7:00 A.M

Somewhere in Stockholm, Sweden

. . .

. . .

"Huh?"

Someone had lifted the curtains, causing me to be basked in the morning sunlight.

I pulled my blanket to cover my body from it, only to be pulled away from my grasp. My hands absently searching for that blanket but it was not there.

Strange.

I buried my head in the soft, comfy pillow. At least, I didn't have to face the sunlight directly. Sleep was more important to me and I wanted to enjoy every second of it.

Someone then shook me vigorously in an attempt to wake me up.

"Go away..." I mumbled. "Go..."

The person stopped. After that, I was fast asleep.

"WAKE UP!"

Someone hit me in the arm and I jolted awake. "Ow! Who...?"

I rubbed my eyes and the small figure of a girl came into view. She was sitting on my bed, smirking. The little girl wore an oversized black jacket and baggy blue jeans. Her hair was short, paired with her gleaming turquoise eyes.

"Wait..." I rubbed my scraggly dark hair. "Aya?"

I distanced myself from her immediately when I realized it was really her. "Why're you here?!"

She tilted her head at my question. "What do you mean Ava? I've come here to wake you up of course! Friends do that, right?"

I just nodded at her statement. "Er, yes. So you come here in the morning just for that?"

Aya got off from the bed and went to the door, twisting its k.n.o.b. "Not really. I brought him with me if you don't mind." She pulled the door when a person I knew all too well walked into my room.

"Papa!" I yelled. Without any restraint, I lunged at him. My arms wrapped around his waist and embraced its warmth.

"Ava, you seem to be doing okay. I guess I worried too much," said Hope as he patted me on the head.

I missed him so much after all those years. At that moment, to finally be able to interact with him was a blessing.

My hand accidentally brushed off against his right hand and I stepped away. Looking directly in his eyes, I could see the emptiness inside it. There was no longer any light, any familiar warmth of a kind person that I was fond of.

His green jacket was tattered, and so did his faded black jeans.

Clean bandages wrapped his right hand and so did his amputated left hand. He quickly hid it behind him when he noticed my stare.

"Oh, I'm fine Ava. It's okay..." Hope gave me a smile, but that smile was no longer warm. It was too cold.

"Papa..." I hugged him again, trying to comfort whatever emotions left in him.

'He must have gone through so much,' I thought.

Bart could've experimented on him, deliberately torturing his body through the course of those two years. My reunion with him back then was not that welcoming, but that time in my room was no different.

I knew deep down that he'd changed. Even so, he was still my Papa, the only one I cared about in this world.

Aya walked out of the room and I lifted my head. "Isn't Bart... controlling you?"

Hope crouched and looked at me straight in the eyes. "He was, Ava. He was. After he figured I have no use for him anymore, he let Aya took me here. His crystal is no longer inside me so I'm free now."

I bit my lip. "But your hands... It's my fault, Papa. You suffered because of me."

"That... might be true. I won't deny it. But that's all in the past now. I'm just happy that Aya brought me here to see you." Hope looked at me up and down. "And you seem to be doing fine. I must thank Miss Holm then."

I nodded. "Can I hold your hand?"

"Sure."

Hope held my hand in his and walked me downstairs.

It was weird.

Hope's hand felt so cold that one would think he had been in a freezer before he came to Maltyie's house. I squeezed his hand when Maltyie and Eugene waved at us in the kitchen.

"Come and take a seat you two," said Maltyie.

I took her suggestion and both of us sat next to each other, my hand refusing to let go. In a way, I feared that I could lose him again if I ever had it in my heart to do so.

Eugene and Maltyie looked at each other from their seats in front of us.

Maltyie forced a smile. "You two seem close."

Hope made a subtle nod. "We are, Miss Holm. I've known her since two years ago. It was rough back then."

"The battle at Mansel Island," said Maltyie. "Every officer I know talks about that incident, how that was one of the first losses our Great Corporate United had suffered. In such a small island too."

Eugene stared at me. "Is Ava okay? I've never seen her like this before."

I squeezed Hope's hand, or at least, the stump of his left hand.

"She's okay. We are that close, you see," said Hope.

"Oh. You're her brother?" asked Maltyie.

Aya was busy munching on her sandwich as she watched us.

"...I'm her parent," said Hope.

"Parent?" repeated Maltyie.

Maltyie and Eugene both looked at each other again. Eugene shrugged his shoulder and pushed a plate of sandwiches towards Hope.

"Anyway, it's breakfast time. I prepared these sandwiches just so you know," said Eugene with a grin.

"Thank you," said Hope.

There was that jug of orange juice that Maltyie made, and Hope gave a gla.s.s of it to me.

"Thanks, Papa," I muttered.

Eugene coughed and so did Maltyie, struggling with the bits of sandwiches in their mouths.

