The older woman looked different. Her sunset hair was gone, instead, her hair was a light, hazelnut brown and it was down. She had changed into more comfortable clothes, a very casual fit, which looked good on her. But then again, Risále had to admit Lumina was the kind of woman who made anything look good.
"Y—Your hair…" Leon said, pointing at it. Lumina twirled it between her fingers.
"Thought I'd go for a change. Plus…Minnie wanted me to get my hair back to my natural color," Lumina answered.
Another woman walked up behind Lumina, "Finally, it took you guys long enough," The woman grinned.
"Mina?!" She had changed a lot. Her long blue hair was now around her shoulders, and bangs in front now, falling in her face, and she was wearing an oversized button down, probably Lumina's, and shorts
"You guys missed a whole lot. I'm pretty sure Kaedan is going to be the most devastated that he missed it," She laughed
"Huh—What?" Leon was truly confused at this point.
"It's a long story. And get comfortable, because I'm going to tell you about it."
Half an hour later, when the entire story was laid out, all of them were staring at Mina, "So, basically, your middle name was actually your first name but because your dad has beef with your dead aunt, he decided you weren't allowed to use it? Which is kind of ironic seeing as you ended up using it anyways. And then you basically told your parents to fuck off? And your brother is still a dick, that's nice to know. But you basically told your parents to fuck off?" Leon asked. Lumina hit him with a spatula while Risále glared.
"Kind of? To be fair, I told my dad to fuck off. My mom…" She sighed, "I just warned them both to stay the fuck out of my way. I also implied that they should probably kill my brother because I'm sure he has assassination plots set up for each of them but who knows if they'll listen to me," Mina explained.
"Hey, if they don't listen, that's not on you. Besides, they stopped being your family the moment they decided to kick you out. Actually, I think they stopped being your family the first time you had an assassin try to kill you. We're your family now, got it?" Lumina said sternly, "And you're allowed to feel conflicted about your mother, I hope you know that," She added a bit more gently. Mina smiled softly at her.
"I hate to interrupt this but...Dinner is about to burn, A'Li," Xander said, popping out of the kitchen while Kaedan attempted to save dinner without the master chef.
"Shit, I thought I turned to stove off!" Lumina quickly clipped her hair up and ran into the kitchen.
"I'm gonna change. As long as I've had this thing, I'd really like some new, fresh clothes that are actually somewhat normal," Nia pointed out her army uniform. Risále nodded, saying that she'd join the younger girl as well.
"I'm taking Owen shopping with me. We need a lot of stuff and the stores are usually much less crowded at this time of night," Kaedan said, walking in.
"Wait, what?" Fenix asked, surprised at the random suggestion.
"Sure," Owen shrugged, getting up to follow Kaedan.
"Oweeeen," Fenix whined, not wanting the boy to leave. He was warm. And comfortable. And soft.
"What?" Owen asked, turning to look at the boy.
"Please stay?" Fenix asked, trying to use his best puppy eyes. Owen had to use all his willpower to refuse.
"No. Brothers before...Uh…" He hesitated at what to say next, but Kaedan was not having any of it. They were cute, but they could be cute after he got to talk to Owen for a while.
"Brothers before lovers, alright? Now, let's go, Owen." Kaedan said, dragging the boy.
"Kaedan!"
As the door closed behind the two brothers, Xander sighed and patted Fenix's shoulder, "Don't worry, they won't be gone that long."
Lumina snorted, "You know, I wonder why this scene looks so familiar," She said, looking directly at Xander.
"Yeah, I wonder why," He glared back at his cousin.
Fenix shook his head before standing up, "No, you know what, I'm not dealing with this. Don't murder each other, let me know when Owen gets back. I'm taking a well-deserved fucking nap."
Kaedan had said they were going shopping, however, Owen was not expecting to be going grocery shopping. Then again, he should have known, this was Kaedan. Of course, he'd do something like that.
"So...Uh...You're my older brother, huh?" Owen asked awkwardly.
"Yup," Kaedan said, popping the last letter of the word. He grabbed something off of a higher shelf, and Owen felt the slightest amount of jealousy at that. If only he could be that tall. He supposed Kaedan must have been the one to get those genes out of the two of them.
"I…Uh…I'm sorry," Owen said, looking away.
"For what?" Kaedan asked while moving things to the back of the shelf, trying to find something.
