UNKNOWN

The elevator descended down to several floors underneath the main building before it stopped and opened. A brunette woman who looked to be in her late thirties sauntered out of it and was greeted by the half-dozen trusted staff she had down there in her secret lair.

She made her way to a glass cage that was fogged and pushing a button on a remote she retrieved from her jacket, the glass unfogged to reveal a blonde woman who sat upon a bunk bed with her feet propped up onto the bed and serenely read a book.

"I am sure that you know why I have come to see you today." The brunette started. The blonde carried on with her reading. "Don't be so arrogant and answer me, you are still my prisoner and you will remain my prisoner for as long as I have a need for you."

"Which will be all your life Moni. Your life force and mine are united now, you have made it so." The blonde said glibly as she put the book down and put her feet down on the floor, facing the brunette squarely. Green eyes challenged green eyes on the other side of the glass until...

"I have good news, at least for me it is." The brunette said with a leer.

"You have found my daughter, haven't you?" The blonde said with a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"Of course you know. You do have the ability to see into the future after all and alter it to how you will. Do you see me capturing her, exploiting her gifts and making myself a living god?" The brunette whispered.

The blonde laughed. "Moni, whenever will you grow up? It makes me sad to see you this way." She said with pity. In fury, the brunette Moni pushed another button and the blonde writhed in pain within the cage but not a sound escaped her. She panted in steady breaths. "All these years you have held me captive and in the end, you still have learnt nothing." She whispered but Moni seemed to feel the blonde's breath near her ears.

Moni shivered. "You are pure evil sister and I will be rid of you in time, I promise."

The blonde appeared calm as she watched her younger sister walk away and fog back the cage. In her mind, she prayed for her daughter to be safe. Her sacrifice would be in vain should anything go wrong. Adrian Ellicott better has seen this coming and be prepared.

ZACHARY'S POV

I had the results of the DNA tests on my hands. I have confirmed our suspicion and yet it still felt so surreal. Phoebe was an Ellington, Royals never went missing, ever unless someone wanted them to.

I went to see dad with the results at once and shared my thoughts with him but his expression was unreadable.

"Give Phoebe some space for the time being. There is something amiss." Father said.

"Are you sure it is wise to give Phoebe space at this time? Don't you think that she should know about her true parentage?" I asked.

"It would only further endanger her. Trust me and do as I ask." Father replied. I nodded.

I went out later in the evening to train on my own. I had so much on my mind and not only did I need to unwind, I needed to get ready for my match tomorrow. I was up against Lawrence, the guy Denise cheated on me with. Not that but it bothers me but what bothers me is the fact that he is a powerful eupatrid with heat vision and flight abilities, he was going to be hard to take down but not impossible. It was not common knowledge that apart from shapeshifting, I could form weapons with parts of my body and had super strength in addition. This would certainly be an advantage in the upcoming match.

While I was deeply in meditation, I sensed someone joins me but I remained as I was until the person attacked, without opening my eyes, I easily ducked and in one swift movement, I grabbed a stick nearby and got in position to deflect more attacks. This person did not waste time to launch more attacks my way including throwing darts at me and as much as I could, I deflected them with the stick or simply moved out of the way.

After the attacks were done, I waited, for a sound or a kind of movement. I got it when the person stepped on some leaves that rustled giving off their presence. I immediately went towards that direction and attacked. We fought for a little while before I hit the person on both shoulders and swept his feet from underneath him causing him to fall to the ground on his butt after which I placed the stick on his neck. I slowly opened my eyes and was hardly surprised to see that it was Elaine. She looked like she was in pain.

"You have got to be gentle with your beatings, my butt and shoulders hurt a lot." She said with a wince. I held out a hand to her which she took and I pulled her up.

"Good fight. Thank you for being my sparring buddy today," I told her.

"I did it more for me than you. I have a match in two days and who better to spar with than the fearsome Zachary Ellicott?" She said.

"Who are you up against?"

"Eva Sherman, her ability is ice manipulation." She informed.

"You are going to have to generate enough heat and speed to defeat her," I said thoughtfully.

"I am aware. This could be tougher than fighting Delilah."

"Delilah has the ability to destroy whatever she touches at will but that is not good enough. Nicola Ellington-Stewart is the one ability I truly would watch out for," I said.

