When we got to Cardiff, it was very hard to say goodbye. William begged me to stay with him for a few days, and I agreed. He made sure that my stay was very romantic. He took me out to dinner. Then we walked around the bay, and we went back to his house. His parents were in Bridgend, helping his nan move in with them, but his sister was there, and I got to know her.
His room was so boyish, covered with action figures and video games. He clearly didn’t expect to bring anyone to spend the night in his house and see his room.
The next morning, it felt so strange waking up in his house. I had slept with his sister because William, being a Christian, was saving himself for marriage, but we did kiss a lot, and being able to touch him was amazing.
In Yanar the only people who followed strict rules of morality and lived by it were people who wanted to join the Orders, a special branch of the Yan military. None of us J.C. Yans essentially wanted to join the Orders except for Pam, but realising that even masanis could follow a strict way of life and be happy following it was making me reconsider my decision to join as well.
Waking up in my first love’s house made me feel different, more grown-up. I really wanted to see if I also looked different, so I ran to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror, but I looked the same. I was a little disappointed.
William came up behind me, put his arms around my waist, put his chin on my shoulder and said, “What is it?” while staring at me through the mirror. I think he was worried that I regretted staying with him rather than heading for Yanar, but he was wrong.
I turned to him and said, “I look the same,” and I made a funny face, so I had to explain to him how I was feeling.
He said, “Oh, honey.”
He turned me towards him and started kissing me, which made me laugh. I explained to him that I thought that after him making me feel so special and feminine by being so romantic, I thought I would look different. I always read that love made women look even more beautiful, but I looked the same, and I was heartbroken.
He told me that I was the most stunning girl he had never seen and that if I needed to feel girly, then it was now his job to give me that feeling.
I was hoping that we would shower together, but it did not happen. However, he took me to his room after we had both showered, so we could have breakfast on his bed. I loved it.
While we were eating, I loved the fact that we kissed every five minutes and were glued to each other. I never thought that spending an entire day having fun and eating without leaving a bedroom would be so great, but it was. I couldn’t help but dream of the day the war would be over and we would be doing this in my own bedroom in Yanara. It would be amazing.
But the honeymoon did not last. After two days in Cardiff, I was called to report to Yanar pronto by Aibreann MacConraoi, whose mother was the captain general of the Yan Marine Corps. I expected to find her at our embassy, but a knock at the door proved me wrong. She had come herself to pick me up.
The Yan Marine Corps was made of Aquas and Omnis only. No other Yans were allowed to be part of it, because no other Yan was capable of fighting underwater.
Aibreann, who everybody called Breann, informed me that the war my father and brothers were fighting had been won. I screamed with joy and jumped to hugged her, but she wasn’t smiling back at me. I turned around, asked William to excuse me and came out of the house.
I asked her again what was wrong, and she repeated that the war had been won. Our enemy had capitulated and had signed an unconditional surrender on the promised land. This was when it hit me: the promised land was ours, which meant that the Yans would be leaving Earth for good.
Hundreds of years ago, after the Yans had settled in Yanar, the Norse priestesses received a visit from Odin, who told them of a promised land in the sky, a planet he had created just for our nation, and when the time was right, we would find that planet and be able to finally live happily ever after and away from the Masanis, who had persecuted us and chased us away from our homes.
Since that day, exploring the stars in search of that land had been the general council’s top priority, and we had finally found it decades ago. The general council had started to move our equipment and infrastructure to the new world. They had also sent teams of engineers and builders to build us a brand-new home on that new planet we had named Geallta Yanar.
It was a planet the size of Mercury, with no animals, but besides that, it was an exact replica of Earth in weather and ecosystem. Unfortunately, an alien race had started to appear a few years after their arrival and had laid claim to Geallta. The Yan government refused to hand over the planet, so the aliens had killed everybody that was on Geallta Yanar at the time, not knowing that there were more of us elsewhere.