"For not remembering you? Not knowing you were my brother? Many other things?" Owen said sadly.
"Look, Owen," Kaedan sighed and leaned down so he was eye to eye with the younger boy, "It's alright. You were too young to remember and honestly, the last time you saw me was pre-transition. Besides, trauma does some fucked up things to our memory. It's not your fault and if you're uncomfortable with acting like brothers, I get it—"
"No! I mean...No, I want to be your little brother again. That's why I'm trying so hard," Owen said softly. Kaedan smiled.
"Owen, you don't need to try. I've always seen you as my little brother—" Suddenly, Kaedan whirled around, "Did you ...Hear that?" He asked, searching around for the voices that he heard.
"My navigation skills may be much better than yours but my sense of hearing definitely is not," Owen replied, sighing.
"Hey, don't think I didn't catch that subtle insult. Come on, follow me," Kaedan said, heading out of the store. The two boys followed the two guards that had caught their attention.
"They say that the Princess is back," One of the guards said.
"Are you going to try to go after her again? Dude, she's way out of your league," The other guard said.
Owen rolled his eyes, "Men. I swear to God can they think with anything other than their dicks?"
Kaedan muttered, "Amen, little buddy," His grip on the whip hooked to his belt tightened.
"Doesn't that also mean the Wings are at threat? Didn't she try to steal them when she left last time?" The guard asked, "Shouldn't we keep them under tighter security?"
"True. But she may have changed. She never tried to come back and take them after that, Maybe she just came back because she missed the royal life," The other guard shrugged, "How about you go help them patrol inside the castle? Her Highness and His Majesty would greatly appreciate it."
"And if we find the Princess?" One of them asked.
"Well, I'm sure that the person to find her will be handsomely rewarded. Maybe even with the Princess herself," The other responded.
"I see," The guard laughed, "Well, good luck to you, then," He waved as he began to walk off towards the mansion.
Kaedan's fists clenched, "Owen, go back home and tell them if I'm not back in an hour, I was caught," He said, cracking his knuckles.
"You get this one, I'll fuck up the one that just walked away," Owen said, pulling out a small compressed cylindrical piece of metal from his pocket and pressing a button on it. The piece expanded into a full-sized scythe.
"You know what? Sounds good. Fuck him up good, won't you?" Kaedan grinned, twisting his whip around his hand.
It was only thirty minutes later that Owen and Kaedan returned home, mostly unharmed other than a few bruises, but with triumphant grins.
"That was fun," Owen said, smiling as flicked his hand, twisting his wrist to get rid of the tenseness.
"I forgot just how annoying it is to get rid of bodies here," Kaedan muttered, dropping his whip on the table with the rest of their weapons.
"Where's the blood?" Leon asked, now finally having a shirt to wear. It might have been just him, but did Risále look a bit disappointed as he put the shirt on? He had offered her his sweater until they could find warmer clothes but she didn't seem to mind seeing him walk around shirtless. Quite the opposite in fact.
"These are new clothes," Kaedan pointed at his own clothes.
"High-five, Kaedan. The guards here are disgusting pigs," Mina held up her hand as the man high-fived her, pulling off his sweater so he was left in just the white button-down shirt under it. He rolled up his sleeves before going to help his boyfriend put the groceries away as Mina continued to speak, "Always saying 'Princess this' and 'Princess that' as if that's all I ever was."
Leon sipped his tea, "Honestly, I still can't believe you're like…An actual princess. Like people actually consider you a princess here."
Mina frowned, "Why is it that hard to believe I'm a princess? I mean, is it that easy to believe Kaedan is a prince but not that I'm a princess?"
"See, somehow Kaedan just has the prince vibes. Okay, well, he more has kingly vibes which is why it's easy to believe he's a prince. You on the other hand…" The boy responded, trailing off.
The woman clutched her chest, feigning hurt, "Do you see this behavior, Lumi? How disrespectful this child has become?"
Leon rolled his eyes at the older woman before throwing a pillow at her, "You're too whiney to be a princess."
"On the contrary, wouldn't that make her seem more like a spoiled princess?" Kaedan said thoughtfully, ignoring the way Mina was trying to tackle him.
"What does that say about you, Mister Crown Prince?" She shot back.
Xander was the one who responded, walking over to press a kiss on his boyfriend's cheek, "Well, Leon's certainly right when he says Kaedan has kingly vibes. He's pretty good at commanding, you know," At Kaedan's amused snort, he grinned, "But he can get a bit whiney sometimes as well."
