The moonlight filtered through the watery walls of Kairo's old quarters, casting rippling reflections across the room. Yuki sat near the edge of the bed, gently rocking the twins as they slept. Kairo stood by the window, his arms crossed, staring into the distance - his mind already halfway to the Sand territory.
The palace was eerily silent. The staff dared not speak unless spoken to, too afraid of Kairo's unpredictable temper.
"Kairo."
Yuki's soft voice broke the silence.
He didn't turn around.
"What?"
"You're planning to leave."
His jaw tightened.
"I have to."
Yuki gently placed the twins down in their silk-lined cradle, her fingers lingering over their tiny hands before she rose and approached Kairo.
"I'm coming with you."
Kairo's glare darkened.
"No."
"It's my home, Kairo," she said softly but firmly. "I know I'm unwanted there - I always have been - but it's still my home. I have to go."
He didn't respond. His gaze remained fixed on the dark ocean waves beyond the glass, his fingers slowly curling into fists.
"I'm not leaving you alone there," he finally said. "Dune won't hesitate to kill you if he sees you. Even though he is your father"
Yuki took his hand, her touch soft against his rough, battle-scarred skin.
"Then we stand together," she whispered.
Kairo clenched his jaw, but the resolve in Yuki's blind gaze cut deeper than any threat. She wasn't afraid. She had suffered too much to be afraid anymore.
After a long silence, Kairo exhaled sharply.
"Fine."
Yuki allowed herself a small smile.
Kairo turned, his voice cold and sharp once again as he addressed the butlers and maids standing quietly near the doorway.
"Listen carefully." His blue eyes burned. "You will watch over my children. If anything happens to them - if anyone touches them - I will drown this palace and everyone in it."
The staff froze, their faces pale, nodding frantically.
Kairo leaned closer, his voice a deadly whisper.
"And you will speak of this to no one. Not even Queen Veyra."
The head butler bowed so low his nose nearly touched the floor.
"Yes, Prince Kairo."
Kairo gave one last glance at the twins before pulling his black hood over his head.
"Let's go," he said to Yuki.
She adjusted her white hood and followed him - leaving behind their children, the only link between Sand and Aqua bloodlines, in the hands of terrified servants.
Sand Territory - Present Day
The scorching heat of the Sand territory hit like a wave of fire, but Kairo didn't flinch. His black hood rippled in the wind, his blue hair just visible underneath. Yuki, her white hood draped over her golden hair, stood silently by his side.
Before them, the Sand people had gathered - a mix of shock, fear, and anger rippling through the crowd as Kairo removed his hood.
Kairo's reputation preceded him. He wasn't just the Aqua prince - he was a wanted criminal in Sand territory. His very presence here was a provocation.
But no one dared move.
Dune, their leader, lay defeated - poisoned and unconscious after Wine's ambush. Their strongest warrior had fallen, and now their so-called traitors stood before them.
One bold Sand soldier finally stepped forward.
"Kairo, you're a criminal in these lands! How dare you show your face here?"
Kairo didn't blink.
"You have no right to protest," he said icily. "Your leader is down, your tribe is powerless... and if any of you dare to oppose me, I will drown you where you stand."
The soldier's mouth opened, then closed. He took a step back.
From the horizon, Wine and his Poison tribe approached - a sickening rainbow of elemental warriors. His grin stretched across his face like a predator savoring his prey.
"Well, well," Wine sneered. "Look who decided to show up - the great Prince Kairo and his little... companion." His gaze flicked to Yuki, his smirk widening.
Kairo's eyes darkened.
"I've been waiting for this," Kairo said softly, his voice dripping with quiet rage. "I've been tracking you for days, Wine."
Wine raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
Kairo smirked.
"I knew you were scheming something so I planted an aqua transmitter on you the moment I saw you slithering around the territories. That was almost a month ago."
Wine's face briefly twisted with surprise, then returned to his usual smirk.
"Clever."
Kairo's voice sharpened.
"That transmitter recorded everything - how you secretly whispered into Ragnar's ear, feeding his pride by claiming the Bug tribe was stronger than the Dragons. You manipulated him into attacking Mystra's people... knowing it would spark the war."
The Sand people's murmurs grew louder behind him.
Wine's smirk didn't falter.
"Ragnar was an easy pawn," Wine admitted. "But so were the rest of you. Once the war began, all we had to do was sit back, wait for the right moment, and strike when every tribe was too weak to fight back."
Yuki's hand tightened into a fist beneath her hood.
Kairo's voice dropped lower.
"Your plan wasn't just to attack Hax and Mystra after they were exhausted... you wanted all the tribes to clash - to wear each other down so you could finish them off."
Wine chuckled.
"And it worked, didn't it?"
Kairo's glare turned cold as ice.
"Until now."
Wine's army shifted behind him - a poisonous rainbow of Fairy, Magma, Nature, Ice, Sand, Aqua, Thunder, and Psychic tribe members, all granted elemental poison powers by Wine's drug.
Kairo stepped forward, water swirling subtly around his feet.
"You want this territory?" His voice echoed across the sand. "Then you'll have to get past me - Prince Kairo of the Aqua tribe."
He raised his hand, and a towering wave of water surged behind him - a wall of liquid fury shimmering under the desert sun.
Yuki, silent but resolute, stepped forward beside him. Sand shifted subtly at her feet, responding to her hidden elemental power.
Kairo's glare locked onto Wine.
