Carmelo and Benado vid D’Angelo who was still sitting and drinking his beverage. He smiled lazily at the Dons.
“Well, what will it be gentlemen?”
Bernado smirked and raised his glass of water at the Don. “To war it is D’Angelo. May the best man win.”
Carmelo stood beside him and nodded. “We have three days to prepare, yes? Then we must get our forces ready.”
D’Angelo frowned. “You are willing to go to war for a girl?”
“Watch it she’s my niece, not some girl and I’m not letting you put your hands on her again D’Angelo!”
“I concur with Bernado,” said Carmelo
D’Angelo laughed. “After this war, there will be nothing you can do about it.”
The screen faded to black.
“Asshole,” Bernado threw his glass at the screen. It shattered on impact but the screen remained untouched as a shield of ice was between it and the screen.
“I want to kill the bastard just as much if not more than you, but harming an innocent Holo V that will be useful in the war is unnecessary,” Stephan said as he stepped into the room.
“I thought you controlled water,” Bernado muttered as he watched the ice melt and return to Stephan as just that.
“I can control it in all its forms. I didn’t think the gaseous representation would work and surrounding electronics with water is a no...learned that from Kiera.”
“So you can manipulate ice and vapor as well as water,” asked a curious Carmelo.
Stephan nodded, collected the water that had spilled off the floor into a bubble, and reabsorbed it. “You’ll have to do the glass with someone else I’m afraid,” he said, turning around and backing out of the door.
Carmelo smirked. “Zen sure knows how to pick them.”
“Got it from her mother,” muttered Bernado glaring at Carmelo. “I don’t have to warn you to protect and care for her. She’s already done it, right?”
“Yes and that her children come first. I’ve had the talk with her already,” Carmelo sighed smiling.
Bernado nodded. “Must have been some talk knowing her.”
“I’m not the one she beat some sense into,” Carmelo quipped and Bernado grinned. “But she has beaten some sense into you, hasn’t she? A woman like my sister fights if you corner her.”
“Something I learned to be sure.”
Bernado laughed and stood. “Well, I have the Guerrero’s to prepare. We have to find some way to announce the war to the denizens and give them time to run from it.”
“Yes, a public viewing will be best. You can also show off your new heir.”
“Isaias can’t shut up about it?”
“More like his boyfriend can’t shut up about it. He sent a psychic wave link that knocked several of my Arachnids on their rears and made them psychically deaf for a few hours yet.”
“Were they psychically sensitive?”
“Yes. One is part traveler”
“I bet there were a few Guerreros knocked on their asses as well if it was like a psychic bomb. Those brothers are dangerous.”
“The little girl is stronger than both of them but is not trained to their standards.”
“Where do you think they were trained? Definitely not Earth trained.”
Carmelo shrugged. “What matters is we can use them. They’ll be valuable in the war.”
Bernado nodded and stepped out. “See you in two hours for the Mass viewing. I can’t wait to tell three million people they are about to go to war!”
###
“Isaias stop fidgeting! You look like you have ants trapped in your pants mijo,” Bernado scolded as he, Carmelo, Isaias, Rosalinda, and Zen all walked up to the closed curtains.
“He might as well have some,” muttered Zen as she fidgeted in her backless black gown. This was not her usual wear but she was used to dresses at least. That tie must be choking Isaias. She walked over to her brother and put an arm around his back. “Everything will be alright. Take a deep breath and stop fidgeting so much. The suit is part of the job. Work with it!”
“I have no idea how Luis could wear these all the time. They are time-consuming to put on and very uncomfortable. I feel as if this tie wants to suffocate me!”
“Relax! Remember Marco’s shocked face?”
“I told him I cleaned up nice but would he believe me?”
“Amargarita men always clean up well. Remember dad?”
“Yea, and what about you? You left Pirate boy speechless!”
“He’s seen me in a dress before.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“You were running for your life then. I doubt he noticed it. But tonight you left him flabbergasted and wide-eyed. That was worth a thousand pictures ha!”
“Enough! Leave my boyfriend alone. Feel better?” she asked, grinning and taking away her arm.
Isaias’s eyes widened then he smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Let's go,” he said, offering his arm. Smiling, she took it and together they walked onto the podium just as their names were mentioned. They strode on with a confidence they didn’t have before now and stood beside their uncle and mother. They all stood on the podium waiting for the crowd to quiet their screaming.
Carmelo walked up to the microphone first and greeted the city. He made sure to butter the city and the press before striking with the hard news and he did so in such a way that made the city accept the war and even cheer for it. He twisted the truth slightly and talked about Puerto Nuevo pride instead of the real cause, the crystal. Bernado showed Isaias off to the city and said a few words while Isaias grinned and waved confidently. Zen was also shown on stage and together with Rosalinda and Isaias, their status was elevated to the elite class earning bright cheers from the low caste. It was possible to move from low caste to high. They had done it but it was a false hope and Zen felt like a false idol. We had extraneous circumstances and not everyone is of royal blood. I’m just a fake. These people are worshipping the wrong girl.
Zen felt tears spring to the corners of her eyes and tried desperately to will them away.
You are not a fake Zen. You are more real than most people out there.
Thank you Ishevara but I can’t take all this praise when I don’t deserve it.
You do deserve it Zen. You have gone through much because of me and you did the impossible. You changed your destiny. Not many people are willing to do that at all, complacent in their lives as is. You have fought destiny, are still fighting it. You deserve this and more! A standing ovation just for you.
Zen smiled. Thank you, Ishevara.
Zen smiled as her family came over to her and together they walked off the stage. She went to the dresser room where Stephan was waiting for her with a bunch of blue roses. She threw herself in his arms and clung to him.
