5 Chapter 4: Perfect Illusion.

Time passed, it has been six years since Angela's birth. These years have been eventful and a lot of things changed with us.

Angela, as expected, has got the same recessive gene as our father. My mother was panicked and quite sad at the news, but got assured when father said that he can solve that problem and make sure that Angela would never suffer her father's pain. Thanks to the early discovery of her recessive gene at the day of her birth, her problem was 'solved' and we never had to feel the pain of seeing her walk on crutches or wheelchairs. Nobody knew that what is within her is the T-virus except for father and me at the time.

Angela grew to be a pretty, smart, and lively girl, same hair color as our father and the eyes of our mother. She grew to be curious about every kind of thing, and inherited her father's intelligence as she sucked various knowledge into her head like a sponge, we were all proud of her. Playing with her all the time, we all grew attached to her. She was quite a cute and clever little sister, we all loved her.

For the Chambers, we had them as visitors at our home every spring and summer, which made our lives even livelier. I met Mr. Chambers at the time, who was a police officer back in their city, he was quite a handsome and serious no-nonsense kind of man. He was quite a tall man, same hair color and eyes as his daughter, he also had a nice looking moustache. As for Aunt Sarah, she picked me up from the ground like a cat everytime she saw me, abusing me. I got used to it eventually though; she abused me, but I know that she loves me. I also secretly liked the feel of her stretchy nips, and she, the pervert, the same.

As for the purpose of their visits; it was for dropping little Rebecca at our house. According to them; the workload on their shoulders were increasing everyday, as such, although Rebecca was smart and knew how to take care of herself, she got very lonely when they were not at home, and coincidentally, she met her Aunt Marley and little cousins that she got fond of, so she requested to live with us to her parents every vacation, and they complied.

My mother quickly accepted their request, fond of Rebecca herself and happy that her little sister will visit her more often. I, myself, was quite similarly happy, pleasantly surprised that I will get to spend more time with my new friend and cousin.

---------

It was the start of a perfect life, one where I could not get anymore happy and satisfied.

Years ago, after Rebecca's parents left at their initial visit, my mother snatched Rebecca to herself, taking her to her room for some 'girls talk' while instructing me to watch Angela for a while.

Seeing that they'll be busy with each other, I moved Angela's crib next to the sofa in the living room, where I dozed off; keeping half of my consciousness at attention in case Angela made some noise, until Angela cried a few hours later, to which I swung the crib and hummed to her to help her calm down. After she was happy, I finally had time to sleep again, but mother came back looking happy and satisfied, picked Angela up and told me to go back to my room if I wanted to have my sleep.

Complying, I obediently went to my room, only to find the 'Young Lady' of the Chambers hiding under my bed.

My room is fairly simple, there is a king-sized bed, a cabinet, a mountain of biology books on one side of the bed, and a basket of rubber balls on the other side. The Cephalo zombie drawing? I erased it after the bath with my mother a few months before. Nothing else was there, plain white walls with no pictures and only a big mirror at the ceiling facing the bed.

I have no idea what was going on in Rebecca's head to hide under my bed. Jump scaring me perhaps? I played along and got on my bed and waited.

I only had to wait for a few minutes before she came out, but there was no jump scare coming at me. Rebecca was sneakily walking towards the door as if no one will ever notice her. Right before she got to the door, I quickly grabbed a rubber ball and threw it at her head.

*PA!*

"Ah!"

Rebecca jumped, scared, then looked back at me and shouted,

"What are you doing to this young lady?!"

Why is she acting like I am sexually assaulting her?! Besides,

"What were you doing under my bed?!"

While I stood on the bed and crossed my arms, thinking of interrogating her, she pouted then walked slowly towards me while saying,

"This young lady only thought of your safety. What if there was a zombie under your bed? How can you be this ungrateful!"

I rolled my eyes at that dramatic but obvious excuse,

"Even if there was ever a zombie under my bed, who will protect me? You?"

While saying that, my finger was pointing at her up and down, I had a smirk on my face while my chin was tilted a bit upwards, making my eyes roll down to look at her eyes; my posture basically screamed 'I Despise You!'.

She got visibly annoyed that I won this little spat. She ran to the basket, grabbed a rubber ball of her own, then threw it at my head while baring her teeth.

I calmly tilted my head to narrowly avoid the ball by millimeters, spun my body to grab it from behind me and threw it at her head, still keeping the smirk on my face.

*Pa!*

She had her mouth open, looking at me in a daze. I noticed the rubber ball bouncing back towards me, I snatched it from midair and threw it at her again,

*Pa!*

She recovered, grabbed a rubber ball in each hand with wide eyes, screaming,

"AHHH! You've successfully enraged this young lady!"

Then began our battle, we spilled blood, tearing at each other's throats and ripping chunk after chunk of meat from each other, killing and destroying was the only thought left in our minds, until we both dropped down, more dead than ever. Nah, that didn't happen, but we, or rather she, still got a bit exhausted.

Of course, I won flawlessly. She was bad at the start but got better and better over time, dodging and making me miss a few times, her aim also got better, making me tumble down the bed distressedly, still never hit me though. This continued getting more heated over time, the rubber balls bouncing everywhere where we would avoid and snatch some from midair and try our damndest to try and hit the other party, however, it got interrupted when Rebecca sneezed, slipped on a rubber ball, then fell on her butt.

When it happened, I realized something that I was neglecting until now. Rebecca, she has had disorderly clothes and her hair was a bit wet since the start. Combine that with her hiding under my bed and my mother's previous satisfied look before she sent me to my room, then,

"You took a bath with mother then for some reason, without properly drying your hair and wearing clothes, ran up to my room to hide under my bed."

Rebecca was lying on the floor, taking the opportunity to rest a bit, she took a few deep breaths, then said,

"Your mother's a pervert! Moreover, she had the nerve to say that her 'little Eddie' feels better than this young lady!"

This looks like a side-effect of my mother checking the measurements of my still rapidly growing body everyday and everynight, making her getting a bit touchy with her children.

I snorted and said,

"Bah! Your mother's also a pervert. Besides, you should get used to this; you would get thoroughly touched by my mother everyday whether you want it or not."

"Huh? Everyday?!"

Rebecca sat up and looked shocked, I ignored her and headed to the cabinet saying,

"Come on, you could use my towel to dry your hair,"

I opened it but I didn't find my towel, I took a few steps back and saw that it was in the top shelf. I pondered a bit, thinking about how I'll climb up to get it but I got interrupted,

"Hey! Push me up!"

I turned around and was shocked as I suddenly found Rebecca sprinting towards me at full speed, I had a vague idea about what she wanted me to do, so I lowered my body, crossed my fingers, and moved my hands in front of me, palms upwards. Rebecca reached me just as I had done that, and stepped on my hands. I rapidly calculated the angle and the strength that needs to be used for her to safely reach the top shelf, then used my strength combined with the strength of her leg to forcefully change the angle of the momentum of her run to make her reach it.

She went up in the air behind me while I fell on my butt. Then I quickly got up and turned around thinking 'This brat is crazy!'.

I found her hanging on the top of the cabinet with one hand, her legs on the top shelf, stabilising her. She grabbed the towel then applied force on her legs, throwing her on the air again where she flipped and landed in front of me safely on her two feet.

I was speechless, worthily the first protagonist.

She turned around, straightened her body, and put the hand with the towel on her hip, looking at me with a face full of pride, she dramatically brushed her hair away from her face with the other hand before smirking and said,

"Extraordinary reflexes, extraordinary strength; worthily the underling of this young lady."

While thinking about how to change the subject, I grudgingly replied,

"You too, and in your dreams!"

"Enough about that, clean up this room with this young lady. This young lady wants to know how much you progressed in your studies these months!"

Beating me to change the subject, she said that while drying her hair; obviously with no intention to really help gather the rubber balls with me. I sighed, doing what I was asked to do; I also wanted to know how much knowledge I accumulated compared with her.

After that, we quickly went over what we knew. I found out that, my scientific fields is now only a bit lower than hers, but I exceeded her in biology. She got depressed at that, but quickly cheered up when I told her that we could teach each other the things we excelled in. We got engrossed discussing and teaching each other, with minor interruptions like eating dinner and getting her bag in my room so she could show me her own books, until it was time to sleep.

"Eddie, are there any interesting places in here? Like secret rooms or underground bases?"

We were both sitting in the bed side by side, I was placing the book we were reading on top of the book mountain beside it when she leaned on me and whispered that question in my ear,

I shook away the tickling feeling I had when she blew in my ear and started to think about a place with her description, a place like that quickly came to my mind and I grinned,

"Actually, there is such a place."

She leaned a bit closer, gently placed her hand on my cheek and turned my head to fully face her, her pretty face and glittering eyes entered my view, she whispered softly,

"Tell this young lady, where is it?"

Heh, not telling. I grinned wider,

"Secret."

She suddenly let go of my face then mounted me, we were fully facing each other as she put her hands on my shoulders and almost yelled,

"Where?"

She stared at me with dangerous eyes. When I didn't respond, she started tightening her grip on my shoulders every second, expecting me to hurry up and speak.

It wasn't like I was toughing it out and refuse to say that insignificant 'secret', to be honest, I was too stunned by this sudden violence to respond.

She leaned in closer, leaned close enough that our foreheads almost touched, I could feel her breath on my face, she said in a firm tone, as if it was an order;

"Tell this young lady."

Seeing her eyes occupying my entire view and feeling her breath on my face, I was suddenly shy. Heat rose into my face as it coloured deep red, I couldn't even reply to her.

Rebecca pouted as she leaned back. Noticing the colour of my face, she reached out her hand and pinched my cheek, then pulled.

I gave up.

"First floor, wall next to the stairs. If you push it, it will slide on its own to reveal an elevator."

Rebecca became happy, she motioned me to continue,

"Can you let go of my cheek?"

"Nope."

I rolled my eyes at that instant reply,

"It leads to a big lab underground, I was led into there once when I was a few months old. Mother told me that even she did not know that it was there before. It definitely qualifies as an interesting secret underground base."

