Osaka, Japan
"Amy, are you sure you're not that tired?" a man asks his wife, holding his daughter, Nanako, in his arms. The tiny baby girls were born just a few days before this. he was bringing his family home for the first time since the twins took their first breaths of life.
"Benjiro, please calm yourself, my love," a heavily accented voice replied. Her Japanese was still a little broken, but she was working on it. "We just got here not even five minutes ago, give us some space to greet the house."
Benjiro sighed as he watched his frail and weakened wife pull the other twin out of the car. The girl they had named Kitiara cooed at her mother. Amy walked inside, cooing back at the tiny human in her arms, leaving her husband and other daughter outside by the car.
"Guess we'll have to bring the bags in, huh, Nanako?" he asked the girl in his arms. Her face lit up in a silent giggle as Benjiro smiled down at her.
He grabbed the bag and threw the strap over his shoulder, careful to keep his tiny daughter's head supported as he did so.
He heard a cry from the house and was quick to rush his way inside.
"Amy?" he called into the house, only to look to the couch and find her and Kitiara there. "Amy, love, what made you cry out like that?"
"Benjiro!" Amy waved him over excitedly to have him look at the girl propped up against her legs. Her once completely brown eyes now had rings of silver lining her pupils. "Look at her eyes, Benjiro." Amy began tearing up as she reached to pull her husband down next to her.
Benjiro tensed up at first, worried for the tiny girl in his arms, but relaxed once he saw Nanako still safely supported and starting to slip into sleep.
"Benjiro, she's like me. She's a meta!" Amy cried, tears of fear and joy staining her cheeks as she watched her bubbly daughter start to slip into sleep as well.
"Then the chances are they're both metahumans," Benjiro sighed into the air before him. Do not misinterpret here, he loves Amy and has never cared she was a metahuman, but he was worried for his newly formed family. His girls were now going to forever have to hide themselves and their abilities. "We'll have to stay extra cautious to keep them hidden, my love."
Amy's tears continued flowing as she pulled Kitiara into her arms and leaned into Benjiro. "I wish they were not brought into this world that fears people like them."
Benjiro was careful to move Nanako to the opposite arm so he could wrap his arm around his wife and their other sleeping daughter.
"I know, but all we can do now is keep them safe."
~~~
The girls woke up only a few times within the next few hours, whining for food or because they soiled themselves. They always ended up awake together, it didn't matter if they were in different rooms or not, they were always hungry together.
The second time the twins awoke, their eyes had matched each other's. Worry had struck both Benjiro and Amy, but even the worry and fear couldn't outshine the love they held for both girls.
The day had dragged on with having to change diapers and make bottles for them every so often, but not once did either of the new parents complain.
Nanako was definitely the one with the temper. Every time one of the parents did something that the baby did not like, she would cry louder than she was.
Kitiara was definitely the happier baby. She was quiet and would giggle every so often, cooing at her parents.
By the end of the day, both parents were ready to collapse as they put their daughters in their respective cribs. They had decided before this that Nanako would have the black crib and Kitiara would have the white one.
Hours had gone by with not a sound coming from either twins. Without much thought, Benjiro and Amy let the silence lull them into sleep.
The one mistake these parents could have made was not check to make sure the doors and windows were all locked. If only that could have made a difference.
Sometime in the middle of the night, a single cry was heard. Normally, you would hear both twins crying after one of them started, but there was just the sound of one of them. The parents didn't think about this when they got up to check on the twins.
A groggy Amy made her way down the hall towards the nursery with a yawning Benjiro. Once they opened the door to check on their crying Nanako, they finally realized what was happening. A woman had their twins in her arms as she lept out the window.
Benjiro and Amy screamed for help as they rushed out their door and down the street, looking for the woman with their children.
But they were gone, not even a single clue as to where they had gone.
~~~
Caitlyn jumped out of the window holding Nanako and Kitiara to where Richard was waiting below. He grabs onto her and starts teleporting the four of them across the Pacific, making stops on islands as they go.
When they reach Hawaii, Richard decides he needs to make one last jump that could tear him apart.
