(7 years and 6 months ago)

At the Rivera house, Rodolfo is reading a book on the couch. As he continues to reads, he hears a knock at the door. He answered the door to see who it is; it was Maria.

"Where is he?" Maria asked in anger

"You're going to have to be more specific." said Rodolfo

"Where is Manny?" Maria asked

"He left during the night." said Rodolfo

"Where and why didn't you stop him?" Maria demanded to know

"I don't know where he is; he didn't tell me where he was going. As for why I didn't stop him, I can't do that anymore; Manny is a man now and he can make his own decisions now." said Rodolfo

"Even if those decisions involve robbing a bank and escaping with his Ancient Tiger Spirit, hanging Chakal by his underwear on the Miracle City flagpole, and writing his name on the Wall of villains." said Maria

"Yes. That all means Manny has chosen to be a supervillain instead of a superhero or simply giving up on being El Tigre all together; that's it." said Rodolfo

"How can you be so calm about this? We have to go after him now." said Maria

"No." said Rodolfo

"Rodolfo, our son is…" said Maria grabbing her hand but gets interrupted after Rodolfo let's go

"A grown man capable of making his own choices and won't come back simply because we ask him too. The only reason you're even thinking of bringing him back is because you just want him to stop being El Tigre in general. I know about the conversation you had with Manny a month before his graduation; you can't change what has already happened." said Rodolfo

"I never want to see you again." said Maria after slapping Rodolfo in the face

Maria left the house and decided to track down Manny herself. At first she tried to see if Frida knew anything, but when she arrived at the cafe where Frida was staying the owner of the cafe told her that Frida left about a week ago; she didn't say where either. She wanted to try and ask any of Manny's "regular" friends but none of them knew and some didn't care that much. Asking some of his "bad" friends was impossible since they were all villains and it's said that all if not some of them left after their secret identities were leaked. She then traveled to some of the nearby cities and towns not too far from Miracle City but found nothing on where Manny could be. She tried every method that she could thinking in locating Manny, but nothing worked.

When she arrived home, she decided to call Manny on her phone again; if anything, she's been calling his phone just to see if he would answer her, even if it was an accidental call. Once she opened the door, she could hear her guitar playing and wondered who was playing it; the sound was coming from her kitchen. When she arrived at her kitchen with her umbrella, she found Django of the Dead.

"About time you showed up." said Django of the Dead

"Django of the Dead, what are you doing here; and is that my chocolate cream pie that you're eating?" Maria asked

"First off, yes it is. Second, I disabled all the security systems so don't bother calling for help; besides, I'm not here to kidnap you or anything anyway since you're not really worth it. And third and most importantly, stop calling this phone already; it's driving me nuts." said Django eating the pie and then showing Manny's cellphone to her

"What are you doing with Manny's phone; what did you do to my son?" Maria demanded to know

"Nothing. He smashed the phone since he got a new one and I decided to keep it for myself in large part to see if he had any compromising photos, but nothing, and I'm going to use it for a big plan I have. Anyway, stop calling this number already. Bye." said Django pointing his mystic guitar at Maria then pointing it away from her to leave

"The fact that you have Manny's phone means you ran into him. What will it take for you to tell me where he is?" Maria asked

"As much as I would like to try my new "deal" hand on someone right now, you're not worth my time. I don't know where El Tigre is going and I don't care; all I did was give him something that Puma Loco gave to my nana for safekeeping in order to give it to him and that's it. Besides, he doesn't want to see you anymore." said Django

"I don't believe you." said Maria

"Believe it. When I saw him, he had the look of "I'm not coming back, mom; stop calling me already". Not that it's any of my business nor do I really care, but it seems you've lost everything that held any meaning to you. That mystical item glove that you had abandoned you to find a new owner, your ex-husband finally found someone new but deep down you hate that yet you lie to him and say that you're happy for him when you're not, and your son is not only a supervillain but you two are no longer close. That third thing is one of the reasons I didn't even involve you in trying to turn El Tigre against his family; there was no point since the connection you tried to establish with him wasn't going to last long anyway since your own failure to accept him as El Tigre was so obvious that he would eventually leave you or turn against you anyway. You may be his mother, but you were never his mommy. Your attempts to "guide him" failed." said Django mocking Maria

"Get out. Get out!" Maria shouted in anger

"Fine. Like I said, you're not worth my time and I got you to stop calling this phone. To think that someone as strong and as powerful as El Tigre, came from someone like you; no wonder people see more of his dad and grandfather than they ever did of you." said Django taking no interest in Maria

"Django left the house via a flame portal that he conjured up after strumming his mystic guitar. Once he was gone, her face changed from anger to sadness. Some of the stuff Django said to her had truth in it and she knew it; even with the stuff he didn't mention, she knows that over these past few years she has grown far apart from her son. Her hopes of guiding him have failed and it's all her fault."

(7 years and 5 months ago)

A few weeks later, Maria was getting all her stuff put into the moving van with the help of Rodolfo. They had just added the last few boxes before closing the trunk.

"Well, that's everything." said Rodolfo

"Yep. Thank you, Rodolfo." said Maria

"So, where are you going to go now?" Rodolfo asked

"Somewhere, away from all of this; somewhere, I can rethink a few things about myself. If you want specifics, I don't feel like telling you." said Maria

"Alright." said Rodolfo

"I'm surprised you're not trying to stop me." said Maria

"The last time I did that it didn't work, even though the situation back then was very different from this one. Will I ever see you again?" said Rodolfo

"I don't know. Do you know if Manny will come back?" Maria asked

"I can't say I know when that will happen." said Rodolfo

"When that happens, I'll come back; but other than that, there is nothing really keeping me here anymore. Goodbye Rodolfo; I wish you luck and I'm sorry that I slapped you." said Maria giving Rodolfo a kiss on his cheek where she slapped him

Maria got in the moving truck and drove off; she watched as Rodolfo waved goodbye to her via her mirror. As she is driving off, she takes one final look at Miracle City before leaving. As she left, she let out a few more tears in her eyes while looking at a photo of herself and Rodolfo when they were younger with a baby Manny.

While this chapter was short, it's meant to get the ball rolling with what Maria has been doing before the events of Task Force Cross and after her son became a supervillain. I'll warn you now that this is going to be a bit sad, but it's not meant to make Maria miserable; there will be happy times for her. If anything, this is meant to be the character progression that Maria should have gotten but only after it was too late in a different form.