Before they knew it, their trip was half over. Parker could see the front of his house sitting all by its lonesome in the middle of cornfields. He was trying to figure out what he would say. Had Master Sora told them that he and his friends were coming?

The trip had gone so quickly and smoothly since their run-in with Ava that they couldn’t believe they’d already made it to Parker’s house.

“How long did it take?” Hailee asked Caleb, who had been keeping track during their trip.

“To get here, even with the interruptions it only took us a week.” Caleb sounded proud of them as he said it. Ava cheered for them even though she still didn’t really understand what they were doing. Everyone enjoyed having her around but was also getting slightly tired of how much Ava chatted as they raced to Parker’s parents’. It was like, well, traveling with a ten year old.

They approached the front door of the house and Parker took many deep breaths. Alexis squeezed his hand reassuring him that she was right there with him. Little did he know, she was nervous to meet his parents, even though they weren’t technically an item.

Parker knocked on the door and waited to hear something from the other side. When the doorknob started to turn, Ava vanished into thin air. Everyone quickly started looking around trying to see if they could find where she went. In the distraction, no one noticed the door open and Parker’s mother looking at them wide eyed.

“Parker…? What…” She was interrupted as Parker wrapped his arms around her. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t seen her in over two years. Then the guilt hit him when he realized that he honestly hadn’t given them much thought in the time since he’d been at Lancastre. “What are you doing here?”

Parker looked at her slightly confused until he realized that Master Sora had apparently not informed them of their mission. “Master Sora didn’t tell you we were coming?”

“No! I can’t believe you’re here!” she squealed with joy. “Ah you’ve already grown so much! You have to be at least six inches taller!” She grabbed him and squeezed him until he couldn’t breathe. Everyone else stood around and stared at them hugging not really sure what to say.

Parker’s dad appeared over his mom’s shoulder with a look of pure joy. “Hey! What are you doing here?” his dad’s voice boomed right next to his ear as his mom squeezed the breath out of him. “Shelly, let the poor kid go so he and his friends can come in.”

Everyone took a seat in the living room as they each introduced themselves. From around the corner, Parker spotted a set of eyes that hadn’t joined them yet. “Kendall! Get in here!” He stood up as she came running at him for a hug. His eyes went wide as she ran at him though. He hadn’t been the only one to grow over the past two years. She was about as tall as he was and her hair was down to her hips now.

Kendall wrapped her arms around her brother as tight as she could, a trait she definitely picked up from her mother. After several minutes they broke the hug. Everyone else had been having conversations while Kendall wouldn’t let Parker go. “Parker! Your hair has gotten so much longer. It’s all in your eyes now!” she said as she brushed it back and forth.

“You wanna talk about how long my hair is? Look at yours!” He laughed as he gave the ends of it a slight tug.

“Why are you home?” she asked noticing his friends finally. “Are these friends of yours?”

Parker laughed. “I suppose you could call them that. This is Alexis, Caleb and Hailee,” he said gesturing to each as he said their names. “We’re on a mission; which Lancastre has never done before.” He grew a big grin when he said it knowing full and well how much of an honor it was to be a part of it.

“Yeah, how did this even come to be?” his dad asked from the chaise lounge.

“Oh yeah, you probably don’t know since Kendall isn’t old enough to go to school yet.” His parents gave him a confused and worried look.

“Don’t know about what?” his mom asked.

Parker gulped before continuing. “You know Lara Wilkes right?” They both nodded hesitantly. “Well, she got rid of the Imperial she placed on the school.” He looked to his friends who were all stone faced. “We were the last group let through. In fact a lot has happened.”

“She did what?!” his dad asked raising his voice angrily. “How is Kendall supposed to go now? She’s not going to travel like we did, it’s far too dangerous now.”

“What do you mean too dangerous now? Was it not when you went?” Caleb asked, extremely curious.

Parker’s dad looked at his wife with a suspicious look. “Did you run into anything on your journey here?” Kendall gave him a bizarre look when he said anything instead of anyone.

“Yeah…” Hailee said joining the conversation. “Some huge Earth beast monster thing and then a Wind Spirit… who was actually with us until you answered the door…” Hailee started to look out the window in what looked like hopes of seeing Ava somewhere outside.

“That’s what I thought. You’re lucky that’s all you ran into.”

Parker looked at his dad confused. “You mean, those weren’t there when you guys went to school there?” His parents both shook their heads slowly.

His mom reached over and grabbed his hand, as though she was consoling someone that had lost a friend. “They didn’t come until Lara had put her Imperial in place around the school. The area was too highly traveled by people so nothing settled there. But when Lara did her Imperial, other things began inhabiting the area.” A tear ran down her face and Parker looked at her extremely worried.

“Did something bad happen?” Alexis asked, on the verge of tears herself.

“It was at our graduation. Lara wasn’t there, she’d already left the school at that point.” She spaced out for a minute while talking. “We still don’t know what ever happened to her…” Parker could tell that his mom longed to know what happened to her friend. He wasn’t sure if he could tell her everything that had happened to him thanks to Lara. The thought of tainting her image of her friend made his stomach do somersaults.

