Chapter 28: Family issues

Lucas and his two teammates left shortly after they discussed their mission. Zhalia would need some time decoding Klaus notes and reports regarding the titan of light, Tonatiuh, so that they figured that it would be best to leave for the mission the day after. They could not waste any time since apparently; the Blood Spiral was after the titan as well. Fortunately, the Blood Spiral took the book where the basic information about the titan was written in and left the book that contained the probable location of the amulet behind.

Of course, they didn't know that until they would decode it, what would also take them a couple of days without the knowledge that Zhalia held. Thus, their little advance in time was no use.

The team decided that they would split up for this mission. Whereas Zhalia, Lok, Lane and Lucas would travel to the Foundation prison in Vienna in order to look for any more clues regarding Klaus murder and his notebook, Sophie, Den, Dante, Sara and Dellix were going to Central America, Honduras, to look for the titan.

As soon as Lucas and the rest left, Sophie and Lok went to accompany them to the Foundation HQ while Zhalia decided to train Sara. Dante and Den were planning tomorrow's mission and much to the bluenettes surprise; none of them have actually mentioned or brought up Klaus murder.

She hated to get pitied and was glad that they were remaining silent, except for Sara, who was slightly confused.

"He was my father." Zhalia answered when Sara had asked just as they had entered the gym. Sara's eyes widened, the brunette having obviously been caught off guard, but Zhalia concluded that it was understandable since she didn't know much about Zhalia's time before the Foundation or her family in general.

"The one that took you into the organization?" Sara asked before she could stop herself and as soon as the words have left her lips, she realized her mistake.

Zhalia wasn't supposed to know that Sara knew about her time in the organization.

Sara bit the inside of her cheek and watched how Zhalia stopped in the middle of the hall, still facing her protégée with her back. Her shoulders were set in a straight line and her body seemed tense, much to Sara's concern.

She inwardly cursed herself and her curiosity as she watched her mentor with weary eyes. She should have respected her privacy, that she knew, but then again, she was bound to find out sooner or later anyways.

Latest now.

Zhalia sighed. "So they told you after all." She muttered under her breath, turning to look at Sara with a small shake of her head. She knew that the teens would tell Sara one way or another, but she didn't expect them to do so this early. She didn't mind as much as she thought she would since she trusted Sara not to run off and tell someone, but she would have rather told her own student herself when the timing would have been right.

Sara winced. "Sorry about that. I didn't want to invade your privacy, I just happened to be at the wrong place on the wrong time." She admitted, thinking back to the days they have spent at the Lamberts household.

Zhalia waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about that, you would have found out sooner or later anyways." She assured her protégée. "That won't save their necks though." She added in an inaudible mutter as she figured that she would need to have a serious talk with the teens regarding her privacy- and mission Zhante.

Yes, she was aware of their little mission as well, even though she found out by accident after they already completed their mission. She overheard Den and Lok talk about it a couple of days ago when they were training, and to say that she was both amused and lightly angry would be an understatement.

She knew that they only meant well after all, but that still didn't give them the right to put their nose into her private business.

Sara heaved a breath of relieve, glad that her mentor wasn't mad at her for finding out before she watched how Zhalia turned around to face her.

"This lesson we will try something different from what we usually do." Zhalia informed the brunette, and Sara felt her heart skipping a beat out of both excitement and curiosity.

They usually only practiced how to summon spells and Zhalia had Sara practice her aim and thus, she was curious as to what kind of different method they would try now.

"Today, I will teach you how to invoke your titan." The hazel eyed beauty replied seriously, expression blank and posture straight. Her eyes were steadily fixed on her protégée, who's pupils dilated lightly upon hearing her mentor.

The ring on her right ring finger was suddenly growing hot and upon following Zhalia's gaze that has now fallen onto said item, she grew aware of what the young woman was indicating.

Sara's gaze snapped back to Zhalia's and just then did she realize something that she must have previously missed. Zhalia, who noticed her slightly shocked expression, merely gave her a curt nod and Sara gulped down the lump that had suddenly formed itself in her throat.

