Hope

'When was it?' Thought Ray as his subconsciousness seemed to float within himself, 'When was it in my past life that I longed to be a hero?'

His subconsciousness suspended in air resembled his own self however naked and before his reincarnation. The things around him were those of his past and present of both his lives as images merely gravitating around him.

'Now that I think about it, shouldn't I have been a villain?' He wondered as an image above him played on repeat of his past life memory as a kid being bullied on the streets.

"Hey Ray!~ what you doing back on the streets pretty boy~ didn't you like get adopted or some shit" a slam to Ray's stomach had him hunch over spilling out the last of his stomach continents of what he had eaten earlier.

"Oh fuck! Nasty piece of shit, these are expensive Nike's!" A kick to the side of his face had him fly almost to the ground about a third away from his attackers.

"Hey you boys! What are you guys doing!?" Called out an older woman down the street as the boys scramble.

"Shit"

"Fuck" they swore as they ran for it as Ray laid on the street a little more in peace now than when he was being chucked around for a punching bag.

The footsteps approaching where quite loud however as the woman who had called out earlier dropped down to Ray's side. "Hey can you hear me!?" Her distress clear on the severity of his condition. "Hey if your conscious can you tell me your name? I'm calling an ambulance now-" Ray hearing that she was going to call the ambo (slang terminology for Ambulance in Australia) he grabbed her ankle surprising her.

"N-no… j-just pl-ease… leave…" was all Ray managed to say as the woman wondered what would make a young boy fear help. Looking around there was no one in sight but a few passing cars that wouldn't be able to see Ray in such a dark part of the street. Deciding against better judgment, the woman removed her heels stuffing them in her bag and grabbed Ray slinging him over her back. She carried him like a small hay barrel like she once did on her father's farm and took Ray to her place.

From entering her house, to her family's shocked faces, she placed Ray in a spare room and tended to his injuries. Any normal person would have called an Ambulance or something else but she thought back to his last words before losing consciousness.

Ray upon awakening after sometime feared the worst smelling disinfectant and seeing wipes and bandages beside him. He immediately went to get up but a hand from the left side of where he laid pushed him back down again.

"Don't undo all my hard work, those stitches were hard to preform" 'why is she here, where am I?' Ray thought. "You're in my house, don't worry, no one knows you're here except my family" releasing a sigh of relief the woman grew more curious about this boy in her care.

"I understand if you don't want to tell me, but why is it that you would rather die than except help from others?" She had seen it a few times. As a medical assistant nurse in her field, she'd witnessed men and woman alike run away from doctors that merely wanted to do good in their lives.

Ray didn't trust her one bit, he looked down at his bandaged body and decided it was the least he owed to her in terms of debt. Opening his mouth however to speak straight away was a mistake as Ray outburst into a coughing fit and his whole body crippled under the pain.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry I shouldn't of tried to make you speak upon just waking up!" Dashing out quickly Ray was left alone for a few minutes. His immediate response to this was an opportunity to survey completely around him. Something that was just second nature to do, 'two windows, one bathroom- might have a small window. One main door, a closet, draws- won't be hard to escape.' Just as Ray finished, the woman came back with a glass of water and two tablets in hand.

"I know I shouldn't be giving someone else's kid Panadol (painkillers) but it's all I can do for you" passing Ray the glass and two tablets, Ray didn't bat an eye at it as he chuck backwards the two tablets and washed it down with the water. It had nothing to do with trust, it was simply surviving and in order to survive you took risks.

Looking at the empty glass, Ray attempted to speak again, "I don't trust anyone. I can't afford too nor will I again- no, if I ever did again. They would have been through hell and back with me." The woman once again surprised looked at the boy in front of her before smiling.

"Well they say those who know your pain make the best companions in life." Ray looked up at her smiling face and seemed taken aback by it. "I'm Lesleigh, but the little ones call me Grandma- funny right?" He didn't smile or hint anything as Lesleigh simply sat there and continued to smile. 'What part of this woman was a 70 year old?' Ray confusingly thought as the woman in front of him looked only relatively in her late 30's?

From then on, Ray always seemed to check up on Lesleigh, as if he'd found someone that could fill the void of a parent that he'd never had. But even so, he still never really talked, not to her or anyone for that matter. He had recently run away from his 3rd placement that kinship care had placed him, he wasn't interested in those people. Just her-

'The kids really love her huh?' Ray watched as little kids danced around the woman like they were so happy that they could have burst into confetti themselves. 'Must be nice' Ray added in thought, the chances of him having something even remotely like that were 0 to none.

***

'What did I believe in back then?' Ray's subconsciousness continued to float in between the array of memories of his past and present.

He couldn't quite place it, that memory he lost- 'Where is it?' Ray's hand seemed to reach up as if waiting for that memory to return to him.

The memory that drove him to discover passion, love, trust and more-

'Hope' Ray's memory array seemed to stop gravitating around him on that on word. It was hope, hope drove him to be a hero for humanity in the war with monsters and demons that spewed from the first ever Gate that lead to the Spilt World.

The memories seemed to rush back into Ray's subconscious form and a light seemed to shine before a darkness seemed to dye his form to black.

'Even though I had hope then, they betrayed me' spoke a voice all around his now dyed black subconscious form.

'They betrayed me'

'They betrayed me'

'They betrayed me'

'They betrayed me'

'They betrayed me'

'They betrayed me'

'THEY BETRAYED ME!' Suddenly two red soulless eyes shone very brightly in the darkness around Ray's subconscious black form and there was a sudden change that pushed Ray out completely from his mind and awake to see himself sitting in a massive crater.

However his skin- his skin was black and he felt an additional asset on him, next to his spin just by noticing the weird sensation of it. Turning his head he saw it- 'Wings!?' He had wings! And not just that, but a tail too!? His skin was as dark as what he'd seen in his subconscious. His hair too had become white and as he felt the slight shift in weight upon his head, he touched his head to discover he had grown horns!

Ray had successfully combined his cores!