Victoria was pacing back and forth anxiously. Cole and Kuo were back right after the blast. Fetch, Eugene and Aaron had returned about ten minutes ago with the new Conduits. She had asked if they had seen Nero. Fetch had just shaken her head. Then as the procession came to an end, she saw him. A raven amongst the masses, and smiling like she had never seen him do. She looked at him again, shocked, and saw whom he was with. Jealousy gripped her for all of two seconds before she realized the girl was too young for him to be interested. He had probably just taken her under his wing.
Nero looked up and saw Victoria; he left the girl to walk the extra twenty yards and teleported so he was right behind her. She was confused as to where he went, until his arms wrapped around her waist from behind. "Hey baby". She smiled and sunk into his embrace, loving the sound of happiness coming from him. Then the girl he was walking with approached them. With an awestruck look on her face she looked at Victoria.
"You must be Victoria." She said. Then stuck her hand out "I'm Jessica, Nero's little sister". The blood drained from her face.
She turned to Nero "I thought…"
He smiled sadly "Yeah me too, apparently her powers transported her away like mine did".
She looked at her and smiled. "So what can you do, little one?' Jess shook her head and shrugged.
Nero looked at Victoria, "I was hoping we could find out tomorrow after we rested and maybe informed Cole."
Victoria nodded; "Camps already set up, she can stay in the extra tent you were using, you can stay with me mister" He smiled as his little sister made a disgusted face.
After they had gotten her settled, he and Victoria laid down to rest. Soon she was passed out and he wanted to as well. But his mind kept going over what he and Jess had talked about after he had found her.
"Nero! I thought you were dead" She exclaimed through tears.
"What happened Jess?" he asked.
"I don't know, I just remember the flash then I woke up near the city. So I came in and they put me with the sick. Though I didn't feel sick anymore." He nodded. Then he felt her tense up "Nero, why are you with them?" She asked sounding pissed. He looked at her.
" I joined them so I could kill Cole. But I don't know anymore, the plague is spreading faster and the only cure is the evolutionary jump and I found a family here."
She was visibly shaking "What the fuck Nero? What about OUR family? Didn't you care about Mom, Dad and Adrian?" He looked at her coldly.
"No. The only person I cared about was you and I thought you were dead. After all the shit they put us through how could you miss them?" She was pouting and about to cry, "Please don't give me the look Jess. Look here's the thing. You survived which makes you a conduit. SO the safest place for you is with us. Okay?"
She nodded, still scared "Can you tell me about it?" she looked at his neck where he had an obvious hickey "And who gave you that?" she said with a bemused expression.
He sighed, "That would be my girlfriend, and before you ask, yes you're going to meet her." She laughed.
"Okay, but Nero. You have to promise me something"
He nodded "Anything"
"You have to kill that son of a bitch"
Sleep finally came to Nero and when he woke, the sun was just rising along with the Conduits. Victoria was still asleep so he pulled away carefully and headed to Coles main tent. It was already down and Cole was sitting against a tree with Kuo's head in his lap. He looked up to Nero expectantly, and he jerked his head to a more private area. Cole nodded and folded his jacket and put it under her head. The Demon got up and walked with Nero.
He stopped and looked at Cole "My sister's still alive" This surprised Cole and he frowned.
"I could have sworn you were the only Conduit in that area," he said
Nero shrugged his shoulders "She was transported away like me, and she's not showing any powers yet"
Cole nodded, "We'll work on that when we get to our next destination"
"Where is that by the way?" Nero asked
"Albuquerque" Cole replied. "Get ready, we have a long ass march"