;3
"WAKE UP!"
The bluenette cracked open an eye to see a way to exicted blond. She rolled her head to where her clock was and growled, "Lok. Do you realize what time it is?"
The boy whinced at the older woman's tone and chuckled, "Um . . . 6:30 am?"
"Come get me in four hours. Then maybe, just maybe, I won't kill you," she rolled back into her pillow.
"Alright Zhalia. See you in four hours!" Lok cheered, exiting the large bedroom.
As he made his way back to the living room, Sophie sat in her usual spot with a book in hand, Den and Harrison playing video games on the TV, and Cherit was shaking his carefully wrapped presents.
"Zhalia kicked you out?" Sophie observed, turning the page of her book.
"Yep. Hey can I have a turn playing?" Lok flopped onto the couch.
"Sure, right after I beat Harrison!" Den yelled with Harris protesting that he was the one who was going to win.
Lok watched the twins fight against each other until the power went out.
"Oh come on! I was so close!" Den groaned, while Harrison blew a sigh of relief.
"Don't worry. The back up generator should start working any moment now," Cherit reassured, pressing his ear to the blue snowflake wrapped box.
"Wait! If the powers down . . . We can wake up Zhalia!" Lok gasped.
"And why would we want to wake her up? We all know she loves that bed more than anything in the world," Sophie snorted.
"Sophie, Sophie, Sophie. You do not understand my logic. If we wake up Zhalia, we can open our presents!" Lok exclaimed.
"I'm on board with that!" Den agreed, standing up.
"Aye!" Cherit flew over to Lok's shoulder.
Sophie and Harrison shared a look before nodding. "So how are we going to wake her up?" Harrison asked.
Lok mused for a moment then slammed his fist onto his palm. "I got it! I'll go and wake her up and tell her that four hours have passed! Then she'll have no reason to stay in bed!"
"Or we could tell Zhalia that the power went down and the back up generator isn't working. Because it isn't," Sophie stated.
"Her idea is better. Less of a chance of being-"
"Then we place a spell on her door so she's forced to come into the living room!"
"-never mind, we're dead," Den finished.
"But aren't we suppose to wait for Dante to get here to open our presents?" Sophie mentioned.
"Sophie."
"Yeah, Lok?"
"Please stop talking."
"But Sophie is right. Zhalia won't let us open our presents until Dante gets here," Harrison piped in.
Lok stared at three other teenagers and sulked, "Do you people even want to open your presents?!"
"Yes we do. But Zhalia is going to use everything she can to sleep," Cherit consoled the pouting boy.
"Wait! Does anyone know any location spells?!" Den asked.
"I'm learning one right now, but the only people who actually know how to use them correctly, are Dante and Zhalia," Sophie confessed.
"Good enough! Quick start practicing!" Den clapped.
Harrison grabbed the phone and quickly dailed something. The others looked at him strangely but figured out what he was doing.
"We need you over here now," Harrison told the person he called.
The person on the other end sounded familiar and Harrison sighed, "The powers down and Zhalia may or may be not missing."
The voice freaked out while Harrison gave them a thumbs up. "No, no, Dante calm down. You don't need to commit another heroic death. When we went to her room to ask her to check the back up generator, she wasn't there. Oh my, calm down! Lok try to talk some sense in to him!"
Harrison handed him the phone and Lok carefully pulled it up to his ear. "Where is she?!" Dante rushed.
"We know Zhalia's most likely in the house, but we have no clue where," Lok glared at Harrison.
"Well I would use a location spell to come over to you guys but I'm a little busy. Raypluse!" Dante shouted.
"Are you okay?" Lok asked.
"Yeah, suprise attack from the Organization. I'm here though. Amourbrand!" Dante ordered.
"Do you want us to come over and help?!" Lok glanced around the room.
"Nah, you focus on finding Zhalia. Woah! Solwing! Metagolem! I got this. Merry Christmas!" Dante hung up.
"Well. Dante is currently fighting off the Oragnization. Do they ever take a vacation?!" Lok reported.
"Where is he?" Cherit asked.
"I think he's in Vince but I'm not sure. But geez this is the slowest back up generator ever!" Lok answered.
"But we do know where Zhalia is. She's in her room," Sophie pointed out, "so the lie you guys made up is now useless."
"Not exactly. Remember that the power is currently down? We can lock her in there!" Harrison revealed.
"Now we know why you did so well in Bloodsprial," Den whistled.
"But that leaves one question. Who's going to wake Zhalia up?" Cherit tapped his chin/scruff.
"I can't do it. I have to lock the door," Sophie went back to her book.
"She said that she would kill me if I woke her up again," Lok added.
"You wanna wake her up?"
"2 out of 3. Whoever loses has to wake her up."
