Setting things Right

Vito took a breath in and then took a breath out. This was the best opportunity he could ever have to talk to her, at a point where they were both low and he could only thank Cyrus for this opportunity.

"I didn't exactly live a normal life either," he started.

"I'm messed up Edith. I have seen people get killed and raised to believe that sometimes it is necessary to protect what you care most about. And to be honest, I agree with that notion."

"My father is part of a Mafia group. He had many enemies, some of which are dead and some still alive right now."

Edith was shocked to hear him say that. 'This Vito is part of the Mafia?'

"My mother got sick one day and no matter how many doctors he went to or how much medicine was given to her she just wouldn't get better. She was his everything."

"When she died, a part of him died with her or was buried alive if I were to be specific. He repressed certain emotions and went off the deep end. He thought maybe it was someone that hated him who would poison her."

"Multiple Physicians said that couldn't be the case but he didn't listen. And with that, he started a gang war. He wanted answers and thought maybe killing those who didn't like him would bring him closer to finding who did it, he wanted to avenge her."

"But what he didn't know is that those enemies took this opportunity when he was at his weakest to attack him as well. We were oppressed. And many people had died."

"I don't know which figure came into play but someone stopped the gang war from getting too violent. Somebody had the power to crush everybody else who was involved in that war and that is what scared our oppressors to back off."

"But even though that happened we knew that eventually we would be attacked again. Human hunger can never be satisfied."

"I left to go to a boarding school in an area far away from my home. It wasn't safe for me there. The war had diminished our resources and a lot of my family had died. The only reason it isn't publicly well known is basically the news reporters were handsomely compensated to talk about anything else than that."

"So there I was living life as usual knowing that one day my family would be attacked. I would lose it all. EVERYTHING. And then one day I was chosen to represent the Earth."

"Do you know how excited I was? I could be a hero! I could save the planet! I could create a legacy! Who would dare to harm the person who saved this planet? That was what I thought at least, until Terra came along."

"It hurt! Edith, it hurt me to know that the one thing I put all my faith in, the one opportunity that I saw was mine was taken away. I kept telling myself that I deserved to be chosen not him and yet in the end he never tried to kill me for trying to kill him."

"He was mad but that was it. It doesn't make sense, why he didn't attack me to defend himself. I still don't think he should go, part of me thinks he is too soft, too caring, too sweet. He is....., a better human than me."

"I feel bad for trying to kill Terra and I don't like the fact that I am using my upbringing as an excuse for what I did. But I was raised believing it was the right thing to do. Stupid me for not realizing that seeing something happen and doing it yourself are too separate things."

"If I can't be man enough to do it, then maybe I am my father's failure."

"Stop right there," Edith interrupted, " I'm not going to let you slander yourself just cause you feel bad. I don't want to hear your self-pity."

"Oh! I'm sorry about that, I guess I just went rumbling on," Vito said as he placed his hand on the back of his head.

Now both of them were quiet, each looking in a different direction from the other.

"I get why you did what you did. It wasn't right! But I get what growing up with a mindset like that can do to people," Edith said loudly. "I can relate," she whispered at the end of her sentence.

"What was that last part?" Vito asked as she had spoken so lowly, so he took a step closer to hear her better.

"Ah! It was nothing. Now look, I don't fully forgive you and I definitely think you are dumb for what you did, but I'm not going to disregard the fact that you acknowledged your actions and made a change. But changes don't happen overnight so before I can give you my forgiveness you're going to have to lose something!"

"And what would that be?" Vito asked somewhat scared for what she could have in mind, he couldn't predict her as well as Cyrus could so she might be scheming something evil.

"You are going to have to take me out to a restaurant," she said while pointing a finger at Vito.

'Wait, what!? Like a dinner date or something?' he thought, "What would I lose from that?"

"Time silly! Time is the most valuable thing in this world so you would be losing some of that to me and a few other things. Also, you will have to wear whatever I want you to wear on that day. Do we have an agreement?"

Vito was shocked by a few things he didn't expect the conversation to have a turn like this. And it was almost as if she was planning something with this whole taking her out to eat thing.

Unknown to him Edith was clearing out things she had always wanted to try but never had a chance to do. There is no guarantee that Terra will win when he lives so she might as well experience a few things such as getting taken out by a guy to a restaurant. She also planned to embarrass him by deciding what he should wear. Her imagination was getting a little wild on that one.

In the end, they had somewhat cleared things out between them and were now watching the Orca swim around in its tank for a little bit. A few minutes in Vito had tried to reach for her hand like they did when watching the expansion of the universe and Edith smacked his hand and said, "Don't push it."

7 minutes later, they had decided to keep moving down the hall to see what other creatures had been left for them to see. What surprised them was they saw the unexpected.

Dawn was sitting down on a stool talking to a group of three small white sharks in the corner. When they saw this they decided they had been down the stairs long enough and would now head up to meet with Terra and Cyrus.

Coming up the stairs it didn't take them long to see that Vito and Terra were in the living room playing a game of cards.

Terra noticed them first and smiled as they walked in, "Welcome back, want to join us? Cyrus and I were playing a game of cards, also he is really good."

"Sure," Edith said, "What game?"