Alexis glanced to Parker when his mom brought up Lara again. Neither had to say anything out loud to know that they shouldn’t bring up anything that had happened yet. “Do you mind if I ask what happened?” Alexis sounded nervous. Parker wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t want to upset his mom or if she didn’t want to actually know the answer to the question.

Another tear ran down her cheek and she tried to say something but couldn’t manage to do it. Parker’s dad got up and sat next to his wife, putting his arm around her to provide some comfort. After Parker’s mom stopped crying, his dad spoke. “A close friend of ours was killed.”

Everyone gasped. Alexis covered her mouth with her hand at the same time as Hailee. Caleb’s face grew grim and Parker was astonished. How had he gone so long and not known of anything? How had his parents been able to hide everything from him? He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to hide something so important from his kids.

Parker’s parents disappeared to the kitchen for a little bit to talk about some things leaving the kids alone. Parker realized that Kendall clearly knew all about everything based on the way she told stories that her parents had told her about Lancastre. And on top of that, she was able to use her Fire Imperial even though it was very minimally compared to what they had seen.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“So what Imperials do you guys have? I assume fire since Parker’s in The House of Kenna.” Everyone looked back and forth with uncomfortable looks on their faces.

“Um… Kendall…” Parker said. “I’m not in The House of Kenna…”

Now she gave him a confused look. “You’re not? But we’re a Fire Imperial family. How are you not in The House of Kenna?”

Parker gave a small wince, like it hurt to admit that he was different than the entire Gray family. “I’m in The House of Erion, just like them.” He raised his hand out in front of him and swirled his finger around, whipping Kendall’s hair into a spiral.

Her eyes went wide as she felt her hair twist up into the air. “You’re an Air Imperial…?” Parker couldn’t’ decide if she thought it was a cool thing or that she couldn’t believe she was related to someone that was an outcast in a sense. “That’s awesome! I wish I could control the air!” She got so excited as she talked that Parker let out a noticeable sigh. Alexis squeezed his hand and laughed a little.

“Wanna see something really cool?” Caleb asked.

Kendall nodded excitedly but asked a question before Caleb could show her anything. “What happened to your eye?” She knew it was her only chance to ask because her parents would most certainly yell at her for asking something so blunt.

Caleb blushed. “Uh… I was in an accident. I’m okay though. You couldn’t sneak up on me even if you wanted to.” He knew he was safe since she was definitely a Fire Imperial and would have to walk on the ground to approach him.

“So what’s really cool?” she asked in an excited voice.

Caleb held out his hand and a flame appeared in his palm. Her eyes practically popped out of her head as she watched the flame dance around in his hand. Then, with a puff of smoke, the flame was gone.

“But… Parker said you’re Air Imperials.”

They all laughed a little and Parker decided to explain what Caleb was while hiding the fact that they were actually all just like him now. “Caleb is what’s called an Omni. He can control all of the Imperials, not just one like most Imperials.” Kendall’s mouth fell open.

“You can control all of them?” she asked incredulously. He nodded and then proceeded to show her each of the Imperials. This was something beyond her imagination because up until this moment, Fire Imperials were the only thing that she ever knew.

Kendall proceeded to tell them how after Parker left for school; their parents became very open about using their Imperials around the house. She stopped talking when their parents walked back into the living room.

“Parker?”

“Yeah Dad?”

“Did you say you were on a mission?” His eyes beamed at Parker making him weirdly nervous. Parker didn’t understand why it made his heart race but he answered still.

“Yeah. Master Sora sent us to take Kendall back with us.” He saw his parents’ eye widen like saucers.

His mother spoke quickly and shrilly. “She’s not old enough to be at school yet!” Everyone was shocked at the outburst and just stared at her waiting for her to say something else. “Surely they know she’s not old enough.” Parker could see her trying her hardest to speak in a calm voice.

“Master Sora does know that she’s still a year away from being old enough but he thought our first try at this should be retrieving someone that knows one of us already to make it a little easier than convincing someone we don’t know that they should travel great distances with a stranger.” He could tell that his dad understood and would support them taking his sister with them but the look on his mom’s face said the exact opposite.

Everyone could see his mom breathing heavily but trying to calm herself down. “Excuse me…” Alexis started to say. “Mrs. Gray? Do you think that Kendall isn’t ready?” Alexis looked to Kendall who was shaking her head.

“Mom?” Kendall spoke up. “I think I would be okay…”

“You don’t know what it’s like out there honey.” Everyone knew that her heart was in the right place but the thought of failing at their first mission made everyone’s stomach churn.

“But Mom,” Parker interjected. “We’ll be there to protect her.”

His mom looked at him with grateful eyes but said, “I understand that, but honey, you’re only third years.”

