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"I'll be fine mom, don't worry, okay? I promise I'll call you when the plane lands, and again when I get to the university," Elise had said rolling her eyes at her mother, before giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Look, dad will show me around, and I promise I'll take tons of pictures and send them to you daily to let you know I'm still alive, alright?"
"If you only knew..." Her mother's voice trailed off, and there was more than the normal, 'I'm going to miss my baby girl,' laced within the undertones of her mom's usual musically light voice. "Just promise me, that if anything happens, or if you don't feel safe-"
"Mom!" Elise chuckled to cover up the harshness of needing to stop her right there. Her mother was being irrational apparently, but something about this freak out had Elise a little on edge."What's gotten into you? I'll be with dad, and he's not going to let anything happen." Getting slightly frustrated, Meredith ran a free hand through her long mahogany locks and sighed. "Look, maybe going to grad school in a different country isn't such a good idea right now."
"N-no! You have to go!" Her mother's quick change in attitude had her mind spinning a little bit, and if she wasn't already confused, she was now. "I promised your father, and you have to go, end of story. Whether or not I like this, it is your des-, what I mean is, it is your father's wish, and it's time you go and get to know him.
"Have you taken your meds today?" Elise gave her mother a skeptical look, worried by how her mother was behaving. "Seriously mom, I don't know what's gotten into you."
The last boarding call for her flight sounded over the intercom, and she gave her mother a worried look before her mother snapped back to somewhat normal 'mom mode' and started shooing her away. Elise would have sworn her mother was a victim of the Pod People with the way she had been acting. She had been acting a little on the weird side for the last few months, but Elise had just thought it was because she was heading to a foreign country.
"Just promise me that you'll listen to your father when you get there, okay El?"
"I promise, but I am also an adult who can take care of herself," Elise said, taking her carry on from her hand. "Are you sure you'll be okay? It's not too la-"
"I'll be fine, El," her mother said cutting her off and wrapping her arms around her daughter in one last quick, yet tight embrace before shoving her in the direction of the young woman checking the tickets at the onboarding door. "Now, be gone with you, and be safe."
"Alright, if you say so," Elise said walking over to hand the woman her ticket. "Crazy lady," she mumbled under her breath.
Though Elise had always had contact with her father throughout her life, she had only met him a handful of times. He had always sent cards and letters, and they had even Skyped a time or two, but only when she'd graduated college, had he shown up with an invite to Sofia University in Bulgaria, where he was the Dean of the school, had her mother started to act rather odd. He had been a professor at the time her mother had visited, during one of her college trips and the two had managed to fall in love, creating her in the process. Elise was sure there was more of a reason behind the two of them never managing more than that summer her mother was there, but she never pressed either of them for the 'whys'.
"Dobre doshli v Sofiya, vreme e da se izpravim pred sŭdbata si," the flight attendant said as she shook El awake.
"I'm sorry?" Elise opened her eyes giving the attendant a confused look.
"Welcome to Sofia," she repeated, smiling warmly at Elise.
"Yeah, I understood that part," Elise said rubbing her still sleepy eyes, slightly confused. "What was that other part you said? 'Vreme e da something', what did that mean?"
It was the flight attendant's turn to look at Elise in confusion. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, but you're the last passenger on board, and the sooner I get you off this plane and on your way, the sooner I can get on mine. Now, do you have someone picking you up this evening?"
Elise unbuckled her seat belt and stood up, stretching a little bit to ease the stiffness in her body from the position she slept in. "Yes, my father," she'd said as she reaching up to grab her bag from the overhead compartment. "He should be out there somewhere waiting on me."
"Alright, I just wanted to make sure. There's a concierge at the Welcoming Center if you'd need to call a cab to go anywhere. As always, we hope you enjoy your stay in beautiful Sofia Bulgaria."
"Erm, thank you," Elise said moving out into the aisle and around the attendant to exit the plane.
"Elise!" An older gentleman, handsome, with short dark hair, only slightly greying at the sides had called out when he'd seen her exiting the security checkpoints that were practically everywhere in the Sofia International Airport.
"Dad!" Elise smiled at her father, wrapping her arms around him in a warm embrace when she'd reached him.