“It’s over Zen,” he said, smiling and kissing her head.
She turned to face him and shook her head. “It’s just beginning. I felt like such a fake up there! None of the others are ever going to leave their stations and they cheered for me as if I was the answer to their prayers, Stephan!”
Stephan kissed her and drew back. “Give yourself a break Zen. Sure no one else has your lineage but no one else has been accepted by an intergalactic crystal either. None of them know what it is to carry so much power and not abuse it. You do and you do a marvelous job,” he said, kissing her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.
“Zen! Oh...oops talk later,” Isaias muttered as Zen kept kissing Stephan. They parted smiling and Zen glanced at the roses.
“Uh Stephan, why are the roses melting?”
‘Oh crap! Must have been our body heat! Hold on a minute,” he said as he placed his hands on the roses and a blast of ice covered them.
Zen watched with interest as the blue roses reformed. “They’re ice roses?”
“Yeah, so remember to put them in the freezer please.”
She laughed and kissed him again before going through her little clutch purse and taking out her dimensional pocket and then her mini fridge. She smiled and placed them inside carefully then repacked everything. “There. Roses that never wilt, huh?” She turned to Stephan with a raised eyebrow. “You can control ice, waterboy?”
Stephan blushed and ran a hand through his curly hair. “I can control water in all its forms.” He ran a hand behind his neck. “Mother taught me. She was a water elemental as well.”
“You don’t like having such a tie to her, huh?”
“No, I don’t. I’d rather be a lightning elemental or a wind elemental. Just another thing that ties me to my past.”
“I thought you liked being a water elemental?”
“Not really and the funny thing is when I was younger my element wasn’t water...it was fire.”
Zen’s eyes widened. “You think she messed with your element somehow?”
Stephan sighed. “All I know is that one day I was making fireballs and then we went on a trip. I came down from that trip making these,” he said showing her a water ball. She looked closer at it and gasped. “Those aren’t water balls.”
“They aren’t fireballs either but they liquify anything that touches them like some kind of acid.”
“Have you ever tried to make fire again?”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t call to me anymore.”
“But neither does water, right?”
“Yeah, how did you…”
“A good guess. I’ve seen several elementals when they are in their element and it’s like they are at peace...complete. I feel safe in the shadows but you never seem that way near any water.”
“I’ve never felt the draw of the element but I can use it to a scary degree.”
“What about fire? Have you ever been near fire again?”
“No, I assumed I lost that ability.”
Zen smirked and undid her clutch, pulling out her dimensional pocket and fishing for her zippo. It was ice blue ironically and had been gifted to her by Marie with a strict order not to use it til the right time. Now is the right time!
She popped her dimensional pocket closed and held the zippo up to Stephan. “I want you to close your eyes and only feel the flame. Alright?”
Stephan nodded and she uncapped the zippo and pressed down for a small flame to erupt from its center. Instead of closing his eyes, Stephan stared entranced at the flame watching as it danced on the air and shifted through yellow orange, and blue. For once in his elemental life he felt that peace steal upon him and he closed his eyes. His powers suddenly shifted and around him spread like blue water only it wasn’t water, but a burning fire. It burned for a few minutes until he opened his eyes which were no longer crystal blue but a blazing diamond bright.
He looked around him astonished at the blazing blue fire he stood in. Zen held a hand to it and it was like dipping her hands in water. It parted for her and let her inside. She wasn’t drowning instead she was ablaze and it didn’t harm her. “It knows me,” she said, amazed as an inquisitive strand of fire nuzzled her and blazed by her. She giggled while he held onto her smiling. “Guess I’m no longer waterboy?”
“You should see if water is still at your command.”
He nodded and lowered the blaze trying to summon water. It came with no fuss as always.
“I knew it! Your fire felt like water when I touched it earlier. I think this is an amalgamation of the two. Try burning something.”
He directed his blaze at the drawer in the room. Instead of burning it melted like there was acid on it. Then the blaze burned the rest of it.
“Wha-what am I?,” Stephan muttered looking at his blaze that looked so much like fire but that behaved like some solulent instead.
“An acid elemental Stephan. When they mixed fire and water they did something to the essence of both and mixed them in such a way that they created you.” She turned to him and placed her hands on his cheeks. “Your sister was never in any danger. From the beginning, it was all about you Stephan. Your mother changed your element to fit hers. She threatened Edline to get you to work for her, but from the get-go, it was always going to be you that ended as the weapon of Gaia because she modified you. She picked you from the beginning.”
“I...need to sit down.”
Zen created a chair and Stephan slumped into it. She bent over and kissed him. “This changes nothing between us.”
“You sure? I’m a…”
“Mutant? I’m a crystal bonanza and a tri-blood. We’ll be lucky if our kids come out normal and not the powerhouses their parents are.”
“I was going to say something different but wait kids?”
“Too fast for you, waterboy?”
“Hmm, I want them to have their mother’s sense of humor.”
“And I want them to have their father’s abilities and maybe one shadow shifter in the bunch.”
“Bunch? Just how many do you want?”
“As many as we can handle for starters.”
He kissed her. “In that case…”
“Zen are you ready to go yet? We have to undress and go to the Hormigueros soon so that I can start working on the antitoxin.”
Zen kissed him and smiled. “We’ll continue this talk later.” She turned to the door and shouted at Isaias. “Voy! Geez. Keep your underpants on I’m coming!” She turned to Stephan and winked before walking down the hall to meet with her family.
Stephan sighed and lit a blaze at the tip of his finger watching it dance. He was pretty sure the blaze would’ve melted anyone else, not Zen. He stood and walked out of the room leaving a melted dresser.