The Many Names of Atlas Stella Cornelius

Thadius stood in the briefing room of the office of Giddings, Morrow, and Hyde Attorneys at Law in Ironcrest. He was 18, freshly graduated from the military school that his grandfather had put into his will that he was required to attend in order to inherit his wealth. He was dressed respectively and was stood at ease, looking out the window with his back to his parents.

His parents were hoping to receive some sort of handout now that he was 18 and the will was being unsealed for reading. His mother was sat wearing the sort of clothes that she seemed to think made her look wealthy, but were really just tacky. His father was similarly dressed, his receding hairline more pronounced with the fact that he had slicked his hair back in some sort of attempt to make himself look more important than he was.

There were a few young children scrabbling around the room as well. Thadius couldn't bring himself to look at the children, his siblings because the mere idea made him ache. He kept his eyes on the window and just focused on his breathing so as to not lose his composure in front of his parents.

His mother was trying to make eye contact with him in the reflection on the window, she had been snapping her fingers and trying to draw his attention. "Firefly, why don't you sit down with your family?"

Thadius ignored her and closed his eyes. 'You just have to make it through this meeting and you never have to see them again, Thadius.'

The door opened and his father had to snatch one of his younger siblings around the waist to keep them from barreling through the door as the lawyers came into the room. "Hey now, you gotta stay in here, Sissy."

The main lawyer, Addison Hyde, narrowed her eyes at the sleazy man as he plunked the little girl into his wife's lap. "Ah, yes, Mr and Mrs Riddle-Song... I had not expected you to be here."

"Why not? Today is when the will gets unsealed, right?" His mother straightened herself up, playing with her daughter's golden hair. "So what do we get?"

Ms. Hyde let out a long suffering sigh. "Of course. I suppose we should just get right into this, right, Mr. Eddington?"

Thadius jumped a bit at the sound of his name, turning to look at her. "Ah, yes. I think that might be preferable, Ms. Hyde. I believe the Riddle-Songs have much to get to and I am supposed to be leaving for my graduation ceremony as soon as possible."

Ms Hyde nodded and sat down at the head of the table. Thadius moved over to the table and sat across from his parents, his hands folded on the table. His mother continued to try to get him to look at her as if that would make him feel some sort of epiphany of love for the woman. He looked directly at the lawyer instead, his back straight and his face neutral.

"As per General Eddington's will, Mr Eddington has completed his education at the Idris Military Academy, thus enacting the second phase of the will." She said, breaking the seal on the envelope that held the second phase of General Eddington's will.

"What do we get?" His mother pipped up again. "I am his only daughter and I've waited seven long years for this day, so hurry up."

"Yeah, we wanna get out of this place A.S.A.P." His father added before turning to hiss at one of the children. "Gingeroo, stop pulling on your sister's tail, adults are talking!"

Thadius rolled his jaw, clenching it a bit. He wanted to be anywhere but where he was. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he focused on the lawyer.

"Ehem," Ms Hyde gave his parents a disapproving look before she looked back to the envelope as she pulled out several pieces of paper. "I'm going to read the will out now, I ask that you do not interrupt until I finish and then I'll answer your questions."

She cleared her throat and started the readout. "I, General Cornelius Theodore Eddington, am of sound mind and am changing my will forthwith. If this phase of my will is being read then my grandson, Thadius Harrison Eddington--"

"Firefly Sunflower Riddle-Song." His mother interrupted.

Ms Hyde made eye contact with her and repeated, "Thadius Harrison Eddington, has finished his education at the Idris Military Academy as per my will's first phase and thus finishing the schooling that I had envisioned for him before I fell ill. I have no doubts that Thadius--"

"Firefly." His mother tried again.

"I have no doubts that Thadius has graduated with honors. I wish that I had been able to convey to him how proud I was to have him as my grandfather in the last year of my life, but I do know that I have done many wrongs in the short time that I was guardian over him. For him to have soldiered on with my plans and graduated means that I can rest easy knowing that he is set for life." Ms Hyde continued, ruffling through the papers to the next page. "As far as my assets go, I leave everything I own, every property, every item, every Gods-Be-Damned Dollar, to--"

"Me, his one and only dau---"

"To my grandson, Thadius Harrison Eddington."

"WHAT?!" Both of his parents said in outrage.

"Mrs. Riddle-Song, I will have to have you removed from the office if you continue to interrupt me." Ms. Hyde said, glaring her. "As I was saying, I leave everything I own to my grandson, Thadius Harrison Eddington. If my daughter is to have other children with the reprobate that she married, as much as it pains me, they will receive nothing unless it is by the charity of Thadius."

Thadius blinked at the lawyer. "He... left it all to me?"

"It would appear so," Ms. Hyde replied, putting the paper down on the table in front fo him and folding her hands over the paper. "The rest of these papers are for you to sign so that we can put everything into your name."

"Clearly this has to be a joke! He can't have written me out of his will!" His mother stood up, quaking with anger.

"He absolutely did," Ms. Hyde replied. "I was there the day he made changes to his will."

"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS?!" His mother shouted with a shrillness that made his ears hurt.

"Elaina, you had to have seen this coming," Ms. Hyde said, frowning at her. "Your father would have done anything for you to his detriment and then you abandoned Thadius just like you abandoned your father."

"I didn't abandon--- Firefly, baby, you know we didn't abandon you, right? We even tried so hard to take you in after daddy died," his mother tried to put sweetness into her voice as she reached over to grab his hands.

Thadius stood up and stepped back away from the table out of her reach. "I would like for them to leave."

