78: Tension
"And here we are! Home sweet home!~" Harleen exclaimed enthusiastically, gesturing toward her new house with her arms spread wide in a dramatic display.
Standing next to her with his hands in his pockets was Daniel, who observed the place with mild interest.
The two-story house, with white wooden exterior walls and a dark roof, seemed fairly ordinary at first glance. Perhaps the only striking feature was its front garden, which displayed an impressive variety of flowers in vibrant colors, along with the two large trees flanking it.
"Well? What do you think?" Harleen finally asked, lowering her arms and resting her hands on her hips. She tried to seem indifferent, but the expectant sparkle in her gaze easily betrayed her curiosity to know what he thought.
"Well…" Daniel began, but he did not continue right away. Instead, he adopted a contemplative expression, clasping his hands behind his back as he pretended to think deeply about an answer.
His silence only made her increasingly uneasy. Watching her get nervous was rather amusing, but, knowing enough was enough, he took another quick look at the house before responding seriously.
"It looks cozy. I like it," he said with a shrug. Harleen frowned at his response, but before she could say anything, he stepped forward and reached the stairs leading to the main entrance.
As soon as he set foot on the first step, he allowed a trace of cosmic energy to expand outward from within him like a silent wave. It mapped every inch of the building and its surroundings until an extremely detailed image of the place formed in his mind.
He needed only a second to process, classify, and break down all the information he had sought. With that, he gained a clear idea of the internal state of the structure.
Behind him, Harleen, who had not yet had time to react, suddenly shivered. She felt once more that strange chill that the use of his cosmic energy caused her.
Ignoring her for the moment, Daniel focused on what he had learned about the place.
The foundations were in good condition. There were no signs of problems in the electrical systems or the plumbing. The wood showed some wear and a few metal pieces had light traces of rust, but aside from those details, everything else was in excellent shape.
"Definitely a good house," he thought. He was already determined to repair even the smallest crack. Not because it was necessary, but because he could, and because fixing things with such ease was surprisingly satisfying to him.
He planned to do the same later with his farm and with Carol's house. He would probably have to do it in other places as well, such as orphanages and hospitals. He needed to plan it out carefully, but he was already noting it down mentally as one of his future projects.
The thought brought a warm smile to his face, although unfortunately it did not last long.
Setting aside the almost nonexistent structural problems, there was still something that would undoubtedly give Harleen a massive headache if it was not dealt with soon.
They were faint, but they were there: weak signs of life crawling within the walls. Their numbers were not a real concern, at least for now, but if left alone, Harleen would need much more than simple fumigation to get rid of them.
For a moment, Daniel hesitated, but then he clenched his teeth and focused on the tiny lifeforms, determined to resolve the matter once and for all.
In an instant, his cosmic energy, previously calm, rushed toward their bodies like a devastating tsunami. For a brief fraction of a second something tried to resist, a fleeting spark that attempted to burn fiercely, yet it was so fragile that it never stood a chance before it disappeared into nothingness.
There was no flash, no sound, no smell. One moment the insects were there, and the next their bodies broke down at the atomic level, reduced to nothing more than particles in the air.
Daniel had not killed them. He had simply transformed their existence into something else, just as he had done with the weeds on his farm earlier that day.
And, as with that earlier instance, the sensation was more than unpleasant. It did not matter that it was something as insignificant as grass or insects. Imposing his will over another living being in such a way felt wrong in many ways, and even trying to imagine how much worse it would be if he did it to something with greater awareness and reasoning stirred a deep sense of rejection within him.
"What's wrong?" Harleen asked, watching him with concern.
Daniel's expression had only darkened for a moment before he quickly composed himself again. A normal person would not have noticed anything, but she, someone who specialized in reading people, of course picked up on it instantly.
Daniel sighed and shook his head.
"Nothing," he said simply as he placed his foot again on the same step and let another wave of cosmic energy sweep through the house while activating his core.
"Ugh!" Harleen shuddered. "Every time you do that it tickles," she said accusingly, raising her arms to show him the goosebumps on her skin.
"It must be some kind of interaction between our powers, like a resonance or something. I can also feel it when you give a command," Daniel admitted, seeing no reason to hide it.
