Brandon stood in horror as he watched the world around him begin to crumble, and slowly retraced the disturbances back to their source: Kiara.
He couldn't believe his eyes. There was no way Kiara was capable of doing something so terrifying. This had to be some kind of joke. A miscalculation. He had to be wrong! He traced the pattern of deadly voids back over and over again, but it kept on landing on Kiara every time. He thought she was using her power to defeat the clay monsters, but the only monster left there was her.
The twin's eyes couldn't leave the sight of Kiara absorbing all the magic and destroying the voids. She was in pain. He could see it in her face, but his feet wouldn't move. His mind told him to run over and give her a hug, but his body refused to go anywhere near her. Kiara was sad, but he couldn't find the courage inside of him to reach out and save her. And so, Brandon watched helplessly as Kiara fell into that dark void, taking all the chaos she had caused with her.
As soon as the portal closed, his legs gave way as if he was under some sort of freeze spell, but he completely froze when he saw Chadwick's body just lying on the ground. Was he dead? No! That couldn't be true. Kiara would never kill anyone … right? Yea, he was just playing dead, waiting for an opportunity to attack them. That had to be the case, except it wasn't. Halley checked for a pulse and that's when the gravity settled in. Kiara had killed someone.
Brandon's stomach turned at the sight of the body as it overlapped with the memory of his mother being killed in front of him. The only difference was at the time of his mother's death, Brandon felt an immense amount of power run through him and had the overbearing urge to kill Richard Mustollini. This time, he felt all his power and strength drain out of him as he thought of who Kiara's next target would be.
She had killed her own grandfather. The man who raised her. For her to kill someone as important to her as he was, what was stopping her from destroying everything Brandon held dear? She had the power to kill them all at any given moment, so why? Why was Michaelangelo so worried? Why weren't they all as scared of her as he was? Had their brains turned off their senses of fear? Was their instinct offline? Why was he the only one who was relieved seeing that monster fall into oblivion?
Brandon kept his questions to himself when Halley asked him if he was alright, but a chill ran down his spine as William used his own magic to look for the monster. However, his sense of safety returned when William couldn't locate her. "Is she d-dead?" Rebecca asked as her voice trembled. "I doubt it," Crispus responded, "Kiara is nothing like the rest of us." Brandon's relief and safety then turned to embarrassment and shame as his heart rejoiced at the thought of Kiara being dead.
He caught this emotion and punched himself in the chest to settle his heart as he tried to remember all the warm, jovial memories he had with her. He tried to remind himself of all the happiness her smile and existence brought to his life as he was led to a teleporter and sent to a hospital.
There, a doctor came in and told him about the tests they were gonna run on him to double check he was alright. One of them was a full body examination and a male nurse came in to complete the checkup, but there was something off about him. His hands seemed to linger on Brandon's body as he checked for broken bones or torn ligaments. He asked him to stop touching him in such a repulsive manner, but he ignored him and continued.
He told him to sit down as he checked Brandon's inner thigh, but he assured him he was alright. Regardless, the nurse tried using force to touch him, and Brandon ended grabbing his arm and calling on his magic. He threatened to snap the man's arm into pieces if he unnecessarily touched him again as his eyes glowed a menacing sunlight yellow. He got the message almost instantly as he refrained from touching Apollo's magician as much to the best of his ability.
The doctor later came in and okayed Brandon before letting him go to the waiting room of the hospital, where everyone was waiting for him. "What took you so long?" Louis asked in an annoyed tone, but at the same time it seemed more gentle than usual. Did he and Rebecca finally work things out? Well, he wouldn't know the answer until later, but he was annoyed about having to face King Winston again.
The arrogant prick left a bad taste in Brandon's mouth and he also didn't like how he constantly undercut his daughter's abilities and achievements. Not that he cared about that monster. He may have been afraid of Kiara, but Winston just straight up pissed him off. He hadn't met anyone more insensitive than Louis before him, so he was pleasantly surprised when he offered to grant them any wishes they wanted.
The people who run the entirety of Wisteria and could grant literally anything in the world to anyone they pleased were offering anything to a bunch of teenagers? Brandon could've literally asked Winston to kill himself. Granted they wouldn't abide by such a wish, it was nice to dream from time to time. He had until King Ackley stopped speaking to say what he wanted, and thanks to him deliberately prolonging his gratitude speech to them, Brandon and Halley both knew exactly what they wanted.
