Tactics

Skylar was shocked to see Emerald but was not surprised. She exclaimed with disbelief, “Emerald Whitelock …!”

“Surprised you, didn’t I …” she said. Ace stood there in the background without saying anything in shock, trying to process how Emerald was alive. “Oh hi, Ace,” Emerald waved at him.

“Hi, Em-Emerald, no offence but weren’t you supposed to be dead …?”

“Oh yeah, well I was after my best buddy here tried to kill me, isn’t that right Skylar, the most righteous person of the realms.”

“Um wait what!” Exclaimed Ace with disbelief.

“It’s not exactly my proudest moment, Emerald,” Skylar continued while Ace glared at Skylar for answers. Skylar hurriedly cut it off with an annoyed expression, “Long story…. well what do you want Emerald, why are you back after all this time?”

“Well missy, remember the demon whom you had set after me, he hasn’t really retired and he’s coming not just for me but for you all for killing his minion army. But I gotta say Skylar you went into a full killer mode after that day didn’t you …” She tried to make Skylar feel guilty about it all.

“That’s what happens when you don’t clean the mess properly with transparency in the first place,” taunted Ace accusingly at both of them. “Ok enough with the guilt trip, we have to work as a team, I guess ….”

“Ya sure, after you literally tried to kill me, which team are you referring to?” Emerald replied sarcastically, shrugging.

Skylar sighed, “Em, look it’s no secret that you were everything to me and losing you, w … well thinking of you to be dead broke me. It really did. But none of this would have happened in the first place if you weren’t power-hungry …” Skylar tried to reason. She further added, “Power blinded you, you didn’t even see who was trying to help you and it cost us Trixie.”

“I’m not proud of that either, but Shax’s energy was mine to keep. It’s no secret either that if it were to be left unused you would be the first one to grab it. I just wanted it first, for once wanted to come out of your shadow, and stop being the sidekick of the all-mighty Skylar Lindale …”

Skylar stood with her head bowed.

“Wait … you killed Beatrix?” Ace asked incredulously. He was clearly enjoying the show but was too confused at the same time.

“Oh god Ace, I think you should go home and get some sleep; all this is very complicated. We will fill you in tomorrow,” said Emerald.

“We all must meet tomorrow to decide how to put down the threat of Shax looming dangerously. This farce needs to end once and for all,” said Skylar firmly.

“Emerald, just get one thing straight first, if this tip of yours is misleading, I will kill you with my bare hands and without remorse this time,” Skylar added with a seemingly innocent smile.

Skylar then opened a portal for Ace to leave. Before leaving through it he hugged her goodbye and whispered in her ears, “We’ve got this Skylar, just be careful around this one.” To which Skylar smiled.

As soon as Ace left, Emerald made her way towards the couch and sat there, “Ooh, there’s some magnetism between you two over there,” and winked.

“Shut up,” Skylar said.

“What are you scared of, Skylar?” Emerald asked as she sat comfortably on the couch with her legs resting on the table one on top of the other.

“Afraid you’ll try to kill him too?” She said rhetorically.

Skylar’s hands fisted as she tried her best to control her anger, her nails dug deep in her palms painfully. “Why aren’t you leaving, go home and we will meet tomorrow morning,” she said.

“So eager to send me off already! Don’t you wanna catch up maybe, where have I been all these years, how was hiding, etc. etc.?”

“Uh nope, not interested the Emerald we all knew died long back you are the evil spawn version of her, and I have got nothing to do with you.”

“Ouch …. ‘re going blunt today, am ’kay, let me get to the point then, hand over my locket, now.”

She said as she leaned in front of Skylar, opening her hand and asking for her belonging.

“I don’t have your locket, I never did.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Emerald laughed lightly.

“Yes,” Skylar reiterated because that was the truth.

“What do you mean you never did?” Emerald asked unbelievingly.

“I gave it to Jamie after you ‘fake died’; apparently your mundane doppelganger has it now; anyway, it’s not yours to keep, why do you want it?”

“It is mine and always will be,” she said, emphasizing every word and gritting her teeth.

Skylar laughed but not sarcastically this time. “Look you just proved my point again, there’s nothing good left in you, is it? You used to respect the laws of nature, now you just don’t seem to care. Your time was over, it had to go on to the next in line.”

“My time was over or was it cut short?” Emerald said with narrowed eyes.

“It was a choice you made; you must suffer the consequences.”

“I must suffer the consequences, what about you huh? You have lived twice as long as me, we both together have lived longer than the whole of the superworld kept together.”

Skylar kept quiet and clenched her jaw, “It’s getting late, leave please.”

Emerald left Skylar’s apartment determined to see the end.

The next morning, Ace, Lucy, and Emerald met Skylar at her apartment. As soon as Emerald entered Lucy was stunned to see her. “Sky, do you see that too?”

Skylar looked at her with a frown, “Ho … how are you still alive?”

“Luc, long story… I missed you… I’m … I’m sorry,” she was overwhelmed with tears as she said that because of the guilt of killing Trixie.

“Em, what about Trix, was she with you too?”

Skylar immediately intervened and said, “Luc, Trixie she’s really gone, Em barely was able to survive.”

Skylar covered up for Emerald this time because she was afraid one truth might reveal the other darker secrets, her nasty secrets.

