They came out of the cockpit to greet the others and made sure everything had been taken care of. Edline stared unsurely and Zen picked up the little girl.

“Is your mommy mean?” she asked, playing with her ponytail.

“She can be, but usually she is very nice. She’s like me kind of.”

“I like you!”

Zen turns to the girl smiling. “Then there is nothing to be afraid of.”

The group headed down the gangplank and Stephan and Val locked the ship from intruders like before. They all touched the tarmac and walked to where several cars were waiting for them already. A woman dressed in vermillion and cream attire similar to the Guerrero’s stepped up to them.

“I am Iona, a Lieutenant of the Arachnids. I am to escort you to Don Rodriguez whenever you are ready,” she said with a slight accent.

Zen smiled and nodded her head at the woman. “We are ready Señora Iona. Please take us to Don Rodriguez,” she said. The woman nodded and opened the car. The other car also opened. Marek, Val, Senka, Kiera, and Layna rode in the second while Stephan, Zen, Isaias, Marco, and Edline rode the first along with their drivers. For Zen’s car it was Iona and Isaias chose to ride in the side seat while everyone else went into the back. They rode in complete silence until Zen noticed that the silence was causing Edline to spark in anxiousness.

“So Iona was it? What do you do in regard to duty for your Don? Or is that secret?”

“No. We work much like the Guerreros except we live with the Don and attend extra lessons and so forth. Our schooling continues past our term of initiation and the Don’s house is like one big campus. Dorms are separate but everything else is like a big family. We eat and train in the same room as the Don.”

Zen and Isaias were intrigued by this.

“There’s no definition of class there?” Isaias asked.

Iona nodded. “To simulate a working cohesive, yes, but privately no there isn’t. Everyone wears color and whatever they want within norms. Don Rodriguez usually dresses down and joins us for sports or training time. He rarely trains alone except when he wants to be alone. He’s too young to call father so many of us call him compadre and such.”

Sounds like a happy family,” Zen muttered and Iona laughed.

“We have our familial spats like all families but at the end of the day Don Rodriguez is still the leader and we sometimes forget that. He shows us right quick when that happens though. I remember the time the Arañitas put gold dust all over his escritorio to get back at him, for a prank he played on them at training, to show them their place. They ruined some important paperwork, and Don Rodriguez hates redoing paperwork, so he had an all-day training session on the risks of damaging his paperwork, and why you did not do such a blasphemous thing. The Arañitas came from that training session looking like a few Rollers had done them in, and all wore the golden dust they had spilled on the room and papers. They were forbidden to take the dust off and forced into cat baths for a week.”

Isaias winced. “That would have been a nightmare for me,” he muttered imagining not being able to bathe for a week; although running with Zen he had gone nearly a week without clean clothes and a bath. The best thing to happen to him was to fall into those damn rapids. He shuddered and Marco chuckled.

Don’t worry Isaias, that never happened to you.

Thank god!

Zen laughed as they turned into a large driveway and a guard dressed exactly as Iona waved them through.

“How can we tell you’re a Lieutenant Iona? You all dress exactly the same,” Zen asked.

“A tattoo on my forearm of a spider on a silver web. The spider bears three stars on its head and body. I only show it off in battle.”

Zen grinned. “Can I see it?”

“When we get there. Sure.”

The car turned into a long driveway and stopped. “Well, we are here.” She unbuttoned her coat cuff and showed off the tattoo to Zen. The spider was a red spider and the stars were silver like the web. It stretched her entire forearm.

“All arachnids have one. Our ranks depend on the stars we have.”

Zen nodded, touching the tattoo that seemed almost lifelike. Layna smirked and rolled up her sleeve displaying her own tattoo except that her spider was silver on a red web and had a violin on its back. Iona’s eyes widened. “You're the Black Widow! The famous assassin of the Rodriguez line!”

Zen and Isaias’s eyes widened as Layna stepped forward just as the doors to the grand building opened and a brown-haired bullet came out and clung to Zen.

