It was early in the afternoon in Sancturia. Shina had just finishing shopping at a pharmacy downtown and poked her head around past the sliding doors just in case a familiar face was nearby.
She tucked a very small bag into her pants' pocket, causing part of it to poke out until she covered it with her shirt. She then scurried right along through the streets like it was a normal stroll for her. She was sucking in her bottom lip the whole time, but nobody could tell that.
Soon enough she made it back home and glanced around, breathing a sigh of relief that "No one's home..." as she tip-toed towards the stairs. The moment she set foot on a step, the wood creaked extra loudly to spite her.
"Shina?" And her cover was thus blown.
She quickly flipped around and saw her darling little sister poke her head up behind the couch, a book in her right hand.
"H-Hi sis!" Shina forced a smile and waved her hand up beside her face.
Kairi closed the book and laid her other arm on the back of the couch to pull herself up. The curiosity in her eyes aimed at the noticeable lump at Shina's side.
"Did you buy something?" When she also pointed at it Shina found herself locked down with no escape unless she came up with a quick, reasonable lie.
"Its..." Shina sucked her lips in to pause and then whipped the bag out and waved it around quickly, "A new toothbrush! Gotta get those healthy gums ya know!"
"Yes! Perfect!" She was proud of the lie but not how she had to say it.
"Another one?" Was the last thing Kairi was expected to say, "Don't you like the one mom got you?"
Shina's widening eyes nearly gave her away. She stuffed the bag back in her pockets and swayed her hip out as she swung her hand down at her sister.
"Y-Yeah but I bet this one'll be even better!"
"Crapcrapcrap!" Shina bit her teeth down in a fairly noticeable false grin and then after a few awkward pauses spun around and said, "Well gotta brush them teeth, see ya!"
She hurried up the stairs without a second thought. Kairi stared where she was with wide eyes then slowly shut her book and got up. She made her way up the stairs and to the bathroom at the opposite end of the hall. The door was locked shut.
An underlying sense of unease filled Kairi's stomach as she let a few minutes pass.
"Brush my teeth my ass, you always sped through it Shina...!" She immediately started pounding on the door, her voice fraught with worry, "Shina open up!"
"I-I'm busy!" She responded in a strained voice.
"Busy doing what?!"
"Just...just...busy!"
Why was she being so secretive? This wasn't like her at all...
Kairi stepped away and leaned down to line up her shoulder with the doorknob, "Shina if you don't open up this second I WILL bust the door down!"
Silence, followed by a gasp behind the door. Kairi's heart fluttered and she swallowed her hesitation deep within, "Three...two...one!"
Right as she started to run the doorknob clicked and the door slowly pulled open. Shina stood there with rosy cheeks and a small smile, her eyes adrift in some other land.
"...Sis?" She whispered with the bliss of a hundred angels' choir.
"What's...up?" Kairi sputtered as she stood up with her arms limp.
Shina's cheeks spread as her grin grew to cover most of her face. Her eyes watered, and her body trembled, "You're...gonna be an aunt."
Kairi's body stiffened upright and her pupils shrank to dots. Shina pulled out a small plastic device from behind and pinched it between both her hands. There was a blue "+" on it.
Kairi stared. Shina giggled. Kairi's eyes slowly rolled back into her head and her body collapsed hard onto its back with a deflating gasp.
Shina lurched forward and slapped a hand over her mouth, "OH MY GOD! SIS?!"
Chapter 22: The Destroyer's Legacy
Down at the Whiter household, Mew, Joe Dark and Riku were sitting around the kitchen table for a rousing game of UNO.
Joe Dark was leaning on his side in his chair and lazily looking at the two cards in his hands. He glanced over at Riku, who sat upright and kept his four cards a few inches from his face. HE looked at Mew and saw him with two cards pressed directly against his face, doing a terrible job hiding his smirk.
He eyed Joe Dark and then glided down over to the stack of cards. A blue 9 was the top card. Perfect. Just as planned. The deck was thinned out and no more Draw 2s and 4s were in play. It was his turn, and his hand would allow him to grasp a decisive victory.
