Is this destiny?

~ Los Angeles, the Cliffside Villa ~

Wednesday

7:47 PM

Sarah and Aiden are having dinner on the rooftop terrace with Michael, Oni, Haru, and Nala.

The sun is low on the horizon, and the mild ocean breeze is providing the right amount of freshness from the heat of July evening.

The six of them spoke about the events while Sarah and Aiden were absent and toward the end of the meal, Sarah went to the topic on her mind: "We called you here because there are few things we want to talk about."

She saw that everyone is looking at her expectantly, and she continued: "The four of you are furthest either in age or in education compared to the others and we want to know about your plans for the future."

"What kind of plans?", Oni asked Sarah.

"Where do you see yourself a few years from now? It does not need to be anything set in stone, but we hope to get an understanding of where you are going."

Nala fidgeted nervously before asking: "Do we need to go somewhere?"

Sarah wondered if her choice of words is off, and she decided to clarify: "No. But if you tell me that in five years you will be here, I want to know what you will be doing. By then you will complete your education. What will that be? Will you have a job? Or will you be a freelancer? Or do you plan to travel? Having plans and goals is good to keep you in a specific direction and sometimes they will change before you accomplish them, and that is fine as long as you know why they changed."

The more Sarah spoke, the more Oni frowned. "Does the job of your assistant come with an expiration date?"

Sarah understood that Oni wants to be her assistant and her bringing up five years limit is confusing. "Let me say this first: you don't need to leave. And being my assistant is a job. So, if you see yourself in five years as my assistant who lives here, that is fine. But I hope that you feel empowered to explore the possibilities."

Nala listened to this exchange between Sarah and Oni and she felt excluded. "Can I be your assistant? Or am I lacking some qualification?"

"You can. And you are not lacking anything. That is why you are here."

"Let's not allow this to turn into us chasing you away because that is not what we are doing.", Aiden interjected and turned to Michael. "The reality is that you completed your education. You are already indispensable and acting as my proxy in more than one area and I would like to know if you have any other plans, or can I count on you for the next five or ten years? Of course, unexpected things happen, but if you can have it your way based on the current situation, would you still be here, or do you have other desires which you wish to pursue?", Aiden looked at the other three and spoke without giving Michael any time to answer: "The three of you will have your degrees in five years. As Sarah said, what will you be doing? Will you be here? If you want to stay, that is fine because we have plenty of space and work for everyone. But we expect you to freely think about other options like what would you like to do and where you want to live."

Sarah looked at Aiden gratefully. She can see that after his little speech Oni, Nala, and Haru visibly relaxed. Michael was unreadable from the beginning.

Sarah spoke to Oni and Nala. "You will be busy for the next two months with your internship at the White corp. and I hope that you learn as much as you can. It will give you insight into how a big corporation works and you will get to experience what an assistant does. I will need assistants, so if you are interested in staying by my side, after your internship is done, you will get to accompany me and to learn. If both of you agree to take on that role, we will decide on the division of work at that time."

Aiden looked at Haru. "What Sarah said to Oni and Nala applies to you as well. Michael is helping me with the White foundation, but there is much more work and if you are interested, we can start after your internship."

"What other work is there?", Nala asked.

Sarah glanced at Aiden, silently telling him to answer.

"Sarah is in charge of the Army of Chaos, and I am handling people of the White foundation. Other than that, we have a number of properties and businesses on our name. Besides regular staff, we have currently twenty-nine of you here and twenty-seven at the Beach house. All of you need anything from daily needs to tutors taken care of. Should I go into details or did I convince you that there is plenty of work?"

"No need for more.", Nala mumbled.

Haru found a chance to ask: "Let's assume that I am interested. How will that go?"

Aiden answered: "If you and Michael both accept, my goal is that when I am absent, between the two of you, things will be taken care of and the outsiders will not notice that I'm not here. You will learn about the White foundation and both of you will learn about other things that Sarah and I are managing. Sarah and I are doing most of the things together, and that is why you will need to collaborate with each other as well…"

Nala and Haru were asking questions to Sarah and Aiden with a goal to understand what it means to be their assistant. Nala was curious and Haru was obviously interested.

Haru's main skill is to fight, and if he stays by Aiden's side, he will be able to continue training and fighting.

Michael was silent. He observed the other five people at the table while finishing his meal.

Oni didn't ask many questions because she already had this discussion with Sarah. She was mostly concerned about the amount of work, but if Nala accepts as well, then they can share the responsibilities and it will not be overwhelming. However, she never got a clear answer from Michael when she asked him if he wants to stay with Sarah and Aiden and after that she got busy and the time passed. As much as it sounds great to stay with Sarah as her assistant, that will lose its appeal if Michael does not accept to stay with Aiden.

After they finished with food and an extensive talk, Sarah and Aiden were left by themselves on the rooftop terrace.

"What do you think?", Sarah asked Aiden.

Aiden shrugged indicating that he is not sure. "Let's not guess. We gave them time to think, we should unwind as well."

Sarah agreed and voiced her observation: "Michael was quiet."

"Mhm…", Aiden hummed in agreement. "His main driving force was to figure out who set him up when he was in Shadow Ravens and now Oni came into the picture. I believe that he is not sure what he wants."

Sarah didn't understand. "But Oni is helping him with Shadow Ravens, right?"

"This is not about if she is helping or not. When Oni was hurt, he abandoned his mission in order to stay by her side. That was the first time that he neglected a mission and since then he didn't mention Shadow Ravens. Before that incident, he would talk about them every time he got a chance."

Sarah agreed with this last point. "I remember that since Michael joined us, he either spoke about it or planned how to get to them. Maybe he realized that Oni is more important than digging into the past."

"Maybe…", Aiden murmured.

Aiden's instinct is telling him Michael's change in behavior is related to Jesse, Michael's lover who died.

Aiden remembered that when Sarah found photos of him and his previous flings, she had an episode, and even though those photos potentially had evidence of who is after him, he destroyed it all in order to spare Sarah of more pain. Is it possible that Michael is neglecting his quest for revenge in order not to expose Oni to his past which might hurt her?

Michael's lack of interest in Shadow Ravens is unusual and Aiden wonders if Michael found out something. Or he does not want to risk Oni finding out about Jesse? Or maybe something else happened that Aiden is not aware of…

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