To Yin for her help,

and you, dear reader

2: The Soto Family

One evening.

"Leaf! Dakota! Dinner's ready!" their mother called out. Both of the children ran down the stairs and into the dining room. "Be careful coming down the stairs. You don't want to fall and hurt yourself."

"We know Mama," the twin children said. Leaf has his father's red hair but his mother's blue eyes. Dakota had the looks of her uncle Dan with white hair and silver eyes. They were both 5 years old. Then, Rikki walked into the dining room, letting out a tired sigh.

"How was work, Honey?"

"It was alright," Rikki answered. "Kinda slow." He ran his hand up his forehead, sweeping his hair back with his hand, only for it to fall back forward.

"I'm sorry Sweetie," Suzy said, handing the kids their plate.

"Aw!" Dakota complained, seeing her dinner. "Peas?"

"Yes," Suzy said in a slightly parental tone. "You want to grow up and be strong and healthy, don't you?"

"But I don't like peas!"

"Fine. Give them to your brother. I know he'll eat them." Suzy grabbed the bag of baby carrots from the fridge and put a few on Dakota's plate.

"Yay! Thanks Mama." Suzy sighed, shaking her head, before laughing a bit.

"Children will be children," she said softly. Rikki nodded in agreement.

3: The Other Soto Family

Dan walked into the kitchen, where Florida was preparing some dinner for Ciel, their 4 year old son. He had light pink hair and light blue eyes, like his mother. She was pregnant with a daughter, already named Faye.

"Mummy, what's for supper?" Ciel asked, with a bit of his mother's Irish accent.

"Macaroni and cheese with tomato soup," Florida said, turning around. "It'll be just a couple more minutes."

"So be patient, Son," Dan said, walking into the dining room and setting his jacket over his chair.

"Daddy, why is there a fourth chair at the table?" Ciel asked.

"You don't know?"

"What am I supposed to know?"

"Florida, you haven't told him yet?"

"I wanted to wait until you got home, Sweetie," she answered. She brought the pot full of cheese covered pasta and poured it onto a plate. Then she poured a ladle full of tomato soup into a bowl. "Be careful Ciel, it's hot."

"Yes Mummy," he responded, carefully taking his plate to the table then going back for the bowl. "So Mummy, Daddy. What is it?" Florida smiled and sat down, looking at Dan, who nodded.

"Ciel," Florida said, rubbing her hands over her stomach. "You're going to have a sister."

"What?!" he cried out, dropping his fork. Dan laughed while Florida explained what had happened, saving certain details for later.

4: The Harmony Family

Yin and her young daughter, Alexis were outside having fun while Aaron was inside making dinner.

"Aaron, is dinner ready?" Yin called inside from the porch.

"Just about," he said. He was preparing some grilled cheese sandwiches. "It's almost done so why don't you come on inside."

"Okay," she said to him before turning back toward Alexis in the yard. "Alexis! Time to go inside for dinner!"

"Okay Mommy!" Alexis said, running toward the house. On her way up the slight hill, she suddenly tripped over her foot and fell onto the grass, bursting into tears. Yin gasped in horror.

"Alex!" she exclaimed, running to her. "Sweetie are you okay?" Aaron came bursting out the back door.

"What happened?" he asked.

"She fell!" Yin cried. "Get the band-aids!"

"I tripped and hit my knee!" Alexis cried. Aaron hurried back inside for the first aide kit. When he came back, Yin carefully cleaned Alex's knee with a soft, white cloth soaked in peroxide. "Ow!" she howled. "Mommy that stings!"

"Sweetie, it'll hurt a little, but you don't want it to get infected, do you?"

"No."

"And we're all done," Aaron said as he covered the scrape with the bandage. "Feel better?" Alexis wiped her eyes and nodded, trying to smile.

"There's our big girl," Yin said, petting her hair. "Now let's go eat some supper."

5: The Vennen-Elise Family

A country cottage in the middle of Surrey.

Luuk and Lotus were finally married and Lotus was 4 months pregnant. She was sitting in a chair in the living room, while Luuk was out shopping for dinner. There was a heavy drizzle of rain outside. It was a bit cold inside the house so she stood up and walked to the thermostat, turning the heat up a bit.

"It's bloody cold in here," she muttered. She walked back to her chair, the television showing BBC News. She placed her hands on her stomach. "You must be cold too," she said to her developing child. She then grabbed a quilt her mother had made and placed it on her as she sat in the chair. "There we are. Nice and warm." She looked back at the television. "Hm. It looks like it'll be cold like this for a while." She stood up again being bored, and she walked to the nursery that she and Luuk had set up. "This'll be your room. It's not finished yet, but soon it'll have all the toys and games you need." She looked out the window, seeing a car come up the driveway and smiled. "Looks like your Father's home with our dinner." She walked back down stairs while Luuk walked in with bags full of food.

"Hello Honey," he said, clearly cold, soaking wet.

"Hello Dear," she said. "Bring everything in and I'll turn up the heater." He ran back out and in a couple times and he closed the door behind him.

"I'll never get used to your English weather."

"Well, then you should have thought about that before you agreed with me when I said I'd marry you."

"Why couldn't we move to Denmark?"

"Like I want to learn Danish." Lotus then realized she was getting angry so she stopped and took a few deep breaths. "Sorry. I don't want to stress too much."

"No it's my fault, Love." She looked at him and kissed him.

"If I wasn't pregnant I'd probably punish you. But I'm not really into that anyway." They walked back to the dining room and Lotus sat down carefully. "Come on, we're hungry." Luuk laughed and began prepping dinner.

6: Graduation Day

Graduation day, years later.

The air was quiet for a few moments, until a name was read throughout the sound system. As each name was read a student, a fresh college graduate, would stand up from their chair, walk toward the podium, and receive their diploma as pictures of them would scroll across the large overhanging holographic screen. After a name was read, the audience would applaud to show their appreciation for their graduating sons and daughters.

“Dakota Susana Soto,” the headmaster read. The audience cheered as the girl with the naturally white hair and silver eyes stood up. She walked toward the podium as pictures from her life scrolled across the big screen. She was handed her diploma and she walked back around to her seat. She breathed a heavy sigh of sweet relief as she sat down. “Leaf Daniel Soto,” the next name was spoken. Leaf stood up, and he walked over to the podium to receive his diploma. He then walked back to his seat as the audience had finished the cheers for him. He sat down by his twin sister and he breathed a sigh of relief. Dakota took his hand. He looked at his hand and up to her. She smiled to him and he smiled back. After a while, the last student sat down in their chair. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Trades University class… of 2040!” The students all stood up and they threw their hats in the air and they cheered and the audience cheered.

After the auditorium was cleared out, people were making their way back to their cars.

“So, Son, what are you going to do for a job?” Rikki, his father, asked him.

“Dad, this is a Master’s in Engineering. And besides, I told you, I’m going to work with Zephyr at his company,” Leaf said.

“Make us proud, my little Leaf,” Suzy, his mother, said to him as she tried not to cry.

“Ah, at least it’s Valhedron, so you’ll make more money than your mother and I.”

“Just because you saved the world from a psychotic killer, which I still don’t believe by the way, means you’re Bill Gates.” Suzy gave him a dirty look.

“Son, you grew up in the back of a Ferrari.”

“That’s hardly relevant! Besides you let me drive a Maserati to high school and Jadd had what, an S10?”

“Leaf, please don’t shout,” Dakota begged as some people were noticing their ruckus and she was red in the face slightly. “You’re embarrassing me.”

“Boys!” Suzy said, “Stop arguing, and let’s get home. I made a special cake for some special kids.” She brought her son and daughter close to her side. “Aw, you guys grew up too fast.” She was almost in tears again.

“Mom, don’t cry,” Leaf said.

“Aw, Mom…” Dakota said.

Later at the Soto Household.

Leaf walked back to his old bedroom as his mom prepped the cake. Leaf brought out his expanding holographic tablet. He set it to hover mode and placed a call. After a few moments of the ringing tone a female face appeared on the screen.

“Hey, Vegas,” Leaf said.

“Oh my god! Hi Leaf!” she said happily. “I heard you graduated!”

“Yeah. Have you?” She sighed.

“No.” Leaf laughed. “Hey,” she said with offended blush, “not cool!”

“I’m sorry.” Her smile then returned. “So when are you done?”

“I still have another few days. I’ll stop by when I’m done.”

“Well, I’ll be here waiting for you.”

“Thanks, Leaf.” She blew a kiss to him. He returned the gesture. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too.” His mom then called his name. “Got to go. I have some graduation cake to eat.”

“Save some for me.”

“You better hurry then,” he laughed as he walked out of the room. Vegas then signed off and the message ‘Call Ended’ flashed on the screen.

In the dining room.

“Onii-chan, come here, Mom made the best chocolate cake ever,” Dakota said with her mouth full.

“Well, save some for me,” he said as he took a slice.

“I’m sorry. It’s just so good.”

“Slow down, Dakota,” Suzy said awkwardly. “Come on, save some for Leaf.” Leaf had stood up to get another slice and he noticed that there was just one slice left. He picked it up. He saw Dakota sneaking up behind him, with a fork in her hand and a prowling look on her face, out of the corner of his eye and he moved his arm as she dove for it. She opened her arms and gasped as she saw nothing there.

“Aw,” she whined. She looked around for the cake until she looked up and saw that Leaf was holding the last piece.

“This is for Vegas,” he said.

“As if,” Dakota pouted. She stood up on her tip-toes and reached up for it but Leaf was too tall for her to reach. “Come on, give it!”

“No way,” Leaf said with a teasing smile.

“Dakota,” Suzy said. “If you want more, I can make another one.” Dakota looked over in surprise.

“What?!” she asked as she leaned in too far, causing them both to fall onto the floor.

“Dakota!” Suzy exclaimed. “Are you two alright?” Dakota looked up and was looking at Leaf straight in the eyes and then she noticed that she was on top of him. She smiled meekly and blushed as she stood up. Leaf then brought himself up. He was still holding the last slice of cake on the plate.

“I saved the cake,” he said. Rikki laughed. Dakota had ran into the kitchen and was happily bouncing next to her mother, anxious to have another cake made.

“Dakota calm down, please,” Suzy begged. “My my, what’s gotten into you?” Leaf was busy placing the cake in the food preservation box so it would fresh for when Vegas came over.

7: The New Job

An office somewhere.

Leaf stepped back and looked around. His office looked great. His desk had everything he would need. The holographic picture frames were scrolling through pictures of his life. Then a man walked in. He put his hand on Leaf’s shoulder. Leaf felt his hand and he looked behind him to see the face of a billionaire.

“Looks good,” Zephyr said. Leaf knew him back when he was in high school, and they played videogames together.

“Thank you sir,” Leaf said. Zephyr walked over to the holographic pictures. He then scrolled through them by sliding his finger along the pictures.

“I remember these,” he said with a happy smile as he was looking at them.

“Good times, eh?”

“Yes,” he sighed. “You grew up too fast.”

“I know. I can’t do much about that, now can I?”

“I guess you can’t. So, you ready to start your work?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. I have a super car, the Zephyr. Now I need you to design more cars for Valhedron.”

“I know sir.”

“Great. You will work with Ken down in the design lab.”

“Ken, sir?” Just then, a young man about Leaf's age walked into the office.

“You called?” he asked. Leaf noticed that he looked of Asian descent. He shook Leaf’s hand. “You must be Leaf Soto,” he said.

“Y-yeah,” Leaf said.

“I’m Kenta Hashimoto. But you can just call me Ken.”

“Hashimoto?”

“That’s my last name, don’t wear it out,” he said with a laugh.

“Uh, can ask what your mother’s name is?”

“Her name is Aoi, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

“My parents are Rikki and Susan Soto. They were best friends with your mother.”

“Oh. Then I feel like we should have met before.”

“Have we?”

“Well, you’re new to me. I’ve never seen you before.”

“Oh well,” Leaf shrugged. "Maybe she's a different Aoi." He then got an idea. A drawing of an SUV was forming in his head. “Take me to the design lab.”

“Alright, why?”

“Because I’m already getting ideas.” Ken then took his hand and waked him down to the design lab as Leaf was describing his idea. Zephyr laughed.

“Starting already,” he said as he walked out of Leaf’s office and the door shut silently behind him. “I have a feeling that Leaf will make Valhedron grow.” He walked to his office, chuckling to himself as he did so.

The next day.

Leaf and Ken were working together and they were able to complete a final prototype model of the SUV Leaf had thought of. They named it the ‘X-Ranger.’ Leaf and Ken had to present it to Zephyr before production started.

“It’s four-wheel-drive system is made by combining the technologies from the drive system from a Nissan GT-R and all the variable settings and systems you get in a Range Rover,” Leaf was saying enthusiastically.

“Uh-huh,” Zephyr said looking at the model.

“Yeah. It has the response quickness of the GT-R, such as its acceleration, with the all the variable ride heights and traction control systems like in a Range Rover.”

“And how do you propose we get our hands on this technology?”

“Well I suppose we could get both cars and strip them for the technology.”

“No.” Leaf’s enthusiastic smile disappeared.

“Yeah, I kinda figured. I was kidding."

“See… ‘We at Valhedron, have very high expectations.’ Now, we can’t be claimed to use the technology straight from other cars. We'll have to get Sirius in engineering, I can have him study how the technology works and he can create this all-in-one drive train that we need.”

“Oh!” Leaf exclaimed. “I see. That is a great idea.” Zephyr walked over to the videophone on the wall. He touched the word ‘Engineering’. After a moment, a young man who looked a little older than Leaf appeared, his face framed by dark green hair.

“Sirius,” Zephyr said, “I need you to do something.”

“What is it, sir?” Sirius asked.

“I need you to build a drive train that combines the technology of the Nissan GT-R and the Range Rover. Can you do that?”

“Yes I can sir. I can do that in my sleep,” he said with a confident smirk and then his face disappeared as they ended the call. Zephyr walked back over to them.

“Job done,” he said.

Early the next day

Leaf parked his car in the Valhedron Employee Parking Lot. He parked his car, a new, blue Ford Focus, in a space with his name on it. He was parked between a pearl-white Mercedes G-Wagon, and and a money-green Corvette C-7 Stingray. The owners were all but unknown to him. He then looked at the cars next to the his and he scowled slightly in envy. He then sighed as he remembered what happened back in college. He shook his head as he forced the memory away from him. He then put a somewhat of a fake smile of his face as he walked in. He was very surprised to see a X-Ranger sitting on the showroom floor. Zephyr was walking around it slowly.

“When did this get here?” Leaf asked, walking over for a closer look.

“Early this morning,” Zephyr said, not looking away from it as he continued his slow circle-shaped pace around the car. “Sirius had his work cut out for him.”

“I love the color,” Leaf said as he traced his finger along the cool, yet bright, red bodywork.

“So do I.”

“Do you like it?” Sirius asked as he walked over to them.

“Yeah,” Leaf said. “You did really well.”

“Thanks. The production room is making more as we speak.”

“How many did you program?” Zephyr asked.

“I asked the computer to make just 100 at first. Twenty in red, orange, dark-green, navy blue, and black.”