The council sent our entire space force after them, reinforced by the Orders, and that move had started the war between the Yans and the aliens. Now that the war was won, there was nothing stopping us from leaving, especially since it seemed like the council wanted to leave the Masanis to their own fate and stay out of the Hendu–Masani war.
Now I understood why the council had been recalling all Yans home; we were leaving Earth for good. We were being taken to the promised land.
I told Breann that I needed to say goodbye to William, and she gave me a few minutes alone with him. I told him that I had to leave, but I promised to be in contact soon. He kept telling me how much he loved me, and he begged me to be careful and to come back to him in one piece.
Breann had had enough. She yelled, “Enough already. Let’s go.”
I turned to her in disbelief. The MacConraoi and the Kirkpatrick women were the most romantic women of the Ten, and she was getting annoyed because I had trouble leaving my boyfriend. I said, “What’s your problem?”
“You are not the only one who will have to leave a loved one behind, Di,” she said.
Of course, I thought. She was stationed in Dublin. She probably had fallen for one of the locals, and now she was being forced to leave her beloved behind.
I turned around, kissed William for the last time and flew out with her. I didn’t know if I would ever see him again, but I could only hope for the best.
I thought Breann would take me straight to Yanara, but she told me that she wanted to pick up all of us, and by all of us, she meant Pam, Alex, Amelia, Tristan, Hogan and Hassan.
When we arrived in Birmingham, I was surprised to find Scarlett with them. I looked at all of them with disbelief and said, “Guys, I thought Scarlett was going home. I saw her leave with Hoggy and Tristan.” I was almost screaming, and pointing at Scarlett and Hogan.
Tristan said, “It’s a long story, but how did you guys get here?”
Breann and I looked at each other, and Breann said, “The old-fashioned way, by flying. By the way, don’t you want to know what I am doing here?”
Pam and Amelia came towards us, took our hands and made us sit on the sofa. They said, “That has been going on for an hour.”
To start with, they told us that all channels were showing the same thing. It was an older man, probably in his seventies, sitting on the set of what I was told was the BBC newsroom.
The message was simple: “You are now under the ruling of the Hendu royal family. The Famla is now the authority under which you will be living. A curfew has been imposed, and anyone found outside after 7 p.m. will be shot immediately. Your leaders have abandoned you and fled, and the ones that didn’t have time to run have all been arrested and will be executed tomorrow at noon on The Elms at Smithfield in London. Their execution will be broadcast live for all to see. For those who wish to show their support for the Famla, you are all kindly invited to come and watch them meet their maker. All irrelevant civil servants have been relieved of duty. All communications have been suspended, and you will all receive further instructions later.”
I turned to them and said “What was that?” while pointing at the TV.
Then one name came to my mind: William. I had left him in Cardiff, thinking that he would be safe. I had to return and save him.
As I was getting up to leave, Tristan stopped me and said, “If you are thinking of going to rescue Will, don’t. He is just a teenager. He will be safe in his house. We have other people to rescue.”
“Like who?” I asked angrily.
And he said, “How about the people who will be executed tomorrow in London?”
I realised that he was right. I turned to Breann, and she said, “No, no, no. I was sent to retrieve you guys, and that is it. We are leaving, and we are doing it right now. This order is coming straight from the council.”
Alex and the others started to realise that something else was going on. He asked me, “What exactly is Breann doing here?”
I let Breann tell them herself why she had come. As soon as they heard that we had won the war, they started screaming and jumping with joy, so I did to them what Breann had done to me.
I said, “Guys, the enemy surrendered unconditionally. Geallta is ours.”
And then it sank in.
Hogan said, “Hold on. Are you saying that we are really leaving?”
“Oh, no. It’s worse. Technically, we have left already. The council has recalled all Yans home, remember. The big migration has begun. We won’t join the Masanis in their fight against the Hendus.” I knew that telling them that would be a shock, but they needed to know the situation we were in.
