"The seven blessed children would bring either destruction or hope to this world. The seven offspring of an egotistical human would be the end and beginning of a new world"
Damian looked up after finishing reading the lines that were inscribed on Maia's sketchbook.
"Maia I am telling you this can mean anything"
"No okay, that was what I read out of Mom's mouth during my sessions. If that wasn't a prophecy pertaining to us then what is it?"
Damian placed the sketchbook down and walked towards Maia who was pacing back and forth inside their room.
It has been half a month after Damian and Maia reunited that they had decided to ask permission for their own room. They were met with multiple resistance mostly coming from Percival but they still got the approval.
Well, nothing had happened aside from kissing. Although Damian did have thoughts, he wanted to just let Maia feel peace for a while.
But Maia was never at peace. Not when he had returned safely from rescuing Khel and the others. Not when they were finally at this safe haven and not when she was sleeping in his arms.
Maia didn't have dreams, it was either nightmares or memories that had long been forgotten and painful to remember. Damian would have woken up in the middle of the night to find Maia crouched down on the floor, tears and sweat coating her as she tried to stifle her sobs.
Maia's nightmares were always of the ones she killed, the ones she couldn't save, the horrors she had gone through because of Leticia, of the impending future and the face of her mother as she killed her.
Damian placed both of his hands on Maia's shoulders. Instinctively, Maia stared at the man in front of her, staring deep into those dark orbs of his and like always, her breathing steady.
"We do need Magnus Maia. I'm not saying that we should disregard what you have said or heard. But, wouldn't it be better to hear it directly from the person who was there?"
For a while, Maia came back to her senses. Damian was right, it was better to hear directly from Magnus and even if they did find him it didn't mean that the seven of them would be reunited instantly.
She glanced over at the sketchbook and somehow the young worried face of Magnus was etched inside of her. She didn't know him and yet she felt as if she had owed her life to him.
"Maia?"
Maia let out a soft sigh and nodded in agreement.
"You're right, but… what if the prophecy was indeed true? Then won't we bring destruction?"
"Maia you're forgetting something, let's say that the prophecy was a matter of fact true. Then, if it was, the prophecy goes as it will bring either destruction or hope. Hope, my love. There's hope."
For a moment Maia felt stupid. Maybe it was because everything that she had experienced was all destructive and chaotic that she had omitted the chance of having hope.
When there is chaos, there is light. Everything in the world is under a balanced state. She should have remembered that lesson from Old Man Shizu.
If chaos were looming over the world because of the seven of them then meeting one wouldn't hurt. Who better to ask about the prophecy than her brother who was there trying to save them from their mother.
Lido Town is located exactly northeast from the H city where the pentagon is located. It'll take them exactly four days if they travel by foot. Which they would do since every unauthorized vehicle needs to go through a checkpoint.
"I can't believe you're going again, we just got reunited"
Maia smiled as she gave Miisa a tight hug.
"I know, I'm sorry, We'll finish this as soon as possible and then we can catch up again."
"I hate it. What if we lose you again"
Maia hated it too. The unexplainable fear and pain of being lost again keeps on hunting her. She was a perfect test subject and some people would always see her as such. She's afraid of being lost again.
"Damian and Maki would keep her safe, isn't that right?"
Iavan sternly declared while glaring at Damian and Maki. Maia laughed at her friend. Iavan had clearly stated her dissatisfaction with the two male who were on board on this mission.
"Mushroom you should really stop glaring at my cousin like that"
Percy teased as he put his hand on Iavan's head, ruffling her hair. Iavan quickly stepped on Percy's foot, making the older male jump out.
"Geez why are you so violent"
"Because you piss me off, both you and Damian piss me off"
Maia laughed at Iavan. She was clearly angry that they had to leave again but more so because Damian was coming and they weren't.
"You two play nice"
Damian teased to which Iavan almost punched him.
"Iavan"
Maia called out to her to which she responded by turning her head to meet Maia's eyes.
"We'll return safely and alive, don't worry"
Iavan's eyes started to tear up, before she could cry she closed the distance between her and Maia and gave her a tight hug.
"You'd better, then we'd spend our days together before Damian legally takes you away from us"
Somehow Maia gave this thought a laugh. She never thought that her friends would've thought of something like marriage at this time. And yet, she did have that intrusive thought once in a while.
"We better get going."
Maia bid a short goodbye to Khel who wouldn't even meet both hers and Maki's eyes. They hugged Sol, Helios and Eos and their cousins before disappearing in the stairs that would've taken them outside.
"Are you really not going to say goodbye to Maia and Maki"
Helios asked Khel who was immediately burying himself in work. Khel didn't even spare him a simple glance and just simply said.
"They'll be back, there is no need for such thing"
Helios sighed before leaving his workroom, it was then that Khel stared at the three figures leaving the pentagon through the monitors.
His guilt felt so immense that he couldn't even stare at the eyes of his own children. Over and over again he had blamed himself for their ruined family. Blamed himself for the loss of his other children. When he had married Artemis, he promised he would take care of them.
Khel brushed his hands across his whole face. He could remember just how young Marvyll and Makoto were. How Maddox and Maddin would tremble just at the thought of them being left all alone without anyone by their side. How Magnus would have probably resented himself for not protecting his siblings.
Khel knew just what his children were feeling but his children would've probably never imagined how much he resented himself for what happened to Artemis.
He loved her so much that he didn't have the strength to ask her before. Ask her why she sent Maia to the arena. Why she decided to found the SDC. Why she agreed to the Zareal Project. Why she lock herself in her greenhouse all the time.
He resented himself for not being brave enough to ask these questions. But, that was now in the past.