“Twenty?”

“Yes sir, twenty each.”

“Hm.”

“I also posted some photos and videos on the website. Some footage of the X-Ranger should be on this mornings’ news.”

“Alright. Tell me next time.”

“Yes sir.”

“Leaf, I do like the way it came out. Your idea was excellent, and I love the way the curved angels look on it. Absolutely beautiful. Especially how styling cues from the Zephyr come into the shape. You should make your way down to the design lab so I can see what you come up with next.”

“Yes sir,” Leaf said with a smile.

8: The New Film and The New Love

Later that night

Leaf was at his apartment. He was making prepping his dinner when he saw an infomercial from another car company. He then ran over to his holographic computer and he drew out a two-door coupe because he was struck with inspiration. After an antagonizing 25 minutes, his idea sketch was done. He then sat back and looked at it. He paused as he realized something. He sighed slowly, knowing that this is what he would be doing for the rest of his life. His mother was right. He did grow up too fast. He stood up slowly and he walked back to the kitchen and he noticed that his dinner had gone cold. He decided to simply get rid of it, as he was no longer hungry. He sighed and walked back over to the couch. He lay down and after a while, he dozed off.

The next day

Leaf walked into the design lab. Ken was already hard at work.

“What are you working on?” Leaf asked him as he walked over to the coffee machine for a cup.

“A two-door,” Ken said, not looking up.

“Oh, can I see it?”

“Sure.” Leaf walked over and looked at the design. It looked totally different from the design that Leaf drew.

“That looks a lot different than the two-door idea I had.”

“Oh, you had an idea?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have it on you?”

“I can get it.”

“Alright. Thanks.” Leaf went over to his computer and he was able to trace the file back to the computer in his apartment and he brought it up.

“Ken. Over here,” Leaf said and Ken walked over. Leaf showed him his design.

“Eh…” Ken struggled to say something polite.

“It's terrible, isn't it?"

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far, it just needs a few change- yeah it sucks."

“Yeah, and I didn’t actually plan on having this go into production. It was just an idea.”

"Well, that is what we're paid for. All ideas are always welcome."

In Zephyr’s office.

He was standing by the windows that overlooked the production room. The car building machines sat in silence as a few people walked around them and worked at stations. When his video phone rang, it almost scared him. He walked over to the screen and he pressed the ‘Answer Call’ icon on the screen.

"Sir," the receptionist said.

"What is it?" he asked.

"You have a phone call."

"From who? Let me see."

A face appeared that he instantly recognized.

“Jon Spencer,” he said, “what an honor.”

“Please, Mr. Zephyr, the pleasure is all mine,” the handsome man with the combed hair said.

“What can I do for you?”

“I heard you have an SUV."

"Well, that's true."

"So let me get to the point. I’d like to feature the Zephyr and the X-Ranger in my new film.”

“You’re making another X Driver?”

“The fans will get what they want."

“Alright. Do you have any specifics specs for them, like what trim level are you looking for?"

“I want a red Zephyr and a dark colored X-Ranger. I'll let you do that, so surprise me." Zephyr contemplated with his thoughts. Jon Spencer showed a slightly worried expression.

“Alright,” Zephyr decided slowly. “On one condition.”

“Being…?”

“That you invite me to the opening showing.”

“I’ll give you 20 tickets.”

“Seems reasonable. You have yourself… a deal.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Anytime.” He pressed the ‘End Call’ icon. He thought for another moment. He then pressed the ‘Front Desk’ icon on the video phone. After a moment, a woman’s face appeared. She was the receptionist.

“What is it, sir?” the woman asked. Her short brown hair accentuated her honest blue eyes.

“Call Leaf and Ken in the design lab and send them to my office.”

“Yes sir,” she said.

“Oh, and you too,” he added. There was the slightest of pauses as she was surprised by this request.

“Yes sir,” she said, her voice tone however unchanged. After a few minutes Leaf and Ken were in Zephyr’s office. Zephyr was standing by the windows with his back turned to them. After a minute, the woman rushed in.

“Mercedes… you’re late,” Zephyr said.

“I’m sorry sir,” she said. Leaf heard her voice and thought it was the harmony of singing angels. He looked over at her. She glanced at him feeling his eyes and she blushed and looked away wearing a small smile. Ken raised an eyebrow noticing this.

“Anyway,” Zephyr said turning around. “You people like X Driver?”

“Yes,” Leaf and Ken said and Mercedes simply nodded with a sad expression.

“Jon Spencer is making a new one. I have been given 20 tickets to the opening showing. That’s enough for our entire business and a few family members. Now, we still have another year and a half, nearly two in fact, before the movie’s final release. So, anyone who you think should be invited, tell me and I’ll add them to the private invite list.” All three of them nodded in acknowledgement. “Good. Now, Mr. Jon Spencer needs a dark colored X-Ranger and a red Zephyr. What color X-Ranger should we send him?”

“The dark-green with black interior,” Mercedes said quickly.

“No,” Zephyr said flatly.

“What about the navy blue with red accented interior?” Leaf suggested.

“Ooh,” Ken said.

“I have liked those colors,” Zephyr said. "Alright. I'll notify him right away."

Later that day.

Leaf was on his way out of the cafeteria when he saw Mercedes, the receptionist. She was staring out the window with a sad and distant expression, holding a small water cup in her hands. He walked over to her.

“He never listens,” she said, seeing his reflection in the window.

“What?” Leaf asked. She turned and faced him with tears in her eyes.

“Zephyr. He never listens to me. Not to me... or my ideas!” she yelled as she crushed the hard plastic cup in her hand, wincing as the shards broke her skin. She dropped the crushed plastic, revealing blood-dipped shards. She looked at her hand and saw blood. She closed her hand and started to cry. “He… hates me!”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Leaf said hugging her.

“Yes it is,” she cried.

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is!" she yelled, pushing Leaf away with her good hand, tears falling down her face. “He friggin hates me! He hates me!”

“M… Mercedes."

“What?!” she spat.

“Your hand…” he said. She gasped silently and she looked at her closed hand. There was blood seeping from between her fingers and onto the tiled floor. Leaf was already coming back over with the first aid kit. He sat Mercedes down in a chair sniffling, as he gently took her hand and cleaned it off. He sprayed the cuts with peroxide and disinfectants and he wrapped a layer of gauze around her hand. “There,” he said. “All done.” He packed the aid kit away and he returned it to where he got it while Mercedes was looking at her hand and doing some test movements. He walked back over and wiped the blood off the floor. “Hey,” he said. She didn’t look at him. Leaf sighed held her chin up. “Do you feel better?” he asked with a sincere smile.

“Mm-hm,” she said quietly with a small smile.

“Good,” he said sweetly. He hugged her again and he started to stroke her hair. Mercedes blushed, her face turning bright red. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” Mercedes closed her eyes and she hugged him back. She then opened her eyes and she gently pushed him away. He looked into her eyes and she grabbed his shoulders. He did the same and they slowly leaned toward each other. Just before their lips met, a man cleared his throat. They both looked and saw it was Zephyr. They then blushed and shot away from each other.

“None of that,” He said dryly.

“I'm Sorry,” Mercedes whispered to Leaf, before turning and walking away. Leaf stood up and began to walk the other way. He looked back and saw her looking back at him with a longing look on her face. Leaf turned back around and continued on, but Zephyr grabbed his shoulder.

“Leaf, I'm serious,” he repeated. “It interferes with work.”

“I’m sorry sir,” Leaf said.

“I don’t want to see any of that here again.” Leaf blinked and thought for a minute. "Understand?"

“Yes sir,” he said after a while.

9: Cutting Herself

The next day

Leaf got out of bed and he went to work. He walked to the design lab and met with Ken.

“S'up, man,” Leaf said as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“S'up, man,” Ken said as he did the same.

“So what are we working on today?”

“Anything, I guess.”

“Alright. What would that be?”

“Zephyr wants a truck.”

“Okay then. First we should probably think of a truck name." Leaf sat down at his computer. "What would we call it?”

“Some big and tough.”

“Exactly, something original.”

“Something like maybe… ‘Titanus’.”

“Ooh, that’s great. But how about ‘Titanshade’?”

“Still pretty tough. But it seems… I don’t know… a bit off?”

“Yeah. What about the ‘T7500’? Simple yet tough.”

“Leaf, that’s perfect,” Ken beamed. As Ken set about drawing up a badge, Leaf was hard at work getting the concept drawing done.

Later that day

Zephyr walked into the design lab. Leaf and Ken were still working.

“Wow, you two deserve a raise," he said.

“Almost done,” Leaf said absentmindedly. Zephyr laughed.

“You are definitely getting those raises.”

“Yes sir,” Ken said not looking up from his holographic computer. Zephyr looked at their screens and he beamed.

“Nice work gentlemen,” he said. "Keep up the good work."

The end of the day.

Leaf was walking toward the parking garage. He saw Mercedes in the hallway, still with a sad expression on her face, her hand bandaged.

“Hey,” he said and she looked over at him.

“Hi,” she said softly.

“Are you still upset?” She sniffled and nodded. “Why?"

“You should know why I’m upset.” She looked away.

“Well, for all I know, you could be upset about something else now. I don’t know.” Mercedes sighed.

“Zephyr… he’s… he’s my adoptive uncle, i-in a way. A-and he only wants to live with his wife, Aunt Jaesyn,” she said. “My family… my family was killed by a group of mutants.” Leaf knew that  the word 'mutants' was the common insult normal humans use for people with Gifts. She wiped her eyes as she began to cry. “He never wanted me. My parents' dying words… they told him to take me. To keep me safe. I know… he never wanted me.” She was on the verge of screaming. “All he’s wanted is his daughter, Sapphire. She’s the only legacy that he wants!” she screamed. Leaf simply looked at her surprised at this sudden outburst, unsure what to do. She ran to him and hugged him as she broke down crying.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Leaf said, lovingly. “Just let it out.”

“Oh my god, Leaf,” she cried. “You’re so nice.”

“Well, you know…” After they stood there for a few moments Leaf asked, “Hey, can I drive you to my place?”

“No,” she said softly. “I can drive home.”

“Alright,” Leaf sighed sadly.

“But you can walk me to my car.”

“Okay.” He took her hand and they walked to her car. She opened the door and she climbed in. She winced as she grabbed the steering wheel with her bandaged hand. She sighed in a defeated manner. “Does it hurt?” Leaf asked as he saw this.

“Yeah," she admitted softly after a moment.

“Come on, let me drive you to my place.”

“...okay.” Leaf led her to his car. They climbed in and Leaf drove off toward his apartment. On the way there, Mercedes’s wrist watch rang. Zephyr was calling her. She touched the ‘ignore’ icon on the small touch screen. Leaf looked at her and she gave him half of a small but friendly smile.

Later at Leaf’s apartment.

They both walked through the door.

“Well, here we are,” Leaf said. “It’s not much.”

“Eh, it’s alright,” Mercedes said. She walked through the kitchen to the bathroom, as Leaf sat down at his computer to do some more work. After a few moments, a cold feeling swept over him as he heard nothing but silence. Something in the air felt… wrong. He looked down the hallway toward the bathroom. He stood up and he walked toward the bathroom. He stopped and he knocked on the door.

“Mercedes, are you alright?” he asked. He heard her gasp and the sound of something falling onto the floor.

“I’m fine Leaf,” she said.

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Mercedes said. Leaf grabbed the knob and he slowly turned it.

“It didn’t sound like nothing,” he said as he pushed the door open. She gasped as he opened the door and she covered herself up in a white towel. He looked at her. She was holding a white towel over the top half of her nearly naked body. “Mercedes?” The white towel had a dark red spot appearing on it. Leaf looked on the ground and he saw a bloody knife. “What…? Mercedes… are you…?” She nodded and looked away. She dropped the towel. Her bare midsection was fine, but it was her arms that drew his attention. They were laced with lines. Fine, faded lines. Scars. Blood was seeping from a fresh cut. “Jesus Mercedes, you cut yourself?” She nodded again. “Why?”

“Because I hate myself!” she cried at him.

“Why do you hate yourself?” She growled and answered.

“Because I’m depressed!”

“Well, why are you depressed?”

“I… I don’t know!” she cried. “Leave me alone!” She turned away from him.

“No,” Leaf said firmly. She gasped softly, but didn’t face him. “Come on,” he said, wrapping the towel over her arm. “I’m taking you to the hospital.”

“NO!” she fought defiantly.

“Mercedes!” Leaf yelled and she cringed with a whimper. “I will not love a person who does this to themselves.” She whimpered and blushed.

“Y-you… love… me?”

“Not if you keep doing this to yourself, I won’t.” He pulled her to his car. She crossed her arms as she sat in the seat as Leaf drove quickly to the hospital.

The hospital

Leaf walked up to the clerk at the counter.

“Hello and welcome to Mercy Hospital, how can I help you?” she asked in a bit too friendly way.

“She has a cut on her arm,” Leaf said. “And she’s bleeding really bad.” The clerk looked at Mercedes and she saw the reddening towel.

“Oh, dear,” she said. She walked over to the videophone and she requested a doctor. A tall, male doctor appeared a moment later.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“She has a really bad cut,” Leaf told him. The doctor looked at her arm.

“That is going to need stitching up.” Mercedes gasped and felt sick. “Come on,” the doctor led her to the nearest room. The clerk motioned to a chair for Leaf to sit in. He sat down and worried and heard Mercedes screaming. After a few more antagonizing minutes, they both came back out. Leaf stood up and walked to the doctor, who had a mark on his cheek, having been slapped by Mercedes, who stood by Leaf, looking really sad and hurt. “Alright then, she should-”

“I’m fine!” Mercedes huffed. “Can we just go already?” Leaf nudged her and she looked at him. His eyes repeated his warning from earlier and she whimpered.

“Fine, you can go.”

“Yay!” Mercedes exclaimed happily and she ran out to Leaf’s car. The doctor raised an eyebrow at her sudden mood change. Leaf paid him the fee and he walked to his car. “Come on, let’s go home.”

“Your home or mine?”

“Yours, I guess.”

“Fine,” Leaf said as they climbed into his car. “This will not happen again,” Leaf said.

“I can’t make any promises,” she smiled. Leaf glared at her. “Sorry.”

“Mercedes, I don’t want to have to watch you 24/7.” There was a minute of silence.

“I bet you would like that, wouldn’t you?” she smirked.

“What?”

“You would like to watch me sleep, wouldn’t you?” Leaf went red-faced.

“What? No!” Mercedes smirked.

“Then I’ll be you’d like to sleep with me.” Leaf turned redder.

“No!” She walked her fingers up his arm as he parked by the apartment building.

“Or maybe… even more than that,” she whispered. Leaf’s face was so red.

“Are-are you suggesting…?”

“Oh, yeah.”

10: Plans

The next morning.

Leaf slowly opened his eyes and he sat up. He looked around, wondering what happened last night. He looked at his bed next to him. There was someone there with him. Then he remembered everything.

“Oh, shit,” he hissed to himself. He climbed out of bed and to get ready for the day. A moment later, as he was sliding a shirt on, he heard a soft groan as Mercedes slowly sat up. She yawned and stretched.

