The Book of Gemma VOL. 2

22: DARUS HANGOUTS

After the Zodiacs help get the soldiers to their bed, Aries takes over showing them the routines we have practiced. I needed to go to Darus and visit Edna, Albi and Akira. My father joined me, wanting to see the human friends I had made, who helped keep me on the right path.

We hover over Darus' atmosphere. My father smiled at the work that has been done to it, "You did all this?" Admiration in his voice.

"No.. My friends did this for me in my absence. I made the blueprints but they deserve the credit. They kept my dream alive."

"Deecon?" The name coming from him sounded like a forbidden word to say around me.

"Yes.. Deecon made sure all of this could thrive, he saved the Eden system."

My first stop was to Albi and Akira's.

I knock on the door and suck in my lower lip, nervous for their reactions to my new appearance. The door unlocks and my stomach flips, making me on edge. I look down to see a little girl opening the door, thick dark hair pulled into two high pigtails. She chews on her finger as she looks up to me, "Daddy!" She squeals. I hear larger footsteps coming towards her, "Who is it, Princess?"

His voice, I've missed that father figure of a man he is.

He picks her up and opens the door to get a better look and freezes, "Ge-..Gem?" His smile stretching ear to ear, his eyes looking over to Kyto, "Kyto Knox?"

He recognized him, his family learning every face of Starzithians that have come to Sky Valley. I hear Akira in the background, "Who's at the door, babe?"

Albi waves his hand to come in and we step through the door frame. He sets his child on the couch and Akira walks into the room, dropping the glass she was drying to the floor. "Gemini!" She rushes over to me and squeezes me tight. Albi goes to grab the broken glass but Kyto raises his palm, reassembling the glass cup to its original shape and floating it over to a nearby table.

Akira picks up the mass of kids books from the couch and tells us to sit while she makes us some tea. Albi puts his child in his lap as she grabs at his new beard. Albi has to be in his late forties now, little white hairs poking through his hair.

"And who is this?" I say softly, trying not to look directly at her. Not sure if my eye will scare her so I brush my hair over it to hide it.

Albi picks her up and goes to hand her to me.

"Oh, no.. I don't want to scare her-"

He pushes past it, setting her in my lap. The child puts both her hands on either side of my cheeks and pinches at my flesh.

"This is Gemerald." He states, her eyes staring up to me and giggling as she pulls my hair back from my dark eye. She didn't even wince, her heart rate still maintaining perfect beats. "We named her after the God who sacrificed everything for us."

She grabs onto one of my fingers and I let a small glow appear, her giggling becoming louder as she feels the warm light.

"Albi.. I don't know what to say."

She was beautiful, she had Akira's almond hooded eyes and olive skin, Albi's bright blue eyes and button nose.

Akira comes from the kitchen and rests the cups of tea on the table, wanting to know everything that has happened since I've come back.

They were my friends, the ones that put nothing but undying faith in me.

So, I told them everything, my father chiming in with "Are you serious?" When I mentioned some of the nightmares and dreams I had, or when I snapped Scorpz neck and then became friends the month after.

"So right now.. You have eight God's on Sky? Ready to take down Vyx?"

I laugh, "And they are just as messed up as me."

He looks at Akira, "Oh we have to visit soon, yeah?"

Akira didn't even roll her eyes to him, she eagerly agreed. "A room full of God's? Of course we have to visit soon!"

"How is our special prisoner?" Referring to the Darus Devil who planted the bombs on Sky, the bombs that will go off if his heart stops beating.

Albi answers, "Still breathing, I would say he has another thirty or so years left. Your room of God's could probably help you disarm them now, maybe lift them all at the same time and take them into space? Just spitballing ideas."

Kyto waves his arms back and forth, "I'm sorry.. There are bombs on Sky?"

I nod, "They line down the main strip of road, one goes off, they all do like dominos. A human connected it to his wristband, once his heart stops...-" I release a small flame into my hand, "-Boom."

He shakes his head in disbelief, "And you have been ignoring it for how long? Gemma, I have trained you to take care of dangers like this."

Oh, great.

"Father, I have thought of every solution and they all end in the bombs going off... Maybe you could think of some ideas on Sky with the other Zodiacs."

He agrees.

After catching up and apologizing for my late visit, Albi and Akira agree on a date to visit us on Sky. I hug them ten minutes too long in the doorway as we say our goodbyes.

When we arrived at Edna's, I didn't even think about knocking. I open the door and she's in her pajamas, coughing up smoke as her bong sits in her lap. "Fuck! No one knocks at my house!" She swats the smoke away and hands the bong to me, "There is a corner slice you can have-" She stops her mouth, seeing my father come through the door. I hit the bong, keeping the smoke in my lungs, "Edna.. this is-" I let out the smoke, "-My father, Kyto."

He waves his hand at her and smiles, "I apologize for my daughter's rude intrusion."

Edna snaps to her feet, brushing the crumbs off her t-shirt. "Oh, my Darus!-" She puts her hand out, "-It is an honor to meet you, Kyto."

He shakes her hand and looks over to the bong in my hand, "May I?"

My eyebrow raises, "Father, you smoke?"

He lights the rest of the bowl, sucking until the ember breaks down the rest of the bowl and shoots into the bong. He releases the smoke from his lungs and sets it down on the table, "Why else do you think I love looking at my garden for hours?" He laughs.

Edna stands there like a stone, a little laugh escaping her slightly cracked mouth, "Wow, I can't believe these are the interactions I have with God's."

I smirk at her, "What would you say about meeting eight more?"

Her mouth hangs open, stunned.

"Pack your bag for a good couple days, you are going to meet the rest of my family... the other Zodiacs."

I didn't have to say another word, she is running to her room and stuffing her bag full of her essentials. "And Djinn?" She asks. I look to Kyto and then back to her, "I have arranged transport for him to roam all of Sky."

Kyto raises a brow to me, "Djinn? The lizard pet you named as a child?"

I show him to the backyard and Djinn races to the bottom step to greet me,

"I saved this little runt when he was wounded in a cave on Darus before we rebuilt it. You know the legend of Djinn's.. It was like he knew me in a past life." I smile.

Kyto and Edna start to climb into the ship with Djinn being transported in the back,

"Aren't you coming?" Edna says.

"Soon, I need to find Deecon.. To just tell him about the other Zodiacs. I won't be long, Aries has already made room for your stuff in my house... Safe travels."

I wave to them as they begin to lift from the ground.

Oh, Edna. You are going to love partying with the God's.