to die within the next few years and it was something that he wished that he hadn’t heard. “No one wants to know that they die.”
“It’s OK now Daddy. As long as you stay here with me you’ll live for many more years and we can finally be together, just like we were supposed to until she ruined it all.”
“You really shouldn’t speak about your mother like that.”
“Yes I should. My life has been miserable from as far as I can remember because of her. It’s because of her that I never knew you and it’s because of her that I’m so fucking big.” She was beginning to get angry but she kept her rage in check so that she didn’t scare Tucker again. “Do you know what it’s like not being able to play with other children because they were afraid of you, never going on a date with a boy because you’re so big that you could swallow them if you kissed them? I could never do normal activities at school or even fit in the classrooms. Do you know I had to sit outside for all of my lessons and when it rained all I had to protect me was a thin canopy that always seemed to tear at the worst times?” She sighed one more time, but each sigh seemed to be a large gust of wind to Tucker. “I never had the chance of a normal life and it’s all because of her. If you had been there you would have made it more bearable, at least I would have had you to make me feel good about myself.”
“What and your mother doesn’t do that for you?” He could see how much Dawn hated Jessica and it hurt him inside. He knew that Jessica most likely loved Dawn more than anything else in the universe, to see his future daughter have so much contempt for her mother made everything around him seem gloomy. “I might have only known her for a week but she’s already the kindest and most honest person I’ve ever met.”
“She’s not honest, she didn’t tell me you were dead until it was too late.”
“And do you ever wonder why she did that? I’m not saying that I agree with what she did but have you thought that there might be a very good reason why she didn’t tell you straight away. Personally I don’t know what that reason that could be but if you try and understand your mother you’ll probably see that what she did was probably for the best.”
“Please Daddy don’t take her side.” His words were hurting her and it seemed that she wasn’t listening to reason.
“I’m not taking her side Dawn. I’m just saying that being a parent isn’t the easiest job in the world, even for someone like your mother and it’s especially difficult when she had to do it by herself. Did she tell you that she only really had her dad when she was growing up, she told me that she lost her mother when she was very young but she still had a very close relationship to her father.”
“Yeah she told me but he didn’t keep any secrets from her, not like she did to me. She didn’t have to, she could have told me the truth right away, I would have taken it.”
“Maybe she didn’t think that you were old enough to understand. I remember when I had to tell my niece that her father wasn’t coming home. She was only seven and she cried more than any child I’ve ever seen. I think if she had been older she would have taken the news better, but at that age it can be extremely traumatic.” He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact when he was referring to his niece that he was also talking about Dawn’s cousin.
Dawn began to remember one of her earliest memories. She was only five years old and she had been sleeping when she began to hear crying. She was not very tired so she got out of her bed and went to investigate. It was the heaviest sobbing that she had ever heard and she thought that someone was hurt. The sound of sobbing led to her mother’s room and she could see Jessica sitting up in bed crying her heart out. She heard Dawn come in and instead of taking her back to bed Jessica hugged her dearly. Dawn had remembered Jessica hugging her hundreds, if not thousands of times but never like this one. Jessica held Dawn tightly and the hug lasted longer than any hug the pair had shared before or since. She still cried but she kissed Dawn and told her how precious she was to her. Dawn had been too young to fully understand why Jessica had been so sad that night or even why she hugged her the way she did. It wasn’t until around a decade later when she was finally told about Tucker that she realised that it was most likely the night that Jessica had found out about his death. That night was one of the fond memories that Dawn had of Jessica.
Dawn was so caught up in her own thoughts and with Tucker that she failed to see what was going on around her. She never wondered why the armed forces hadn’t tried to engage her, the truth was that many of their bases had been wiped out of existence. The few remaining military personnel that hadn’t been wiped away were too busy dealing with global panic. Most of the planet was now a barren wasteland and it would not be too much longer before there was nothing left of that as well. She didn’t even notice the flashes of yellow light over in the distance as more and more of Home was being erased. For the moment where she was sitting had not been affected yet but there were probably only a handful of minutes left before this too would be erased.
