Regal Desires

Mother Knows Best

     In the end, it was Tony's who won the custody battle. It all came down to citizen ship, Clarissa had the best lawyer Tony had ever seen but in the end, his kids were American citizens, and she was not. There had been much celebrating after the messy court battle, but now Tony was starting to think that he messed up.
     It had been two years since the twins mom showed up, and everything had been complete bliss. His family was strong, happy, and healthy. The twins had joined a ballet class taught right across the street from Aspen's martial arts class. Life truly was perfect right up until the incident.
     A man grabbed Darcy's arm, it was sudden, no one knew how to react. Darcy screamed, a loud sonic boom that literally made everyone's ears bleed. The man stumbled back, running into AJ, igniting into flames when they made contact. The man had begged for mercy as he suffocated from the oxygen being pulled from his body as fuel for the fire.
     No one could explain what happened, no witnesses could agree to a story. Tony had a sinking feeling that it wasn't some freak accident, that some how his children were to blame. His suspensions were confirmed when she showed up at his home later that night. "Clarissa," he greeted, not particularly surprised to see her in his living room though it was a first.
     She smiled at him, a warm welcoming thing that caught him off gaurd. For the first time, he remembered what he had saw in her the night the twins were convinced. "Mr. Stark," she greeted. "I do recall telling you that the children should come with me." She reminded. "Now look at the mess they've got you in."
     Tony moved to sit next to her, a glass of whiskey in hand. "Trust me," he says, pausing to take a drink. "Had I known about what happened today, I would've let them go." He admitted. It hurt him to say, but in less than twelve hours it had effected him on many levels, police involvement, and investigation on Stark Industries, the immediate drop in his stock. He loved his kids, but after the events of thar afternoon, he didn't know what to think. Most of all, he worried that they would be dangerous for those around him, he had Aspen to worry about as well.
     "That's why I wanted to take them... when an Alasdair obtains their powers... let's just say they take a while to master." Clarissa speaks, as though what she had to say was common knowledge.
     Tony sat down his drink on the side table, all to interested to learn more. "When a what now?" He asks, imploring her to explain.
     She nods, thinking over her words carefully. "You are their father, it's only right for you to know." She decided, earning an encouraging nod from Tony. "Althala is home to a subset of humans known as the Alasdair. The only difference between a normal human and the Alasdair is a genetic marker on one of the x-cromsomes. This chromosomal difference allows the Alasdair to preform magic, the universes attempt to make the planet Earth less of an underdog. A young Alasdair will start showing powers between the age of six and nine, and at this time their powers are the strongest they will ever be, limitless but purely driven by emotion. On the tenth birthday, the magic will pick one of seven paths: war, divination, healing, elemental, nature, trickery, or necromancy. After that, an Alasdair is able to master their magic and learn how to control it with time and patience." She explains. Looking at Tony for answers, but he was too busy taking it all in.
     "With your permission... I would like to take them with me to Althala. Where everyone is trained to handle the challenges of magical youths. Once they master their craft... I would return them to you. I fear my other children won't take kindly to their joining us." She explains.
     "Of course they wouldn't," Tony mutters before reminding himself that this wasn't the villian he had always assumed her to be, she was his teammate in this. "I don't like it," he admitted, worried about what sending them away would do to their family, what it would do to him after all, he had come accustomed to being a father first and foremost, it wouldn't be the same if the kids were gone, he would still have Aspen but he was a teenager seeking his own space. "However, I don't see that I have another choice."