Rebecca gave me a meaningful look and said,

"We'll sneak in there!"

Her protagonist's genes sure are going crazy, at this age too. Unfortunately,

"No way, there is only that elevator that could get us into there and it has face and iris biometrics. We can't sneak in there even if we bashed our heads against it."

Rebecca turned thoughtful for a moment, still mounting my waist and pulling my cheek. She suddenly looked at me in suspicion then reached out her other hand to pull my other cheek.

What is this?

"Let go!"

"Speak!"

Women are unreasonable!

"Although we can't sneak in there, we could always ask my dad to lead us into it."

Rebecca frowned, then asked a series of questions;

"This young lady barely saw your father at dinner, where was he the rest of the day? What is his personality like? How would you know if he would lead us into there?"

Can you let go of my cheeks ah? They're getting numb. I replied,

"Angela has got the same recessive gene as our father, and he is currently trying to develop a cure for her, which is why we barely see him. He is basically living underground, holed up in his laboratory. As for his personality, he is distracted nowadays and you wouldn't see it, but he's easy to get along with and would comply with most of our requests. I asked him to take me to the lab once, and he said that if my knowledge got to the level of a university student, he will let me watch him do his experiments. If my knowledge got to the level of a university graduate, he will let me do my own experiments. He will definitely let us go in if we asked him to but,"

"But what?"

I restrained my embarrassment and the urge to smack her which came up right after, then looked at her seriously and said,

"I don't want to distract him from making a cure for my younger sister, so I will ask him to do so only after he's done with it."

Rebecca suddenly let go of my cheeks, and rubbed at them softly. She looked oddly happy as she gave out a beautiful smile and said in a soft voice,

"When he does, and you finally could go in there, promise that you'll bring this young lady along, alright?"

Trying to calm down my surge of embarrassment again, I quickly replied,

"I promise, I planned to take you with me anyway. Even if he took a year or two to do it, by that time we will have both our knowledge at the university graduate level, and my father could let us do our own research and teach us further levels of knowledge too in there."

She moved her hand to my lips, rubbing her fingers on them, saying at the same time,

"You do that, if you break our promise,"

She gave out a sweet smile, lowered her hand to rub at my neck, her other one moving to the back of my head, and had her face close to mine again, this time our foreheads touching, feeling her breath blowing on my lips as she said,

"Your neck will break."

I bitterly smiled as heat began to gather at my face again, this sudden violent tendency I got introduced to didn't scare me a bit. It's that she gets too close to my face and is still mounting and touching me. My mother and Aunts are alright, I get the sense of that 'they're giants' so I don't feel shy around them. Rebecca is different, somehow, I feel nervous and shy whenever she gets too close to me, especially when it is this sudden. It's a damn torture, didn't she hear of personal space? It's not meant to be violated!

Rebecca leaned back, began stretching, and yawned loudly, she got off me before getting down the bed, preparing to leave as she said,

"This young lady will go and ask her aunt for a bed, if an Eddie slave carried me there himself, it would be good."

I got down right as she said that and pulled her back into the bed as she yelped.

I took a deep breath as she began staring at me, more likely about to go on another episode of violence, then successfully calmed down my embarrassment and shame that she has just had her way with me a moment ago.

I regained my composure, stared right back at her eyes, and said,

"You could sleep in my room."

Rebecca raised an eyebrow,

"Oh? You want to hug this young lady to sleep?"

Her asking that and expression either means that she doesn't want us to sleep on the same bed or she is provoking me to do it. I don't know if she minds us sleeping on the same bed or not, but I wasn't even planning to do it. I gave an 'Are you stupid?' face then said,

"I'll sleep with mother, obviously. Now, sweet dreams."

I headed to the door and opened it, but I heard a laugh behind me,

"Hehe!"

Rebecca was repressing her laughter as she was covering her mouth with her hand, her other one pointing at me, looking at me with eyes of ridicule.

"What?"

"Mama's boy! Pffft!"

"Hmph!"

I shut the door, then headed to my mother's room, annoyed. What's wrong with being a mama's boy?

The years progressed like this; other than upgrading my blood, I have been playing with little Angela, studying and doing the usual spats with Rebecca, later on going into the lab with her to do research, and sleeping in the arms of mother. Rebecca's parents occasionally coming to make our lives livelier once in a while, Rebecca's dad rarely visiting while Sarah visiting us every week. Sarah still snatched me up from the ground every time she saw me, her bragging about how smart and pretty her daughter is, while me bragging about how even smarter and prettier I am than her daughter, which usually starts our pinching fights, her shouting 'Naugghhhtyyy! Naughtyy!' everytime.

It was a beautiful life of happiness and satisfaction; a perfect life. Unfortunately, it could only be a perfect illusion now. One where I could only access to in my dreams.

That perfect life, that perfect illusion, is dead and can never be revived.

---------

8 years, home;

"Naughty!"

I woke up. However, there is only darkness in my room; Aunt Sarah, the beautiful blonde woman, is nowhere near me. There is only Rebecca and Angela sleeping next to me. I sighed, returning myself to reality and ridding myself of that fond dream. I am missing my mother's warm embrace quite a bit.

Angela sleeping in my bed next to me is not strange, she's been doing that for years, but it's not her fault. The reason why she got so used to me sleeping next to her is my fault, and not just me, it's my mother's fault as well.

In Angela's baby years, at night, I would be the one pulling her to sleep, humming to her until her eyes closed and breathing stabilized. As I always slept with mother, I continued doing it everytime in every night, which had a good or bad side-effect.

When my father hummed to her and tried to put her to sleep, it never worked. It was the same with Rebecca and her mother, on the contrary, Angela would cry as if to call out to me or mother to rid her of those 'strangers'. When I asked my mother about it, confused, she revealed a devious smile and told me how babies would get used to the movements and voices of the ones surrounding them, in my case, Angela treated it as the signal to sleep, and it would be harder for her to sleep without me.

I felt somewhat wronged that my mother did not tell me about it, only watching us by the side and having a smile, scheming to turn me into her daughter's anti-crying and sleeping device. However, when she gave out a victorious chuckle and asked me if I would continue to attend to my little sister, I answered yes without hesitation. I did feel wronged, but I also felt great pride that my little sister is so attached to me and my mother.

When Angela grew up, I switched my humming to drawing and telling her bedtime stories, already used to having her by my mother's and my own side. As such, having her sleeping next to me is not strange; it is expected, it is logical, it is natural.

What would be considered strange, is Rebecca joining us in our sleep and the absence of my mother. This however, has been the norm for a long time. I couldn't help but feel sad remembering the incident that happened two years ago.

People dying in our lives, especially loved ones, is always a hard thing to accept. In my previous life, I experienced the love of my life, the most precious thing I ever had, slowly dying before me; I still grieve over it greatly. In this life, I experienced another death of a loved one. I don't know which one is more painful, the slow death and the growing pain watching over them, or the sudden death of them, overwhelming with shock and pain. However, I do know that both of them take away the emotions you have had of your loved ones, turning them into the sharpest knife, and pierce it into your heart.

Two years ago, on my first day of school, my mother took me out in the middle of the second class, having a blank expression and reddened eyes. Knowing that she will tell me about it when we were alone, I grabbed her shaking hands and accompanied her in silence. When we got to the car, she hugged me and broke down crying. I was confused and panicked at her wails, but I still hugged her back and trying to pacify her a bit. When I heard her screaming that Sarah is dead, my head blanked, only hugging her tighter, trying to vent my shock and sadness at this news.

After we calmed down for a bit, she asked me if I could go with her to see her sister, and I complied. Although I was shaken, I was also aware that her asking me instead of just taking me directly is already uncharacteristic of her, she needed me by her side, more than ever. Besides, I was dead worried about Rebecca.

Mother sped through the roads, having a few close calls with stupid drivers, but we reached the Chambers' house pretty fast; doing it in a matter of a few hours from city to city.

When we got to the house, mother froze in front of the main doors, likely hesitating on whether to enter. Unlike her, I had no hesitation to do it, directly pushing the doors open and what I found startled me. Rebecca was standing in front of me, looking in our direction in a blank expression, recovering, I immediately went forward to hug her, but she backed away, looking at me with hostile and hate filled eyes, I froze, taken aback by her. However, my mother went over to her right after, hugging Rebecca; this time, she didn't repel it. Rebecca was shaking in my mother's embrace, crying, while my mother put up a strong facade, despite the way she, herself, was shaking and crying with Rebecca. I silently watched them by the side.

After that, we went to the hospital to see Rebecca's parents. We met Rebecca's father's acquaintances and co-workers in the police then we knew how they died. Apparently, a criminal Rebecca's father previously arrested wanted revenge, and in an attempt to kill him, slammed his car at top speed at Rebecca's parents' car, killing them, then dying himself by the aftermath of the cars exploding. It was hard for us all through this ordeal, but we comforted each other in our own way; my mother holding on Rebecca's hand, and I holding my mother's, trying to assure her that I'm by her side.

We stayed a while in that city, handling the inheritance of Rebecca's parents, successfully turning them all under Rebecca's name, and officially adopting her into our family. In the final day, we started packing to go back home. When it was time to leave, I went to look for Rebecca. I found her in her room, absenmindedly holding a picture, likely of her parents. She did not register my presence until I patted her on the shoulder, to which she shivered and blankly looked at me. I paid her strange behaviour no mind, she was obviously in grief those days and I meant to give her some time alone to deal with her parents death on her own, but it was time to leave. I told her that it was time, and I carried her bag with me out of the room, Rebecca following behind me, still holding that picture.

Rebecca started living with us since then, my mother and I taking care of her daily needs. My mother takes her to bath and sometimes takes her out to see the city and buy things that she would need in her day to day activities. Because she barely spoke and was in a blank state most of the time, I changed my approach and instead of letting her deal with her own emotions, I would try to entertain her, help her through various things, and constantly be there, just in case. My attendance paid off when I heard her sobbing in my room in the middle of the night, that's when I entered and hugged her without hesitation. At that time, she finally broke down loudly crying, scratching my back and biting my shoulder, trying to vent her accumulated feelings through this; my mother joining us in our hug later.