"Oh, says you, Mister 'Why don't you hold me down while you—'"
"If that sentence doesn't end with 'tickle me' or something like that, I'm going to bury you in the garden while you sleep," Mina warned.
Lumina joined them and smacked Xander on the back of the head with a towel, "Stop talking about your sex life, and come help me with the hot pot, idiot."
"I didn't even start it!"
"Ahem, either way, Owen, you were talking about something, the Wings?" Fenix asked the boy, resting his head on the younger boy's shoulder. Owen just sighed and patted his head, knowing he wasn't going to be able to make Fenix move even an inch.
"The guards were talking about something that needed to be protected, in the castle. They called it 'The Wings' and they mentioned Mina tried to steal it when she left. Do you actually have any idea what that is? It sounds vaguely familiar but I can't put my finger on it…" Kaedan asked.
"Honestly, I don't actually know what it is," Mina admitted, "All I knew was that my dad was obsessed with keeping it safe, so naturally that meant that when I disappeared, I had to at least try and make it disappear with me. I didn't get it though, I couldn't figure out where exactly it was. So, yeah, I don't know what it is."
Surprisingly, Leon spoke up. "I'm pretty sure the Wings are the sacred artifact of this stronghold. I'm not sure about other strongholds, but I believe they were supposed to be some sort of weapon of mass destruction. So if it's in the hands of anyone in power currently, then it's probably bad news for us, seeing as literally no authority figure can be trusted right now. I do remember there was the beginning of a plan to use it but seeing as it's here of all places, in the hands of the Rowlocks, I'm not quite sure what they have planned…" He said.
"...Hi, yes, what the fuck?" Mina said.
They all looked at him. "What? I did my research."
"Where the hell did you even find that information from, my dude? Like, that seems like stuff that even the King wouldn't know—" Fenix asked jokingly but cut himself off when he saw the expression on the blonde's face. This was definitely one of the things that Leon mentioned he couldn't talk about.
"So, we need a plan to get into the castle. Obviously, the idea of the royal family having access to a weapon of mass destruction does not bode well for us," Xander said.
"Especially seeing as my psychotic little brother is part of said family," Mina muttered crossing her arms, "And on top of that, my family has always been somewhat close to the White Lotus. I mean, obviously, when the White Lotus make up so much of the elite in Sector 2, they're practically surrounded by them."
Xander paled, "Yeah. Yeah, we gotta get that thing away from them."
Leon hummed, "But then what?" He asked, "Even if we get it away, we're literally just a group of nine people. What the hell do we do with a weapon of mass destruction?"
Risále spoke up, "Maybe we can destroy it? If it's a weapon of mass destruction and we get rid of it, then boom, no more weapon of mass destruction, yeah? That way, no one can misuse it. I mean, that doesn't have to be an end-all plan but I think it's an alright idea to keep in mind."
"Honestly, that sounds good to me," Lumina shrugged, "If no one has it, there's nothing to worry about. We can workshop it after we get our hands on the thing. Now, we need to figure out how to get into the castle's treasury, because I know the key to that place is guarded—"
"Pfft, not well enough, apparently," Kaedan snorted as he walked over to his backpack and pulled out a key, "This is what happens when you make way too many copies of the key to your treasury. I stole this when I was seventeen and somehow no one figured it out or asked for it back, so I just kept it."
Xander stared at him, "Hey, have I mentioned that you're insanely sexy recently?"
"Mhm, quite a bit but please, don't stop on my account," Kaedan winked at him, and Xander slipped his hand around his waist.
"Okay enough with flirting. Take it to the bedroom, you two," Lumina rolled her eyes, "So, what are we going to do?"
"Well, I'm gonna go in, of course. Mina's family knows mine. They know me, and I'm pretty sure they mostly know about me being trans. I'm pretty sure they expected me to drop it like it was a phase or something, so they wouldn't push me away if I showed up in disguise undercover," Kaedan said, his voice annoyed.
"No. You've taken enough risks, babe," Xander said.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Kaedan asked.
"Yeah. I'll go," Mina said, standing up as a volunteer.
"Bitch, sit down," Kaedan glared at her, pushing her back so she'd end up sitting on the couch again, "You're the last person that should go in there."