"Who? What?" mumbled Eugene, his gaze fixed on me.

Maltyie narrowed her eyes at me. "Er, he's your father, Ava?"

"Yes. He is," I said it out loud.

"Okay..." Uncertainty showed on Maltyie's face.

'What's wrong with her? I meant what I said,' I thought.

We all had breakfast that morning and Aya came to me suggesting that I should go with her to the mall.

"I came here today because I want you to join me," said Aya.

"Join you for what?" I asked, my hand still wrapped around Hope's as we both sat on a sofa in the living room.

"There's a coloring contest at the mall. Come with me Ava," insisted Aya.

I looked at Hope and he nodded in agreement. "You should go."

"But..."

"I'll come with you," he said.

"Oh, okay!" I exclaimed.

If Hope was there with me, I did not mind at all. It could also be a good opportunity for me to spend proper time with him, considering we never had one before.

It took about fifteen minutes by car to the mall Aya spoke of. Maltyie waved us goodbye and the three of us; me, Hope, and Aya were on our way to where the coloring contest was being held. Aya paid the partic.i.p.ation fees for both of us and we sat at the same table. The theme of the contest was sunset, where both of us were given a template of the scenery each.

"This is too easy Aya," I muttered as I had already finished my coloring about ten minutes after the contest started.

"Oh, wait. I'm almost done," she said.

I wondered why I partic.i.p.ated in that childish event. Aya's decision of wanting to do that in the first place was strange. If anything, only kids aged around five to eight were suited for it.

I glanced at Hope who was standing outside of the square green mat, looking at us. My heart was tight when his eyes no longer portrayed its familiar glint. And Hope did not smile when he looked at me.

Perhaps he was thinking of something, and I was the one who did not understand him. He had changed so much during the course of two years.

Noticing my faze, he faked a smile.

I ignored the coloring contest entirely after that, ripping apart the template I had colored. Aya gaped at me when she saw what I did. In the end, Aya was the winner of the contest, being given a scroll of some sort. After all that has been said and done, the three of us walked outside of the mall into the burning suns.h.i.+ne.

Aya nudged at my shoulder. "Ava, are you okay?"

I looked behind me and sure enough, she was worried. "I'm... not okay."

"Is it because of him? I shouldn't bring him with me, do I?" said Aya.

I grabbed her shoulder at that. "No, no. Thank you for bringing him, Aya. I appreciate it. It's just... he's not the same person I knew anymore."

Aya blinked. "Oh. You loved him very much Ava. I can see that."

"Thank you."

Aya led all of us to a convenience store not far from the mall. Hope halted just as he was about to walk in.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Ignoring me, Hope walked to an alley next to the store and both Aya and I followed him.

Hope gave some money from his pocket to an old woman there, sitting on her legs. Her clothing had holes all over. Hope then came back to us with a thin smile.

That was the most genuine expression I had seen on his face since that morning. For some reason, I was moved by Hope, producing a few notes from my pocket and donated to the old woman. Aya did the same too.

Hope raised an eyebrow at me. "Why Ava?"

I gave him a big smile before answering his question. "Because Papa did so."

"I see," said Hope.

He turned his back against me and proceeded to walk into the store.

My chest felt tight when he did that. The Hope I knew would never do that. He had no emotions whatsoever. His attention was never on me that whole time.

'Why are you so sad about that? He left you alone once, you know?' said a voice far in my mind.

"But... I love Hope. He's the only one," I mumbled.

I woke back to reality when Aya poked at my cheek. She squinted at me.

"You see, Ava, It's not good for you to be feeling down like this. I don't know what Hope was like before. But since Daddy brought him back with him two years ago, his eyes were no longer bright. Daddy... did a lot of things to him. But I never knew what it was," said Aya.

"Feeling down, huh?" I repeated.

Aya gestured for me to go into the convenience store and I did so at whim.

We bought a few kinds of stuff, mainly foods and drinks. Aya suggested a park not far from where we were at and went there.

"There are not that many people around as I thought," said Aya. She sat on the gra.s.s, overlooking the clear river and both Hope and I sat next to her.

"You're not gonna eat that, Papa?"

Hope had a bag of chips in what was left of his right hand, but his mind was elsewhere.

"Usually, Ava," said Aya. "I played with the toys that Mommy bought for me whenever I was not needed. And I've seen what she did to people she had no use anymore."

I s.h.i.+fted my attention towards Aya. "Are you the last Aegis User before I came here, Aya?"

"No. Before you, Miranda's the last one. About four years ago, I think," she replied.

I frowned. "Wait, so at what age did you become an Aegis User?"

"Six years ago, I suppose. At that time, I was... six years old? Yes." She nodded at her own statement.

Aya was the youngest Aegis User if she was six when she became one. If I remembered correctly, Alicia and Bart experimented on my body four years ago, which meant Miranda and I were the same.

