Blaine pulled her close, "are you okay? We can back out of this if you want."
Lana chuckled, "I'm fine. I just had a thought about your grandmother."
Toni overheard them, "don't think about that lady, if I dare call her that. She's gone thanks to you. Our whole family and staff are in your debt."
Lana blushed. She was not used to this type of attention or praise. At the same time, she was pleased she could be so helpful. Lana took the time to look around the room. It smelled of stale sweat and blood. There was a servant off to the left near the wall trying to be inconspicuous. Beside her was a table full of jars of water and snacks that would increase energy in a healthy way.
"Which of us do you want to fight?" Jasper asked.
"Aren't you going to introduce yourself to your sister-in-law first?"
Jasper chuckled, "sorry, we don't see many outside people. I'm Jasper, Blaine's brother via a tournament eight years before he was born. He was born a few months before Tanisha there was born so they are the same age. Little Toni there, is eight years younger than them, making him nine. Tanisha's group was impacted by Walkers. Half her group was killed because they were quite young and were not able to get them all to safety fast enough. The children were moved to a floor here in the manor after that. Little atoni was the first group to be raised fully in the manor."
Lana nodded, "it's nice to meet you all."
Blaine smiled, "let's put Toni versus Tanisha first."
Lana nodded, held Blaine's hand and nodded for them to begin.
The two fighters exploded toward each other. Neither held back as they hurt each other over and over again. If a bone got broken, they paused, allowed the servant to heal them then continued. This went on for an hour. It was brutal, bloody, and terrifying. In the end, with the healing ability, they were exhausted but not injured. This was a daily exercise for the family, and it is what they credit their fighting prowess to.
They did this with abilities as well, but Blaine wanted the showcase to be without making sure Lana didn't get hit on accident. Sometimes, very loyal servants participated but they mainly worked with the kids. Under the new rules, Blaine was thinking they needed to participate regardless, in case the Walkers showed up again. He understood Barica wanting to protect the hired help, but he felt if they had more people out there who knew how to fight, they would not have lost so many.
As Toni and Tanisha grabbed towels from the servants and wiped the sweat away, Jasper looked at Blaine.
"Front and center, brother!" Jasper said with a grin.
Blaine looked at Lana, "do you want to see what it looks like when I don't hold back?"
She squished up her nose knowing it meant she'd watch her love getting beaten then nodded. She needed to know about this process.
"Are you sure? I can say no if you want me to," Blaine said with a soft smile.
"Are you hiding behind your wife's skirt?" Jasper said incredulously.
Blaine smirked then took off his shirt, handing it to Lana.
Before anyone even said the word, Blaine was across the room feigning a punch, as Jasper dropped his center of gravity and went in for a sweep that Blaine easily avoided. The fight was very fast-paced, and Lana had to pay close attention or she would miss a move. Soon 5 minutes passed and only one blow had landed, that was a kick by Blaine to the back of Jasper's head. It resulted in his forehead being slammed into the wall and a quick healing.
After an hour, not many hits succeeded but those that did were severe. Blaine had two broken ribs, a broken arm and a shattered ankle. Jasper had at least one break but not more than three on each appendage. Through it all, the servant was there to heal them. They also copied the ability in case she ran out of MC.
"Still think I'm hiding behind my wife's skirt?" Blaine chided.
While they were toweling off the sweat, Cere was brought in by Bianca.
"Mom! How has your stay been?" Lana gave her a big hug.
"It's been… enlightening. We've begun your wedding plans since we have so little time to plan. You will be seeing a lot of us over the course of the week."
Lana nodded with a smile.
Blaine came up beside her and wrapped an arm around her, "yes, mom. Thank you!"
Cere looked at the couple, "when are you wanting to leave? We need to meet with the general about proper accommodation and permissions for the two of you. The sooner we leave the better."
Lana smiled, "we can leave as soon as Blaine no longer smells like sweat. Also, I will be an Abel soon. This means I need to be training like one. I would like to request Tanisha be enrolled in the school to teach me how to fight. It's late in the year so maybe enrollment will not be possible, but Blaine's too advanced for me."
The two mothers looked at each other. Bianca was the one to respond, "if you can make the accommodations and she's okay with it, she may join you."
Tanisha squealed, "yes! Only an insane person would turn down such an invitation!"
Lana smiled, "in that case Mom, we'll meet you out front in about 30 minutes?"
Thirty minutes later, Lana and Blaine joined their mothers in front of the house. Several other family members were there to bid them farewell. Jessica was nowhere to be seen. They were all smiling and Lana hugged a few. She had to order Gerald to hug her, which he was very uncomfortable with but had to obey.
She looked at him earnestly, "thank you so much for taking such good care of my husband's family. I want you to call me if you need anything, and I mean that."
She gave him her contact information. "There are a lot of changes right now and they can be difficult to handle. If something we have done isn't working out, we need to know immediately. If we need to change something else, we need to know that as well. We decided we want the servants to all undergo training the way family members do. If the Walkers come back, we need to be more prepared than last time."
Gerald showed no expression on his face as Lana gave her instructions. She had no idea how he felt about them but knew that he'd carry them out whether he liked them or not. "Very well, Mistress Lana. Of course, if you have any further instructions for me, you can contact me any time, day or night."
Lana smiled, "let's hope nothing is so pressing I need to disturb your sleep!"
With that, they left Abel Island, next stop the Techno Family residence so they could teleport to school.
Once they were in the air, Cere wanted to fill them in on her experience while they were there. "I wanted to let you know Bianca was a gracious hostess. We mainly discussed wedding plans but also what it was like being raised by Barica, living under her tyranny. I must say Blaine, I'm shocked you turned out so well."
Blaine chuckled, "well, I have Kyle in here to talk sense into me. I think it helped us both survive."
"Your family is still struggling with the concept she's dead even though they verified that was her body before they burned it."
Blaine nodded, "she only used three abilities when she always carried five. The issue I'm having is figuring out why. I know the time stop didn't work on Lana which disrupted her plans. I removed certain abilities from the family ability book before I gave it to her, but she never used it. She was with us the whole time."
"She held it, though, while we fought," Lana chimed in.
Blaine turned his head sharply toward her, "did she look at it, chant anything toward it, anything like that?"
"Ummmm, not that I recall." She replied thoughtfully.
"The thing is, there are abilities she could use to come back in a different way, but I thought I took those away from her. My question now is, does someone who works at the company have an ability she could use for that purpose?"
Cere nodded, "the potential is there but for now, let's discuss the wedding. Can you let Kyle out please?"
Blaine smiled and nodded. Soon Kyle was holding Lana's hand. "Where do we start?"
"Well, the colors were decided by the jewelry we chose so that's done. What are your pet names for each other?"
"She's my beautiful butterfly."
"And he's my Love."
Cere was taking notes, more than likely sharing the information with Bianca to expedite the plans.