He looks at Caitlyn who is trying to make sure the girls say asleep. "I need you to make sure they are protected above all else. If anything happens to me leave me behind. I'll meet you at the Underground if I survive," he whispers
Her only response is a nod.
Richard grabs the girls once more and focuses on getting them to the van in California. He manages to land them right beside the van. He passes out as soon as they land.
"He made it," She says under her breath while buckling the twins into the two carseats they put in the backseat. Caitlyn grabs onto Richard, pulls him into the passenger seat, and buckles him in.
She gets into the driver's seat, starts the van, and starts driving eastward.
After driving for a little while, Richard slowly regains consciousness. As soon as he realizes he is in the van, he jolts up.
"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU LEAVE ME BEHIND! I TOLD YOU IF ANYTHING HAPPENED YOU WERE TO LEAVE ME THERE!" He yells.
"I'M SORRY OKAY?"
"WHY DON'T YOU EVER LISTEN TO ANYTHING I TELL YOU TO DO?"
"BECAUSE WE ARE EQUALS!"
"I AM THE DEMON LORD OF THE UNDERGROUND AND YOU KNOW IT!"
"WHEN YOU MARRIED ME YOU AGREED THAT WE SHARED EQUAL POWER OVER EVERYTHING THAT GOES ON!"
Their arguing eventually wakes up Nanako who starts crying from hunger.
"Please tell me you brought something to keep them quiet," Richard snarls at her.
"No, I didn't. I thought you were going to be able to get us back home before they needed anything," she snaps.
"Well I'm sooo sorry that my powers have limits that could kill me if I over reach where I'm going."
Caitlyn sighs. "Just get rid of the kid then. We need at least one of them so it doesn't matter if something happens to one of them."
"Fine. Just get her out of here. That noise is starting to give me a headache."
"I'll drop her as soon as we get out of Flagstaff. We don't want anyone finding her. She's too powerful to have anyone else know about her."
"Fine. Just hurry," Richard tells her.
Caitlyn presses the gas so that they can get rid of Nanako quicker. She didn't want to imagine how Richard would react if Kitiara woke up as well.
She waited until they got a few miles out from Flagstaff before removing Nanako's car seat from the van, walking to the back of the car, and placing her on the side of the road. As much as Caitlyn knows Richard would want Nanako to be placed far away from the road and left to die, she can't do that. Nanako was just a few days old and did not deserve for her life to end so quickly.
"Goodbye, sweetie," she whispers at Nanako. Caitlyn places a kiss on her forehead before walking back towards the minivan.
"Is she gone?" Richard snarls at her.
"She is," Caitlyn whispers.
~~~
A few miles to the west of the currently arguing couple, a grieving husband and wife drove sadly through Flagstaff on their way to their home in Cosnino.
Silence was thick on the air as they thought about the loss of their 3rd unborn child.
Takeshi and Dal Alacritas were a loving couple, but years of loss had slowly drained their mental states and the love that they had. The world they once saw as bright and multicolored was slowly draining into dull monochrome as the high of their marriage started to wear off.
Every time Dal would lean onto herself, feeling the pain of her latest miscarriage, Takeshi would reach out to her and rub small circles onto her thighs as he drove through the night. They both wanted to put as much distance between their new loss and themselves as possible before breaking down. It was a dangerous world out there, especially with dangerous metahumans on the loose.
A single silvery tear stained Dal's cheek as the couple drove on. Takeshi reached out to wipe it away before focusing on the road again.
"Just a little longer, my love, then you can cry and scream all you want," he spoke softly in her native tongue of Korean to attempt to soothe her aching heart. He knew it would fall on deaf ears as she watched the road ahead of them.
The views were all the same, but then something new appeared within the lights of their car. A small grey baby seat sat at the side of the road, looking abandoned and slightly hidden among the small shrubbery on the side of the road.
As they past, Dal took one look and saw the tiny girl within the seat, looking as if she was crying her soul out.
"TAKESHI, STOP THE CAR!" Dal screamed before her husband slammed onto the breaks in the middle of the deserted road.
The couple sat with heavy breathing being the only sounds in the car.
"Dal, you can't just-"
"There was a baby."