"How was your flight? How is your mother? Are you hungry? Would you like to grab something familiar, or some of Sofia's cuisine? You look tired. Do you want to just go home instead?"
"Um, talk about your twenty questions," she laughed at his bombardment of questions. "I just woke up and I slept on the plane, something native perhaps, yes I am hungry, mom is... well, mom."
"Very efficient. That's my girl." Gregory took her bags off the luggage ramp and began walking towards the exit with Elise close beside him.
"There was something odd that happened though," Elise had said as they made their way to the parking garage where her father's car awaited. "I've been rolling it around in my head since she said it. When I asked what she'd said, she looked at me like I was some sort of nutjob or something and told me she didn't know what I was talking about."
"What do you mean? Who said what to you?" Her father opened the trunk and after placing her luggage in her looked at her with a serious expression. "What did they say?"
"'Dobre doshli v Sofiya, vreme e da se izpravim pred sŭdbata si,' I think. The flight attendant that woke me was the one that said it. I know what the first part is, but the last, I can't make it out," Elise said with a furrowed brow, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I want to say it's, 'your destiny is waiting', but why would she say something like that, and then act like she didn't? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, this whole day has been something out of The Twilight Zone anyway."
Her father stared at her for a moment with an unreadable look on his face, and he seemed suspended in time for a moment before he closed the trunk and shook his head slightly.
"Yes, well, we shouldn't read too much into something we're not sure was even said."
"Dad," Elise said in exasperation. "I know what I heard, and apparently, you know what was said. So, if you want me to get in that car and go anywhere with you, you can tell me what she meant, or I can go right back into that airport and head back home with the crazy lady that took over mom!"
Seeing himself in his daughter just then, Gregory couldn't help the pride-filled smile that graced his handsome features. "Fair enough, I'll explain if you get in. We can grab something to eat and discuss this further when we get home."
"Nope, I'm not falling for that. Mom tries that shit all the time, and I'm not setting one toe in that car unless you tell me what the hell is going on." Elise crossed her arms and stuck out her chin in determination. Something that usually worked on her mother, and she only felt briefly childish for doing so, but she knew her father knew more than he was letting on.
Gregory's smiled faded and he sighed, giving in. If his daughter was anything like him, she would wait there for the rest of the night if she didn't march right back into the airport and leave before he could even explain why he needed her there with him now.
"Fine," he said as he ran a hand through his thick mane. "You aren't far off. 'vreme e da se izpravim pred sŭdbata si', means, 'it is time to face your destiny.' I don't know why that person would have said it to you, but there are some things that I need to explain, and I would rather not say them out in the open. So if you would please, get in the car, and I will tell you everything you need to know."
She looked at the man in front of her like he was the stranger she always tried to convince herself he wasn't. Elise was already regretting getting on that plane, and wishing she had of told this man he was nuts, just like her mother, but there was something about his tone that sounded sincere, almost apologetic.
"Fine, but if you try to harvest my body for a Pod person, I'm going to... I don't know, but so help me, I will throw an unimaginable fit to make up for all the ones you missed! I am not even joking," she said with a brow raised and a suspicious look on her face, as she opened the door to his car and climbed in.
Gregory followed suit, looking around the parking lot as he reached for the door handle. Having heard what was said to her, he knew his time was almost up. His only natural enemy was closing in on him fast, and he needed his daughter's help with this enemy. He just wished he had told his daughter the truth years ago, not only would it make his task easier now, but maybe he could have prepared her sooner. Thinking he had time, and trying to let his little girl have a normal life shouldn't have swayed him in his duties to protect her from his enemies. Which in turn, made them hers.
"Elise," he said as he got into the car and started the engine. "What I'm about to tell you, it's going to sound crazy, and you probably won't believe me, but I am going to need you to try, alright? Can you do that?"
"Yeah, um," she said, looking at him with the same suspicious look she had on her face previously. "That's really not the best way to tell someone you're sane, you know this, right? Because that is just telling me to 'tuck-n-roll' right out of this door." Judging the look on her father's face, she could tell he was serious and relented. "Fine, you have my word, I will try to hear you with an open mind."