And yet I never knew about it until two years ago.

"Papa..." I muttered. My hand shook his shoulder but he remained silent, eyes on the river. "I should've been with you, Papa. You will not have become like this."

Aya munched on a whole waffle and looked at me. "But the same thing could also be said in your case Ava. If he was with you, I'm sure you would become a different person than you are now."

She said the right thing. Both me and Hope should be there for each other. Losing either one affected us tremendously.

"Papa?" I said.

He dropped his bag of chips and tilted sideways a bit like he was going to drop on the ground anytime soon.

"PAPA!"

Hope fell onto the gra.s.s with his eyes wide open, unconscious. I tried to wake him up by shaking his body vigorously, but it was futile.

"Ava, I'll get help!" offered Aya.

"Please!"

She got up and ran to a couple down at the river.

"Papa... wake up," I muttered. My eyes were tearing up at that point, afraid I would lose him again. To meet him like that, not being manipulated by anyone was a dream. A miracle that I had wished for as long as I could remember.

The day that he and I would become a real family.

I wanted it to happen. I really did.

"So please, wake up, Papa."

. . .

An ambulance came for Hope and brought him to the nearest hospital. Of course, Aya and I were there along the way.

I waited outside of a ward where Hope was being treated. Aya tried to say something to me but my ears refused to listen.

I was too nervous. Panic and fear overwhelmed me.

A doctor walked out of the ward after a while and approached both of us. His eyes were grim.

"Papa! Is he alright?!" I immediately asked.

The doctor put up a smile, however, I knew all too well that Hope was in a bad condition.

"Are you one of his family member?" asked the doctor.

"Papa!" I repeated. "Is he alright?!"

"He's stable now. He's alright," said the doctor.

I let out my breath at that good news. "Can I meet him?"

"Sure. But, he seems to be..."

"Beaten up? Tortured?" continued Aya.

The doctor jerked his head back. "Er, yes."

I pushed past the doctor that was still talking to Aya and marched through the ward's door. "Papa!"

Hope was at the bed, looking out of the window. Two nurses that were there walked out when the doctor gestured for them to do so.

I quickly reached out for his hand. It was still cold. I called out his name several times, and yet Hope did not respond. His eyes were fixed on the sunset outside.

The hatred that I had kept inside started to pour out.

"Why..." I muttered.

The doctor was reluctant to come near me and I glared at him. "Tell me everything. What is his condition right now?"

Aya nodded at the doctor and he rubbed his forehead. "His condition, like I said before, is stable. But his inner organs are in bad shape. A few bones in his ribs were broken. He suffers from malnutrition. And due to that, there are not enough nutrients to make up for his deficiency in red blood cells. He suffers from anemia."

I took in the information bit by bit, and rage welled up inside me. "Then?"

The doctor glanced at Aya and she nodded again.

"More importantly, his heart is battered up," the doctor continued, "there were a few amateur... st.i.tches applied to it. It can be said that his heart was punctured by a sharp object before. And there's also a crack in his skull. But because of all that..."

"He should be dead, right?" I said. "He's not because of Bart's subpar regeneration ability bestowed upon him."

The doctor seemed to know about Aegis Users since he obeyed Aya. Perhaps he worked in the military headquarters once.

"Yes." The doctor looked back at the closed door and sighed. "Sir Bart's Aegis helps him in that regard. And since his crystal no longer embedded inside that boy, his body can only keep him alive long enough."

"You mean, he will..." I muttered.

"Don't worry. He's no longer in danger. He just needs to eat properly and have a lot of rest from now on. In the future, perhaps I will make him undergo a surgery to replace his liver. Other than that, he should be fine," said the doctor.

"Thank you," I said.

"Just doing my job. Now, I need to apply some nutrition liquids into him. So, if you can..."

"Okay. Thank you again, doctor," I said, making my way to the door.

"You're welcome."

I gazed at Hope's figure one last time and turned towards a corner once I was out of the ward.

"Ava..." said Aya.

"I'll kill them."

"Huh?"

I glared at Aya and she backed off, realizing I was not in the mood to care for what she had to say.

"Daddy and Mommy have that controller, Ava," said Aya. "But if you run away now, I promise I won't tell anyone where you go."

"No."

"Um, what do you mean?" asked Aya.

We were out of the hospital and I turned to face Aya. "I'll destroy that controller when the time comes. And for that to happen, I need to be as close to Alicia and Bart as possible."

"Oh, okay." Aya fidgeted at her jacket, refusing to meet my glare. "You're scary right now, Ava."

"Is that so?"

I walked briskly up ahead of her so that she did not hear what I said.

"I'll kill them... I'll kill them," I said under my breath.

"I'll make them pay."

"I'll kill them."

"I'll slice them into pieces."

"I'll carve their hearts out."

"I'll kill them..."