“Good morning, Leaf,” she said tiredly.

“Morning,” he said.

“Is the coffee on?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” she said. She walked over to him and she kissed him. She then walked out to the kitchen.

Somewhere else on the west coast.

The man was dreaming… a nightmare. He was thrown down onto the ground. Weird foggy clouds in strange colors wafted through the air in some strange place. Another, who looked just like him, only was evil, leaned down and looked at him in the face.

“Tick, tock,” the evil half said with a menacing smirk. “Each second you wait, she's a second closer to death.” A watch was shown in front of the man’s face. The evil half waved it back and forth slowly. “Tick, tock,” he kept repeating. “Tick, tock, tick, tock…”

He sat up with a scream. His long blonde hair, dripped with sweat. He was trying to catch his breath. A woman sat up next to him and looked at him with concern.

“Aaron, are you okay?” she asked.

“Just… just an old nightmare, Yin,” Aaron said.

“Aw,” she said and she hugged him. “I don’t like nightmares either.” He hugged her back. “What was your nightmare about?”

“It’s just an old one.”

“So… you’ve had it before?” Yin asked. Aaron waited to answer.

“Yes.”

“What was it about?”

“Losing the first love of my life.” He began to cry. Yin hugged him.

“Just forget about, Sweetie,” Yin said. His crying slowly subsided. “There you go.”

“I’m sorry, Yin.”

“It’s okay.”

“Thanks.” She moved in front of him and kissed him. He kissed her back and she looked at him in the eyes.

“Your eyes are so dreamy,” she said. “So… deep.” She pressed him back onto the bed. “So pretty.” She rested on his chest and she stared intently at his eyes. He looked at her back. “So nice.”

“We’ve been married for 20 years and you now and you just now reali-” She brought her finger to his lips.

“Shh. Just let me look at you. I’ve missed doing this.” She crawled closer to his face. As she was staring into his eyes he suddenly closed them. Yin blinked. “A-Aaron… what?”

“Nothing.” He opened his eyes and Yin fell back into her trance.

West Coast City.

Zephyr was pacing back and forth in his study. He checked his watch, still no answer. Then his wife walked in.

“Zephyr, what’s the problem?” Jaesyn asked.

“Nothing,” he huffed and walked to the large window. He stared out over the city at the bottom of the mountain.

“It doesn’t look like nothing,” she said as she stood next to him. The man sighed.

“I feel conflicted.”

“That’s never good.”

“I know my best employee is in love with my niece, but I can’t have that.”

“Why not? Mercedes is nice."

“Because they both work for me and if they love each other, all they will think about is each other, which will distract their working minds and productivity will drop, thus killing my company.”

“Zephyr, it’s not all just about you.” She put her arm around him and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

“Then why do I feel like it?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

“Well what should I do about it?” She thought for a moment.

“Maybe you just need a vacation.”

“A vacation?” She nodded. “Okay, Jaesyn. What kind of vacation?”

“Oh, I don’t know. A trip somewhere, maybe just a social getaway, anything.”

“Where would we go?”

“The European Riviera, maybe.”

“But I have the house in Monaco.”

“Then let’s just go somewhere really relaxing, or maybe somewhere we haven't been to."

“Alright.”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Somewhere where no one goes. It would just be you and me.”

“I’m liking this already. But what about Sapphire?”

“She’ll be in school, so I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“Alright. Let’s do it. But who will watch over the company?”

“You take a few minutes to figure this out,” she said as she started to walk away. She stopped in the open door way. “Come find me when you’re done.” She walked out of the room. He heard her footsteps disappear down the hall. He then walked over to his desk. He turned on his video phone and he pressed a couple contact icons. After the call, he pressed another icon that showed Mercedes’ face. No answer. He sighed and gave up, walking out of the large room.

Somewhere in North City.

He sat in the dark. It was an old building, that had nearly collapsed due to age. After it was rebuilt however, he took it back over. He was the only one loyal who remained. It was Xane. He sat there in the warehouse. Waiting, planning. Revenge was the only thing on his mind. Sure had taken over North City from it’s underbelly up, and he was feared throughout. But his plan was getting finalized. He smirked to himself as he knew what to do. Yes, he would start there.

11: The Telepath

Later.

Leaf drove Mercedes to work. He was about to park his car when he saw Zephyr standing in his parking space, arms crossed with an angry expression. Leaf sighed and Mercedes looked at him in fear. Zephyr moved to let Leaf park his car. After they both climbed out, Zephyr spoke.

“I do not want to see this again,” he said.

“But sir, I-” Leaf said.

“Don’t say anything. Get to work. Mercedes, my office right now.”

“No,” she defied. She crossed her arms and looked away from him.

“Now.” He grabbed her arm and he walked her toward his office. “Leaf, get to work.”

“Yes sir," Leaf said.

"Forget about me, Leaf," Mercedes said. Leaf sighed and he walked to the design lab.

“Hey,” Ken waved.

“Not in the best mood,” Leaf said not looking at him.

“Okay,” he simply said and he got back to his work. That was a good thing about Ken. He never really did anything completely stupid, he easily understands and he doesn’t question anything. Which is why he and Leaf really worked well together.

In Zephyr’s office.

“What happened to you?” Zephyr asked Mercedes.

“Nothing happened,” she said. “I’m fine, alright?”

“Sit down!” He commanded. Mercedes cringed down in the chair. “Why didn’t you answer my calls? What happened? What exactly did you end up doing?!”

“Would you stop yelling at me?!” she cried. Zephyr took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment. “I want you to understand that I was worried about you, alright? I’m here for you, I care for you-”

“Bull shit! You only care for her!”

“What?”

“You don’t care for me, you care for her!”

“Who?”

“Your daughter! You only care for her!”

“I care for both of you.” He looked at her still bandaged hand. “What happened to your hand?”

“Nothing.”

“Mercedes, what happened to your hand?” She stood up.

“Nothing!” she yelled as she turned around to run out. Zephyr grabbed her shirt sleeve. It tore off as she tried to get away and she fell onto the floor. He saw the scars lining her arm.

“Mercedes… have you been…?” She looked at her uncovered arm. She gasped and she tried to hide it. “Wh… Why do you do this to yourself?”

“Because I hate myself,” she said not meeting his eyes.

“I want to help you. You need to let me help you.”

“No.”

“Mercedes, please you have to let me-” Zephyr was interrupted by a knock at his door. He walked over and he pressed the button to open it. A woman wearing a blue uniform was standing there. She had blue eyes and purple hair. “Can I-”

“Yes, I’d like to place an order for a Valhedron Zephyr in a specific color,” she said as if she had rehearsed it.

“Alright. Head to the design lab and have Leaf take you to-”

“Alright,” she said walking off as if she knew everything.

In the design lab.

Leaf was hard at work. He then looked up as the door opened. It was the woman. He stood up and he walked over to her.

“Can I help you?” he asked her.

“I’m here to place an order for a Zephyr in a specific color,” she said. Leaf thought her voice was beautiful. “Thank you,” she said as if she read his mind.

“Right. Anyway, where did I put that color scanner?”

“Behind you.” Leaf turned and he picked the small machine up.

“Ah, here it is. Now, what color-”

“A blue to match,” she said holding her arm out.

“Oh, alright.” Leaf held the machine over her long sleeve. It beeped and a small screen on it showed the color and hexadecimal value. “This should just about do it. Now follow-”

“Production room," she said seeming to know what he's going to say before he says it.

“Please stop doing that. What are you-”

“-telepathic?" she finished his sentence. Leaf just grabbed her arm. “Hey,” she blushed slightly.

“Just follow me please.”

“Let go of me, please,” she said. Leaf let go of her arm.

“Sorry,” he said not looking at her. They walked down to the production room. Leaf plugged the color scanner into the production unit and after typing a few commands into the computer, the large machine took a blank Zephyr from a storage area and the painting machine colored it in the required blue. Then after some quick-drying the car rolled off the line ready to go. “Any other instructions?” he asked the woman.

“Have the computer forget the hex value,” she said to him. “The car should be in the east parking lot for pick up.”

“I’ll have it sent there,” Leaf said, weirded out by the strange demands. The car was sent to the east lot. The woman checked her wrist watch.

“My ride’s here,” she said.

“Wait,” Leaf said.

“What?” she looked at him. The way she looked at him with her blue eyes, he really liked the way her dark purple hair was styled. He was in love, and he knew it. He also knew she was reading his mind as well. "Leaf, you're sweet but I am not interested."

“Yeah, but if you’re a telepath, then, whatever organization you’re part of-”

“You show interest in my duties as an agent?” she asked and Leaf was shocked. “Oh, you are. Well, I guess. What’s your ability?”

“I’m also a telepath. I get that from my mother.”

“Mm-hm.”

“I also get energy absorption from my father.”

“Oh, so you’re a 2-in-1 deal, huh?”

“Yeah,” Leaf blushed, “I guess.”

“Alright then, Leaf. I’ll talk to you later.” She walked off, leaving Leaf scratching his head. He felt really unsure about what just happened. Leaf then got a call on his watch. It was Zephyr.

“Leaf, come to the showroom, quickly,” he said. Something was not right. He already started running.

“I’ll be there, sir.”

12: Presidential Gamble

Leaf came into the showroom floor. There was guys in suits standing everywhere. He walked up to Mercedes at her desk.

“What’s going on?” he whispered to her.

“President Wheeler is here,” she whispered back. He looked and he saw Dutch English, the only salesman for the exclusive company, as he was being carefully watched by federal agents as he was talking to a woman, who Leaf knew was the president. He moved a bit closer for a better look.

“So how much for your most expensive full-size SUV?” the woman asked.

“We don’t have a full-size SUV,” Dutch said in a refined accent. "We only have our mid-size X-Ranger."

“Then get a full-size SUV.” Leaf saw Zephyr, who came over to him.

“Quick, I need a passenger SUV,” Zephyr said.

“X-Ranger with extended cab?”

“Sure, sure, but rename it and make it exclusive.”

“Only 20, got it.”

“Go!” Leaf ran back to the design lab and he and Ken got right to work. They worked hectically with some X-Ranger sketches and were finished after a few intense minutes.

“Call her down here,” Leaf called Zephyr. “If we want this to work for her, then she can approve of the design.”

“Good idea. We’ll be down in a few minutes.” He walked over to them. “President Wheeler?” he asked. The woman looked at him. She stood a good 5 foot 7 and she looked up at him with her magenta colored eyes, her blond hair combed smoothly backward.

“What is it?” she asked.

“The employees in the design lab have finished a design for the car you asked for, and they want your approval, if you choose.”

“Oh,” she said. “Alright then. Take me there.” She followed Zephyr to the design lab, leaving Dutch, breathing heavily, as he was scared out of his wits from the sudden appearance of the president. Leaf and Ken were just finishing their designs as she walked in. Leaf looked at her and he gasped silently. President Wheeler was Cassandra Wheeler, a friend of his parents. She looked at their design.

“Hm,” she said as she studied them. “What color will this be?” she asked pointing to some parts on the dashboard designs.

“Ms. Wheeler,” Leaf said, “Those can be in any color you choose.” She looked at him. She was 13 years older than him, but he was taller. She looked at him and he could tell she was trying to recognize him. “I’m Leaf Soto.”

“Ah,” she smiled. “You look a lot like Rikki but, you have Suzy's eyes."

“I know. I get that a lot."

“Well anyway, I like this,” she pointed to the screen. “When can I get one?”

“Knowing the entrance and reading time for the production machines, a few hours.”

“I’ll come back later.”

Later.

President Wheeler came back to the showroom and she picked up her car in all the shiny black with silver interior she wanted. After she left, along with all her agents, Leaf learned that Dutch had been sent home due to stress problems. Then the rest of the limited edition X-Rangers were built. Leaf walked up to Zephyr’s office. Strangely, he was no where to be found. Leaf turned and started to walk out of the office when a woman ran into the office and bumped into him, knocking them both to the ground.

“Sorry,” Leaf said.

“No, I’m sorry,” she said, with an instantly recognizable accent. It was Jaesyn. Leaf smiled and she gave him a small smile back. He stood up and he helped her to her feet.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she smiled. That smile then left a moment later. “What happened?”

“Uh, the President came.”

“She did?”

“Yeah. I imagine Zephyr was under a lot of stress.”

“I know he is. I can’t find him anywhere.” Her eyes teared up.

“Well, what does he do to relieve his stress?”

“He gambles.” She then gasped, “Damn it, how did I forget? I know where he is now. There’s a casino downtown that he really likes, he must be there.”

“We should go and get him.” Jaesyn looked at him unsurely. “Don’t worry, I’m 22.”

Later at Royale Casino.

Leaf and Jaesyn walked in and they looked around.

“What specifically, does he like to do?” Leaf asked.

“Cards,” she said. “We should go look around the card tables.”

Over at the card tables.

Leaf and Jaesyn split up to find Zephyr. Leaf saw a table with many people crowded around it. He walked over and he made his way through the group of people. Zephyr was there. There was a large pile of chip stacks next to him. Across from him, was a girl about Leaf’s age. She had long blond hair and purple eyes. Her pile of chips was slightly bigger. The other two guys were pretty much afterthoughts. Zephyr looked up.

“Ah, Leaf. You’re just in time. Come join me,” he said with a smile that didn’t seem right.

“Uh, no thanks,” Leaf said and the crowd groaned collectively. “Fine,” he muttered. He sat down next to Zephyr and the girl looked at him. She looked as if she could pierce a soul. She then threw some cards toward him and they landed in a perfect deck. That wasn’t natural.

“Ready?” Zephyr asked him. Leaf had to be honest.

“Yeah, but my poker skills are a bit rusty.”

“Just do what I do.” And he did, which was good because as the game advanced, the piles by the other two guys slowly went to Leaf, Zephyr, and mostly the girl. Leaf knew something wasn’t right. She would make the right moves every single hand.

“Zephyr,” Leaf said to him.

“What?”

“I think she can count cards.” Zephyr raised his eyebrows and he looked at the girl, who had heard their conversation. She seemed nervous, now. People who heard them were looking at her as well. Leaf looked her in the eyes.

“I know you’re counting cards,” Leaf said standing and pointing at her. She sighed and she stood up and left. That’s when Jaesyn came.

“Oh you found him,” she said.

“Yeah, get him home,” Leaf said. “I have something else to do.”

“Alright.”

"Does this mean I win?" Zephyr asked. Meanwhile, Leaf followed the girl out into the parking lot. He caught up with her and he grabbed her arm.

“Hey,” he said. She left his grasp. She turned around and faced him.

“Get the hell away from me!” she said to him. She then turned around and started walking away again.

“I know you’re mad, but I just want to talk.” She stopped.

“I said stay the hell away from me!” she cried and she ran. Leaf ran after her.

Somewhere by the shore.

Leaf was coming up through a thicket in the forest by the ocean side. He had been running after this girl for a while now. He came up to a short bluff overlooking the ocean and at the small beach at the bottom of the bluff, the girl was sitting on a rock, staring out into the ocean. Leaf did his best to stay out of sight.