“I could have taken it,” said Dawn trying to convince herself that she would have been fine if she heard about the death of her father when she was a young child. She had been a teenager when Jessica finally told her about Tucker and she had been hating her mother for the last three years. Before the pair had been extremely close before that and to Dawn Jessica hadn’t been just a mother but a best friend as well. She had been able to share everything with Jessica but the fact that she felt betrayed by her had severed this strong bond that the pair had enjoyed for so many years.
“You know denial isn’t just a river in Egypt. It’s hard for any child no matter how tough they are to hear about the death of a parent. I’m asking you, no I’m begging you to try and talk to your mother and iron things out. I’ve seen how families have been destroyed like this. Your mother has loved you and still does. I can’t imagine her not loving a pretty girl like you.”
“Pretty?” Dawn had always considered herself to be plain. She wasn’t as beautiful as her mother and it was another minor factor of why she resented Jessica. Only Jessica had ever called her pretty but now that she was hearing it from Tucker it made things not seem so bad. Another tear rolled down her face and she brought Tucker closer to her eye. Her eye was almost as tall as he was and he still couldn’t fathom Dawn’s immense size. “You really think I’m pretty?”
“Sure look at you, you’re tall, very beautiful and I bet that girls would kill to have beautiful white hair like that.” He was begin genuine with his compliments but he could see Dawn look a little upset for a moment and he thought that he had just said something very wrong to her. “Was it something I said?”
“No it’s just I’m a brunette. She grabbed a piece of her hair with her free hand and looked at it. It was a white as white could be but she had to admit that it made her look a little more exotic but she had always liked her hair colour although it made her look more like Jessica. “When I left my time I was a brunette but when I came here my hair had turned white.” She wanted to say more but she stopped herself. She even feared that her pubic hair was now white as well but she didn’t want to embarrass herself, especially in front of her father. “Now I’m going to be even more of a monster.”
“Dawn you’re not a monster. It’s not someone’s appearance that makes them a monster; it’s what they do that defines them. I’ve heard about people whose acts are so sick and cruel that I dare not think about it for a moment. They are the true monsters, you are just a sweet girl who just happens to be a little taller than everyone else. That doesn’t make you a monster, that just makes you unique.”
Those words seemed to touch Dawn more than anything that she had ever heard before. Just the fact that Tucker thought of her as being sweet and beautiful made everything that was happening around her worth it. She was finally getting the love from her father, something that she had craved ever since she was born and now that she was finally getting it she knew what true happiness was. It seemed that nothing could ruin this moments but there were more flashes of yellow light. Tucker began to look around and saw more and more of the scenery around them seem to disappear. The sky had turned white and it seemed that all that was left was a few square miles around where Dawn was sitting on her hill.
“What the fuck’s going on?” asked Tucker in confusion. He had seen the yellow light only a few minutes before but the fact that he was seeing everything being wiped away scared him greatly. He suspected that Dawn knew the answer but she seemed to completely ignore what was happening. “Dawn tell me what’s going on.”
“Time and space is ripping itself apart,” replied Dawn after a long pause. “They said if I went back to my own time that it might stop what’s happening but I’m not leaving now that I have you. I don’t care if it only lasts a few more minutes; I’d rather die than live without you.”
“You can’t be so selfish Dawn. I’m just one bloke, I’m not worth it.”
“Yes you are. I don’t want you to leave me again. I want you to stay with me and love me like we should of if she hadn’t of sent you back.”
“But if you stay everyone is going to die, even you. Don’t be barmy girl, you and Lucky have to go back right now.” He was trying to assert himself like a father should do. He knew that what Dawn was doing and he thought that only he could snap her back to reality and see exactly what she was sacrificing. He admired that she was doing so much just so they could be together but he still didn’t think that it was worth it. He didn’t want to think of himself as being the reason that billions if not trillions were dead. “As your father I demand that you and Lucky go back right this instant. Now later, not in a minute. Right now.”
