Abe's POV
The government had a real issue on their hands. The Projects had escaped and The Academy had been reduced to a pile of rubble. I should have known that my Rosemarie could cause something like this. I've kept a close eye on The Academy. I have Dimitri on the inside watching Rosemarie and he reports to me every week, though, the past couple of weeks have been troubling to say the least.
He'd informed me that Rosemarie was starting to notice something was amiss and he worried that the Guardians might figure it out, too. I'd instructed him to wait until I had a plan. Yet, here he was, on my door step with a worried look, and without Rosemarie no less.
I motioned him to follow me into my office. I closed the door after he entered and pointed to the chair in front of my desk. He sat down cautiously.
"Belikov. You better have a good reason for showing up here without my daughter in tow." I spoke calmly. He looked nervous. He had no need to be, it wasn't like I was going to kill him. He was probably the only person that Rosemarie would trust. I need him first, then I'll kill him.
"Stan was asking too many questions about Rose and about me. I left to give her longer to figure something out." He defended nervously.
"She figured something out alright." I laughed darkly, pushing the satellite images across my desk, closer to him. He leaned forward and picked them up. "These were taken two hours ago."
"Two hours ago?" He asked, stunned by the state of his previous employer. "I was there just under three hours ago, how did this happen?"
"Take a guess." I said amused.
"Rose?" I nodded. "Rose did this?" I nodded again. "How did Rose do something like this."
"I'm assuming it was a consequence of you leaving." I shrugged. "I'm assuming she got mad at you and this is how her anger manifested itself. You just better be glad she doesn't know where you are. If she could do this to that compound, there's no telling what she'll do to you."
I laughed as he gulped audibly.
"What did you do to make her so mad, anyway?"
"I left."
"A woman would not get this mad just because you left." I stated narrowing my eyes at him. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything." I raised my eyebrow at him.
"Did you tell her you were leaving?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I didn't want her to worry." He started shifting uncomfortably in his chair.
"Now, why would she worry if you just left without telling her?" I leaned back in my chair, tenting my fingers, watching him very closely. "You've left before without telling her. What was different this time?
"This time…she cares about me…you know… in a way." He muttered looking down at his hands.
"She cares about you. Is that so?" I asked slowly. "And, do you care for her?"
He continued to look down at his hands, thinking. After a few minutes of silence, his head started to nod.
"I do care about her."
"Mhmm. I see. And when did you start caring for her?" He was growing more uncomfortable with each passing minute, but I wasn't going to stop until he told me the truth.
"From the moment I laid eyes on her." He sighed resigning himself to my questioning, and probably, most-likely, my anger. "It's like she was made for me, and I for her." He stated with a dreamy look on his face.
"So, you mean to tell me, that for over two years you've cared for my daughter without informing me." I growled.
I didn't care for her, Abe, not in that way. I took care of her. She's the best thing that's happened in my life! I love her. I didn't know she loved me until yesterday when we were in Russia." He confessed.
"You're in love with my daughter." I stated, he nodded. "Wait. You were in Russia? Yesterday?"
"Yeah, Rose found out she can teleport." My eyes widened. "She took me home and I saw Mama and Babushka."
"Ah, Yeva. How is she?"
"She's getting old, but the visions are still as strong as ever. She told us Rose was getting stronger."
"So, you took her home to meet your family?" I asked, my anger returning after a momentary lapse.
"It wasn't my intention at first. She said that she might be able to teleport and I wanted to see proof, but when she couldn't think of a place to go, I thought up one for her. She took me with her."
"Can she teleport to just places or to specific people, as well?"
"What do you mean 'specific people?'" His eyes widened.
"He means can I teleport to a specific person." A new voice entered the conversation. I looked over to find Rosemarie standing with six other people. She looked pissed. "Like you."
She pointed to me.
"I'll deal with you in a minute. You!" She whirled to Belikov, practically growling. "I've got a bone to pick with you."
I was a little scared of her, and I wasn't even on the receiving end of her rage, yet. Dimitri scrambled to stand and started backing toward the door before he froze, his body going rigid.
"I'm not done with you." She turned to me with a sweet smile plastered on her face. "Abe, do you have a place where Guardian Belikov and I can have a nice, private chat? I've just got some personal matters I want to discuss with him."
I don't think I've ever smiled so big. She was definitely my child.
"Upstairs, second door on your right." She nodded sharply, her look turning murderous again. Panic flashed in Dimitri's eyes yet his mouth was frozen shut. He looked at me pleadingly. The office door was flung violently open before Rosemarie marched through it, dragging Dimitri behind her.
I waited a few moments before hearing a distant door slamming shut. I turned to the other six people that had appeared with Rosemarie.
"Hello, I'm Abe Mazur." I introduced myself, six pairs of eyes turned my direction. "I'm Rosemarie's father, though I'm assuming she didn't know until very recently." The tall blonde was the first to step forward.
