Annie's POV-

I look around at my old room at Michael's house. I chose to come in here after my shower. I notice small words on the wall and I grin to myself. Ian, the youngest kid who lived here, wrote that when he was staying with me because of a storm.

Whatever happened to those kids? Did Michael experiment on them? Did he experiment on me?

I hear someone knock on the door so I shake my head and say, "What?"

The door opens and Damien walks in. "Hey," he says.

"Hi."

I fidget with my hands as he sits on the bed next to me. I move my wet hair away from my face as I say, "I talked to Ember."

"What'd she say?" he asks.

"Nothin' much," I tell him. "Her and Rafi haven't found Aralynn and Kade though."

"Not good," he says. I shake my head. "I wanna show you something."

He opens the door again and I see lion type thing. It has gills, wings, webbed feet, and its eyes are so . . . fiery. "What in the world is this cutie?" I ask, squealing and dropping to the floor to pet it.

It purrs as I touch it. "This is Leroy," Damien says, bending down with me. "I dreamt about him a few days ago and here Nailea is giving him to me."

"Wow," I say. "He's so cute!"

"I know," he says. He stokes Leroy's wings.

"I wonder what he is," I say.

"Oh Annalise, where are you?" I hear my mom say.

"In here!" I yell. Mom pops her head in the door and grins at Damien and me.

"What is that?" Mom asks.

"This is Leroy," Damien says. "You could pet him if you wanted."

Mom bends down and I notice her eyes sparkling. "Leroy," she whispers. "He looks just like the sacred animal in Jivin."

I look over at Damien and I shrug. "You are so adorable!" she coos at the little cub. He purrs and pushes his head against her hand, wanting to be petted more.

"I see you've shown people Leroy," Nailea says from the doorway.

"Well I had to show him to my girlfriend," Damien says. "Jessica just walked in."

"Please don't show anyone else here in Earth," Nailea says. "He's a creature only from Didian."

"If I may ask, what is he?" I ask her.

"He's a Gorg," Nailea says. "One of the last ones, as a matter of fact."

"What's a Gorg?"

"Leroy," Nailea says. "A lion with gills, webbed feet, and wings. He can also breath fire and if he's angry and he looks at what he is angry at, he can set it on fire with just a look."

"Woah." 

Nailea smiles. "Wanna train with him?" 

"Train?" Damien says. "He can train with me?"

"Of course. That's why I gave him to you," she says. "I can feel you have some of my powers."

She waves her hand and I feel a breeze. "You're an Elementalist," I say.

She nods and says, "Damien, what's your power?"

"Absolute power," he says and she frowns. "It means I can have all the powers of the Rangers."

"Okay," she says. "Or maybe you could play with your cousins." 

Damien nods. "Do you know what happened to the other three kids that lived here?" I ask Nailea as she starts walking out of the room. She stops and turns around.

"No I don't," she says. "I'm sorry. Were they special to you?"

"Yeah," I say. "I thought they were my siblings for my whole life until I found out that Michael even isn't my father."

"I'm sorry," she says, resting a hand on my shoulder.

"Its fine," I tell her. She smiles before leaving Damien, Mom, and me alone.

"Maybe we could question him," Mom says, still petting Leroy.

"Who?" Damien asks.

"Michael."

She looks up at me with hate in her eyes. "Maybe not," I say. "He might still be unconscious from when you knocked him on the head with that pan."

"We should check on him anyway," Damien says. "And if he is awake, we'll talk to him.

"Can I come?" Mom asks.

"Uh not yet," I say. "You can talk to him later."

She nods. Damien and I walk to the living room, finding Blake sitting down on a couch. "Do you know where Michael is?" Damien asks him.

"I think Nova is with him right now," he says. "She said she had to do something."

Damien and I share a look. "Where did she go?" I ask.

"I don't know," he says.