The twins began to play rock-paper-scissor-shoot with Harrison breaking their tie at the end. With Den groaning, they made their way to Zhalia's room.
Den knocked on the door carefully and cracked the door open slightly. Good thing too, because a vase shattered against the door.
"Um, it's me, not Lok. So please don't throw anymore things at me," Den squeaked.
Now opening the door, they saw a grumpy Zhalia sitting in the middle of her bed, pillow ready to suffocate anyone who dared near her.
"What."
Den winced. Usually the woman was nicer(in her own way) to them, but it was common knowledge that only Dante could wake Zhalia up, uninjured.
"The powers went out. And the back up generator hasn't started up again," Den reported, sweating.
"Did you call Dante and ask him?" Zhalia sat her pillow back down.
"Yes we did, but he was kinda in the middle of fighting some Organization goons so he couldn't really tell us anything . . ." Den chuckled, praying that she wouldn't throw anything at him.
"And you want me to check it. Get out of my nice, comfy, warm bed and into the horrid, icy, world that has a Sophie in it," Zhalia raised her eyebrow.
"Please? I was playing a video game and I was so to beating Harrison! Please?" Den begged.
"Fine, since it's Christmas," Zhalia grumbled, climbing out of the bed.
Den watched her grab one of Dante's many, many, many trench coats(seriously how many of those does he have?!) and put it on.
"Come on. Let's get this over with," Zhalia trudged carefully around the shattered pieces of the vase, out of the room with the twins following her.
"Wait here, I'll turn on the generator in a minute," Zhalia pointed at the living room.
"How did you live?" Lok asked as soon as they sat down.
"She threw a vase at the door. A freaking vase," Den gasped.
"Where's Sophie?" Harrison hissed.
"I summoned Kipperin to fly her behind Zhalia. Once she's in the room, Sophie will close the door and put a sealing spell on the room," Lok explained.
"Yeah and once she's finished, she'll try to kill us for this," Sophie landed back into the room.
Lok recalled for Kipperin as they waited for strings of curses. None came.
"Um. Okay. She would be yelling about how she was going to kill us by now," Harrison watched the power flicker on.
"Maybe she used Thought Specter?" Cherit suggested.
"Let's check her room then," Sophie nodded.
The group creeped back to Zhalia's room. Cherit flew in and reported, "No Zhalia Moon."
"Okay, now I feel like I'm in a horrible movie now," Den muttered.
A few seconds screams of curses from the room where the back up generator broke the peace of the house.
"Well at least we know where she is," Lok said, proud of the plan.
"And how she's going to kill us. Worse no one will know. Zhalia doesn't leave bodies," Harrison shuddered, the threats getting more creative.
"Can she really kill us with a paperclip?" Sophie asked, after one of Zhalia's threats mentioned using a paperclip.
"I can show you all if you want," a venom filled voice barked.
The group slowly turned around to find one dust and cobweb covered Zhalia Moon. That was pissed off.
"It was Lok's idea," Den pointed at the older boy.
"Yeah, but you guys didn't stop me!" Lok protested.
"I don't care whose idea it was. Go back to the living room while I take a shower. You'll all get your punishment when Dante gets here," Zhalia sighed, making her way through the group.
"Wait. Zhalia if you don't mind me asking, how did you get out?" Sophie stopped their super advisor from escaping them.
"Oh, I just walked out through the magically sealed door," Zhalia replied sarcastically. "If you didn't notice, I'm covered in cobwebs and dust. I used the air vents."
Shutting the door rather harshly, the group raised their attention to an open air vent.
"Well that's useful information," Den whistled.
;3
After Zhalia finished her shower and she unhooked the TV and began picking it apart.
Den looked sick, Harrison looked like he was about to cry, Cherit was very confused, Sophie was a bit amused, and Lok asked the question they all were thinking, "What are you doing?"
Zhalia grumbled at her hair and scarf and pushed the garment over her shoulders and tied her hair back. "Part one of your punishment."
"Hey, get me my tool kit," Zhalia muttered.
A flash of green light and Gareon trodded off the get what his master needed.
When he returned Zhalia shook her head, "No, not those kits. My other kit."
Gareon nodded then dragged the beat up case that had marks that suspiciously looked like bullet holes.
Pulling another case, Gareon climbed over and settled next to Zhalia. She bent down and pulled it on the other side of her. "Thank you, Gareon."
After opening it, Zhalia made quick work of destorying the TV.
"Why are you destorying the TV? We need that for missons," Den whimpered.
"Holotomes."
"What about beating Harrison at video games?"
"You can do that while sparring."
"Watching TV?"
"Go to Sophie's."
Den didn't give up though, until Zhalia picked up a lamp. Then he shut his mouth.
