TAKING OVER

Alexa stretched her index finger and a Black Widow crawled onto it, it seemed like she was communicating with the creature as Curtis walked into the room.

He realized that ever since she got her gem, she had had a higher affinity for arachnids than usual, especially spiders, including them literally following her everywhere.

It wasn't once that he woke up with scorpions on the bed crawling around his wife and wondered if she was actually cheating on him with he eight legged creatures.

But one morning, he jumped awake when his children yelled.

He couldn't make sense of what they said till Catherine yelled,"Happy birthday dad!!"

"What?"He asked.

They all then yelled in unison,"Happy birthday!"

He then realized the date then sat up as they engulfed him in a group hug, then Nicky said,"We have a surprise for you."

"But it was my idea."Ricky said.

"And I made the arrangements!"Micky butted in.

"Girls, girls, girls..."Catherine said, much to the dismay of her brothers,"...we all took part, though I did the most work."

"Why you..."The boys began.

"Guys, guys..."Curtis said, much to the dismay of his daughters,"... what's the surprise?"

They smiled then yelled,"You can come in mom!"

Alexa slowly walked in and Curtis was stunned as she did a twirl and asked how she looked.

She wore a red gown made of pure spider silk which fit closely to her body, enhancing her features, the sleeves and shoulders were darker and translucent, while the rest of the blouse, and the floor touching skirt were wine red.

The skirt had the shape of a spider web with silver lines making the crossing markings of the web, with the hem cut like the curved edges with a slit on her left leg running to her knee.

Her long, black hair was let down and held at her shoulders with a black net of pure silk with the hair near her ears braided into eight which joined in the centre like a half ponytail, with a red gem connecting them in the shape of her symbol arachnid.

Curtis was speechless, every day he saw an angel in his wife but now she was actually dressed up, he didn't know what to compare her with.

He slowly got off.the bed as his clothes instantaneously changed then answered,"No words I say could describe what beauty I see before me."

He then cupped her cheek as she kissed his lips and said,"Happy birthday Curtis."

Alexa then said she wanted to show him something and pulled him along.

There were yells of agony and curses from a room as I walked out, frowning then said,"I officially give up, I've removed Darlok's control over him, gone out of my comfort zone to be the good cop and forced food into his mouth, he only got worse."

Indigo placed his arm around my shoulder then said,"Don't fret, you tried your best, but look on the bright side."

"And what's that?"I asked.

He arched a brow and I immediately realized what he was talking about...

***

Curtis followed Alexa into the living room to find everyone there, as oblivious as he was, then Alex walked in holding two babies and said,"Everyone, I'll like to introduce to you, my twin sons..."

***

Everyone was shocked to see them, well, except for Jessica, it turned out, she made a deal with Ama to tell Alex it was a single girl, so he wouldn't over react as all his attention was on José, but now, he had three sons, two of whom shared birthdays with Curtis.

Curtis slowly walked to towards the twin boys in Alex's arms, acting in a manner as if he thought they'd break if he rushed.

Alex gave him one to holds and he looked at the child.

The child had his father's scales and most of his mutations, and eyes.

The other one looked just like his mother, with no visible mutations, except for his big blue eyes which opened when he yawned.

They looked like angels descended from heaven as they slept, and Curtis relived the joy he had when Catherine was first born, and when the triplets were reunited.

"What are their names?"Curtis asked.

They looked at each other, then announced,"We have no idea."

' Oddly familiar. ' I thought.

"So, when will you name them?"He asked again.

"Actually..."Ama said,"...we thought it best to let them name themselves."

We were all as surprised as each other.

"What?"I asked.

"We don't want to impose anything on them, but want them to have a freedom of choice."

I chuckled then said,"Giving them names doesn't infringe on their freedom of choice."

"Do they have a say in the naming process?"

"Well no, but..."

"So there you have it."

"But how long are you willing to wait for them to choose?"

"As long as needed."Alex said.

"But..."

Anneliese glared at me then I continued,"..I have been infringing on your freedom of choice, do what you want I always say, come on, I mean I could change my name right now and..."

"Too much."Anneliese said.

"...of course sweetie...I just decided to stop talking of my own will, I wasn't intimidated or anything just so you know."

***

Alexa was on her bed, sleeping peacefully besides her beloved husband when one of the spiders around her bit her, hard on the arm, then her eyes darted open as she saw a vision.

In it, she saw that she was standing besides a blurry woman, with a gem on her chest glowing silver.

She looked back and gasped when she saw two giant creatures with glowing eyes behind them both and looking around, she saw thrifty one other people with glowing gems and creatures behind them, with eyes glowing of the same colour, and Indigo and I were included.

She ran to the two of us and tried to get us to leave, but the thing that was behind her said,"You cannot run from your destiny..."

Alexa screamed then woke up, what did that mean?!

She looked at her gem, then around at Curtis, who was awake now, and asking if everything was okay.

She just dashed out of the room and into Indigo's then woke him up then ran to wake me up too.

When the entire family was gathered, she told us of her dream... nightmare.

Everyone was confused till Alek said,"I've had a similar dream before."

We all looked at him, surprised as to why he'd keep such a secret.

When my mom asked him why, he said he had thought it was just an ordinary nightmare and not a big deal, but clearly, it was.

I almost yelled at my youngest brother in everyone's presence, but kept my cool.

I couldn't think of any explanation for the dreams and no one else could, apart from Nicky...

"Those people you guys saw, were the other wielders."She said.

"What other wielders?"My mom asked.

"These three gems that grandpa, uncle and mom possess are three of a collection of thirty-one, each having its own ability, these gems are a small fragment of the true creatures which have that power, those creatures you saw behind everyone, the Dragons. The reason Alexa saw the vision was that her Dragon was Arachnida, the goddess of Spiders and Deception, her opposite; Arna, was the goddess of wisdom and since Alexa belongs to both of them, she has both their abilities."

"Wait, so is it only Alexa who belongs to both creatures...dragons?"I asked.

"In our world, yes, that is why her gem has characteristics of both worlds."

"But why?"

"I don't know."

"And what about Alek, does he also have one?"

"The reason he saw the vision as well is unknown to me, but it could be because of his light, just as the reason I understand the dreams, but we have to find the others, before Darlok does."

"And how would we find them?"Indigo asked.

"I have no idea, I see no future where we actually found them."

"What?"

"Darlok takes over..."