“Damn it," she said. "You caught me. You might as well come sit down." Leaf sighed and he came out of the tree line. He walked over and sat down next to her.

“Look, I’m sorry for-”

“Shut up,” she shushed him. “Just listen.” Leaf sighed silently as he listened to the sound of the waves along the shore, and for a moment, it seemed as if all the problems in the world disappeared into the sounds of Zen and peace. “It’s just beautiful isn't it?” She smiled.

“Yeah,” Leaf sighed. Little did they know, they both fell asleep, holding hands.

13: A New Relationship

Leaf awoke to the smell of bacon. He sat up, finding out that was still on the shore. He remembered following that girl home. He looked around and he saw her sitting by a fire pit he didn't realize was there. She looked over at him and her face lit up with a smile.

"Morning," she said. "Glad to see you're up."

"Yeah, me too," Leaf said with a stretch. "You made breakfast?"

"Yep. My house is just up the hill there, so this is my land."

"You live a simple life?" he asked coming over and he sat down by the fire.

"Yeah, you could say that. I least I have friends, or else I would be really lonely."

"Well, I'm a nice guy."

"Yeah, I know. You did get me kicked out of that casino, though. That's how I make my money."

"By cheating?"

"Hey," she said in an angry tone.

"Sorry."

"It's alright."

"Breakfast ready? Sorry, I'm just hungry."

"Give me one more minute," she said with a smile. Leaf noticed a cooler nearby and she nodded to him. Leaf helped himself to a bottle of fresh water.

"That's some good stuff."

"Glad you like it. Now take a plate. The eggs should be done." Leaf took a plate and the eggs were done simmering in a pot over the fire. Leaf really liked this. This method of serving food may have been so 2016, but he really liked it. So nice and simple. It was nice to take a break from all of the technological advancements of the world. Though, he knew that Zephyr would be upset that he would miss work today. But, then again, Zephyr probably won't remember last night. Leaf found himself laughing at that thought. The girl looked at him. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Leaf said. "Just thinking about stuff." She took her plate and she sat down next to him.

"Like what kind of stuff?"

“Just business stuff.”

“Oh. What do you do?”

“Oh, I uh, I design cars.”

“Ooh, that’s cool. Why do you do that?”

“I work for a billionaire.”

“Which one?”

“Zephyr.”

“Are you shitting me? You design cars for Zephyr?!”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit, that is so awesome!” This was the first time Leaf got a good look at the girl. He thought she was so beautiful and perfect. If he could ask her, they might be soul mates. “What are ya lookin’ at?” she caught him staring.

“Nothing,” he looked away blushing. "I just... like your hair."

“What this?” she asked him. "It's just a wig." She took it off to reveal short, tom-boyish, purple colored hair.

“Oh."

"Anything else you wanna ask?" she asked with a laugh.

“Uh, do you want to maybe... go out sometime?”

“Like on a date?”

“Yeah…”

“Well,” she said in a way that suggested that her answer was ‘yes’ but she was feigning mock thought. “I guess,” her tone changed to honesty, “I guess that depends, on how this one turns out.” She looked at him, her face red. Leaf moved closer to her. She did the same. When they were close enough, Leaf quickly leaned in and kissed her on the lips. It was fast, but it happened nonetheless.

“O-oh my God,” she said, her entire face red from embarrassment, “d-did you just…?”

“I’m sorry!” he regretted.

“Hey,” she said, the redness disappearing. She loved him back. “It’s okay.”

“R-really?”

“Yeah. In fact...” she kissed him on the cheek. Leaf became red-faced again. Then she laughed awkwardly. “Um, I never got your name.”

“I’m Leaf. Leaf Soto.”

“Your name’s really cute.”

“It is?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “My name’s Verona Satinfire.”

“Well, your name’s pretty hot,” he smiled.

“Oh,” she laughed. “You’re so funny.”

"Thanks," he blushed. "So, Saturday?" he asked.

"Saturday," she nodded.

14: The Evil Half Returns

Aaron and Yin were in their house by the ocean side that they had built together. They had a small wedding, as all of the family members in Yin's family were dead, so they had a small wedding of just them. Aaron was heading out to cut down a few more trees for fire wood.

"I'm going out," Aaron said as he headed out the door. "I'll be back in an hour."

"Be safe," Yin called to him. She then ran to him and she gave him a quick, good-luck kiss. She smiled and sighed happily as she watched him climb into a truck and he drove off. A while after he'd left, Yin was washing some fresh fruits when she heard what sounded like someone walking around upstairs.

"What the...?" she muttered as she walked up the stairs to what was their daughter's room. She gasped at what she saw. A man, standing in the dark corner. It looked like Aaron, only his hair was longer and covered half of his face. She covered her mouth to silence her gasp, be he heard her. They met eyes and he smirked evilly as recognition came back to him. He stepped toward her and she uncovered her mouth. "No," she said. His pace quickened. "No." He was coming down the stairs. Yin couldn't use her Gift to kill him, because she'd burn the house down. She ran to the kitchen for a large steak knife. As she pulled one out of the drawer, she turned around and he was standing there, staring at her. "What the hell?" she asked him breathlessly. "What are you doing back?"

"What, you honestly don't know?" he asked her in Aaron's voice, but with an evil tone. Yin's anger snapped and she yelled as she threw the knife toward him. The knife stuck the in the wall. Evil Aaron had disappeared. A vision maybe? She turned around, and she nearly had a heart attack, as he was suddenly right in front of her. She fell back onto the floor.

"You killed me. Now I will do the same to Aaron, as you watch." She gasped and he laughed evilly. Not knowing what to do, she couldn't take it and screamed at the top of her lungs.

A few miles away.

Aaron was cutting up a tree he had felled for firewood. Then a shrill yell echoed throughout the valley, sending birds scattering. He looked around.

"What the heck was-?" he then used his Gift to look around. It was Yin. "Shit! Yin!" He dropped his laser-powered saw and it deactivated as it hit the ground and he climbed into the truck and he sped back to his house.

The house.

Yin was helpless as Evil Aaron tied her to the chair.

"You shouldn't be back," she said. "Aaron hasn't been mad or angry for 4 days." She winced as Evil Aaron tightened the ropes around her wrists.

"I am not a part of Aaron," he defied.

"Yes you are! You're all in him that's evil!" He grabbed her chin and he stared at her in the eyes.

"I told you before. I am his evil twin." He let go of her chin and he stroked her cheek.

"I have a hard time believing that," she glared at him, trying to move her head away from him. If looks could kill, he'd be long dead by now. Then, there was the sound of an engine coming toward the house.

"Oh, Aaron's here. Right on cue."

"No!" Yin cried. The engine stopped and Aaron charged into the house. He stopped when he came face-to-face with his old evil half.

"Emo Me," he growled.

"Oh come on, why do you still call me that ridiculous name?"

"Because of your stupid hairstyle. Now why the hell are you here? How the hell are you here?"

"I want revenge! I'm gonna kill you and make your wife watch!"

"Aaron!" Yin cried. Aaron looked at her, tied up in the chair and he looked back at his evil half. His anger rising. The evil half laughed.

"Yes! Keep getting angry. I just get stronger," Evil Aaron said. Aaron growled. Evil Aaron charged at him with impossible speed, catching Aaron by surprise. He hit him going so fast, it knocked Aaron into the opposite wall. He fell onto the floor unconscious.

"Aaron!" Yin cried. "No, Aaron!" Evil Aaron groaned and he stepped over to her.

"Oh, shut the hell up!" Evil Aaron complained. He gagged her mouth to get her to stop crying. He then smacked her cheek really hard. Her head reeled to the side. He held her chin up to look her in the eyes. There was anger, sadness, and fear in them. "Now watch as I kill your precious Aaron." He pulled the knife from the wall. She could do nothing as she watched him take the knife and he hovered over Aaron's unconscious body. He was about to plunge it into his back, when the door burst open again. It was a young woman holding two swords. She pointed them at Evil Aaron.

"Drop it!" she yelled. Evil Aaron dropped the knife and he back away. She picked up the knife and she threw it to the opposite wall, where again, it stuck. The woman swung her arms, the swords flying through Evil Aaron causing him to dissipate into nothing in a furious yell. Aaron, still laying on the floor, gasped as his other half returned back into him. He slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position, coughing a few times. The woman walked over to Yin and she pulled the gag off of her mouth. Yin took a few breaths as the ropes were cut. She rubbed her wrists to try to get some feeling back into them. "You alright, Mom?" the young woman asked.

"Yes, Alexis," Yin said. "I'm fine." They hugged each other. Yin then walked over to Aaron. She hugged him, crying as she did so.

"I'm sorry Yin," he said. "I'm sorry. I don't know how he came back."

"I know," she cried. "It wasn't your fault." Alexis came over and hugged them both.

"Good thing I came home just in time," she said.

"I'm so proud of you," Yin said.

"Thanks, Mom."

15: Work

Saturday.

The doorbell on Leaf’s new house rang. During the week, he had moved out of his crummy apartment and he was able to afford a really nice house, especially since that all of his good work with Ken and Zephyr earned him a few well deserved raises. Leaf walked to the door and he opened it. It was Verona. She was smiling and she held a bouquet of roses.

“Hey,” Leaf said.

“Hi, Leaf!” Verona said with a smile. She hugged him. “Ready for our date?”

“Yeah,” he said as he straightened his jacket. Verona wrapped her arm around his and they walked to his car. They were about to get in when they heard the sound of an approaching plane.

“I know that sound,” Verona said. Leaf looked up and he say a weirdly shaped jet come into view. Leaf's house was on a mountain road, so the plane couldn’t land. Instead, it slowed to a hover.

"A hover-jet?!" he asked in disbelief. A ladder dropped down, with a woman holding onto the rungs. It was the same woman who had ordered the blue Zephyr. “You?” Leaf asked her.

“Oh, Leaf, have you met Jeanette before?” Verona asked.

“Yes, we have met before,” Jeanette, the purple-haired woman said.

“What are you doing here?”

“We have a rescue mission to do. That private school that Zephyr's daughter attends, Star High Academy, it’s under attack. Some Pyrokinetic.”

“We have to get there!” Leaf said.

“Calm down, Leaf,” Verona said.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered. They all climbed onto the ladder and they were hoisted up into the plane and the plane moved off. Inside the plane, Leaf looked around. There were computer screens, each showing a different setting or measurement or output. Jeanette sat down in a seat.

“How long a flight, Freya?” she addressed to the pilot.

“Our ETA is 7 minutes,” the female pilot answered. She was about Jeanette's age. She glanced back at Leaf. “Who’s the dude?”

“I’m Leaf Soto,” he told her.

“Welcome aboard, Soto,” she said.

“Thanks,” he said with mild indifference, the same way she welcomed him. She pressed a button and she walked back and sat down in a seat next to him.

“So, what about you?” Freya asked him. He looked at her, eyes slightly wide. “Autopilot.” He nodded. “What can you do?”

“I can absorb energy and dispel it to my liking, and I’m a telepath.”

“Seems interesting,” she said dryly. Leaf was not a fan of her laid-back and dryly rude attitude, but he would have to get used to it. The plan moved through the sky toward their target.

In the school.

The kids were huddled in the corner. A man standing over them. This guy was a monster, with fire coming out of his finger tips. They boys were frozen with fear, the girls crying. Fires were spreading around the building.

“Quiet!” the man said to the kids. He was glad he had chosen this place because of the kids. Their parents were the rich owners of many successful companies. Sapphire, Zephyr's daughter, was one of them. She was holding onto her best friends hand. Her name, Asanti. She had a bad burn on her arm from when a large piece of burning wood fell onto it. Sapphire had taken her blue jacket off and she wrapped it around her arm. That’s when they heard the sound of the jet. It landed just outside the building. The man growled and looked over. “Now what?” He looked back at the children “Stay here!” he commanded. He backed away and with some quick movements of his hands, he surrounded the children with a ring of fire. He stepped outside. The jet was powering down. Three young women and a young man was standing there. He looked at the man. “You.”

“Me?” Leaf asked. The man walked over to him but stopped when Frey drew two sword with inhuman speed. She had them at his neck. One flick of her wrists and he would be decapitated.

“You look like him,” the man went on. “The kid who was there the day Victor died.” Leaf then recognized this man. From a story his father told him. This man was Xane. The pyrokinetic who was with Victor Sol the day he attacked the College of trades. Jeanette stepped forward showing a badge. It was a phoenix crest with a sword on it.

“Xane Blazic, you are hereby under arrest,” she said.

“Under what terms, you-” he asked laughing, but she interrupted.

“Multiple accounts of kidnapping, illegal arson, and damage to private state property.”

“That’s a bunch of bull shit.” Leaf watched as Verona moved forward with lightning speed and she had a collar wrapped around his neck. Leaf later found out what this collar does. It releases a sonic signal that shuts down ones power. Xane tried throwing fire, but nothing happened. He tried to pull off the collar only to have it electrocute him. “What the hell is this thing?”

“That’s not important,” Leaf said with his arms crossed. Jeanette cuffed Xane and Freya put him in the jets prison cell while the others went in and checked on the children. “Are you alright?” he asked them as he put out the fire. Verona and Jeanette were helping the kids to stand. Leaf looked at Sapphire. “Are you alright?” he asked her.

“Yeah,” she said. "Who are you?"

“My name is Leaf. I work for your father."

“Oh really?” she asked.

“Yeah. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Just some scrapes. Asanti was burnt pretty bad though.” She helped Asanti to her feet. Leaf looked at her. She groaned in pain.

“What’s wrong?” Leaf asked her.

“My arm,” she said weakly. Leaf carefully unrolled Sapphire's jacket and he gasped. Asanti had a bad third degree burn on her arm. He clearly saw bone and badly charred skin. Asanti didn’t dare look at her arm. Leaf rolled the jacket back over her arm.

“It’s bad,” he said. “You need to get some medical attention right away.”

“Okay,” Asanti said. He led her to a medic helicopter that had landed. After that, he joined Verona on the jet.

“So what exactly do you call that?” he asked her.

“Work,” Verona said with a half smile. “The pay is shit, though.”

16: Mom is Sick

After the jet dropped Leaf and Verona off at his house, it cloaked and left. Leaf kissed Verona. She blushed and looked at him questioningly. He smiled and she kissed him back.

“Let’s take this… inside,” she said seductively. Leaf smirked.

“Aw, you really do know me don’t you?”

The next day.

Leaf was at work, he was in his office when the video phone rang. He pressed the icon to answer the call. It was Mercedes.

“Leaf you have a visitor,” she said with a small smile. Leaf saw Dakota in the background.

“Send her up,” he said and Mercedes nodded. Dakota walked up to Leaf's office and she gave him a sister hug.

“Onii-chan!” she said happily.

“Oh, you and your anime,” Leaf said with a light laugh.

“I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Me neither. So why’d you stop by?” She let go of him and her eyes began to tear over, and she started to cry. “Hey, hey,” Leaf said, surprised at her sudden outburst of tears, “come on, Dakota, what’s wrong?” He let go of her and she leaned on his shoulder. She looked up at him.