"Thank you. Now, there are some things about me, and inherently, yourself, that you need to know." Gregory paused, taking a deep steadying breath he continued. "What do you know about the Phoenix?"
"Ha-haa! You're kidding right?" Just when she had thought her day couldn't get any weirder. "Well, I do know that they are birds that supposedly possess magical abilities. Oh, and they can be reborn from their ashes. You can thank Harry Potter and Fawkes for that little tidbit."
"Harry Pot-, seriously?" Still driving, he looked over at her with an incredulous expression upon his face. "I should have known that America would corrupt your mind."
"I'll have you know that J.K. Rowling is British, and regardless of where I would have been raised, one can learn a lot by reading those books, thank you. It doesn't mean I'm corrupted."
"So that's your answer? A magical bird?"
"You asked, that's my answer. I mean, what do you want me to say? I've seen the X-Men movies, unless you're talking about Jean Grey, in which case, I'll take a few of her superhero powers, though, if crazy is a part of her powers, I'll pass. Gauging by this conversation, I'm about to be full up in the crazy department. And apart from the ancient myth of a giant bird, that is the extent of my knowledge."
"Do you know what the Phoenix's enemies are?" Gregory asked as he pulled into a local restaurant that had a drive-thru but served Bulgarian cuisine.
"I honestly couldn't say."
"We have very few natural enemies, dragons are one of them, and they are tricksy bastards that are dangerous and will stop at nothing when they see something they want." Gregory didn't seem to notice Elise's expression as he was rolling down his window to order their dinner in Bulgarian.
"Wait, did you just say, 'we', and that dragons are our enemies? You're kidding, right? Because what you're saying is insane."
Looking over at Elise, he could tell she didn't believe him. He would have to show her. "I'm going to show you something and I need you to pay attention, okay?" He pulled up to the window, paid for their order, and after receiving the food, he pulled into a parking spot and pulled a few of the napkins from the bag. "I want you to watch this closely."
Holding the napkins in his hand, in between the two of them. Within seconds, the napkins caught flame, and Elise freaked out. "What the fuck?! I knew it! You're taking me to Hogwarts! That's why you wanted me to come to your school, I'm a fucking wizard, right?" Elise's eyes were huge. She couldn't believe it. Magic was real.
"No, you're not a wizard," her father laughed. "You're something much more. You're a Phoenix, and we must get you trained. Let's get back to the university, and I'll show you something, ok?"
"Ok, but I still don't know how you're going to convince me that you're a giant bird and that dragons are real."
Gregory was about to pull out of the parking space when a pair of fists crashed down on the hood of the Volkswagen Passat, crushing it like it was tissue paper. Her father seemed to recognize the man and looked at Elise with a horror-stricken expression.
"Run Elise," he cried out as he started to scrabble from the vehicle. Getting out of the vehicle, he ran behind his daughter, quickly catching her up and grabbing her arm, pulling her down a small alleyway, and down a flight of stairs to what looked like a subway. Running past the metro gates, and diving into a train that had its doors closing.
"Alright," Elise said panting. "That was not normal! What just happened?! Who was that?!" Elise was breathing heavily, from the sprint they just underwent.
"That... was... a dragon," Gregory answered trying to catch his breath.
"But... That was just a- a man! How the hell was that a dragon?"
"The same way that you and I are Phoenix's. He's in his human form."
"Wait, does that mean we can turn into birds?" Elise's mind was spinning so fast, trying to wrap her head around what was happening along with what her father had just said.
"What? No, we don't turn into birds, though that would have come in handy a little while ago. Dragon's are shapeshifters. I will explain more after we get to the university. We need to get to the catacombs underneath it, where I can explain everything fully. I promise everything will start to make sense once we get back."
"If you say so." Elise was starting to feel overwhelmed with the events of the day so far. "Is this why mom has been acting so weird? Does she know what you say you are? What you say I am?
The train started to come to a stop, to which the pair exited. "Here, up those stairs, and down a little corridor, and we'll be at the entrance of the catacombs."
"You never answered me. Is this why mom has been acting so weird lately?" Elise kept up with Gregory but was still adamant about getting the answers she needed.