“My babies are home!”

###

“Rosa let your baby breathe for a minute, you are smothering her,” warned Carmelo as he came behind Rosalinda dressed in a simple pair of black pants and a red shirt. Since he was home, he could relax and be himself. He wasn’t wearing the usual stiff suits he wore to greet them. He was even wearing worn combat boots that were a bit beaten but unlike D’Angelo’s, his weren’t for style. They were worn out from training she guessed. He walked up to Layna and sighed. “In trouble again Black Widow?”

“When am I not sir? But these lovely teens helped me out,” she said, gesturing to the crew who said hi in one form or another. Stephan stepped up. “On behalf of the SMVK crew I would like to thank you for giving us safe passage,” he said bowing his head slightly. Carmelo grinned and nodded. “You rescued two of my girls and one not for the first time. It was the least I could do. Beware of mother-in-law though.”

Stephan blushed slightly and turned to Rosalinda who was fussing over Isaias’s long hair.

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“I’ll just wear it in a ponytail mama,” he muttered.

“And be confused with your sister again?”

Zen and Isaias groaned. “That’s not going to happen since I don’t have breasts!”

“And I have some,” Zen muttered, turning red as a lobster as Stephan gazed at her grinning. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and walked forward toward the open door. “We have lots to tell you and most you are not going to like,” she said.

Isaias nodded and shadow warped to where Zen was. “Mama, we need to have a talk on Dad later,” he said before shadow warping inside.

Zen sighed. “He just had to show that off,” she muttered as Senka slunk from the shadows and appeared beside Kiera.

Rosalinda screamed. “Mateo! You are alive?”

Senka sighed. “What is it with everyone calling me Mateo all of a sudden?”

“Because that’s who you are. Mateo Amargarita,” said Layna as she came to stand in front of Senka. Senka frowned. “I like my new name better,” he said. “Call me by that. I’ve done some things I’m pretty sure this Mateo wouldn’t have done.”

“You are my brother-in-law and my children’s uncle as well as godparent,” Rosalinda said cocking her hips in a no-nonsense mood.

“Well, I think of them like my own family. Weird that they are my family, but I’m still Senka. For all intents and purposes, this Mateo is dead and gone.”

“A name can’t change a person but if it makes you happy we’ll call you Senka ok baby brother?”

“Yeah, how am I related to you of all people?”

Layna smiled. “Well, it goes like this. Mom couldn’t have any more kids, so she adopted and you and your brother Ricardo came to live with us. You were always a free spirit and Ricardo a pain in the ass!”

“When Ricardo tried to kill Zen, you two fought and we never knew what happened to either of you. I chased him off after he tried to exile Zen’s soul from her and strangle Isaias but he hurt my back with his shadows. You came to help me and ended up chasing him down. We never heard of you after that,” said Rosa.

“Why did he try to exile Zen’s soul? Strangulation is a normal way to get rid of people but risking your abilities is not, and we were taught never to abuse our abilities. That I remember,” said Senka.

Rosalinda scoffed. “He was scared of a thirteen-year-old when she accidentally did something...I don’t know what to frighten him. He said she was an abomination that shouldn’t exist. His own child!”

“Um Ms Amargarita? We should go inside 'cause I’m not going to say anything out here,” Senka said, shadow warping inside. By now almost everyone was inside and was looking around. It was a large room filled with couches and armchairs of all kinds. It had two Holo Vs facing opposite walls and several Arachnids were lounging and chatting. They wore the same uniform Iona had on and their tattoos were displayed. One had one star and the other had two but they hung around and joked like family. Rank wasn’t a big thing to them. It didn’t separate them.

“Juan, Miguel, I need you to secure the premises for me,” Carmelo said.

The two blonde males stood and saluted before walking off and doing just that. An Arachnid in the corner was tapped on the shoulders and was led out of the room. So were several others.