Harleen blinked, surprised. Since Daniel had not reacted visibly when she used her powers during lunch, she had assumed she was the only one feeling strange sensations.
"Anyway," Daniel said with a light clap, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"I took the liberty of fixing the place up a bit, even though it was not really necessary. You were right, it is a wonderful house."
Harleen almost began to smile, but she immediately narrowed her eyes with suspicion. She knew Daniel was trying to distract her, but her concern about his sudden change in attitude earlier was not something that could be brushed aside so easily. She wondered if she should insist, but she ended up discarding the idea. Her professional intuition told her that this would require a more patient approach before he would be willing to talk about whatever had unsettled him so deeply.
He was lucky she was fairly patient… more or less. But if it was for him, she did not mind waiting as long as necessary until he was ready to open up. So, for now, she stopped dwelling on the matter and allowed a smug smile to spread fully across her face.
"Of course. I chose it," she said with a touch of arrogance, placing her hands on her hips again and straightening her posture as she puffed out her chest.
Daniel raised an eyebrow, amused, and with a quick motion gave her a gentle flick on the forehead with his finger, making her stumble back and pulling her out of her fantasies.
"Sure you did," he teased. "Come on, we need to put away everything you bought before the furniture gets here," he said as he walked toward the truck, ready to start unloading everything they had brought.
Harleen rubbed her forehead with a pout and reluctantly followed him. With both of them working together, it did not take long to bring in all their purchases, which ended up piled on the floor since there was still nowhere to put them.
Fortunately, they would not have to wait long to solve that problem, because the furniture store's truck arrived shortly after they finished.
"Thank you for the effort." Daniel said as he shook the hand of one of the delivery workers who had come.
"Are you sure you don't need more help?" the man asked with a mix of doubt and concern. His job, besides making the delivery, also included assembling the furniture for customers. However, in this case the young couple who received him insisted that it was not necessary.
"It's fine, don't worry. I have some experience with this," Daniel reassured him again, which only made the man look at him with even more doubt before shrugging.
"If you say so." Well, he had done his job. If they ran into problems later, that was no longer his concern.
Once the furniture store workers left, Daniel closed the door behind him and stepped into the house.
After walking down a short hallway, he reached what he assumed would be the future living room, where he found Harleen staring with a deep frown at the pile of boxes, bags and bundles covering the floor. Besides the furniture, which took up most of the space, there were also several appliances and some decorative pieces, all of them flooding the room to the point of almost overfilling it.
Moving through all the obstacles with ease, he approached her side and mimicked her posture, although without the intensity she radiated.
For most people, putting all of this in order would be a major challenge requiring great effort and time, potentially taking an entire day or more of hard work. But for both of them, thanks to their powers, it would be nothing more than a simple task. Therefore, Daniel was not particularly worried, but rather relaxed.
"So? How do you want to do this?" he asked, turning toward her.
Rubbing her chin, Harleen hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then snapped her fingers as if she had made up her mind, her eyes burning with determination as she eyed her purchases.
"Just follow my command. I will take care of everything else," she said with immense confidence, patting her chest firmly.
Daniel did not object. After all, this was her house. How she wanted to organize it was entirely her decision. He was only here to be the pack mule and the cheap labor… or maybe slave labor? Since he was not getting paid, it might as well be the latter.
'I should start a union,' he thought absentmindedly. 'Seek justice for all the men of the world who are forced to do the heavy work with no reward.'
The idea did not sound bad. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more convinced he felt that he should carry out such a sacred mission, one perhaps even more important than being a hero.
"Huh? What are you thinking about?" Harleen asked as she noticed his distraction and moved her hand up and down in front of his face to get his attention.
"My sacred mission!" Daniel replied with solemnity, only realizing a second later that he had just said that out loud.
Harleen raised an eyebrow and he could only fake a cough to hide his embarrassment. Clearly, spending too much time near her was affecting him more than expected. As he feared, stupidity was contagious.
Harleen narrowed her eyes at him with suspicion, somehow feeling offended. She had to remind herself that hitting him would only hurt her more than him, so she restrained herself for now, once again promising that sooner or later she would find a way to get revenge.
The thought brought a devilish smile to her face, which Daniel noticed out of the corner of his eye with sudden unease. Whatever she was planning, he had the feeling it would not be good for him.