How could she have carried a titan with her the entire time without knowing, and why didn't they tell her?

An unsettling feeling planted itself in the pit of Sara's stomach at the thought of being so close to a titan the entire time.

"Who gave you this ring?" Zhalia inquired, slowly beginning to circle her student.

Sara frowned lightly, trying to think back to her childhood days in order to answer Zhalia's question. She was wearing this ring ever since she could remember and never took it off, just like she was being told all this time ago.

"My uncle gave it to me when he visited us." Sara eventually told Zhalia, the face of the young male with lightly messy brown hair, vibrant blue eyes and a boyish grin entered her vision and Sara felt her stomach drop.

"He was gone most of the time doing god knows what and returned once every three weeks. When I turned six and he returned from one of his trips, he gave this to me saying that I should never take this off. It would serve me as a lucky charm and taking it off or losing it would cause chaos." Sara told Zhalia in a low voice, eyes lightly narrowed as she gazed down at the ring.

Zhalia hummed lightly and stopped in front of Sara, tilting her head lightly aside as she looked at Sara with curious eyes.

"Parents?"

"Died in a car-crash three years ago with my sister, I lived with my grandma in Poland ever since who then died last month. That's the reason why I moved to Venice three weeks ago, this is where my family originally came from and raised me." Sara monotonously explained, as if she had done it dozens of times before, what she probably had to.

Moving from one country to another, transferring schools a couple of times and being left alone at the age of seventeen was not easy and having to explain your situation to every school principal and other officers was not pleasant.

Zhalia mentally sighed. Why was it that every member of their team had a rather unpleasant past? As the saviors of the world didn't they at least deserve happiness in some part of their lives?

"Your uncle went on trips that sometimes took weeks, huh." Zhalia repeated a small frown etching on her expression as she tried to compare Sara's looks to any seeker she had ever encountered in the Foundation HQ.

He obviously was a seeker, from what Sara had told her and that would explain how she had received the titan. If he was Sara's only living relative that she knew of, Zhalia would make sure to look into it.

Sara shifted her weight onto her other feet, a reminiscing look entering her eyes as a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Yeah, but after my parents and sister died his visits became more and more rare. The last time I have seen him was around two years ago, maybe he finally found someone and settled down, I don't know." Sara shrugged, suddenly feeling how the pain that she had successfully managed to keep locked away start to resurface.

She missed her family, but there was very little that she could do about it. At least now she was getting distracted and made friends, what was something she would be eternally grateful for.

Zhalia nodded. "Could be possible." But it's highly unlikely if he really was a seeker. She mentally added, pitying the young girl in front of her.

"Yeah, with Uncle William everything could be possible."

Zhalia inwardly froze as she heard Sara mention her uncle's name, an alarm going off in her mind. She furrowed her brows and regarded Sara's face closely, the name William ringing a bell in her mind.

A lot of people were called William, seekers as well as ordinary people, but something in the back of her mind was nagging her to dig deeper.

"What did you say was your surname again, Sara?" Zhalia carefully inquired, trying to sound nonchalant as she watched how Sara looked up at her, a lightly confused expression on her face.

"Nero, why?"

Zhalia mentally slapped her forehead and made a mental note to have a nice little chat with Dante. He most likely knew about Sara's relation to Will and if this was the case, she would knock some sense into him for keeping this rather important information from her again.

Sara was genuinely confused and curios by now, her blue eyes narrowing lightly as she thought back to what she had told Zhalia.

Her parents died in a car crash together with her sister, her uncle went on trips and gave her the ring, and-

Sara froze, her eyes wide as realization hit her like a ton of bricks as her blue eyes found Zhalia's hazel ones. "Oh god," She breathed, feeling stupid for not realizing what was going on earlier. "Uncle William is a seeker."

Zhalia crossed her arms above her chest, eyes softening as she watched Sara trying to process her uncle's little identity slip. She pointedly decided against telling her that in fact, he was the one that Dante chose to infiltrate the Blood Spiral for the Foundation.