I walk to his bedroom and I hear a noise. I open the door to see Nailea raising her arm as if to strike Michael's face. Fire blazes across my vision and I see Nailea surrounded by it. "What are you doing?" Damien asks with his hands raised. "You can't hurt him!"

"Why not?" she asks. "He imprisoned me and my family!"

"We have to talk to him," I say. "He's important right now."

"You can't kill anyone," Damien says. "You are good. Good doesn't kill."

Nailea says, "Good does kill."

"No. Good defends. If you kill, you won't be good," Damien says. "Evil kills. Evil murders."

"Damien," I murmur. He looks at me. "The people who kill don't know they are bad. They think they are doing it for good. What about Light? Is she evil?"

"She's . . . she's . . . I have no idea," he says. "I guess she's . . . both. But you can't be good and evil at the same time."

"Actually, you can," Mom says from the door. "Most people aren't truly evil or truly good. Most are in the grey area between evil and good."

Mom steps into the room. "Nailea," she says, "you can't kill him. You are the princess, after all. I know how you feel. He took my daughter away from me. He told her I was dead."

Her voice cracks. "He also hurt Aralynn and Abigail."

"Who's Abigail?" I ask, slightly confused.

She looks at me before saying, "No one that's important."

I notice Damien looking at me before looking back at Nailea. "Please put him down," he says.

Nailea nods slowly and Damien releases his fire that was encasing her. She floats down to the ground and let's go of Michael. He slowly opens his eyes and then glares at all of us, his gaze stopping at Mom. "Hello Jessica."

"Michael," she says.

"Thanks for the pan to the head." He rubs his head. "Again."

"Gladly," Mom says with a glare.

"I'm guessing you guys want to question me," he says, staring at me. "Hello my darling Annalise. How are you?"

"Better that I know you're not my father," I say.

"Oh ouch," he says with a chuckle. "Who's this cutie here? Is my little Annalise got a boyfriend?"

"Oh, be quiet," I snarl. "I'm not your daughter. Olliar is my father and he's waiting for me back in Didian."

"How's Aralynn?" he asks instead.

"She's perfectly fine," Damien lies. "Now, you will answer our question truthfully. I can sense when people are lying, and if you ever lie to us, I have some . . . magic up my sleeves."

Michael chuckles at Damien's pun. "Ah okay."

"What happened to the other kids who lived here?" I ask quickly before anyone else could talk.

"Oh, you grew attached to them," he says, smiling manically. "How sweet. Well, I sent them away."

"Where?" I ask.

"They are actually downstairs in the basement," he says. "I was seeing if your little boyfriend could detect my lie. Looks like he couldn't."

I storm out of that room and head to the stairs. I run downstairs, not even bother to turn the light on with my hand. I use telekinesis to turn it on as I run down there. I turn on this light with my hand and I see three kids. But they're not like kids exactly. Ian has a metal hand and a metal eyeball that moves in every direction. Veronica has vines for hair, has wooden legs, and kaleidoscope eyes. The oldest, Joseph, has wings protruding out from his back and claws coming out of his fingers where the nails go. "Annie!" Ian says excitedly.

They run up to me and all hug me. "What happened to you?" I ask.

"He experimented on us," Joseph says, shuddering.

"I'm a tree," Veronica says. "You know how I hate nature."

"I am so sorry," I say, a single tear rolling down my face. "I never knew what he would do to you guys when I left."

I wrap my arms around, bringing them closer to me. "We'll bring you to Didian," I say. "Maybe someone there could change you back."

"What's Didian?" Ian asks.

"A great place," I say, smiling down at him.

"Daddy has mentioned it before," Veronica says. "He said that his two daughters went there."

Two? He doesn't have two. I shake my head. I need to focus on the kids.

"Do you guys have any . . . powers?" I ask. "Like lightning or plant powers?"

"No," Joseph says, shaking his head. "He tried to inject powers into us, but it didn't work."

"Annie!" I hear Damien yell.

