After talking for a little longer, Grimsley and I decided to turn in for the night. I decided to check in on Iris before calling it a day and managed to locate her room with the help of the family butler, Kevin.

"This floor of the house is where the rooms of the young masters and miss are located. This room at the corner belongs to Ms Iris. Your room is the one next to hers, and following this corridor the next room is Ms Leticia's, followed by Young Master Lexus. After you make a right turn at the end of this corridor you will see the rooms of Young Master Mikhail and Ms Amelia. If you walk further down and take another right turn you will find Ms Elesa's room and Young Master Asher's room."

"I see, thank you," I thanked Kevin as I immediately worked on memorising the layout of this floor of the house. "My father walked further up the stairs, so I assume that it is where the rooms of my aunts and uncles are also at?"

"You are correct. The floor above this is where the rooms of Master Grimsley and his siblings are located. Each generation of Dandolos will occupy a floor each, with the older generation residing a floor above the younger one. When the time comes where your generation assumes leadership of the family, Master Grimsley and his siblings will move one floor up to make way for your generation. Everyone on this floor will have to shift their rooms and move one level up to live on the floor your parents' generation once lived, leaving this floor to be filled by the next generation of Dandolos. It's a family tradition that has been practised by the Dandolos family for generations, or so I was told by my grandfather."

Interesting.

"It's late, so I shan't hold you up any longer. I will just check on Iris before turning in for tonight. Good night, Kevin."

"It's not any trouble at all, Young Master Jayce. Please, feel free to approach me at any time of the day if you have any questions, I will be honoured to serve you. If there's anything you find unsatisfactory about your rooming, do let me know as well, there are still a few unoccupied rooms on this floor that you can choose from and I will make the necessary arrangements at your earliest convenience. Good night to you too, Young Master Jayce, may your dreams be a pleasant one."

Kevin bowed and took his leave. I turned back to face the door of Iris' new room and quietly turned the knob before pushing the door open.

Her room is nicely furnished, a far cry from the little apartment in the slums that we had been living in order to hide her abilities from prying eyes. Iris was already sleeping soundly when I entered and was hugging umbreon close to her in her sleep. I can see that umbreon was still awake from how his eyes were glowing faintly in the darkness of the room and was looking at me.

"Thanks for looking after her," I lightly scratched umbreon behind his ear as umbreon nipped at my fingers in fond acknowledgement, taking care not to move too much so that he didn't wake Iris up. A quick glance told me that Iris had heeded my words and had changed into her pyjamas before falling asleep. I pulled the blanket up a little more until it covered Iris' shoulders, knowing that the girl has a tendency to kick away her blanket in her sleep. While the temperature in her room was comfortably warm, the temperature outside definitely wasn't due to the coming winter. Children are very fragile beings, I would like to minimise the risk of Iris catching a cold as much as possible.

Satisfied that she was sleeping well, I exited her room, leaving umbreon to keep her company throughout the night and to also help me keep an eye on her. I walked towards where Kevin said my room was located, the one just beside Iris'. I was about to enter my room when I noticed the light shining through the gap underneath the door of Leticia's room that was easily noticed thanks to the lack of lighting along the dark corridor, which means that she is not yet asleep.

Recalling the conversation I just had with my father, I decided to walk over to her room. Maybe she would be open to the idea of talking about the issues of the family's succession that our generation will inevitably face in the near future.

I knocked on her door twice and I heard a reply from the other side of the door just a second later telling me to come in. I opened the door and entered her room, easily spotting her.

"Oh, it's you. Need my help in anything?"

"I think that we should maybe hold this conversation at a later time," I replied when I saw the state of dress she is currently in. She obviously had just finished taking a shower, seeing how there's still some water droplets clinging onto her skin and how she was trying to blow her hair dry with a hairdryer. I averted my gaze when I saw that the only article of clothing she was wrapped in was a loose fitting bathrobe that looked as if it might fall off her shoulders at any second, barely secured by the loosely tied sash around her thin waist and showing a little too much for us to hold a proper conversation. It seems that I had found her at the wrong time.

The only response I got from her was her relentless laughter.

"You know, I never expected you to be the shy sort, especially when I heard that my long lost cousin was someone feared by Indigo's underworld as the death incarnate. I'd thought you would have your fair share of seeing some exposed skin in that line of work."

"Just get dressed."

"What kind of response was that? Never had a girlfriend?" Leticia asked as she walked towards her wardrobe and I turned around, knowing that she was planning to change into something else so that I would finally be able to look at her properly.

