Mother's Concern and the Truth
"Ladies and gentlemen, the next performance is extremely dangerous. We remind everyone, no flash pictures please. No one has ever dared attempt this stunt with a star racer, ever."
It was during the hard rainy season, Don Wei stood along the sidelines with a large crowd, next to him was his daughter Eva. The girl's wide eyes were focused on one person and one person alone.
Her mother, and his beloved wife, Maya Wei, who stood ready inside the cockpit of her beloved Cloud II to pull off her newest trick to the crowd though Don was nervous for her safety.
When the start bell rang, the Cloud II took off down the runway, catching speed to pull itself into the air. Slowly she rose higher and higher, until she turned her star racer towards the cloudy sky and making a loop with a single spin before zooming back to the earth and hovering just as she had done before.
The crowd cheered loudly for her victory, while Don breathed a sigh of utter relief.
"She did it Daddy! She did it!" he glanced down as his five year old daughter "Rooooom!" she mimicked the Cloud II's flight with her hand.
"Mommy's really the best! Nothing could ever happen to her."
He smiled and rubbed her head, agreeing with her words, though he frowned the next second "Of course."
Inside of the deep office that served has the transmission room inside of the pod, Don's eyes furrowed at the picture of his family. "No…No! It can't be, it's impossible…Rick couldn't have known that move…only Maya could've pulled it off."
He set the picture back inside of its case, and went off to bed, knowing well that he shouldn't dwell on the shards of his past. Within the following two hours, he was woken to the memory of his wife's crash and the voice of his little girl, but suddenly things started to get very cold.
Quickly he got to his feet and rushed outside to see that a blizzard was blowing through around them. He spotted Koji and Stan "How can it be snowing?" he yelled, stopping them in their tracks.
"I have no idea! The temperature suddenly plummeted!"
"Come on Koji, we have to cover the Whizzing Arrow III!"
Don watched the two mechanics rush down to the lower floors to cover the racer up from the blizzard. Both Rick and Jordan followed after them to get heaters from the storage room next to the hanger.
Within the hour, they had brought the heaters up and most of them had gone back to bed. Don on the other hand returned to his office, he stood in front of his desk and turned the transmitter on "I want to contact Earth. When is the next available window for transmission?"
"Communication links presently open."
"Very well, please contact" he was silent for a moment "the Stern Boarding School."
The transmitter scanned him and the screen popped up to the angry voice of the headmistress, whose name he couldn't recall. "Do you know what time it is? Boarders cannot receive calls at this hour!"
He kept his voice calm and neutral "I'm sorry, but I'm calling…long distance."
Though she didn't look like she believed him, she spoke evenly "They all say that. Who is it you want to talk to? The students are all asleep."
The transmission was getting slightly blurry, but still held on as Don spoke "I would like to speak to…Miss Eva Wei."
The woman clocked her head at him, and spoke rudely "Eva Wei, who are you talking about? Is this some kind of prank call?"
Don Wei stood there shocked and unable to speak for a minute, before he forced himself to speak. "I…I am her father…I left my daughter at the school…ten years ago."
"I know all the names of our students, but there's never been an Eva Wei that attended this school. Now good night you sir!" the transmission cut itself off, and Don stood there utterly shocked.
"My, that blizzard certainly woke everyone up last night."
Molly glanced at her father, who drunk his hot tea while talking about the blizzard, she was dressed in a white fury clothing since her body never liked the cold too much. Teto popped his head out of the front of her fur cloak, glancing around and sniffing the air, seeing as how things were too cold he ducked back inside of her cloak.
"Good thing the racers were prepared, I wonder how they'll do in this race" she said, pouring some of the tea. As she slipped some of the tea, Satis glanced through one of his sight orbs, which had Don Wei's image.
'So now he's discovered that his daughter no longer lives on Earth…it's only a matter of time now.'
He knew the he would have to talk with the human, but it wasn't something he was going to look forward. "Father, are you alright?" quickly he made the orb vanish, and turned to her with a smile.
"I am alright my dear, why don't you go outside for a bit of fresh air before the race starts?"
Though she knew something was off about him, Molly didn't want to push her luck with how she got off from being punished last time. Quietly she teleported outside to enjoy the scenery of the Ice Region, but her peace was soon disturbed by voices coming from the Nourasian Module.
"Your time of half-heartedness is over my dear prince. You're either with us or against us."
She recognized the voice right away; it was the Crog General Kross. 'What's he doing here at the Nourasian Module?' she hid outside against the wall to listen in on the conversation, hearing Aikka's voice right away.
"My friendship with the Avatar's daughter is…a personal matter. It has nothing to do with the Crogs."
Molly could hear Kross breath in deeply, knowing well that what Aikka had said didn't go well with the Crog at all. But what had caught her curiosity, what that they were talking about her.
"I will not repeat myself."
The moment she took a glance to see the Crog and Nourasian, did she see Aikka backhanded right into the wall by Kross. He fell limply to the snowy floor, and Molly snapped before Kross could do further damage "Stop this at once General Kross!"
Kross had little time to react when Molly rammed at him with full force, though she was smaller than him, her powers made her more than a match for the general. Kross flew at least two meters, but hadn't been knocked out.
As he got to his feet, Kross glared menacingly at Molly, who stood in front of Aikka protectively with Teto on her shoulder hissing up a storm. "You have no right to interfere in this matter!" he started to charge, but instead of getting out of the way; Molly stood her ground and braced her hands.