I look around me and see a doll. I use my telekinesis to bring it up the stairs. Hopefully Damien will see it. "Woah," Ian says. "Annie, do you see that?"

I grin before saying, "Yeah I do. I'm actually doing that. I have telekinesis."

"You?" Ian says. "Are you a superhero or something?"

I laugh as I see Damien walking down the stairs. "Damien, these are my . . . siblings," I say, smiling softly at them. "The little cutie is Ian. The girl is Veronica. And lastly, the oldest is Joseph. Guys, this is my boyfriend. His name is Damien."

"Hi," Damien says while waving. He eyes the changes on them and I shake my head. 'Michael' I mouth to him. He nods. "Let's take you three upstairs," he says kindly. "Maybe you can have some food."

"Okay!" Veronica says. They let go of me and run towards the stairs. Joseph goes slower because of his wings.

"How could he do this to them?" Damien asks after they ran upstairs.

"I have no idea," I say.

"I mean, he made Light have lightning powers but these kids had to have stuff put on them?"

"I know. How does Veronica keep the wood from rotting though?" I ask.

"Maybe he did give them powers but they don't know it yet," Damien suggests. "Joseph has wings so he could probably fly."

"What about Ian?"

"He might be able to use the metal with his hand," he says. "Like bend it like its an element. I know Ember can't do that."

"Yeah." I shake my head. "Why didn't he do anything to me?"

"Maybe he knew you had powers already," Damien suggests as we start to walk upstairs.

"Maybe."

We make it upstairs to see my three siblings with Nailea's kids. "You guys want to play outside?" I ask.

"We sure do! We haven't been outside in ages!" Joseph says. 

My siblings run outside and Damien says, "Go on Shiloh and Austin. We'll be out in a minute."

They walk outside and I turn to Damien. "You should probably use the elementalist magic to make earth walls out there," I say. "So people won't see Ian, Veronica, and Joseph."

"Good idea," he says. We walk out there and he raises the earth. 

"What's that for?" Ian asks.

"Protection," I say. "Now, are you guys ready to see something amazing?"

They cheer so I look at Damien. He starts to float and I start to sweat. "Damien, you are heavy," I grunt. 

He laughs and says, "Here, let me help."

He closes his eyes and the weight on my magic lessens. "Thanks," I say. 

I look at the kids and they are amazed. "Cool, huh?" I say. They nod. I set Damien down and say, "You should do something now."

He nods and flicks his hand. I start floating up but he grabs onto my hand. "Woah!" Austin says. "What's happening?"

"I made gravity leave this little section of the world," he says. He then repeats the flick and we all fall down. 

"What are you guys?" Shiloh asks. 

"We are the Rangers," I say proudly. 

"Only some people have powers like us," Damien says. 

"Do it again!" Ian yells excitedly. 

"Which one?" Damien asks. 

"Any one!"

Damien thinks for a minute before raising his hands. Fire rushes out above him and he tames them until they are only small flames. Then he extinguishes one flame. He waves his hand a couple of times and water floats above his hands. He then swirls his hands around and the fire and water circle each other. "That was AWESOME!" Ian and Austin yells. 

I burst out laughing. "Wow Damien," I say. "They sound a lot like you."

He grins at me and I grin back. We go back to entertaining the kids. We are having so much fun that we don't notice it getting dark. "Kids," Nailea says, scaring me. "It's time for bed."

The kids dejectedly go inside. Damien and I stay outside, looking up at the stars. "I hope our friends in Didian are having as much fun as we are," he says to me.

I chuckle and say, "Probably not. They aren't with you and that's what makes it amazing."

He grabs my hand and I scoot closer to him. I yawn and he laughs. "Are you tired?" Damien asks. 

"A little."

"Well, go to sleep," he says, smoothing my hair down. 

"But we're outside," I say. 

"I'll protect you," he says simply. 

I yawn again and nod. I close my eyes and I soon fall asleep.