"Let's get started," he said while rolling up his sleeves, ready to finish this as quickly as possible and go back to his farm, sensing that spending more time around her today might be harmful to his health.
"All right!" Harleen nodded, and without another word, the two of them got to work.
.....
"And it's done!" Daniel exclaimed with a sigh, letting himself fall onto the newly installed bed. Beside him, Harleen was far less graceful, throwing herself straight onto the mattress. Her body bounced and she almost rolled off the edge.
"I am so tired!" she groaned, which only made Daniel roll his eyes at such an obvious lie. He was the one who should be the one screaming, especially with how bossy she had been every time something did not look exactly the way she wanted. He had had to move every piece of furniture almost ten times before she was satisfied. Ten times!
Once again, he had to be grateful for having powers. He still remembered how horrible it had been when his mother made him and his brother do the exact same thing every few months in his previous life.
He still did not understand what kind of problem that woman had with leaving things where they belonged. Why change the layout of something that already worked? If the couch was closer to the wall or the table was too centered, what difference did it make?
'Maybe that is why I am not an interior designer,' he thought, with a smile that he didn't know when had formed on his face.
"For someone who was complaining so much earlier, you seem pretty happy now," Harleen pointed out, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye with half her head still buried in one of her new pillows.
"I'm always happy when I think about happy things. You should do the same; it helps not to be so whiny," he replied without turning to look at her, but already imagining her frown.
"Anyway, it is time for me to go. It was fun hanging out, but the world still needs me out there," he said as he slapped his thighs lightly, ready to stand up and leave.
Hearing that made Harleen stop pretending to be tired immediately. She pushed herself up quickly and crawled across the bed until she reached his side, grabbing him firmly by the shoulders before he could stand.
"Are you seriously going to leave just like that? It is not even three yet," she complained with a pout, but Daniel did not waver.
"I have been gone for almost two days. If this keeps up, people will start to notice… if they have not already, and that is dangerous," he explained patiently.
Maybe once there were more superheroes flying around he would be able to afford longer breaks, but for now, this was not that moment.
"You know, aside from sleeping, the brain and the mind also need to relax in other ways, and I do not think you have been doing much of that lately," Harleen said in a serious, scolding tone that reminded him of the day she forced him to stop and accept that even he needed sleep.
He knew she was right, again; but even so, he could not simply ignore the responsibilities he had imposed on himself and laze around until something serious happened and forced him to intervene. That was not how he did things.
His internal reflections faded when he felt Harleen's warm breath brush against his skin. Her arms slowly slid from his shoulders, down his chest, caressing him boldly before her agile hands began to rise again, trailing up along his neck.
One continued upward until it tangled in his hair, pulling just enough to force him to look at her, while the other drifted toward his cheek, brushing it softly with her fingertips at first before giving it a quick pinch and, using that same motion, slipping off the translucent mask he still wore in one fast and precise movement, revealing his true face.
"I like you better like this," she whispered, her breath tickling his ear.
Well, this had escalated way too quickly. Daniel had to swallow when he felt his throat suddenly go dry.
"You shouldn't..." he tried to say, but she didn't let him finish, letting out a small laugh.
"Shouldn't what~?" she teased. "I can feel you're nervous, but not uncomfortable. Or is the strongest man in the world unable to pull away from a simple girl with thin arms if he really wanted to?"
He had no way to argue with that.
"I thought you liked women," he tried awkwardly, though he knew it was a flimsy excuse. He had realized long ago how she looked at him when she thought he wasn't noticing.
"Yeah! I did too." Her answer didn't help, and the heavy silence that followed didn't either. With their faces so close to each other, he could feel their breaths colliding. Then their eyes met, and it was as if sparks burst to life.
Suddenly, he became acutely aware of how close they were, far closer than they should be. Her warm body leaning against his back felt like having a red-hot iron bar nearby in the middle of winter: dangerous, but far too tempting to pull away from.
As if she were reading his thoughts, the smile on her lips widened even more. Deliberately, she twisted her body against his, making every soft curve of her figure impossible to ignore.