Poor girl already had too much on her plate.

"That would explain the trips and how you got the titan." Zhalia commented, straightening her posture again. "Now, why don't we take a look at what exactly he has left you, hm?" She suggested, extending her hand towards the brunette who in return hesitated.

She never took it off, not even once , but she figured that she didn't have much of a choice and thus, moved to gently take the piece of jewelry off of her slender finger before she gently placed it onto her teachers palm.

Zhalia gave Sara a small smile, grateful for her willingness to cooperate and walked over to her Holotome, which was standing on the windowsill with Sara following closely behind.

"Holotome, analyze this titan." Zhalia ordered as she placed the ring onto the Holographic field, the green light engulfing the metallic object.

Sara silently stared at the Holotome in awe, clearly fascinated by the device. She had seen it before but to see it in action and how it was scanning her ring was somewhat cool, in her opinion.

"Aquarius. Attack: 4, Defense: 4, Type: Krono-Titan Warrior, Special ability: Water attacks." Came the mechanic voice of the Holotome, causing Zhalia to lift a brow.

She didn't expect Sara's titan to be this strong, especially since Sara apparently didn't even notice bonding with it when she was little.

"What?" Sara asked, noticing Zhalia's expression which then turned into a thoughtful one. She suspected that either something was off with her titan or it was different from the others and either way, both options were not good ones in her opinion.

"Quite a strong titan you've got there kid." Zhalia commented in a mumble, eyeing the Holographic picture that had now materialized itself in front of them. Sara turned her eyes back to the Holotome and was surprised to see the picture of a tall woman with dark long hair, dressed in a ripped dress that reached her knees and holding an Urn.

"That's Aquarius, the titan that your uncle has given you." Zhalia informed Sara, curtly pointing at the image of the titan before she took the ring again and handed it back to Sara, closing the Holotome.

The ring felt unusually heavy in Sara's palm and she slipped it back onto her finger with light hesitation, eyeing it cautiously.

"Well then Sara," Zhalia spoke, a small smirk playing on her lips as she took in Sara's now tense and slightly alarmed posture. "You know what's next, don't you."

Sara stiffened and shot Zhalia a weary glance, her blue orbs pleading Zhalia to show mercy on her. When Zhalia's smirk didn't fade, however, she gave up and slumped her shoulders in surrender.

"Alright, let's summon Aquarius."

-X-

He was laying on what he would call his temporary bed that was made out of stone, an already dirty blanket draped over it. A sigh passed his dry lips as he blankly stared at the ceiling, his stomach clenching out of hunger.

He has been travelling for two days straight without getting a wink of sleep nor a bit of food in hope of stumbling across the infamous Blood Spiral.

After two long days he finally managed to do so somewhere in the middle of Spain and even though it was lightly hard to convince them to let him join, he managed to do so.

How? Well that was a funny story actually.

He has managed to get hold of information that contained the location of one of their smaller hide-outs and upon 'stumbling' across it, he figured that naivety may do the trick, so upon recognizing them he challenged one of them for a battle.

If he were to win, he would get to join and if he would lose, he would allow them to erase his memories.

He of course won and thus, was allowed to enter. The brown haired male scoffed as he tossed a small stone towards the wall. They were even dumber than they looked. It would be fairly easy for someone to get in and spy on them if they were not what they would consider famous in the Foundation.

His plan had worked, even though it was a very poor one, but what mattered was the outcome. He owed Dante one for taking his niece under his wing when he couldn't and even though Dante told him that he would have done so even if he and Sara weren't related, which he knew Dante would have done, he was grateful.

After the death of his sister, her husband and their eldest daughter, William has sworn to protect Sara and keep her as far away from the Seeker world as possible and if that meant to visit her less and less in order to not give his enemies the knowledge that another person he loved dearly was still alive, he would have no choice but to do so.

He would lead his enemies right towards her and even though she was a Nero, she was inexperienced and held no knowledge about the powers a seeker possessed.