Since then, Rebecca got better, although she changed significantly from before the incident, it was better than her previously blank and despondent state.

It was definitely worth it to convince my parents to withdraw me from school for a whole year to accompany Rebecca, the wall she surrounded herself with due to shock and grief was hard to crack, I did not count on myself to heal the wound in her heart nor did want to attempt it, I just wanted to be there for her and help her stop the bleeding in her heart as much as possible.

As for my mother, she was also in grief as much as Rebecca used to be, but she put up a strong front, continuing on to take care of Angela, Rebecca, and me as much as possible, but that lasted only for a year. After a year passed since the incident, after I and Rebecca started going to school again, my mother's daily routine changed greatly.

My mother suddenly quit her job, going out more often, and spending sleepless nights enclosed in her own room; evident by the dark circles around her eyes and pale complexion every morning. She was also distracted during the day, delivering us to school and serving us our meals in a mechanical manner. When I asked her about it, concerned, she said that she is busy with something, and would need me to take care of the family in her place for sometime, which I complied to do.

It's now been a year since I was entrusted to take care of the family. I did not let my mother down, taking it upon myself to be responsible for the family which includes cleaning, cooking meals, washing our clothes, and also taking care of my father in place of mother; I tried to lessen as much burden on mother as I possibly could. It worked, the full responsibility for the daily work in the house belongs to me now, Rebecca helping me with it sometimes. As for my mother, she was relieved and believed that I am competent enough for it, so much that she completely focused on her work, only showing up in meal times and the times delivering and returning us to school, which I did not know what to feel about. My mother is still busy with whatever she is doing now, although it's been a year. Even my always-so-busy father noticed her unusual behaviour, but he did not interfere since we were doing fine. I still miss her though, I miss her so much.

I sighed again, it seems that I won't get anymore sleep. I opened my eyes and looked at my barely visible reflection on the mirror in the ceiling, noting that Rebecca is also awake and silently looking at me. Checking the clock on the wall, it's 3 am, way too early for school. After a bit of thinking, I gave up trying to sleep again and got down from the bed. Deciding what to spend my time on until it was time for breakfast, I went to change my clothes, and right as I finished putting on my shirt and pulling up my pants, I heard a voice right behind me,

"Where are you going?"

As I turned towards its direction, I saw Rebecca standing behind me, the darkness surrounding her, staring at me.

"Jog, and grab some things from the store along the way, you want some chocolate?"

She stayed silent and stared at me for sometime, then walked to the cabinet, stripping her pink pyjamas and dropping them on the floor along the way.

I looked at the dropped clothes then stared at her, discontented. I picked them up then sat on the edge of the bed, watching her.

I don't get shy anymore with Rebecca. Since she recovered, she's become much more comfortable around me, well, a bit too comfortable. Although my father built an additional storey containing her room, she almost never slept in there, instead, she sneaks up to the bed I'm sleeping on every night. She got so used to it that she simply moved her pyjamas from her room to mine, placing them in my cabinet. Sometimes, she would shower and show up in my room in her bathrobes, then change right then and there into her pyjamas. Of course, I got embarrassed. No, I got so shocked and shy that I tumbled down and hid under the bed, which she must have thought was fun, because she dragged me from under the bed to force me to watch her in her 'full glory' with a malicious chuckle. I got used to it eventually though, we're as close as siblings, so there is no harm for this in our young age.

Thinking about her clothes, I realized something.

"Hey! Those are mine you're wearing!"

It's only her pyjamas that are in my closet, her other ones are in her room. She continued wearing them and chuckled while saying,

"They fit me. Besides, I am accompanying you so you don't accidentally get a flower blooming red in your butt. Don't be such a cheapskate!"

I rolled my eyes. She's obviously just being the lazy person she is. I didn't reply and waited until she finished brushing her hair.

Rebecca is 14 years old. She's a full-fledged teenager now; tall and pretty. Her changes are big from the years before, physically and mentally.

For her physical changes, other than her height and looks, she has a strong and fit body. It is probably because she secretly trains, our violent activity before dinner, her good genes, or all of them combined, that she has muscles visible under her skin accentuating her beauty. She also has the thing every girl would cry for, a six pack. Although, even in my previous life, I wouldn't think that having a six pack is hard to get, the fact that it is very rare among women makes it impressive enough. Another thing to note about her is how rapidly she is growing her assets; her chest and butt. Her chest now is almost as big as her mother, which says something about her size when she becomes an adult.

For her mental changes, she also had some significant ones. Ever since she recovered, she's stopped addressing herself as 'This young lady', while also stopping the prideful tone she usually spoke with, which makes me miss it quite a bit. She also learned to hide her real personality, acting like a responsible no non-sense serious kind of girl outside the house while becoming her usual lazy, playful, and spoiled girl at home.

As for my own changes, I have the height of an 11 years old. My skin sticks to my muscles, accentuating them. Even when I don't flex my muscles, they would be clearly visible over my skin, and when I do flex them, they would get bloated, showing the extreme strength contained in my body. My bones are firm and hard, so much that I feel that they wouldn't get shaken even if I fell from the second floor. From my hard bones, my weight increased, making my weight two times of an ordinary 11 years old. For my looks, except when I deliberately use my real strength or recovering from an upgrade, I look like a very healthy boy and a bit too pretty; my red hair and blue eyes being more and more vibrant every single day.

For my mental changes, I did not change much. Except when I get the dreams of Aunt Sarah, my mentality is still that of diligently preparing myself for the apocalypse, repeatedly exercising and accumulating knowledge for my upgrades. Thus, the years did not have much effect on me.

"Let's go."

I headed to the door, thinking about the things I need to make breakfast, Rebecca following me.

*********

"Keep the change."

"Thanks, please come again."

I nodded to the cashier then went out of the store with Rebecca.

"You two know each other?"

Rebecca and I are now walking on the sidewalk, I am carrying the eggs while she is carrying the rest of the food ingredients in plastic bags she slung over her shoulders, the streets around us are empty and quiet save for the sounds of our footsteps, a typical atmosphere for the time before dawn.

"Kind of, you know that making our super-nutrient meals require a lot of ingredients to make, that store just happened to be the one to have them all at all times."

Super-nutrient food is something I decided to make less than a year ago. It consist of the same things we eat every day, except that they're filled to the brim with nutrients. Since it's filled with nutrients, not everyone could handle them. Everyone has their own rate of digestion and if they ate too much of them, their stomach would hurt, so, besides me, everyone else's dishes would only contain 3 or 4 spoons of food. To compensate for cutting their mealtime short though, I made them even more delicious than normal food, so they enjoyed them regardless, no matter how short their mealtime was.

Rebecca smirked and hit my shoulder playfully, she sighed dramatically and said,

"Here I thought that my little cousin is lovelorn, so unrequited in love that he can't sleep before jogging all the way here to see the pie of his eyes!"

I rolled my eyes and said,

"Your tastes are too heavy, she's too old for me!"

That cashier is 16 years old, she takes over the store during the night and changing with her old man during the day. They're a kind family, chit-chatting with me at times and insisting to walk me home when I come at times as late as this. I always refused to let them do so though, it'd make me worry about their safety instead. Besides, I have a secret stalker that would surely protect me if I had any sort of danger.

I think about that shameless stalker as I see a shadow flashing out of sight at a corner 300 meters ahead of us.

I stop, Rebecca following my action as she stares ahead in doubt. My eyes are enhanced so I saw that shadow's true identity in the dark before it hid itself. As for Rebecca, I think that she atleast noticed it when it tried hiding itself. Rebecca's protagonist template made her have many feats and I would not be surprised if she had enhanced eyesight.

The silence continues as we both stare ahead of us. I motioned her to keep silent and we both continued walking ahead, staring at the corner. As we approached it, I stealthily went ahead and stuck to the wall, motioning to Rebecca to keep walking. As her footsteps rang out ahead of me,

"Boo-Ahh!"

I kicked that shadow's feet to trip her right as she sprang out. I was about to laugh hysterically as I imagined her hitting her face on the ground, but she twisted her upper body mid-air and her hand came at me like a snake as she grabbed my pants. I panicked as I realized that she planned to take me down with her, I'm carrying the eggs on my hands, if I let slip-

*puff*

"..."

"..."

"..."

She fell down alright, I didn't fall and the eggs are still safe, the problem is-

"Wahahahahaha!"

My eggs up here are safe, but my eggs down between my legs are exposed for all to see. I got annoyed as I didn't think that my pants would get pulled down so easily, neither expect that Aunt Shana could grab both my pants and boxers and pull them down together.

I watched her unamused as she rolled on the floor in laughter until she began to quiet down. I held out the eggs in front of me,

"Ha ha, right, could you hold this for a moment?"

"No way!"

She ignored the eggs up here and squatted in front of me to stare at my crotch in interest,

"Hey, looks like your little bro will be quiet popular a few years later!"

She stretched out her hands to hold the 'little bro', but I luckily stepped back out of this bad woman's reach in time.

I turned to Rebecca to plead her to help with my eyes, but she's on her serious mode, staring at me seriously with her lips forming a thin line and all, obviously with no intention to help.

I sighed. Dodging the bad woman's other claw, I stepped to the side and turned to the wall. I put the eggs down-

*Pa!*

I almost hit the wall as I felt a sting from my butt. I endured the urge to yell profanities at the bad woman, pulled up my pants, then turned, furiously staring at her.

She looked at me amused then waved her hands,

"Not me, I already slapped you there once."

Seeing my disbelieving face, she casted a side look at Rebecca and said,

"It was your girlfriend,"

I stared at Rebecca, but she was giving me an innocent look and silently pointed at Aunt Shana.

I gave up resentfully, the two girls are as bad as each other, I couldn't tell which one slapped me behind my back. After being sullen for a while, I noticed them staring at each other, then remembered that this is their first meeting.