“It’s Mom. She’s… she’s sick. Really sick a-and… and I-I’m scared she might...die.” Leaf's eyes widened in horror. He pulled out his cell phone and he pressed an icon. He waited as the phone rang.

“Leaf?” came a weak voice. He sighed silently. She was still alive.

“Mom?” he asked.

“Oh. Did Dakota tell you? She said she was going to tell you.”

“Yeah. She’s here.” Dakota suddenly took his phone out of his hand.

“Mommy!?” she asked frantically.

“Yes, sweetheart, I’m here.”

“Oh, thank God!”

“Come visit me again...and bring Leaf with you.”

“I will Mommy!” Dakota said. She hung up and grabbed Leaf. “Come on.”

Later, at the hospital.

Leaf and Dakota walked into the room.

“Mommy!” Dakota cried. She carefully hugged her mother, who was lying in a hospital bed. She looked pale and sickly, her heart beat slow and weak. Leaf gave her a hug as well.

“Mom, what’s wrong with you?” Leaf asked her, his face showing concern.

“They… they don’t know, dear,” she breathed tiredly.

“Mom,” Leaf said. She looked up at him. “You will stay alive. Don’t you dare think that you can go off and die on us.” He looked as if he might cry. Suzy smiled weakly.

“I won’t baby… I promise.”

“Where’s Dad?”

“He’s out driving somewhere. To relieve his stress.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know dear… you may just have to ask him yourself.”

“He should be here.”

“Yeah,” Dakota agreed. “Why isn’t Daddy here?”

“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him yourself when he comes back,” Suzy said tiredly.

“Wh-When will that be?”

“I don’t know. Knowing your father it could be a while.”

“Why?”

“Dakota, calm down,” Leaf said, hugging her.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see you die.”

“I won’t die. I promise,” Suzy exhaled.

“Okay, Mommy.” Dakota and Leaf gave their mother one last hug and they left, as Suzy had fallen asleep. Leaf walked Dakota to his car. Leaf drove home. Dakota looked at him. He looked angry and tense. He was driving faster than the speed limit.

“Leaf, slow down,” she said quietly. Leaf didn’t respond. “Leaf, slow the hell down!” He braked for a red light. “Leaf,” she sniffled, “you’re scaring me.” The light went green and Leaf floored it through the intersection. She gave a defeated sigh, knowing she couldn’t do anything. Leaf arrived home. Dakota got her bag from the back of the car and she walked inside. She placed her bag in the empty room down the hall from Leaf's room. She opened the door a crack and she saw him lying down on the bed. “Leaf?” she whispered, “are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” he stated angrily. He was obviously upset about his mother. Dakota began to cry quietly and she closed the door. She walked down the hall to her room and she sat on the bed. She wiped her eyes. She rested her head in her hands and she cried. She heard a soft knock on her door a few minutes later. She looked up and she found herself looking into the concerned purple eyes of Verona. She wiped her eyes.

“Who are you?” she asked. Verona smiled and walked into the room.

“My name is Verona. I’m Leaf's girlfriend,” she said.

“Oh. I’m his twin sister,” Dakota said sadly.

“I know. He’s told me a lot about you,” Verona said as she sat next to her. “So what’s the matter?”

“Our Mom is sick in the hospital. Leaf is obviously very worried about her.”

“Yeah?”

“And… and the way he acts… it scares me. I don't like to see him like that.” She cried some more. Verona gave her a caring hug.

“I know. It scares me too,” Verona said soothingly. Dakota's crying slowly subsided. “I don’t like to see him like that either.”

“I wouldn’t try talking to him for a while.”

“Okay, alright.”

“It was lovely to meet you,” Dakota said after a while.

“Yeah, same here,” Verona said with a warm smile.

17: Shadows Below Her

In the Oval Office, the President was busy with a video meeting with some ambassadors from another country, talking about an oil shortage.

“We’re reaching the brink of our oil supply,” the delegates stated to the woman in the chair behind the desk, President Cassandra Wheeler.

“What are you doing to prevent this?” Cassandra asked.

“We must raise prices.” President Wheeler thought for a moment.

“Have you tried digging elsewhere?”

“Not yet, but in order to do so, we must raise our taxes and prices on our oil and exports.” Ms. Wheeler sighed.

“I’m sorry, I can’t work with that. Not with the way the-"

“But Madame Wheeler, it’s the only option.” Cassandra thought for a few moments, then she sighed.

“I’m sorry. You’ll have to call back later.”

“Y… yes Madame Wheeler.” Then the video call cut out. Cass sighed and groaned, rubbing her temples.

“Someone please get me a diet soda,” she said to her guards. One guard left and briskly returned with a can.

“What are you going to do, Ms. Wheeler?” a state representative who witnessed the call asked her as she opened the can.

“I don’t know, but if I don’t make a choice soon, things will get really messed up. God, I’ll be the worst president this country has ever had since Trump.”

“I don’t know about that, Madame. I mean he was-"

“-Face it," she cut him off with a wave of her hand. "I’m not cut out for this. I’m only 38, and the stress is killing me. I’ve got grey hairs, and I’m not even married!”

“Don’t worry, your term is nearly over.”

“Next year…”

“Election day. You can wait until then, or you could resign.”

“What, and let Sharpe take over? Are you insane? He’s a madman! Have you seen his ridiculous plans and statements?”

“Uh… not personally, no.”

“God, I may have to take a second term just to keep him from becoming president. All he wants to do is make peace treaties with other countries.” She sighed as she knew that there was something else Sharpe had talked about, something very, very bad.

“Well, maybe that’s the world we’re in nowadays.” There was an uncomfortable pause.

“Get out of my office.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, quickly walking out of the office.

A house somewhere in West Coast.

“Daddy! Daddy!” the little girl ran through the house.

“Faye, slow down!” the girl's mother scolded.

“Mommy, where’s Daddy?” Faye asked. She looked just like her father, with the white hair and the silver eyes.

“Dad’s busy right now. He’s talking on the phone.” Faye ran around and into another room. Sure enough, her Dad was there.

“Daddy!”

“I’ll have to call you back,” her father said to the video screen. He picked up his daughter. “Faye, what is it?”

“Dan, is she bothering you?” Florida asked, coming into the room.

“No, it’s alright. What do you want, Faye?”

“Ciel is being mean to me again!” Faye said.

“What?”

“Mm-hm.” She nodded, wiping fake tears from her eyes. “He hit me!” Dan looked at Florida for help. She sighed, and walked off to find her son.

“Ciel! Where are you?” she called out.

“I’m up here, Mom,” he said from the top of the stairs.

“Get down here! Now!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“I don’t care! Get down here!” Her son, who had the same looks as her, with pink hair, only a slightly darker shade, and the light blue eyes, as well as the Irish accent.

"I didn't do anything!" he said, defending himself. "She's faking the whole bloody thing!"

"Alright," Dan said in a strict tone, getting full obedience from his children. "What happened?"

"Ciel hit me!" Faye cried.

"She's lying!" Ciel said. "I never touched her!"

"Faye, are you lying?" Florida asked her daughter.

"No!" the little girl defended. "See?" she pointed to the red spot on her cheek. Dan's phone vibrated in his pocket. It was a text message from Aaron, with what had really happened.

"What is it?"

"Aaron says that Faye is lying," Dan said.

"He's not even here!" Faye cried. "How could he know?!"

"I told you before," Dan stated matter-of-factly, "Uncle Aaron knows everything."

"But-but-"

"Faye stop," Florida commanded. "Go to your room for 10 minutes." Faye burst into tears before running up the stairs.

"See, I told you" Ciel muttered.

"Do you want to be punished too?"

"No."

"Than don't talk back to me like that."

"Yes Mom."

18: The Billionaire's Daughter

The following day, Zephyr was in his office overlooking the production of vehicles, in complete silence, so quiet in fact, that when his phone rang, it startled him slightly. He walked over to the video screen to see Mercedes.

"Sir," she said after a brief moment, "Sapphire is here. Should I send her up?"

"Sure," he responded. A minute later, the door to his office opened, revealing a young, 14 year-old girl with long blue hair and similarly colored eyes. Her name was Sapphire not for her eyes, but her hair, which was its rich blue since the day she was born.

"Hey, Daddy," she said, not looking up from the screen of her phone.

"How's school going?" he asked, sitting in his luxurious chair.

"It's been fine, since we've moved schools for the renovation."

"How has that gone?"

"I said it was fine."

"Sapphire, your school was attacked the other day. It's only obvious that I would worry about you." She then looked up from her phone.

"Dad, you seem to have forgotten, I was the one who came here."

"Okay, I see your point. Did you want something, dear?"

"An increase in my allowance."

"What? Sapphire, you earn $10,000 a week. I'm not going to increase your allowance."

"Why not?" she demanded with a stomp of her elegant shoe, her cheek puffed out.

"Because I'm your father, and I said so."

"Hmph," she pouted. "Mom would've given me more money."

"Well I'm sorry, your mother isn't here."

"Fine. I'm going home." Sapphire turned and walked out of the room before Zephyr could say anything more. She walked back down stairs and outside into the back seat of a Maybach 62S that Zephyr had specially made. The driver, Sebastian, who was also the butler, drove the car away.

"Home, Lady Sapphire?" he inquired from the driver's seat.

"Yes," she replied. He drove on home, the large mansion atop the highest hills above the West Coast city. Sebastian parked the car in front and opened the door for her to climb out. Sapphire walked up the front steps and into the front room. Her personal hand-maid was the first to greet her.

"Welcome home, Lady Sapphire," she said.

"Thank you Danielle. Is Mom here?"

"Yes, My Lady. She is upstairs in her office."

"Take me to her." Sapphire followed Danielle to her mother's office and Danielle knocked on the door.

"Madame Vriscoti?" she asked, calling her by her last name.

"Yes Danielle, what is it?" Jaesyn asked, opening the door. "Oh. Sapphire, you're home."

"Mom, can I come in?" Sapphire asked.

"Why?"

"I need to talk with you privately."

"Of course." Sapphire walked into the room. "Thank you, Danielle."

"Yes, Madame," she said with a bow, closing the door behind her and walking off to do some other chore.

"So, Saph, what did you want?" Jaesyn asked as she sat on her chair casually.

"Daddy won't increase my allowance," she complained.

"Is that why you went to see him?"

"Yeah."

"Sweetheart, that wasn't very smart. You know how busy he is during his work hours."

"I know, but I want more allowance money."

"Sapphire, you get paid-"

"I want more!"

"Okay!" Jaesyn said, having been capitulated. "Let me think for a minute." She thought to herself for a minute before coming up with an idea. "Alright. If you help Danielle with her daily chores tomorrow, from the moment you get up to the moment to go to bed, then I'll increase it to $15,000 a week. Sound good?"

"But I don't want to do chores!"

"Sapphire, if you don't help Danielle, then you won't see an increase in your allowance."

"Ugh, fine."

The Next Day.

Sapphire was asleep on her bed under the lush blankets when Danielle walked into the room silently and opened the curtains. Sapphire was awoken by the sudden roomful of sunlight.

"Wake up, Lady Sapphire," Danielle said. Sapphire groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes. She stretched her arms upward and yawned. "I heard you want an increase in your allowance, My Lady?"

"When did you hear that?!" Sapphire raged, suddenly very awake.

"Nevertheless, I understand that to have your wish fulfilled, you must help me with my daily chores." Sapphire growled as Danielle ignored her question.

"You better not make me do too much work."

"My Lady," she said with a slight smirk, "since you're always away, you have no idea what I do here." Sapphire gulped out of fear, and she could almost hear the montage music in her head. "First chore," Danielle declared, "is prepare My Lady ready for the day."

"I can do this myself!" Sapphire said, picking out some clothes and stepping behind a privacy wall.

"This is one of only 490 of my daily chores," Danielle informed, causing Sapphire to nearly have a heart attack.

"490?!" she breathed to herself. Danielle dragged Sapphire out of her room when she was done getting dressed.

"Next chore: prepare breakfast for My Lady."

"Alright. How do I do that?" Danielle led her to the kitchen and she laid out all the ingredients for a good morning's breakfast. Bacon, eggs, potatoes, some fruit, bread, muffin mix, as well as many other foods.

"It depends on what you want for breakfast." After an hour or so, Sapphire was able to Frankenstein together a meager breakfast of burnt toast and floppy egg omelets. "Are you really going to eat it?"

"Do I?"

"It's your breakfast. Don't let it go to waste." Sapphire prepared the table and sat down with her poor breakfast. It was the most disgusting thing she had ever eaten. After breakfast, it was time to clean the kitchen and dining room. That included wearing an apron and gloves to clean the dishes. After another 20 minutes, Sapphire was leaning on the counter top, breathing heavily.

"Are we done yet?"

"5 chores have been completed, My Lady," Danielle said. "485 to go."

"Dammit."

"You really shouldn't swear, My Lady. It's highly unfashionable and not-at-all lady-like."

"Whatever Danielle. What's next?" Next was vacuuming the rugs and carpets in the hallways, then dusting the antiques. After that was done, it was time to head into the back courtyard to sweep and clean, then it was into the gardens to trim the plants and pull weeds, after that it was time to check the water filters in the fountains. After the back gardens and the courtyard were spotless and flawless, it was lunch time. Sapphire tried cooking again, but only made a large mess. The one thing she could do was heat up leftovers in the microwave.

After lunch, it was time to vacuum and dust the individual rooms throughout the mansion. It was way after dusk in the mid-evening when the final chore was finished, cleaning Danielle's personal quarters.

"That is everything, My Lady," Danielle declared triumphantly.

"Thank God!" Sapphire breathed. "I'm so tired." She fell back onto the lush carpet.

"I will inform Madame Vriscoti about your help today," Danielle said, as she was straightening a few things in her room. She looked back down at Sapphire only to find her fast asleep. Danielle laughed softly and picked her up. She carried her back to her bedroom and she lay her down on the bed and pulled the blankets over her. "I hope this was a humbling experience for you, My Lady," she said softly to herself as she touched the wick of the candle on the bedside nightstand with her finger, and it lit.

19: More Work, Because He's Back

After Leaf left Valhedron, and Verona was waiting for him, her phone began to ring.

"What is it?" she asked.

"We need you two to come in," Jeanette said from the other side.

"Alright." They went in and found Jeanette waiting for them in the jet hangar.

"What is it?" Leaf asked her.

"We have reports on a sighting of a certain... shall we say, person."

"On who?"

"Victor," a voice behind him said. Leaf and Verona turned and saw President Wheeler and an older man standing next to her.

"Oh, Director Wheeler," Verona said as she gave a salute to the blond-haired, blue-eyed man.

"Director Wheeler?" Leaf asked.

"Yes," the man said. "I am the director of this establishment. President Wheeler is my younger sister."

"Oh, so you're Duncan Wheeler then?" Leaf asked, having remembered the story that Cassandra had told him back when he was little.

"Yes I am." Leaf shook his hand.

"It's an honor to meet you sir. I'm Leaf Soto."

"Rikki's kid, right?"

"Yes sir."

"Alrighty then, now that we have the introductions out of the way we can continue on with business. You remember the story of Victor Sol, I'm sure."

"Of course, sir."

"Well, we have a few reported sightings of him. Even though I know he was killed that day, 23 years ago."

