I took a deep breath as I walked into the cafe with Kelsie in tow. The smell of rich coffee was enough to wake me up just a bit, but I knew I was gonna need some more soon.
I quickly walked up to the counter and ordered a matte and an oatberry muffin before walking over to a table and waiting for Kelsie and her order.
She walked back over to me with a cold brew of sorts and sat down in front of me in the booth.
My phone pinged with a text from Axton as she sat down. 'Just woke up. Be safe and call me if you need anything, my warrior. Naya has been laying on the window seat watching for you to come home.' with his text was a picture of Naya, curled up and watching outside.
"What are you looking at?" Kelsie asked suddenly and I repressed the small jump of surprise I knew almost happened.
"Naya is being a pouty baby and watching for me to get home, Axton just sent me a picture," I turned to flash the picture of Naya.
"Aw, she's precious," she said, smiling at me as I put my phone away. "What breed is she? She's huge!"
I paused. I forgot that no one other than Axton knew that Naya was full wolf. It was slightly illegal to own a wolf as a pet. But Kelsie wouldn't turn me in, right?
"She's actually one hundred percent wolf," I watched the surprise in her eyes as she stared at me. "I found her after my second caretaker passed," I smiled at the memory of first meeting Naya. "She was stubborn. Somehow, she had gotten injured and I brought her back to my house from their burial site and fixed her up. She was very malnourished and when she was better, I tried to let her go. When I started crying, already missing my new family member, she came back and licked my tears away and cuddled up to me. She was the only family I had when it felt like the world was turning away from me."
I looked up to see her small smile. "That's really cool, Serenity," her face turned serious again and I knew what question was coming.
"When I was seventeen," I started, startling her with my quick ability to detect the change in her thoughts. "My parents were brutally murdered by a some group that my father had been working for. I don't know the specifics of everything he did," I said, reaching for her hand for comfort as I thought about that night again. I relaxed slightly as I felt her squeeze my hand. "But I do know that he had done something...bad. They called him and my mother traitors. I was young and naive, too much to understand what was happening at the time. When they saw me, it seemed to surprise them all, as if I was some very well-kept secret," I scoffed. I knew that I was, we lived in the middle of nowhere and I was never allowed outside the house. She didn't have to know that yet though. I still was unsure if I could fully trust her.
"They had tried to figure out how much I knew, but their leader got stabbed in the back, literally. I ran. I had no sense of where I was going. I was scared and knew that if I was caught that they would kill me. I hid in an old abandoned cabin and remember just the feeling of their leader being right there in front of me. It was horrifying. I stayed there for forever, I am still unsure how long it was.
"When I went back, David and the police were there and they had been looking for me. My parents had already been pronounced dead by the time I went home. I remember the funeral all too well, we buried them next to the place that kept me safe and offered me sanctuary. David took over as my caretaker then."
Kelsie stared at me and raised her other hand to wipe my cheek. I hadn't even noticed I had been crying. "I know this is probably hard, but talking about it will only make it easier. How about David, you said he had died as well, right? What happened to him?"
I smiled lightly. "I was eighteen. It was the anniversary of the murder of my parents. David had stayed at home while I went to visit my parents down the path we had made. I hadn't been there long when I heard the gunshots. I ran home and watched him get shot in the head before my body reacted." I tensed up. I felt another solitary tear slide down my cheek. "Have you ever killed someone, Kelsie?" I asked.
Her body immediately froze, I took it as not expecting a question like that.
"Well, I hope you never have to experience something like that. I felt dirty for years afterward. The man who showed up was someone I recognized from the night my parents were killed. My powers allow me to form objects, and in that moment, I wanted him to feel the pain that my father felt when that dagger of light went through his head. I copied it easily and did the same thing to him." I felt Kelsie's hand tense and I gave it a tiny squeeze. "I don't remember how I sent him back to that group, it was just like instinct. What made me feel so much worse after is just how...good it made me feel. It was like some part of my mind craved for the blood to be spilled. It was hard, you know?"
