The story isn't over yet

Chapter Nine: A new reality

It took forever but Selena and Paul made it safely to her lab where Piro and Maddie were waiting for them. Selena's children were hiding in another room. Maddie had found them and took them somewhere safe. During their walk to the lab, Selena and Paul didn't speak a word to each other. What did they have to say besides arguing about the past? That is something they had a habit of doing every time they met.

Meanwhile, Pippa had recovered from Selena's attempt to kill her. Being immortal, she can come back to life every time someone kills her. It just takes a while to happen. But seeing the two gone enraged her. She knew that the small group were going to plan something now that they had Selena back. Selena had a few advantages which is why Pippa wanted her either captured again or dead.

She didn't care which one at that point. When Selena and Paul made it into her lab, Maddie ran up to her father and embraced him. Selena rolled her eyes at the scene and took her sword back from Maddie. Selena put it back on her belt and waited for the reunion to end. When the reunion did end and Maddie stepped away, Selena took her knife back out, went behind Paul, and pressed it against his neck. 

"Pippa might come back from the dead but you can't!" Selena said to Paul.

"Selena! Stand down!" Piro told her

"Make me!" Selena dared, "Come closer and his blood with stain the floor and I won't care!"

"He just saved you and now you want him dead?" Maddie asked

"Have you not been listening? Your father has ruined my life in so many different ways! Adam, my eyesight, and don't get me started on my legacy which he has ruined with his lies!"

Paul took a hold of Selena's arm and flipped her forward so she landed back first on the stone floor. Selena groaned in pain as Paul stepped on her chest to keep her down and pointed his sword at her. 

"Dad! No!" Maddie said trying to stop him.

"Remember, Selena, that you also ruined my life. You kept me away from my daughter, killed half of my men and an army worth of innocent people, and almost took my eye out," Paul reminded her. 

"Be glad you still have it and that you only have half of your vision," Selena told him trying to pry his foot off her, "You took all of mine. And let me correct you on the fact that you willingly stayed out of Maddie's life because you were obsessed with killing me. I see that hasn't changed a bit."

"BOTH OF YOU STOP IT!" Piro yelled at them, "THERE ARE CHILDREN WATCHING!"

Selena looked around until her eyes landed on her five children. 

"Be reasonable, Paul," Selena said looking up at him, "Let's not let children witness a murder. They've seen enough."

"Not good enough," Piro spoke up, "both of you, mutual agreement not to kill each other while we work out how to stop Pippa."

Paul looked at Selena who gave no indication that she wanted to continue this fight. So, he got off her, put his sword away, and offered his hand to help her up. Selena gave him an 'are you serious?' look and swatted his hand away, getting up herself. She started giving the three a briefing of what happened with her while with Pippa and also what happened to the former Angel. She even showed the knife covered in purple blood as proof. Vincent confirmed it to be the blood of Unicron, also known as Dark Energon. 

"So, does anyone have any form of a plan on how to deal with this?" Selena asked

"We want to use your lab as a base for any survivors who don't want to surrender to Pippa," Piro explained.

"I'll allow it but I'm not doing the talking to any of them. That can be you three."

"But this is your lab. You'll have to make the rules," Maddie said

"And you're the closest person we have to a leader while Optimus is on Cybertron and Pippa taking over the world," Piro said

"Way to throw me under the bus. Look, I'm not a leader. I'm a rouge and I prefer being on my own and doing my own thing. I don't like or do teamwork anymore. Maddie, keep it to yourself. You don't count," Selena said before Maddie could say anything, "I'm only letting you lot use my lab as a base because it's the safest place to be right now. But have you even considered what will happen when the poor meet the rich or fans meet famous people? If Maddie wants me to keep the piece, which is how I'm putting it, I'll have to tell them what to do. And a lot of people don't like that. Me being one of them."

"Aye, but you're scarier and to the point," Paul said

"Was that a compliment?"

"No."

"Don't," Piro said before they could start something, "We don't have any other option right now. We need a better plan but this is one we can handle right now. We'll work something out later when we've saved a few people."

So, that was their temporary plan. Find and rescue those who didn't want to join Pippa. They started with a handful of people until that grew into a hundred. But that was because Pippa started invading the rest of the world but the word of what Selena, Piro, Maddie, and Paul were doing had gotten around thanks to the survivors. Among those who joined the group were poor people, homeless, middle class, rich, famous, and even a few politicians.

Selena wasn't very comfortable around the politicians at first until she remembered that they had no power anymore. They were just like everyone else now. That's when the reality set in for Maddie that this was how life would be now. This wasn't like a book or a movie, this was real life. And something that hundreds of people would have to live with for who knows how long. Weeks? Months? Years? Decades? It was a reality she wasn't ready for but, truth be told, no one was ready for this new reality. Things may never be the same again.