Nigen-Sei, Ishikawa Prefecture
**Salazar Residence**
Santiago glanced around at things in his home while Marlon Brando led the way. Wherever his loyal companion went, Santiago followed blindly. Helplessness cascaded down his face as tears dripped from his eyes. Marlon Brando wished to stop and comfort his master, but his canine instincts urged him to continue roaming around the home. Something about it, he felt, was helping Santiago keep his mind off what was troubling him.
"I can't believe I did that," he muttered darkly to himself. "I can't believe I stopped for Ena. Why did I fucking stop for her, of all people, and while I was on a date with Aira!"
**Flashback**
"Santi," Ena addressed him by his beloved nickname, "ES will never make it here in time."
"Don't say anything, just focus on not delivering your child here."
"Please, take me inside of your car and drive me to the hospital, please."
"Santiago, ES said they will be here in ten minutes." Santiago looked up at Aira, who kept Marlon Brando from attacking Ena. Santiago looked back at Ena, her body was trembling, and her breathing turned long and heavy, sharp and ragged with labor.
"Please, Santi, please help me."
"What should I do...tell me."
"Santiago, what's wrong with you? What do you want to do about this!" Aira asked him sharply, forcing him to make a choice.
Santiago picked Ena up bridal style, readjusted her position to be comfortable in his arms, and took her back to Aira's car. Futas watched and gasped on the way out as they watched the only man, other than his father, rushing to help a senior member of The Long Board. The same senior member who laid the final blows on his bloody and beaten body. Aira respected his ability to care for a woman, even if she was his ex-girlfriend, to look past what happened to him and help another human being; enflamed her with love for him. In short, he was a superhero in her eyes.
Ena laid in the back seat of Aira's car, fully strapped in as Santiago rode in the passenger seat with Marlon Brando on top of him. Aira drove as fast as she could, ignoring the streetlights. Cars were a luxury and a privilege for the select few in Nigen-Sei, so traffic was practically almost non-existent. The added absence of police officers made Aira drive dangerously fast. Santiago knew if this were Japan, the police would pull them over and fine them. Thankfully Nigen-Sei was a semi-autonomous nation.
In the back seat, Ena cried out in pain and gripped her stomach, clawing at it like she wanted to rip the fetus out of her uterus herself. A thick layer of sweat appeared over her face and neck; the pains of her contractions were killing her and forced her to cry out ever louder, no longer able to fight the pain.
Santiago wiped a thick layer of sweat off his sweat-covered brows and cheeks with the back of his hand. "Ena, I know it hurts you; I mean, I don't know, but please, for the sake of your baby, just hold on a little while; I promise you we're close to the hospital. I think I can see it."
But behind his false concern, Santiago could care less about Ena or her unborn child. Maniacal laughter belonging to a psycho blared inside his head, echoing into the darkness of his reservoir of sympathy, which he had none for her. "This is payback for everything you and the damn elders put me through. You don't deserve happiness, nor do the elders deserve peace and order here. As for that unborn life inside of you, I'd rather not think about it."
**Nigen-Sei Hospital**
Arriving at the only major hospital in Nigen-Sei, Santiago carried Ena out of the car and to the sliding doors of the back entrance of the hospital, where several nurses came rushing out to take the Eldest's baby's mother with them. Aira's call alerted every hospital and readied themselves to care for the second most important person in the entire hidden village.
"Give her here, Santiago," said a Futa nurse wearing burgundy-colored scrubs. Santiago was only too eager to hand her over to someone else.
"I hope we didn't get here too late," Santiago looked concerned, but his words were flat and cold. A mediocre attempt at trying to act worried.
"Yes, hospital staff will take Ena immediately to the delivery room, and after the birth of her highness, she will be moved directly to a semi-private room to rest until she can spend time with her child."
"AAUGGHH!!" Ena roared in pain.
Santiago could only stare at how much pain his former flame was going through. He wanted to feel bad, he indeed did, but her pain only satisfied him. The pain she was in was nothing compared to what he had planned for her, for all of them. A reckoning is coming for the entire village.
"Okay, I guess you nurses have it under control. I need to get back to--"
"Santi, WAIT!" Ena gripped his wrist before he could turn and dip.
"Uhm, Ena, you don't need me anymore. I told you before you beat the living shit out of me. focus on giving birth to your--"
"I want you to bear witness to our--I mean, my child. Please pray that it's a girl; please stay with me a little while longer."
Not since he learned of his mother's deception and how she and Hana had their way with Ena when they mind-controlled her had he felt so angry that if this were some fantasy novel, his blood and sweat would be steaming through his skin in a mixture that made boiling hot red-colored steam. As much as he wanted and wished to tell her to fuck off, he stopped himself from snapping at her in a gesture that made it look like he had Tourettes. The veins in his neck and forehead bulged slightly as he calmly rejected her.
"I would love to, but if I am seen anywhere near you while your birthing a princess or a boy, it may not bode well with the eldest. I leave you to the care of the hospital and the Futa goddesses."
Ena and Santiago's hands gripped one another before letting go and sliding free from each other's grip. She cried and wept, and Santiago watched her being carted away on a stretcher. Time felt like it was coming to a stop for him as he remained standing where he delivered her to the nurses. There was a time in the past Santiago would have looked forward to being in Ena's presence, to watch the birth of their first child. Alas, that would never come to pass with her; Never.