Halley went first because of the order of the line they were in and asked for their father to be released from prison. A simple request considering Jebediah had been unjustly imprisoned for the last 11 years. "Consider it done." King Cheyton declared, "And how about you, young man? What do you want most in this world?"
Brandon had noticed a subtle, smug, "ha! As if that'll help him" expression on Winston's face as he heard Halley's request, and as much as he hated to admit it, he was somewhat right. Just getting dad released from prison wouldn't be enough to integrate him back into society, but then again, that was what Brandon's wish was for. He asked for Jebediah Markson to be given a government post in Olympia upon his release.
His request wiped Winston's smug expression of his face as the other monarchs processed such a request and moved on to William. He was a tad bit scatterbrained after losing Kiara, so Brandon nudged him a bit, and he blurted out, "K-Kiara!" "What about her?" the insensitive prick grumbled. "I would like access to the Royal Archives, your Majesties." William explained. He had been forbidden to walk into them after he helped Brandon sneak into them the last time, but what did he want with the archives?
Although everyone was asking themselves the same question, Empress Si-Eun simply granted his wish and moved onto Britney. "If possible, your Majesties," she said politely, "I would like to claim Raekyo Choi's ashes since she has no family or friends to do so." Python? Brandon realised how important Python was to Britney in that very moment. She had tried claiming the ashes over the summer, but she couldn't because of the house arrest and because she wasn't her family nor did Python leave behind a will.
The empress asked Britney if Python was so important she would give up the opportunity to do or have anything she wanted for her remains, and they all knew she was.
Louis and Rebecca went after each other, and the differences in their requests made Brandon question their compatibility. While Rebecca asked the most powerful people in Wisteria for free college/university tuitions to anywhere for her and her half-sister, Louis simply asked for permission to publicise his mother's story.
The whole world, including Louis himself, had thought she had committed, but now he knew the truth, Louis wanted to clear his mother's name. The request shocked Brandon and made him realise the soft side of him Rebecca had probably fallen for, but refused to acknowledge. I mean, look at Kylian and Halley. Brandon wasn't overjoyed at the thought of his baby sister dating someone older than them, but Kylian was, in his opinion, alright, I guess.
Speaking of Kylian, he went second last and asked to be the first person notified when Kiara was found. Apparently, he thought of her as his little sister, so the wish didn't surprise Brandon. It actually made him like Kylian a bit more, but only a little bit. About ( ) this much to be exact.
Last but not least, it was Michaelangelo's turn to make his wish come true. He was also quite out of it, so they had to nudge him to remind him he was being given the chance to do and/or have anything he wanted. Unlike William or Kylian, Michaelangelo had known Kiara for the least amount of time, but it seemed he was more shaken up by her disappearance than anyone else.
He even talked back to Prince Crispus and Princess Mahogani when they first picked them up, and now he was completely ignoring the kings and empress in front of him. Did he and Kiara have a secret relationship? No, they're both insanely loyal to their partners, but Kiara was the one who calmed him down the first time he almost went berserk. However, his mannerisms and mental health took a seriously apparent plummet when she fell, but it wasn't gradual. It was immediate. Like he had figured something out as she was falling.
Brandon believed this "thing" he had figured out while she fell had to do with his parents since he asked to know about the circumstances surrounding their murders. It baffled him too. Brandon had always been able to find out anything and everything he wanted, but he could never find anything about the Sullivans no matter where he looked. Meeting the last survivor of the family was supposed to be a jackpot for him, but Michael knew less than he did.
He noticed Britney embrace Michael as they were being led out in separate ways from him, and Brandon decided Michael couldn't have cheated on her. The way he held her had too much love in it for him to be a cheating scumbag. He was in love with Britney, and she was with him. Same thing with Louis and Rebecca, but they were just too stubborn to admit it, and he knew William was deeply in love with Kiara despite treating her so horribly.
Kind of the same way he treated Brandon, except there was no love. That was something Brandon wasn't lucky enough to experience. He thought of how unlucky he was as he stared at Kylian and Halley walking hand in hand in front of him. He watched as she lovingly placed her head on Kylian's shoulder and smiled as he realised how happy she could be without him by her side anymore. She had Kylian, so she didn't need him anymore.
