Chapter 2

Disclaimer – I own Rayne, Lizzie, and Trip. Xenolord owns Maria, Natalya, and Serras. Flame and I own Felix. All others, we do not own.


Finally, she closed her eyes, drew in a deep, ragged breath, and looked at the couple, no emotion in her chocolate-amethyst eyes, as she said coldly-

"Hi Mom. Hi Dad."


The rest of her friends looked on in shock, as Rayne coldly greeted her parents. Rayne's mother's breath hitched. With tears burning in her eyes, she rushed to her daughter, hugging her tightly. Although she was surprised, she didn't pull away from the hug. But neither did she return it.

Rayne's father's reaction, however, was quite the opposite of his wife's. Instead of bursting into tears, and rushing over to her, his eyes hardened, and he stayed rooted to the spot. "Rayne." He said, shaking off the last of his surprise.

Looking up from her mother, the sadness which had appeared in her eyes left, leaving them emotionless once again. "Father." She acknowledged.

Her father sighed, and awkwardly shifted around on his chair. "Rayne…can we talk?"

Said woman finally pulled away from her mother gently. "I'm sorry, but I can't right now, father."

He looked somewhat annoyed, and opened his mouth, but his wife whirled around, and stopped him, with a glare, and a sharp "Talon!" causing him to shut it immediately.

Turning back to her daughter, she smiled, still somewhat not believing seeing her daughter after a decade. "Come, let's eat." She said, grasping her hand, and tugging her in the direction of the meal. Rayne slipped her hand out of her mother's, before she could start leading her to the table. At her curious look, she shook her head. "Not yet…"

Hearing this, she tsked. "Rayne Avery, you sit down, and you eat your breakfast right now." She commanded, using a tone that sounded very much like the one Rayne used when she was leading the other warriors into battle. The people at the table couldn't help but come out of their stunned stupor, and break into stifled laughter.

"But…mother, I can't right now, I have to check on someone." She mumbled, scratching her head awkwardly.

"Let her be, Firi." Talon said calmly as she tried to tug her off again to the table. Standing up, he raised an eyebrow. "And who, exactly, could be more important?"

The answer came, as they heard the sound of laughter, outside of the still open doorway. A little girl with short, bright red hair wiggled past Rayne in the doorway, and laughed, as she ran to the table, a hint of emerald reflecting off of her amethyst eyes,

"Hi Kay." Trip called out, ruffling the little girl's hair, as she ran by her, around the table. "Don't fall!" Safiria warned, as Kay came by. All the people at the table, excluding Talon Anasi, greeted the little girl in some way. Once she had gone all the way around the table, she hopped over to where Gale was sitting, and sat on the same chair.

Excitedly, Kay looked at her friend. "Hey, Gale, guess what?" "What?" The slightly older girl asked, her friend's excitement catching onto her. "Tell me, tell me!"

"I got to ride on a horse, reeeally fast, all by myself!" She nearly shouted. Gale looked in awe for a moment, then looked to her side, and gave a pleading look to Maria. Although she wasn't one to usually deny people, she had never even let Gale go into the stables, afraid she would be trampled.

Looking over Gales head, she looked curiously at Kay. "Really? All by yourself?"

"Yeah!" She cheered. Looking around the table, she saw the teasing, disbelieving looks of the adults. "Okay, maybe not all by myself." She admitted, grinning as she heard the amused laughs of everyone else. Gleefully glancing at everyone's reactions, it was then, that she finally noticed the two newcomers, and looked at them quizzically.

Firiana smiled at the little girl, and moved away from Rayne, to the space in between the table, and the door. Beckoning for her to come closer, she smiled inwardly, as the little girl came towards her. She crouched, so that she was on eye level with Kay.

Although Kay was usually bold, straight forward, and an extrovert, there was something about meeting new people that made her clam up, and made her become one of the shyest people around. Lizzie figured that it was something she inherited from Rayne.

"Hello." Firi greeted quietly. Kay shyly waved at her. Firi laughed softly. 'Don't be scared; I won't bite." Kay looked at her shoes, before looking up, and smiling the best she could. "Hi." She whispered.

A quiet 'aww' escaped from the people at the table, as they saw Kay's expression. Smiling, she tucked a loose strand of fiery hair behind the girl's ear. "You're adorable!" She nearly squealed. Talon smiled at the scene, thinking of times long ago, and asked "Whose is she?"

Lizzie stood up, and walked over to Kay. Seeing her mother, she immediately moved away from Firi, and latched onto her waist. Lizzie smiled affectionately at the little girl, stating "She's mine."