Now, he is determined to help stop this war that his wife had started. To help his children, to find them and be together with them.
"I think dad needs someone to talk to"
Maia looked at Maki before looking back at the path they had taken.
"I think he'll be fine. You just need to believe in him Maki"
Although Maia was reassuring Maki, she herself doesn't know what exactly is wrong with their dad. And she doubts she'll ever know after all losing your wife isn't the same as losing your mother.
"Well whatever happens, we need to get to Lido Town quickly"
Damian quietly mutters while he instructs Maia and Maki to hide behind a boulder when he saw a patrol car drive by.
"There shouldn't be a patrol car by this area"
"My guess is after the whole Leticia fiasco, the government must have known that there is another bunker situated here"
"Yeah, guessing they figured out that the SDC bunker in Lithe isn't the only one"
Damian glanced at the road before instructing Maia and Maki to cross it. Their group continued like this. Evading the patrol cars and eyes of soldiers stationed in every city they pass by.
It took them only two days to reach the woods behind the fronthouse. Maia used her senses to scan the front house but she couldn't see or hear anyone in there.
"I think they abandoned the fronthouse"
"Well, the better for us if they did"
Damian looked at Maki and then went back to Maia. Having remembered that their grandfather was the one who saved them before.
"Do you want to take a look Maia?"
Maia only looked at Damian and shook her head.
"He's not there anymore and even if he was I would've heard him by now"
"Ate"
"Besides, we can't afford to lose another day. The faster we get to Lido town the better"
Damian gave up on trying to persuade Maia and decided to just keep quiet about the image that had been hunting him. The children locked up on the ground level of the prisons of the fronthouse. He had been thinking about them since that day and it may be too much to say but it haunted him.
Maia looked at Damian and held his hand. She may not have figured out what he was thinking but still the comfort of having her by his side was enough for him at the moment.
And it was enough for Maia too. It temporarily erases every fear that Maia had about meeting Magnus.
Maki took the lead halfway to Lido Town as he remembered what the back of the church that Magnus stayed at looked like.
"You sure you're remembering this right, Maki?"
Maki winked at Damian and Maia who were following behind closely.
"Don't you trust my photographic memory?"
"Uhh, since when did you have that?"
Maia sarcastically questions before grinning at her younger brother. Damian shook his head at the two before smiling at himself. It was new to him, hearing them bickering like this again. It felt so long since he last heard them like this.
Maki went behind the entrance of the tunnel that was now blocked by boulders. He immediately spots the church that was seemingly abandoned.
Both Damian and Maia looked around and noticed that no one goes to this part of the town.
"Is this part originally abandoned?"
"Magnus said before that people lost faith in the God already so it's not surprising that no one would even dare go here"
The three of them carefully walk their way through the church. They made sure to not make any sound or noise as they quietly opened up the back door of the church where Magnus first pulled Maki and Damian.
Damian was the first one to open up the door, he looked around the area and found that there was no one in there.
He straightened up his back and signaled Maki and Maia to enter after him.
Inside, the three could finally make out what the church had looked like. The back door that they went through was the door that leads straight to the altar. In front they saw the church pews neatly lined up and the church doors barricaded with some kind of wood and steel.
Maia walked to the altar that oversees the church pews and saw that there was a cup as well as a book that was opened in the middle. She ran her fingers through the book and when she noticed that the book didn't have dust in it. She held the cup and panic rose up inside of her when she realized that the cup was still hot to the touch.
There was someone else in here. Someone who hid himself when they had possibly heard them walk outside.
But before she could even utter a word, the cold muzzle of a gun made in contact at the back of her head. Maia's small gasp made Damian and Maki turn their heads towards Maia.
"You shouldn't be here, and even though I know the both of you, you shouldn't have let a mutant inside"
A cold harsh voice spoke behind Maia. She couldn't see who the speaker was but seeing how Maki and Damian aren't worried at all meant that the person behind her was the one they were searching for.
"I'm guessing you're Magnus"
"I don't talk to mutants"
None of them expected this kind of treatment. Maia who was never treated indifferently for being a mutant now felt the indiscrimination. But then again, people were afraid of her that's why she could live quietly before but Magnus isn't scared of her. Not a little bit, on the contrary Maia was guessing that he was angry at mutants, that he despises them.
"Magnus, could you put down the gun? We came to find you"
Magnus stared at Damian and then back to Maki before uttering.
"You have no reason to search for me"
"Yes we do"
Maki walked towards the altar and looked at Maia who was just staring back at him, curious to what he would say. Her one eyebrow rising as if challenging her younger brother of what he could do.
"Whatever reason you have, you shouldn't have—"
"Kuya"
Magnus, Maia and Damian's eyes all widened when Maki uttered that word and Maia couldn't help but grin. Her brother always does something to keep her entertained.
"What did you just call me?"
Maki hesitated for a second before saying it again.
"Kuya. The reason we were searching for you is because you're family. You're our eldest brother. Mine and Ate Maia's"
"What?"
Magnus, who was now both confused and worried, stared at the gun that was now pointing at the person whose hair was as white as snow.
Maia felt the gun slowly retracting from the back of her head. She took this as a sign.
As she slowly turned around Magnus finally caught sight of the features that he had been searching for so long.
The sister that he had been monitoring since the Herculean Tournament. His sister who he thought had died inside the arena for the sake of a revolution.
The reason he never turned on the monitors downstairs anymore. The reason he fell into a never ending sadness and desperation.
Her hair was now white and her eyes the color of a bright ruby nevertheless he instantly knew who she was just by seeing her face.
She wasn't just any mutant that he had pointed his gun at.
She was his sister.
The one he had thought he lost.
"Maia"