He ended pushing Halley and Kylian into the same car and mentioned it was about time he met grandma. "You must be tired," Kylian signed, "You should go home with Hall." Brandon's heart crushed a bit at hearing his sister's boyfriend call her by the nickname he had given her 8 years ago. Regardless, he simply smiled and said he wasn't tired before sending them on their way. He got into a different car and asked the driver to take him back to AMA before he let out a tired sigh and thought of the day's events.
He watched Michaelangelo's parents' last words before convicting Kiara's grandfather of being the head of a terrorist group, and watched her kill him before his eyes and disappear into thin air after almost destroying the world. In addition, he just guaranteed his father's freedom after 11 years of prison visits and missed birthday parties- Vmmm. Brandon pulled out his phone at hearing the vibration and suddenly told the driver to take him to the nearest mall after reading the text.
*****
Brandon stood outside the mall while he was annoyedly texting someone on the phone. He had told him to get to the nearest mall ASAP, and now he wasn't anywhere to be found. "Now," Daisy said to him after appearing out of nowhere, "Why is a handsome man like you so angry? Smile." He wouldn't be so angry if he had shown up on time. He claimed he was fashionably late while showing off his neat cardigan, button up, skinny jean combo.
However, Brandon, the most impatient character in the story, wasn't pleased. Five more minutes and he would've been gone, but his ginger haired date reminded him of the payment he hadn't yet received for his invaluable information and testimony. He took that opportunity to remind the 19 year old he was a minor. "Get your mind out of the gutter, will you?" he said as he gently held Brandon's cold hand to his lips. "Though I did say I wanted you, I never said when. Now let's go." Where? "To get you some new clothes."
Brandon stood in front of the high-end store, and couldn't bring himself to go in. He wasn't particularly stingy, but scared of spending money was the best way to put it. It was a gene passed down from Markson to Markson. He couldn't help it. Daisy, slightly amused at the revelation, tried to convince Brandon to walk into the store, but his feet wouldn't budge. They tried covering his eyes, but his body almost shut itself down.
He apologized for being a bother, but Daisy simply picked him up and walked into the store with him on his shoulders. Embarrassed, Brandon tried to punch Daisy's back, but he couldn't land a hit with the way he was being carried. He eventually put him down in a changing room and told him to wait for him there. What was wrong with this guy? Why was he being like this? No one had treated Brandon like this before, so why?
Did he … like Brandon? He immediately rejected the idea, assuming he was just trying to sleep with him. That was all. He didn't love Brandon is what he thought as Daisy came back to the changing room with the biggest smile on his face and gleam in his pale green eyes. His ginger, fluffy, long hair bounced up and down with every step he took, and Brandon eventually found himself blushing as he looked at himself in the mirror. The clothes Daisy had picked for him fitted perfectly and he honestly loved them.
He stepped out of the changing room and asked him where the missing price tags are, and Daisy had bought the clothes for him. He told him not to worry about the price as he pulled along to a shoe store, but Brandon couldn't help but worry. He asked Daisy for the 14th time how much the clothes were, but he ignored him as he slipped different shoes on and off his feet. Daisy! "Black and Yellow or Orange and Blue. Which do you prefer?
He liked the black and neon yellow shoes since they went better with his outfit, but that wasn't the point! How much were these clothes? Daisy, however, ignored his question as he put the black and yellow shoes on him and kissed his knee. "You don't have to worry about anything. Just enjoy yourself." How was Brandon supposed to "enjoy himself" if he kept on torturing him like this?
He pulled Brandon along to a movie theater after the shoe store, and he didn't even bother to ask him if he had paid for the shoes. He knew he had, and he knew Daisy would avoid the question if he asked, so he didn't. He took his advice and enjoyed the action film about two mythical creatures fighting each other. One was a giant gorilla who was controlled by a 6 year old, and the other, a giant pissed off lizard.
He thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but he wasn't expecting the ending at all. It was so thrilling to watch, especially the part where the girl- "The part where she connected with him?" Daisy continued. Yeah. Brandon caught himself rambling on and on about a monster fight, but he couldn't help it. Daisy was just so fun to talk to, so Brandon often got lost in their conversations.
