The story isn't over yet

Chapter Three: Welcome to Tua Bay

As the two worked on the car, Selena and Maddie slowly started to get along. Selena started telling her random stories of her past, still not ready to reveal the whole thing. Maddie didn't bug her for the whole story. But they had almost finished the car when Maddie asked her something she was rather curious about.

"Can I ask you something?" Maddie asked

"Go on," Selena said tightening some screws in the engine.

"What was it like being a villain?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, you were well known all over the world as the girl who couldn't be caught."

"False but please continue."

"You just seemed to be the best villain to ever live. And in whatever news footage I could find of you, you looked like you were having so much fun. So, what was it like?"

Selena got her head out of the engine and put the wrench away, "It was indeed fun. I could do anything I wanted and get away with it. Well, almost. I had a huge bounty on my head to be either killed or arrested. And, believe me, many tried and failed. Your father caught me though and he wasn't ready to bring me to the people who wanted me dead. He still wanted to know where the Princess of Tua Bay who he claimed I had kidnapped when I suddenly appeared. I've told him hundreds of times that she never existed but he doesn't believe me. He thinks she's hidden somewhere in my lab but you can search everywhere, you won't find her."

"You mean Abi? The Princess my dad was betrothed to?"

"She doesn't exist. If she did, why do you think Piro, the youngest in the family, was next in line for the throne instead of Abi, the oldest? Doesn't make sense, does it? Paul is too stupid to see that. I'm glad you didn't get that part of him when you were born."

"Can't you just talk with him about this instead of fighting each other?"

"As I told you before, I've told him that the Princess doesn't exist before yet he is convinced that I'm lying. And, if he can prove that I am, I will take this mask off for the world to finally see who I am. But the Princess never existed, I didn't kidnap her, nor did I murder her as Paul seems to love to claim. End of discussion."

Selena checked that everything in the car was intact and ready to go. She told Maddie to get in the driver's seat and turn it on. Maddie did just that but it wouldn't startup. So, Selena looked again and made any final repairs, and told Maddie to do it again. She did and it turned on. Selena celebrated the success and closed the hood of the car. She told Maddie to move over to the passenger side as she was going to give it a test drive.

Maddie asked if the car was allowed to be on the road since it was in a scrap yard for a while. Selena simply said; who cares? No one can stop her from doing it anyway. She put her cloak in the back seat and drove out of the cave to see it was dark outside. She drove out of the woods that her cave is in and started to drive around the neighborhoods and streets of the Island. Everyone just went about their day while the girls had a test drive. 

"You know, now, what I'm going to say next may age me a bit, but I remember when the Island was different from how it was now. At least how I saw it," Selena said

"What do you mean by that?" Maddie asked

"When you're an outcast, so to speak, the place you live in has a different side to it. You see a civilized Island, I once saw it all as my playground. I grew up with something different."

"Can you tell me what it was like?"

"Sure. If you're curious. But let's park somewhere first."

Selena went to a public parking place and got out, putting her cape on. She walked Maddie around to show her all the places she was familiar with.

'I grew up on the sly, in the gutters and the streets of Tua Bay. Just a kid on the fly getting good at getting by in Tua Bay. I've bartered for a blanket, stolen for my bread,' Selena said taking some bread, 'Learned to take my chances and use my head,' she threw it back to the baker, 'An Island Rat is clever. Clever, or she ends up dead. Boils down to there are some who survive, some who don't. Some give up, some give in. Me, I won't. Black and blue, welcome to my Tua Bay.'

Selena took Maddie's hand and flew her up to the rooftops of the houses nearby her lab.

'Standing here, you can see from the spires to the piers of Tua Bay. I'd be down on that quay,' Selena pointed to it, 'Selling stolen souvenirs of Tua Bay. The Volcano is above and alleyways below. Funny when an Island is all you know. How even when you hate it, something in you loves it so. That's where I learned my stuff,' Selena pointed to her lab, 'In some rough empty cave. There's the girl growing up who was me. All I've been, all I'll be.'

Selena jumped off the roof with Maddie but broke their fall by flying above the Island.

'We can do what we're told. We can go where we're led but I learned from my commander to see what's ahead. Nothing here to hold me, no one that I owe. Funny how a girl can grow. Funny how an Island tells you when it's time to go!'

They landed on top of the cave, near the inactive volcano. Selena had Maddie facing away from the Island.

'Boils down to there are some who have walls yet to climb. You and I on the fly, just in time but tonight there's a sky and quite a view,' Selena said turning Maddie around to see it, 'Welcome to Tua Bay.'

"I didn't think Tua Bay was like that," Maddie said

"No one does until you see it for yourself," Selena said, "People like me grow up like that. But we live with it even if we don't want to."

Selena then flew Maddie home before getting her car back to show off to the scrapyard owner she bet with. But Piro was happy to see that Selena was finally making a friend. To everyone, it would be her first as she likes to call Piro, Pippa, and Felicity acquaintances rather than friends. Maybe Maddie will change Selena's mind on the three of them.