"Rebecca, this bad woman is our sports teacher Shana. Teacher Shana, this is my cousin Rebecca."

Rebecca smiled politely at Aunt Shana and said,

"Nice to meet you, Miss Shana,"

Aunt Shana stepped forward toward Rebecca and lifted her up, hugging her. Rebecca turned her head towards me, puzzled. I nodded towards her to assure her and let Aunt Shana do what she wants. Even though Aunt Shana looks like a sexual harasser by the way she is tightly hugging Rebecca while taking deep breaths, I know that it is not out of any malicious nature.

Aunt Sarah's death must've affected her too, and this is the first time I've seen her vent her repressed emotions. This is probably the only time she would get to release them, so why not let her? She deserves it.

Aunt Shana only hugged her a little while before putting Rebecca down. She sighed and said,

"Truly a smart and pretty young lady."

Rebecca's face changed before it regained its calm, then nodded to Aunt Shana.

"Thanks."

Aunt Shana smiled widely seeing Rebecca's reaction, then turned to me and frowned,

"What were you doing? Going out this late is dangerous!"

I shrugged,

"Our supplies for food were running low, I had to refill them. Besides, I and Rebecca could protect ourselves."

She stared at me disapprovingly before smiling and said,

"What protect yourself, you already have a red flower blooming on your butt. You're lucky you have Rebecca with you, from now on, you always have to be together when you go out, you hear me?"

Isn't because of you that I have that five finger print on my butt? Besides, I am starting to think it's Rebecca that did that to me, she's the one that mentioned me getting a 'flower blooming on my butt' in the first place!

I grit my teeth and was about to answer, but Rebecca beat me to it when she approached me, patted my shoulder and smiled towards Aunt Shana,

"You don't have to worry about that, I always have my eyes on him."

Aunt Shana gave out a toothy grin and raised a thumbs up to Rebecca.

"Keep it up!"

After leaving that incomprehensible encouragement, she turned and walked away, waving her hands goodbye.

I sighed, picked up both boxes of eggs and held on to them with my right hand, keeping my left hand free in case someone else decided to strip me again, then continued walking back home. Rebecca is walking beside me, looking pensive.

"Eddie."

I knew what she was about to ask, I still looked ahead of me while replying,

"You must've noticed, she knows you. She used to be a close friend of our mothers since childhood."

Rebecca asked, puzzled,

"Then why didn't she mention it?"

I non-chalantly told her Aunt Shana's behavior during these two years,

"She showed up in my school as a sports teacher, and told me to keep her identity as my aunt a secret, hiding it from everyone else except from my mother, and I complied."

"And?"

"When I went back home, I told my mother about it secretly, and she didn't tell me anything else aside from making me promise her to hide it from everyone else, including my father, sister, and you. Since then, I would see her around me, you, and my sister whenever we go out of the house."

I figured out that she's out there to protect us from all of that, and I started treating her as my teacher from school since then, except that she's a bit closer. I would bet that Rebecca would figure out the same from what I said as well.

"Why?"

Hmm, Rebecca's a bit suspicious huh? I would be suspicious too.

"I don't know, I trust Aunt Shana enough not to dig into her secrets, so I left it at that. You should do the same, she loves you as much as my mother."

Aunt Shana rarely comes out to 'meet' us outside of school, she never even came in our house, dedicated to her role as our secret protector. Her 'meeting' us and her behavior with Rebecca hints at how much she wanted to see her.

A smile formed on my lips as I added,

"She's as much your Aunt as my mother, if you're in any kind of trouble, you should seek her out."

"No."

Rebecca stopped, I turned around, looking at her, puzzled. She was looking at the ground, her fists clenched.

"What I mean is, why tell me when you kept this a secret for such a long time?"

Her voice had a bit of anger in it, I pondered on if I said something wrong, this is quite uncharacteristic of her.

Seeing me going silent, she looked at me angrily,

"I can deal with my parent's death, you don't have to tell me something out of pity! I am strong enough, I don't need your pity!"

I understood, this is an orphan's mentality when they get introduced to a new family. In Rebecca's case, she knew us from even before she got adopted into our family, seeing my manner to her changing through the years, she misinterpreted it as my pity out of her being an orphan, she was reminded of her parents in this encounter and this made her accumulated feelings explode. I was an orphan myself in my previous life, so I knew that if I didn't handle it appropriately, there would be a wall between us and her. Still, I replied to her honestly, what she thinks of us is her matter, treating her sincerely is all I want to do,

"You misunderstood, why I told you a secret I kept for years? It had nothing to do with your parents."

Seeing her scrunching up her brows and looking at me, I said sincerely,

"I don't need a reason to tell you about it, I don't need to hide anything from you. Rebecca, you're more than family to me."

More than just a friend, a cousin, a sister, or a character from Resident Evil. From our time together; studying, doing experiments, training, and sleeping, I know that she claimed a large piece of my life in this world. My life since 6 years ago always had her figure next to me. Thinking of this, I smiled unconsciously,

"We've shared our lives for years, I am quite fond of it."

I am fond of my time with her, this is the sum of what I think of this girl that is already an inseperable piece of my life.

Rebecca stood there, her face betraying no emotion, but her gaze softened considerably. I looked at the gradually brightening sky, then said,

"Come on, it's already dawn."

I turned and continued walking. Rebecca caught up to me moments later, then held my hand, crossing her fingers with mine. I raised my brow and looked at her in surprise, but she only faced forward with a smile.

This is the first time we held hands like this, normally, we would refuse to do it with anyone else as it would make us feel like we're kids. Though, I tightened my hold on her hand, we don't treat each other like kids, so it's alright.

We walked home, hand in hand, the rising sun shining behind us.

*********

I entered school when I was 6 years old, only a few months before turning 7. I looked quite older than my real age, so I expected to be unpopular and intimidating to other people in our class, but when I showed up, it was the opposite; I became popular and was surrounded by kids as soon as the first class was over.

The reason for my popularity, besides my pretty looks and rare hair color, is exactly because I looked older than them, which surprised me quite a bit. Although I was surprised, I handled them pretty well, but in a few weeks, it became a hustle. Although I had experience dealing with my little sister, integrating into groups of kids for an extended period of time is particularly hard to do.

I mean, I am not really a kid. Do I really have to act cute to integrate with them? That question rang in my mind as I thought about my remaining years in school, then I remembered my mother's stories of her years as a kid and decided to follow her example.

Like my mother, I helped them in their studies, commended them when they did something good, admonished them when they did something bad, entertained them when they were bored, and led them in the class' school activities. I continued doing so for the kids I knew even after I skipped to the third grade in my second year. The kinds of things I did boosted my popularity and made me a dependable big brother figure for the kids, that is, until my sister entered school as well.

When we registered Angela to go to school, we arranged for her to have an early exam to skip to the third grade. That way, both of us would be in the same class, and I could help her in her studies. As expected, she succeeded and skipped to my grade, she also didn't need my help for her studies, she's a genius. Since then, I planned to stay with her in the same class in the remaining years until the apocalypse.

However, due to her small age, the other kids were unwilling to talk to her, so she didn't become as popular. She befriended a few girls though and wasn't affected by the contempt of the other kids, which I was gratified for.

We continued our day to day activities until I once came back to class seeing 4 kids from a neighbouring class hitting her, which enraged me, and I taught all of them a lesson. The other kids both inside and outside class became scared of me since then, and I became a loner for some time now. I didn't mind it a bit though, everyone has to know the consequences of bullying my younger sister.

*Smack*

I jolted awake and the next thing I know is the feeling of the ground hitting my face.

"Wahahaha!"

I lifted myself from the ground, and became quite annoyed hearing that familiar laughter. She did it again.

This is the second break, which is after the 5th class. It was English, a pretty and talented woman was responsible for teaching it. She is quite amazing in her job, turning alphabets and grammar rules into songs of her own making to help us remember them. Among her students, I was particularly outstanding and she also noticed my positive effect on other kids' progress in learning, so she usually gifts me colorful pens, snacks, stickers, and chats with me a bit after class. Besides Aunt Shana, she's the only one close to me enough among the teachers to be friends. As such, when I became a bit tired, she allowed me to sleep in her class.

I was having quite a relaxing sleep when a particular bad woman scared me enough to tumble down and hit my face on the ground. I stood up and angrily stared at Aunt Shana.

"Haha, I'll race you to my office!"

She was out of the door even before she finished speaking. I got out of the empty class and was about to run after her, letting her know the taste of dust literally and figuratively, but I paused and went through an alternative route to her office. Although the one I'm taking is longer, I am fast enough to cover her in dust from head to foot. I formed a revenge plan and laughed maliciously as I felt the air violently getting displaced, my legs getting blurry from how fast I'm running.

I got there first and entered, hiding myself behind the door. I took off my shoes and looked through the gap, waiting for Aunt Shana. She was there a few seconds later, panting a bit, then looked back, searching for me.

I sneaked behind her as she was scratching her head, puzzled. I eyed her big ass in front of me and thought about stripping her pants, but I changed my mind and used my strength to kick her right in the middle of her bum.

*boom!*

"Aaaah!"

I watched her in glee as she flew and hit her face on the ground, sliding on her face and buns for a few meters before coming to a stop, then I put my hands on my hips and laughed hysterically,

"Wahahaha!"

She lifted herself and glared at me, her face red,

"Little bastard, prepare for a tickle hell!"

I chocked and went inside the office to hide, Aunt Shana jumping in behind me like a tigress.

After a while, Aunt Shana stopped torturing me, satisfied. I could've overpowered her and run away, but I couldn't get snacks that way, so I let her catch me. It's just that she was too excessive, I was left red-faced and gasping for breath on the ground, way too tired to move.

Aunt Shana stood up and walked a few circles around me, examining me as if I was a masterpiece. She rubbed her butt and glared at me,

"Now you'll never dare to kick me in there again, yes?"

I rolled my eyes,

"I'm quite vengeful. You reaped what you sow."