"Loved a girl once, died by my hands eight years ago," I answered matter of factly as the soft sounds of rustling fabric filled the room as she changed.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"It's just a matter of time that you would know about it. I wasn't planning on hiding this part of my history."

"If it makes things any better I never had much luck in the love department either and not for the lack of trying, if I may add. I'm done changing, you can turn around now."

I turned around, finding her now properly dressed in a black silk nightgown and a shawl draped over her shoulders. She gestured for me to take a seat opposite her on a nearby chair while she resumed trying to dry her hair.

"Now, I may be wrong, but I don't think you are the type that knocks on my door at this hour just for a little chat. Is there anything you need to ask me?"

"Had a talk with my old man about the family. Learned from him about the succession problem of the family and stuff like that, asked me if I am willing to eventually replace him as the head of this family and that you and Asher were the ones originally groomed for the position. I don't know if that is something I want to do, but I just thought that it would be nice to at least talk to you about it."

"Ah," Leticia had a look of realisation on her face as she took a slight pause in blowing her hair dry. "About that, if you are worried that I will be offended if you took that position from me, don't. In fact, I will be very grateful if you can succeed uncle as the next leader of the family. Of course, I am not the type to just kick back and do nothing and let you handle all the work. I will do my best to assist you just like how Asher and I assisted uncle, and I'm sure that goes the same for Lex and our other cousins too."

"You really have no desire to lead the family?"

"It's true that my ambition doesn't really tie with being the future head of the family, but it's more than just that. It simply makes more sense for a Dandolos to lead the family instead of me…" Leticia stopped trying to dry her hair entirely and looked at me in surprise when she saw from the expression on my face that she had utterly lost me.

"Wait, uncle didn't tell you about… about me? You don't know?"

"You need to be more specific, I'm very lost here."

"Oh, I… I assumed he already told you," she looked away for a moment before explaining herself. "It's something you will have to know eventually anyway. How to start… Alright, let's go with this. I'm not a Dandolos, cousin, not by blood."

"But you and Lexus…"

"We both have the same eyes, correct? You are right, we are indeed siblings, but we are half-siblings. We both inherited our eyes from our father. My birth mother died on the day I was born, died during childbirth as she was giving birth to me. My father remarried shortly after and tied the knot with your aunt Giselle. They had Lexus a few years later. Of course, I didn't remember all of that since I was too young to remember. As far as my memory goes, I had always grown up in this family with Giselle as my mother and Lexus as my younger brother. I had always been treated and raised as a Dandolos despite not sharing the same blood so technically, I was lying when I said we were cousins because in truth, we do not have the same blood flowing through our veins."

I can feel my eyes widening in realisation as I start to slowly understand the implications of this fact that was being revealed to me. Everything suddenly made sense. Like how Leticia and aunt Giselle looked nothing alike, why my father said she kept refusing the chance to lead the family unless she really had no other choice, and how Leticia was simply very different from us in terms of appearance.

"I look very different from everyone else, don't I? My skin, it's too pale for a Dandolos. Inherited that from my birth mother who had a slight skin deformity that results in slightly lower melanin production, making us look a little too fair and white. The colour of my hair and even the shape of my face, that comes from my mother too. The only thing I received from my father was his eyes. Did anybody tell you about him?"

"No," I answered. None of the adults had introduced themselves as Leticia's and Lexus' father earlier. I had thought that maybe he was temporarily away but I found it odd that nobody ever mentioned him, especially when they had mentioned that uncle Gavin's wife, my aunt, was not here to greet me tonight but yet not a single word was said about Leticia's and Lexus' father. It seems that there is a story behind it.

"It happened when I was fourteen. Mum caught our father cheating on her and of course, she's furious. I am too. Our father was a selfish man. He had never shown Lex or I much love, if there was even any, so I don't really care if Mum decided to file for a divorce, but we wouldn't get that mad if that was simply the case. That man was leaking out secrets to the woman he was cheating on with behind Mum's back. Not just any secrets, cousin, but secrets concerning our family and some of those are secrets that might compromise Unova's peace. Now this, is unacceptable."

"What happened after that?"

"He fled like the coward he is after he knew we learnt of what he did. I was already a trainer by then and I was just really mad at him for everything. Our whole family was being mobilised to conduct a manhunt. We caught that woman easily enough but my father was one slippery coward. He eluded our search for quite some time but in the end, I was the one who managed to find and drag him back."

Leticia stayed silent for a few seconds before continuing her story.