Breann said, “Guys, I was sent to take all of you home, so let’s go. I have taken too long already.”
Hogan turned towards Scarlett, who didn’t understand what was happening, and he explained in detail our quest for the promised land and the fact that the Yans were now leaving Earth.
“Are you really going to leave me?” she said in a trembling voice.
He took her cheeks in his hands and put his forehead on her forehead and said, “Never. I am not leaving. I will never leave you. They can leave without me. I am not going to Geallta.”
“Neither am I,” I said, and I was happy to see that all the others had also decided to defy the council as well.
Breann had had enough and she said, “Very well, then. I’m going home, and I’ll make sure to inform the council of your decision. Good luck, guys. See you on Geallta if you survive the Masani war.”
We all gave her the forward Sahnu and watched her leave.
I turned to them and said, “All right, time to call home. Activate your KJs, and let’s talk to our parents. But first, would someone explain why Scarlett is not at home?”
So they made me sit down and narrated what had happened when they had arrived in Hereford.
Hogan explained that when he had taken Scarlett home with Tristan’s help, as soon as they got off the train, he realised that something was wrong.
All the exits from the station were blocked by a group of people dressed all in black with black masks and holding automatic weapons. He could feel fear in the air. People didn’t know what was going on, and everybody was asking each other if anyone knew who the people in black were.
Hogan had recognised the Famla insignia on the men-in-black uniforms. When I asked what the Famla insignia was, he said that he remembered seeing a similar insignia on the capes worn by the Yahas in Guildford. He said that it was the same insignia that ornamented the capes, except that the insignia was not golden, like in Guildford, but red.
The letter “F” had been sitting on top of the insignia on their jackets, so it wasn’t hard for him to make the leap and conclude that it was F for Famla . He had turned to Tristan and asked him to fly Scarlett out of the station and return to Bir-mingham with her.
Scarlett refused. She didn’t want to leave him, and she also wanted to check on her parents. Tristan refused as well. He told Hogan that the moment he flew off, the Famla would immediately guess that he was a Yan, and he would be killed on the spot.
Hogan turned to Tristan and told him, “I can’t fight my way out and protect her at the same time. I love her. She is my everything. Please save her. Just grab her and go.”
Tristan kept shaking his head. He said, “If I fly off, they will kill you. I will never forgive myself if anything happens to you. You are my brother and I love you. Let’s try and pass as regular people. I bet they are not even looking for us.”
Scarlett agreed. She categorically refused to leave, so they followed the crowd. The men in black were scanning each face with a device that looked like a portable scanner. It was pretty clear that they were looking for someone.
They managed to pass without being stopped and took the bus to Scarlett’s house, but no one was home. The house had been ransacked, and there were obvious signs of a struggle.
As soon as Scarlett started crying, Hogan had seen enough. He told Tristan to fly Scarlett to Birmingham, and he waited for Tristan to come back and pick him up.
They had no idea what had happened to Scarlett’s parents, but now that they had heard the message on TV, it wasn’t difficult to guess. Clearly, Scarlett’s parents had been arrested, because her mother was a member of parliament.
While Hogan was busy consoling the scared and frantic Scarlett, I asked the others where uncle Jonathan was, and they said that he had been called to London. Now we also knew why; he was being told to return to Yanar.
We had no choice but to call our parents, and the message they gave us was clear, to come home immediately and discuss the situation face-to-face.
I was hesitant to leave. I was worried about William, but with both his parents being preachers, I was pretty certain that his family would be safe for a while.
Hogan, however, had a bigger problem. He couldn’t leave Scarlett alone, so we decided to take her with us. The Croise family being Olympians, I was fairly confident that they would accept Scarlett quite easily, even if she was a Masani, but their son’s refusal to follow them to the new-found planet would be harder to take.
Unlike other Yans, Olympians were very much attached to their offspring. Where a Norse would easily understand a child’s need to prove themselves to Odin, Olympians were not fans of letting their children risk their lives, not even for the sake of Zeus himself.
