Kiera
I did not see that coming. I had forgotten all about what Justine had said about the reinforcements.
"No, wait!" Mei yelled from the balcony, drawing everyone's attention.
The Guardians and Supporters narrowed their eyes on us.
"King and Queen, what is going on? Why aren't you attacking them?" One of them asked.
"Our powers have been stolen," the Queen replied.
At that, every Guardian and Supporter raised their arms in an "X" at us.
"Crap. There are so many more Nephilim against us than with us," Mei muttered.
The Guardians and Supporters couldn't do anything to us while we stood up here. If they tried something, they would put the King, Queen, and Descendants in jeopardy.
"Nothing you can say to us will sway our loyalties. We will die fighting for the Known Families. If you didn't have a power, then you shouldn't have been here anyway. The humans will never belong with us. They need to stay where they are. Who cares about their living conditions? They seem to be doing just fine if you ask me," what looked like the leader of the Guardians and Supporters said.
"Yeah, well no one asked you," Mei said and I slapped his arm.
"Wise ass," I mumbled. Mei laughed.
While they were distracted, the Rebels attacked. A battle cry rang out as the two groups clashed.
Former Guardians and Supporters for the Known Families were forced to fight against those they had trained side by side with. This wasn't right.
"Stop!" I screamed, slamming my fist on the railing of the balcony.
The groups flew apart from each other across opposite ends of the yard. I had gotten so angry that I didn't even think about what I was doing until I had blown them apart from the fighting.
Once again, all eyes were on us.
"Fighting will not solve anything. Look around you. The Sectors have been destroyed beyond repair. It's unsafe here. However, where is the one place that hasn't even been marred by the war? Where we are standing has been protected this entire time. They," I said gesturing at the King and Queen, "have been sitting here this whole time. They've been sending you out there knowing that you may not come back alive.
"All of your homes are demolished. This is the only one still standing. What does that say? It tells you that the Known Families don't give a crap about your wellbeing. They just want to be all-powerful and all-controlling. As long as they're living in a paradise, nothing else matters.
"By banishing Nephilim without powers and separating the humans from the Nephilim, it gives the Known Families power. They can ultimately do anything. Until now," I concluded.
The Rebels raised their fists to their chests and then showed me their knuckles like I had done in the video.
The ones loyal to the Known Families stared at me, then at the Rebels.
One by one, they stood up and raised their fists to me.
Declan, Mei, and I did the same.
"This was the last group of Guardians and Supporters we had left. The rest either joined with the Rebels or died in the battles. The numbers we have here will be what we recreate our society with," the leader of the former Known Family loyal group said.
That shocked me a little. I hadn't realized just how many lives had been lost in this war. Maybe a thousand of us were left.
"Uh, actually, there's a lot of Nephilim underground. They didn't want to choose sides or participate in the war so they remained neutral," someone below us spoke out, raising a finger.
"Yeah, we left all of our children with them to keep them safe," someone else said.
The three of us turned to face the trembling Known Families.
"You are welcome to join our new society. Declan, Mei, and I will be in charge of it. We will make fair rules, discrimination of powerless beings is a thing in the past. Everyone will be allowed to give their input on the new aspects of our lives," I said to the Known Families.
"No. We have no business left being here. Our powers are gone and we are therefore useless, just like the humans. We will never agree with what you're doing," the King said, the Queen nodded.
"I can give your powers back," Declan said.
Oh. He must have given mine back right when we met without either of us realizing it.
They raised their eyebrows, but remained silent.
"Alright. I'll keep them then," Declan decided.
"Fine, give them back. We won't live under your conditions, but we will need our powers for where we are going. We won't come back here ever again after what you've done to it. You will never see us again," the King declared.
Declan nodded and opened his palm.
Their powers swirled in a rainbow of colors in the middle of his hand. He reached his arm out and as the powers were given back to their owners. The Known Families didn't say a word after their powers had been returned. They snapped their wings open and took off.
Cheers burst from down below. We turned back around to look at them.
"Step one: find the others underground. Step two: rebuild the sectors as one single city. Step three: live in harmony," I planned.
Everyone clapped and hollered.
Of course this was all easier said than done, but we would do it.
~
Declan
For now, all of the Nephilim would be sharing rooms in the mansion since it was the only building left standing.
Kiera, Mei, and Justine (under Mei's begging) would be sharing a room with me. There were at least two hundred rooms in the mansion so each would house about five Nephilim. The rooms were large enough to fit them comfortably.
The four of us stood on the balcony as the Nephilim made their way inside the house. Once everyone was inside, I turned to walk in the slider doors.
"Wait, there's something I have to do," Kiera said as she ran down the states.
Mei raised his eyebrows at me and I shrugged. I didn't know what she was up to. We all followed her down the stairs.
Kiera was in the large flower garden, sifting through the flowers. She plucked a handful out and carefully organized them in her hands.
Then she walked over to the water fountain and laid them all around it.
The flowers were all violet.
Justine helped Mei find flowers to match his girlfriend's eyes also. He had tears freely flowing down his cheeks as he planted the teal flowers with Kiera's violet ones.
They looked at each other's crying faces and latched onto each other.
Justine looked at me and I opened one of my arms. She looked at me uncertainly and hesitantly made her way to me. I wrapped my arm around her and she relaxed into me.
For the first time in a while, I felt safe.
I don't know what tomorrow will bring or even days and years from now. It didn't matter. We would take things slow.
Our old lives ended here as our new ones began. Nothing would ever be the same again.
~
"I'll open the gates tonight and explain to the humans about everything that happened. I won't force them to live here after how they were treated by the Nephilim, but I will give them the option. There are gangs and dangerous people there, but it's nothing compared to what we just went through.
"I know it will be hard to protect them from the demons, but we can help train them to use weapons and work alongside Nephilim. It's all up to them," Kiera was saying.
We agreed to let her do that to see what would happen. Most likely, the humans probably hated us and would rather keep living the way that they were.
If that was the case, the least we could do is rebuild their city, as well. Give them better lives.
~
The Nephilim utilized the hot water to thoroughly cleanse of the dirt, sweat, and gunk off their bodies.
Kiera took the last shower in our bathroom. She walked out of the steaming room into the bedroom as Mei burst through the door.
"Kiera! There's some lady here to see you," he yelled.
A young woman with bright green eyes and long blond hair walked in the room. She looked like an older version of Kiera.
The woman gasped and raised a hand to her mouth.
"Kiera?"
"Mom?"