This whole jump scare each other thing started a few months ago, it was when I broke the noses of the ones that bullied my younger sister.

At that time, I was called up for this incident immediately. The school considered it a great deal and acted as if they were on the verge of expelling me, but Aunt Shana and my english teacher immediately defended me, saying that it's just a little bleeding and told them my behavior and grades in the past year, after that, the matter was put down.

However, the news spread to the students, and from the students to their parents, which caused them to tell their kids to stay away from me. I became a loner because of it and I got quite bored in the breaks, so I went to Aunt Shana's office to see if she got anything fun to do, only to find her snoring with a bunch of half eaten snacks around her.

This sight reminded me of what happened in the hospital years ago, so I sneaked up to her and blew in her ear, only to see her tumble down and fall on her face. I laughed hysterically at that only to stop at Aunt Shana's furious eyes and escape, I didn't go far though, she kicked me on my butt and had my face sliding on the ground.

It was the same as today, except with our roles reversing, so I enjoyed the pleasant feeling of retaliation quite a bit.

Aunt Shana pouted and said,

"You didn't have to kick that hard ah."

I crossed my arms and snorted,

"As if anything beside a hard kick could work on your big butt, if I kicked any softer, I'd be the one bouncing away. I didn't feel like I hit your bones, so it shouldn't have hurt that much, unless..."

My gaze at her became a bit strange as I remembered some kind of strange feeling when I kicked her before she flew away,

"...I hit a particular spot of yours?"

Her face reddened slightly, then I shielded my head as she began furiously kicking me while I was on the ground.

After she stopped after a while, she went to sit on her seat behind the desk and said,

"Hmph! Angela, you can come in now."

I immediately sat up, shocked, then looked at the door. There, I saw a small head peeping at us from behind the door. She closed the door behind her and cautiously approached us.

I coughed, then stood up, dusting my clothes, and trying to regain as much dignity of an elder brother as I could. However, before that,

"Angela, why didn't you help big brother?"

She glared at me and said,

"Would you cancel my private Yoga lessons from Teacher Shana?"

I shook my head,

"No way. Besides, don't you want to be like Pirate Queen Lufia, defeat evil bullies, and find the One Piece?"

Her eyes shone, but she retained her dissatisfied face and said,

"Lufia is rubbery because she ate the Rubber Rubber Fruit from that red-haired straw hat woman! Lufia didn't do Yoga!"

I was about to reply to her but Aunt Shana interrupted us,

"Hey, you got a nerve asking Eddie to cut off my joy time, you're asking for a tickle hell? Immediately get on the mat!"

Aunt Shana already set the Yoga mat while we were talking. Angela got on it and went to do the stances she was asked to do.

Seeing that Angela still looked dissatisfied, I explained to her.

"Look, Lufia did not do Yoga, but she still trained in the jungle with her big brother and big sister for 17 years. Yoga could make you both stretchy and strong, you could definitely defeat bullies and be a Pirate Queen as long as you do this."

Angela's expression eased, she diligently maintained the stance Aunt Shana told her to do and said,

"What happened after Lufia and Ace fell from the execution stage?"

Angela is a tough girl, I am proud of her. I jumped to sit on the desk and I got myself a big paper and a pencil.

"The execution stage collapsed as dust shot up to the skies! Suddenly, a ring of fire appeared in mid-air, everyone was shocked as this means one thing, and one thing only! Their fears and expectations turned to reality as Ace and his younger sister teared through the sky, Lufia's happy laughter ringing out through the battlefield!"

I drew on the paper while telling the story.

Since I became infamous, I started hanging out with Aunt Shana in her office, eating snacks, chit-chatting, or just sleeping.

Through our talks, I learned that she gained her fit body thanks to Yoga, a special kind of Yoga that could be used in fights. After the third stage, which Aunt Shana is currently on, she could use whip-like attacks that are not only extremely fast and powerful, they could also be sudden and unpredictable. There are innumerable benefits to that kind of training, it trains the body to be flexible, and takes advantage of that kind of trait to its extreme in combat. I immediately asked her to teach me, after learning all their training methods, I thought about telling Rebecca, and when I told her about it, I thought about adding Angela into our training as well.

Since then, I had Angela take private lessons from Aunt Shana and train at home in the evening. I knew that I had made a good decision when Aunt Shana told me that Angela is in the most appropriate age to do it and that she has great potential for Yoga.

Until now, Angela is still building her foundations for Yoga. The beginning exercises require her to do extremely hard stances for as long as possible, they soften her bones, and trains the core muscles of Yoga. The Split every man cries about when female dancers do them? Angela can now do things beyond a split, she became very flexible these months. She worked hard for this though, starting the training was particularly difficult for her.

In the beginning, after doing mistakes and suffering from the hellish tickle punishment a dozen times, Angela broke down crying and asking me what good being stretchy is. I was reminded of Luffy of One Piece at that time and had the great idea of telling his story to impress my younger sister's mind and make her more enthusiastic with being stretchy. It was also a great opportunity to make her learn the meaning of fearlessness, comradery, and friendship.

I also tweaked One Piece's story. I reversed the genders of the majority of the characters; Luffy became Lufia, Zoro became Zara, Sanji became Sani, Nami became Namo. This made it interesting as there would be no damsel-in-distress scenarios, there would only be this fearless girl saving those unfortunate men. This fit my intentions of her being fearless and get rid of the typical princess mentality.

Angela loved Lufia and became even more diligent in her training since then, and I spent every second break in school watching Angela training, telling the story of Lufia, and drawing an illustration for the part of the story. It became one of my favourite activities for the day.

"Lufia fell on her knees, hurt and exhausted, she saw her precious straw hat fallen in front of her. Lufia reached out for it, only to jolt and look forward, as a giant fist made of lava is about to take her life!"

"Boom!"

"Lufia could only look forward in shock, bathed in blood and despair!"

At this moment, both Angela and Aunt Shana paused, turning to look at me. I nonchalantly continued to finish coloring my drawing. I changed my tone to a quiet one to fit this part of the story,

"The blood of her big brother trickled down her face, as he stood in front of her protectively, a giant lava fist sticking out of his chest. Ace...Lufia called out to her big brother, shaking and unbelieving."

Angela's eyes were red and her tears were about to fall and Aunt Shana had widened eyes and is stubbornly staring at me. I enjoyed their reaction and continued,

"The lava fist withdrew from his chest, Ace coughed blood, and tilted forward. Lufia rushed to him in time, hugging him, crying and repeatedly calling his name. With his final strength, he picked up the straw hat and put it on his younger sister's head, whispering; Thank you,...Lufia,..for being my younger sister. Sorry...for not being able to watch you...be the queen of the pirates. Lufia could only repeatedly call out his name, hoping that this all would be an illusion."

Ignoring the sound of Angela's sniffling, I looked at my drawing, satisfied; it was finished.

"However, it was a harsh reality. The gift to Lufia, the paper connecting to his lifeline, burned thoroughly. Her big brother, Ace, is dead forever."

I showed them the drawing, it was of a cute and pretty black haired woman hugging a fit black haired man. It was from the back of Ace as he could only barely hug Lufia, one of his hands placing the straw hat on her head, while Lufia could only hug him back. The highlights of this drawing is of Ace's back with a gaping hole full of blood and Lufia's face bloody and filled with tears.

I grinned as Angela broke down loudly crying and hugging Aunt Shana. Aunt Shana hugged Angela back and stared at me furiously with red eyes,

"Why?!"

Why you ask? It's the story, how'd I know? However, I took this opportunity to raise my status in my sister's eyes. I puffed my chest and said,

"It's because he's her big brother, he'll protect her forever even if he sacrificed his life for it!"

I expected a heartwarming scene, but Aunt Shana only stared at me more furiously and Angela cried louder. I scratched my head and muttered,

"Did I say something wrong?"

"It's your sadistic smile, bastard!"

*********

"What did you do this time?"

When we adopted Rebecca, we had her temporarily sleeping in my room; the others weren't meant to sleep in and weren't furnished enough to be called a 'bedroom'. My mother initially had the idea of letting Rebecca move to her own room, mine, or re-furnish one of the unused rooms in the house and make it Rebecca's, however, father dismissed those ideas and said that he'll build a 3rd storey that will contain her room, and the rest as a big playing ground for us. He did build it, it contained a bedroom twice as big as mine and a playing room big enough to have a basketball match, the walls and floor covered with rubber tiles so we would not get hurt. Although Rebecca's bedroom was barely used and almost always as a changing room and her main storage of wardrobes, the playing room was used very frequently.

I am now in the playing room, where Rebecca is consoling Angela, who is having swollen eyes from her crying today.

Rebecca is looking at me with murderous eyes as she was hugging Angela, who is still looking aggrieved.

I was speechless, Ace's death was supposed to drive Angela to love her big brother forever more and here she is driving everyone against me. I grinned and said,

"It's a story about a big brother who valiantly sacrificed his life for his younger sister, you wanna hear it? It's very interesting."

Although there is the part where the younger sister paid more blood and sweat to save her big brother than anyone only to watch him die because of her, I didn't mention it.

Rebecca looked at me in disdain,

"A story where you could blow your horn as you like? Your narcissism is shooting through the roof!"

Aww, I secretly wanted to see her cry too!

"Angela, don't listen to Eddie anymore, he's a narcissistic bully."

What are you telling my younger sister?!

Angela nodded seriously to her and said,

"Big sister, beat him up!"

"I will!"

I got sullen a bit at this exchange, however, I could understand her feelings. Her favourite character, Lufia, struggled furiously, when she succeeded, and was in her brightest and happiest moment, I just had to drop her down to the abyss of despair. I truly was a bit excessive when I kept this part of the original story, even going as far as drawing an illustration of Lufia, miserable and despaired, but I don't regret it. It would be good if Angela learned to be as fearless as Lufia, but I don't want her to be such a reckless desperado. Diligence and stubbornness is not enough to save someone, power is required for it too. My later parts of the story will cover that and emphasize the importance of training.