"The ability to change the atomic make-up of anything she wills by a single touch," Elaine completed. "If that is so, shouldn't Delilah's ability be more dangerous? She can destroy anything she wills at will but Nicola has to think of what she wants to change to do so."

"You forget that all Ellingtons are brought up with extreme knowledge of science. It is rare to find one who does differently."

"Of course, the knowledge of science causes their abilities to come in handy." Elaine murmurs. "Who gets to fight Nicola?" She asked.

"Xavier," I replied.

"Aren't they going out?" She asked with a frown.

"At this point, I am not sure. It would be quite the match if they were going out, I would definitely like to see how they do it."

"Same here. I will go in now, see you later." She waved and stretched later while she walked into the house.

Later in the evening, I spoke with Phoebe via video call and she begrudgingly admitted that we made her training easy judging from what she saw at the sparring that day.

"We merely gave you basic training and a bit of intermediate which is a lot to catch up within two weeks. Your defence classes are not in vain." I said complimenting her.

"Stop doing what you are doing right now." She said with a grunt.

"What am I doing?" I asked her.

"You are trying to make me feel good about myself."

"Is that awful?" I asked.

"No, it's not. Just don't overdo it." She said shyly with a bite of her lips before a bright smile. "I saw that you have a match tomorrow," She started and I nodded, "How is it going to be? Are you ready?" She asked and I nodded once more. "Go nail it, Zach." She said and I nodded. She chuckled. "You have been nodding," She observed.

"I don't know what to say."

"Is that so?" She asked and I nodded again, she laughed. We both stared at each other for a while saying nothing. "I don't know if this is appropriate to say but I miss you. Now that I have said it. I feel so shy and I will disconnect now." She made to end the call but I stopped her.

"I love you, Phoebe," I said.

She paused for a moment, "What?"

"I said I love you. I am madly and hopelessly in love with you." I said. I was mentally cringing at the admission, honestly, it was so cheesy. I wanted to save this admission for a perfect time and place but so far, I have realized that such circumstances do not exist. Just get it out and breathe.

"Oh! Thanks." She said a little bit unsure. "Excuse me," She disconnected and I sighed. I could predict what she was doing but I will pretend not to realize this. She called back soon and tried to keep an impassive face but she was failing at it for she could not help the little smiles that escaped her. Whew! At least she liked it. It was my first time having to confess to anyone like that, I was a bit nervous. "Zach, I may love you too." She shyly said and it was my turn to smile.

After the initial awkwardness, we started to discuss random things. She told me all about the discoveries she made every day about royals and their powers and identification methods which brought my mind back to how she knew to conceal the eagle birthmark on her collarbone. However, I did not bring it up, all in due time.

I, in turn, talked about my training with Elaine and random stuff that I and the boys did. In all, we just talked and it was nice. Phoebe really was a good listener and quite easy going. I did not have to act differently for us to be comfortable but soon, she started to yawn and scratch her eyes. I could see she was tired.

"Go to bed now, we will talk later. Good night, sweetheart." I said.

"Goodnight to you too. I love you." She said sleepily.

"I love you too," I said before she disconnected. I knew that her saying she loved me right before she disconnected was a reflex on her part and perhaps unintended but it was still nice to hear.

I went to bed in high spirits and awoke in time for my morning jog. Elaine must have slept late for she did not join me. A number of thoughts ran through my mind as I jogged but I could barely focus on one.

I had a light breakfast before we were driven to school. I met up with Jaden and Xavier in class, the three of us had matches that day. Jaden was up against a Seradon eupatrid with the ability of telekinesis. Jaden's trump card was a wristband in his possession which was immune to any ability affected on it and in addition, creates hard light objects or constructs that can enable Jaden to fight his opponents because it works as real weapons. Jaden designed it together with his older brother for a whole year, I have seen that device work and it was incredible.

Before mid-day when the show begins, I and the boys decided to leave for our private training hall first but before I could get to the door, I was approached by Denise and before I could even react, she kissed me. I do not know if I could have ever been as mad as I was at that moment. I grabbed her waist and she seemed to relax only for me to shove her far away as possible, she gasped in pain as her back made contact with the wall before she fell to her knees. The whole class of about thirty-seven gasped when they saw the markings of her figure imprinted on the wall, I did not mean for that to happen but she crossed the line.