He then grabbed Brandon out of nowhere and ran with him through the mall, and outside to the cool, autumn air. The spontaneous behaviour, not having to worry about money, fanboying over a movie, it all made Brandon feel like a kid again. Daisy made him feel like a kid again as they walked through the town. "What do you want for dinner?" he asked him as he squeezed his hand. For the sake of keeping the sense of childhood alive in him, they had fast food for dinner. Everything was going great until some guys decided to give their opinions on the date.
One of them called Daisy and Brandon "disgusting" while another yelled out a slur, and the third made a rude comment about roles in the bedroom. Annoyed, Brandon's eyes started to glow again, but Daisy simply placed his hand on his arm to calm him as he responded to the homophobes.
"Really?" he asked them loudly, "Homophobia in this day and age? We're just sharing a meal, so I'm not sure what's so disgusting about it since everyone else here is doing it, unless you're calling everyone here disgusting for feeding themselves and their children. How rude."
A woman on line turned to the men and added how they should be ashamed of themselves for being, well, pricks, and everyone else in the restaurant agreed with him and chanted for them to be removed from the premises. Angry, one of the guys swung at Daisy, but he caught their arm and pinned it behind their back, claiming self-defense. The woman on line went to call the police, but Daisy said, "That won't be necessary ma'am." as he buckled the back on the guy's knee, grabbed Brandon, and ran out of the restaurant.
The guy's buddy followed them out of the store, and he chased them as Brandon used his magic to drop random things in his path. After he dropped a hot dog stand in his way, Daisy pulled Brandon into an alley and they quietly watched the man run right by them. Once the coast was clear, they made their way out and Daisy paid for the hot dogs they had wasted.
Brandon once again was captivated by his shining smile, and thanked him for handling them. Daisy replied, "It was nothing. I just hate guys like them. Prejudiced and ignorant." Not to mention annoying. They laughed at the guys they had beaten up as they made their way to an ice cream shop, where Daisy bought Brandon rainbow sherbet without him asking. He obviously knew everything about Brandon, so he wanted to know more about him too.
He remained quiet for a while before asking if telling Brandon about his past would change the way he saw him, but there was only one way to find out the answer to that question. Daisy obliged as he began his monologue of his life.
"It isn't as exciting as you think it is. My sperm donor left before I was even born, leaving my mother to raise me by herself with that weak body of hers. Soon enough, she left me alone too, but it wasn't like she had a choice on whether she wanted to stay on Wisteria or not."
"With my mom gone," he continued, "I moved in with her mother. She absolutely hated my guts and would've killed me herself if her lungs didn't do her in first." Brandon grabbed his hand as he thought of his own grandmother, and it made Daisy smile a bit as he talked.
"It's funny, though. I bawled my eyes out until I passed out when I got my mom's ashes, but I didn't even feel sad at that old lady's funeral and without any more living relatives, I was put in the system when I was 12, but I broke out after I made my contract with Hermes. After I left, I managed to wipe myself completely off the grid using a library computer."
"Part of destroying my existence was giving myself a new name. At first, I went by nothing, really, but the more powerful I got, and the more people recognized my talent, the more I thought of my mom and how proud she would be of me. And so, at 17 years old, I named myself Daisy. Her favourite flowers. Then one fateful night, a drunk terrorist spilled all the beans to me, and suddenly the whole planet was after me. I became a ghost, but somehow a bright 15 year old found me."
He kissed Brandon's hand again as he asked him how he did it, but Brandon wasn't impressed by his own actions. He was always teased for being a bookworm and computer geek, but then again he never really cared for others' opinions of him. This allowed him to sharpen his skills and that was all there was to it. Daisy still praised him until they arrived in front of a hotel?
Brandon reminded him how he said he wasn't going to eat him, but Daisy claimed he wasn't as he checked into the hotel. Meanwhile, everything about the hotel was angelic. The chandeliers that led to the reception desk, the waterfalls on the walls which poured their water into the ponds full of fish below, and the softest couches in the world to top it all off. However, Brandon wasn't staying in the lobby as Daisy pulled him along by his hand to the elevator.