I drove away those distracting thoughts as Rebecca took her stance a distance in front of me. Angela stood far away and was cheering for Rebecca. We're ready to start our daily activity for today, a very violent activity.

When I was 2 years old, I started browsing the internet and I found something that made me ecstatic. It was a publicly published military martial arts called Iron Fist. Iron Fist is originally an old martial art technique used to strengthen the hands to be as strong as iron and deal crushing punch attacks to the opponent. The military researched it and improved it tremendously. Now, if someone practiced the improved version, instead of just their fists, their whole body could be as strong as iron, dealing crushing blows with any part of their body. Although it is different and vastly superior to its old version, it still retained its name. I started training it since then.

I trained it for days, only to get disappointed by what I saw through my cheat. It was still a level 0. Although I could perform it easily to the third level on my tenth day of training it, and is considered to have a full mastery of it, it was still level 0 in my innate talent's eyes. Still training in it for 5 years and still not producing any changes in it, I thought that my innate talent somehow was bugged.

I was so frustrated that I punched the wall, only for Rebecca to see me at that embarrassing moment. At that time, she proposed a game where we would both vent our violent tendencies; beating each other up.

I agreed and we went at it. Although I matched my speed and strength with her, I still won. After she was beat up, her protagonist template acted and she got up stronger. That kind of thing repeated many times, making her harder and harder to deal with, using extraordinary fighting tactics. When I observed her closely, I knew why my Innate Talent considered my proficiency of Iron Fist level 0.

It is not a mastery when I use the technique with only my pure intelligence, strength, and agility; it is a forceful imitation. Proficiency is produced when the martial arts technique affects the body, arranging the muscles, bones, and nervous system to best fit the technique. While Rebecca gets the techniques imprinted to her body rapidly through each beat down, I was having a hard time doing it because of my own supreme body; it wouldn't bend in the face of such a 'low level' training.

A more important flaw I discovered with my body is my lack of control over it. Although my Innate Talent displayed my body's attributes, I could only use 70% of them; that, is a very serious problem. An expert could display more than 100% of his power, some of the masters going as far as 200%, while I was a trash who could only use a measly 70%, and that is only thanks to mixed training done in childhood. I could never accept it.

This is what made me immediately convince Rebecca to make this spar a daily thing.

Through the year, Rebecca got multiple times stronger, and I finally mastered the first stage of Iron Fist.

---------

Devil's Cheat - 39,666 Soul Force

Blood Enhancement Lv 79: Endurance +7.9, Vitality +7.9, Intelligence +7.9, Strength +7.9, Agility +7.9. (+)

Iron Fist Lv 1: Endurance +0.5, Strength +1.0, Agility +0.25. (+)

Yoga Lv 0. (+)

---------

I took a deep breath, then took my stance. I will use 3 points of every attribute in my body, matching the current attributes of Rebecca's.

*********

"Beat him up! Beat him up! Beat him up!"

Angela cheered as Eddie and Rebecca charged against each other.

Eddie punched at Rebecca's head as soon as they got in range, carrying all the momentum and speed of his run, however, Rebecca side-stepped him in time, decelerating and twisting her body to deliver a punch at his exposed stomach, only for her fist to meet his knee, deflecting it.

Rebecca jumped back then sidestepped, avoiding Eddie's chop at her neck and kick that followed right after, she kicked his knee then attempted to deliver a powerful high kick to his ribs, only to be intercepted by his elbow.

This exchange continued a while, Eddie delivering continuous attacks while Rebecca dodging and occasionally striking. However, Eddie's could only hit when he deflects her attacks and Rebecca could only slightly disrupt his balance, which proves ineffective as he restores it quickly backed by his weight; it's a so-called stalement.

As such, it turned into a situation where neither side could deliver an effective strike, making this a battle of endurance. This situation didn't continue for long though,

Rebecca tricked Eddie by advancing instead of usually retreating to dodge his punch, simply leaning back as his fist passed harmlessly above her face, then springing right back up accompanied by a fist that definitely broke his nose. Rebecca suffered the consequences though, as she was kicked straight in the middle of her torso, sending her flying.

She recovered quick enough to dodge the heel kick and other attacks that followed right after by a bloody faced Eddie, seemingly unaffected by her previous attack, then it turned into a stalement again.

Angela couldn't help but quiet down at this sight. She feels nervous and worried about them everytime they play this 'game' of theirs. She knows the violent nature of this game, heck, it is a core part of it, but she can't help worry about them.

She can tell that they're both in pain no matter how much they denied it to her in the past. In this battle, Rebecca's arms are slightly shaking as she still recieves damage from Eddie deflecting her attacks with his own and she traces the middle of her chest once in a while, clearly feeling great pain from them, and Eddie is bleeding and his nose is clearly broken.

Although her worries diminish when their bruises disappear overnight, the daily activity itself makes sure that they're always hurt somewhere at all times, a voice in the back of her head always tells her that this is definitely not healthy, so times such as these always gets her worried again.

About the thing that gets her nervous, it is something else entirely; it is their eyes. When they fight, their atmosphere and their look towards each other is completely different. Not acknowledging each other as a sister and a brother and only as if they're their worst mortal enemies. When they fight, their eyes are only of brutal indifference.

From their lectures to her about fighting and dealing with pain, Angela could guess that she will be joining them in their fight in the future. However, she can't imagine any one of them looking at her in such a way. If they did, it'd be too fearful.

Angela's thoughts focused on the fight again as she took in a breathtaking sight,

Rebecca ran at Eddie, avoiding his fist and accelerating even further. She dextrously avoided Eddie's other blows and used his knee that he was about to attack her with as a support to jump and drive her knee into his chin.

She was high up in the air like an angel soaring to the sky, cool and dazzling in Angela's eyes.

The momentum of this strike stunned Eddie and lifted him up from the ground, Rebecca took advantage of this, positioning herself behind him and locking his limbs before they both hit the ground. Eddie recovered and was about to struggle free, but he was interrupted by Rebecca's shout,

"Angela! Beat him up!"

Angela was surprised, but immediately ran towards them. Rebecca's devious smile and Eddie's helpless face did not enter her mind as she only focused on readying her fist.

When her fist made contact with Eddie's face, she only had one thought in her mind at this moment; This is for Ace!

*********

It was dinner time; me, Rebecca, Angela, and mother were eating our food. I already delivered father's food to his lab. Times like these, I wish I hadn't made those super-nutrient food; it made our dinner time too short.

Mother finished her food and immediately went upstairs to her room, leaving an awkward silence. I noticed Angela's longing look at mother's seat and sighed gently.

It has been like this for a long time. My father left the house's responsibilities, so he could focus on his work, to his wife, my mother; that is why we barely see him at times. My mother, during these two years, did the same; handing the house's responsibilities to me, which made up the same result. I wonder if mother knows how much greater an impact she has on us, if she knows how much we miss her.

"Time for a bath, Angie."

"...Alright."

Rebecca took Angela upstairs so they could have a bath, leaving me in the dining room.

I sighed then started gathering the dishes, preparing to wash them. I shifted my uncomfortable thoughts to our training today,

Iron Fist martial arts is that of continuous heavy attacks towards the oppponent, one with no blocking or parrying actions. Rebecca's style on the other hand is that of finding the flaws and using them to the extreme. Her style counters mine exactly, without blocking or parrying, normally, I would lose in the first few exchanges. In the face of my continuous attacks, she would only keep her distance and take advantage of the flaw of my martial arts to keep me down forever, even if the flaw was non-existent, she'd use trickery and all kinds of other means to create it. I have to admit, as a fighter, she has both greater talent and higher grade martial arts than me. I refused to simply lose though, improving myself in every fight enough to eliminate the flaw of the martial arts without changing it. Iron Fist now is still that of continuous heavy attacks, except that now even the opponent's attacks are included in its range, making it even harder to deal with.

As for her higher grade martial arts origin? She refuses to say. The stunt at the end of the fight today was clearly one, the way her speed instantly jumped 2 times and mastery of control of her momentum to transfer it all to her knee is not normal. If all of that is done intuitively, then Main Characters sure are blessed. I grinned. I, a reincarnator, should also be considered to be blessed.

I finished washing the dishes then lifted the bag I prepared for tonight, heading to the playing room again.

My main reason for studying biology and doing research alone in my father's lab is for reducing the cost of upgrading my blood, the more I know about the next stage, the more I know about its way of advancement, the less the cost it takes for my cheat to calculate and advance it.

---------

Devil's Cheat - 39,666 Soul Force

Blood Enhancement Lv 79: Endurance +7.9, Vitality +7.9, Intelligence +7.9, Strength +7.9, Agility +7.9. (+)

Iron Fist Lv 1: Endurance +0.5, Strength +1.0, Agility +0.25. (+)

Yoga Lv 0. (+)

---------

Every 10 levels, the backlash from the upgrade gets doubled and redoubled, which is why I brought the bag with me tonight; they contain 6 bottles of compressed super-nutrient milk, which should be enough for this upgrade. I drank all of them then took a deep breath, readying myself for the backlash even before it happened.

I focused my mind on Blood Enhancement and willed it to advance. I felt my blood through my veins and all parts of my body freeze, then compress, compress more, and some more; pain accompanying me in the whole process until it got relieved by the addition of my soul force taking care of all nessecities of the transformation. My blood was upgraded, however, it wasn't over yet,

"...ugh!"

I grit my teeth as I felt my blood tearing through my skin, organs, even bones. The sounds of my body breaking down before being rebuilt again thundering in my ears. It was painful, too painful; and to my horror, the nutrients in my body were getting consumed at an overwhelming rate! If this continues, I'll get crippled, or even worse...die.

As my consciousness is getting more and more faint, an icy cold feeling entered the back of my head and I opened my eyes. In my fuzzy vision, a smiling Rebecca entered my view.

*********

Scenes of ancient battles rapidly ran across Rebecca's mind. They're memories of winged creatures with great strength fighting legions upon legions of undead skeletons. Those winged creatures are the divine beings, the Valkyries. Rebecca woke up, her eyes filled with bloodlust.