"Yes, now let's continue this once we're inside, okay?" Gregory turned down the dark narrow corridor, that seemed to lead to nowhere. Elise followed close behind him, not wanting to miss a turn if there were any. They came upon a large medieval looking door with a few locks, a couple of them attacked to thick chains that wrapped around the handles of the door. Whoever had locked it, wanted to make sure no one could get in, or out of it.
Once Gregory had unlocked the door's and they were safely inside, her father led her deeper into the lower levels of the catacombs, and led her into a huge room. Lit with torches and two giant bowls of oil that were aflame on either side of the altar that sat at the head of the room. The walls were lined with books from floor to ceiling, and there were a few long tables that were gathered alongside one of the book-lined walls.
"Where are we?" Elise asked looking around the dimly lit room that was enormous.
"We are in the pits of the university, and where you will learn how to control what you are." Her father explained as he hurried through the room.
"Wait, what do you mean? Why would I need to learn it? I mean, how do you even know I am what you say I am? How do you know that I'm not just some normal human who has a whack ass dad and crazy mom?" Elise's heart was starting to pound in her chest with an uneasy feeling. She could feel an anxiety attack coming on, and her medication was still in her bag back in her father's car. "You know I'm prone to anxiety attacks, right? I know mom told you about those."
"I know about them, yes and I also know that I used to have those same kinds of attacks before I came into my own powers. And believe me, back before I became what I am, there wasn't a medication for it." He walked into a little room behind the altar and grabbed a couple of things before heading back out to the overwhelmed Elise.
"There is a danger out there, and we need you to be ready for it," Gregory said to her with an ominous tone in his voice. "There is more than just that one dragon that are after me, and I need your help. I wouldn't ask this of you if I didn't think you would be ready."
"But, I'm not ready," Elise said in a quivering voice, tears starting to stream down her cheeks.
"I know my darling little girl," her father had said in a softer voice, laced with heartache and regret. Pulling her into a close hug, he slipped a blade he'd had hidden in his right hand in between the third and fourth rib in her back, piercing her heart. "But you will be."
Elise gasped as the blade worked its way into her flesh, feeling the tip slide into her still beating heart. The world around her slowed in time with her heart and started to fade into a black void of nothingness. The last thing she had seen was the look in her father's eyes as he laid her on the cold stone floors of the crypt at the bottom of the university.
Gregory watched as the light in his daughter's eyes began to fade. The look of betrayal still upon her face when she'd looked at him. Pushing the blade into her back was the worst thing he had ever done. But it had to be done. She was a Phoenix, and he needed to finally release her inner power, and somehow manage to train her before it was too late.
Before he could react, he was grabbed from behind and felt a sharp stab in his neck, his body growing slack. The man holding Gregory let him fall to the ground in a limp heap. A different man, in a well-tailored three-piece suit, walked around and in front of him, bending down to take a better look at Elise as she lay on the stones. He looked back at Gregory sneering and shaking his head. Seeing the great and powerful Gregory Warren laying on the stones, heavily tranquilized, but only his body. This man took great pains to keep Gregory immobile but wanted his mind coherent for what he had planned. It was the same man who had crushed his car.
"You really thought she was a Phoenix?" The man leaned down closer to Gregory's face as he spoke. "Did you really think you would be able to produce another being as powerful as yourself? Look at you!" The man stood, kicking Gregory in the stomach where he lay crumpled, unable to move or react. "Fucking pathetic!" The man spat at him with a look of disgust upon his face, motioning for one of the other men who came bounding in, to take Gregory away. "Get him out of my sight."
"What about the girl, boss?" One of the lackeys had asked when he came over to grab Gregory's feet.
"Leave her," the sneering man boomed. "She's nothing, if not dead."
The men did as they were told, taking Gregory, and leaving a lifeless Elise in their wake.
Elise's body started to slowly smoke, and then burst into a blue-ish flame, hot enough to scorch her flesh and bones to ash. The flames were gone as quickly as they appeared, leaving only the smoke an ashes in its place. The ashes stirred as the creature inside awoke, rising up from the ashes that had just formed. Elise sat bolt upright, gasping, with an almost terrified expression on her face.
"What, the actual fuck, just happened?!"