He coyly slapped down at blue Skip card and smirked at Joe Dark to say, "Sorry, no turn for you."
Joe Dark arched his brows at him for a moment, causing Mew to laugh internally as he looked at his final card: A plain ol' Wild Card.
He sneered towards Riku like a jackal and felt assured of his victory, "No matter what you play next bro, I can play my last card and win!"
He lurched his head back and had a sinister smile growing along his face, "You fell right into my trap! Had you used that Draw 4 when it was Reversed towards me-"
"Wait just a damn second," Joe Dark suddenly broke Mew's scheming mojo with his usual anger, "You didn't say 'Uno'. Draw two cards."
Mew's heart skipped a beat and he pinched his sole card tight. He lurched his head back and slyly shrugged his shoulders, "Nah, that's not how it works."
"Yes it is, that's the rules." Joe Dark said with a growing scowl.
"No you see when you use a Skip card, it prevents the person skipped from saying someone didn't say 'Uno'."
"Bullshit. Show me where it says that in the rule book."
Mew shrugged and leaned back into his chair, "Sorry man, this game didn't come with the rule book."
Joe Dark tugged the package to his side and started shaking it, but nothing came out. He then slapped it down onto the table and stood up, leaning out at Mew, "You hid the rules so you could cheat out a win!"
"Joe," Riku whispered as he laid his blue Reverse card on the pile and looked him confidently in the eyes, "Its not over yet, right?"
Mew glanced aside at his brother and mumbled, "What could you possibly be planning?"
Riku silently gave his brother notice and then focused on Joe Dark, who settled down in his chair and picked up his two cards.
"Right." He pinched one card between his fingers and Mew grew the biggest sneer known to hero or villain alike.
"You're just delaying the inevitable. Go ahead! Play your last pathetic card so I can win this!"
Joe Dark slapped down a Draw 4 without hesitation.
"I-IMPOSSIBLE!" Mew's eyes bulged and his mind went into a state of pants shitting terror, "I counted all the cards! There shouldn't be a Draw 4 left!"
Joe Dark's smug smile didn't go unnoticed, as did the subtle hint of darkness glowing from his hand.
Mew glared at him and exclaimed in his head, "YOU CHEATING HYPOCRITE!"
"Draw four, Mew," Joe Dark held up his sense of superiority without a hint of irony in his voice, "And another two for not saying 'Uno'."
"..." Mew squeezed his eyes shut and pulled up six cards while whimpering like a wounded dog, "You're a bunch of meanies..."
Ultimately though Riku won, cause Joe Dark also forgot to say 'Uno'. And as his two defeated brothers laid their faces flat on the table he looked at them and said in a reprimanding tone, "And this is why cheaters never win."
Mew weakly raised a pointer finger and mumbled, "Motion to never play UNO again?"
Joe Dark raised his own finger and grunted, "Agreed."
"Mew."
Mew perked up and quietly went "Huh?" at the familiar sound of Auris in his head. Joe Dark poked his head up and mumbled, "What?"
Mew swung his hand out and told him to shush, "Auris, is that you?"
"Yes. I'm using the orb to contact you."
"Uh-oh. What's the emergency?"
"The world's not in any danger but..." A sigh buried in anxiety could be heard for a moment, "Please come to our house immediately. And bring the other two along."
She cut the connection right there and Mew was left wondering, "What was that about?"
He got out of the chair and his brothers eyed him in a way that asked "What?" Mew waved his way and said, "C'mon, we're taking a trip to Sancturia."
No further questions asked, Mew used Dark Form to take them on a quick ride through the darkness to the outside of the Aurora household.
"I swear if this leads to another damn trip to space..." Joe Dark grumbled with his hands in his pockets.
"Ah I doubt it'll be anything like that," Mew started opening the door and confidently smiled, "I bet it'll just be a nice little-"
One minute later...
"SHINA'S PREGNANT?!" Mew blurted out with bulging eyes and arms laid out before his waist.