"I'm not a Dandolos, Jayce, I knew that very early on when I realised I was simply too different in this family. When I finally mustered the courage to confront the adults about my suspicions the adults were straightforward in their answers, especially Mum, and I am grateful that they really treated me as part of this family even if I was not born as one of them. I really love this big family of ours, even if it is a little bit more twisted and darker than the norm. We were raised and taught in ways such that we are desensitised to killings and deaths at a very young age. Blood and death is what we have to get used to because that is the burden our family had sworn to bear. To others, how we were raised seems messed up, but this family is a very loving one despite its darker aspects. We have our disagreements and the occasional conflicts but at the end of the day, we are still family. I wouldn't trade this for anything else in the world. I will bleed myself dry if it means keeping this family safe because this is the only family I have, the only place who accepts me."

She remained silent for a short while before continuing.

"I think that's why I was so angry at my father. Our family made a lot of enemies because of what we do and we are always in constant danger, to the point that most of our members are forced to hide under another name instead of publicly going by the name of Dandolos. The secrets my scummy father leaked to the woman jeopardised our family's safety. That woman we caught was later found to be working for our enemies and we were so lucky that she hadn't had the time to divulge those secrets before we caught her. Do you know? I can never forget how I found my father and dragged him back here. I can never forget how my arbok wrapped him up such that he couldn't even move a finger. When the search was conducted none of us children were allowed to participate, mainly because the adults thought that we were too young and they probably wanted to spare us the emotional turmoil of having to deal with a traitor in our midst, especially for me and Lex. I was too angry to care. I simply snuck out and participated in the hunt in my own way."

Leticia let out a soft sigh.

"I still remember that the skies were pouring that day. I still remember that the very moment I stepped through those doors again, drenched from head to toe as arbok helped drag that man I once called my father back here. The adults didn't even spare a single glance at him but instead, ran up to me and kept fussing all over me and kept asking if I'm alright, if I'm injured anywhere and to quickly warm myself up lest I catch a cold. Mum hugged me so tightly that I couldn't breathe. She knew I had definitely gone to hunt him down the moment they realised I was missing and couldn't be contacted because I had switched off all of my communication devices. She was so afraid something might have happened to me while I was uncontactable and at that moment I realised just how loved I was. I am not a Dandolos but at the same time, I am a Dandolos."

I didn't know what else to say, so I remained silent.

"As for my father… that night after I dragged him back, I couldn't fall asleep. I was just so very angry and a part of me kept feeling like I don't deserve to be here. What excuse do I have to continue staying here when my father had just betrayed the family? I am not a Dandolos, I was just a parasite that he brought over from his previous marriage. I just got angrier the more I was reminded about his betrayal because he was the one who nearly destroyed the hope I have in being able to continue to stay here. The insecurity I felt was starting to gnaw at me until I wasn't able to think properly anymore, and in my anger I decided to go seek him out while everyone was asleep. I bumped into Elesa that night and she noticed something was wrong with me but I didn't answer her questions, I just continued to walk until I marched down to where he was being confined in the basement. I could never forget, Jayce, how calm I was as I slowly extracted the worst poison from my arbok's fangs right in front of him and collected it in a small vial. I can still remember his voice as he begged and screamed for mercy when I smeared that poison all over his face because just looking at his face reminds me that I am not part of this family and I just really, really don't want to see his face ever again. I hate the colour of my eyes because they remind me of him and so I smeared poison over his eyes too. I just watched and laughed and cried both at the same time as I watched his face being corroded by the acid. That was the state the adults found me in after Elesa went to bang on their doors after seeing I had snapped. My father? He died just hours later and I'm not even sure what he really died from and how the corpse was disposed of. Nobody said a word about it thereafter because I was so close to turning insane after that ordeal. I think part of the reason Grimsley gave me his approval to publicly don the Dandolos name was to tell me that even if I am not born as one, I am still a Dandolos. Members of the family that dabbled in the darker sides of it will have to make their first kill eventually, but that was my very first kill. Messed up, isn't it?"

For a moment, I wasn't sure what I could say to make her feel better. What I do know is that if I were in her shoes, the last thing I would need is pity.

What's done has already been done. Pity wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't bring back lives that were lost, or actions taken that resulted in regrets.

"It is, but if it makes it any easier for you, I have seen and done worse. You are still far from being noted down as a candidate in my fucked-up-beyond-repair list."

Leticia laughed at my words.

"Can I take that as your attempt in comforting me? Why, thank you."

"You're welcomed."

"No, I'm serious, this is not something that I can talk with the adults or our cousins and even to Lex. I'm just glad that I am finally able to… share it with someone who I can trust to listen and not judge. Really, thank you."