"If you only knew..." Her mother's voice trailed off, and there was more than the normal, 'I'm going to miss my baby girl,' laced within the undertones of her mom's usual musically light voice. "Just promise me, that if anything happens, or if you don't feel safe-"
"Mom!" Elise chuckled to cover up the harshness of needing to stop her right there. Her mother was being irrational apparently, but something about this freak out had Elise a little on edge."What's gotten into you? I'll be with dad, and he's not going to let anything happen." Getting slightly frustrated, Meredith ran a free hand through her long mahogany locks and sighed. "Look, maybe going to grad school in a different country isn't such a good idea right now."
"N-no! You have to go!" Her mother's quick change in attitude had her mind spinning a little bit, and if she wasn't already confused, she was now. "I promised your father, and you have to go, end of story. Whether or not I like this, it is your des-, what I mean is, it is your father's wish, and it's time you go and get to know him.
"Have you taken your meds today?" Elise gave her mother a skeptical look, worried by how her mother was behaving. "Seriously mom, I don't know what's gotten into you."
The last boarding call for her flight sounded over the intercom, and she gave her mother a worried look before her mother snapped back to somewhat normal 'mom mode' and started shooing her away. Elise would have sworn her mother was a victim of the Pod People with the way she had been acting. She had been acting a little on the weird side for the last few months, but Elise had just thought it was because she was heading to a foreign country.
"Just promise me that you'll listen to your father when you get there, okay El?"
"I promise, but I am also an adult who can take care of herself," Elise said, taking her carry on from her hand. "Are you sure you'll be okay? It's not too la-"
"I'll be fine, El," her mother said cutting her off and wrapping her arms around her daughter in one last quick, yet tight embrace before shoving her in the direction of the young woman checking the tickets at the onboarding door. "Now, be gone with you, and be safe."
"Alright, if you say so," Elise said walking over to hand the woman her ticket. "Crazy lady," she mumbled under her breath.
After boarding, and throwing her carry-on in the overhead compartment, she seated and buckled herself into her seat, and put her earbuds in. It was going to be a long flight, and though she really didn't mind flying, the way her mother was acting had her a little on edge and just wanting the trip to be over with. She was curious about her father, too, and that could have been part of her mother's weird behavior. Her mother had always been a curious sort, for as long as she could remember. Especially where her father was concerned.Though Elise had always had contact with her father throughout her life, she had only met him a handful of times. He had always sent cards and letters, and they had even Skyped a time or two, but only when she'd graduated college, had he shown up with an invite to Sofia University in Bulgaria, where he was the Dean of the school, had her mother started to act rather odd. He had been a professor at the time her mother had visited, during one of her college trips and the two had managed to fall in love, creating her in the process. Elise was sure there was more of a reason behind the two of them never managing more than that summer her mother was there, but she never pressed either of them for the 'whys'.
"Dobre doshli v Sofiya, vreme e da se izpravim pred sŭdbata si," the flight attendant said as she shook El awake.
"I'm sorry?" Elise opened her eyes giving the attendant a confused look.
"Welcome to Sofia," she repeated, smiling warmly at Elise.
"Yeah, I understood that part," Elise said rubbing her still sleepy eyes, slightly confused. "What was that other part you said? 'Vreme e da something', what did that mean?"
It was the flight attendant's turn to look at Elise in confusion. "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, but you're the last passenger on board, and the sooner I get you off this plane and on your way, the sooner I can get on mine. Now, do you have someone picking you up this evening?"
Elise unbuckled her seat belt and stood up, stretching a little bit to ease the stiffness in her body from the position she slept in. "Yes, my father," she'd said as she reaching up to grab her bag from the overhead compartment. "He should be out there somewhere waiting on me."
"Alright, I just wanted to make sure. There's a concierge at the Welcoming Center if you'd need to call a cab to go anywhere. As always, we hope you enjoy your stay in beautiful Sofia Bulgaria."
"Erm, thank you," Elise said moving out into the aisle and around the attendant to exit the plane.
"Elise!" An older gentleman, handsome, with short dark hair, only slightly greying at the sides had called out when he'd seen her exiting the security checkpoints that were practically everywhere in the Sofia International Airport.