“Sit anywhere you like,” Carmelo said, taking a plush armchair in dark red that contrasted with the warm tan room. Isaias shadow-warped to a couch and Marco followed him smacking him for shadow-warping and pointing at Rosalinda who was pale. She sat beside Carmelo. Isaias shrugged and leaned back. Zen scowled at him and sat on another couch. Edline was scrambling to sit by her but Stephan lifted her and sat her on his knees, while he sat beside Zen. Senka, Kiera, and Layna took another couch while Marek and Val shared an armchair big enough for both.

“Alright, what has happened since you left this time,” Rosalinda said.

“I healed Mariposa but was condemned to die because the crystal took her life force and not my own in payment for her grandmother hitting me. We hid and met Senka. I had to use the crystal to escape the Dons and now Ishevara and I are almost one being. The Dons are after me for the crystal and Don D’Angelo just wants me, Mama,” she said, squeezing Stephan’s knee. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she looked at him gratefully.

“What do you mean by Ishevara and you becoming one,” Carmelo asked, wrapping his arms around Rosalinda who was shaking.

Zen pulled her shirt collar down to reveal the tiny shard of crystal poking out of her chest. Rosa gasped her shaking becoming shivers of fear. Tears fell down her cheeks “This is all that remains of the crystal. The rest is me.” Zen pulled her shirt back up with trembling hands and waited for another Don to go haywire but Carmelo only held her mother who was crying now.

“I-Is there no way to remove it,” her mother cried.

Zen shook her head. “Not by any man-made means. Only the galactic council can separate us now, Mama, but we have other things to worry about.”

“Like the fact that our cousin Luis wants to take over the Arrio,” said Isaias “He used my Guerrero’s Blood and poisoned an entire ship to blame uncle and create dissent in the Guerrero’s and it’s working. The Guerreros are losing their loyalty to uncle. Now while I’d rather see Uncle hang, the Arrio will not survive with Luis at the helm.”

“We had the poison extracted and compared, we just need a sample with Luis’s fingerprints to present, but we might have problems convincing Uncle,” Zen said leaning back into Stephan.

“That’s why we have that authentic blood map of the Armagarita family, Zen. We can dispose of uncle’s ruling if we have to,” said Isaias.

Zen nodded. “I don’t want to, but to save the Arrio. I and Isaias will do it, Mama.”

Rosalinda sighed. “I never told you of your father because I was afraid it might bring back bad memories. Zen you don’t remember what happened on your thirteenth birthday do you?”

Zen shook her head. “I awoke and Papa was gone. He left us on the streets...was there more?”

Isaias sighed. “Zen, Dad tried to do something to you with his shadows and almost killed you. He strangled me when I tried to stop him. Mama ran him out of the house. That’s how he disappeared.”

“By the way your mother describes the shadows, he was trying to exile your soul. It’s a technique that can cost us our abilities. Apparently, you showed him something, frightening him, and he tried to get rid of you by extracting your soul and erasing you from existence,” said Senka.

“What could a thirteen-year-old do that would frighten a grown man?” Zen muttered snuggling into Stephan.

Rosalinda shrugged. “We were never able to find out,” she said wanting to hold her baby but someone else was doing it. She glared at Stephan but he was too busy comforting Zen who had rolled into a small ball on the couch. Her daughter didn’t cry; but she was affected, finding out that her father had tried to erase her from the galaxy was hard enough, piled on top with all that had happened to her before.

“What are you proposing to do about your cousin,” Carmelo said, changing topics. Zen unfolded and gazed at Isaias who nodded.

“Isaias and I are going to the Hormiguero’s base to get the sample tomorrow,” she said.

“After that, we wait for Uncle and let him have it,” Isaias said grinning.

“It’s the best plan we have so far,” Zen sighed. Edline looked at her and put her hands over her shoulders looking into her eyes.

“Okay?” she asked and Zen nodded smiling, opening her arms to the little girl who shifted laps.

“I think I can handle the part about Bernado showing up here if you handle the part about his son,” Carmelo said grinning.

Isaias and Zen looked at one another and then nodded. “We can handle our cousin,” Isaias said.