He carefully watched his every move as Daisy acted indifferent to the tension during the ride up. He thought it wasn't his first time collecting a payment like this, but he was more focused on keeping the loud thumping of his heart as low as he possibly could. However, it simply raced faster and faster with every passing floor, and by the time they got to their floor, it was about to burst out of his chest.
Daisy walked down the hall while still holding Brandon's hand as he struggled to calm his stupid heart down. He opened the door and asked Brandon if he liked the spacious room, and he said he did as he mentally prepared himself for what was coming next. Daisy smiled at him and his heart rate shot through the ceiling as he told him to close his eyes. Brandon obeyed, slightly scared of what was to come.
He felt a kiss on his forehead and something being put in his hands before Daisy told him to open his eyes. The room's keys were in his hand and Daisy told him to stay in the hotel for the night and leave on the first flight to Olympia in the morning. Wasn't he going to- "Maybe when you're 18," he giggled, "I'm wanted for having information I'm not supposed to have, not sleeping with minors. No matter how cute they are." He kissed him one more on the forehead before he bid him good night and a "happy early birthday" before leaving.
Astonished, Brandon simply fell back onto the soft, cloud-like bed and tried to make sense of his evening. Was everything really a birthday present or did he like him? He said he would sleep with him when he was 18, so that meant he just liked him, right? Daisy was in love with him. That had to be the case. He had a crush and was trying to impress him. That's what it was. "More like you have a crush on him." Apollo said to his magician.
That couldn't be. Brandon? In love? That's not even funny as a joke. If anything, Daisy was in love with him, not the other way around. "Whatever you say," Apollo smirked, "Just saying he's a humongous upgrade from that prick, but that's not why you summoned me, is it?" He had done it unconsciously, so he didn't know why he called on him.
"I can read your thoughts, Brandon," the Magi started, "You may bury them down as much as you like, but deep down, you're worried about Kiara, aren't you." Him? Why would he be worried about a monster?
Apollo remained silent as Brandon called Kiara, his own little sister, a monster.
*****
Brandon looked up at the seemingly endless walls which surrounded Quod Tergora Inpenetrabiles Decipula on all sides. The endless walls had no windows and just a few ventilation vents. Prisoners wouldn't ever be able to break out, but on the other hand, they wouldn't know whether it was day or night, summer or winter. All they would know are those grey walls of their cell, their cellmate, and the face of the guards who taunted their existence.
Not very different from an animal in a lab. This never sat well with Brandon or Halley. How people like them could be treated like such wastes of space. Yeah, they had broken the law, but they were supposed to be changing themselves in order to return to the public as law abiding citizens. Treating them as if they were lesser than the average person was wrong on so many levels. Even though Brandon wanted to help everyone in there, there was only so much he could do, but one of those things was free his dad.
As Brandon was delivering his self-proclaiming monologue in his head, Halley cut into his thoughts with, "What's with that goofy get up?" He looked down at his half-tucked button down and jeans, but he couldn't see what was wrong with it. What was with her goofy get up, anyway? "I'm goofy?" she questioned. Yeah, and deaf too apparently. "That's why you're fat as abyssus." How so? "I know you ate the last cookie, you charger thief."
First of all, Brandon wasn't fat for eating one cookie, and second of all, he didn't take her charger for the trillionth time! "I'm sure you didn't, fattie." Stop calling him fat! Why did she even care about one cookie anyway? "Whatever," she declared as she looked him up and down, "You still look messy anyway." How did he look messy? Brandon turned to his grandma and asked her if she thought he looked messy.
"Hmm," she replied, "You are looking kinda neat, but I'm gonna have to side with your sister on this one." What? "Ha!" Halley teased, "~Brandon looks messy. Brandon looks messy.~" And she sounded like a siren. She sounded like a siren~.They argued back and forth until 3 guards walked out of the prison's concealed door. One in the front while the other two led the person behind the two to them.
The leading guard approached the three of them and asked, "You're here to pick up Markson?" Brandon nodded as the guard gave the signal for the other two to let go of dad. "Good luck in the real world, Jeb. The guys and I are all gonna miss you." "Of course y'all are." he replied to them as they made their way back to the endless wall, and disappeared into that concealed door.