"I'm Vasilisa Dragomir, but please, call me Lissa. These are Rose's and my friends from The Academy. Christian Ozera, Mia Rinaldi, Edison Castile, Jillian Mastrano, and Mason Ashford." As each individual was introduced, they stepped forward to shake my hand.
"It's lovely to meet all of you. If you don't mind, could you inform me of your abilities?"
"I'm a pyrokinetic." Christian provided.
"Eddie and I are both pathokinetics." Mia said next.
"I'm an atmokinetic." Jill stated shyly.
"I'm pretty much the ginger version of The Hulk." Mason laughed. "Except I don't turn green."
"I'm a cyrokinetic." Lissa said sweetly.
"Wonderful!" I exclaimed, glad to meet my daughter's friends. "I'm pyrokinetic and a neurokinetic, and I'm gifted in invisibility."
"So, you have more than one ability, like Rose." Lissa stated.
"It seems it runs in the family. Do you know what her talents involve?"
"There are too many to name, I'm afraid. And from what I understand, she's still discovering them weekly."
"Do you know what she used to do this?" I asked motioning toward the pictures of the destroyed Academy.
"That was probably a combination of a lot of different abilities." Christian supplied.
"I know for a fact she was using invisibility to get us out of there unseen." Eddie declared.
"She either used telekinesis or metallokinesis to get the doors off, but I don't recall her ever mentioning having metallokinesis." Mia noted with a confused look on her face.
"She most-likely used geokinesis to destroy the entire place. I know at one point that the ground was shaking, but that was while we were already running out of the building, the walls had started to collapse before then." Lissa said. "Can a geokinetic manipulate concrete?"
"I believe they can." I said thoughtfully. "If she did all this, and used as many powers as she did, including teleportation, how is she not exhausted?"
"I don't think I've ever seen Rose get tired from using her powers, and she's never mentioned being drained afterwards." Lissa stated looking back at her friends, they all nodded in agreeance. "The rest of us get tired of continuous use after about five minutes. She went nonstop for a good twenty minutes to get us out, but stopped as we trudged through the woods. When she finally realized that she could probably just teleport us here, it had been about two hours."
"Interesting." I mumbled, trying to understand my daughter. "Well, I'll talk more with her when she's done ripping apart Belikov. Though, she'll probably turn her anger on me, next."
"Oh, she's not angry right now." Mia said with a smirk on her face.
"What do you mean?"
"She means we don't feel anger anywhere in this house, and especially not from the two of them." Eddie commented with a matching smirk on his face.
"What do you feel coming from them?"
"I'm not sure it's in Guardian Belikov's best interest if they answer that." Lissa stated, interrupting both of the pathokinetics.
I jumped to my feet and rushed out of the room.
"BELIKOV!" I roared. I heard a thud come from above me and I moved over to the staircase. He came bursting out of the room they had been occupying, his hair disheveled and his shirt unbuttoned, which he was quickly trying to fix. "What were you doing with my daughter?" I asked in a calm voice, seething on the inside.
"Um…nothing, sir." He said looking back to where Rose emerged from the room, she was still in the pajamas she had arrived in, though, her hair was a tangled mess. "We were just talking."
"We were making out, Dad." Rose said with a roll of her eyes. My eyes flicked back to Dimitri. I raised an eyebrow hoping for an explanation.
"Okay, yes. We were making out…"
"And we were well on our way to something more, before those two blew it for us." Rose interrupted while glaring daggers at Eddie and Mia.
"Don't blame them."
"Oh, so you're telling me that you figured out we were getting hot and heavy all by yourself?" She questioned sarcastically. "Listen, Old Man. This might be your house, but it's my life that you haven't been a part of. You sent me Dimitri, so this is really your fault."
"I didn't intend for him to fall in love with you." I growled, glaring at Dimitri, and he moved closer to Rose. "He was just supposed to keep the Guardians from figuring out all you could do."
"Why would you do that? How did you even find out about me?" She asked. "Mom ran away from you and hid me."
"I keep tabs on the Guardians. I have a friend on the inside that relays any important information that I need to know. When you showed up in the compound, she gave me a call. I told her I was going to be sending a new recruit and his process needed to be expedited and for him to be assigned to you." I explained. "I tracked down Belikov here and told him he had to protect my daughter. He didn't question it, he just went."
"I've never met a female Guardian. Who is your friend?"
"Her name is Tatiana Ivashkov. She's not a Guardian, but she is in charge of the Guardians. She oversees everything."
"And why would she help you?"
"She comes from a long line of Spiriteds. She infiltrated the government and worked her way to the position she holds now. She herself is not Spirited, but she has a few relatives that are and she's kept them hidden for decades."
"Well, what are we going to do now? I destroyed the compound, so there aren't any more Guardians."
"I wish that were true. The compound you destroyed was one of a few worldwide. Tatiana is not the one running the show. She has a superior who had made it his mission to round up as many Spiriteds as possible. From what she's told me, he's looking for a specific power, but he hasn't found it yet."
"Who's her boss?"
"Victor Dashkov."