Mina glared back at him, "Same thing goes for you! Even if my family accepts you, there's still Julian to worry about! That boy is fucking insane about you, Kaedan, he has literally murdered people for talking about you. And that was when he was thirteen! He only saw you a total of four times and became obsessed with you!"
Xander shivered, "No, I'm still trying to understand how he thought anything was going to happen there. Wasn't Kaedan like…Sixteen when they first met?"
Mina nodded, "And that fucker was eight."
Leon stared at them both in horror, "I'm sorry, how fucked up is this guy?"
"Too fucked up. I agree with Mina, it's too dangerous for Kaedan. If I turn myself in, it would be a good distraction. According to them, I kidnapped the princess so if I turn myself in—" Lumina began to say.
"No," Xander's voice was uncharacteristically harsh, "You are the last person I'm letting go there. If there's even any chance of Veronica finding out where you are from them…"
Kaedan's eyes darkened, "Yeah. You're not going. All of you, shut up. I get your concern about Julian, but I can handle an overeager child. Risále, you're going with me since no one knows who the hell you are. Congrats, you're my handmaiden or something," Kaedan muttered.
"Alright. We need makeovers then. And we need to get some clothes for Kaedan. Do you…Need to practice or something? You haven't been in part of the royal courts in years," Xander said.
Kaedan shook his head, his smile a bit forced, "Unfortunately, or I guess fortunately for us, royal habits and mannerisms don't go away that easily. They made sure of that when they basically forced us into the aristocratic lifestyle. It won't be that hard to fall back into that."
"Ugh. It's my douchey family and I'm not even doing anything," Mina groaned, falling back on the couch.
Lumina smiled, "Well, our goal is to try to keep everyone alive."
"Is it, though?" Nia joked as Owen rolled his eyes.
"Easier said than fucking done. The number of close calls I've had to navigate us around has genuinely been giving me a heart attack," Leon muttered, and Nia simply patted. Risále looked at him, suspicious.
He knows something. (A)
Well, that was not obvious at all, thanks for the info. (R)
Brat. (A)
Mega bitch. Who are you anyway? (R)
I told you I was a part of your cyborg bullshit. (A)
Yeah, that's not gonna work this time. Whose dead soul is cohabiting my brain? (R)
You can call me Apocalypse, I guess. That's what they called me anyway. (A)
Wait, what? You're dead? You're cohabiting my brain? (R)
Put two and two together, Rosale. (A)
Fuck you, my name is Risále! (R)
"Oh, yeah, so I have a question," Risále said, looking around at all of them.
"Shoot," Leon said, grabbing a glass of water.
"So, I thought that I was completely different from you guys, you know, with the whole 'I thought New York still existed!' Thing but I did hear you all mentioning that you sometimes felt like you already knew each other when you met. I just wanted to mention that I've been feeling that too?"
Leon choked on his water, coughing. Lumina sighed, "I'll get you a towel."
Risále looked a little bit surprised at the reaction but she stared at Leon, "Actually, when you asked me if we'd met before when we first met, I'm not going to deny that I felt like I knew you from somewhere. I just didn't realize it until after. And now that I think about it, you were an ex-scientist, weren't you? Lumina said that it was scientists from Sector 3 that primarily did experimentation on cyborgs. I swear I've met you before."
Leon stammered a bit before shutting up. "Risá, I…Things are complicated, I didn't—I mean, you seemed familiar but I don't really know—"
"Hey, I know this is important but maybe now is not the time? We're going to be doing something dangerous soon so maybe let's not talk about this. We should go in with a clear head and besides, we don't want those random headaches and chest contractions," It was Fenix.
"And by the way, not all scientists worked on cyborg experimentation, Risále. In my case, it was usually the older ones and other cyborgs that were turned into scientists since the process of that procedure is very complicated. And Leon's still not even twenty years old," Owen added.
Risále sighed, "Damn, that's true," She said, discouraged, but something that Owen said stayed in her mind. Cyborgs that were turned into scientists…
Leon looked at Fenix and Owen with a relieved, grateful look. While Risále wasn't looking, he mouthed a thank you so much.
Whatever his reason was for not saying anything, they'd respect that, and the deer-in-headlights look on his face when Risále had asked was enough to have them extremely concerned, "We should get ready. Come on, Risále," Kaedan steered her away. He turned back and mouthed to everyone, Calm him down while we're gone.