It was a surprise for both Firi and Talon to see someone as young as her, with child. Assuming the worse, Talon asked, somewhat quietly "And where is the father?"

Kay broke away from Lizzie, and stared curiously up at the man. "I don't have a father." She said. Realizing what Kay was getting at, the people at the table rushed to stop her, but didn't manage to, before Kay said "I have two mothers."

Talon paled a bit. "T-two mothers?" He echoed, looking from Kay, to Lizzie. Firi looked a bit curious.

Kay nodded. She felt comfortable enough with these new people now. "I have mommy…" She said, hugging Lizzie around the waist.

"And mom!" She said happily. Firi looked shocked once again, as the little girl went, and ran over to Rayne, jumping onto her at the last moment, with her mother's reflexes leading to no falls.

THUMP

And everyone else was surprised even more, when Talon, not Firiana, fell to the floorThey stared at the man for a goodwhile, before Maria spoke up.

"Well….that's one interesting way to come out to your parents."


It was well past noon already, and Talon was still out cold. For a moment, they were afraid that he'd died from a shock-induced heart attack, but he'd really only fainted. This was still pretty bad, but better than the former.

Firiana sat awkwardly in the gathering room, of Rayne and Lizzie's floor in the Guardian tower, fiddling with her floral print skirt. As soon as her friends and family had helped carry Mr. Anasi to their room, they had scampered off somewhere, leaving Rayne alone to talk with her mother.

Rayne sat across from her, refusing to make eye contact, and acting just like the young girl she was years ago. Firi cleared her throat. "So…." She began awkwardly. "She seems like a…nice, girl."

"She is."

"Erm…" The older woman racked her brain, wishing that their conversation wasn't so horribly hard to carry on. "Kay was her name, was it? A bit of an odd name…"

"Kira."

"Hmm?"

Rayne looked up, and muttered softly, as she finally met eyes with Firiana. "Kira is her name; Kay's just her nickname."

"I see…." She coughed, and maintained eye contact with her daughter, even though all she wanted to do was run out of the room, grab her husband, and rush back to Rendd, creatures be damned.

"Erm…was…Kira…telling the truth, earlier?"

Rayne switched her gaze from her mom, to her lap, and was silent. It was a while, before she spoke up again, nearly in a whisper.

"Yes."

Firi didn't make a noise. Somewhere in her mind, she knew that the little redhead had been telling the truth.

Firi did, however, let out a strangled gasp of surprise, when Rayne had shifted, and something had glinted on her left hand. Rushing over, the girl flinched as her mother grasped her hand and lifted it.

"Is this…is this-!?"

Rayne nodded, and gasped herself, as Firiana began to sway on the spot. Her reflexes kicked in, and in the blink of an eye, she was seated back in her chair. Holding up her hands to her head, she rubbed her temples.

"Wh-when did this happen?"

"A few years ago." Rayne mumbled.

'And you didn't…."

"I'm sorry." Rayne murmured. "I would have but…after what happened, I didn't think that you would…"

The commander wasn't surprised, when more tears pooled in Firiana's eyes. She was, however, when her mother lunged from her chair, and onto Rayne, in a hug. She stiffened at the contact, more out of shock than anything.

"Rayne," Firi choked back a sob, "I'm so sorry. Your father and I…we were selfish. We wanted you to fit in, to make you into what we thought was a perfect child. But when you began to develop into the exact opposite of what we wanted, we got angry. And I know that it was wrong. When you left, we thought that you would recognize your errors, and come back to us. But as I can see…" She laughed a dry, humourless laugh, as she wiped her tears away with a handkerchief she had pulled out of her pocket. "That wasn't the case."

"When you didn't come back, we realized what we had done. We had sent away our only child to fend for herself, at ten years. And why? Because we wouldn't let you be who you wanted to be. Creator, we were so foolish! And now I see what that one mistake caused me to miss out on. 10 years of wasted time, my granddaughter, and…" She pulled out of the hug, and touched the ring with the special chocolate-amethyst gem that matched Rayne's eyes.

"But…maybe now…we can make up for all those lost years." She said, as she pulled Rayne back in. Rayne finally relaxed, and hugged her back, with a smile on her face for the first time that day.

But her smile faded away, as she saw someone standing in front of the stair well. She gently pushed her mother away, and stared at them. Firi turned around to look herself, and smiled, as she saw it was Talon. Her smile turned into a frown though, as he made his way over to them.

"Talon, shouldn't you be in bed? I mean, fainting like that, it can cause a lot of strain on a body, and-"

"I'm fine." He said, as he smiled for reassurance.