For a moment Dawn didn’t seem to register exactly what he had just said and she began to panic. He didn’t think that what he said was all that scary for her. He saw her pull her zip down to her chest and he feared that she was going to show him her breasts. That was a sickening thought for him but he was surprised to see her pull Lucky out from between her relatively small breasts but he looked different. She picked him out with her free hand and placed him right next to Tucker. When he had last seen Lucky he seemed to be a spry young lizard but now he definitely looked much, much older. His skin was wrinkled and beginning to drop, he could only lay down on Dawn’s soft hand as he was too weak to stand up. His eyes were barely open and he was breathing deeply. If Tucker had checked his pulse he would have discovered that it was extremely weak. In Lucky’s species he would be the equivalent of being well over a century old and he was on the verge of death. His body was too weak to carry on and if it wasn’t for the sudden age progression he would have died some time ago. Dawn began to cry again as she saw how old and sickly Lucky had become and she knew that it was all her fault.
“Lucky!” shouted Dawn. She tried to poke him but he barely responded. “Lucky speak to me.” All he could do was respond with a weak cooing sound and even that had been extremely difficult for him. It was using up what little energy he had left and Dawn knew that he was about to die and she continued to sob. “Oh Lucky I’m so sorry. Mommy didn’t mean this to happen to you.”
“Fuck me,” replied Tucker. Normally he would try and curve his language since he was in front of his own daughter but seeing Lucky in such a state had completely caught him by surprise. “He looks like a coffin dodger.”
“Oh Lucky.” Her gaze didn’t move from Lucky as she could feel his leather like skin on her hand. He was barely moving and his breathing seemed to be slowing down. She didn’t need to be a doctor to know that he was dying and she knew that it was her fault. “Why did you have to come with me? You should have stayed in our time and then you would have been alright.”
“Dawn nothing will be alright as long as you stay here. Everyone you’ve ever known and loved will be dead.” He dropped to his knees and stared up at his daughter. Normally he wouldn’t do something so degrading to his pride but with everything that was at stake he was more than willing to make an exception. “Please Dawn I’m begging you, go back and you’ll save the lives of billions.”
“But then I’ll be without you again. I’ll be stuck with that lying bitch again.”
“Dawn you need to drop the hate for your mother.” He stood back up onto his feet and pointed his finger at her indicating that he meant business. “I told you that you need to talk to your mom. Hating her isn’t going to solve your problems, I hate to sound like a talk show host but she’s your mother. She brought you into the world and she loves you Dawn, you can’t hate her for keeping my death away from you. She was most likely protecting you, the time that we’ve had together I will treasure for the rest of my days and I know you will as well. Your best friend is dying and only by taking him back to your time do you have of saving him.”
“Please Dad don’t make me leave. I love you.” The words were breaking her heart but she hated to admit that he was right. To save Lucky her only option was to go back to her own time. She thought that if she did go back the time stream would repair itself and Lucky would be back to his youthful self. She knew that she would most likely revert back to her correct age and therefore shrink down in size. She still hadn’t fully gotten over just how big she had become and she knew that one day she would reach this size and she was most likely still growing.
“And I love you too Dawn but you must go. If you don’t then there will be literally be nothing left and I know that you don’t want to die with the knowledge that you have killed billions of innocent people.” By now all that was left of the area was the hill that Dawn was sitting on a small patch of grass around her feet but it would only be a couple of minutes before this too disappeared. “Promise me that you’ll go back home and talk to your mother. Nothing good will ever come of you just resenting her. I can’t agree or condone her actions but she probably had the best intentions.”
“But you’ll be leaving me again.” More tears were rolling down her face as she was contemplating the thought of leaving. The sky above her was completely blank and they were also the last two people on Home. Everyone else had now been wiped away and in less than a minute they would too.
“No I won’t Dawn. I’ll always be with you, no matter what happens. I’ll be there with you for your first words, your first steps, for when you need someone to love, to see you off for your first day of school. I’ll be there with your mother and I’ll try everything I can to make us one big happy family, just like you wanted.”
Dawn sat there silent for a moment and he thought that she was going to refuse what he had just said but instead he saw a smile appear on her face. Her teeth were as pearly white as Jessica’s. As he looked into her enormous eye he could see his own reflection and the tears only magnified the effect. He could definitely see that Dawn had his eyes and he had never seen them this sad.
