Hey everybody, welcome back to another new chapter for 9AM In Italy! Let's see what happens next for the electrifying duo of the Rock and Ari so here's the new chap. Jump in!

Chapter 6: Repercussions

Had Ari not known how bad the consequences of her actions were going to be and how they would affect everyone around her, she probably would have just preferred if she stayed at home for her birthday or just spent the rest of it with Alberto Del Rio. Of course, with everything in her body on an emotional high, and telling her to do the opposite, she did just that. She went and she stayed with the Rock.

He was a stranger no less, but at this point in time, Arianna had felt like she had known this man her entire life. He held her and comforted her, making her feel safe and secure. In a world like this, security was definitely a prized possession many wanted to have and feel.

Not only that, but he made her laugh in many different ways at a variety of things and topics, making a gorgeous smile appear more on her features every day. That was one thing that the Rock loved about Ari: her beautiful Italian smile.

Her smile seemed to bring out his smile even more and apparently make him even more cocky than he usually acted. Whereas he would normally act super cocky though, lately the Rock had been feeling a sense of protection, electricity(naturally), and a long lost sense of seeming nobility. He felt a need to protect Ari, this young and powerful woman. Yes he was the prophesied Great One and she was the bloodline harbinger, but whenever they were together, there seemed to be a powerful connection that no one could fathom.

It was connections like these that gave Arianna the bravery that she was going to need to face her parents for her seemingly wrongful actions. Arianna didn't regret anything that she had done or the time away that had been gone spent with the Rock, but she did love her family dearly, and she was going to at least try and talk it out with them. She wanted to make her own choices; now was the time for them to finally get that and understand.

The Rock and Ari had finally landed after a journey through the electric current of the Rock. "You sure you wanna go in there and face them alone? The Rock can back you up," the Great One offered, but Ari held her hand up and shook her head firmly.

"No Rocky, this is my family. I need to do this by myself," she said, staring at the door attentively. "I appreciate the offer though, but this is something they need to hear from me, and me only," Ari said. The Rock looked at her with an admiring tone set about his eyes. Ari really wanted to go in there and prove herself, show the Mendillos why she deserved to live by her own rules and have her own freedom. No more having her life being controlled like she was a puppet.

"I got this Brahma Bull, just trust me," she said with a confident and cocky smirk, mirroring that of the Rock's. She pressed a ginger kiss to his lips, then flicked his chin with her tongue, as she hopped down to her feet and ran up the steps to her home. Taking a deep breath and praying silently, she knocked on the door. A few seconds later, her little sister Aaliyah opened the door up, and a smile lit her facial features. "Ari you're back!" she squealed, gripping on tightly to her big sister, relieved to see that she was okay.

"Yeah Aaliyah, it's me," the harbinger said with a sincere smile as she kissed her little sister's forehead. Peering over her sister's lowered shoulder, Aaliyah spotted the Rock across the street giving some street hooligans a pair of Rock Bottoms through wooden food stands.

"So that's your secret mystery man that you've been spending time with huh? He's got great looks for sure," Aaliyah smirked, biting down on her lips as Ari chuckled to herself and rolled her eyes.

"Yes that is him, but don't tell anybody okay?" Ari warned, but a frown crossed Aaliyah's features and she shook her head solemnly. "It's too late for that," she said in a somber tone. Letting Ari in all the way, Aaliyah pointed to her family who were fervently tapping their feet waiting for the young Italian to come home.

"Sorry, I tried to stall them the best I could," Aaliyah said with tears streaming down her cheeks as Ari hugged her.

"Aaliyah go to your room right now," Antony said in a calm, but very noticeably angry tone in his voice. Aaliyah hesitated for a second, but when she saw him reaching for the belt around his waist, she immediately jetted from Ari's grasp right into her room, closing the door and locking it up tight.

Turning his attention back to his middle child, Antony shook his head and spat at the ground. "Ari, where the hell have you been? We've been worried sick about you." Ari shrugged and shook her head defiantly, looking around the room in disgust at seeing that Alberto was here once more, and to her surprise, Layla as well.

