Realization

Occurring just after the previous chapter, timeline-wise. Darkling's perspective.

Darkling hunches over the mechanical cat, twisting the last wires into place. “There.” It’s been years since he made the first such creature, the blue jay. Jules - Jay, he reminds himself - is twenty-four. Darkling himself is twenty-seven. The two of them have been co-leading the S.O.S. for seven years officially.

“How do you turn it on?” Jay asks, trailing a hand over the cat’s silvery flank. A ring shimmers on her finger. Darkling wears a matching one. They’d been married for five years. Darkling thinks briefly of Kage and Ciana, their three-year-old twins, who are probably off causing trouble somewhere in the compound. A few of the villains had offered to babysit to give the co-leaders sort of a day off. Darkling makes a mental note to put extra money on the volunteers’ next paychecks. The twins, with their opposite powers (Kage with shadow manipulation and Ciana with light) and tendency to argue, are a bit of a handful.

“Here.” He presses a button on the cat’s collar, and it hums to life. Tiny clicks sound as the metal cat stands, it’s tail twitching. “Should we name it?”

“Hmmm.” Jay whistles, and the silvery blue jay that inspired her own alias flutters over and lands on her hand. “What do you think, Blue?” The jay twitters.

“You can’t actually understand it, can you?” Darkling wonders.

“You programmed him to speak like a bird can. My powers extent even to some animal languages. So yes, I can,” Jay says with a grin. “He says the cat’s name should be Slate.”

“Slate.” The cat perks up, standing at attention. “I like it.”

“Please tell me this isn’t what you’ve been spending all your time on the past six years,” a familiar voice drawls. Darkling flinches, cursing, then turns to see Darknight leaning against the wall, partially hidden by the shadows. He looks uncharacteristically ruffled.

“Not all our time,” Jay quips. “So, who beat you up?” Darknight stiffens.

“None of your business,” he growls, at the same time Darkling says “What?”

“Well, someone did,” she says matter-of-factly.

“How do you know?” Darkling inquires.

“He looks frustrated with himself, like he messed up and doesn’t want to admit it,” Jay replies. “I’m better at reading people than I used to be.”

“I’ll say,” Darknight mutters. “Darkling, can I talk to you?”

“Sure,” Darkling says, perplexed. Jay huffs, but leaves the room, taking Blue and Slate with her. “Okay, what is it?” He asks when the door closes.

“You know that lead I found a while back?” Darknight begins.

“The one about… Adira?” Darkling doesn’t remember Darknight’s daughter well, he’d been only five when she’d been taken by the government.

“That one, yeah. I followed it. And I found her.”

“You don’t look to pleased…”

“That’s because I didn’t think it through. She attacked me when I told her who she is, and I reacted… badly. I may have activated her powers.”

“Wow.”

“It gets worse.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I drugged her and brought her to the I.I.E.M. base.”

“WHAT?” Darkling exclaims.

“Yeah,” Darknight sighs. “In hindsight, probably not the best decision.”

“Definitely not the best way to get someone to listen to you.”

There is an awkward pause, where neither can think of what to say.

“Adira had another name, right? The one her adoptive parents gave her?” Darkling asks.

“Yeah, Mandy Gardner,” Darknight answers. “Why?” There’s a crash, like something falling, and loud cursing.

“Knew it,” Darkling mutters. “Jay, it’s rude to eavesdrop,” he says louder.

“We’re villains,” she counters, slipping back into the room, both mechanical animals on her heels. “And I know Mandy Gardner.”

“You do?” Darknight asks.

“Yeah, we’ve been friends since elementary school,” she explains. “Maybe I could talk to her, apologize for your behavior or whatever.”

“Ha ha.”

“I’m serious. I want to talk to her.” Her tone leaves no room for argument.

“Why?” Darknight asks. Jay glares. “Fine. Tonight.” Jay nods.

“Tonight.”

Author's Note

I re-did some of the things in this chapter to line up with what my co-author friends and I agreed on.

Reviews

[Locke Redwyne (night sy..]

uh dude
mandy is 25...
the line: " 'Yeeeaaaaahhhhh,” Darknight sighs. “Not sure why.' "
replace it with " ' Yeah," Darknight sighs. "In hindsight, probably not the best decision."
It's Mandy Gardner
Change the last three lines to:
"I'm serious. I want to talk to her. Tonight." Her tone leaves no room for argument.
"Fine, but..." Darknight pauses. "Fine. Tonight."
Jay nods. "Tonight."
this doesn't make sense, as Mandy is 25 at the time of her last chapter... Jay would be at least 24
and at the time of her last POV, Kyndra was... HOLY CRAP 14
wow she's young
and the next one will be: 23, two years after the fourth descendants book, not very long before bd characters come in

[Jay_Bluefire]

the last Jay chapter was actually befores she officially co-lead S.O.S., so she would've been around eighteen or nineteen. Her next chapter will be right after the Dl one I just posted, when she talks to Mandy/Adira if that matches up with what Mad wants to do next.

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

so if they're married when she's eighteen, and the people come in, well, let's see... at least one of dc and pitch's kids have to be young enough to be left behind, and your characters have to be at least, let's say fourteen to fifteen, well, then, jay would be 32-33, and dc would be 34-36, which means that her youngest kid would be just born PERFECT
ok we can have them come in when your kids are fifteen, that's the latest that it can be, the leaving seraphimbia part will just have to be ten years later...

[Jay_Bluefire]

well no in the last Darkling chapter which I just posted she's the same age as Mad
HOLD ONread morewell no in the last Darkling chapter which I just posted she's the same age as Mad
HOLD ON
CONFUSED
let's go into groups and timeline this properly please

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

no, Adira was born in 2002, her and Kyndra are a year older than Jules

[Peregrinator7]

If Jules was born in may 2003 then that's not true
Unless someone changed it
Mandy was born September 2002

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

yeah
Adira/Mandy was born September 13, 2002
Jay was born sometimes in 2003
Kyndra was born in December 4, 2002