We got on the lift available at Uncle Jonathan’s house and were transported to Yanar City. From there I had to take another lift to Yanara with Amelia, leaving the others to face their parents.
Both my parents were home, as well as my brothers. By the look of the house, it was clear that they were ready to go. Everything was packed, even my things. They were just waiting for us to arrive.
Amelia and I followed our parents to my mother’s office. My mother sat at her table, but my father refused to sit and pre-ferred to stand next to her. I thought, Oh, boy, he is not happy.
I explained that as happy as I was that Geallta Yanar was officially ours, I couldn’t join them at the moment because I was in love. I had met someone who meant more to me than anything, and I had made friends who had become family to me.
I told them that the place of a true daughter of Odin was to fight to protect what she held dear in her heart, and what I was holding dear at that very moment was waiting for me in the UK. By staying on Earth, I was not only honouring my heritage but also everything they had taught me. I added that by leaving William and the others to their fate, I would become no better than a person with no honour and no courage.
I knew that I was being a tad dramatic, but it was necessary, and it worked, because they allowed me to stay but decided that Amelia was too young to stay. Plus, since she would be the only one able to replace my mother as the head of the council and duchess if anything did happen to me, she needed to stay with them, where she could be safe.
My parents decided that all the Yans choosing to remain in the UK should be housed in Draycott Place to maximise our chances of survival. We would also retain the city of Yanara, if we ever needed a safe place in case the Masani war did not go our way.
The rest of Yanar was to be destroyed to avoid it falling into enemy hands, and they would leave a spacecraft in orbit for us, if we needed to join them or, in my case, bring William and his family for a more formal introduction.
I was ecstatic to stay, but I was sad to see my family go. It broke my heart, but I had no choice. Earth needed me. I couldn’t leave.
I let the others know that I was going to meet them in London, and my mother promised to make all the arrangements to ensure that the Yanara protection grid was up and running before her departure.
I gave them a Sahnu and transported back to London. I was the first to arrive, followed by Tristan, Alex and Pam. I expected that. Tristan, Alex, Pam and I, we were children of Odin, so it was obvious that it wouldn’t be too hard to convince our parents that staying was the best thing.
Hours went by, and there was still no news of Hogan, Scarlett and Hassan. Hassan being a Makua, which meant that he was a follower of Makua Hine, I had no idea how his parents would react to his desire to stay.
For the Makuas, being in sync with Mother Nature and having to go to a new planet would allow them, in their faith, to get closer to the universe. I was worried that they would want him to experience it with them, but I was wrong.
He arrived with a big smile, and he looked different, more confident. After I screamed with joy and jumped on him when he arrived, I looked straight in his eyes and said, “Go on, just tell us. What happened?”
He let go of me, walked into the middle of the study room, where we had gathered, and made his hand glow. We screamed with joy. His parents didn’t want him to stay without being able to protect himself, so his sister had gracefully transferred her power to him.
I was very touched. Fimi Mulumba was the kindest girl I had ever met, and she loved her brother dearly. I could only imagine her fear at the thought of maybe never seeing him again, so she wanted to make sure that he would not go down without a fight.
We didn’t have much time in front of us, so I needed to teach him how to use that power as soon as possible. I took him to the FIST room and told the others to work on a plan to stop the next-day executions while I showed Hassan how to use his power.
An hour after Hassan and I had left the study room, Hogan finally arrived with Scarlett. From what he told us, it had been a very difficult negotiation. His parents were adamant that he should go with them, but they were willing to let Scarlett follow them.
Later on, after Scarlett had begged them to let her save her parents, they had agreed to let them return to the UK, but not without Hogan getting a power from his cousin. She had transferred it to him on the condition that he rejoined the entire family as soon as Scarlett’s parents were saved.
“So, what are you going to do?” I asked.