He turned to his family and asked for a hug, and Halley ran into his arms and held him tight as he cradled his daughter in his arms. He turned to them, but grandma placed her hand reassuringly on Brandon's shoulder before going to join in on the hug. She got emotional as she hugged her son after so long, but she wouldn't have had that moment in any other way.
Jebediah turned to his first born, and asked, "What? You too cool for a hug?" but Brandon just couldn't believe it. His father was in front of him, but there wasn't a magic-proof screen separating them. He was right there! Standing in front of him, wearing the same clothes he had on when he was arrested, but his mother's blood had been washed off. He stood there, frozen in place, trying to decipher what was happening.
He knew it was going to happen, he just didn't expect it to happen so soon. He thought he was mentally prepared to see his father again, but Jebediah knew he wasn't as the dam in his eyes burst the moment he hugged his son. He hushed him as he clung to him while trying to apologize, but it was incomprehensible through his sobs of happiness, depression, and relief that came with being separated for 12 years.
"Yea, bud," he said in reply to one of Brandon's many questions, "I'm here to stay this time. There's no getting rid of me this time." Halley and grandma joined in on the hug, but it was mostly Maya comforting her son and grandchildren while trying not to cry too much herself. However, she understood how they felt and cleared her throat before saying, "We can't be doing this here. Let's go home."
*****
Jebediah walked into his third pole on his first day of freedom as he let his children blindfold him while they walked back to their house. "You okay?" Halley asked, but it was obvious he wasn't. He just walked into an electrical pole. Most people aren't okay after walking into electrical poles, nor would they ask such stupid questions. Then again, Halley was dumber than the average human.
"We're here!" Maya announced, preventing Halley from punching her older brother in the face. They carefully walked him through the door before leaving him there and starting the countdown at three. Two. One! He took off his blindfold and was met with his family and four recognizable yet unfamiliar faces. "Welcome Back!" they shouted as he tried to fight his tears back. He was finally home.
"Welcome home, big man," Mateo declared as he embraced his best friend he hadn't been able to touch for 12 years. Sarah was carrying Brianna when Jebediah embraced her and lifted Brianna high into the air. The 4 year old giggled as she was turned round and round, and almost fell over after being placed on solid ground. "Sup, uncle Jeb," Rebecca said as she obviously tried to hide her happiness and excitement.
He also picked her up and said how, "You were Brianna's height when I last picked you up like this, you know. Stop trying to be an adult. Adulting sucks!" He spun her around a few times as well, and she ended up in the same predicament as Brianna afterwards. He then walked up to Grandma Bao and called her auntie as they embraced each other for the first time. Britney and her grandmother and father had moved nearby when she was 7, and by that time he was behind bars.
They, however, had gotten so close to the Marksons and Spirkos that they were considered part of their giant family. Naturally, grandma Bao often visited Jebediah and that's how they got to know each other. Though she had no magic, the 24 year old's gaze was the most intimidating on that planet. Brandon once asked her how old she really was, but he never asked again after he questioned her sarcastic answer of "24".
He later found out she was 70, but he kept it to himself, fearing another slap to the head and butt. She always smacked the back of the head, which would leave the butt exposed and, bam! It's over before you know it and everything hurts. Not even uncle Yang Yang, the trained former government assassin, or Britney, the assassin in training, messed with her, and for good reason.
After greeting them all, Jebediah turned to Michaelangelo and Louis, but they all laughed when Michael's voice cracked when he congratulated him. He was obviously nervous, but he had them to thank for getting him out of that hell hole. Besides, they weren't his target. Michael was Yang Yang's and Louis was Mateo's, but Brandon doubted either father would notice their affection for their daughters.
(1) Yang Yang was in his dense, not-deadly mode most of the time, (2) Louis and Rebecca weren't even official yet, and (3) neither of them were Jebediah's target. Kylian was.
The room went silent as Jebediah walked up to his daughter's boyfriend and asked him what his name was. Halley cut in, telling him how he couldn't speak, and only used sign language. She even offered to translate, but Jebediah asked Brandon to instead. He agreed in the same serious tone as his father, and asked Kylian what his name was again.