"So what, he's come back to life?"

"Somehow he's been brought back, but how, we haven't the slightest clue. It seems as if we'll have to go to war with him once again. This was something we were all hoping to avoid, but it seems as if we may not have a choice in the matter."

"Does Jack Trades know about this?"

"Everyone who was involved with him 23 years ago have already been notified, including your parents." Then, Director Wheeler's watch beeped. "There's just been another sighting. 44 kilometers away." Leaf, Jeanette, Verona, and the Director headed for the main headquarters where the picture of his sighting was displayed on the large holographic screens. It was from some hidden camera that showed a blurry Victor Sol with two other people. One looked like a younger man and the other a younger woman. But it was Victor that was the most fear-wrenching. He seemed to have half-biotic body with a red, robotic eye, that was the only color in the photo, and he appeared to be looking directly at them. Leaf felt a shiver fall down his spine.

"Damn," he muttered. Then there was more beeping, and the screens displayed what appeared to be an audio message.

"An audio file?" one of the agents asked in surprise. "From Victor?!"

"Play it," the Director ordered.

"Yes sir," she said as the room quieted.

"Hello there," Victor's robotic voice filled the room. "I know that you agents of the Gifted Order are listening to this. Yes, I am Victor Sol, and I can confirm that I have returned. I will destroy you, and everyone you all hold dear. I have come back, to conquer the world and to take back what was mine. But this time, I won't do it alone. I have my son with me." Everyone felt real fear now. Not only was the most evil person in the Gifted world back, but he had a son with him. "Together, we will take over the world, and have the humans serve our Gifted World."

"Are we tracing him?" the Director asked.

"We're trying to sir!" the woman said from the computer screens. "But he's heavily encrypted. It'll take a while, even with our computer power."

"Don't try to trace me. You'll only destroy yourselves," Victor's voice ended. There was a moment of silence and shock before anything productive happened.

"Send a message out to all branches of the Gifted Order. Victor Sol has declared war on us. If he wants war, he'll get it." Little did anyone know at the time, that this choice Victor had made, would change their fates beyond their comprehension.

20: How He's Here

Victor sat down in his chair at the center of his underground complex he was hiding in, with everything he would need to carry out his plan.

"What do we do now, Father?" his son asked. His son was the spitting image of him. He had his pale, gray skin, red eyes, topped hair the color the black holes in deep space.

"Slade," Victor said to his son. "Now, we wait. We must bide our time. Knowing the Gifted Order, they may come for us. All we have to do is wait, and they'll come to us." Then, the young woman walked into the room, bowing before them. "Good work, Sia."

"Thank you sir," she responded. Sia was in her early 20's, her eyes a bold blue, her long hair the color of the purest blood, flowing past her shoulders.

"I didn't say you could speak." Sia cringed. A punishment however, was nonexistent, unlike other times. She was cause of Victor's return. She was the one who had brought him back. She was the strongest, yet only, biological-technopath. Her brain itself was half an artificial supercomputer. "Sia," Victor spoke again. "I am assigning you to your next mission." She gave a meek nod in acknowledgement. "You will infiltrate the Gifted Order as an agent. You are ordered to take them out, by whatever means necessary. Understand?"

"Yes sir," she squeaked. An insane smirk crossed the rebuilt man's face.

"Good. Now go." She nodded again and left the room.

Meanwhile, in the Gifted Order.

Leaf and Verona were following Jeanette through the building, at a rapid pace.

"Where are we going?" Verona asked her.

"We're going to have a massive increase in new trainees. The Director is wanting to have the largest force against Victor as possible, without involving our European and Asian Divisions," Jeanette responded. "We're going to be very overworked."

"What about me?" Leaf asked. "I have another job."

"I know. The Director may need you here-" she was interrupted by an incoming call from a higher-up. She pressed the button on her ear-piece. "Yes?" she asked, then went silent as she listened. "Affirmative," she responded after a moment. She turned back to Leaf. "The Director says that though you're technically a trainee too, you can work at Valhedron if you need to. I'm sure Zephyr pays better than we do anyway," she finished with a slight smirk.

"True. But if I'm a trainee then does-"

"Yep. You'll be enrolled in the Trainee Agent Program. Study hard, and you may catch up to Verona and I by the time this is all over." She led them to the Trainee wing, where the classroom and training courses were held. There, she gave Leaf his official Gifted Order Trainee Agent badge. "This I.D. is also your key to get around here. But we can go places you can't quite yet. When's the next time you have to work at Valhedron?"

"I have to go in tomorrow, but I'm free Friday and the weekend."

"Be here then, and you'll begin your training."

"Alright. I'll be here."

That Friday.

Leaf walked into his assigned classroom. At first, the training began as classroom work, then onto Gift training if one needed it, and finally out onto field training. Since Leaf already had total control over his Gifts, he was allowed to skip the second part. But in the classroom, he was assigned into a group. It was him, another young man, and two young woman. A group of four, two and two. That's how the program was.

"Alright," the teacher, Jeanette who was slightly flustered for having to teach the class Leaf was in, said. "I'm Ms. Coulson, I'll be your Gifted Order Trainee Agent instructor, in the classroom anyway. Now that you have all been assigned to your groups, I want each member to introduce yourselves to each other." Since no one in Leaf's group did anything while the others started introductions, Leaf stood up.

"Hello," he said as nicely as he could without showing his slight nervousness. "My name is Leaf Soto. I am a telepath and energy-absorber." The girls were then quite intrigued.

"Cool, you're two-in-one," the white-haired girl said in a Scottish accent. "My name's Laura Scottsondale. My Gift comes from these rings I have. Whichever one I wear will be what sort of Gift I can do. So far, I only have rings that are elementally based. I have fire, water and ice, wind and air, and, gravity and pressure."

"Very nice," Leaf complimented. He looked at the other girl who blushed and looked away. "What about you?"

"Oh," she said in a soft, Italian voice. "I um... I'm Johanna. Johanna Jossotti. I have fire and heat-based Gifts."

"Like what kind of fire and heat?" the other boy asked. He had black hair and red eyes. His voice sounded heavily northern, almost Canadian.

"Um well," Johanna went on, "the Italian secret police code-named me Supernova, so, um..."

"You don't have to tell us everything," Leaf said. "That's enough for now."

"Oh. Well, you're welcome, then," she said, bowing in her chair.

"So what about you?" Leaf asked the other boy.

"My name's Alec Depp. My Gift is that I can shoot blasts made of dark energy."

"Care to demonstrate?" Laura asked. Alec brought his hand up and created a baseball-sized orb of this dark energy. "Ooh. That's electronegative matter! That is a very rare Gift."

"Maybe that's why it's rare. Because people like me are experimented on for science or some shit."

"We are to keep our language to an appropriate level in this room," Jeanette said, coming up behind him and smacking the back of Alec's head with a ruler.

"Ow!" he said, rubbing his head.

21: The New Trainee

After a few days.

Leaf walked into the classroom. He still wasn't a fully certified field agent yet. He found Jeanette and the rest of his group already in the room.

"What's going on?" he asked. "We having a party?"

"No," Jeanette said. "I will be assigning your group a fifth member."

"Why?" Alec asked. Jeanette brought them into a huddle.

"Because I just have this gut feeling, ya know?"

"They aren't who they say they are?" Verona guessed.

"Yeah," Jeanette answered.

"What's going on, Ms. Coulson?" a voice asked. Everyone turned and Leaf looked into the blue eyes of a beautiful, young woman. She had long, bright red hair, bold, blue eyes, a fair face mildly peppered with just the right amount of freckles, and the smoothest British accent he had ever heard. Leaf turned away to avoid staring.

"Nothing," Jeanette lied. "I'd like you to meet your team. This is Leaf, Verona, Alec, Laura, and Johanna."

"It's nice to meet you all," the Brit said. "My name is Sia Shelby."

"Since Ms. Shelby came into the program late, I want you all to get her caught up. Understand?"

"Yes Ma'am," they replied. Class later began and Jeanette went over the lesson from yesterday, how to use the Order's computer system as a trainee agent. After nearly two hours, she gave the class a 15-minute break.

"So what kind of Gift do you have?" Leaf asked Sia. She blushed and avoided his eyes.

"I uh... I don't really like to say," she answered.

"Let me guess," Alec said, "you shape-shift into some sort of alien or something?"

"Bloody hell no!" Sia snapped. She paused for a moment after realizing everyone was staring at her with slightly worried expressions. "Sorry."

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Leaf said. "It's alright with me."

"Um... Leaf, why are you so friendly to me?"

"I am with everyone," Leaf answered. "My father has a friend who's British too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Although she didn't get along with my Aunt Florida. She's Irish."

"That figures," Laura said with a wry smirk. "Irish people are impossible to get along with."

"I didn't know you were Scottish," Sia said.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Really, it's fine though."

"Cool. Friends?" Laura offered Sia her hand.

"Uh, sure," Sia said, blushing slightly and meeting the gesture.

"Alright everyone, back in class," Jeanette said.

Later that afternoon.

The trainee students walked out of the HQ. Leaf noticed that some other trainees were using their Gifts as water manipulators to help clean the HQ's surrounding walls of some graffiti.

"Some people don't approve of Gifted people," Verona told him, as she noticed him looking at the swears and other rather inappropriate language written on the wall.

"Oh really?" Leaf asked.

"Yeah."

"Are they un-Gifted humans?" Verona didn't respond, but she nodded after a few moments, her face toward the ground. She then hugged Leaf's arm. Leaf raised his eyebrows in question, but she did nothing.

"There's been a lot of tension between the Gifted and un-Gifted for a long time now."

"I know."

"That's nice." She looked at him. "So I guess you can understand why I get nervous in big cities like this, especially when I'm alone." Leaf stopped and hugged her.

"Yeah, yeah of course. I love you Verona. I really do, and I'll do anything to protect you. Nothing will hurt you so long as I'm around. Okay?"

"Okay. Thanks... Babe." She then kissed him on the cheek. "Come on, let's go home." They continued to walk toward Leaf's car, not noticing the one lurking in the shadows across the street.

22: Training

The following Monday.

"Alright," Jeanette said to the class. "You've all passed your exams for classwork, now for some of you, it's onto field training. You'll be placed in rooms specifically designed to test your abilities." For Leaf, he wouldn't need to practice because he already had full control of his Gift, as did everyone else in his group, aside from Johanna. She was nervous all the way to the training room.

"Are you sure I won't burn down the place?" she asked with strong apprehension.

"Don't worry," Jeanette told her with a confident smirk. "These walls can take temperatures of up to 5,200 degrees."

"Celsius?"

"Kelvin."

"Oh."

"Johanna, just how hot is your fire?" Leaf asked, surprised that she could generate such heat.

"Well, theoretically speaking, if I wanted to, I could melt the entire planet," she explained with a sheepish laugh.

"Wow," Laura breathed. "That's nearly the temperature of the core."

"Yeah," Sia agreed. "Remind me to never make you mad."

"Non ci piove!" Johanna said in Italian, causing everyone to give her a blank expression. "That pretty much means 'no doubt about it'. Why else was I called Supernova?"

"Ah," Leaf said.

"Okay, enough chit-chat," Jeanette said. "Johanna, get in there and show us what you can do."

"Y-Yes," she said stepping into the big empty room. She walked to the middle and took a deep breath. Closing her hands together, she focused her energy and a ball of heated energy formed between her hands and gradually grew in size. Everyone watched in amazement from behind the glass. Johanna's eyes glowed a bright orange as she concentrated more.

"Incredible," Laura said.

"Damn," Verona muttered. "She's so powerful."

"Whatever. I can do that in my sleep," Alec said.

"Shut up," Laura said, slapping his arm.

"Look, she's got it to the size of a football," Sia said. The entire room was already enveloped in a full orange glow.

"Good," Jeanette said, taking notes on her tablet. Johanna kept at it until it became the size of a large beach ball. "You're doing good, Johanna." Suddenly, it grew much larger to the size of an SUV. Johanna looked like she was struggling. Jeanette pressed the intercom button on the glass. "Johanna, back off!" Johanna cried out as the ball of heat forced her hands apart and exploded in a cloud of smoke. Overhead sprinklers were activated and Jeanette opened the door and ran inside. Johanna was knocked back onto the floor.

"I'm alright," she said with a cough. "I'm alright."

"Are you?" Jeanette asked.

"Yeah... I think so." Jeanette gave her a wry smile.

"At least you're up and talking. Come on." She helped pull her up and Leaf came in and brought up her other arm to help her stand.

"Johanna your power is incredible," he said.

"Thanks," she laughed lightly. "But I knew I was giving it too much."

"Yeah, these walls are burnt," Jeanette said. "We'll have to get maintenance down here."

"I don't have to pay for it, do I?" Johanna asked. Jeanette answered by laughing and shaking her head.

"Either way," Leaf told her when they arrived at the medical wing. "You'll have a lot of practice to make up."

"Si. I will." She laid down on the bed while a nurse cleaned the soot off and put some medicine on some burns. "Leaf, I'll see you later, alright?"

"Alright," he said with a smile. He walked out of the room, leaving the nurse to her work, and Johanna to her rest.

Later that night.

Leaf got a call from Jeanette.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she said back with a relaxed smile, as she too, was apparently home. "I just got word from the infirmary. Johanna's all healed up and resting."

"That's good."

"She should be back in training the day after tomorrow."

"That's good. You know, seeing her Gift, it kind of reminded me of someone."

"Oh? Of who?"

"A friend of my dad's, Yin Harmony. Apparently she can create infernos the size of F-5 tornadoes."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. You think she should come down and spar with Johanna?"

"Mm," she said unsurely. "I don't know. I don't want things to get out of control..."

"I know, I mean it was just this stupid idea I had so..."

"I know, but... maybe I'll talk with the higher-ups, and see what they think about it."

"Oh alright."

"Okay. See you tomorrow Leaf."

"You too."

23: Threatening Losses

One night, a few weeks later, Leaf and Verona drove home, to the house Leaf lived in, up in the hills just above the city. They walked inside.

"I'll prepare dinner," Leaf said. "What do you want?"

"Surprise me," Verona said. Then she gasped softly and began to search her pockets.

"What is it? You forget something?"

"Yeah, where's my phone?" She checked every one of her pockets. "Shit, where is it? I'm gonna check the car." Leaf nodded and tossed her the keys. She walked to the front door. "Just go ahead and make dinner."

"Alright, tell me if you need help," he said as he walked into the kitchen and washed his hands. Verona checked every possible place in the car, but still couldn't find her phone.

"Damn it," she huffed. "I must have left it back at the HQ." She walked back inside. Leaf looked up from the stove, where he had just placed a pizza in."I'm gonna go run back to the HQ. I'll be back in a while."

"Wait, will you be alright?" Leaf asked remembering their conversation from earlier.

"Leaf, don't worry. I'll only be gone for ten minutes, I'm sure I'll be fine."

"Okay. Call me when you find your phone, okay?"

"Okay Babe, I will." She hugged and kissed him before she walked out the door and back into the car. Leaf watched as he could see the headlight beams through the windows and they then moved away and disappeared. While the pizza was cooking, Leaf decided to call Verona's phone, but he couldn't hear it ringing.