"The world can wait a little longer, don't you think? Like I said earlier, you really need to relax. And there is a brand-new and very comfortable bed right here for that. What do you say? As a reward for helping me so much today, I'll even give you a massage~"
It was a tempting offer. Her voice, like a hypnotic melody, lulled his rational thoughts, and he almost nodded without thinking, letting himself be carried away...
"I..." As he tried to respond, Harleen closed the already tiny gap between them even further, and her pink lips brushed lightly against his for the briefest fraction of a second.
Things might have escalated far beyond that if not for the ominous sense of danger that flooded the room from one moment to the next.
With his perception instantly heightening and everything around him slowing down, Daniel nervously watched the fist that was mere inches away from hitting Harleen's face with such force that the entire house probably would have been blown to pieces.
'I was wondering why she hadn't done anything yet,' he thought as he acted, reaching out as fast as he could to block the strike.
BANG!
The sound was like a cannonball crashing into a steel wall.
The shockwave made the entire place tremble, and if Daniel hadn't reacted immediately and sent out a wave of cosmic energy to repair the damage before it became visible, the whole house would have already collapsed into a cloud of debris.
"Huh?" Harleen, who was still caught up in the previous moment, jolted and stared in disbelief and confusion at the fist and palm suspended barely half a centimeter from her face. Her hair was whipping around wildly from the gusts generated by the impact.
Following the direction of the arm that had interrupted her moment, her violet eyes met the blazing gaze of a face that was at once strange and familiar. Her beautiful features, now distorted by a grimace of almost palpable displeasure and anger, were nearly unrecognizable to her, but those eyes, redder than blood, were not; they certainly had left an impression the first time she saw them."
"Wow, looks like your alien girlfriend caught us," Harleen joked as if she didn't care she had nearly been turned into paste.
"You!" Carol growled through clenched teeth. A vein pulsed visibly on her forehead, and the crimson in her pupils burned even brighter.
It was as if a bolt of lightning formed between the two them, sparks crackling and the scent of ozone filling the air.
"Enough!" Daniel cut in firmly, sensing that if he didn't intervene, something terrible was about to happen.
His shout made both of them finally stop looking at each other as though they wanted to tear the other's head off.
Letting out a sigh, Daniel pushed Carol's fist away before releasing it, and then moved away from Harleen, standing up and making sure to stay between the two.
He didn't show it outwardly, but right now he was sweating cold. Well, he knew something like this would happen sooner or later. He had hoped for later rather than sooner, but his luck had clearly decided it had done enough for him today and went on vacation.
It would have been nice if it had taken him with it.
While he thought this, silence filled the room. Carol and Harleen glanced at each other from time to time, but most of their attention rested on him. Waiting for what, exactly? He had no idea. What was someone supposed to say in situations like this? Normally, this was when he would find an excuse and run away, but instinctively he knew that would not work this time.
"That was dangerous," he began harshly, deciding to deal first with the recklessness of the girl he had trained.
Carol straightened up upon hearing the tone of his words. Her face trembled. A mixture of anger and shame assaulted her, making her step back another pace.
"Reckless and downright insane… You could have killed her!" Daniel continued, a trace of disappointment and frustration in his voice.
"But she…!" Carol tried to defend herself, but stopped because she didn't really have a good excuse. The fact was simple: her jealousy had clouded her judgment.
Of course she had tried to hold it back. It was not easy. At first, she had wanted to interrupt them many times, to do something to get Daniel's attention and pull him away from Harleen, but she restrained herself, reminding herself that they were only hanging out. There was no reason to get upset about that, right?
She endured it as best she could, repeating to herself that she needed to stay calm. But that damned blonde harpy! She could not settle for just hanging out. No! She had to try for more, to cross the line.
Before she realized it, everything in her vision turned red and, in the next moment, she had appeared in the room with her fist caught in Daniel's hand.
It went without saying that she realized her terrible mistake right then, but her rage and indignation were still boiling, making her unable to even think about apologizing.
Watching their argument, Harleen, who had already tied her hair back and remained lying on the bed, decided to cut in, not too pleased that her plans had been ruined halfway through.
"Wow, quite the tension, huh? How about we all just relax and calm down? I mean, the bed is big enough for everyone~ I'm sure we can work this out the fun way!…", she offered, patting the sheets with a mischievous smile.