Rebecca calmed herself down as she scanned her surroundings. She is in a bathtub, Angela already finished and went to bed, most importantly, she is alone.

Checking her body, her bruises already disapeared and she is feeling even stronger than before. She relaxed her tensed body and went into a short meditation, familiarizing herself with the battle experience gained from today's memories.

Rebecca is originally a so-called reincarnator. Someone who died and was resurrected by a so-called Goddess in order to complete a 'great mission'. She would have scoffed at such a thing in her previous life. In her mind, death is eternal.

However, the fact is that she did meet a goddess, and death in front of that powerful being is not so eternal.

That Goddess' name is Anseria. According to her, she is the strongest being in the remaining cosmos, but is still in need of an army to fight her mortal enemy.

Her mortal enemy is Doom, the incarnation of despair. In order to defeat it, she needs to mobilise all what was left in the cosmos, and every living being in her reach.

Facing an immensely powerful enemy, Goddess Anseria will recruit every single fighter in the cosmos as her soldiers. For that objective, she needs the elite to lead them, Rebecca has the potential to be such a person.

Rebecca is the very first to be summoned by Goddess Anseria, that is because of the great potential of her innate talent; which the Goddess conveniently awakened while summoning her. Her innate talent is of war and death, constant slaughter would make her stand at the top of the cosmos. Because of the constant emergance of the memories of Valkyries while awakening it, Rebecca named her innate talent Queen of Valkyries.

The Goddess way of training Rebecca and her future elites is of sending them on missions to deadly worlds, with the rewards consisting of what they desire; of course, it depends on their contribution.

Rebecca has a particular wish she wants to realize, which is how she found herself on her first world; Resident Evil.

Rebecca got out of the bathtub. Ignoring the popping sounds of her body and splashing water, she wore her bathrobes and went on her way to the bedroom.

Angela is asleep, likely tired from the activities today, but Eddie is still not here, unusual. She rapidly changed to her pyjamas then got out of the bedroom.

She went to the kitchen, the dishes were cleaned. She checked the rest of the rooms downstairs, they were cleaned, most likely Eddie's handiwork, but he's still not here.

She went upstairs, checking the rooms and outside through the windows rapidly, until she got to the third floor; the playing room's door was open.

Checking the knife she hid behind her waist, she entered the playing room.

A figure was lying on the floor, hugging his legs, twitching with every indistinct cracking sound that's coming out of his body.

"It's time, huh?"

Rebecca coldly looked at Eddie, taking out her knife and slowly approaching him.

She waited for this moment for a long time. The moment the time bomb named Eddie to go off in this household. He certainly held on for a long time, but his condition didn't escape her eyes as he got more and more unstable through the years.

When he erupts, he'll most likely attack his mother, who will make a counterattack that will kill the both of them together. The mother and son perishing together is the only way explaining their disappearance in the movie. It also fits the theme of this sick world.

Rebecca is certainly lucky that she encountered him exactly in his moment of transformation.

Rebecca's War part of innate talent function is making her stronger through every battle; that is, if the opposite party is equal to or stronger than her. She rapidly gets strengthened everyday, however, she could never enjoy it. Every large increase in her power is every proof that Eddie is more than twice stronger than her. Knowing his true nature makes her even more desperate about her mission and future. This, is probably her only chance she will ever get to kill this monster.

Rebecca approached him then held his shoulders, no response, he is still in pain from his transformation. She lifted him up, positioning her knife behind his head, and looked at his face carefully, appreciating it. Remembering her Death part of innate talent, she grinned. No matter how much he is stronger than her, as long as she kills him, his strength and his soul would be hers. She applied pressure to her knife, feeling it pierce through his skin, and his skull.

Suddenly-

Eddie opened his eyes, blood-red threads swimming through them, giving him a haunting look. Rebecca scrunched up her brows and was about to apply greater pressure on her knife, as long as it reaches his brain, it's over, but his whispers made her pause;

"My room, Key under cabinet, Shelf, Bottles-"

*Cough Cough*

Rebecca frowned and removed her knife as Eddie started a weak coughing fit. She hesitated a bit as she watched his shivering form, then went downstairs to his room.

She found the key and opened that shelf, finding it filled with shining bottles, taking out one of them and observing its contents, she saw tiny spheres inside the white liquid, releasing the light from inside the bottle. She took Eddie's school bag, filled it with those bottles, and ran up the stairs.

Eddie is still conscious, looking towards her, but still suffering a great pain. She took out a bottle and made him drink it. She noticed his body lessen its shivering and veins deflate and gradually return to its normal color. She let him drink by himself and took out one of the bottles still in the bag, examining it.

Rebecca shook her head as she couldn't identify what's in it, but she could guess that it should be something to suppress the T-Virus contained inside of Eddie. She waited until he finished drinking his 6th bottle and relax before raising that bottle and asking,

"What's this?"

Eddie reluctantly smiled and replied,

"Super-nutrient milk, something that I take when I'm really-really hungry or else, I can't bear my thirst and hunger and end up eating you whole! Hahaha-"

His laughter was interrupted as Rebecca sprang up and punched him in the face, knocking him out.

"Liar."

One of the reasons Rebecca spared Eddie is because she can't get away with killing him easily at this stage; being exposed with a murder is a hindrance to her future plans. However, it wouldn't be a hindrance she couldn't clear away, so it wasn't the main reason she did so. Actually, the main reason she endured this temptation is the endurance Eddie showed so far time & time again. This encounter only confirmed it. In each and every eruption of the T-Virus, Eddie would endure it, resolute to not let it take control over him. His resiliency amazed her, so she took a gamble and got those bottles for him, purely so she could see if he could endure it again; he did not disappoint her.

She could deduce his condition that left her puzzled through the years easily now. He is atleast twice as immune to the virus as Albert Wesker, but Eddie is also different from Wesker and did not become as dependent on it as he did. Instead of integrating with the virus, Eddie resisted it with all his might. Although he did not get the instaneous power ups of Wesker because of this, his body still mutated by itself from the stress of resisting it; becoming weak and pale after every eruption, but still getting stronger as his body copes with it.

She could be sure of it from the times she drew his blood through the years. His blood is of a microscopic war filled with mutated cells. The mutated cells are like locust sweeping everything around them, eating all the other cells and debris around them, only to collectively die or explode to more cell debris a few minutes later. She can conclude from this that all his cells, especially his red cells, are infected and mutated from the stress of resisting the virus. If it couldn't, it'd either die or get teared apart from the stress or the anti-virus; it is also hindering the T-Virus from eating them this way, evident by the cells exploding to unrecognizable mess and taking out the virus along with them. The eruptions Eddie's body endured must be so much his body learned to cope with the virus in such a way. However, how long could Eddie last? If it eats him, could she really defeat it? Could anyone defeat it?

Rebecca shook her head. More and more, it seems to her that Eddie's true identity is of the final boss.

Rebecca flipped Eddie to his stomach, running her finger on the wound on the back of his head, examining it. It already stopped bleeding and she could guess that it is on its way to heal; she expected this, he is a monster after all. She ran her fingers across Eddie's hair as she thought about him.

Eddie is still a time bomb in this house, his amazing resiliency and her actions today merely delayed what's already inevitable, that's all. Judging from the amount of Anti-Virus he consumed just now and his fiercer and fiercer eruptions through the years, the virus is already at the stage beyond any kind of cure. In the future, she can bet that the anti-virus' effect would expire on him, even his resiliency no matter how strong it is could run out and lose its effect; by that time, she will still have to kill him,...if he did not kill her first.

Rebecca traced the knife on her back.

Killing Eddie now is still the best option; he is weak, it would be without any casualty, she will get multiple times stronger, and this is possibly the best chance she will ever get to do it. However-

"More than family to you, huh?"

A stupid confession, but it finally convinced her that this monster has a human side to him. A human side that is a young child named Eddie. A brave young child that is doing his absolute best to fight his destiny. A strong young child who does his best for his own family despite his own misery. A pitiful young child that is extremely attached to her, someone who is constantly thinking about killing him. For all of that, she secretly admires him.

"Shared our lives for years, and you are fond of it."

A childish and silly confession, but it opened a new possibility. If Eddie continued to endure his eruptions and continued getting stronger, wouldn't he be the best candidate to be her partner? Instead of having to go against the apocalypse alone or with weak people, why wouldn't she have a monster as her partner?

Rebecca is also fond of their time together, she studies faster and the main contributer to her increase in strength without slaughter is him. More importantly, with him, she enjoys life a bit more than she would like to admit. She realized that without him, she'd be miserable. That's why-

Rebecca carried Eddie on her back as she went down the stairs.

That's why, she will no longer try to kill him. This time, she will believe in him.

After all, he's her future partner.

*********

"Take care of my daughter, naughty kid. She is willful, but you have to admit that she is really cute, yes?"

This beautiful woman lightly pinched my cheek as she said that, I rolled my eyes in response,

"Yeah, yeah, it's not like she's older than me. Why don't you take care of her instead?"

She tightened her hug on me from behind and got closer to bite my earlobe, then whispered in my ears,

"Well, you know, I'm already dead."

I woke up. It's the familiar darkness around me, with no sign of that beautiful blonde woman. I sighed.

My body is sweaty, likely the result of my fever and various aches on my body, especially the flaming one on the back of my head, it's the one giving me the most agony. Checking the clock, it's midnight; I'm late.

I grit my teeth as I got down from the bed, almost losing my balance. I put my hand on the wall for support as I am mentally readying myself for the pain to come. I took a deep breath. Cold biting pain went through my nose and spread down each inch of flesh down through my throat until it reached my lungs; places a normal person shouldn't even feel. Hot tearing pain came back out, leaving out the crushing pain on my lungs. The pain kept prompting an intense cough, but I held it down; I know that the pain would get ten times worse if I did.