Now that she was with Dante and his team after getting attacked, however, he figured that maybe this way she would be even safer.

And now here he was, stuck in a Blood Spiral hideout in the middle of Central America, waiting to get an audience at the Spirals leader who would personally take a look at him and the other recruits that just recently joined as well.

Another sigh.

He missed the old days when everything seemed to be one big adventure but as for now, every seeker there was struggled to survive in its own way.

It was tiring, but a part of his life that he wouldn't and most importantly couldn't give up. There was no such thing as to quit being a seeker and go back to living an ordinary life; no.

Once you were a seeker, there was no turning back or stopping being one. Just because one would stop going on missions didn't mean that one could quit it altogether. It was an illusion that many liked to believe could be a reality in the future, but the higher your rank was and the more you knew, the more dangerous your life would be after you would stop going on missions.

And of course, when there would be war every seeker on the world retired or not would have to participate, one way or another. It was the price one had to pay for becoming a seeker in the first place. You were gifted with the abilities to wield these powers so you had to use them to protect the innocent with them as well and not lay back and do nothing while using them for your own selfish and foolish desires.

All of sudden, William was ripped out of his musings by the door being brutally kicked open, a loud bang echoing through the cavern that was his room but of course, he didn't move an inch.

He was an experienced and high ranked seeker; it took way more than this to startle him.

"You!" A rather petite male barked, his lips curled downwards as he took a look at Williams's relaxed body that was lying on the bed, seemingly unbothered.

"It seems like someone didn't get their beauty sleep." Will muttered under his breath before he lazily swung his legs over the bed and turned into a sitting position.

The Spiral that has been sent to recruit him seemingly didn't hear him and merely snarled at him. "Move, you wouldn't want to keep her highness waiting." He spoke, grabbing Will by his arm and hurling him up into a standing position.

Will was tempted to cut his hand off right there and then but refrained from doing so for the sake of the mission and instead, shot the Spiral a grin.

"I would never keep a Lady waiting." Will teasingly replied, swiftly slipping back into his act as he was being rather roughly led outside of the room and into the dark corridor.

The Spiral next to him scoffed, tightening his grip on Will's forearm. "You shouldn't underestimate her highness, blink without her allowance and you will find yourself blinded by her." He told Will but once again, he wasn't the least bit affected by his threat.

William merely shrugged as they turned the corner. "Pity, I am sure that looking at her would be a nice change from looking at all of you in your typical uniforms." He mused out aloud, earning a death glare from the male that was now leading him down the stairs and right into a huge hall.

It was like a huge cavern, the only thing off being the huge throne that was made of stone standing in the middle of it. Thousands of Spirals were gathered together, some of them looking ready to wet themselves while the others expressions were blank, as if they have been robbed their very emotions.

"Oh man, who died?" Will sarcastically inquired under his breath, his eyes taking in every person in the hall.

"No one." The Spiral that was still holding onto him commented, a wry grin on his lips. "Yet."

William rolled his eyes, feeling as if he was in a classical cliché movie where the hero was being held captive by his enemies.

Oh the joy of being a spy. As long as he would be a seeker, he would always be able to compare his missions to overrated movie scenes, wasn't that just peachy?

They stopped somewhere in the middle of the hall, stuck between other recruits that were being held on a leash by other spirals, metaphorically spoken of course.

A loud mumble filled the eerie silence of the cavern and after some minutes of nothing happening, the torches in the corners of the room suddenly held fire.

The mumble disappeared in an instant and almost a heartbeat later, everyone dropped onto their knees and bowed deeply for their Queen.

William was forced to follow their movements and did so in order to not gain too much attention. A heavy and thick silence fell over all of them before it was being broken by the sound of heels clacking on the cavern floor that cut through it like a knife.

Another moment of silence and by now, Will was starting to get curious. In only a few moments he would be greeted by the sight of the Blood Spirals new Queen and somehow, he had a bad feeling.

His gut feeling never failed him.

"Rise."