Her words made the previously heavy atmosphere deflate like a punctured balloon. Carol blinked, briefly confused, before narrowing her eyes at her in bewilderment and stepping back once more.
Daniel, for his part, also calmed down. There was more he wanted to say, much more, but that could wait until later, when he was alone with Carol.
"I think we should go," he said, turning toward Harleen, causing the woman to frown and pout.
"Party pooper!" she muttered before sighing and nodding reluctantly. "The offer still stands, by the way... for both of you~" she added suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.
Carol snorted, ignoring her, and her figure disappeared shortly after in a gust of wind.
Watching her leave, Daniel rubbed the bridge of his nose before turning back to Harleen with an amused yet tired smile.
"Thank you for lightening the mood and not yelling."
Harleen shrugged.
"Well, it's not the first time a woman has tried to kill me... though it is the first time one has done it over a man. That's exciting and terrifying! I guess I'll have to watch my back from now on," she mentioned as if it were unimportant, but Daniel quickly shook his head.
"No. It won't happen again." He assured her firmly.
"Oh honey, believe me, that girl is pure fire. Unless you tame her fast, she's going to burn anything that gets close to you, like a dragon guarding its treasure. I don't know what's going on between you two, but you need to fix it soon or someone is going to get badly hurt," she warned him, still with that playful yet serious tone.
"I will, I hope," he said, though this time he didn't sound so sure. Then he looked at her again with a raised eyebrow: "Although for someone who was almost roasted alive by that 'dragon', you don't look very worried."
"Oh no, I almost peed myself! But with you here I know everything will be fine. If I get in trouble, you'll come help me, right? Like before, I trust that you'll be able to save me, my hero~!"
Daniel laughed when he heard her, nodding as he began to walk toward one of the room's windows, making a brief pause before reaching it.
"I appreciate the vote of confidence, but don't let your guard down, I'm not God...", he murmured. "And I'd rather not have to try to be." He didn't say that last part out loud.
That small moment of reflection was enough for Harleen to get up from the bed and agilely approach his side.
"Silly, you don't need to be a god for me to believe in you," she whispered, hugging him from behind again and making him freeze for a moment.
"Thanks," he told her, feeling a sudden ease wash over him.
Pulling away from her gently, he gave her one last farewell gesture before jumping out the window, disappearing in a blur.
Harleen approached the frame, resting an arm on the wood as she looked at the blue sky and the vast fields of crops stretching into the distance. Her shoulders drooped slightly, and she let out a disappointed sigh.
"I guess it'll be just you and me again," she muttered, looking at her right hand with a wry smile.
It had been a while, but Pamela had always said her fingers were magical; she supposed it was time to find out.
.
.
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Despite what one might expect, Daniel didn't go after Carol. He had his reasons, but the main one was that he figured she needed time to think alone… and, to be honest, so did he.
So he arrived at his farm and, just as he had planned, the first thing he did was take care of the repairs, something wise, since the foundations were quite weakened. He also took care of the pests, a much less fun task but a necessary one. Lastly, he went to his workshop and cleaned the place. He always kept it tidy, but dust knew how to get everywhere, no matter how clean one was.
Finally, he set about remaking his super suit. For this he did not use his cosmic energy, at least not at the beginning. As before, he made each piece by hand, he cut, sewed, and assembled everything with skill, and only when it was finished did he use his new power to eliminate the imperfections of manual work.
"Perfect," he told himself as he looked in the mirror. It was surprising what a few almost imperceptible details could do for your image once you got rid of them.
Returning to his workshop, he looked at the dozen monitors where news from all around the world was playing. Fortunately, things had been calm in his absence. Of course, there had been one or two serious incidents, like a plane that nearly crashed, but surprisingly, Carol had acted publicly in the vast majority of cases like that, making an unexpected appearance.
"Defiance... not very original, but fitting, I suppose," he murmured as he looked at images of the girl on the news. That made him feel a little bad. There he was, relaxing, while she did his job for him. And how did he repay her?
"By letting another girl seduce you," his brother's voice whispered with mockery, like an annoying ghost reveling in his misfortune.
"It is not my fault...", he replied on impulse, stopping himself before he started arguing with himself.