In the city.

The one from the shadows earlier held a cell phone that had begun to vibrate as it received a call. The one who held it hostage looked at the screen, seeing the picture of Leaf. The phone's captor smirked evilly as the light from the screen lit up their fair and flawless face, framed by long, red hair.

"Looking for something?" she asked aloud with a perfect British accent. She then noticed the car coming up to the HQ's front gate. "Or Someone." The car was let through by the guard, and she made her move, by walking across the street, each lamp post going out before she walked into their revealing light. The guard at the gate looked over, seeing darkness moving toward him, as lights were disappearing. His hand on his holstered gun, he peered out into the darkness. Then, the gate began to lift up. He gasped and turned around, wondering why the gate was disobeying his push-button commands. Then, the girl appeared in the darkness as the lights at the gate went out. The guard stepped back, and the arm of the gate fell, crushing most of his skull as it fell down to its lowered level, killing him. The gate then raised again, to let the woman walk through.

Verona couldn't find her phone in her office or the trainee classroom, so she walked back outside, only to see the dead man by the gate.

"What the f-?!" she asked in disbelief. Knowing she had to leave, she ran back to the car and started it. She threw it in reverse, and drove toward the gate, only to have the car shut off and swerve left, hitting the gate and destroying it. The airbags deployed, and Verona was left shaken up and almost unconscious, bleeding from a cut on her forehead. "What the hell?" she asked woozily. "What's... going on?" She tried to get out of the car, but the dashboard had been dislodged from the firewall and had pinned her legs. That's when the woman walked over, the door falling off. Verona looked at her with blurring and revolving vision. "Who... S... Sia?" Sia had the same evilly insane expression on her face, as she held up Verona's phone.

"Looking for this?" she asked.

"Wh-what? How'd...?" Verona got angry and tried to reach out for her.

"I'm a technopath. I shut your car down with my mind. Looks like there was a lot of electronic stuff for me to beat you up with in there."

"Wh-why are you... doing this?"

"My boss needs you, and that's all I can say." Tears fell down Verona's blood-covered face, as her vision of Sia laughing faded and she passed out.

Leaf was too late. All that was left was the body of the dead guard and his totaled Ford Focus. Verona was nowhere to be found in the area.

24: Plans for Retrieval

Leaf paced his office. He was at Valhedron, while the other Agents were at the HQ, coming up with a plan to find Verona and bring her home. No one knew what had happened or why it happened. The only ones who would know what happened, was either Verona herself and who or whatever took her. Jeanette called Leaf every once in a while with whatever little update she could give him, but nothing really helped.

"If this is serious," Zephyr said, "Then you should take a leave until you find her. You can't work like this." Leaf looked at his billionaire boss.

"No, it's okay," Leaf said. "I have friends in the authorities out looking for her right now." He took a few deep breaths. "Sorry, I just... needed a few minutes. What did you want me to work on?"

"Meet up with Ken. I'm sure you've both been working on something good for us these past few days."

"Yes sir," he said as he walked down to the design lab.

"Hey," Ken said. "I heard what happened."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. I hope she's alright." Ken continued to finish the sketch he was working on. "So what have you been working on? Anything cool?"

"Not really. I haven't been drawing for about a week or so."

"Alright then. Here," he sent a sketch to Leaf's computer screen. "What do you think about this? I've been toying with this shootingbrake design for a few days." Leaf studied the sketch, before erasing some lines for the tail-lights and redrawing them.

"How about we make these bigger, and the exhaust pipe squared to fit with the shape of the body."

"Huh, I never thought to do it like that. How about a fog-light at the bottom as well?"

"Maybe. Sure."

In the Gifted Order HQ.

Director Wheeler had Jeanette and her team of higher-ups working as hard as they could.

"Any luck?" he asked her.

"No sir, but we have a good idea who took her."

"Trainee Agent Shelby."

"Yes sir. She has yet to show up for questioning."

"Alright. Concentrate all assignments toward finding Shelby."

"We have some Agents on their way to her home as we speak."

"Good. Drag her here in chains if you have to."

Sia's house.

Sia was in her home, acting normal. Then there was a knock at the door. She answered and was met with the glaring eyes of her fellow Trainee Agents.

"Oh, it's you guys," she said. "What's going on?"

"Verona's been missing for 18 hours now, and you haven't done anything to help us," Laura answered.

"Oh no, what happened?"

"We don't know, but the Director has asked that you come to HQ with us."

"Oh, uh... okay. Wait, you're not suspecting me of doing this, are you?"

"I didn't say that, I said that the Director-"

"I bloody know! I'll come with you."

"Good," Laura said as Alec cuffed Sia.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing Alec?!"

"Following orders," he replied with a strange tone that seemed to be between glum and not-caring.

"But I didn't do anything to her!"

At the HQ.

Sia was in a solitary room, cuffed to the table, while she was being eyed down by the Director.

"Sir... I didn't do anything," Sia said. "I'm sorry I didn't show up, or answer my phone. I'm having problems with it. But I swear that I didn't do anything to Verona! I'm just as worried as the others are!" The Director still stared at her.

"Our cameras that were facing the area were each knocked out at the time of the attack. We inspected them and found no physical damage. You are the only one registered with a Gift that can do this, with your Tele-technopathic abilities. This is why you are our current prime suspect."

"But someone could have hacked the system."

"Our system is self-sustaining and is completely unhackable. It would take the supercomputers from the most powerful countries thousands of years just to hack into the building's systems let alone the cameras. It's not looking too good for you Sia. You were seen with Verona's cell phone. Why would you have her cell phone?"

"She must have dropped it or left it behind and I was going to give it back to her."

"But you were seen with her many times yesterday, and therefore had plenty of opportunities to give it back to her. So why'd you keep it? Unless you were trying to draw her to you alone." Sia looked down guiltily.

"I.. I'm sorry," she said in a small voice. "I was just too shy to speak up."

"Sia?" She looked up. "Those cuffs you're currently wearing are connected to a highly accurate lie detector." Sia showed no sign of any sort of response. "Which has apparently not been functioning. You're shutting it down, aren't you?" Sia's face darkened as she lowered her head. "Where is Verona Satinfire?" There was a long pause, then Sia's shoulders shook as she began to laugh, the same maniacal laugh and expression she showed when she attacked Verona. Director Wheeler simply raised an eyebrow.

"Damn it," she said after she calmed down. "I was too bloody stupid and I messed up." She laughed again. "I can't believe I let myself get caught. But it doesn't matter. By now, your precious Agent Satinfire is now working for Victor Sol! And she isn't going to be coming back. Not alive anyway."

"I'd watch what you say Sia Shelby," Wheeler said. "This entire interrogation has been broadcasted to every Agent in the HQ." Sia gave him a confused expression and then Leaf came storming in, having been notified of Sia's capture. He glared at her with a look of complete hatred.

"You bitch!" he yelled at her, as he walked over and picked her up by the collar of her shirt and began to punch her in the face. "What the hell did you do to Verona?!" Sia cried out with each hard hit. Wheeler just watched and Laura came running into the room.

"Leaf stop!" she cried, grabbing his arm and holding him back. Leaf pulled out of her grasp with a cry, and he gasped, looking at his bloody knuckles, which wasn't his blood. Sia was hunched forward in he chair, still cuffed to the table, sobbing in pain. Laura then hugged him, crying on his shoulder as he caught his breath, crying himself. "Leaf, I don't ever want to see you like that again. That's not the Leaf Soto I've come to know. It's scary."

25: Worries

Laura was hugging Leaf.

"It's scary to see you like that," she said.  Leaf looked at his bloody hands. He had done it again. He lost control of his emotions. He wanted to hug her back, but he didn't want to dirty her clothes.

"I'm sorry," he decided to say. "I think it's scary to see me like that too." This was another trait he picked up from his father.

"Laura," Wheeler said.

"Sir?" Laura responded.

"Take Leaf home. We'll continue work here in tracking Victor down. I myself have a little bit of a grudge against that asshole."

"Yes sir." Despite some hesitance, she took ahold of Leaf's bloody hand. "Come on Leaf. Let's go home." She walked him out of the room, Sia still crying, as a pool of blood and tears formed on the table. There were salty tears still falling down Leaf's face as he rode in Laura's car. "Leaf, I'm sure Sia is going to be alright. She'll tell us everything we need to now, okay?"

"I'm not worried about that British bitch," he said lowly. "It's Verona." He wiped his eyes.

"I'm worried too." Then, her watch beeped. "It seems your father's arrived at the HQ."

"My Dad?"

"Aye. Once we contacted your family about what happened, he said that he'd do what ever he could to help out. He called Jack Trades and all of his old friends from college. They're all going to the HQ to be briefed about the mission. Your mother, sister, and Johanna are waiting at your house."

"Fine," Leaf said, staring sadly out the window. They arrived at his house a few minutes later and sure enough, Suzy, Dakota, and Johanna were waiting for them. Leaf stepped out of the car and Dakota hugged him.

"Leaf!" she exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he muttered.

"Johanna, can you take care of him?" Laura asked. "They need me back at HQ."

"S-sure," she said with a smile, blushing slightly.

"Thanks," Laura said as she climbed back in her car ad drove away. Johanna turned around and saw them walking inside so she followed them in.

"What now?" she asked Dakota.

"Well, Mom's talking to Leaf in his room." At that moment, Leaf was laying down on his bed, not looking at Suzy.

"Leaf, are you sure you're going to be alright?" she asked.

"I said I'm fine," he muttered.

"Leaf, I know this is hard for you. I promise, they're doing everything they can to bring her back." Leaf didn't say anything and Suzy sighed. "Leaf, Johanna received the video feed, from the interrogation room." Leaf gasped silently, but didn't move.

"I'm sorry," he simply said. He didn't want to hear his mother say the same words Laura said earlier.

"Baby, I don't think you really should be," she said, as she sat down on the bed next to him and stroked his cheek with the back of her hand. "I know that any one of us would have acted the same way if she had hurt you." Her attention turned to a picture of Leaf and Verona on the nightstand. She scrolled through the pictures as she held the frame. "Is this her?" Leaf sat up and looked over and nodded. "You know, you never introduced us to her. She seems really sweet." Leaf couldn't resist cracking a small smile.

"She is."

"How long have you two been dating?"

"A few months now."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"I was." Suzy chuckled.

"I just hope that when things work out well for us, you can introduce us to her, sound fair?" Leaf rolled onto his back and looked up to his mother.

"Sure." He sat up and hugged her. Suzy hugged him back. Then the door opened and Dakota joined in.

"Hey, I want in too," she laughed. Johanna laughed from the doorway.

"Me too," she said.

"Alright," Suzy said, and they all laughed. This day had begun to feel just a little bit better.

26: The S-Team

At the HQ Director Wheeler was speaking to Jack Trades.

"So Verona Satinfire was taken by Sia Shelby," Jack said.

"Yes, that's what she's admitted to so far, but we're still trying to get more out of her," Wheeler said. "Do you have a team prepared to find her once we learn where she's at?"

"Yes," Rikki said. "Leaf will be teamed with Jeanette, Johanna, Laura, Alec, Alexis, Saleen, Aaron, Yin, Jack, and Carlyta." Saleen was the French girl who was originally on Victor's side, but turned against him when he attacked the College of Trades 25 years ago.

"Okay. What's the status of our search so far?" Right now, Aaron was using his omnipotence to see if he could locate Victor.

"He hasn't found anything yet," Yin told him from where she was standing, next to Aaron as he concentrated.

"It's okay. Report if anything comes up."

"Alright, Director Wheeler."

"You don't need to be so formal," he told her as he drew her aside. "My name's Duncan Wheeler. You were at the college when my little sister attended, weren't you?"

"Oh, yeah. Cassandra, right?"

"Yeah. How was she?"

"She was alright. She was the youngest student there. But she was a really nice friend. It was great when I heard that she had become President."

"I was too. Find anything Aaron?" Aaron gasped as he had found him at just that moment.

"He's at the Casino City Airport!" Aaron said loudly. "Sorry, it's some hidden sub-level." Then, all the power went out. "It's Shelby! Stop her!"

"All Agents, find Sia Shelby!" Wheeler shouted. "Don't let her escape!" Everyone scrambled around in the bleak darkness, the only light coming from the twilight of dusk through the windows. Despite the best efforts of the agents, Sia was able to get out of the HQ, and she hid in a nearby alleyway, despite the fact she was still handcuffed.

Outside far away.

Sia beat her cuffs against a railroad track until they broke off.

"Finally," she hissed, rubbing her wrists. "I hate bloody cuffs." She stood up. "I have to get to Victor before they do." She walked over to a parking lot and stole a car, using the computers and solenoids to unlock the doors and start the car. She drove out of the city and onto the highway that would take her to Casino City.

Back at the HQ.

By now power, and order, was restored, but Sia had gotten away.

"We're out looking for her now," an agent told Wheeler.

"Good," he said. He turned to the group that Rikki had put together. "You all should gather the rest of your team and head out after Victor. He's our priority."

"I'll call my wife and tell her to get our son here."

"I'm already here, Dad," Leaf said as he, Dakota, Suzy and Johanna came into the room.

"How'd you know?"

"I was reading your mind, Dear," Suzy said.

"Oh." They all grouped around Wheeler.

"Alright," he said. "We all know where to go, and how to get there. We need to get there before Shelby does. Let's move." He walked them to the roof where a hovering jet was waiting for them. They all climbed in as did the pilot, who closed the rear door and turned on the engines. The jet powered up and began to leave the rooftop. Yin clasped Aaron's hand tightly, and took a deep breath, having never flown before. Once the plane was at the cruising height, it flew off toward Casino City. Toward Victor.

27: Storming the Airport

After about an hour, the plane approached the Casino City airport, getting permission to land. Once the plane had landed, everyone climbed out of their seats, and headed for the entrance that would take them to the sublevel where Aaron had spotted Victor, and Slade, his son. As Aaron and Yin left the plane, Yin almost lost her balance.

"You alright?" he asked her.

"Y-Yeah," she said. "I hate flying."

"It was your first time."

"Honey, now's not the time for this."

"I agree." Aaron nodded and followed. They ended up at some locked doors, and Saleen used her Gift to talk to the circuits and the doors unlocked and opened.

"Wow, Saleen you are incredible," Jack said.

"Oui," she said. "I love technology." They found their way to an elevator.

"Alright," Wheeler said through a radio from the plane. "Aaron and Saleen should go first. Saleen, call the lift, Aaron, watch where it goes."

"I'm going with them," Yin declared.

"Alright. You have my permission to do so." Saleen called the elevator and the three of them climbed in. The doors closed and Saleen talked her way through the circuit and lowered the elevator.

"The doors to the sublevel are about 30 feet below us," Aaron said.

"Right," Saleen said. She slowly lowered the elevator down to the doors. Once they reached the bottom, the doors opened and the three of them carefully stepped out, Yin poised to attack. There was no one in sight, so Saleen sent the lift back up to bring the others down. Once they came back, Yin and Aaron were staring into the bleak darkness of the long hallway ahead of them.

