Maki later on decided that he would forever look back on this certain time of his life. And that he would forever be grateful to the chimera in front of them.
Standing in front of Maia, Damian and Maki was the old man whom Maia spoke to earlier, the mantis-like man. His gaze boring into Maia and then into Maki as something like pain flickers in his eyes.
"Should we be concerned?"
Damian had asked this question loud enough for the four of them to hear. Instead of answering, the old man simply smiled and gave a path to the three of them.
When they got out of the building, a couple of soldiers and chimeras unexpectedly turned around the corner and were about to attack them. It was then that the old man jumped from the rooftop and killed everyone in a split second.
His mantis-like arms were now all covered with blood and so was his shirt that he must have taken from someone seeing as how all the chimeras were not given clothing.
"Why are you helping us?"
Maia asked the man in front of her. When he had asked her earlier about the seven Gods, she shrugged it off but now she remembered that some people had indeed worshipped these seven lucky Gods.
And those people live in the Seven City, a closed-off town that the government abandoned and branded as the most savage city in the country.
He must have been from there. Maia thought to herself.
The old man smilingly looked at Maia then shifted his gaze towards Maki. This time his smile widened, something that Damian found creepy, considering he had these mantis arms and legs.
"Be on your way child, what you seek is what will sought you"
Another riddle? Maia almost let out a deep breath. She still couldn't understand who and why this old man was helping them, and she certainly couldn't understand his riddles. But, she was never going to pass up this opportunity to get away as soon as possible.
She tugged Maki and Damian by the arm and urged them to run off. They entered the forest and Maia stole one last glance at the old man. He was still standing there, with a smile plastered to his face.
Somehow, he looked familiar or like he looked like someone she knew, Maia thought.
The three of them ran deeper into the forest without rest. As long as they could still hear the blaring alarms, gunshots, screeches, and screams, then they weren't safe yet.
Damian panted like crazy. He bent down on his knees as he caught his breath. He caught sight of Maia who was just standing. Her breathing was ragged too and he could see her chest heave up and down. She was staring in the direction that they had just come from like there was something she could see.
Damian breathed out exactly three deep breaths before walking toward Maia. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards his arms. He embraced her tightly and he just felt at peace. He buried his head into the nook of her neck and inhaled her smell.
She smelled of sweat and medicine, or maybe it was the smell of the laboratory, Damian thought. Maia could feel her heart racing, she could feel Damian's unsteady breathing by her neck. She returned Damian's embrace with the same intensity. Oh, how she missed his embrace.
"I thought for sure I lost you…"
Damian trailed off.
"For almost two years, I lost hope that you'll come back, that I'd be able to embrace or talk to you like this again. I was so sure that the only way that I'll ever get to be with you again is if I die and yet…"
Maki looked at them and he instantly felt like he too was tearing up.
He knew how hard it was for them but he especially knew how hard it was for Damian. After all, he was the last one to have seen Maia before she blew up the barrier. And he saw just how much Damian had gone down when he realized that he could never see Maia again. He was in the darkest place and no light could revive him.
Maia didn't know how to respond to this. She didn't know that it had been that long since the start of their rebellion. She didn't know about the pain her loved ones felt when they thought that she had died.
But the dark circles under Damian's eyes. His considerable weight loss and his ragged look were enough for Maia to know that he hadn't been taking care of himself.
Damian pulled away and stared longingly at Maia. His Maia. Albeit the changes, she was his Maia, the only love he had ever known. He caressed her hair, her snow-white hair. He kissed her on the top of her head and Maia couldn't help but close her eyes.
It had been so long since she felt so warm. So at ease, and just herself.
"I missed you Maia. We all did"
"Ate, what exactly happened to you? Your hair, your eyes, it's like youre…"
Maki trailed off, Damian looked at him before moving his gaze back to Maia. They both didn't want to say the word. They couldn't even think that she of all people would be like that. But, now standing in front of them, she almost does resemble one.
A mutant.
"Could we talk while we walk? We still have a long way to go"
And they sure do, they were only about 2 km away from the front house. Leticia could've subdued the mutants and experiments and sent her men immediately to find her.
Maki and Damian quickly understood this. They nodded and as they walked deeper into the forest and farther from the front house, she told them everything that had happened to her.
From the moment she woke up in the arena to the experiments Leticia did on her. To the voice that kept on telling her what to do and her abilities. Up until how she got her persona back.
"What exactly did you mean by hyper regeneration?"
Maki stopped as he asked this question. Instead of explaining, Maia thought it'd be better to present a demonstration. So she took out her knife and cut her palm.
Damian rushed in to scold her but stopped short when he saw that the cut on her palm was slowly closing. Like her skin was knitting itself back together. All that was left now was Maia's blood on her palm.
"Ho…how?"
"Did it hurt?"
Maia nodded at Maki's question.
"It does and I could definitely feel the pain but it's just like a short sting and as soon as it heals, the pain disappears"
"Was it because of those vials?"
