Chapter 22: Family Tree
The Flux Leader's office was very big and a little over decorated in Tia's opinion. On the right side and middle of the room, the area was a normal office with expensive looking furniture and selves filled with books with a big desk that had racks filed with files. The left hand side of the room had more of a leisure feel to it with a Japanese styled table and comfy pillows and a small water fall on the other side of the room. Brim Simba didn't recognise that Tia was in the room at first because he was busy reading a file. Standing abnormally by the door, Tia wasn't sure if she should cough or stay silent and wait for him to notice. Thankfully, she was saved from any decision making when Brim Simbra looked up and finally noticed her presence.
"Tia! It's good to see you. Please take a seat." The slender alien greeted, getting up from the desk and gesturing her towards the small tea table. As the both sat a waitress came in and placed a tray that had a lovely set of china cups and teapot. Taking a sip, Tia couldn't help but let out a pleasant moan, the tea tasted of cream and honey.
"I must get some of this tea." The young adult commented, taking another sip of the delicious tea. The older alien laughed a little at Tia's remark before taking a sip of tea himself.
"The tea comes from my home world, which was sadly lost during the war." Brim Simbra sadly stated. Tia nodded in understanding. The planets that were near the explosion at the time were moved so far out of orbit that the atmosphere change dramatically, making most planets unstable to live on, including Brim Simbra's planet; which reportedly suffered the worst aftershocks. Scientist believed that if the explosion had been any closer to Akillian then the shifted orbit would have put the planet into an ice age. Tia felt sorry for those planets; they were left defenceless after the blast, making it easy for Bleylock to take over those worlds. "Shall we begin your training then?" The Flux society leader asked, determined to move on to a much lighter subject. Tia nodded in agreement and followed him to the mats that were placed near the small waterfall. Sitting down, Brim Simba crossed his legs into a mediation position, which Tia followed. Carefully, Tia followed every instruction that the white alien spoke: closing her eyes, relaxing her body and taking deep, slow breaths. "Now, feel for the energy inside you." Brim Simbra commanded. Tia wasn't really sure what he meant at first until she felt a blazing amount of energy that was bouncing all over the place.
"I found it." Tia whispered, feeling the energy zoom through every cell in her, like an wild animal trying to claw its way out of her body. Fear went through her entire body. How am I meant to control that? Tia thought, using all her courage to not run away from it.
"Now, use your mind to take a bit of it and pull it in and out." The old leader ordered. At first, Tia was scared to go anyway where near it but she forced herself to do what he said. Grabbing on to a bit of the ball of energy, she did what the wise alien said and began pulling the energy in and out. The supplementary times she did it the more confident she got and began to pull on more and more, until Simba told her to stop. Letting it go she saw the ball of energy had calmed down and stayed in its own ball. "Tia you're a natural." Brim Simbra smiled at her. "Now let's try it again."
Rocket patiently waited in the waiting room just outside Brim Simbra's office. He knew that she was safe but he still worried about her. It wasn't like he had any idea how to help her; she was probably the only person alive that had it. He stared at his watch to realise half an hour had gone by, how long will they be? Rocket wondered, as he continued to stare at the clock. Just as the thought came to him the doors to the office opened and Tia stepped out with a smile on her face. Rocket instantly jumped on to my feet and wrapped her into a hug.
"Are you alright?" He asked her (it seemed to be a question he asked her a lot since he met her) and kissed her gently on the cheek. Tia only let out a small laugh and lent back a bit so they could see each other's faces.
"I'm fine Rocket, it was actually quite easy." She smiled. Her boyfriend was glad that she had a happier glow to her. Wrapping an arm around her waist, Rocket attempted to guide her out of the building, until they had an unexpected run in with one of the last people they wanted to see in the universe.
"Tia, it's good to see you." Emperor Maddox smiled, ignoring Rocket's presence completely. Rockets grip on her waist grew a little bit tighter as he pulled her closer to him. When he was younger, Rocket and the lads used to be terrified by this powerful man but they soon learned from Sonny that this man was not worthy of his reputation. The young solider didn't move an inch under Maddox glare.
