Mini Lopez And The Gandharva's Child

You look pretty good for a guy who was incinerated.

A/N: Okay. I am SURE this chapter doesn't make much sense, so please forgive me. That's all I wanted to say. 

Aru's PoV (Yes, the PoV of the protagonist of the OG series after 8 chapters. Good job, me)

To say that Aru Shah was worried was an understatement. To say that Aru Shah was pissed and wanted to murder someone starting with her own dad was........accurate.

Before, every time she'd faced the Sleeper, she'd faltered, because she knew that this was her dad. But now........... anger filled her heart at the thought of him.

The image of the man who had left her a picture book in a hospital, the man who had given her her name, had disappeared, vanished. Now she only thought of the man who had kidnapped her sister.

Her knees wobbled with anger, and lightning flashed outside, while thunder boomed in the rhythm of the resentment churning in her blood.

Unfortunately, due to their enhanced Pandava powers, whenever Aru and Brynne had mood swings or temper tantrums (which was pretty often in their cases) storms and winds with the power of missile launchers could be observed in Atlanta and New York.

Both girls had been trying to control their powers, but in extremely emotional situations, they couldn't stop their powers. But, meteorologists put the blame for the storms on global warming, while the crazy lady who was the neighbor of Aru, Aiden, and the twins, pinned the blame on Gen Z (how she came to that conclusion is a mystery). Too bad the crazy lady was more accurate than the meteorologists.

Speaking of Aiden, her friend was in a bad shape. It was bad enough that Mini had been kidnapped by a person he considered a friend, but he took the blame for it, thinking it was all his fault. And then Rudy disappeared, and nobody had heard of him.

As much as the rest of the Potatoes, and the adults tried to convince him that it wasn't his fault, he wouldn't come out of his room.

She raked her fingers through her hair, and tried their mind link.

Mini? MINI?! she screamed, expecting a reply. There was only a static. Obviously. An ache built up in her head, when a ping reached her ears. She checked the notification, and saw:

1 text message from:

Wifey:

SHAH GET TO MY PLACE NOW.

She ran out the door, while yelling, "BYE MOM!"

Sprinting across the wide street, she stopped in front of the elegant house in which Aiden and his mom lived.

She pressed the doorbell repeatedly, and the door was opened by Malini Acharya, revealing Aiden, looking thin and pale, and serving soup to....

"RUDY!" she shrieked, hugging him, and restraining herself from punching him, since he already looked weak. "YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT-" she continued, but her rant was stopped by the arrival of Nikki and Sheela, who had hurtled into the Acharyas' living room.

"Brynne should be here any time now.." Aiden muttered. At the mention of Brynne, a gust of wind blew through the room, and Brynne landed lightly on the rug, accompanied by a wind gazelle.

Brynne expressed her joy of having a friend back in a different way. "Rudra. Explain. NOW."

Rudy gulped, and said, "I was reckless.... when Mini was kidnapped, I wanted to help her, I didn't know what to do.... when we found out that she was kidnapped, I took her hair barette, since I thought that it could help to lead us where she was..... but I couldn't fix it. In Naga-Loka, it had this glow to it, when the moonlight hit it. I thought it could be fixed with moonstone, but moonstone's put in a high-security vault, and my clearance didn't go that far. I broke into the vault." 

He paused for a moment, and then continued, "I stole it, but the security yalis caught me. I was incinerated."

If she hadn't been so preoccupied, she probably would have said, "You look pretty good for a guy who was incinerated."

He took a deep breath, and said, "Usually, the thief would die, obviously, but I was teleported. To the Sleeper."

Aru felt as if her lungs were shriveling up, her breathing shallowed, and, her heart thumping painfully against her ribs, she said quickly, "Did you see her?"

"I-I didn't." he said quietly, looking down. She slumped back into her seat, as Rudy hurried on with his story. "The Sleeper had chained me, and.... and was torturing me.

At this, Aiden let out a very un-Aiden like squeak. "I'm fine," Rudy added. "Now.... this is the part where I get confused. I was.... just there, and..... then I felt this burst of power? I could break through the chains, and then I ran..... I saw a portal, jumped through it, and arrived here. I still have no idea what saved me....." he looked hopefully at the rest, as if they had any answers to the questions he had. They didn't.

"It.... it could be an adrenaline rush..." Brynne tried, but Rudy shook his head. "Adrenaline rushes don't give you enough strength to break through iron bindings, do they?"

Sheela suddenly gasped, gripping her twin's arm. Her eyes glowed silver, and when they returned to their normal ice-blue, she whispered, "It's because you're Devika."

"Come again?" Rudy asked, startled. "You. You're the reincarnation of Devika, the second wife of Yudhishthira. The two shared a bond of love, and they could call upon each other's strength, if needed."

"B-but how did she know? We found out, like, just now, how did Mini find out? If we know who told her, we could talk to them, ask them for ways to get her out!" Aru said.

Sheela bit her lip, and muttered, "It's not possible-it's illegal-" "Sheela?" Nikita prompted.

"The only person who could know..... is her soul-dad. That means the Dharma Raja was in contact with her."

Silence settled over the group. "But isn't that illegal?" Brynne asked. "It is. The gods signed some treaty-thingie that said that the gods couldn't be in contact with their demigodly children." Rudy said.

Aiden, who had been silent this whole while, said, "You can track her, then. With your 'bond of true love' powers and your Pandava powers..... you can locate her!"

Warmth flared inside Aru's chest. But then it quickly died, when Rudy dropped to the floor, and rolled around in pain. Through gasps, he choked out, "She's dying." he whispered, and passed out.