Shina sat on a couch twiddling her thumbs between her legs while her face turned beet red. Gabriel and Auris stood behind that couch closing their eyes and sighing deeply. Kairi, meanwhile, leaned up next to the basement door, mouth agape, looking white as a sheet.
"...Yes, that's what I said," Auris muttered while picking her right ear with her pinky, "Quietly, I might add."
Mew crossed his arms against his chest and mumbled, "S-Sorry..."
"How...how did this happen?" Riku asked while eyeing Auris for answers, not surprised to find her lips shut.
"Isn't it obvious?" Joe Dark grunted tightly.
"..." Mew thought about it for a few moments and then turned to Joe Dark with his mouth partially agape and his face having a 'deer in the headlights' look. Joe Dark faced him with a minor scowl.
"Joe...how could you? She was all alone in that room and you-"
"Are you fucking serious with that tasteless joke?!" Joe Dark barked back before jabbing his pointer finger into Mew's chest, "You KNOW who did it!"
Of course he did. By process of elimination there wasn't anyone else who could have done it. But he didn't want to say it. It was like an asteroid had smashed right into his face and the damage done had swelled his lips enough to keep him from saying it.
That'd be a lot more believable occurrence than what he'd learned just now.
"...Goddamn it Alex," Mew rubbed the side of his face and had a massive migraine forming, "You slept with Shina and then you went and..."
He squeezed his eyes shut and slowly shook his head, "What the hell were you thinking?"
And while he was thinking about that, he suddenly remembered all the punches, kicks and energy blasts him and the others had struck Shina with...Particularly in her waist.
"Aw crap..." He gasped and swung to face Shina with a panicked look in his eyes, "The baby's not hurt is it?"
Shina rested a hand on her belly and her heart appeared to be visibly beating, trying to escape her chest. Meanwhile Auris drew attention towards herself by extending her sleeve towards the others.
"I wouldn't worry about the child's health," Once her guests' eyes were on her she put that hand down on her daughter's shoulder and murmured, "An Aurian's birth cycle is a little longer than a human's. The newborn must becoming one with the Aura to determine what will eventually be their Drive."
She raised her head and smiled softly, "The process takes a month or two, at the very least."
Mew hung his head with a deep breath and whispered, "So you're saying...?"
"The baby only started forming recently. We caused it no harm."
"Whew!" Mew swiped his sweating forehead, "That's a relief!"
He then gained a far more relaxed grin and propped a hand on his hip, "So do you know what the baby's gender is going to be yet?"
Shina looked up with less red in her cheeks and remarked, "I...I don't know. And...I'm not sure if I'm gonna find out."
Mew chuckled and gave the tense room some much needed levity, "Ah, wanting to keep it a surprise?"
Shina perked upright and firmly nodded her head, "Yep! Don't matter to me if its a boy or a girl!"
She then sheepishly curled a fist against her chest and failed at whispering to herself, "Though if it was a cute little boy..."
Mew turned his sunshine upon Kairi and tried to cheered her on and up, "Isn't this great Kairi! You're going to be an Aunt!"
"Shut. UP. MEW!" She came off incredibly hostile and Mew didn't know where it came from. He quietly stepped back and decided not to poke the crouching tiger.
"Not just that," Gabriel remarked, "The three of you are going to be Uncles."
He stared softly at their differing looks of surprise. Though Joe Dark appeared more pissed than anything else, "Don't lump me in with these two idiots. I'm only tangentially related."
"Hahah yeah, and the last thing we'd want is for the baby to pick up 'Uncle Dark's' bad habits." Mew laughed.
"Who was caught lying and cheating not even fifteen minutes ago?!" Joe Dark barked back.
"You tell me Mr. Oven Wrecker." Mew said with a sly glance aside.
"Oh don't you dare start holding that against me you-"
"Brother, Joe..." Riku stepped between the two and whispered in their ears, getting them to stop. He then waved at the door and said, "Can we step outside for a moment?"
There was this calm but clear look of distress in Riku's eyes as he headed out the door, with Joe Dark dragging along after him right away. Mew told the others they'd be right back, and then followed.