Hailee spoke up now after not saying anything for quite a while. “Not to disrespect you, but we did make it here.” Parker’s dad grew a smile as Hailee threw out a good point. “And not to brag, but we’re not your normal group of third years either.” Parker and Alexis both shot looks at Hailee. Clearly she hadn’t received the message that had passed back and forth between the others.

Parker’s mom turned her attention to him with a confused look on her face. “How are you different? Besides the fact that you have a different Imperial than the rest of the family; which still doesn’t make sense to me.”

“Well,” Parker began. “That doesn’t really matter anymore… at first, yeah I was an Air Imperial but then there was an accident.” When he said it, she glanced at Caleb’s eye.

“Not this one,” Caleb said gesturing to his face.

Parker started back up. “The four of us are Omnis now, just like Lara was.” He held out his hand and a flame smaller than a candle’s appeared in his palm. Then he swirled the air around his mom causing her hair to twist above her head like Kendall’s had done. He followed that by moving a brick out of the fireplace in the corner and putting it back and then finally he streamed water into the room from the kitchen.

Neither of his parents knew what to say anymore. The look of support on his dad’s face disappeared. Parker had figured it would be no problem to get his sister and had even been ecstatic to see his parents; but now it seemed like maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea.

“Parker, we need to talk. Show your friends around a bit so we have some time.” With that, they disappeared into their bedroom.

ton missing Lancastre instead. Thinking back, home had always been kind of boring. It was just he and his family. Even though he loved them endlessly, he had friends his age at Lancastre and tons of people to interact with. All he wanted right now was to get back and bring Kendall with him so that she could enjoy all of the same things.

Kendall took them room-by-room and saying what it was. She took extra time in her room, sharing all the different things that she had. When they got to Parker’s room no one was surprised with the lack of books or anything academic. Alexis walked to his desk where there used to be a computer. Apparently in his absence, his parents didn’t feel the need to leave it there.

Parker looked at his empty desk and thought about how freaked out he was that he had to leave everything behind and now he’d forgotten that he even had most of this stuff. He saw Alexis standing at his desk observing a picture he had propped up against the wall.

“So, Louise, how’s it going?” Alexis laughed.

Caleb’s eye opened wide. “Louise? Who’s that?” he asked as he made his way to look at the picture she had been looking at. It was a picture of Parker when he was what looked like two or three and an older looking man. At the bottom it said in white letters, “Parker Louise Gray and PaPa” Caleb turned slowly with a big, smug grin on his face. “Louise eh? How has this not come to light until now?”

Parker glared at both of them as the grinned smugly at him. “It’s pronounced Louis. The spelling is after my grandpa’s name. He’s the one in the picture with me.” At that moment, everyone let the middle game go but Parker knew it wouldn’t be the last time they would bring it up.

They returned to the living room after a full tour of the house, including the backyard. The others found it interesting to be able to put a picture with the stories that Parker had told about when Lara was appearing at the house.

Parker saw his parents sitting on the couch waiting for them as they walked through from the kitchen to the living room. They all took seats around the room and waited for either of Parker’s parents to start talking.

After what felt like an hour, Parker’s dad spoke. “Kendall, what do you think about the mission?”

Kendall wasn’t expecting her dad to address her when this was all about everyone else. “Uh… I think I should be fine. I mean I can already make fire and Parker couldn’t do anything when he went.” She turned to look at Parker and mouthed an apology.

“We thought about that as well. The only thing that has us worried at this point is what you may run into on your way back.” Parker could still see the worry in his mom’s eyes as his dad spoke.

“There’s something we haven’t exactly showed you yet either… It’ll make the trip a lot safer.” With that, Parker disappeared from his seat and reappeared sitting next to his mom. She screamed out of fear and shock the moment he appeared next to her. To them, it was almost an instantaneous event whereas to Parker, he just stood up and walked over. “We can control space as well… Actually, Alexis can even control time in some instances.”

His parents stared at him as he walked back to his seat. They couldn’t believe it. Lara had been an Omni but as soon as she wanted to start controlling things outside of the Imperials, she began distancing herself from everyone, to the point where she ran away. “Okay… we were going to just gloss over the fact that you’re an Omni because we’ve seen it before and it’s not a huge deal overall, but being able to control space worries me.”

Kendall jumped up. “You were going to ignore how awesome they are?” she practically shouted.

“It is really cool honey, but we’ve seen what can become of it.” Parker could tell his mom was simply trying to not make a bigger deal out of it than was necessary.

His dad finally stood up and looked straight into Parker’s eyes. “How long can you sustain your Space Imperial?”

“We can travel roughly an hour inside of our Space which is five hours in the real world and each of us is capable of doing that. Plus, we use the air to make ourselves move quicker.” Parker said as though he were talking to the commanding officer of an army battalion.

His dad continued to stare into his eyes as his mom stood up. She grabbed her husband’s hand and squeezed it. “Then, I think we can be okay, or as okay as we can be, with you taking her. But clearly, we’re putting our entire trust in you here. The two of you are our entire world.”

“I know Dad…” Parker said as he stood up and hugged both of his parents. “We won’t let anything happen to her. I promise.”