He looked at Scarlett, who he was holding, then looked back at me and said, “I’m not rejoining them. This is my new home. Our new home,” he said, staring back at Scarlett.
“Yes, our new home,” she said back to him.
I rolled my eyes and mumbled, “Mm-hmm.”
Hogan turned towards me and said, “They are free to visit me if they miss me so much.”
I knew his cousin was a Streak, which meant that she could generate energy like Fimi’s, so I told him to join me and Hassan.
When Hassan, Hogan and I were done with the training, we found Pam, Alex, Tristan and Scarlett quite excited. The news had just been broadcast that the prisoners would be escorted from Belmarsh prison to Smithfield.
I thought, Excellent. Now we know exactly where they are.
Pam’s plan was easy: get to Belmarsh, free the officials, bring them to Draycott Place, and transport them to Yanara, the only safe place left on Earth.
I thought it was brilliant, but we couldn’t leave Scarlett alone. So we decided that I would take her to William’s house, but first I needed to check that it was safe in Cardiff.
When I was about to take off, Scarlett stopped me and said, “Wait. Won’t the men in black detect you if you fly?”
“They don’t possess that kind of technology. As long as they don’t see me take off, I should be safe,” I answered.
Hogan hugged her and said, “Don’t worry, babe. She’ll be fine.” And he kissed her.
I took off, and as soon as I arrived, I could tell that Cardiff was no longer safe. There were patrols of men in black everywhere, and not a single person outside besides them.
I flew to William’s window and was so happy to see that he was in his room. I knocked at the window, and when he opened, I jumped into his arms.
“Oh my God, I was so worried about you. I tried to call you, but all communications have been cut,” he said. He hugged me really tight and kissed me over and over.
I felt so bad. I should have come to see him earlier. Although I could protect myself, William clearly would always be worried about me getting hurt. I made him sit on his bed and told him everything about the promised land, the Yans’ mass migration, our decision to stay and the plan to break into Belmarsh.
I told him that I had come to see if Scarlett could stay with him, and he said yes. He informed me that his parents were home and that she would be safe. He also said that everybody was a bit shaken after the announcement on TV and that the Welsh Assembly members had all been arrested by the Famla and taken to London.
I realised that there was a good chance that the same could have happened to Scarlett’s parents, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Now there was a glimmer of hope that Scarlett could be reunited with her family.
William decided that the best thing would be for him to accompany me to London so he could assess how safe I was at Draycott Place. He would then bring Scarlett to his parents and return to London with me to help us fight the Famla.
I was not happy. William was a Masani. The chances of him being hurt had just gone from zero to a million in a second. On top of that, he hadn’t even asked me if I needed help, and that was not resonating well with me.
He wrote a letter to his parents and left it on his study desk. I asked him why he was leaving a letter, and he said, “Just in case Scarlett refuses to come to Cardiff, I don’t want to have to come back and explain why I had to leave.”
I realised that William was always going to be William. He was not doubting my ability to win a battle, he was just being the strong and protective guy that he had always been. I had fallen in love with an alpha, and I should have expected his authoritarian side to show up from time to time.
I didn’t want him to come and put his life in danger, but I preferred him to be with me, where I would be able to protect him, rather than far away with me constantly worried.
I agreed with his decisions, and we flew back to Draycott Place. As soon as I told them that the Famla had taken over Cardiff as well, Scarlett decided that she was better off staying in London with us. I also told them about the Welsh Assembly members, and it brought Scarlett hope that maybe she would be able to see her parents soon.
Pam had decided that we would leave Scarlett and William in the house, then go and free as many officials as we could and come straight back. William refused. He wanted to be useful, so we taught them how to activate the lift.
First, we took him and Scarlett to Yanara. Then we identified a gathering point and told them to start moving the escapees to Yanara as soon as the first escapee had reached Draycott Place, just in case we arrived under fire from the men in black.