Everyone lifted their heads in an instant and stood up, the sharp order having caused all of them to scramble onto their feet as fast as possible.

William froze as he heard the soft, yet sharp order of the female voice and as soon as he was standing and gazed onto the stone throne in front of them, felt as if the ground has been pulled away from under his feet.

He was grateful for the Mask he was wearing because if one were to have noticed the way his eyes widened, his cover of being the nonchalant and careless newbie would have been blown.

Well then again, everyone would be beyond shocked to see that their very own niece that was supposed to be dead since three years was the new Queen of the Blood Spiral.

Victoria. William mentally groaned, recognizing his once so sweet an innocent niece in an instant. Oh you've got to be kidding me.

-X-

"Enough for today."

Sara gave Zhalia a grateful smile and tiredly slumped onto the ground, breathing heavily. They have been trying to summon her titan for the past three hours and it was harder than Sara expected it to be.

She has managed to almost summon it once but the powers were too strong and intense for her to hold and thus when her concentration has slipped, so did her hold on the titan.

"Hey guys!" Came Lok's cheery greeting as he entered the gym, followed by the rest of the team. "How's training going?"

Sara merely waved a hand and held her head, the headache that has now announced itself causing her to groan out of pain.

Zhalia gave them an innocent smile as Sophie walked over to Sara and helped the brunette up into a standing position.

"Oh man, you went pretty hard on her Zhaal didn't you?" Lok commented as he took in Sara's exhausted form, a small smile of pity on the blonde's lips.

Den snorted. "When did she go easy on any of us?" He teasingly spoke, earning a light grin from Zhalia. She didn't even bother to deny it because it was the truth. She didn't give them many breaks and even though she went easy on them plenty of times, she had a reputation to live up to.

"It's the result that counts." Dante commented as he as well entered the gym, a smile on his lips as he leaned against the door frame and watched his team.

"Well she's been doing pretty well for having only been introduced to spells and titans around a week ago." Zhalia spoke, her hazel eyes falling on Sara who was giving Zhalia a grateful smile.

She was training hard and hearing Zhalia's praise was definitely lightening her mood.

That was until Den had to open his mouth again and destroy it all.

"She's still pretty weak and useless in a battle though."

Sophie shot Den a glare and Lok merely sighed at his teammate, having somewhat expected his comment already.

Sara merely looked at Zhalia who in return smiled and gave her a curt nod, causing Sara to smile as well. The others, save for Dante, looked at the two in confusion. Zhalia walked past Sara and the rest, patting her student on the shoulder before she turned to look at Den.

"You should know that I don't teach my students how to be weak, Den." She commented lowly, walking out of the gym and before Den was able to process what Zhalia had meant, heard a familiar call to his left.

"Touchram!"

He was too slow. The spell hit him right in the stomach and caused him to fall straight onto his back, a sharp breath escaping his mouth.

He blinked once.

Twice.

Did she really just-

"Nimblefire!" Sara called, charging towards den with her fist already balled, glowing a dangerous dark purple hue. Den instantly recognized the spell and his eyes widened lightly out of wonder before he pushed his weight backwards and planted his palms against the cool floor of the gym, leaning his weight onto his hands before he made a swift back flip to avoid Sara's spell.

"Venomhand!" Sara called, her fist colliding to the spot where Den was a moment ago the split of a second later. The ground cracked under the force she was using and Den threw her a look that suggested that she was insane.

Her long brown hair was falling loosely around her shoulders, her black top and gray shorts a nice contrast to her lightly pale skin whereas her blue eyes were filled with a glint that he had only seen in Zhalia's eyes whenever she battled one of them.

In this moment, he wondered if Zhalia had turned innocent little Sara into a killing machine.

Sara thoroughly enjoyed the surprise and wonder that flashed across Den's expression and shot him a sharp grin, her breathing lightly heavy and fist tickling from the magic that was running through her veins.

Lok and Sophie who have been watching them, just as surprised and shocked as Den was, laughed at Den's dumfounded expression.

