FIDGET, BATRISHAN PRINCE OF DARKNESS

Goodbye Geneva

4 years later

Fitzgerald, now ten-years-old, rode his horse back home at quite a speed. He nearly knocked a peasant's cart on the way, but he was in such a hurry that he didn't have time to excuse himself.

For the last five years since he entered Aldorada's Military Academy, the lad had really done himself. His prodigious skills managed to move him ahead of his peers and had graduated among the seniors while he was ten. And not just that: he had received the royal accord that all soldiers get in Aldorada in order to enter the Aldoradian army as privates. The dream to become a war hero like his father was just beginning.

But it didn't last long. With malaria occurring during the hot seasons, a lot of people had caught it. And all the numerous days of rain didn't help at all. Fidget was lucky to not have been infected by the malaria, but he was deeply infected when a messenger came with distressful news while Fidget was shaking hands with the Academy's council once he got his royal accord.

Geneva got hit the malaria and now the doctor was quite positive that his medicine wouldn't be enough to save her from a certain horrible death.

Fidget rode his stallion across the fields in a hurry until he finally reached the Denada Cortés estate. Once Jerome saw him enter the pathway, he immediately went to his young master so that he could take care of the tired horse while the child rushed inside the mansion.

Just as Fidget approached the staircase, the doctor came downstairs, followed by a distraught Hernan.

"Where's Mom?" Fidget asked.

"In our room," Hernan said. He rested one hand on Fidget's shoulder while he used the other to wipe away tears. "She wants to see you…one last time."

"What? No…" Fidget pulled away from his father's hand. Like Hernan, distraught fell upon him as he turned to the doctor. "Doctor, please tell me this isn't the truth!"

"I'm so sorry my dear boy," the doctor said sadly as he held on to his satchel. "I've tried everything that I could for weeks, but I failed. Lady Geneva's temperature just kept rising. Death will fall upon her in a few minutes. You must see her."

Fidget ran up the stairs, dodging the men without contempt. Tears flooded out of his eyes as he ran down the hall. His mother, his beloved mother, falling at Hades' arms! The wonderful woman who desired more than anything to adopt him when she saw him at St Alejandro's Chapel. The same woman who treated the child as her own son despite the fact that he was a Batrishan.

He burst the door of his parents' bedroom open. Geneva was in her bed, covered by a giant black blanket. Her blonde hair was let loose and spread across her pillow like a sad, flowing river of gold. Her skin was pale and she was terribly sweating and breathing from the malaria. She struggled to open her eyes when she heard Fidget barge in.

"Fidget…" she whispered hoarsely.

"Mom!" Fidget rushed to the side of his coughing mother. "Mom, please! I beg you! Don't leave! Don't leave me now!"

"Fitzgerald, listen to me," the woman said. She turned her head to look at her son and gently held his hand. "You have no idea of how much having you as my son was a blessing for me. Everything that you did in your life has brought happiness and pride to everyone. And that is why you must continue to do so."

"But how can I do this when you're dying?!" Fidget cried.

Geneva smiled weakly as she pulled something out of her nightgown: to Fidget's surprise, it was his medallion. And a bat-like pendant. Even after the heartfelt truth spill four years ago, Fidget was willing to live without his birthright. Seeing it again, especially on the day his mother was dying, was a shock to him.

"I want you to take back what is rightfully yours, Fitzgerald," Geneva said as she continued to smile weakly. "It shows that everything that I believed about you was right. Choose to believe me or not, Fitzgerald, but I always believed that your existence was a sign for the better. You, the child of Batrishan priests, the leaders of your people, survived a massive extinction, was found and adopted at a chapel on a holy day, and brought nothing but light to Aldorada." She tapped at the medallion. "This shows who you were, are, and will become. You must take it back."

"But…what about the darkness?" Fidget stammered. "I thought that you said…"

"We did say what Melchior told us." Geneva coughed. "But Fate cannot decide who you shall become anymore, Fitzgerald. Now, you must choose the path you'll lead. Which is why I got you this." She motioned the bat-like pendant. "I got this for you as a graduation gift. And…I'm glad I could see have it."

Fidget gave her a tearful look before examining the pendant. It looked like a bat in flight, with its wings wide open. He squinted at the wings and noticed that they had carved words that made this sentence:

Always fight with love and honor.

Geneva led out a horrible cough. Fidget desperately hugged his mother.

"Please! Don't go yet!"

"Fidget, I love you. I always have. Never forget what I told you. Always fight with love and honor and…be yourself. Be the Batrishan that lives inside of you."

She planted a deep kiss on the child's forehead. The latter cried uncontrollably as he hugged his mother and clung on to her gifts in one fist.

He lifted his head to look at Geneva's loving eyes. She smiled at him. "Goodbye," she whispered. Then, to Fidget's horror, she relaxed her muscles and let go of her last breath.

"MMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!" he wailed, tears flooding out of his eyes as the thunder clapped outside.

The next day

Fitzgerald knelt in front of Geneva's grave in St Alejandro's Chapel. Queen Florencia had given condolence recognition to the Denada Cortés by giving a funeral worthy of Geneva Denada Cortés.

Even though the service was done over an hour ago, Fidget didn't move from his kneeling position. He was full of depression as he deposed a bouquet of lilacs at the bottom of her grave.

"I am sincerely sorry for your loss," a familiar voice said.

Fidget's eyes looked behind him. Kaïra looked the same from the last time he saw her, only she was wearing a golden helmet with cow horns and a ruby at the center. Plus, she was carrying an uprooted daisy in her hands.

"My mother never really liked daisies," Fidget said quietly. The goddess knelt down next to him.

"I know. And frankly, neither do I." With only one hand, she managed to dig a dent big enough for her to plant the daisy. "But a daisy is a traditional flower of respect. Geneva Denada Cortés was a very respectable woman and I respect her for giving you everything that I could never have done."

"You did nothing wrong. You did exactly what she would have done when I nearly touched that sword." Fidget grimaced as he mentioned the cursed blade.

"And what would that be? Leading you to the right path?" Kaïra asked as she covered the roots with remaining dirt. She and Fidget watched as rain hydrated the newly planted daisy.

"No." Fidget said. "Telling me to be the Batrishan that lives inside of me. I've spent ten years living among humans. I thought it meant that I'm destined to be like one, but instead it helps me realize that my being raised among a species different from mine would strengthen the purpose of my survival during my people's genocide."

The goddess smiled at him. "You're learning fast, Fitzgerald Denada Cortés. I am proud that I was selected to be your patron."

Fidget pulled out his medallion and pendant and stared at him. "Questions are still filling my head, but I can tell that now's not the right time to ask them."

"Indeed. Your first battle is still ahead of you." Kaïra gently took his necklaces and held them in her hands. "And what are you going to do about it?"

Fidget stood up and looked at his mother's grave one last time before answering the goddess: "I will fight with love and honor in memory of those I love."

"Well said." A flash of red light appeared for a few seconds as Kaïra clenched the pendant and medallion in her hand. When it was done, she held out the result and placed it around the neck of a now determined looking Batrishan.

"Rise, Fitzgerald Denada Cortés. Your steps to becoming the Batrishan Prince of Darkness have begun!"

Thunder clapped as Kaïra said those words. Light flashed as the medallion flipped its sides, one of them being the original one with a praised Ashiva. But on the other side was the result of a fusion between the medallion's dark side and the bat pendant: a volumed carving of a flying bat with the medallion's darkness locked inside it. The wings had a gothic carving of the sentence they guarded.

Always fight with love and honor.