"My name is Kylian Louvre, sir." he translated. Age? "I'm 17, sir." And he was dating a 16 year old? "Yes, sir." He reminded them how they would need to break up as soon as he turned 18, but Kylian simply signed, "I have no intention of having a sexual relationship with your daughter until we are both of age, sir. With that in mind, I do not plan on breaking up with her, sir." Brandon even giggled at the sight of his little sister blushing like a tomato, but Jebediah's expression didn't change.
"That means you hope to marry my daughter in the future, does it not?" He asked the boyfriend, and Kylian hoped he would be able to marry her in the future. To most, that would be an adorable confession of love. To Brandon's father, however, that was an opportunity to test Kylian's love for his daughter. That was where Halley got her sly ways of interrogating from.
"Since that's the case," he began, "then it is customary the father gets a present prior to the engagement." The abyssus it was! Brandon knew damn well he had pulled that out of somewhere the sun didn't shine, but Kylian still handed him a present. He handed the small box to him as he apologized for not being prepared for such a custom. He promised to bring another present, but dad said it was fine. Why did he suddenly change his mind?
Brandon peered over his shoulder along with everyone else and exclaimed at the car keys in the box. Kylian had gotten his girlfriend's dad a car? Why? Why would he go that far? "I thought you might need a car to drive to work. I hope it's to your liking." he signed as he blushed, but it was obvious dad was slowly becoming more and more obsessed with Kylian with every passing minute. To cover it up, he turned to Brandon and asked, "Why can't you bag a good man like your sister here?"
Excuse me? He was about to murder this man if he had the chance, but he suddenly loved him after getting a car. That's bribery! And to make matters worse, Halley decided to announce, "Yea~ Brandon~ Why can't you?~" as she walked arm in arm with Kylian to the dining room for the feast Rebecca, Louis, and Sarah had made as the others decorated.
"So, where's Kiara?" dad asked, and everyone fell silent. The other parents were told she was just missing, but the kids knew the whole story and shared it with them. It was mostly Brandon telling his dad how they tracked the bombing of AMA back to Aaron Moore before they found out Chadwick was the leader of the Saviours, and ended with a stoic expression as he described how she disappeared into thin air.
Mateo asked how they were so indifferent on the matter, and Michaelangelo told them, "We already tried looking for her, but we couldn't find her." They expressed their worry at the news, but Brandon told them not to worry. After all, someone as powerful as she couldn't kick the bucket after taking one hit. She was fine.
*****
"Just pick one already!" Louis exclaimed, "You have been standing in front of that mirror for the last 15 minutes, and the suit has yet to shapeshift! That should be a sign of some sort!" It wasn't about shape shifting. It was about the angles, not that Brandon expected someone as fashionably indifferent as Louis to understand. This was the first ball he had been invited to, and he wanted to look good. Was that too much to ask for?
He turned to Axel and asked him for his opinion on the matter, but he was too busy playing video games with Kylian to pay attention. His eyes glowed as the entire console and tv shut down, causing both of them to turn and actually pay attention to him. "It looks good!" Axel commented, and Kylian agreed as Brandon turned their stuff back on. "You trying to impress that Daisy guy, or something?" Louis asked, but it wasn't true.
Why would he try to impress someone like him anyways? "One, because you like him, two, you're blushing, and three, aren't you two dating already?" Just because they hang out a bunch of times and Brandon always had a good time with him doesn't mean they were dating or that Brandon was in love with him. He had sworn to himself he would never fall in love after his ex-boyfriend cheated on him with a girl and outed him when Brandon confronted him.
From that day forward, the twin declared he would never love another human being in the same way, but Kylian signed, "That isn't very fair. Grouping all humans with trash like him wouldn't be fair at all. From what I've heard about Daisy from you, it sounds like he's a really good guy, and you really shouldn't compare him to that trash bag." "He's right," Axel added, "Take a chance with him. You never know, he might be your future husband~"
Brandon wanted to believe their words, but the trauma just ran too deep for those words to have much of an effect on him. He was beyond repair, but he did feel himself slowly getting better when he was with Daisy. In fact, he confessed to him on their last "hang out", and he added, "I'll wait for your brain to catch up to your heart, so I can have both," but just how long would he be willing to wait?