Den shot them a nasty glare before he straightened his position, his gaze turning to Sara. "Quite confident now, aren't we?" He mused out aloud, a challenging glint entering his eyes as he took in Sara's cool expression.

She didn't seem the least bit intimidated and instead, maintained her leisured grin on her lips as she shrugged. "Got no reason not to be." She merely returned, and Den lifted a brow at her.

"Oh is that so, klutz?" Den shot back, noticing how her expression dared to waver the lightest bit as she remembered the day at the museum. He then turned to look at Sophie and Lok who were watching their little interaction with interest.

"You two have received the honor of watching me beat our little princess over here, enjoy the show."

And with that, all hell broke loose.

Sara only barely managed to avoid the Boltflare that he had shot at her and used Hyperstride to jump a couple of meters aside, her grin sharpening.

"You don't know how long I have wanted to punch that stupid smirk of yours off of your face." Sara commented before she run towards Den, both of her fists glowing darkly.

"Likewise." Den called as he as well charged towards Sara, managing to get a hold of her upper arm. He was about to throw her over his shoulder, but he did not see her leg coming right for his ribs.

He winced lightly as he felt her knee dig deep into his stomach but only tightened his hold on her.

"Darksle-"

Before he was able to mutter the spell that would let him win, Sara had turned so that she was standing right in front of him, her fist flying straight towards his nose.

Den had no choice but to release her in order to not get his nose broken and let out a chuckle. "Almost got me there." He commented causing Sara to shoot him a smile in return. They both knew that it was meant as a compliment and would probably be the closest to praise what she would ever get from him, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

All the time Sophie and Lok were watching the two closely and Lok hummed lightly, turning to look at Sophie as his two teammates continued to battle one another.

"10 bucks that Den will let her win on purpose."

Sophie snorted, crossing her arms above her chest as she kept her eyes steadily fixed on the ongoing fight in front of them.

"20 that Sara will actually win without him letting her on purpose." She returned and Lok instantly took the risk.

"Deal."

-X-

While the teens were busy battling against each other, Zhalia has moved to stand on the balcony, knowing that Dante would follow her like a shadow. She didn't need to turn around in order to verify that it was him who was standing a step behind her and thus, instantly spoke.

"You didn't tell me about Sara." Zhalia spoke, her voice soft and yet steady. She would not beat around the bush and rather right out say what was bothering her.

"You didn't tell me about Klaus either."

Zhalia sighed, he had her there. "She is my protégée, I trusted you to tell me if there was something that was important for me to know about her." She calmly spoke, knowing that he was trying to push her off of her originally plan.

She felt two strong arms encircle themselves around her waist from behind and bit the inside of her cheeks.

"I just found out this morning when I was looking through the Foundation files. You know, paper work since she is the new member." He mumbled, kissing her shoulder softly. "I don't even know if Will knows that I know, but now that I think of it he did seem quite surprised when I told him when he saw the picture of her that she took with Sophie."

Zhalia hummed in return, not daring to doubt his words. He never lied to her and would never do so because of something like that either. She trusted him with her life, and that spoke for itself.

"We should tell her." Zhalia eventually returned, completely relaxing in his arms. She felt Dante's chest vibrate lightly against her back as he hummed in return, his grip on her tightening.

"We will." Dante confirmed, nodding curtly to himself. Sara had a right to know, but their first priority was to take care of the mission that Klaus has left them.

"I'm here for you Zhaal." Dante whispered, lightly leaning his cheek against her temple. Zhalia merely squeezed his hands in return and sighed as he interlaced their fingers.

"Thank you." She whispered back, closing her hazel eyes as she leaned into is touch. "For staying when no one else would."


A/N: Sorry for the long wait but I am back for good! Oh man, a lot of stuff happened but I finally got my laptop back and plenty of time to update. The next chapter will be the mission and a lot of stuff is going to happen. The past two chapters have been kind of fillers but started from the next one, there will be a lot of action again! If you liked it, please review.

See ya soon!