"It's okay, maybe it's partly my fault. It's not that I wanted it to be this way; I truly didn't. I guess it's just in my nature... both now and before," he thought, remembering the past and the many problems with girls he'd had throughout his life.
It wasn't that he had been a Casanova or a playboy, but he certainly had not been much better either. He wanted to say it wasn't entirely his fault, but… No, on second thought, it certainly wasn't. It was all his mother's fault and her terrible advice about women. He should never have paid so much attention to her as much as he did, but if not his mother, who should he have turned to? Well, definitely not her, but at this point, continuing to regret it wouldn't lead to anything.
"Grandchildren, grandchildren… It all started with her obsession with having grandchildren." But despite telling himself he should stop, he kept muttering under his breath with a hint of bitterness.
"Would this be a bad moment to inform you that you have several unread messages, sir?" The sudden sound of the feminine voice, with its robotic touch, almost made him jump in fright.
"Overwatch! You... uh... heard all of that?" he asked, suddenly nervous. He had forgotten he had programmed the virtual intelligence to remain on at all times, worse yet, he had forgotten that he had recently given it the ability to communicate through the speakers.
"Completely. I even took notes. Would you like to see them?" If he did not know better, Daniel would have sworn he heard a hint of mockery in that synthetic voice.
"Not necessary," he said, fake-coughing to compose himself. Then he approached his desk and let himself fall into his chair.
One of the reasons he had not worried too much when he lost his phone was that he had already created an interface that connected all the information directly to his computer. In other words, the phone was nothing more than an extension, the computer in his workshop was the real connection hub, where he received and stored all the contacts he obtained, as well as their messages and calls.
This ensured that he would never be truly out of contact, except when he was not near his workshop… or lost the phone.
"New project: make a cellphone with an Element V casing. I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier," he murmured as he navigated through his system, checking his inbox.
"New project noted. How would you like to name it?" Overwatch's voice responded, already creating a folder for it.
"Eh, let's call it Nokia V," he said. "I don't think they'll sue me anyway… Although, on second thought, let's keep the name just between us."
"Of course."
Daniel did not take long to finish reading the pending messages. There were several, yes, but most were not very urgent: two from Susan asking how he was doing, one from Johnny asking when he could help him train his powers further, three more from Ben asking about any progress on creating his 'cure', as well as four from Natasha reporting on certain situations around the planet and asking about the unusual increase in Carol's activity.
He replied to all the messages as best as he could, or at least as much as was possible, apologizing for the delay. Finally, he reached the ones Tony and Matt had sent him, which were interesting, to say the least.
The situation regarding the Ten Rings in New York had stalled to a certain point. Tony, Matt, and Peter had worked quite a bit on the day he was absent, but they had not managed to obtain much, aside from confronting and dismantling small retreating cells of 'The Hand.'
Interrogating those they managed to capture did not help much either. They were tenacious, and unless they started resorting to medieval torture, it did not seem like they would manage to make them talk anytime soon.
It was a setback, yes, but one he had expected. If it were that easy to face organizations that had existed for hundreds of years, they would have disappeared long ago.
The real counterpoint, and the reason for his interest, came afterward. More precisely, it was this morning when Matt found a mysterious message that arrived at his door.
"That must not have made him very happy," he thought, imagining how hard it must have been for him to have his secret identity discovered so suddenly by someone unknown.
And that person was not someone normal either. Not to mention following Matt, even reaching his door without him noticing your approach was something almost impossible. Almost, because someone had done it and without leaving any trace other than a letter.
"At least he wrote it in braille, very considerate, mister mysterious," he mocked, looking at the image and then at the translation Matt had sent them.
It did not say much. It was short, with no greeting or sender. It only contained a request, a meeting with him specifically, at a particular place, tonight. Besides that, it only mentioned that they had something very important to report, something that would supposedly decide the fate of the world.
Maybe it was a trap, maybe not. Either way, it was not something he could refuse. They knew who Matt was, and that was dangerous. Because of that, he needed to see who they were dealing with and act accordingly.
Possible ally or enemy lurking, whichever the case, they had gotten what they wanted: they were going to meet him face-to-face.
.
.
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Elsewhere, somewhere in New York.
