Discovery Devotion Destiny

Invasion: Part II

"We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. "

-Iris Murdoch

Arianna Locke was annoyed. Mostly because of her current babysitter. She didn't know why she assumed having Nyssa be their protector would be kind of cool. It wasn't until the woman was waking her up at the crack of dawn to train did she realize she was sadly mistaken.

Sweat was beading off of her face, as her feet dug in the sand trying to dodge Nyssa's swing with her escrima sticks. Nyssa caught her off guard and slid a leg under Ari's feet knocking her on her butt.

Ari let out a growl throwing the sticks to the ground. "This is bullshit!" she snapped looking up to Nyssa who just shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I should be sleeping, not out here with you."

"You can sleep when you're dead, now stand up, we're going again. " Nyssa turned and placed some distance between them before turning back to the teen who was still sitting in the sand. "I said get up!"

"And I said no!" Ari replied defiantly as she folded her arms over her chest and glared at the woman. "This is pointless, you're faster than I am, so I will always lose."

"So you give up?" Nyssa asked stalking back over to the teen who jumped to her feet at the look in her eyes. "You do not give up. There are no unwinnable fights. When it's you against your opponent, you use every weapon in your artillery to survive, but giving up is never an option, you you understand me?!" Ari's face was still defiant, but she rolled her eyes.

"Fine."

"Good, pick up the sticks, we're going again."

"Mama!" came a tiny voice and they both stopped and turned to the baby monitor in the sand. "Mama , dadda, mama, dada!"

"Saved by the baby." Ari says walking over and grabbing the baby monitor before stalking away from Nyssa and heading back to the house. Nyssa let out a sigh before following behind her.

Ari heard the baby the moment she came into the house. She hurried upstairs and walked into the nursery to find the girl bouncing up and down in her crib.

"Ree, Ree, mama, dadda!" Robyn called as Ari walked over and lifted her out of her crib.

"I know you want your mommy and daddy." Ari turned to see Nyssa come into the nursery and come to a stop. Ari just shook her head before taking the baby to the changing table. "You know stinker, I think I'm going to ask for a raise in my allowance for the amount of diapers I change." Nyssa walked over to stand beside Ari and Robyn glanced over to her with a toothy smile. "You see your cousin Nyssa? Turn's out she's not the fun cousin we were hoping she was." Nyssa turned a look to Ari before shaking her head. The woman turned at the sound of a phone ringing before turning to Ari who froze and turned to her.

"I was made to believe you were supposed to leave your cell phone in Star City." Nyssa said and Ari let out a nervous chuckle before turning back to Robyn.

"I mean I did...leave a phone." she replied turning back to the woman. "But c'mon, they bring us here, not telling us anything about what was going on, and then told me I couldn't bring my cell phone. They were being completely unreasonable."

"There was a reason, you just didn't know it."

"Exactly, so why should I follow their orders when they don't even tell me what's going on?"

Nyssa looked at the girl for a moment, suddenly hearing the voice of her father in her head. "Insolent child."

Nyssa turned away, and let out a deep breath. Her father would always live in her head, and it was getting harder to block him out.