What if he went with a girl as he waited for Brandon's answer? What if he answered too late and lost Daisy forever? What if- "Brandon!" Louis yelled into his ear. What? What did he want? "I asked you who your +1 is. Michael's is his aunt, Kylian is bringing Rebecca's stepmom since I'm bringing Brianna, and she's bringing her dad, so who are you bringing?" His grandma. Who else would he bring? She was obsessed with royalty anyway, so it'd be a dream come true for her.
"I thought you would say Daisy." Axel said disappointedly as Kylian and Louis agreed. Halley was taking their dad, and they had arranged to go to the ceremony this way so they could experience the ball as a family, and none of them had seen Kiara in months. She had reappeared as quickly as she disappeared and as promised, Kylian was the first to know. They said she was fine, and that's why they were still carrying out the party, but this was all strange.
"I was taken to the palace of the South," Kylian explained, "and there she was, but she seemed … different. It was like something had happened to her while she was gone, but I just couldn't put my finger on it." Different? Was she back then? The Kiara Brandon knew, and not that monster she was on that day. If that was the case, then he had nothing to fear. He thought different meant her going back to her happy-go-lucky damsel-in-distress character.
He didn't think it meant her breaking off her engagement to the guy she had liked since the day they met. The entire ballroom bursted out with murmurs and whispers at her announcement while Brandon' s brain ran wild.
Was she announcing her identity as the Dark Creator's magician because she planned on destroying the world? Did she make this decision herself? Or was the Dark Creator making her do this? Did it plan on using her and the Light Creator's magician to destroy the world? It wouldn't even need the Light Creator's power to do that. Kiara alone was enough. Why now? Right when he thought he was free of that monster. Why?
Halley pulled him up by his shoulder and dragged through the ballroom to the hallway outside as she declared, "We're going to talk to her and get to the bottom of this. For her to do something like this without telling us, something must've happened." She was right. This wasn't like Kiara at all, and if it was the Dark Creator's doing, then it was up to them to save her from such an evil presence in her life.
***
They paced back and forth in the hallway as Britney and Michael comforted a clearly broken William. Sure he had treated her horribly in the past, but she still loved him. Everyone knew that, so why? Why did she break off the relationship? What happened while she was in Magiterra?
"You seek a private audience with me?" Even her way of talking had changed, and so did the way she walked. She seemed more arrogant and poised with her new walk, and Brandon didn't like it. "Why did you break off the engagement?" William asked as he rose to his feet. "It is as I said before," she explained with her cold tone and equally cold eyes, "Neither you nor I are in love with each other, so a union in matrimony would only do more harm than good."
"That isn't fair." Louis pointed out, "We know you love him, and you have no idea how he was without you here. He was a train wreck." "You're right," she started, but the atmosphere of the entire hallway dropped as she spoke. "I do have no idea how he was when I was not here. I only know how he was with me when I was here, and it is apparent he does not love me." Rebecca tried to cut in, but when she did, the words wouldn't come out of her mouth as her hands flew to her throat.
Louis, angered, tried to use his magic, but he too also fell onto the ground, gasping for air as the princess continued. "None of you love me. You simply love my presence in your lives. You love me as the care-free, overly happy little sister, and fear me as my true self. There are only 12 people on this planet who love me. I have killed one with my own hands and lost another." Rebecca and Louis both started breathing again as she finished up with, "None of you are a part of the other 10."
She turned to leave as they all sat there, unable to rebuttal to her claims. Brandon was scared of her. There was nothing to argue about there. They all were, as they looked at Rebecca and Louis gasping for air. None of them moved a muscle until William got up and grabbed her when she was by the door. "I'm sorry," he said, "but I love you."
The next thing they knew, William was sent flying down the hallway as Kiara opened the ballroom doors and told them to "Enjoy the party." Though he took a hard hit when he banged his head against the wall, he was okay. Physically speaking. Mentally speaking, he wasn't okay at all. Neither was Brandon. All the thoughts in his brain rushed around so fast and he couldn't focus on any of them. Britney placed her hand on his, and asked him, "Are you okay?" and he said he was.
"What just happened?" Halley asked worryingly. "I'm not sure," Axel replied, "Kiara just-" No. That person couldn't be the same person in Brandon's memories. That wasn't Kiara. That was a monster of immeasurable power.