"Is there anyone here?" Carlyta asked.

"Yes. There's three people. Victor, Slade, and Sia," Aaron answered.

"Damn it, she got here before we did," Leaf hissed. "What about Verona?"

"I can't tell yet."

"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be fine," Alexis said, her katana drawn.

"Are you?" an evilly British voice inquired from the darkness. They all watched as an insane Sia stepped into the light. "How do you know she's fine?" Leaf ran forward, in blind rage, and had Sia by the throat.

"Where the hell is she?" he demanded.

"If you kill me, you'll never know where she's at," Sia forced out, low on breath. "Go ahead. Kill me." The others watched as Leaf's grip loosened.

"No. I won't." He let go of her neck and Sia coughed a few times.

"Y-you're letting... me go?" she asked, short of breath.

"No. You're taking me to Verona."

"Just follow the hall. You'll head right into Victor and Slade."

"Alright. You'll still be coming with us."

"No! Just kill me already." Sia began to sulk in regret. "I'm of no use to you or this world."

"We're not going to kill you," Jack said to her. "You need to be punished for what you've done to this organization." Alec cuffed Sia, again. "You, Laura, and Carlyta take her out."

"Okay," Carlyta said. "We'll be back, Dear."

"Right. The rest of us are going forward." While Sia was being taken back to the jet, the others continued their way down the gloomy hallway toward Victor and Slade. They knew that a final battle was approaching, and they could only guess what might possibly happen.

28: Approaching the End

Sia was taken aboard the jet, where she was placed in a holding cell. Then, she heard the sound of a helicopter. She, Carlyta, Alec, and Laura all turned toward the noise. Carlyta stepped outside to see what it was, a black helicopter, but she then gasped as she saw who emerged from said helicopter. The relatively short woman, with relatively short blond hair, and magenta eyes. Back below the airport, the others had come across a dark and gloomy room. There were computers and screens across all the walls, a lone chair in the middle. Standing next to it, was a young man. Wild, jet-black hair, menacing red eyes, and dark grey skin. It was Victor's son Slade. Slade Sol.

"Oh. Finally some visitors," he said. "Dad, we have company."

"Good," came Victor's robotic voice. The chair turned, showing what was left of Victor from 25 years ago. Jack, Saleen, Yin, and Aaron gasped in horror. What was in the chair could not have been Victor, there was no way. His head was there, or most of it anyway, placed on a robotic body. 

"What the hell?" Saleen asked herself in whispered disbelief. "I... I could have sworn that I killed you!"

"Well you didn't," Victor said. "Better luck next time."

"It was that British girl," Slade enlightened. "She rebuilt him."

"But then, how'd you come about?" Yin asked.

"Well, Dad and this woman they-"

"Enough!" Victor said. "Never mind that. Right now, they need to be killed and disposed of."

"I'll personally see to it, Dad."

"No," A voice said. Everyone turned and saw Sia standing in the doorway.

"Sia?" Leaf asked. "What the hell?"

"Leaf, don't," another voice said. It was the short woman from the helicopter, the one who they all knew. The President of the United States.

"President Wheeler?" Yin asked.

"Cassandra?" Jack asked.

"Hey, Headmaster Trades," she said. "I see you're doing well."

"Well, yes."

"Enough small talk," Cass said as she pulled out a strange looking gun. She pointed it at Slade, and fired. Slade looked down as there was now a green capsule stuck in his chest.

"What the hell is this?" he asked.

"Pull that out!" Victor yelled. "It'll kill you!" Slade's eyes widened as he pulled out the capsule, but then he began to feel immense pain. He screamed as he could feel the energy from his powers draining away. "You bitch! What was that?!"

"It's a so-called cure that the Vice-President was working on. I happened to find some of it. Although, it hasn't been perfected yet, so I don't know what will happen."

"A cure?" Leaf asked.

"Yes," Aaron said. "He's been working on it for a while now. He considers people like us to be mutants, so he began working on a cure, to kill the genes that give us our Gifts. He plans to turn us into normal humans."

"Okay, but why free Sia?" Johanna asked.

"She's the only one who can take out Victor," Cass said. "She rebuilt him, remember?"

"Ah, now I understand."

"Fine then," Victor said. "Since I've been betrayed again, you've forced me to play my trump card." He touched one of the screens and he typed an input command, causing part of the floor to open. A platform came up. Lying on the platform, bound and gagged, was Verona.

"Verona!" Leaf exclaimed.

"Sia failed me anyway," Victor said, as he grabbed Verona, who had woken up. "She took the wrong girl. She was supposed to take your sister," he said, looking at Leaf. "But instead, she brought me this." One of Victor's fingers turned onto a blade, and he held it to Verona's neck. She let out a muffled cry and looked at Leaf, begging him to save her. "But now I know just how much she means to you."

"Father," Slade's voice suddenly broke the room. Everyone looked at him. Victor's eyes widened when he saw that his grey son, was now a normal human. All traces of his powers were gone. Even his skin was an average apricot-white.

"Damn."

"Father, help me, please." Victor stared at what was his son.

"You're useless to me now," Victor declared, causing his son, and everyone else in the room to gasp. "You're no longer my son."

"B-but Father! Why?!" Slade cried, tears falling down his face. "Why damn it?!"

"Don't call me that!" Victor cried, throwing Verona aside, and kicking Slade in the head, causing him to bleed from several sudden wounds. Leaf went over to Verona and he untied her.

"Leaf," Verona said weakly, when he removed her gag.

"Don't worry, Babe. You're fine." He kissed her on the lips. "Let's get you out of here."

"Damn it all, I will not lose again!" Victor yelled at the top of his lungs. He flicked his arm, sending a large number of blades all over the room. Yin and Johanna burned most of them away, but many had made their way into Jack's flesh. He cried out, and fell to the ground.

"Jack!" Carlyta's voice cut through the air as she returned to them, only to find Jack bleeding from several wounds with razor-sharp blades stuck in his chest.

"Get him out of here," Saleen said.

"Sia, kill him," Cass commanded. "And I might just lighten your punishment." Sia looked at Saleen.

"The British and French working together?" she asked.

"I never could have thought," Saleen said, with a mild smirk. "Ms. President, you should get out of here while you can."

"It's going to get dirty."

"Shelby, you better come back alive. You're still facing trial," Cass said, before she left, the last one to do so. Victor was breathing heavily, raging away while the two woman stood in front of him, his son crawling away.

"Ready?" Sia asked.

"This stays between us, Shelby," Saleen said.

"Of course." Both of them then jumped forward, using their Gifts to fry and tear Victor apart from the inside, destroying all of the circuits within him. His vitals began to drop and disintegrate as he lashed out, getting a few hits on them, as they overcame his resistance, and Victor began to decompose. Their technopathic reach began to destroy the computers and screens in the room, and then Victor's body exploded, leaving nothing but boiling blood and bits of wires all over the room. They both decided that it was time to leave. They ran to the lift and sent it upward as the sublevel collapsed, burying everything.

29: The Beginning of the End

The clean-up took a few days, but once everything beneath Casino City Airport was officially buried, everyone could take a deep breath of relief. Jack was admitted to the Trades University Hospital. Once everyone else had heard about what happened, they all went in for a visit. Lotus was especially upset when she was told that she couldn't do anything about it.

"Are you sure donating my DNA won't help?" she had asked.

"Yes," Carlyta admitted to her. "You can't pass your Gift to Jack. Even though it may seem like it would help, the transfer would backfire and kill him." Lotus sat down in a chair, Luuk, who had been her husband for a few years now, sat next to her, Lotus began to cry. "Don't worry Lotus, I'm sure Jack will pull through." Carlyta looked at Jack, as he lay in the bed in a coma, doubting her own words.

Back at Leaf and Verona's house.

Verona lay on her bed, watching the TV, Leaf was sitting next to her.

"Can I get you anything?" he asked her.

"No, I'm fine," she said. She sat up and kissed him. "Thanks for saving me."

"Of course. I would do anything to protect you. I..." Her smile disappeared as he trailed off. "Verona I... I can't imagine my life without you in it." He took her hand and slipped a ring on her finger. She gasped and blushed, looking at it.

"Leaf..."

"Verona, I love you and... I want to marry you." She started to giggle.

"Oh Leaf."

"What?" She started to laugh, almost uncontrollably.

"Nothing. But okay. I... I've been wanting to marry you too, so..." she trailed off, her face as red as his hair. They then kissed each other.

Much later.

Everyone gathered at the church. Leaf and Verona were getting married. Everyone was ecstatic when they heard the news. Leaf stood at the podium as his parents, family, and friends all filled up the pews. Since Jack was still sadly recovering, Carlyta was ordained to do the service. Verona decided that a certain person should walk her down the aisle, since she had long ago been abandoned by her family. She was being walked down by Zephyr, the only one who could beat her at the card table.

"Are you ready for this?" he asked her as they stood outside the chapel doors waiting for the cue.

"Well, I'm a little nervous Zephyr," she admitted.

"There's no need to be," he said. "Okay?"

"Alright. Thanks."

"When this is over, you owe me a game at the reception."

"Deal." It was time that they walk down the aisle, and Zephyr led her to Leaf. He smiled to him as they reached the podium and the music stopped.

"Alright," Carlyta began. “Dearly beloved and Gifted, we have gathered here on this day to witness the marriage of Leaf Daniel Soto and Verona Ryana Satinfire. Do you Leaf, take Verona to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to hold, to honor and cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”

"I do," Leaf said.

"Do you, Verona, take Leaf to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to hold, to honor and cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

"I do," Verona said.

“I believe you have rings?” That was Sapphire's cue. She walked up carrying the rings on the cushion. Leaf and Verona took each other’s ring and Sapphire went back to her seat. “Are your vows prepared?”

“Yes,” both of them responded. Carlyta nodded for Leaf to say his first.

“I, Leaf, take you Verona, to be my wife, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever. I will trust you and honor you I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst, through the difficult and the easy. What may come I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold so I give you my life to keep,” Leaf said as he put her ring on her finger.

“I, Verona, take you Leaf, to be my husband, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever I will trust you and honor you I will laugh with you and cry with you. I will love you faithfully Through the best and the worst, Through the difficult and the easy. What may come I will always be there. As I have given you my hand to hold So I give you my life to keep,” Verona said as she put his ring on his finger.

“Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you, for where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay, your people will be my people, and your Gift will be my Gift. And where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do with me and more if anything but death parts you from me,” Leaf and Verona said in unison as looked at each other directly, repeating the same words from Rikki and Suzy's wedding. “Together shall we be, henceforth to the end of eternity.” Again, this emotionally broke the audience as some members began to dab their eyes with tissues.

"Okay, if that is the final verdict then Leaf, you may kiss the bride," Carlyta said. Leaf moved Verona's veil out of the way and kissed her, and everyone applauded.

30: The End of The End

The next week, the employees at Valhedron went to the exclusive preshow of Jon Spencer's new X-Driver film. Much to Leaf's surprise, he noticed that the stunt driving for the protagonist's car was very familiar. He knew it was the way that Vegas drove. After the showing, she admitted that she was asked to take part but she had forgotten to tell him.

"That's really cool," Leaf said to her.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah. You work for Jon Spencer, the greatest movie producer and director ever."

"He just saw the way I drove and asked me to be a stunt driver. I'm sorry I didn't tell you Leaf. I was going to, but I guess I forgot." She had a somewhat of a guilty expression.

"Hey, it's okay. Really." Then they laughed together, just like they did in high school.

9 months later.

Leaf was hurrying along side the stretcher that Verona was lying on as she had went into labor with the children she was pregnant with. She was trying to take deep breaths.

"Don't worry honey, you'll be alright," Leaf said.

"Leaf, please don't leave me," Verona said between breaths. "God it hurts." The doctors had brought her into the delivery room. "I am so grounding the kids for coming this early in the morning," she said with a pained rueful smile.

"Well, let's make sure they get to us in once piece first," the doctor said, noting the joke. "Sir, we need you to wait outside," she said to Leaf.

"But, I'm her husband," he said, knowing that she would want him at her side.

"Wait outside."

"Yes ma'am," Leaf said, standing outside. the door. Verona began to cry as she watched Leaf behind the door as she was wheeled farther and farther away, as an endless flurry of pain followed each contraction.

"It's okay Verona, you're doing fine," the doctor said. "The twins are on their way."

"Damn it," Verona hissed, breathing as evenly as she could. 

"Alright Verona, I need you to push now."

"Fuck!" Verona screamed, holding the word as the kids came.

"Okay, okay, they're both here," the doctor said as the cords were cut and the newborns were cleaned up and wrapped in blankets. Verona was left crying, recovering from the pain. The doctor then let Leaf back into the room. He came over to her side as she held them.

"How are you?" he asked her.

"Leaf... I'm fine," she said, wiping her eyes.

"Then why are you crying?"

"Deliver twins, then you'll know," she said sarcastically.

"Oh. Right." He held his son, smiling at the little newborn. He then called the others, telling them to come by. Once everyone had arrived and visited for a bit, Aoi spoke up.

"Um, I'd hate to ruin the moment, but turn on the news," she said, turning on the television. No one questioned her and they all turned toward the TV screen.

"-we now go live to the White House," the news reader said. The live footage came in, showing what appeared to be a rally in front of the White House. There was a stage set up with what appeared to be the gallows, a noose hanging from a beam. Everyone was surprised to see this at the White House. Then the Vice-President, John Sharpe, walked over with a happy smile and microphone in hand.

"My fellow human beings," he said. "Today, marks a great day for our history. Today, is the day when we take back what's ours." His voice could barely be heard of the crowd of approving cheers. "Today, is the day that we take back our world. We rise up against the mutants!" Louder cheers, as the face of everyone in the hospital room turns into dismay. "I myself have personally started this revolution. I give you, President Wheeler!" Everyone in the room gasped as they watched an armed guard push Cass, who had a bag over her head, and her arms bound behind her, to the gallows. "She is a mutant, and decided that she shouldn't share this little interesting fact with the nation she was supposed to lead. So today, her death day, will start the human revolution against the mutants." The guard put the noose around her neck, and pulled the lever. The audience cheered as everyone in the room watched in horror as Cassandra died on national television, and people were cheering and laughing. Aoi shut the TV off in a rage.

"He's sending the government after us," Rikki said.

"I guess it's time to go into hiding," Dan suggested. Florida nodded in reluctant agreement, hugging her two children.

"Either that or we stand and fight," Chyanne said.

"Yeah," Kilo agreed.

"But how?" Lotus asked.

"We just fight," Luuk said. "And that's all we gotta do."

"What would Jack do?" Yin asked, but then she felt regret seeing the sadness appear of Carlyta's face. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright. He'll want us to do both," Carlyta said.

"What do you mean?"

"Those who want to hide better do it now," Aaron said.

"And those who want to fight should begin to mobilize," Aoi said.

"That's right," Carlyta said. "I'm not going to blame you if you leave, but if you want to fight, then we'll build up an army. For my Jack, I'm going to fight. Who's with me?"

Everyone looked at each other with worried expressions as Leaf and Verona's newborn children began to cry.

To be continued...