"I do, more than you will ever understand," she said. I let her hand go and took a shaky sip of my matte. The taste of coconut and green tea was soothing.
"So, how did your parents find you?" Kelsie asked me as she broke the silence.
"They actually found me on the side of the road," I chuckled. I saw Kelsie have a slightly surprised face as I continued. "My mom and dad were on their way home from the clinic, my mom had problems keeping pregnancies to term, and she had stillborns if she kept them to term. She saw me in a carrier and told Dad to stop the car. They took me to the police after feeding me to find out if anyone had placed a report for a missing child, once they found none that matched me, they took me home and formally adopted me. The named me ironically," I said, a laugh bubbling out. "When I was a baby, I was definitely the opposite of serene. I was wild and loud. They said I used to cry for no reason whatsoever but because I could," I smiled and looked at the tiny smile on Kelsie's face.
"They must have really loved you," she said and I could hear the sadness in her voice.
"They would have given me the world if I let them. It's the one thing I'm certain of about why my dad started working with those people," I smiled again before speaking. "That he did it because he loved me and wanted me to have the world. That he did it because he knew it was the only way to keep me safe."
We chatted for what felt like only a few minutes, but was actually a few hours. We ordered some soups for lunch so we could continue talking. The bell above the door rang out and I looked up at Axton as he smiled at me. I jumped up and ran into his arms.
"Well, hello there, my little warrior," he said. "I would love to always have this type of greeting." I pulled back and lightly hit him, only gaining a small chuckle as I led him back to Kelsie and my food.
I smiled at her as I sat and scooted over far enough for him to be able to sit with us.
"Who's this, Serenity?" she asked.
"Kelsie, this is Axton, my boyfriend. Axton, this is Kelsie, my sister that I told you about." I said.
"Nice to meet you," he said and shook her hand. Kelsie was staring at his eyes strangely.
"Is something the matter, Kelsie?" I asked as she continued to search his eyes for something before her phone rang with the name "Victoria" on the screen. I tensed up and I felt Axton grab my hand and rub small circles on the back as he returned her stare.
"No, it's nothing at all. Listen, I have to go," she said, picking up her bag. "I'll see you soon, okay?" I nodded before calling out to her.
I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote my number onto it. "Here, if you ever want to meet up again, just send me a text or give me a call." I smiled at her as she gave her farewell and quickly exited the cafe.
"Well, that was interesting," I said as Axton continued watching her walk out. "What's wrong, Anata?" I asked.
"She was searching my eyes for the meta ring."
I froze and tensed up. "I didn't tell her anything about you or your powers. Nor much about my own. She must know I have them because she is also a meta."
"Please, promise me you'll be careful, okay?" He asked and turned to me. "I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about her. Just promise you won't do or tell her anything that will give us away, okay?"
I smiled up at him as he pressed a kiss to my temple. "Of course, Anata. If that's what you want, I'll keep her at arm's length until our mission is over, okay?"
We walked out onto the street hand-in-hand and just looked at all of the shops with clothes and some with things I had never in my life seen or heard of before.
It wasn't much longer until we were in the car on our drive home.
"So, how much did you tell her?" Axton asked, peeking over at me before focusing back on the road.
"Umm, I told her about my parents, about David and my kill, and then we talked about Naya," I said. "I didn't go into detail about everything I could do. Especially since Shadow can obviously manipulate shadows and see futures briefly."
He nodded. "And I'm sure she didn't know who I was. She was searching for the meta eye rings. She may think I'm normal which could be beneficial if she is not to be trusted later."
"I wish I could tell her everything, Anata," I said, fixing my eyes onto the moving city around us. "I want to be closer with her and tell her about who I am. I want to trust her."
"I know you do, warrior," he grabbed my hand and gave me a light squeeze as we got closer to the house. "But we still don't know who's an enemy and who's an ally. Like that girl from last night, Dagger. Neither of us have ever heard anything about a vigilante in Atlanta. We need to do some more research into her before we can trust her at all."