I approached her stealthily as she took calming breaths on the floor on all fours, she looked up at me with a smirk. I studied her for a little bit, Denise was always up to something. What could it be this time?

"You lied to me about Phoebe Zachary, you said that she was nothing to you other than a sister," she rose from the floor menacingly and gazed into my eyes, "so tell me, do you kiss your sister so passionately?" She whispered the last part, almost seductively. Once all of this turned me on but at that moment, I was repulsed.

I was livid. I and Phoebe were very discreet and even if I had no qualms making our relationship public, Phoebe needed the discretion for many reasons. I do not know how much Denise saw but I had to make sure she kept her mouth shut.

I smirked. "You are getting into my head again, how much did you see I wonder?" I taunted.

"Enough. Why you are attracted to that little girl I do not understand."

"You do not have to Denise. Your time is over, get past it." I snarled a little closer.

She glared at me with so much malice that I thought if I were anyone else, I would have melted but I am Zach Ellicott and I had to stand.

"Zach, we have to go." I heard Jaden say.

"One more thing, don't you dare go around talking about Phoebe or I will open my mouth about that bastard you carry in your womb," I whispered and she visibly froze. I found out this little detail thanks to Jaden who had her investigated thoroughly on my behalf. With all things said, I wanted to walk away,

"Do you think you are so invincible Zachary?" Her voice was hard. "I will get you for this, I promise." I walked away.

"I would take precautions if I were you," Jaden said when we were out the class. I nodded.

During warm-ups before I went onstage, I felt physically drained but I did not know why. I shook it aside when my name was announced and went onstage. There were cheers, I and Lawrence did the mandatory handshake before we took our positions and at the start signal, Lawrence took to the air and shot his lasers at me, I ducked repeatedly as I ran around the very vast stage surrounded by reflecting surfaces which did more than reflecting so as to keep the danger contained within the ring.

Lawrence soon returned to the ground and charged towards me but I jumped and shrank to get into his clothes before he could shake me off, I threw a powerful punch that sent him reeling to the ground. I increased myself and jerked him up to throw him further away. Before I could approach him, he took off on a flight and tried to circulate me, I ran and in the process, turned into a cheetah to keep up. I ran fast enough to catch up and leapt on him. With his legs, he kicked me aside back and got back up.

I generated a refractive blade and lunged at him but he easily swatted my attempts while still steady on his feet. It's either he was stronger than I made him be or I was getting weaker. I felt it again, the weariness washing over me. My vision became unfocused, I didn't understand what was happening. I felt him come at me again and as a last resort, I shifted to a skunk and released the odour. It worked because he was distracted by the smell, I took the opportunity and shifted to the black widow spider—which I have encountered once—and sprang on him. In a matter of seconds, he was immobilized and I generated a dagger with my hand and pointed at his neck.

The sound for match end went and I was announced as the victor. I left the stage first fighting the dizziness that had overwhelmed me until I got near the training room where I collapsed but not before I faintly saw the figure of a girl running towards me.

UNKNOWN

She thrummed her fingers on the table in calculative thoughts. Nicola had failed her, not that she expected much from that disappointment of a daughter or maybe she had held on to a glimmer of hope that she may just do well this one time.

Denise had done well, with Zach Ellicott down for a while, they could abduct Phoebe. She would have her honour and her place in the revolution, she would show her parents that she was capable, she would thrive. A knock came on the mahogany door before the knob was turned and the girl she awaited entered.

"Melanie—my darling daughter, the only one I can depend on, my first daughter and the one who matters—you are here. Sit," Moni said. Melanie eyed the seat before settling gracefully on it.

Melanie was a brunette like her mother with amber eyes she inherited from her father's side of the family. She had a cherubic face and an enviable hourglass figure. She appeared completely harmless.

"I have a mission for you darling dear. It turns out that your dear cousin has shown up and you need to get her for we have need of her." Moni said levelly.

"How far can I go with her?" Melanie asked sultrily.

"As far as you want but do not kill her," Moni said.

Melanie's eyes glinted evilly. "With pleasure. I assume I get it done today?"

"Yes. Zach will not be down for long, unfortunately, he is the only one you have never been able to defeat... get her now that he is out of the way." Melanie's eyes darkened before she smiled brightly again.

I posted a day late. No ideas until this morning. I will get started on the next chapter now. Thank you, dear readers, for coming this far, it means so much to me. Have a nice day.