Because of the high level of danger we would face on our mission, Pam advised that we use our powers at all times. She was staring straight at me when she was saying that. She knew that I wouldn’t want to do it.
The rules of combat in Yanar were very clear, and breaking them was unthinkable. It was a sure way to guarantee never to be chosen by Odin to join him on Ragnarök, and I for one wanted to join my god’s army in the afterlife.
The most important rule of combat was that when faced with an opponent who did not possess supernatural powers, you were forbidden to use yours, in order for the fight to be fair and honourable.
I repeated the rule to my fellow Yans, and Tristan agreed with me, but Hogan and Alex said that being outnumbered, as far as they were concerned, gave them the right to use their powers against the men in black.
We wanted all the luck to be on our side, so we decided to give offerings to our gods in order for our journey to be bless-ed. William and Scarlett offered to pray to their god as well. Although we had doubts that their god could be of any help, we humoured them by letting them give it a go.
Pam, Alex, Tristan and I, being Norse, went to give offerings to Loki at the Norse temple on the top floor. We chose Loki because he was the god of mischief, and his approach to battle would be the best course of action for this particular situation.
Hassan, although not an Olympian, accompanied Hogan to give offerings to Ares and Athena in Draycott Place’s Olympian temple.
Time was flying, and Pam wanted us to leave at midnight, so as soon as the clock hit twelve a.m., off we went.
It was very strange to see London so empty. There wasn’t even a fly in sight, except for the men-in-black patrols.
Pam had downloaded a map of London and studied the way to Belmarsh. When we arrived at the prison, it was very quiet. We expected to see prison guards, or at least men in black, but there was no one.
We broke the door down, and when we went in, we saw bodies all over. Clearly, the Famla had gone in and killed all the prisoners to make space for the new detainees. It was a terrifying sight, but we had to press on.
We went our separate ways in order to free them more quickly. It did not take long for me to start hearing doors opening. We were very lucky that the Famla was so confident that no one would be able to escape, or be brave enough to rescue the prisoners, that they had left no guards for us to fight.
After freeing a sizable number of very frightened MPs and, to my surprise, a good number of military officers, I finally arrived at the last cell in my block and opened it. I gasped and said, “Major? Captain?” I couldn’t believe it was them. It really was Major Paul McNamara and Captain Gerard O’Connor.
They looked as shocked as I was, and the major said in a mocking voice, “O’Connor, look. It’s the PJ Masks. We are saved.”
I was too happy to see him to be mad at him for that sarcastic tone of voice, so I entered the cell and hugged them. I was so glad to see them alive.
The major took my cheeks in his hands and said in a concerned tone of voice, “What the hell are you doing here, princess?”
“Rescuing you, of course,” I said in a very excited voice.
“Well, let’s go, then. I for one have never been so happy to see anyone in my life,” said the captain. He then put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Thank you, child, for coming.”
They helped us free the rest of the prisoners, and we all gathered at the prison’s main gate. When I saw how many there were, I got worried. There were at least two hundred officials, military personnel and so on. We couldn’t fly all of them over, but we needed to get to Draycott Place, so the major took charge. He asked us to take him to the military base in order to get some weapons and lorries to carry everyone to Draycott Place.
The ride to the army base was easy, but not the drive back to Belmarsh. We were spotted by the men in black, and Pam, Alex, Tristan and I had to blow up their cars, which, unfortunately, made a lot of noise. I realised that Pam was right; there were just too many of them, and the only way we could protect the detainees would be by using our powers.
By the time we had arrived at the prison and loaded all the vehicles with the escapees, we knew that the ride home would be a fight, and it was. Hordes of cars were now coming towards us, and as soon as we started blowing up their cars, they pulled bazookas out of their windows and started shooting at us.
I saw the major stop the convoy and run towards me, screaming, “No! Diana! Diana!”
I knew that the sight of us being fired at must have been frightening for him, but I needed him to continue on his way and leave us to our fate.
I turned towards Pam and said,