They stepped a few feet away from the house and Riku looked around, probably to make sure no one else would hear them.
"What's up?" Mew asked.
"We need to talk about what to do with the child." Riku responded with his voice down. Joe Dark tensed up, digging his fingertips into his folded elbows.
"Do...what, exactly?"
Riku looked him in the eyes and did not flinch telling him, "This is Alex's child. The same Alex that went insane and threatened to destroy everything."
There was a fire lit in Joe Dark's eyes, one of anger and disdain, and his voice reflected that heat with a baritone growl, "So what?"
"So..." Riku stayed on his course calmly and precisely, "Not only will this child inherit his mother's power, but his father's too...And..."
"His insanity." Riku spoke that with a hint of worry in his voice, and the other two went silent.
Though for Joe Dark, that only lasted a moment before he was chewing Riku out for such an asinine assumption, "You're out of your goddamn mind."
Riku responded with nothing but a surprised look in his eyes.
"Mental conditions aren't passed down from parent to child." Joe Dark muttered.
"No, but the chances of the conditions appearing are increased," Riku responded with a cold whisper, "Alex wasn't right in the head."
"So his child shouldn't be allowed to live?!" Joe Dark snapped with bitter fury.
"That's not-"
"And what?! Should I not be allowed to have a child too because I was 'mentally ill' at one point?!" Joe Dark slapped his chest and darkness in his hand suggested this was going to quickly escalate into a fight.
But Mew was stunned still by the passion Joe Dark expressed in his voice. It didn't feel right to get in the way.
"I'M NOT SAYING THAT!" Riku suddenly raised his voice in such a manner that it was like a dragon's roar, and Joe Dark froze up.
Once he settled down and caught his breath, Riku looked him in the eyes once again and said, "Alex and Shina's child has the potential to become the biggest threat we've ever faced..."
He slanted his eyes and they appeared a little moist. He then gasped in disbelief, "But do you really think I'd want him dead? They'll be a child...They won't know any better."
"They needs someone who can help them come to terms with the power they have and learn to control it, not fear it. Someone like..."
Riku turned towards Mew. Mew flinched and pointed at his chest. Joe Dark then looked at him and muttered nonsense to himself, but nevertheless didn't say a word.
"...M-Me?" Mew remarked.
"It has to be someone who can use all the elements." Riku's logic was sound, but...then why couldn't it be him?
Mew shook his head and muttered, "I don't know...I wouldn't know the first thing about raising a child. Heck, I didn't even raise myself from that point in time."
"..." Mew closed his eyes and vividly imagined what Alex and Shina's child would be like. All he saw was a boy all alone, surrounded by kids his age mocking him for being a freak with elemental powers. The darkness surrounded the boy, isolating him from the rest of the world.
He could feel the boy's mind snap, the darkness splitting in half to be consumed in fire. And the boy turned his head, grinning from cheek-to-cheek with those same hellish red eyes Alex had, as he watched the whole Earth burn from the solitude of the moon...
A cold snap shuddered through Mew's heart and he frowned. He kicked one foot up slightly and then turned his head for the door.
As he rested his hand on it he felt something standing behind. "Huh?" He gave a gentle push before entering, and found Shina attempting to hustle her way back to the couch.
"Shina?" His acknowledgment made her freeze up mid-run and slowly turned her head back with a smile.
"I-I'm sorry! I heard yelling and just had to peep!"
"Oh, so she didn't hear much..." Mew propped his hand on his hip and breathed a sigh of relief. He then looked at her directly and said, "Shina...?"
She turned the rest of the way and placed her hands over her waist. Mew gave a weak smile and flicked her a thumbs-up, "I'm happy for you."
Shina looked to the ground, like she was disappointed at what he said, only to lift her head back up and smile softly, "That means a lot, thank you."
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
Kairi ripped herself away from the wall with her fists taut by her hips and her teeth bit harder than should be humanly allowed.
"H-HOW CAN YOU JUST ROLL OVER AND BE OK WITH THIS?!" She stampeded around the couch and thrust her face towards Mew's, pushing him up against the wall, "HUH?!"