"Well, there's lots we could play, cheat, old maid, go fish, blackjack, I was just teaching Terra how to play poker since he never played it before," Cyrus said as he shuffled a deck of cards.

Cyrus was also looking at Vito while he said this and then he turned his head to look at Edith. Seeing how comfortably they walked in together, he assumed they made up maybe even made out.

"Oh well, I'm good at poker!" Vito said.

"Me too," Edith replied.

"Wait! All three of you have played poker before!?" Terra asked as he didn't expect to be the only one to have never played it before.

Cyrus considered this for a moment and then laughed at the thought, "He is right, most people our age don't play poker, it is a gambling game. And I don't feel like playing the house today. How about a different game? Crazy Eight might I suggest?"

With this everyone was in agreeance as they all had knowledge about playing the game.

The game started off friendly much like how all card games start.

The group had been playing for hours and time was starting to fly. They didn't leave their table for that John had to serve them their lunch while they were still there. This was all because no matter how many hours had passed, Edith couldn't win.

Cyrus just wouldn't let it happen. He was sitting right next to her so she thought he was cheating. He had to be! How else would he know the cards she had? She was half right.

Cyrus has a habit of being in the center of trouble and one of the reasons why is because he creates it himself. In this particular situation, Cyrus thought it would be funny if everyone at the table won at least once except her. And she was going crazy from it.

Terra was scared for his life while playing with her and when he tried to end the game saying that he was tired she had told him to sit back down.

Vito had already admitted defeat and didn't even try it.

Cyrus on the other hand was edging her to keep going. "You might win this time," he would say, or, "You almost beat me there!"

They were finally on their last game and Edith had a winning hand. Three cards of the same digit ( number 5) and of different suits. There was nothing that they could play that would stop her. But yet for the last 2 turns Cyrus had made her skip her turn twice. But there were no more skips that could be made now and the order had moved from clockwise to counter-clockwise, meaning that Cyrus would have to make a play after Edith.

It was now Terra's turn to play and Edith was screaming in her heart, 'One more turn and I win! I finally win,' she thought.

But then Terra had done the unexpected. He had played two cards and changed the suit from spades to clover. Edith wanted to break something! No! Something already broke inside her. The one suit she didn't have. The one suit she didn't have!!!

She drew a card and she drew another card. She kept drawing until she had a clover she could play. She now had twice the amount of cards in her hand as before. If only she had the missing clover in her hand, then it wouldn't have mattered what suit they changed it to and she would have won.

And now it was Cyrus turn to play and he put down his last card. His last card which was the missing number 5 clover that Edith didn't have. 

Cyrus had noticed that she was collecting the number 5s this round and decided to hog the last one so she would never get the chance to use it to her advantage. And with that, he won the match.

"One more!" Edith protested.

"Well played Cyrus, A wonderful tactic towards the end," John had spoken from behind Edith, he was watching their final match. 

"Edith, it is time to go, you need to check in with your father correct? We shall use the portal and I shall drop you off and pick you up in the morning."

"What! But, no! Argh! Cyrus!!! Next time, Next time I will win." Edith said as she stormed towards the door that John was holding. A blue energy was felt around it and a breeze was felt.

"Bye, Edith!" The boys yelled in unison.

"Now don't go off killing each other while I am away," John added before he walked through the door. He was looking at Cyrus when he said that and Cyrus discerned that John knew about his conversation with Ariel. Or maybe it was just a coincidence since Cyrus was in the middle of the two? He couldn't be sure.

Terra was relieved. They had been playing for so long that it was late now. The day was ending and he wanted some rest. He needed sleep.

And on Vito's mind, he wanted to finally have a proper discussion with Terra. To patch things up now that they had this moment. It was his second chance and he wasn't going to waste it.

****

Back in the Aquarium Dawn was at the far end of the hall with his head laying against the wall. He had been staring at the floor for hours after he had finished his conversation with the sharks. They were very good listeners.

While doing so, he noticed that the was a small crack in the floor, so small that even a trained eye wouldn't notice it. He only noticed it because he had been doing it for so many hours already.

When he lifted it up, he found a secret passageway going underneath the building. Dim lantern lights were hanging on top. A multitude of them.

'What is this?' he wondered.

He walked down the stairs, the place felt old. Too old. "How long has this been here? It seems unkept and older than anything else. Did they forget about it?" he said out loud as he went down a small flight of stairs.

Reaching the end there was a door. An old heavy door with chains around it. There were no keep-out signs or anything around it but from the dark vibe that was emitting from it, one would only think to run away. 

When Dawn saw this, running away was the only thing he wanted to do but the door felt so alluring. He felt like he had to open it. Like he needed to. His eyes went blank and he was walking forward, each step heavier than the last. He was reaching for the lock on the door and could hear a small clanging sound from the other side.

As his hand touched the lock he felt an electric shock enter his body and he was jolted backwards. "What was that?" he said.

He didn't remember the trace but found that he had reached the bottom of the steps. He looked up and saw the door and noticed just how thick the chains around it were. 

"Whatever is behind here, I guess they don't want people going in," he said as he went back up the stairs minding his own business. Without noticing that his arm was glowing green.

Little did he know that the chains were put in to keep whatever was there in.