Nina Vale- It took a lot of self control to not make up some dumb reason for Zhalia to take her, but I knew it wouldn't make sense. Zhalia's 1.)busy as all freaking get out. 2.) adopted two teenagers 3.) got quite the list of enemies 4)... well, you get my point. I totally may or may not have copped out and named the little girl after Zhalia because I couldn't for the life of me think of a good name for her (Leona was my first idea but it never seemed quite right). The Organization not treating Zhalia like the threat she is is a common trope that bothers the hell out of me. Just because they turned on you doesn't mean they've lost any of their abilities. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

Amelia- Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the final chapter!

Den and Harrison refused to go into the academy. Zhalia had promised them she would be there, and Zhalia didn't break her promises to them.

"Listen," Sophie began carefully. "I'm sure Zhalia did her best to get here, but if the cops didn't want her to leave, there isn't much she can do."

"Yeah there is." Harrison scoffed, kicking at the ground. "Zhalia's a top notch spy. She can get away from some run of the mill cops."

"And then she'd have a warrant out for her arrest." Sophie countered. "What do you think will happen if she gets something like that on her record not even a week after getting guardianship over you two?"

Both boys hesitated, looking down at the ground.

"Hey, I know! Maybe we can call her?" Lok offered, pulling out his phone. "At least she'd be able to hear everything. I'd be like she was using thought specter and was just invisible!"

Lok glanced at Dante, who quietly shook his head. "Zhalia did her best to get here. I'm sorry this happened."

"Sorry about what, Dante?" A voice startled all four of them.

"Zhalia!" The fear brothers dropped their bags and tackled their surrogate sister, following her to the ground.

"Watch the ribs!" She hissed, and both boys scrambled back. They then helped her to her feet for a proper hug.

"When did you get back?" Sophie asked.

"Ten minutes ago. I don't think I'll be able to use hyper stride without my legs shaking for about a week."

"What happened with the baby? Oh, and the amulet? Why do your ribs hurt?" The twins bombarded her with questions, but then the final warning bell rang.

"Get to class, you two." She ruffled their hair and turned to Lok and Sophie. "Be sure to show them the ropes, okay?"

"Wait, we have to give you your gift though!" Harrison set down and unzipped his backpack, and pulled out a perfectly wrapped gift. With a quick glance at Sophie, Zhalia confirmed that she was in on it too, which explained how perfect the wrapping was, and the looks on both Dante's and Lok's faces also told her they knew about this as well.

"Guys…" She sighed as it was pushed into her hands.

"Open it!" Den cheered. "Come on, we've only got a few minutes!"

With another sigh, Zhalia opened the present, and found herself speechless for the second time in less than twenty-four hours. It was a small but thick book, and on the cover was a picture of the entire team.

"It's a photo album!" Harrison blushed. "There are some photos in it already. Everybody helped us scrounge some up."

She carefully opened the decorated front and smiled at the sight of some of the first training day photos the team had gotten of Den. Harrison didn't have many pictures, but in the few he did have, his incredible awkwardness pulled a chuckle out of her throat.

The next page made her physically tremble. There was a few old photos from her childhood. She looked to Dante, raising an eyebrow.

"This is just the beginning of Klaus' wallet collection." Dante gave her a gentle smile.

"Enough of the sappy stuff, turn the page!" Lok was literally on his tiptoes and his excited grin made Zhalia a little worried.

And she had every right to be concerned, as the next page was a full two-page spread of pictures taken in secret of Dante and her kissing or holding hands surrounded by sticker hearts and other sickeningly cute decorations.

"Wow." She said flatly, too tired to go off on the four. She closed the album and handed it to Dante. "Now, let's get something else to add to it."

Quickly whipping out her phone, Zhalia snapped a photo of the two brothers, who ended up looking very startled in the photo. "Just one more picture for the album to remember this special day. Now, get to class."

The twins both groaned as both Lok and Sophie laughed and began to drag them away. All four waved their goodbyes as they headed off. Zhalia and Dante watched until they disappeared behind the Academy doors.

"So," Dante began. "Where's your luggage if you got here ten minutes ago?"

"Still on the baggage carousel. Did you ride your dumb moped here or did you walk?"