Lucy had many questions; so did Ace. But seeing the look on their faces, Skylar whispered to Emerald that they need to tell them the truth, … no more lies. Emerald nodded, “I think we all should table this conversation,” said Emerald.

“Yes please,” Ace said as he signed. Emerald and Skylar filled both of them with the true happenings of the past. Lucy was shocked; so was Ace. At first, Lucy was too stunned to speak but then,

Lucy was furious, “You killed my sister!” She frowned both at Emerald and Skylar, Emerald for killing her and Skylar for hiding information from her.

“Luc I’m sorry, I wasn’t in my right mind then,” said Emerald. Lucy was heartbroken.

“She looked up to you damn it! How could you do it Em, how could you do this to me ...” she said as she broke down dejected. “You know what, you’re not even worth my anger,” Lucy sighed and left the room, Skylar ran behind her in the hallway, “Luc, I’m so sorry, you are justified in being mad at me, but Shax is back and we need to get justice for Trix right! That can only happen if we work as a team.”

Lucy was much more sensible and did not let her emotions take a toll on her. She nodded to Skylar and said, “I need a minute.” Skylar nodded and headed back to the lobby of the apartment where Emerald and Ace were sitting.

The whole time Ace was observing Emerald head to toe as if she had grown two heads,

“What!” She asked Ace, confused. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Nothing,” he said with narrowed eyes. He leaned forward and posed his question that was wandering in his head for a long time. “How did you even pull this off?”

Emerald sighed as she was about to answer, but her reply was cut short by Skylar. Emerald was somewhat relieved when the topic changed midway. “She’ll come in a minute.”

Ace then taunted Skylar, “If only you had trusted us before, so much could have been avoided Skylar,” he said this and left the room too. He was annoyed at the duo.

“Ac … Ace stop, please.” Ace didn’t turn back and went to the balcony.

“I think that’s your cue to go too,” said Emerald.

“No, he hates me now, I should give him some space,” replied Skylar.

“We were wrong, we must make amends Sky,” said Emerald as she held Skylar’s hand across the table.

Skylar took a deep breath and smiled softly showing more worry than calmness as she got up to leave towards the balcony.

“Uh-Ace …” “So what’s your next move now, backstab me too?”

“Don’t say that, I had to do what I thought was right at the moment, deep down you know that too. It wasn’t easy for me.” Skylar said as tears filled her eyes.

Ace had never seen her so vulnerable before except for those dark ancient times. He immediately felt sorry and said, “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you.”

“It’s okay, I kinda had it coming,” she said. They both shared a warm hug before going back in.

Deep down Skylar was fighting her demons as she knew that she was falling prey to her dead desires and that she was the cause of destruction and death. Her aura brought pain and conflicts; she never admired the demonic part of herself and always ran from it. Emerald’s and Ace’s questions about killing them deepened her wound. Even more, she knew they said it out of anger maybe and did not pay much attention to it at first but deep down she was burdened by it. She doubted herself and that she was supposed to and meant to be alone maybe, that’s why her grandmother also left.

As four of them gathered again

Skylar said as she rested her hands on the desk in front of her, “This time we need a bigger and better team, I have a few recruits from the new generation — Aiden Frey and group, the doppelganger, she must be having some powers too; all of us of course; the werewolf Thea and her pack; Augustus and his vampires … I think that’s more than enough.”

“Yes, that’s enough but we need to train the new gen ones and some truce between the wolves and vamps is much needed … ” said Ace with concern.

“Yes, you are right Ace, that’s why we will take our time to train and attack with full strength.”

“Oh he’s going down this time for real,” said Emerald and chuckled enthusiastically.

“I’ll gather the new generation ones today, we’ll fill them in with the plan then we will talk with the wolves and vamps, fine?” said Lucy.

“Yeah that sounds good Luc,” said Skylar and gave off a small smile. Lucy nodded and left.

Lucy was still furious at Emerald.

On the other hand, in the mortal world, Jade decided to confront her parents and grandparents about the photo she had found in the basement of her house. She requested her parents to settle down as she wanted their help, they thought it must be something related to her school but her grandmother deep down knew what she wanted to know about as she had already inquired about the past before. In the evening when they all gathered, June had gone out for her extracurricular activities. Jade handed them the photo and asked, “Who is this? Why are you all hiding it from me, I know it, I just want to hear it from you all!”

She said as she crossed her hands in front of her chest.

Jade’s grandmother started speaking, “She knows, we must tell her now …”

Jade’s mother then held Jade’s hands and said, “Jade my sweet girl, we haven’t told you everything about your ancestors, we are not Harris, we are Whitelocks, and well you have special powers. You are not exactly a regular human. We knew it since the day you were born. Your aura is powerful. This has happened for the first time since our ancestors left our superworld, ever since we all lead a life of humans with no powers until you were born. You showed the exact same powers of your ancestor Emerald Whitelock, and that’s her in the photo.”

Jade was stunned and asked, “Why did we leave the superworld?” Jade’s grandparents then told her about the feuds. Jade realized the full story … she was even told about the importance of the locket she was given as it was her strength for power.

Jade’s mother also told her that she was a Greshman before her marriage, and Jade was the first offspring to be a part of both the supernatural bloodlines.

Jade was overwhelmed by all this. She took a deep breath and stepped outside to clear her head. Her parents knew it was a lot for her to take in but she needed to know the truth, she couldn’t be kept in the dark anymore.