"Are you sure? I mean-"

"I'm serious." He said gently. "I just want to talk to Rayne privately about something. Then, I'll go back to the inn, and you can dote over me as much as you like, alright?"

"Well…alright." She smiled back at him, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I'll head back now."

She stood up, smoothed the wrinkles in her skirt, and went to one of two staircases. She went down a couple of steps, but stopped suddenly. Something didn't feel right. Instead of going down the rest of the way, she flattened herself against the wall, and positioned herself so that she could see them, but they couldn't see her.

She watched, as father and daughter stood, not saying a word, staring each other down.

It was Talon who spoke first. "What are you doing here Rayne?"

"I live here." She answered, with no emotion whatsoever.

"I mean what are you doing here" He asked again. "I mean, I doubt the Guardian's let people use their towers as meeting grounds."

"I live here." She repeated.

"You live in the tower?"

Rayne nodded. She didn't move a muscle, when he began to laugh. "Well, that's preposterous! The only people, who are allowed to live within the tower, are the Guardians."

His laughter began to fade away, when Rayne didn't say a word.

His brow furrowed. "You're a Guardian?" His daughter remained silent. That silence was all he needed to hear.

"But-How? When? Why?"

"Well father, a person usually becomes a Guardian if they're smart, strong, and wise enough. Or in my case, if they happen to be all those things and the Guardian's require a Rendd high- ranking knight." She answered dryly.

He began to laugh again, and this time, Rayne couldn't help but twitch. The loud, raucous laughter was starting to get on her nerves.

"Now I know you're joking." He laughed. "I mean the Guardian thing was hardly believable, but you're a Rendd knight too? You didn't get me this time. I suppose you're going to tell me that that little girl is your daughter?"

"Father, I'm not joking." Rayne said seriously.

"You've become quite the comedian these past years, Rayne!" Talon roared with laughter. Rayne twitched once again.

"Father, if I was neither a Guardian nor a Knight, would I have these?" Rayne pulled off the cloak that rested upon her shoulder's, and held it up. The laughter died down once more, as Talon stared at what was stitched right into the cloak.

Two symbols were what he was staring at. One, the official symbol of the Guardians of Lore. The other, the crest of the Royal Pria knights. Both were unobtainable, unless owned by someone who was, or had been in service.

"You're not joking?" He asked dumbly. Rayne nodded, and fastened the cloak once more.

"But…how?" Talon was dumbfounded. "You're a Guardian, and a Knight…"

"Commander of the Pria Knights actually. Only second to Sir Tathlin himself." Rayne added in. He didn't take any notice.

"That's…that's hard to believe…" He murmured, looking down at the ground. Something else struck him. "So the girl is…?"

Rayne hesitated for a moment, before nodding, quickly and firmly. Talon began to go red.

"Honestly Rayne! I can't believe this!" He yelled. Rayne didn't flinch away; she stood her ground.

"You've become a Guardian, AND a Pria Knight? And you never told us? Not to mention, you're raising a daughter with that girl's mother, who you honestly shouldn't be affiliated with, considering it looks as if she wasn't even married. No good can come from a woman like that. She might as well be a wh-"

For the first time that night, when Rayne spoke, it had emotion to it; Anger.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence." Rayne said, her eyes taking on an angry glint.

"What did you say to me?" Talon asked, surprised.

"I said, don't finish that sentence." Rayne growled.

"Father, don't you talk about her like that. She has a name. She's a person. And she is DEFINITELY not what you were about to call her."

Talon looked in wonder. This was the same, timid girl that had left his household a decade ago?

"In fact, she's more than just a person to me. She's my best friend." His daughter took a step towards him.

"She's my lover." Another step.

"She" step.

"Is." Step

"My." Step

"Wife." Rayne stood, close enough to her father that he could see the ring on her finger, with the gem that matched her eyes.

"And father, I don't care what you say. I love her more than anything in the world. And that little girl?" Rayne couldn't help but relish the wide eyed expression on his face, as she said those three words.

"She's your granddaughter."

Firiana went wide eyed herself, as all colour drained from Talon's face. Rayne stood there, trying to even out her suddenly ragged breathing. She took in a deep breath, and exhaled forcefully, before continuing.

"Father, I will say this. You say what you like; but there's nothing you can do to change it. They're family. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and pack. It is my duty, as a Guardian, that I attend to your plea."" She turned towards the opposite staircase, not where Firiana was hiding. She took a step away from Talon, before pausing, and turning back to look at him.

"Good day, father."

With that, she turned her back on her shocked father, and left.


I'm sorry that took so long. I had a bit of a writer's block, and I didn't have any time.