"I was out celebrating my birthday dad. I am 21 now, remember?" she said in a snarky tone. "Yes I know that, and you were supposed to spend it with Alberto, am I right? That's what we told you to do, but according to Alberto, you ditched him and left him behind to get assaulted by some street urchins."

"That is not true! He attacked him first! The guy was only just defending himself!" Ari countered angrily. "Aha!" Antony said, catching her off guard. "So there was another guy involved! You ran off with him didn't you? You left Alberto to the wolves and ran off with some random stranger so you could put out to him like some type of slut! I didn't raise any sluts of a daughter around here!"

Ari couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her father's mouth. They felt like painful flaming arrow shots to the chest, because not only did they hurt her, but his words felt like they were burning her. "How could you say that about me dad? You know damn well that I am the furthest thing from a slut! That's Amanda's territory," she said, whipping her head at her older sister, who snarled and crossed her arms.

"Alberto needed to be put in his place anyway. I'm not going to marry that Spanish stooge," she said, laying down her law. Antony wasn't about to have it as he laid down the law of his own. "We mapped out your life this way for a reason Arianna. We know one day you're going to have duties of your own one day, just like your Aunt Ashleigh, but quite frankly, you seem like you want to defy all this for a stranger that you randomly met," he said bitterly.

"He's not a stranger! And unlike the most of you lot, he's actually been helping me through my problems in life. He helps me feel better about myself and my powers, and helps me embrace myself as the harbinger, something you've clearly failed to do as a father," she wittily snapped, with a cocky angry smirk on her face.

With her father's face growing as red as a ripe tomato, Ari's mother stepped in and immediately slapped her daughter square in the face. "Show some respect to the people who helped bring your ungrateful little ass into this world!" Autumn said, feeling disgraced by her daughter. As Ari held her hand up to her cheek in shock, completely surprised that her mother would do something like that, her father continued.

"Layla here happened to be nearby in the area, and once she saw what happened, she immediately ran over to help young Alberto here, and help him recover. That should be what you're doing, but you can't even do that apparently. You have done me wrong so many times Ari and I don't know how much more of your bullshit that I can take," he honestly said, shaking his head in anger.

Ari noticed the slight smirk curve onto Layla's lips as the Brit shot her a look and slowly smirked. Ari gritted her teeth, and just like that, the evil witch began to get under her skin. "You know what mom and dad? I don't even care anymore if I've broken your precious rules. Quite frankly, I'd rather live my life running than be stuck under your stupid rules having my life be planned out for me."

"Then you pack your bags and you get the hell out of my house right now! Consider yourself banished, you ungrateful little wench!" Antony said, yelling into Ari's face. "For all I know, you probably opened yourself to that big idiot of a stranger!"

Ari shook her head at her constantly angry father. "Yeah dad, I actually did. I had plenty of sex with him out of wedlock multiple times. I hope I made you proud," she said with a ghost of a smile on her face as she turned up the stairs and began to pack her bags.

Aaliyah appeared and made her way into Ari's room, looking on with her brown orbs as her sister silently sobbed, packing up all her belongings into two separate bags. Was this really going to be it? Was she never going to get to see her sister again?

"Arianna, don't go. You can't! I can't live here without my big sister! You're my hero!" she said, running over to Ari's arms and the two sisters embraced in a long hug.

"I wish I could Aaliyah, but dad said I can't, and this is his house. Have to go by his rules, not mine," she said solemnly, packing a few brushes and hygiene necessities into her bag as well.

"He's worth it though right? Rocky is going to make this all better in the end right?" Aaliyah questioned with a youthful innocence about her. Ari brushed the tears from her sister's eyes and her own as well.

"Yes he will Aaliyah, I promise. Rocky is going to make everything better and everybody will be happy again. It's just going to take some time, and I'm gonna have to go away for a while to make that happen, okay?"

Aaliyah sighed and sobbed with shudder emotion. 'You're gonna come back and at least visit right? Promise me that you both will visit," she said with deep hope.

