𝙀𝙉𝘾𝘼𝙉𝙏𝙊: 𝙒𝘼𝙏𝘾𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙈𝙊𝙑𝙄𝙀

5: SURFACE PRESSURE

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but some of the plot and my ocs.

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Leo and Layla wished that the family would say anything, anything at all. That they hated them, to leave the village, that they were monsters. It was nothing they hadn't heard of before, nothing they weren't used to, for wherever either de León twins tread, total annihilation and destruction followed. 

Instead, there was silence, with tension so thick, Leo doubted his finely-crafted and very menacing-looking obsidian blade would even be able to slice it.

And so it went on. Nobody cried. Not a sound was made and neither was eye-contact.

That was, until someone finally said something. It wasn't Pepa hurling lightning at them, but when the person spoke to them in such a confused and hurt voice, they wished for the former instead.

"Why would you wanna do this?" Antonio asked quietly. "Why would anyone wanna do this? To anybody?"

Neither twin spoke for a while, trying to gather their discombobulated emotions to tie them up and store it away, for what else were unwilling teenage mercenaries to do when caught in the act? Emotions were only another problem, but they could avoid it, if they tried hard enough. 

"Funny," Layla said, pride evident in the fact that her voice didn't wobble, not even a bit. 

Of course, the Madrigals took hose two down a completely different route.

"Funny? Funny?!" Camilo had finally had enough. He'd really liked this girl. She seemed so mysterious, but in a good way. Guess he had to find out the hard way that a mysterious girl was more likely going to be mysterious in a bad way. "How could you say that?"

Layla looked down, unable to look him in the eye. which gave Camilo a sliver of satisfaction. That small satisfaction faded fastidiously when he saw that she wasn't stunned speechless as he'd hoped she'd be.

"You didn't let me finish," she said calmly. "Everyone has been shouting at us, demanded how we were capable of such..." she struggled for an appropriate word.

"I think the word you're looking for is ruthlessness, hermana," Leo supplied helpfully, leaning back comfortably in his chair, much to the distance of the other Madrigals, who were appalled at his total lack of remorse for what he was speaking of. 

Layla nodded. "Yes. Thank you, hermano." She turned nonchalantly back to a furious Camilo, forcing herself to look straight into his eyes as she delivered her next sentence. "Everybody demands how we are capable of such ruthlessness yet only Antonio has asked the really question: Why would we do this? What is our motive?" 

"Well what is it, then?!" Pepa roared, thunderclouds covering everyone's heads. From the pinched look on her face, it was taking every fiber of willpower in her being to restrain the rain that fought to fall. "Why do you want to do this? What is your motive?"

"We don't want to," Leo replied, stoic as ever. "We never have and we never will. We have no reason to do this...but that doesn't mean we couldn't be forced into this."

He said it so plainly, they assumed he was just being theatrical. But Pedro didn't. Some things still didn't make sense. "What do you mean by 'forced'?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Leo deadpanned. He inhale deeply through his nose before charging forwarding with, "You people have nothing to hold you back from making a choice of what you want to do with life." Then, his expression turned slightly apologetic, inclining his head towards the Madrigal grandkids. "Or, at least, it seemed as such to me, at least. I apologize for that."