Darkling/Tenebris POV

The night after Jules and Tenebris invite the Torres over for dinner, someone breaks into the bakery. But they didn't take anything...

[Tenebris POV Detected]

“Hey. Wake up,” Jules whispers. I open my eyes and see that it’s still dark out.

“Ugh, what time is it,” I complain.

“Three in the morning, and someone broke into Ava and Emilio’s bakery,” she replies.

“What?” I sit up, staring at her. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, and I think I can track who. Meet me there.” She leaves. I change out of my pajamas and into normal clothes before following. When we reach the bakery, I can see that the window is smashed in, and all the lights are on. Ava and Emilio are standing in front of it, unsure of what to do. There’s no local police department, the nearest is a half-hour’s drive away, so they don’t want to trouble them if they don’t have to. Ava turns to see us walking up.

“Jules! Tenebris! I’m glad you came,” Ava says. “You think you can track them?” Jules nods. We haven’t told our friends our past, but they know about Jules’ cybernetics.

“Yeah,” Jules says, “I just need to scan the place. You haven’t moved anything?”

“No. We got outside as soon as we woke up,” Emilio replies. “Whoever broke in didn’t find what they were looking for, though,” he reasons.

“How do you know?” I ask, one eyebrow raised.

“Nothing is missing,” Emilio replies.

“That would settle it,” Jules reasons. “So they broke in, but they didn’t find anything… maybe they weren’t looking for something specific,” she says offhandedly.

“What if it’s a distraction? They want everyone over here so they can break in somewhere else with less trouble?” I suggest. Jules and I were villains once, we know how they think. Her eyes widen. She swears.

“The lab. They might know about our lab,” she says, looking me in the eye.

“Oh no…”

“What were you developing in there anyway?” Ava jokes. “Weapons or something?”

“Or something,” we chorus. Jules’ eyes cloud for a second, and I know she’s watching the security camera feed for our lab. She curses again, and I flinch.

“Where did you even hear that?” I mutter. “What’s going on?”

“Someone broke into the lab, they took blueprints and some devices,” she growls. A flash of terror jolts through me. We’ve built so many machines down there, and made blueprints for many more… who knows what the thief could do with those machines.

“But you have all the blueprints in your head, right?” Ava reasons.

“Yes, but now whoever stole them has them too. We need to catch them and get them back, we don’t know what they’ll do with the machines,” Jules counters. Ava’s eyes widen as she realizes what that means.

“We’ll come with you, maybe we can help,” Emilio suggests. I exchange a glance with Jules. If we let them into our lab… they’d find out about us, our past… will they be angry about who we were, or that we kept it a secret? We make a silent decision.

“Alright, come on then,” Jules says, and the four of us pile into our car. Jules takes the wheel, as she always does, and we speed up the long gravel drive to our house. Ava and Emilio have been here before, but they’ve never been into the lab. Jules unlocks the door and opens it. Light from outside stretches across the floor. For a second it reminds me of something in a movie, where they open the door into a dark room, and something jumps out at them. I shake the thought away. Nothing is going to jump out of the dark. There is nothing there. Briefly I remember something that my father, a villain known as Manipulator for his mind-control powers and all-around manipulativeness, told me. The darkness is your birthright. Don’t fear it. Use it. Of course, my father wasn’t the best role model, being a well known and feared villain, but he was right about that. I don’t need to be afraid of the dark.

So why am I?

Jules leads the way down the hall, flicking on the lights and chasing away the dark. When we reach the dead-end  of the hallway, she grins. “Watch this.” She presses her hand against the wall. There’s a ding, and the wall shifts, pulling apart and into the other walls to form an arched entryway. Stairs lead down to more darkness. I let Jules lead again, she can see better in the dark than any of us. Ava and Emilio wear identical expressions of shock and disbelief. I remember that most of the tech that Jules and I have gotten used to over the years hasn’t yet been released to the public, and would probably reach this village years after that.

When we reach a sturdy iron door, the entrance to the lab, Jules places a hand on the door, like she had before. With another ding, the door swung open. The lights in the lab flickered on as we stepped inside.

And stopped dead.

Leaning against the back wall, fiddling with a tiny helicopter drone, is my father.

Author's Note

Manipulator is, I believe, mentioned briefly in the Descendants series by myself, Khaleesi, and Peregrinator7, and is said to be dead. However, this is never written out so I decided to bring him back into play.

Reviews

[Peregrinator7]

I don't think Manipulator was ever mentioned, Jay. We only talked about him. I'm interested to see what you put as his personality, because we never figured that out. I don't think we'll have as tragic as a backstory as Darknight though...

[Locke Redwyne (night sy..]

There should be a ? after what time is it
exchange them for who, a couple of lines later
where did you even hear that? XD probably kyndra
TENEBRIS I AM YOUR FATHER
that's great, I love it, especially how you play with dl's fear of the dark!
also, he's never mentioned...
Mad: no one should have a tragic backstory like Darknight, not even Darknight deserves a backstory like that...