Maki asked as he remembered the vials that they took from the front house. It was full of suspicious liquid so it might have something to do with it. But, Maia only shook her head.
"Leticia might think that it is, but as a matter of fact it's not. The truth is much deeper than that, and this concerns the both of us Maki"
Maki stared at her older sister and somehow he knew that whatever it was that she was going to say, it might change the course of their lives.
"That lullaby you sang, how did you know that it will pull me out of my trance?"
"I didn't"
Maia only stared at him and waited until Maki continued.
"A voice told me"
"Voice?"
"It was a woman's voice Ate, she told me that it was in my memory. The answer to how to wake you up. Do you think it's the same person? The one who talked to you and me?"
Maia nodded as an affirmation, she didn't know where she got the confidence, but this she was sure. It was the same person.
"I don't know who it was, but it stopped, the voice I mean. It stopped talking to me right after I sang that lullaby to you"
Damian, who had been eyeing the siblings since earlier finally shook his head.
"Was there a memo that I didn't receive?"
He frustratedly exclaimed. Maia almost chuckled so instead she cleared her throat.
"Maki, you could say that we're almost like mutants"
Damian and Maki gaped at Maia. She didn't hear any answers or questions so she continued.
"Mom was experimenting on herself while she was pregnant with us"
"That's…"
"Absurd? I know, but considering how she knows Damian's dad so well and my memories, and this regenerative abilities and the other persona inside me. It isn't really that hard to believe"
Damian thought about it hard.
"Now that you mention it, something indeed does not add up. It was weird how she could've coaxed my father into creating a mutiny. Even if she did have the leadership skills, my father don't just make machines for anyone"
Maki thought about it long and hard. It was true that their mother was weird and she knew most things that a normal housewife wouldn't.
"Still that doesn't explain why we could hear the voice. And even if mom experimented on us, there's nothing notably different in me. It's different on your case"
Maki wanted to give their mother the benefit of doubt. She might've sent his sister to early death but she was still their mother. And she was sweet and caring and Maki grew up feeling all that love.
She might be suspicious but aside from the voice, he felt no different from a normal being.
No superhuman strength, no regenerative abilities, no enhanced senses. Nothing at all, which made him feel different from Maia. If indeed they were mutants, then why come none of it had manifested before?
If it did, with those enhanced senses and superhuman strength, he could've saved many of his comrades. That was what he thought.
"Maki"
And suddenly Maia felt the urge to tell him.
"Right now, there's two hearts beating inside of me"
Maki and Damian's eyes widened as they searched for any indication that Maia was joking with them.
"What?"
"Mom did a medical surgery when I was born. She had put another heart inside of me. And it's beating as one with my own."
She knew from the memories she saw, how their mother kept on injecting herself with different chemicals when she was pregnant with Maki. But, she couldn't answer Maki's question about why he didn't feel any different from normal.
But she knew that she did feel she was different from the start. Her now two hearts were proof of that. And she knew one more thing.
"That voice belonged to a woman who knew us. Who knew mom, our predicament and what we really are. You could say that she might be our answer."
"And yet where is she?"
Maia shook her head indicating that she didn't know at Maki's question.
"I thought she'd be at the underground prison but when I got there, all I got were riddles from the old chimera who helped us."
Maki's shoulders slumped down. It was like he was left with all of those riddles and he can't even do anything about it. Their mom, experimenting and doing medical surgeries on both of them. For what? What exactly was she trying to do?
Damian stared at the two before noticing that the sky was starting to turn into a darker shade. They have been walking nonstop for hours now and it was a clear indication that night was falling upon them.
"Should we stop to rest and camp out here?"
Maia shifted her gaze to Damian before looking around. How was it that she didn't even notice the time? She stopped for a moment and finally shook his head at Damian.
"We're close"
Damian blankly stared at Maia.
"In the city?"
Maia nodded, then proceeded to say.
"I could hear them"
Maki and Damian disbelievingly stared at Maia.
"Oh right, you mentioned enhanced senses"
Damian snorted the moment he remembered about it. He was an idiot for gaping like that. Of course, she would've heard them.
"Besides, we can't camp out here. We'll die from the cold night wind"
Maia stated like it was just the most obvious thing. The three of them did run out of prison with nothing but the clothes that they were currently wearing. She then continued walking and by her side, the two men had no choice but to continue walking.
It was an excruciating 30-minute walk before Maki and Damian saw it.
Yellow bright lights glimmer like gold in the now pitch black skies. Houses the size of a three-story building.
Seven large pagoda lantern columns circling around a glamorous fountain at the center.
But what caught their attention was the bronze bust on top of the fountain.
It looked just like…
"Maia, tell me that's not you. Please"
Damian pointed at the top of the fountain. Maia only smiled at him.
"I never mentioned it earlier, right?"
Damian slowly lowered his hand and just stared at the woman in front of him.
"Mentioned what Ate?"
Finally, Maki decided to ask the question.
"That the seven city worshipped me as one of their Gods"