I squeezed his hand back. "I hate it when you're right."
"Yeah yeah," he said, a slight chuckle in his voice as he parked the car. "But it's better than being caught with no preparation at all, my warrior."
~~~~
...Somewhere across the city…
Mikel walked down the darkened halls of the main Underground complex. The Demon Lord was not a patient man and he knew the second he had called earlier and reported that Kelsie had been meeting with someone outside of their known network that he would want him to come in with a full report. It still didn't change how annoying it was to him.
The doors into the office were darker than Mikel last remembered them being. He knew to knock and announce his presence before stepping inside. In the room, the Demon Lord was on a video call with someone very familiar to him.
He remembered following her when she ran off to Japan with her now husband and watching as she was pregnant and reporting the status of the children back to him when they were brought home. He could remember how obsessed he and Caitlyn were on if the children were meta or not. He had never understood until he saw Kelsie's power as she grew up.
"Richard, I'm never coming back, you need to accept that," Amy Akiyama spoke with so much authority that it almost made Mikel shiver, but he knew better than to show weakness in front of the boss.
The boss slammed his fist against the table in his anger. "I've done everything that you've asked. I found out what happened to your daughters, I sent aid to help your dying husband, I even sent metas to help him, and yet you're still being an ungrateful brat!"
"I'm not being ungrateful," she spoke with so much grace that it was a wonder how she didn't end up as the leader of the Underground while Richard Mortem did. "I have thanked you, I sent compensation for you in return for your help, but I have to stay here. I have a life here and my lover is here-"
"He's literally dying!" Richard said, a snort in his voice. He was definitely angry,which made Mikel's job here that much better. "Your little love affair with a normal has gone on long enough. It's long overdue that you return to where you belong."
The silence was filled by Richard's heavy breathing as he stared at Amy on his computer. She only stared back as if waiting for him to try to throw some other insult at her.
"Anything else that you want, Richard, or should I end this here?"
His anger on his features only grew. "You need to return to where you belong."
"You know I won't do that-"
"What if I promise that I'll get your daughters back to you?"
Silence was empty with his sentence. Mikel guessed that even after all these years, the man in front of him never truly got over his love for the woman.
"Then, Richard, I may consider your offer."
He heard the click of the video call ending as Richard collapsed back into the chair that had been abandoned while he was arguing with Amy.
"Sir?" Mikel finally spoke up.
"Make it fast, boy, I'm not in the mood. I have to find a sneaky little-"
"Shadow?" Mikel supplied while putting images down on the desk. "The same sneaky shadow that Kelsie has been meeting up with?"
The first image was of Kelsie leaning into the booth of Serenity with confusion evident on Serenity's face and slight panic on Kelsie's. The next of Serenity and Kelsie walking down the street, their arms linked, Kelsie was looking intently at Serenity while the girl seemed to be explaining something with bright enthusiasm. Another of them being joined by Victoria, the normal features of Richard's daughter were there twisted into confusion, Victoria looked just as confused as Keslie, and Serenity's face held a twinge of fear in them.
The final pictures had to have been from that day with both the girls sitting in a booth with Serenity's features sad with tears running and their hands intertwined, then one with a boy who had brown hair hanging loosely on his head. You could see him and Kelsie having what looked to be a staring contest.
"So, this is where my daughter has been disappearing to?" Richard sighed. "Bring my daughter to me, and make haste, I do not like to be kept waiting."
As Mikel left, a plan was forming in his mind. Kelsie seemed to be trusted by her sister, that much was obvious to him. At least to some extent, there was trust between them. He could use that to his advantage. He could continue his plan, and he could get his right hand back into the palm of his hand. He could be the leader of a world where meta never had to hide in the shadows again. He could wipe out the normals from the map and create a world where he would reign supreme with his new queen by his side. It was all just a matter of time.
The pieces of the puzzle were slowly coming together.