Takeshi stopped and looked into the panicked eyes of his wife.
"What-"
"The baby seat on the side of the road, there was a little child in it. We have to go back for her!" Dal pleaded, her eyes shining in bright panic as she grabbed the sleeve of her husband.
He listened to her ramble on for a little bit longer before putting the car in park.
"Stay here, I'll go see what all I find, okay?" Dal frantically nodded her head as Takeshi got out of the car and started to walk backwards towards where his wife had pointed. Silence of the night was hanging in the air, and as he turned to walk back, he heard a single cry. Just one that rang through the night and shattered through the silence. Then he saw the tiny child.
Her eyes were shining with tiny stars around her pupils and her hair was black as the night around her. She stared at him as he got close. He looked around her before staring at her again.
Her tiny fists were towards him, with them clenching and unclenching at him, as if asking to be carried.
Slowly, he reached to the tiny girl and lifted her into his arms. She grasped his shirt with a strong grip.
Takeshi turned around and called out into the night, looking for anyone that the girl could belong to.
A grumble was heard before the tiny girl started to cry. Takeshi bounced her lightly before taking her back to the car and passing her off to his wife and driving off.
The two didn't speak any of the situation until they had obtained something for the tiny girl to eat. The store had plenty of formula to choose from, and the man behind the counter of the convenience store was kind enough to make the bottle for them.
They got back into the car with the small girl asleep in Dal's arms as they began to drive to the police station to ask if there was anyone missing the child.
Upon arrival, the police had no one looking for a child that looked like their little girl.
So they took her home, and she grew older. They named her Serenity in irony of the amount of unrest she caused. Not once did the couple complain about the new child they had adopted into their family. When asked, they would tell people she was a gift from a higher power, just when they had lost all hope of having their own daughter.
Boy, if only they knew then how special their Serenity Rae was then. But they would learn.
And then they would hide her from the world.
~~~
Another hour or two passed with Richard unconscious in the passenger seat. Caitlyn only made one stop for gas and extra strong coffee. She knew that they needed to get as close to home as possible before he woke up.
Little movements from Richard told Caitlyn all she needed to know. Waking him up would be the best move before Kitiara woke up. Luckily, she seems to be a very mild-tempered baby unlike her sister.
"Rick, wake up, my demon. We are close enough to home that you can get us there safely," She says in a hushed voice. Trying to keep her eyes on the road, she gently shakes him.
"What? Where are we?" He looks into the back seat. "WHERE'S THE OTHER ONE?!"
"What do you mean 'where's the other one'? You told me to get rid of her hours ago?"
"NO I DIDN'T!" He roars.
"Yes you did," Caitlyn whispers.
"WITHOUT BOTH OF THEM WE CAN'T ACHIEVE OUR GOALS!"
Richard smacks Caitlyn across the face, causing her to jerk the van off the road. The van skips across a small ditch and drives straight into a tree, killing Caitlyn on impact.
Staring at his wife's broken body, the Demon Lord teleports himself out of the van and pries the sliding door open. Grabbing the one other survivor of the crash, he teleports to the Underground without looking back once.
Upon his arrival, he passes Kitiara off to Violet.
"Lord Mortem, may I ask where Lady Mortem is?" She asks him.
"She unfortunately did not make it through a crash. The two of us were lucky to survive," he answers.
"Would you like to name her sir? Afterall, she is your daughter now."
"You can name her. Just make sure she is never found out about by anyone outside of here," he orders.
"Yes sir!" She salutes him and waits until he leaves to move.
"Now, aren't you just the sweetest little thing in the entire world!" The fourteen year old tickles Kitiara while walking down the hall to the room that was designed for any heirs of Richard.
"Oh man, you need to be changed," Violet holds Kitiara away from her and places her on the changing table.
"What should I name you?" She asks Kitiara while changing her. "I feel like I should name you after who your momma would be."
Kitiara gurgles with laughter.
"You like that? Do you like that sweetheart? I think your name should be Kelsie! Kelsie Caitlyn Mortem."
A gummy smile is the newly dubbed Kelsie's response.
"I'm so glad I'm the one who gets to take care of you! We're going to get along just fine!"