To both the shock of Aikka and Canaan, the girl held herself against the force of the Crog's strength. Hardly flinching from the powerful alien trying to take her out, Molly's rage, which had been dormant for days now rose back up and caused the flower to slightly awaken, Teto leaped off of her and down to the ground.
Seeing its chance, the thorns lashed out at Kross, draining him of energy with each thorn that made contact with the Crog's thick skin. Molly had lost her senses due to the flower's influence, but Aikka had noticed and got to his feet "Molly, stop you'll kill him!"
With a hard yank, he pulled Molly away and released Kross from the thorns, but this time the Crog had been knocked out cold. "Canaan, go see to Kross, I must deal with Molly" the sword master nodded and rushed over to the fallen Crog.
Holding her in his lap, Aikka saw the blood dripping from her arms, but the thorns slowly crawled back inside. "Molly, wake up…" he murmured softly, shaking her slightly, which did nothing to wake the girl up at all.
"My daughter…my poor child" Aikka's head spun around to see the tall, and slender Mother Oban floating only feet from him. Time seemed to freeze right then and there, as Aikka couldn't move a muscle, he was forced to watch Molly's body float up and into her mother's arms.
Though he couldn't clearly see her face, Aikka could tell that she was crying as she disappeared with Molly. Time returned to its normal flow again, leaving the prince in utter disbelief "Molly…the flower, it's going to wake up again."
Teto climbed up onto Aikka's shoulder, and rubbed his small head against his cheek, giving the Nourasian some comfort.
"Your dear sister has upset both the Avatar and Mother Oban, but now you may begin your own plan of revenge my son."
Hovering over the red water, Crow grinned at Canaletto "Thank you my master, I shall take great pleasure in this. Let us depart Reza." The red crow screeched loudly as they disappeared through a dark portal, appearing over the snowy mountains to await the start of the race.
Waiting for his two targets, which he had swore revenge against since his time on Alwas "Now, your time of judgment has come."
Through his inner sight, he saw that his sister wouldn't be able to watch with using the flower after its powers had been dormant 'Those fools won't have my sister to protect them this time.'
From the mountain peaks, he watched as the eight racers fell from their pods making their way in the direction of the first and only gate. Though none of the racers had a clue that the gate was really underneath them in the icy caverns, but Crow didn't care for the other racers, his only targets were Jordan and Aikka.
"Both of them are enemies at the moment…and I'll use that to my advantage."
Though he decided to wait until the moment was just right, just before the racers reached the supposed location of the gate, he noticed how Ondai the only robot of the racers dug through the snow and earth into the underground caverns.
"Looks like only one of them knows where the single gate is, I wonder if any of the others will notice."
But just as he was about to make his move, his other eye which was hidden by the patch, glowed and he stopped in his tracks.
Grasping the other eye, he hissed deeply "N-No…get out…of m-my head…you…won't…hurt her…not E-Eva" but the power over Crow forced back the young man's true personality, bringing back the puppet that had been created by Canaletto.
"Why…why does he resurface after all this time…dam it! I must lock him back up; he'll only get in my way."
Though either Aikka or Jordan would've noticed it, they would've counted their blessings on that day, but either of them was out of the hot water just yet.
"The flower is beginning to break its seal…if it shatters than Eva will remember everything from Alwas. Not to also mention that her 'real' father has discovered that she no longer lives on Earth…we're going to lose her at this rate Satis!"
Satis kept his glaze on Molly, who slept inside of the protective orb surrounding her bed. Placing his hand on the orb's surface, he answered her "I know you're angry Mother Oban, from now on Eva will remain by my side for the rest of the race. I won't have her attend to the racers' safety any longer."
But that wouldn't be enough for her "She'll want answers Satis, if you can't give them to her…then Crow will come and give her the truth. You know what that would mean, we would lose her forever."
As she faded away, Satis could hear her weeping, recalling the pain of losing Crow to Canaletto. Since he first brought Eva to Oban ten years ago, he had raised her like she was his own child.
"Don Wei isn't worthy to be your father…it's his fault that you ended up alone and abandoned, becoming Canaletto's target, in his mad plans to retake the Avatar throne from me."
As he left his daughter to rise and recover, hidden from the shadows came Crow, who watch him leave the chamber.
"I may not have been able to strike those fools down this time, but I shall see that they suffer" he hovered over and passed through the shield meant to keep him out, lying next to her with his head propped up by his hand, Crow smiled down at his sister.
Reaching out to a strand of her hair, Crow spoke softly "Eva…your suffering will soon end. Allow me to break this seal upon your mind, which had been hiding the truth from you!"
Placing his forehead against her crown, within a split second the tiara shattered into dust. Resting his forehead against hers, he was able to reach into her mind and soul, seeking out the memories that had been hidden and sealed by Satis.
"That fool believes he protecting you by hiding the truth…but there must come a time, when the truth must resurface!"
The seal stood no chance against Crow's dark powers, within minutes it too shattered, releasing not only the flower and memories of Alwas back to her. But even the five years she lived with her mother and father, all the way till Don Wei abandoned her that rainy day which had destroyed the innocent child she had once been.
Eva Wei had returned with all her memories, through the utter pain of the truth that Satis sought so hard to keep from her pure spirit.