"Tell her," Lok whispered to Harrison.
"About what?"
"About what you said to Dante!"
"Oh. Um, Zhalia?" Harrison caught onto what he was talking about.
"Yes?"
"I maybe kinda told Dante that you're missing . . ." Harrison confessed.
"Why?"
"So he'll get here faster and we can open our presents."
"So you want me to hide?" Zhalia looked up from whatever she was doing to the TV.
"Yes please," Lok nodded.
"Can I take the TV with me?"
"No."
"Argh. Fine I'll hide. Maybe take a nap," Zhalia placed the gutted TV under the couch and returned Gareon into his amulet.
Then she disappeared. And in the nick of time too, because Dante almost tore the door off when he entered.
"Where is Zhalia?" he panted.
"No clue," Den shrugged.
"And where's the TV?" Dante looked at the blank spot where the TV used to be.
Sophie became way to interested in her book, Lok began to play around with a puzzle, Den and Harrison betegan to play chopsticks, and Cherit fell asleep.
Dante sighed and removed his coat. "Zhalia! You can come out now! Theh won't bug you about their presents anymore!"
Silence.
Dante pulled out his Holotome and scanned the building, most likely using it to look for her. Nothing.
"Are you guys going to help me or just do nothing?" Dante looked over the group.
"We have confidence in you Dante!" Lok grinned.
Their mentor groaned and began to search for the blue haired woman. When he was out of earshot, the window slid open and Zhalia climbed inside.
Pulling out the TV under the couch, she went back to gutting it's contents.
"Seriously what did you guys do to- do I even want to know?" Dante walked back into the room a few minutes later.
"They locked me in the back up generator room. This is part one of their punishment," Zhalia responded calmly as she ripped out some wires.
"Um okay . . . I'm guessing you lied about her missing?" Dante gave his partner a strange look but didn't stop the death of the TV.
"Harrison's idea," Lok finished his puzzle.
"Can we open our presents now or do we need to wait for Zhalia to finish killing the TV first?" Den asked, the match between the brothers growing hostile.
"Don't wait on my behalf. Go ahead," Zhalia finished the murder of the TV and was now building something. "Go get my uh, stuff."
Gareon appeared at the call and raced into the kitchen.
Dante sat down next to the former spy and looked over at her handiwork.
"That better not be what I think it is," he warned.
"Oh relax, I know what I'm doing. Blotflare," Zhalia snorted, taking the things that Gareon had retrived.
The teenagers paid no attention to them. Cherit tore his gift open to a tiny little coat, Sophie got more books and a black choker, Den and Harrison got candy and more video games, and Lok got more puzzles.
"Alright kiddos. Now you have about five minutes to disarm this bomb. Go," Zhalia tossed them the thing she had been working on.
"What?!" Sophie screeched.
"Zhalia what did I say about making bombs?" Dante looked at her.
"It's a smoke bomb, don't worry," Zhalia whispered back.
She handed him a piece of paper while he gave her a small box.
The paper had all of his titans draw, with him in the center, rising Malestorm's amulet. Megagolem was behind him, Caliban to his left, Ariel to his right, Dark Triton stood near the top left egde of the paper, Elf King Oberon near the top right egde, a Freelancer near the bottom, a Hoplite next to the lance holding titan, Ignatius under them with lava spewing, then Umbra crouching next the the Hoplite.
"Wow. Th-thank you. This must of took you a lot of time to make," Dante held the picture carefully like it would break at any moment.
"I had some free time on my hands. Oh I almost forgot. I found something familiar on one of my missons. Remember him?" Zhalia drew an amulet out of her pouch and handed it to him.
Immediately it bonded to him, a familiar feeling of loyalty blooming from the titan.
"Solwing . . . Where did you find him?" Dante gasped, cradling it like a baby.
"You don't want to know. Trust me," Zhalia muttered, rolling her shoulder at the memory.
"Open your gift," Dante urged.
Zhalia complied and couldn't hide her shock and pleasure.
Inside the box was a small notebook and some pens but that wasn't why she was so pleased. In the box held a key to the house she was currently in.
"Now you can stop sneaking in through the windows," Dante bumped her with his shoulder.
"But where's the fun in that?" Zhalia bumped him back, to his surprise.
"Gah!"
The adults looked up to see Lok fumbling with the smoke bomb, accidently setting it off.
"Zhalia."
"Hm?"
"No more bombs. I already know that you planted them around the house, and it's only a matter of time till I find them, got it?"
"No promises."
;3
A/N- meant to post this on Christmas but my phone decided that it hated me and wouldn't do anything. and you can't tell me that Zhalia doesn't know how to make a bomb from a TV. Klaus raised her remember? Happy Holidays!!