"Dad!" Elise smiled at her father, wrapping her arms around him in a warm embrace when she'd reached him.
"How was your flight? How is your mother? Are you hungry? Would you like to grab something familiar, or some of Sofia's cuisine? You look tired. Do you want to just go home instead?"
"Um, talk about your twenty questions," she laughed at his bombardment of questions. "I just woke up and I slept on the plane, something native perhaps, yes I am hungry, mom is... well, mom."
"Very efficient. That's my girl." Gregory took her bags off the luggage ramp and began walking towards the exit with Elise close beside him.
"There was something odd that happened though," Elise had said as they made their way to the parking garage where her father's car awaited. "I've been rolling it around in my head since she said it. When I asked what she'd said, she looked at me like I was some sort of nutjob or something and told me she didn't know what I was talking about."
"What do you mean? Who said what to you?" Her father opened the trunk and after placing her luggage in her looked at her with a serious expression. "What did they say?"
"'Dobre doshli v Sofiya, vreme e da se izpravim pred sŭdbata si,' I think. The flight attendant that woke me was the one that said it. I know what the first part is, but the last, I can't make it out," Elise said with a furrowed brow, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I want to say it's, 'your destiny is waiting', but why would she say something like that, and then act like she didn't? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, this whole day has been something out of The Twilight Zone anyway."
Her father stared at her for a moment with an unreadable look on his face, and he seemed suspended in time for a moment before he closed the trunk and shook his head slightly.
"Yes, well, we shouldn't read too much into something we're not sure was even said."
"Dad," Elise said in exasperation. "I know what I heard, and apparently, you know what was said. So, if you want me to get in that car and go anywhere with you, you can tell me what she meant, or I can go right back into that airport and head back home with the crazy lady that took over mom!"
Seeing himself in his daughter just then, Gregory couldn't help the pride-filled smile that graced his handsome features. "Fair enough, I'll explain if you get in. We can grab something to eat and discuss this further when we get home."
"Nope, I'm not falling for that. Mom tries that shit all the time, and I'm not setting one toe in that car unless you tell me what the hell is going on." Elise crossed her arms and stuck out her chin in determination. Something that usually worked on her mother, and she only felt briefly childish for doing so, but she knew her father knew more than he was letting on.
Gregory's smiled faded and he sighed, giving in. If his daughter was anything like him, she would wait there for the rest of the night if she didn't march right back into the airport and leave before he could even explain why he needed her there with him now.
"Fine," he said as he ran a hand through his thick mane. "You aren't far off. 'vreme e da se izpravim pred sŭdbata si', means, 'it is time to face your destiny.' I don't know why that person would have said it to you, but there are some things that I need to explain, and I would rather not say them out in the open. So if you would please, get in the car, and I will tell you everything you need to know."
She looked at the man in front of her like he was the stranger she always tried to convince herself he wasn't. Elise was already regretting getting on that plane, and wishing she had of told this man he was nuts, just like her mother, but there was something about his tone that sounded sincere, almost apologetic.
"Fine, but if you try to harvest my body for a Pod person, I'm going to... I don't know, but so help me, I will throw an unimaginable fit to make up for all the ones you missed! I am not even joking," she said with a brow raised and a suspicious look on her face, as she opened the door to his car and climbed in.
Gregory followed suit, looking around the parking lot as he reached for the door handle. Having heard what was said to her, he knew his time was almost up. His only natural enemy was closing in on him fast, and he needed his daughter's help with this enemy. He just wished he had told his daughter the truth years ago, not only would it make his task easier now, but maybe he could have prepared her sooner. Thinking he had time, and trying to let his little girl have a normal life shouldn't have swayed him in his duties to protect her from his enemies. Which in turn, made them hers.
"Elise," he said as he got into the car and started the engine. "What I'm about to tell you, it's going to sound crazy, and you probably won't believe me, but I am going to need you to try, alright? Can you do that?"
"Yeah, um," she said, looking at him with the same suspicious look she had on her face previously. "That's really not the best way to tell someone you're sane, you know this, right? Because that is just telling me to 'tuck-n-roll' right out of this door." Judging the look on her father's face, she could tell he was serious and relented. "Fine, you have my word, I will try to hear you with an open mind."