I endured 10 breaths as I started familiarizing myself with the various pains on my body, feeling my mind clear and having more capacity for enduring this pain. This is already a routine thing for me. Everytime I wake up with the drawbacks of an intense upgrade, I would have my mind occupied mostly by pain and unknowingly on the verge of passing out. Getting up efficiently gets me through the most intense waves of pain directly and deep breathing, no matter how painful it is, makes sure that I get enough oxygen to drive out the fainting haze covering most of my consciousness. Although each drawback is ten times worse than the last, this routine still works for me.

Feeling my mind clear and my pain capacity increase enough, I got my pyjamas and towel then walked to the bathroom steadily.

As I stripped myself off my clothes, I kept trying to familiarize myself with this new kind of pain I am having; the flaming one on the back of my head. Finished stripping myself off clothes, I subconsciously traced the back of my head and paused, the pain spiked but most importantly, I feel something stuck on my skin. I ignored the pain and teared a small part of it then brought it infront of me. It's dried blood. I traced it again carefully, feeling the shape of the wound on top of my skin, then closed my eyes and focused on the source of the pain carefully. The pain is from the surface of my skin to halfway through my skull. It's shape is like...the tip of a knife. When did I get stabbed? Moreover, in the back of my head?

Enduring my headache and combing through my memories of yesterday, I remember no such event. Getting a fiercer and fiercer headache, I sighed and went into the shower; no rush, all I have to do is think about it slowly.

After rubbing myself and washing my hair, I sat in the bathtub for a while. There is only one instance that is related to the stab wound that I could remember; the cold feeling on the back of my head when I was undergoing the upgrade, that cold feeling and the flaming pain I am undergoing now are in the same spot. The one who stabbed me could only be...

I got out of the bathtub, dried myself, then rapidly wore my pyjamas. I went down to the first floor and entered the kitchen, then started openning the drawers until I found a particular knife.

Since I took care of the household work, I frequented the kitchen a lot; it is basically my domain. As such, I would know everything about it. The special knife that I found is from a different set of knives than the one I bought a few months ago, it was from the older set. Moreover, it was missing for a long time. The one who took this knife and kept it with her all this time is obvious.

I picked up the knife then smelled it, I screened off the pain and focused on its smell. As expected, it is a smell I couldn't be more familiar with; it is the smell of my own blood. I put the knife down and closed the drawer.

This confirms it, Rebecca stabbed me in the back of my head. If I wasn't in the middle of upgrading or opened my eyes a second slower, I would have died by her hands.

I closed my eyes and clenched my fists as I got increasingly frustrated. Why?!

"What are you doing?"

A voice rang out behind me. I took deep breaths until I calmed down, then turned to Rebecca.

"Making some snacks for Mom, you want some chocolate and bread?"

I went to open the fridge and prepare the snacks for mother, expecting her to ignore my question and do her own thing, but she had me surprised.

"Yeah,...make me some chocolate and bread."

I went to make her snack, and gave her a cup of milk. She sat silently eating it, watching me.

My face was emotionless as I prepared the snacks of mother; it's the same as Rebecca's, but with coffee instead of milk. Various thoughts ran across my mind until they were cleared when I reached my mother's bedroom door. I took a deep breath then knocked on the door,

*Knock* *Knock*

"Enter."

I entered the room, closing the door behind me, then walked towards mother. It was dark in the room, the only light shining was from the laptop, Mother's focus was something on it, more likely the thing she busied herself with all this time. She turned the laptop away as I got closer to her then faced me,

"You're late."

I handed her the coffee and put her snack on the table next to her, I focused on her face; she's clearly tired, as usual.

"Sorry mom, I got too tired from today and unknowingly fell asleep."

She waved her hands and sipped her coffee, her facial features getting slightly better,

"It's alright. As usual, tell me about your activities today."

This is the last daily acitivity, reporting what happened in the day about me, Rebecca, and Angela to mother. This way, she would know our state and keep up to date with us. This is also a way to make her innermost feelings relax, knowing my mother, seperating with us for so long must also be a suffering for her. I was supposed to go to her right after cleaning up the kitchen, but I got delayed.

"Well, first of all, Aunt Shana met Rebecca."

"Oh...?!"

Her eyes lit up as she put down her coffee, motioning me to continue.

"After Aunt Shana played a little prank on me, I introduced them to each other, and Aunt Shana hugged Rebecca right away."

Mother put her hands on her chin and thought a bit.

"That's good."

"The thing is, Aunt Shana gave herself away while talking with Rebecca, so I explained Aunt Shana's status with her afterward. I'm sure that Rebecca will keep it a secret."

Mother relaxed and said in a nonchalant tone,

"Don't worry, meeting Rebecca in itself is an ok sign from Nana to let Rebecca know her status. You did good."

I relaxed as I told her the rest of our activities for today, watching her eat her snack and sip on her coffee, occasionally laughing at Angela's antics.

"...overall, Angela and Rebecca are fine today as well."

"I'll see you tommorrow then."

I took that as my signal to leave and I complied, making my way to the door. However-

"Wait."

I paused then turned around, Mother had a frown and stared at me,

"You did not tell me about yourself, how are you?"

My expression almost broke down but I held it together and smiled widely,

"I'm fine, mom."

Mother also smiled,

"Yeah? Looks like I was worried for nothing. Sweet dreams, sweetie."

"Sweet dreams."

When I got to the door, my expression broke down, showing how exhausted I am.

I am not fine, nobody's fine.

I paused at the door and kept my back to her, hiding my expression.

"Mom?"

"..."

She didn't respond. I realized that I leaked out my exhaustion through my voice and sighed.

"You know, we miss you...we miss you so much."

"..."

Not hearing her responding, I opened the door and closed it behind me.

What I found when I turned around is Rebecca. Exhausted, I stared at her face in a daze. The memory of her smiling face and hungry eyes as she attempted to kill me is still fresh in my mind.

"Come on, it's already past midnight."

Her voice woke me up from that memory and I felt her hand getting linked with mine, then she pulled me with her, heading to my room.

As I looked at our hands linked together, a question kept ringing in my mind; What course shall I follow? My mind? Or my heart?

*********

"You know, we miss you...we miss you so much."

Marley's thoughts turned complex upon hearing Eddie's exhausted voice. She looked at his back, about to get words out of her mouth, but could only fruitlessly try and reach out to him with her hand as he left the room. Marley lowered her hand whispering,

"Oh, Eddie, if you know how much I am also missing you."

At the time, Marley had no better alternative than asking Eddie to help her with taking care of the family, he is the one she trusts and relies on the most, after all. Originally, she only planned for him to share some of her housework, but he proved that he could take on the entire responsibility for the family, so she let him.

Eddie proved that he truly is her dependable son. He took on raising Angela, cleaning the house, buying every essential thing needed, and cooking their food, he even made exotic food she couldn't find anywhere in the world. He made her completely relieved, this son of hers exceeded her expectations and she couldn't be more proud of him. Thinking of this, she couldn't help but sigh.

Handing the complete housework to him truly relieved her, she could focus on her thing wholeheartedly. However, she realizes now that making Eddie doing that task, especially for someone in his age, is a very exhausting thing; she couldn't help but worry for him. It's useless to do that though, would she even have the time to take care of him? Marley clenched her fists.

"Oh, Sarah, I am such an incompetent mother."

Her husband, Angela, Rebecca, Eddie, and her; they're all living in the same house, but it already feels like they're 15 billion miles away. Oh, how much she misses them.

She shook her head, dispelling her sad thoughts and turned her attention to the laptop. It was filled with pictures of different renowned scientists and their news, however, all of them were dead. Suddenly, she got an encrypted message;

[Target Found.]

She got lost in thought, and was about to type out her instructions to the other side, but paused. She couldn't help think about her son again, that's why,

[Act in your own discretion to observe the target and gather evidence.]

She closed the laptop, then went out of her room. Her son needs her, she won't disappoint him.

---------

Marley quietly opened her son's bedroom door, peeking in, she found all three of her children sleeping soundly. She first checked on Angela and couldn't help but smile looking at her drooling in her sleep. She wiped off her daughter's drool from her face then checked on Rebecca and Eddie on the other side of the bed. They both appear to be sleeping soundly, however, there is something weird with Eddie's breathing; he must be awake. Marley grinned.

Feeling the usual her back again, she sneaked to Eddie's side, layed down on the bed next to him, and hugged him tightly.

"My little pillow, I missed you-"

Marley widened her eyes in terror, her son's burning hot. She panicked as she began checking on him, his weird breathing is because he has a fever. She was about to go and get him cold pads and medicine, but he turned around and hugged her tightly, not letting her go.

"Don't go."

She hugged him back, whispering to him,

"Why didn't you tell me that you have a fever?"

She could feel him relaxing, replying with a joyful sound,

"My fever doesn't matter, now that you're here, you'd be my best medicine."

Marley could only feel helpless and disappointed in herself. She's forgotten her son's physique, how many times has he fell ill during this time? She's disappointed that she does not know, she's helpless that she can't take care of him properly even if she knew. As if knowing what she's thinking about, Eddie whispered,

"Don't worry about me, hugging me now is more than enough, it's all I want."

Marley feels sweet and sour. All this time, Eddie never complained about anything to her, only silently trying to relieve her as much as he could and taking care of her feelings as much as he can. He never asked about what she is doing all this time, he did everything she told him to do, and even telling her about the children's activities at night is also his own idea. He took it upon himself to take care of all of them, including her, his mother. However, who will take care of him? Marley hugged him tighter. For now, all she could do is this.

As her vision adjusted to the darkness, she noticed that Rebecca is awake and staring at her. Marley made Eddie lay his head on her cheek and looked back at Rebecca's eyes. After a while of staring, she's had an idea. She looked at Rebecca pleadingly and her lips moved to form the words,

'Can you take care of Eddie for me?'

After another while, when she thought that Rebecca did not understand what she was trying to say, Rebecca smiled and nodded to her.

Marley felt relieved and also smiled, she stretched out her hand and rubbed Rebecca's cheek, happy. Her thoughts drifted to Rebecca's mother, thinking about how similar she is to her.

'Don't worry, little sister. Soon, I will avenge you.'