Time's a weird concept, Kai decided.
Sometimes it felt too fast, while other times it felt eternal yet he could see in the clock wall that it's been just a few minutes since they sat down at the kitchen table.
He still had some trouble reading the clock, his mother had tried to teach him but it had been a slow progress, at least it went better than his reading attempts.
What he did know was that the small arm of the clock hadn't traveled through the full circle yet so it hadn't even been an hour.
He sniffled.
Time's weird.
And Nya was silent.
She seemed to be bored, maybe it was the lingering sickness she had also caught from him or maybe she missed their parents.
Perhaps it was both, or many more things she hadn't told him about.
He let her be.
Not like there's a lot to speak about… but lately Kai had gotten a dislike for silence.
The wall clock ticked, he tried his best to ignore it.
There's a fork and a spoon, normally he would've picked them up and tried to carve something onto the wooden table, Nya would've probably done the same.
But both knew by now that Krux was the type of person where everything had to be in the place he wanted it.
Which meant, they weren't allowed to touch anything until it was served.
The clock ticked.
It's been around two weeks since the siblings fell ill, which meant two weeks since they last saw their parents.
For a child that's a long time.
The clock ticked.
And they waited.
Nya gripped Kai's hand as they walked through the egg-shaped building.
It wasn't a nice building, if you could even begin to call it that.
Most of it was just a metal skeleton with the shape of an egg, walls made of rock and all that, even the small shed on the swamps fared better than… whatever this was.
It was also dark.
And Cold.
Nya didn't like any of those things.
She scooted closer to her older brother.
If you ask her it's clear they're not going back to the shed with their parents.
The man had insisted it's because they're still sick, and he's not completely wrong, but part of her thinks they would get better faster if they were able to just spend time with them.
Then again they've been left alone for most of the day when they were in that small place.
Maybe this was better?
Krux, as the man has said his name was, led them through the dome* until they reached a metal door where he stopped.
Kai followed suit, choosing to stop a few meters away from him and positioning himself in front of Nya, she just looked on.
With a gruff the man rolled his eyes and opened the door, showing a small room with one bed and a lightbulb that would blink every now and then.
The kids looked up to the man, confused.
"You will be staying here from now on" He said as he hushed the siblings inside "There's a door on the right that leads to the bathroom" and before any of the kids could say anything he closed the door.
They looked at each other as a "click" was heard, Kai just sighed.
Trapped, again.
Nya instead chose to climb onto the bed, there wasn't anything else if they were being honest, it was quite the downgrade of where they were being kept but hopefully this time it would be temporary.
"Kai" She spoke and his brother immediately turned his attention to her. "Tired"
That was enough for Kai to walk towards her and crawl onto bed right behind, hugging her towards his chest.
"Then let's sleep"
Nya quickly fell asleep in the warm embrace of his brother.
Krux rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly as he sat on the makeshift dinner room, which was just the first floor on the unfinished dome with an old wooden table he managed to snuggle from the Museum.
To say he was tired was an understatement.
It was not on his plans to take in two toddlers, sure it's the perfect way to keep Ray and Maya at bay but this was also a bump on his plans.
He could not spend time taking care of these two.
But giving them back meant he would no longer have the upper hand, not really, because he knew damn well in the worst case scenario those two would fight tooth and nail to protect the kids.
He had to keep them close if he wanted to always have an upper hand over them.
And wouldn't it be funny to see them grow as Vermillion warriors?
Besides, as far as he knew the kids should've inherited their parents powers shouldn't they?
Having Water and Fire on his side would make his plans way more easier, especially against Wu who wouldn't have the four elements of creation all in his possession.
And the most important thing, he could get the Time Blades** without problem.
With a click of the tongue it was decided.
He would raise the kids as Vermillion Warriors, they would be part of his Army and not even Wu or Chen would stand a chance against him.
"This is boring" Kai moaned.
Nya sighed, glaring briefly at her brother before rolling onto her back, watching the light bulb blink a few times.
Yeah, this was boring.
They hadn't been out of the room much if anything at all, whatever Krux was doing it was clear they weren't into those plans.
Kai really missed his parents.
Both siblings were starting to lose sense of time again, how long would they be here? Was this their life now? Caged up like animals?
"I miss the swamps" Muttered Nya as she kicked the covers off of the bed.
Kai had to agree, sure, the swamps were nothing in comparison to the hills and warmth of Ignacia but it was way better than being cooped up in a room all day.
When the lock clicked both hurriedly got onto their feet and sat on the bed, waiting.
As expected it was Krux who stepped in with a couple of bowls full of rice for dinner.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Nya making a face which prompted him to nudge her.
Yeah the rice was the blandest one they've ever eaten and it was edible and that was more than enough, Krux would also give them bread and water to eat.
Well, at least it was easy on the stomach.
As they both took their bowls the adult closed the door and before they could start eating there was a loud sound followed by shouting.
"What that?" Muttered Nya as she leaned a bit onto her brother, big purple eyes looking up at him.
He took a spoonful of his rice and a bite to his bread before answering.
"I don't know" He muttered back, Krux wasn't close sure but they didn't like being loud around him, just in case.
"Hmh"
They kept on eating in silence, hearing screams at the distance that were most likely from Krux.
That man sure had a short temper sometimes.
As Kai licked his bowl Nya couldn't help but keep looking at the door which soon was noticed by her brother because she hadn't finished her own share of food.
"Hey" He nudged her shoulders gently. "What's on your head?"
"Uhm…"
"Nya?"
"Kai, listen" She whispered, as if she was telling a secret. Because she was. "The door, no lock"
"Uh" He perked up at that, now looking at the door the same way his sister was.
Glancing at each other Kai cautiously got up, trying to make the least amount of sound possible and nudged the door with his foot.
It creaked.
"Kai?" Nya whispered as she too got up and walked towards her brother, clutching his clothes nervously as he waited a moment before pushing the door, this time with his hands.
It creaked again and both held their breaths for a moment, waiting for Krux to appear.
He didn't.
Admittedly they shouldn't be so scared, in the couple of weeks they had been in his care he had done nothing, well, he nursed them back to health, and fed them, and gave them a room and a bed and, he hasn't landed a single hand on them.
He has mostly just been… absent, there was no reason for them to feel scared about him.
But they were, something about him was… weird, the air around him felt eerie, uncomfortable, it was better when he wasn't close.
Like right now.
"Kai…" Muttered Nya, now quite unsure.
"Shhh, we're going to see Mom and Dad"
Now that perked up Nya.
"We are?"
"Yeah, Krux isn't around, he won't know"
"Oh… Okay" She agreed and both kids got out of the room, Nya never let go.
They walked as silently as possible as they could around, but they hadn't really been out in days and they didn't know the layout to begin with, so they wandered around for a bit, searching for an exit.
Nya frowned the more they walked around. "We go back" She hissed.
"What? No!" He hissed back. "We should be close"
The frown didn't disappear but she followed him.
As the rounded around a corner a sharp gasp came from Kai as Nya found herself quickly being hidden by her body's brother the best he could to not avail.
Right there in front of them was a red, tall snake pointing a sword right at their face.
"Where are you two going kidssssss?"