"Thank you. Now, there are some things about me, and inherently, yourself, that you need to know." Gregory paused, taking a deep steadying breath he continued. "What do you know about the Phoenix?"
"Ha-haa! You're kidding right?" Just when she had thought her day couldn't get any weirder. "Well, I do know that they are birds that supposedly possess magical abilities. Oh, and they can be reborn from their ashes. You can thank Harry Potter and Fawkes for that little tidbit."
"Harry Pot-, seriously?" Still driving, he looked over at her with an incredulous expression upon his face. "I should have known that America would corrupt your mind."
"I'll have you know that J.K. Rowling is British, and regardless of where I would have been raised, one can learn a lot by reading those books, thank you. It doesn't mean I'm corrupted."
"So that's your answer? A magical bird?"
"You asked, that's my answer. I mean, what do you want me to say? I've seen the X-Men movies, unless you're talking about Jean Grey, in which case, I'll take a few of her superhero powers, though, if crazy is a part of her powers, I'll pass. Gauging by this conversation, I'm about to be full up in the crazy department. And apart from the ancient myth of a giant bird, that is the extent of my knowledge."
"Do you know what the Phoenix's enemies are?" Gregory asked as he pulled into a local restaurant that had a drive-thru but served Bulgarian cuisine.
"I honestly couldn't say."
"We have very few natural enemies, dragons are one of them, and they are tricksy bastards that are dangerous and will stop at nothing when they see something they want." Gregory didn't seem to notice Elise's expression as he was rolling down his window to order their dinner in Bulgarian.
"Wait, did you just say, 'we', and that dragons are our enemies? You're kidding, right? Because what you're saying is insane."
Looking over at Elise, he could tell she didn't believe him. He would have to show her. "I'm going to show you something and I need you to pay attention, okay?" He pulled up to the window, paid for their order, and after receiving the food, he pulled into a parking spot and pulled a few of the napkins from the bag. "I want you to watch this closely."
Holding the napkins in his hand, in between the two of them. Within seconds, the napkins caught flame, and Elise freaked out. "What the fuck?! I knew it! You're taking me to Hogwarts! That's why you wanted me to come to your school, I'm a fucking wizard, right?" Elise's eyes were huge. She couldn't believe it. Magic was real.
"No, you're not a wizard," her father laughed. "You're something much more. You're a Phoenix, and we must get you trained. Let's get back to the university, and I'll show you something, ok?"
"Ok, but I still don't know how you're going to convince me that you're a giant bird and that dragons are real."
Gregory was about to pull out of the parking space when a pair of fists crashed down on the hood of the Volkswagen Passat, crushing it like it was tissue paper. Her father seemed to recognize the man and looked at Elise with a horror-stricken expression.
"Run Elise," he cried out as he started to scrabble from the vehicle. Getting out of the vehicle, he ran behind his daughter, quickly catching her up and grabbing her arm, pulling her down a small alleyway, and down a flight of stairs to what looked like a subway. Running past the metro gates, and diving into a train that had its doors closing.
"Alright," Elise said panting. "That was not normal! What just happened?! Who was that?!" Elise was breathing heavily, from the sprint they just underwent.
"That... was... a dragon," Gregory answered trying to catch his breath.
"But... That was just a- a man! How the hell was that a dragon?"
"The same way that you and I are Phoenix's. He's in his human form."
"Wait, does that mean we can turn into birds?" Elise's mind was spinning so fast, trying to wrap her head around what was happening along with what her father had just said.
"What? No, we don't turn into birds, though that would have come in handy a little while ago. Dragon's are shapeshifters. I will explain more after we get to the university. We need to get to the catacombs underneath it, where I can explain everything fully. I promise everything will start to make sense once we get back."
"If you say so." Elise was starting to feel overwhelmed with the events of the day so far. "Is this why mom has been acting so weird? Does she know what you say you are? What you say I am?
The train started to come to a stop, to which the pair exited. "Here, up those stairs, and down a little corridor, and we'll be at the entrance of the catacombs."
"You never answered me. Is this why mom has been acting so weird lately?" Elise kept up with Gregory but was still adamant about getting the answers she needed.