"Come on Tia. I promised Sonny I would have you home just before dinner." Rocket mumbled and led his lover past the overweight man with a big title. When they both got in to the car, both of them let out a sigh of relief to be out of the place. The looks that the Emperor of technoid had been given both of them sent chills down their spine. They rode in silence as he drove Tia home but he was glad the silence wasn't as tense as it had been on the way to the office. However, Rocket was worried by the news that Tia was about to be confronted with when she got home. He wished he could tell her now but he swore he would let Sonny reveal the truth to her when he had explained it to everyone else first. I hope she's ready for this? Rocket wondered when he stopped outside Blackbones house. As he helped Tia out of the car and sudden rush of emotions over came him, just as his beautiful angel opened her mouth to say goodbye, Rocket leaned in and gently placed his lips on hers. Tia was shocked by this sudden motion but who was she to complain; it was quite enjoyable. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and Rocket broke the kiss. A sad smile spread across Tia's face as she stepped on to her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek, before walking back to the house. Once she had reached the porch, she turned around to see Rocket just starting up the engine of his car. She saw him look back at her and a small smile spread across his face. Sending a small wave, Tia watched her lover disappear down the street. A loud, happy sigh escaped Tia's mouth, as she made her way inside the house.
"Hello! Anybody home!" She called out, placing her shoes on the rack and began checking the rooms to see if anyone was in them- strangely enough most of the damage done to the place had been fixed.
"We're in the kitchen!" Sonny's voice echoed through the hall ways. Following the voice, Tia entered the kitchen to find the whole Blackbones family sitting around the table. The smile disappeared on her face as soon as she entered the room because the tension that came from it was enough to burn a hole through the sun. I wondered what happened? Tia thought as Sonny gestured to a seat beside Mary.
"Honey." Mary began, taking Tia's hand in hers and looked her straight in the eyes. It looked like she was going to say something but her mouth opened and close like a fish, unable to find the words, her adoptive mother handed her a large rolled up piece of paper instead. Tia found it a little weird but she opened it anyway and saw it was her family tree. Examining the contents of the paper, she winced when she realised she was related to Maddox (only through marriage and it was a distance cousin but it was still kind of creepy) then she notice the strange name near her mums – Sarah Garden. I have an aunt! Was the first thing Tia thought when she saw it? After a few minutes at looking at the diagram Tia gave up; unsure what she was meant to be looking at.
"Can someone please explain what I am supposed to be looking at?" Tia demanded frustrated, honestly why did people have to figure out stuff in this family instead of having them to actually tell them. Everyone looked at each other before Mary indicated to the name Sarah Garden.
"This is me." Mary point out to Tia. "I'm Sarah Garden and I'm your aunt." Tia was thankful she had been told to sit because she believed if she was standing then she would have fainted.
The beauty of the night sky gave Tia some piece of mind when she sat on the back porch. Mei and D'jok had left after the news had been said and promised to visit tomorrow and Sonny and Mary had kept their distance, knowing she needed some time to get her head wrapped around the piece of news she had just received. She just couldn't believe it, her long lost aunt just happens to be the same woman whose family had saved her and adopted her. Looking at the phone she held in her hand, she was tempted to call Rocket but after typing his number in for the tenth time, she chicken out and cancelled the call. Why can't anything be easy in my life? Tia thought slamming her head into her hands. It wasn't like she was mad or anything it was just all the information she had received was just too much.
"Hey, I brought you some pizza." Mary (or Sarah) smiled and sat down next to her with some hot, cheesy pizza on a plate. It was only now that Tia realised how hungry she was and gratefully took a slice of pizza from the plate that Mary offered. "Are we ok?" Her Aunt questioned, placing a calm and loving hand on her shoulder.
"I'm fine just trying to take in the information." Tia smiled, placing one of her hands on top of Marys. Smiling at each other both women both began to eat their dinner. However, both of them didn't realise that Sonny was watching from the kitchen window with a big smile on his face.