"I have no right to judge. I don't want to start a pity party, but you haven't heard of half the things I have done and they are way worse. That's why I said that I have no right to judge you."

"I am here to listen if you want to. Anytime, anyday."

"Thanks, but honestly, that probably won't happen… at least not so soon. I'm still new to this whole family thing," I confessed. "I really have no clue what to do or how to act around this new family I suddenly found myself in and the only thing that I can do to provide me with a sense of purpose, to not give up trying to live altogether, is to avenge Asher by destroying Team Plasma. Anything after that… No clue."

"Take your time, there is no hurry. I'm just glad that you are still alive, really. Just… Do seriously consider relieving me of the burden that comes with being forced to be the next head of the family? Pretty please? I promise I will still help you in any way I can."

"What about the opinions of the rest of our cousins in this matter?"

"They are capable in their own ways but ultimately not suitable for this role. Besides, Asher was too perfect, so even they never ever considered the possibility of them ever taking over his role," Leticia shook her head. "But seriously, it's really either you or me now, and even if I know that I will have the family's full support if I somehow replace uncle as the next head of the family, a part of me is still uncomfortable with that idea because I am not exactly a true member. I didn't have a choice after Asher died but you are here now, and you are obviously more than qualified for this."

"Even if I have only about five years left to live?"

"Five years?" Leticia let out a laugh at my words. "Don't underestimate me, Jayce, if I put my heart into it I can synthesise something that helps you live another fifty more, I just need the time. Medicine and poison are both sides of the same coin. I'm not a doctor and not very well-versed in human anatomy, but drugs and chemical compounds are my domain. You haven't seen anything that I am capable of, just like I haven't seen what you can really do. If I ever claim that I can create a drug that lets you gain immortality, I can do it. That's just how good I am, and I never made claims that I wouldn't be able to show results for."

That alluring smile that I now associated with Leticia returned to her face.

"Is that convincing enough? Or do I have to show you the undisputed proof of my loyalty and fidelity to the cause in the traditional method of kneeling down on a knee and swearing an overly complicated oath that befits the status of our ancient family? Brand myself with a mark on my chest like what Lex did?"

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"Oh, uncle didn't tell you about this too? Our family has roots in the mafia and you should already know this about mafias, everytime there's a new member initiated there will be this long initiation ceremony involving rituals, oath, and blood. Make them swear the oath of omerta, basically. A very long time ago our family had the tradition where every member will tattoo our family crest on our chest the moment they come of age. It's a sign of loyalty to the family and to remind ourselves what we are doing for Unova. Obviously, we don't practise that now because while we still deal with and keep an eye on the underworld, we are no longer mafia, but Lexus took a shine to that outdated tradition and tattooed our family crest on his chest among other things. Mum wasn't very happy because bar the family crest, she thinks that his other tattoos are hideous."

"Have to see it for myself one day."

"It's really ugly, trust me. Lex's tastes are questionable when it comes to anything relating to art in general and hey, don't think I haven't noticed that you are trying to dodge the question. You are going to be my salvation and take over the role as the future head of the family, right?"

"Fine," I relented, knowing that the fact that Leticia wasn't born a Dandolos is a barrier within her heart and is not something that can be easily overcome. I had sworn to myself to not work under any organisation after I left Indigo, but if it's working for the sake of my new family… I think that's acceptable.

Even if the family is undoubtedly messed up in terms of common sense.

"Oh, am I hearing things? Oh I'm loving you already, you are now my favourite cousin. Oh dear, what can I do to convey just how thankful I am? A goodnight kiss? Where do you want it? Forehead, cheek, lips? If lips, tongue or no? Come to think about it, I haven't tried kissing such a handsome face before. Would you let me have the honours? I'm still single and available~"

"I'm leaving. Good night," I decided to stand up and leave when Leticia was back to her old self. What needed to be discussed and said between us had already been said anyway.

Leticia's uncontrollable laughter could be heard loud and clear even after I had left her room and closed the door behind me. Just when I thought I finally had an inkling of her character, she does something that made me reevaluate my earlier judgement.

It doesn't seem like there's a single normal person in this family. Good grief.


Name: Jayce Dandolos

Age: 22

Pokemon Team:

1. Ninetales, female

2. Exeggutor, male

3. Weavile, male

4. Honchkrow, female

5. Umbreon, male

6. Hydreigon, male

7. Drapion, female

8. Zoroark, male

9. Bisharp, male

10. Shiftry, male

11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless

12. Greninja, male

13. Spiritomb, male