Ari nodded her head and smiled a serene smile. "Of course my little sister, I promise we'll come back and visit," she said. Aaliyah finally smiled and nodded her head. Reaching into her back pocket, she pulled out a piece of paper that had a drawing on it.

Aaliyah motioned for Ari to look at it and keep it with her always. Ari looked at the picture and smiled a joyful smile at the picture. It was a kindergarten-esque picture of both Ari, the Rock, and apparently a child in the middle holding both of their hands in the middle.

Ari smiled at the beautiful picture before her, and wiped a tear from her eye. "Is that you in the middle Aaliyah?" The younger Mendillo shook her head. "Nope, that's a special present coming to you two in the near future hopefully," she said with a teasing tongue. Ari smiled and wrapped her arms around her sister one more time.

"ARI GET THE HELL OUT MY HOUSE!" her father yelled obnoxiously from downstairs. Ari scoffed in disgust, before kissing her sister on the head one more time, before rushing down the stairs, watching as she cried on and ran back into her room, unable to allow the flowing waterfalls of tears to stop.

As Ari opened the front door, glaring at her family and Alberto, and Layla as well, she shook her head. "Of all the ways it could have ended, it just had to be like this didn't it? I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not. I don't feel one ounce of remorse for my actions, and I'm proud of what Rocky has helped me become today. I can only get better from here," she said, sobbing. "I just hope you one day learn to respect my decisions and realize that this is probably the best for us. I get to find my own freedom, and you get the family burden lifted off your chest. Sounds like a great deal right?"

Ari sighed one last time, before turning on her back heel and finally started to head out the door with her bags down the steps where the Rock was waiting. He took her bags for her, and Ari waved goodbye one final time to her family, anxious to see where the road would take her now.

Hours Later, Uptown Milano

Layla smirked at the small victory she had gotten today. It was amazing how things suddenly had fallen together for her today. Alberto had foolishly revealed to her Ari's family secret, the one thing that Ari had failed to tell her and not Eve. It made her bitter that she would hide a big secret like that from her for all these years.

Not only that, but Ari's parents had found out the truth about where Arianna was, and who she was with. She was one step closer to getting the Rock out of the picture, and capturing Ari for her one true purpose, to strip her of her power and grow into immense power of her own. Witchcraft was definitely this woman's forte.

"You must be feeling pretty proud of yourself right now," a creepy but soft voice came from behind a cackling Layla. The witch turned around to see Mick Foley, the Rock's sometimes 'friend' staring at her with a disappointing look on his face.

"Did you really have to go and ruin Ari's life like that the way you did? You're supposed to be her friend," Mick said, and Layla scoffed.

"Friends don't keep secrets from each other," Layla said, biting into an orange from the fruit stand. "I know, but maybe there was a good reason she didn't want to tell you. Friends respect each other's privacy too," Mick added.

"Says the guy who gets the verbal crap chewed out of him by the Rock," Layla quipped, but Mick only laughed. "That's just what he does! I've grown to accept that, and he actually has saved my life before. He even got me some brand new clothes!" he said, pointing to his black and blue checkered sweatshirt.

Layla rolled her eyes at him. "Only someone with immense power and skill, or complete irrelevance could sneak up on someone as powerful as me," Layla commented. She glared at the generous man before her, before standing up.

"Is ruining somebody's life really going to gain you anything? What is there for you to gain by ruining Arianna's good name and life? Think about what you're doing," Mick said, shaking his head. "Bang bang, have a nice day!" he added, standing up and walking off to wherever it was that he lived, leaving Layla with a deep scowl on her face.

She was tired of everybody putting her down, and holding her back, putting Arianna before her. Well, once she got a hold of Ari's power, that was all going to change. Now was as good a time as ever to start recruiting some help, starting with the biggest and most tallest man in all of Italy, who was good at making Mick Foley's life hell: the Big Show.

So Layla begins recruiting help! Just who else will she get? And where do you think the Rock and Ari are headed off to next? Stay tuned for more! And for more present day Rock and Ari, be sure to read Dangerous Liaisons by Mysticxdiva!

-Ronnie