"Yes, now let's continue this once we're inside, okay?" Gregory turned down the dark narrow corridor, that seemed to lead to nowhere. Elise followed close behind him, not wanting to miss a turn if there were any. They came upon a large medieval looking door with a few locks, a couple of them attacked to thick chains that wrapped around the handles of the door. Whoever had locked it, wanted to make sure no one could get in, or out of it.
Once Gregory had unlocked the door's and they were safely inside, her father led her deeper into the lower levels of the catacombs, and led her into a huge room. Lit with torches and two giant bowls of oil that were aflame on either side of the altar that sat at the head of the room. The walls were lined with books from floor to ceiling, and there were a few long tables that were gathered alongside one of the book-lined walls.
"Where are we?" Elise asked looking around the dimly lit room that was enormous.
"We are in the pits of the university, and where you will learn how to control what you are." Her father explained as he hurried through the room.
"Wait, what do you mean? Why would I need to learn it? I mean, how do you even know I am what you say I am? How do you know that I'm not just some normal human who has a whack ass dad and crazy mom?" Elise's heart was starting to pound in her chest with an uneasy feeling. She could feel an anxiety attack coming on, and her medication was still in her bag back in her father's car. "You know I'm prone to anxiety attacks, right? I know mom told you about those."
"I know about them, yes and I also know that I used to have those same kinds of attacks before I came into my own powers. And believe me, back before I became what I am, there wasn't a medication for it." He walked into a little room behind the altar and grabbed a couple of things before heading back out to the overwhelmed Elise.
"There is a danger out there, and we need you to be ready for it," Gregory said to her with an ominous tone in his voice. "There is more than just that one dragon that are after me, and I need your help. I wouldn't ask this of you if I didn't think you would be ready."
"But, I'm not ready," Elise said in a quivering voice, tears starting to stream down her cheeks.
"I know my darling little girl," her father had said in a softer voice, laced with heartache and regret. Pulling her into a close hug, he slipped a blade he'd had hidden in his right hand in between the third and fourth rib in her back, piercing her heart. "But you will be."
Elise gasped as the blade worked its way into her flesh, feeling the tip slide into her still beating heart. The world around her slowed in time with her heart and started to fade into a black void of nothingness. The last thing she had seen was the look in her father's eyes as he laid her on the cold stone floors of the crypt at the bottom of the university.
Gregory watched as the light in his daughter's eyes began to fade. The look of betrayal still upon her face when she'd looked at him. Pushing the blade into her back was the worst thing he had ever done. But it had to be done. She was a Phoenix, and he needed to finally release her inner power, and somehow manage to train her before it was too late.
Before he could react, he was grabbed from behind and felt a sharp stab in his neck, his body growing slack. The man holding Gregory let him fall to the ground in a limp heap. A different man, in a well-tailored three-piece suit, walked around and in front of him, bending down to take a better look at Elise as she lay on the stones. He looked back at Gregory sneering and shaking his head. Seeing the great and powerful Gregory Warren laying on the stones, heavily tranquilized, but only his body. This man took great pains to keep Gregory immobile but wanted his mind coherent for what he had planned. It was the same man who had crushed his car.
"You really thought she was a Phoenix?" The man leaned down closer to Gregory's face as he spoke. "Did you really think you would be able to produce another being as powerful as yourself? Look at you!" The man stood, kicking Gregory in the stomach where he lay crumpled, unable to move or react. "Fucking pathetic!" The man spat at him with a look of disgust upon his face, motioning for one of the other men who came bounding in, to take Gregory away. "Get him out of my sight."
"What about the girl, boss?" One of the lackeys had asked when he came over to grab Gregory's feet.
"Leave her," the sneering man boomed. "She's nothing, if not dead."
The men did as they were told, taking Gregory, and leaving a lifeless Elise in their wake.
Elise's body started to slowly smoke, and then burst into a blue-ish flame, hot enough to scorch her flesh and bones to ash. The flames were gone as quickly as they appeared, leaving only the smoke an ashes in its place. The ashes stirred as the creature inside awoke, rising up from the ashes that had just formed. Elise sat bolt upright, gasping, with an almost terrified expression on her face.
"What, the actual fuck, just happened?!"
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