"Dumb moped? You must really be tired." Dante laughed as he led her to a nearby parking spot. "Also, the Moped exploded, and after combining the insurance and my latest paycheck, I traded it in for something a little more my speed."

Zhalia paused as Dante pulled out a key. "Well damn. I'm impressed."

She climbed onto the black and gold Yamaha MT-07 after Dante and held onto him as he revved it up. After a short drive to retrieve her luggage, they headed back to Dante's for some much needed alone time.

"So, how'd things go with the baby?" Dante asked as he prepared some coffee for the obviously exhausted woman and fished out some more painkillers from his drawer.

"You're not gonna believe this." Zhalia chuckled as she tossed back the pills without any drink. "The foster parents named her after me."

"Really?" Dante smiled.

"Little Miss Zhalia Leona Holt." She recited. "I was too tired to argue. They've already bombarded my phone with pictures of her with their other kids."

"I'm glad everything worked out." Dante handed her a cup and poured some of the piping hot liquid for her. "Gugenheim told me you had a run in with some suits."

"Yep." Zhalia answered after downing the entire cup, scalding her mouth and throat, but she was still too tired to care. "They're the reason I bonded with Dutch Leon though."

"Oh really?" Dante pulled out his holotome and took the amulet when she offered it to him.

DUTCH LEON. ATTACK 4. DEFENSE 6. TYPE: Swara-titan Warrior. SPECIAL ABILITY: FLAME REVERSAL. SIZE: LARGE

The two listened to the holotome before Zhalia continued. "The titan wanted me to prove myself. That's why I couldn't bond with it right away. One of the Organization goons threatened the kid if I didn't hand over the amulet, and it really pissed me off. I wanted to keep her safe, which is what the father lion was doing the entire time in that story I told you about. He didn't fight back in order to keep his family safe."

"Well, I'm just glad you're safe. I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to you. Also, you've got two other people depending on you now. A family to defend, like the lion in the story." Dante closed the holotome and handed the amulet back to his partner. "You shouldn't have gone alone. What would have happened to Den and Harrison if you were killed then and there?"

Zhalia let out a deep sigh after finishing off a second cup. "Well, I was going to bring this up later, but… Listen, I know you care about them too, and I think it's safe to assume either you yourself or someone you know would take up the task, so I was going to ask if I could put it in paper? Like in my will or something. It's just precautionary, but I don't want them to ever have to worry about where they're going next."

"…I'd be honored, but let's not dwell on that right now." He gave her a quick kiss, carefully lifted her off her feet and headed for the stairs.

"Listen, Dante, I'd love to, but I might actually fall asleep. That coffee didn't help at all." Zhalia wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Honestly, after all the things those four got up to while you were away, sleep is the only thing on my mind right now." He pressed another kiss against her lips.

"Good, because I'd really rather not insult you like that on my first day back."

Dante gently laid her on the bed and took his place right beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as she settled in. "So, what was it like taking care of little Zhalia?"

"Hard, and I wasn't even doing it full time. I'm glad Den and Harrison are fourteen years out of that phase." Zhalia let out a small laugh. "But… it was nice. She's a good kid. The Holts are lucky to have her."

Dante was quiet for a moment, and Zhalia was nearly asleep when he spoke up again. "This is probably really not the time to have this talk… but what are your thoughts on having kids?"

Zalia blinked in surprise, but was secretly glad she didn't have to be the one to bring it up. Carefully, she sat up enough to look into Dante's amber brown eyes, then leaned down to give him a short kiss. "I think… we need to have this conversation some other time. I'm so tired I feel like I've been drugged- don't ask. But… I think I might be open to the idea someday."

"I think I might be open to the idea someday as well. Now, get some sleep… You can't even open your eyes now, can you?"

At some point, Zhalia must have let her eyes close, but now she indeed couldn't get them to open again. She shook her head and Dante gently guided her back down to the pillows, which Zhalia quickly abandoned in favor of her boyfriend's chest.

Today was the first day she was going to be a legitimate older sister. Den and Harrison were hers by law, and even though they weren't infants, she knew she would need as much sleep as possible to keep the two safe and out of trouble until they didn't need her to anymore.