"This plan of yours does not seem very sensible," said a solemn voice. It was low and feminine, with no trace of emotion.
"It is not sensible, but I do not have time to wait. The moment is approaching, and I cannot let him succeed in his plans," another voice answered, this one masculine, carrying both resignation and certainty.
The woman remained silent for a few seconds. Then she shrugged with complete indifference.
"If this is your choice, then I have nothing more to say. I wish you luck, but I will not get involved any further. The favor I owed you has already been paid." With that, she prepared to leave, but before she could take a step, he stopped her.
"You paid your debt, but will you really leave just like that? You know this affects you whether you want it to or not, it affects the whole world, your people!" That last part was what made her stop.
"They are no longer my people, and this is no longer their world," she replied coldly, but she did not leave.
"Although I still live in it," she whispered to herself before sighing and turning back to him.
"Do you truly believe it will help, that he will be able to stop him?" she questioned.
"I do not know if he can stop him, but I have been watching him and I know he will try with everything he has, and that is more than enough," he said confidently. "But... he cannot do it alone, nor should he. That is why I am asking you: help us too, lend us your strength!" he added in a plea.
The woman remained silent. She was surprised by the confidence he seemed to place in someone who, as far as she knew, he had not even met in person yet. She wondered if it was nothing more than blind faith, or rather a desperate last attempt to believe it was not impossible to avoid what was coming. And, on top of that, he expected her to do the same and join him? It was absurd!
"Then I will think about it," despite her doubts she answered anyway, without promising anything but also without her previous refusal.
"It is all I can ask," the man nodded, bowing respectfully to her. She returned the gesture in the same way, placing her fist against her palm.
Shortly after the woman left, the man walked into a dark room, barely illuminated by a desk lamp.
Walking toward the bed that was there, he sat in the chair beside it and, clasping his hands together, he leaned in and looked apologetically at the person sleeping in it.
Her breathing was steady. She was not pale or sick, yet she slept deeply, showing no sign of waking any time soon. And she would not: at least not for several weeks, all thanks to the power of the woman who had just left.
And the only indication of it was the violet butterfly faintly glowing on her forehead, like an illusion of light.
"I hope you can forgive me Xiǎo mèimei, but it's what must be done, what I must do, even if it means betraying all of them," he whispered to her, taking her hand in his.
"I know Mom would have wanted it this way," he said with more certainty.
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Note:
Sorry for the wait, I didn't expect to get sick so suddenly. I spent several days in bed with a terrible fever and an even more fucked-up throat infection. It ruined many of my plans, but luckily I'm better now… after a few not-at-all pleasant injections.
It still hurts to sit down, hahaha.
I don't have much to say. Writing the chapter was difficult for obvious reasons, but fortunately most of it was already planned; it just needed to be put into words. It's still difficult, don't get me wrong, but it's more manageable than having to invent everything from scratch.
The next stage in Daniel and Carol's relationship is approaching. It won't be easy and, probably, not something rosy either, far from it. But it will happen, and it will set things on the exact path I have in mind: like a snowball rolling down a mountain and continuing to grow until it's the size of a house and ends up crushing some unlucky passerby… In this case, the passerby is Daniel, in case that wasn't clear.
Xiǎo mèimei = little sister… or something like that, I'm clarifying it in case someone thinks it's the name of a character.
With that said, I'll take my leave and thank you for your time and patience. Without you there to keep motivating me, I don't know where I'd be now, but I definitely wouldn't be this happy.
I hope everyone has happy holidays and an amazing time, whether it's with your families, partners, or even if you're on your own. I've spent quite a few Christmases alone, and I know they can be depressing at times, but at the same time you can make them fun if you focus on doing things that you want to do.
I hope everyone can enjoy the things they like and do the things they want to do, regardless of whatever difficulties there may be.
Thank you for all the support; I can't believe another year has gone by so fast. I hope that next year things will be better for everyone in general, even if the world itself isn't in its best moment either.
Well, I won't be the pessimist here. I don't have anything else to say; once again, thank you very much for your support, your time and patience. I hope you all have a great day, afternoon, or night, depending on where you are! ;D
Remember that you can already find the next chapter of this story on Patreon( patreon com/EmmaCruzader ) All the support received is appreciated ;D