"You may have taken down the others... but you won't take us."
The Sand people, still stunned by Dune's defeat, watched in silence - caught between fear of the Poison tribe and the unexpected shield of Kairo, the very man they once called a criminal.
The desert air crackled with tension as the battle erupted, the golden sands of the territory twisting and churning beneath the fury of clashing elements.
Kairo stood at the center of the battlefield, his black hood slipping back slightly, revealing streaks of blue hair whipping in the wind.
His elemental aquatic powers roared like a raging sea — water spiraled around him, forming torrents and waves that slammed into the Poison tribe’s rainbow soldiers.
The Poison tribe fought back with venomous blasts — toxic clouds, acid-like liquid strikes, and poisonous gas waves — each an elemental attack enhanced by Wine’s experimental drug. But every time a cloud of poison hissed toward him, Kairo countered with a surge of water, washing the toxins away in a flash of shimmering droplets.
With a flick of his wrist, Kairo sent high-pressure water jets slicing through the sand, knocking several rainbow soldiers off their feet. He moved with precision and control, dodging attacks, his elemental water flowing like an extension of his body.
“Is this the best you’ve got?” Kairo mocked, his voice cold and unrelenting. “You’re not strong enough to stand face to face with me.”
Wine watched from a distance, his usual grin faltering. Kairo wasn’t just a skilled fighter — he was a force of nature.
“Cowards,” Kairo continued, his words like knives. “Did you really think you could take over the planet by fighting like this? Hiding behind poison and ambushes? Pathetic.”
Wine’s jaw tightened. Kairo’s words struck deeper than the attacks.
With a subtle hand gesture, Wine signaled to several of his tribe members hidden behind the sand dunes. These soldiers, blending into the terrain, had been lying in wait for Kairo to be distracted — a classic Poison tribe tactic.
The hidden soldiers carefully took aim, poison darts glistening with a deadly sheen, and waited for their moment.
As Kairo unleashed another wave attack, blasting three soldiers into the sand, the hidden warriors struck.
A sudden barrage of poison darts shot through the air — dozens of them — aimed directly at Kairo’s back.
He didn’t see them. His focus was on the soldiers in front of him, water swirling violently around his feet. The poison darts sliced through the wind, seconds away from piercing him.
Then—
The sand beneath Kairo surged.
A massive sand barrier erupted between him and the incoming darts, forming a solid wall that deflected every single projectile. The darts clinked off the hardened sand and fell harmlessly to the ground.
The sudden defense stunned everyone — including Kairo.
He spun around to see Yuki standing there, her white hood slightly lowered, golden hair whipping around her face. Her usually calm, soft expression was replaced by something fierce — her brow furrowed, her lips set in a firm line.
The air around her seemed to vibrate.
Kairo recognized it immediately — raw elemental power.
“Yuki…?” he murmured, still processing what just happened.
Her blind eyes remained locked on the direction the darts had come from.
Then, without hesitation, Yuki raised her hand. The sand beneath the dunes shifted violently — reacting to her instincts — and, in a sudden quake, unleashed a Lands-Wrath attack.
A wave of jagged sand and stone shot outward, ripping through the dunes and striking the hidden Poison tribe soldiers. They cried out as the ground beneath them cracked and buckled, sending them sprawling — their ambush utterly destroyed.
The sand finally settled, and Yuki stood tall, her breathing heavy but controlled.
Silence.
Kairo blinked, still stunned. Her control over the sand… it was stronger than before. More precise. More instinctive. She didn’t hesitate — her senses guided her every move.
The Sand people, who had remained wary of Kairo and Yuki since their arrival, stared wide-eyed. They had known Yuki as nothing more than an undesirable — a blind woman from their tribe who was seen as a disgrace for her disability and her association with Kairo.
But this… this was something else entirely.
“She—she used a Lands-Wrath attack!” one of the Sand soldiers stuttered in disbelief.
Another whispered, “How can someone like her—?”
The shock in the air was undeniable.
Kairo, still somewhat surprised himself, slowly smirked.
“That,” he said, his voice proud and unwavering, “is to be expected… from my wife.”
Gasps rippled through the Sand people.
Wife.
The woman they had scorned — the "undesirable" — was not just Kairo’s companion. She was his wife.
The tension didn’t stop there.
Kairo chuckled lightly, still looking at Yuki. “Well, I guess it makes sense,” he added, his tone almost casual but tinged with satisfaction. “After all… she is Dune’s daughter.”
A dead silence.
The Sand people froze.
“What…?” one of the soldiers whispered.
Another stammered, “She’s… Dune’s… daughter?”
The shock was like a wave crashing over them. They had always known Yuki as a disgrace — someone their leader, Dune, had never acknowledged — but they never knew why.
Now, it was clear.
She wasn’t just an undesirable. She was blood — Dune’s own daughter — hidden away and disowned for her blindness, kept in the shadows while her father ruled.
And now, she stood here — not as a weak, forgotten girl — but as a fierce fighter, wielding her sand elemental powers with enough force to destroy an ambush.
Kairo’s grin grew wider as he took a step forward, water swirling once again at his feet.
“Surprised?” he asked the Sand people. “Maybe you should reconsider who you’ve been calling weak all these years.”
The battlefield crackled with tension.
Wine, still standing in the distance, finally spoke — his voice dark and simmering with frustration.
“This just got… interesting.”
Kairo’s glare hardened.
“It’s about to get a lot more than that.”