Shina stepped over and gently laid her hand on Kairi's shoulder, "Sis calm down..."
Kairi swatted her sister's hand away and exclaimed, "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Her eyes started watering and she muttered in a sniveling tone, "You...you're horrible..."
She turned and went flying out the front door right as Riku and Joe Dark tried to come back in. Joe Dark gave her a passing stink-eye and muttered, "What's with her?"
Shina laid her hands down to her waist and breathed in deep, "...Lemme handle this."
She let out a heavy sigh on her way out the door. Despite the huge head start her little sister had, Shina knew exactly where to find her.
One ten minute walk later, and Shina was a couple hundred feet away from the south edge of the city, where one could easily stargaze or watch the aurora borealis in the dead of night. Or, perhaps, where two young, foolish siblings could make a promise to each other...
Kairi sat over the edge with her head hung over, bobbing as she sobbed. Shina paused for a moment and then rested her hands behind her back and walked over.
"I knew I'd find you here." She said, leaning over her sister's shoulder.
"Go away!" Kairi whimpered back.
Shina pulled up and took a couple steps back, looking up at the sunny sky with a light breeze weaving through her hair.
"...I know my pregnancy came outta the blue for ya sis, but...I thought you'd be happy."
Kairi jerked her head up and looked over her shoulder with outrage, "I AM happy for you!"
Shina gave a couple eyelid flutters as her sis stood up and jerked her fists down by her hips, "You're gonna have a baby..."
When she turned around and look Shina in the face, her cheeks were soaked and the tears still kept falling, "But its not just yours. Its his."
Shina stood there aghast, harboring a sense of regret in her eyes for not catching on sooner, "...That's what this is about?"
"I...I wouldn't have blamed you for going to someone else for comfort after all that traumatizing shit you went through. Bobby...a stranger, even Joe Dark," Kairi hung her head and her fists shook, "I'm not stupid. I saw the signs that you were hiding this from me. But I...I had to tell myself that it was someone, ANYONE else, even if it meant painting you in a bad light."
"But I can't ignore it anymore..." Kairi thrust her head up and screamed her heart out, "HOW COULD YOU HAVE HAD SEX WITH THAT...BEAST?!"
Shina stayed still and silent, lowering her head while her sister exhausted herself panting her lungs out.
"You don't know Alex like I did..." She finally whispered.
Kairi raised her head with eyes flared open and exclaimed, "I know enough!"
Shina shook as Kairi swung her arm out viciously, "Have you not figured it out yet?! You didn't kill Alex! He survived, and became a force of destruction hellbent on killing everyone and everything that he felt had wronged him!"
"T-That's...not..."
"He tried to kill his brothers, our mother, ME...!" Kairi tearfully clutched her fists against her chest and wailed, "He attacked Sancturia, he killed thousands in a populated city! If Justek didn't kill him he would've gone on to let everyone in the universe DIE!"
She closed her eyes and leaned her head out, "He was a sadistic monster that didn't deserve you or anyone else! I'm glad the fucker's dead and I hope he burns in Hell!"
Shina's eyes thrust wide-open and she swung her hand up. Kairi opened her eyes and flinched with her mouth agape. Then, she felt a weight on her shoulders thanks to her sister laying her hands atop them.
"...But, that's not the kinda person Alex was."
"He had his personal demons, I know that...But that's not the part of him I got to know. What we had...Well," Shina teased her sis with a knowing smile, "It was something really special. You'll get what I mean someday soon, I hope."
She closed her eyes and whispered softly, "If his personal demons won out, I doubt it was without a rough and tough fight on his part. And...even after he lost his body to them, I bet he won back out in the end. That's...just the kind of stunt I know he'd pull."
Kairi looked down and weakly tried pushing her sister's hands off, "It doesn't matter what you think sis..."
"Everyone else in Sancturia saw Alex trying to kill them. The moment they see your kid accidentally shoot off a fireball in class they'll be asking questions...Remembering who hurt them, and connect the dots back to him. They'll harass your kid, harass you."