"Excuse me?" His father locked his ice-blue eyes on him. "Now you listen here, you little punk, I am your father and you will respect---"

"No," Thadius replied. "Respect is earned. You don't get respect from me just because you fathered me, sir. I would like for you to leave so that I can finish this and get to my graduation."

"You ungrateful little---"

"You heard him," Ms. Hyde said, standing up. "Thadius, if you'll follow me back to my office, we'll finish this in there. It was nice seeing you again, Elaina. Pitty the circumstances."

"Don't you dare leave this room, boy." His father hissed, standing up with his ears flicked back.

Thadius followed the lawyer. His father got up and stormed after them, grabbing hold of his arm. Thadius grabbed his father's wrist and squeezed it tightly.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore, old man," Thadius hissed and wrenched his father's hand off of his arm. "Take your family and go. You're getting nothing out of me."

His father gripped his wrist where Thadius had squeeze, clearly not expecting his son to be stronger than him. He snarled and went to grab him again only to have the door slammed in his face by Ms. Hyde. The lawyer made a motion to the security that was waiting on stand by to escort the family out of the building.

"I apologize that they were here to cause a scene, Mr Eddington," the lawyer said, leading him to her office. "Unfortunately, there are loose lips that still sing to waiting ears. I would have rather they not be here, but here we are."

"I would have rather they not be here, either," Thadius replied. "I... didn't know that I had siblings."

"You didn't?" She replied as she opened her office for him. "Quite frankly, I didn't think that Elaina would have anymore after you. She complained endlessly about how much work a child is."

"Were you friends at some point?" Thadius asked, sitting down.

"Something like that. I went to school with her," Ms Hyde replied and sat down across from him. "I am not sure what happened there, she used to be so smart and likable. And then Monroe happened."

Thadius made a face at the mention of his father's name. "Yes, well... What do we do now?"

"We get you to sign these documents and then we get you to graduation. I did hear that you were thinking about changing your name again?" She pulled out a pen and laid the pages out.

"Yeah, I... I didn't pick Thadius. I didn't pick Firefly, either. Neither are really who I think I am," He replied, his hands folded in his lap.

"Have you thought about what you wanted to change it to?" She asked, watching him. "I can get the paperwork started on that for you today if you do."

"Yeah, actually. I've been thinking about it for a while. I was thinking about changing my last name to Cornelius?" He chewed his lip.

"Do you have a full name picked out or just that bit?" She folded her hands on top of the table.

"Well, I was thinking Atlas Stella Cornelius." He replied. "Atlas is sort of a joke name that I got in boot camp, but I really like the sound of it."

"And Stella was the General's late wife's name if I remember correctly?" Ms. Hyde smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. He talked about her a lot. She sounded like she was pretty amazing." Thadius smiled a little. "That last year was probably the most I got to learn about the old man. I miss him a lot, which I guess is weird?"

"He was very proud of you, Atlas." Ms Hyde replied, pulling out paper to write up the petition for a name change. "Atlas..." She repeated and nodded. "I think that is a good name for you. Much better than Thadius, but General Eddington really did like those strong names. I will put in for the name change as soon as we're done. You can go ahead and sign these with both your old name and your new one."

Atlas took a breath and nodded before sitting forward to sign the papers. Signing his new name was like a weight was being lifted off of his soul. He sat back once he was finished and chewed his lip.

"What's on your mind?" Ms. Hyde asked as she signed the pages as well.

"What happens to the kids?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, I don't know. You don't have to think about that, though. You do not owe them anything." She replied as she stacked the pages. "Of course, you're going to want to help them out, but you have to remember that if you want to help your siblings, you have to deal with your parents."

Atlas sighed and rubbed his face with both hands and ran his hands over his crew-cut hair. "I just... I know what they did to me and I feel like they'll need help."

"Oh, there is no doubt that they'll need help, but right now you have to think about you. Are you going to go on to the officer college?" She asked, sitting back in her seat.

"I... was thinking about going to school for astronomy?" He scratched his cheek bashfully. "Stella was an astonomer and I am fascinated by space."

Ms. Hyde smiled some at him. "That sounds like an excellent plan. With your grades you could get into any college you want and you have the money to do it."

"I think that is what I'll do. I don't... want to use all my money on school, but I'll use some, I guess." He shrugged.

Ms. Hyde blinked at him. "You do realize you don't have to worry about money ever again, right?"

"Pardon? I mean, I haven't had to worry about money every thanks to the General, but..."

"He left you everything, Atlas. If you're smart, you will not have to worry about money for the rest of your life." She shook her head and laughed some. "Though if you want to work, that's up to you. I'm sure you'll do well at whatever you set your mind to."

"I have a lot to think about." Atlas smiled weakly and got up. "I need to get to my graduation."

"Let's schedule a meeting for next week so we can get you set up with a bank account and I'll help you apply to schools." Ms. Hyde said, getting up and shaking his hand. "Congratulations on graduating, Atlas."

"Thank you, Ms. Hyde." He shook her hand and nodded.

He went out to the waiting car with Debois. His parents were glaring at him from across the street but he paid them no mind. He climbed into the back seat of the car and let out a sigh.

"Home and then to the graduation, Master Eddington?" Debois asked, looking at him in the mirror. "Or did you change it like you were talking about?"

Atlas smiled. "I changed it."

Debois nodded his head. "I wasn't fond of Thadius myself."

Atlas laughed. "I think it was the first thing that came to the General's mind."

Debois nodded again and started the car. Atlas closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat, relaxing. Today was the beginning of a new name and a new chapter for him. He didn't know what was in store for him, but he was content with the moment. The future could wait.