“You promise Daddy?” asked Dawn. She didn’t even ask the question like she was an adult. She had asked it like she was a little girl.
“Of course I do. Now that I know I’m going to have a daughter I’m not going to let anything stop us from being a family. Me, you and Jessica will all be one big happy family.” He had expected her to scorn him for saying Jessica’s name but instead she closed her eyes for a moment before looking at him again. She could also see that Lucky didn’t have long left before he died of old age.
“Ok Daddy I’ll go back. And for you I’ll try and talk to mom, I know I’m not the easiest person to be around but you’ve convinced me that I should give her a second chance.”
Memories of the good relationship she had before with Jessica came flooding into her mind. She remembered the time when she fell down and scraped her knee, Jessica had been there for her to clean the wound and make her feel better. She remembered when she was sad that no one wanted to play with her so Jessica took an entire day off so that they could spend the day together and she remembered it being one of the happiest days of her life. They spent the entire day drawing with each other and baking. Dawn even had her own little shop and Jessica had pretended to be a customer. This was one of the many good memories that she had of Jessica and although the hate wasn’t entirely melting away her contempt towards her mother seemed to lessen. In time it might erode away but for the moment it was still there but not as strong as it had been.
Dawn raised Tucker up to her lips and gave him a kiss. Much like Jessica her lips were soft and warm and he didn’t feel like he was in any danger. The kiss only last for a few moments before she lowered him down to a safer level. She gave him another big smile before she finally spoke again.
“I love you Daddy,” said Dawn as she began to lower Tucker to the ground. “You don’t know how happy I am that we spent this time together. Even if you can’t stay with mom I’ll never forget that we have.” It took her a moment before she was able to place Tucker on what was left of the ground and she stood up to her full height. He marvelled just how tall she was but she just looked down and smiled at him again. “Goodbye Daddy, I will not break my promise to you and no matter how big I get, I’ll always be your little girl.”
Since Lucky was still in her hand she was extremely careful when pressing the return button on her wrist device. If she wasn’t careful she would accidentally kill the already weak little lizard but she kept her nerves and was able to push the button. Instantly Dawn began to glow and Tucker had to cover his eyes for the moment. When he looked again the once mighty giantess had completely disappeared. He felt good that Dawn had listened to him and gone back to her own time but he did not have time to celebrate. Almost immediately after Dawn disappeared Tucker himself was engulfed by a bright yellow light and he thought that was the end of his life.
The next thing Tucker knew he was sitting on something soft. It was extremely comfortable and he recognised it as being on a giant hand. As he looked around he noticed that everything was back to normal, he was in a rural area of Home and he could see great forests around him. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. He looked at the hand that he was sitting in and it was much smaller than Dawn’s. As he looked up into the face of the giantess much to his relief he could see Jessica. She was still wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing earlier and she was carrying her bag, blanket and oversized picnic basket. She was still walking and she looked at him for a moment and she saw that he was acting strangely.
“Tucker are you alright?” asked Jessica, Her voice was as soft and sweet as ever and had a look of concern on her face.
“Jessica?” replied Tucker. He was just about to tell her everything that had happened but he felt the memories melt away. They weren’t disappearing completely but instead seating themselves within his subconscious. It only took him a moment before he forgot about Dawn and everything that had happened to him, the one thing he could still remember was a promise that he had made. “I-it’s nothing Jessica, I was just admiring the scenery.”
“I know it’s beautiful isn’t it. Now we’re almost at the perfect picnic spot and you better get your taste buds ready. Everything you’ve eaten so far has been garbage in comparison to what I’ve made for you. And besides I have a surprise for you.”
Tucker still couldn’t get over the weird feeling that he just had. He had never felt anything like that before and he didn’t know why he had been so happy to see Jessica just a moment ago even though he had been looking at her the entire trip. He didn’t realise that Jessica had gone through an experience similar to him but she was keeping it more to herself. Both had no idea what had happened to each other but the memories would always remain with them. Although they couldn’t remember what had happened to them it would remain within their subconscious for the rest of their days.