Blessed by Night

The door to the elevator in Mal's family quarters finally slid open, and Aubrey, Aisha, and Rose all came inside of the apartment.

They followed the sound of giggling and childish sing-song music that was coming from the living room with a vague idea of what they would find.

There, they froze directly in their tracks when they found a scene that they weren't sure how to process.

A young, pink haired girl was lying on the floor watching a very old cartoon of a pair of brother and sister rabbits living together without any adult supervision.

Next to her there was a black skinned baby girl in a onesie who couldn't have even been at walking age yet.

She looked to be just as enthralled by what she was seeing on tv as the older girl lying next to her.

And walking around in the kitchen warming up a bottle of milk with a few drops of blood mixed in was… a giant stuffed animal shaped like a bear with the head of a fox?

"See Cam-Cam? This is way better than that talking blue dog you like to watch. Your dad and I grew up with this one."

"Oohhh.."

"Although I have to say, Ruby did always seem a little ditzy."

*Squeak*

"Ah, I guess your milk is done."

Serana finally got up from her position on the floor and began moving to the kitchen, at which point she laid eyes on the other half of this faction's famous harem siblings.

"Oh, hey guys! What are you all doing here?"

"Serana…what…?"

"Oh, right. I forgot that they said you didn't know."

Serana lifted up the young black skinned baby from the ground and presented her in front of the girls.

"It's a long ass story, but from what I'm told the aliens are kind of like Mal and Cami's extended family now?

They performed this trippy ceremony and now the two of them look like this. But the bright side is that all of the aliens are gone! Seems like a real win honestly."

All three girls were immediately floored.

They had already been getting reports from the scavenging teams this morning that the streets were completely barren of nightmares, and as a result they were able to travel a lot deeper into the dead zone.

They thought maybe all of the creatures were just hiding or something.

But if what Serana was saying was not just babbling, then this was unbelievable!

"I'm sorry… but I think I need a more clear cut version of this story." Aisha said.

At her side, both girls nodded without offering another word.

"Fine… but can we finish watching 'Max & Ruby' first..?"

"…No!"

"Damn it."

-

Thirty minutes later, Serana had recounted the story her mom told her to the best of her ability in order to give the girls a full walkthrough of events.

When the story was over, Serana chuckled at the sight of her milk-drunk baby sister, who's eyes were half open and half closed as she drifted off to sleep.

"I.. can't believe this." Rose finally said.

"The invaders caused all of that death and destruction… and their only goal was to eliminate strife and disharmony in the galaxy." added Aisha.

"Not to mention that they just up and left because Malachi and Camille just asked them to…" finished Aubrey.

"Yea… you girls hungry? I'm gonna raid my mom's fridge for leftovers."

Serana tried to pass the sleeping Camille to Rose so that she could get up and head towards the kitchen.

But a problem soon arose when Rose flinched instead of greatfully taking the baby like she normally would have.

Almost immediately, Serana's eyes narrowed.

"Rose… I say this as respectfully as I can, but if you don't give me a good explanation for that shit you just pulled, me and you are going to fight in the street."

The princess of war was left to play peace keeper as she raised both of her hands to separate the two women from becoming hostile.

"Hey now, there's no need for any of-"

"The hell there isn't. You all know by now exactly how Camille was born from A-Z. Now that she looks like this you're suddenly too good to touch her?"

"N-No, of course not..!" Rose immediately held up her hand in protest. "B-But I'm just concerned about this ritual that they put them through."

"Bitch you better start putting together the most eloquent sentence you've ever said in your life."

"I-I'm being serious, Serana! How do we know that they haven't done something to the two of them that could turn them against us or turn them into giant monsters?!"

No matter how justifiable Rose's concern might have been, Serana wasn't having any of it.

"Oh… I get it. You're scared that they are going to hurt someone."

"I…"

"I'm going to let you in on some real privileged information that you may not have put together."

Serana's eyes were burning with a rage that was utterly unlike her, and her words contained such venom that they could have poisoned an entire ecosystem.

"Malachi has been the most powerful thing in the world for two whole years now. There is practically nothing that those Ne'Calli guys could have done to him that could make him any more dangerous than he already was."

"But what about-"

"If Malachi or Cami were going to do something to us, willingly or otherwise, he could have already snapped our necks in the dead of night and there wouldn't have been a single thing that we could have done to stop him. So the fact that he hasn't must mean he's still pretty normal."

Rose felt her heart get caught in her throat, and she realized that Serana's words were scarily accurate.

No matter the amount of preparations they took, the night always came back around, and the shadows always followed them wherever they went.

If Mal were feeling homicidal towards any of them, everyone in this base would have already died in under two minutes.

"I need you to open your fucking ears and listen to me when I say this; if you upset Malachi in the slightest then I am going to break my foot off in your ass.

Mom says he's been freaking out for two whole days now because he looks really different and he's afraid that everyone is going to hate him again and I refuse to let him be right.

If you make him feel like he has to run away a second time, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph will not be able to get me off of you with a mother fucking crowbar."

"Jugga jugga.."

"Hm?"

Serana's frightening demeanor disappeared like it was never there as soon as she heard the baby in her arms make a drunken noise.

Camille made a gesture of bringing something to her lips and Serana immediately knew what she was getting at.

"More milk? You just ate though."

"Ada… jugga jugga.."

"You are barely awake, so why are you still clamoring for more food?"

"Buu…"

"Fine, you can have a little bit but then I'm going to put you down for a nap."

Serana got to her feet with a greedy Cami in her arms and carried her towards the kitchen.

In her wake, she left behind a very emotional Rose and two charming women who were not very far behind.

Even though she was a rather stringent combat instructor with a tough personality, she actually does not do very well with face to face conflicts with bold personalities like Serana's.

She's a big softie in that regard.

"I.. was just… concerned about our members.. I-I was just worried that-"

"It's alright, we get it."

Aisha placed a gentle hand on Rose's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.

"This is… a delicate situation all around. I understand how you were feeling but they are still our family… they are also a part of the people we are supposed to be worried about."

Rose's dejected look turned over to Aubrey, who had been silent during this whole ordeal.

For some reason, she looked more hurt than anyone else, and her gaze never left her own feet.

"Babe… I'm sorry for how I-"

"He was going mad with anxiety for two whole days… and I didn't even notice. I never even noticed his absence and thought he was just busy with family stuff or screwing around."

Aisha became slightly emotional at this time as well.

She and Malachi had been the best of friends ever since they were children, but it was as if they had been drifting apart over the past couple of years.

She could barely even remember the last time they spent an entire night awake watching shit movies and playing video games while they fantasized over the girls in their class.

They made promises to never lose touch back then, but over time they had gradually forgotten to hold onto it.

It made her feel even more guilty that she didn't know about his grief over his new 'changes' either.

*whoosh*

As the mood remained depressive, the familiar whistling of shadow teleportation came from the bedroom.

Not long afterwards, a yawning Bianca stepped through the door while rubbing her eyes.

"Thanks, Serana… we appreciate your for watching Cami while we…"

Once the young girl realized that her home was a bit more full than when she left it, she immediately woke up and closed the door behind her.

"O-Oh, hey guys...! What are you doing here?"

Serana came around from the kitchen with a very thirsty Cami in her clutches.

"It's okay, B. They already know everything."

"E-Everything..?"

"Yes, so if you don't mind… can you tell him that he doesn't need to hide..? I want to see my friend, and… I want to tell him that I love him."