Kairi's eyes watered heavily as she looked her sister in the face and shook her head, "And eventually those words will turn into hate. They'll hurt you both, and that child's going to fight back and hurt someone. Or...kill someone."
She squeezed a fist against her chest and leaned out begging from the bottom of heart, "Please I bet you sis, don't do this to yourself. You can't bear the burden that beast forced upon you! It'll destroy you!"
"A-And it'll hurt me too...I can't bear to see you suffer anymore heartache."
She closed her eyes and hic'd away as the tears flowed, her knees becoming too weak to stand, so she latched her hands onto her sister's shoulders tight and refused to let go.
Shina's heart sank, and she grabbed her sister's wrists to hold her up, while also putting them down to her own stomach.
"You feel that sis?"
"N-No?"
"Of course not, there's nothing in there yet silly!" Shina giggled and her eyelids sagged softly, "But there will be soon...A tiny baby, with an even tinier heartbeat."
"They'll be mine, just like I wanted."
"H-Huh?" Kairi widened her eyes and looked up at the mischievous smile her sis gave.
"Hehehe! Alex was many things, but one who took initiative wasn't one of them," Shina pulled a hand away to lay a fingertip against the side of her face, "That'll be our little secret though. Use it well sis."
Kairi's cheeks turned red and suddenly all her energy returned to let her shove away from her sis and stutter, "G-Gross Shina! I did NOT want to hear that!"
"Hehehe!" Shina tucked her hands behind her back and gave her sis some space to breathe and think straight.
Kairi laid a hand over her chest and glanced aside over the edge of the city with a solemn look, "But still...a child..."
She tilted her head and murmured, "You're going to have to take care of them all by yourself."
"Not at all. I got you, and Gabriel, and mom..." Shina lifted three of her fingers up one a time and then raised the rest all at once, "And everyone else we know! I got all the help I could ever want!"
"...But what about our promise?"
"Sis, this baby's not being born for another eight months. And even so..." Shina laid a hand on her stomach and rubbed softly, "I'm gonna want to take him down with us, to see the place where his father was born and raised..."
"Mmmrrr..." Kairi pouted her lips and then kicked the air in front of her with no effort put behind it.
"...Do ya feel better now sis?" Shina leaned in to ask.
"No..." Kairi muttered and twisted her head back with a tired look in her eyes, "I still think you're making a big mistake Shina."
"Then its my mistake to make." Shina nodded as she stood back up.
"..." Before Kairi could mope about some more Shina firmly patted her on the back and said, "C'mon! Lets go home and talk it out with the others."
Kairi bobbed her head and Shina wrapped her arm around her back and held her in close as they started to walk back.
Midway to home, Shina looked up at the sky and squinted her eyes, "Hey...what's up with that red star in the sky?"
By the time Kairi looked up the star was much, much bigger and looking like it was going to come crashing down into...
"FWOOOOOOOOOSHH!" A fiery pillar smashed through the top of Sancturia's barrier and crash landed in the center of the city, which fortunately, was empty enough to not cause collateral damage.
"No! No! Come on! Why're they back NOW?!" Kairi threw herself out of Shina's grasp and darted across the city. Shina blinked a few times and then hurried after her, having NO IDEA what was going on besides the city being in danger, maybe?
But Kairi knew. There was only one asshole who'd daringly crash land in the middle of Sancturia covered in fire. And he wouldn't be alone either.
For sure enough, once the sisters got past the crowd of frightened Aurians they saw their invaders: The sun god Solaris, and his sister Lunis.
The flames burned out and Solaris lashed his titanic blade at the crowd, waving it around wildly while wearing the grin of a hungered lion. Lunis lingered behind him, calm as the night shore.
"Alright you weak-willed bastards where's those damn Elemental Overlords?!" Solaris barked orders to the crowd and his body remained wreathed in flames, ready to go off at any moment.
"I know those father killing sons of bitches are hiding here! So if they don't show themselves in a few seconds...I'll burn Sancturia to the goddamn ground!"
Next Time: The Wail of the Sun
