"Hey, Mom," Aria said, voice quieter than usual
"Hmm?"
"Is Mr. Riven alright? He seems kinda… lost."
"What do you mean by lost?"
"Earlier at the gym, he would constantly sigh while working out. Even when I asked him about it, he just said it was sensitive company business and couldn't tell."
Sera glanced up from her book. "Well, he probably has a lot on his mind. He's thirty-four and single without kids and runs several businesses."
Aria squinted at her before walking into her room. "...Mom, your self-awareness sucks." She said as she closed the door.
But what was going on with Riven? Well, after finishing up handling the rest of the civilization, by starting the apocalypse on their home planet, he left some commands for the horsemen. Lazaria was set to arrive two days before the girls started school, while the others would begin their punishments at the same time.
Once he returned to Earth, one question remained for him: was he willing to take that step? He doesn't know. And that uncertainty haunted him. That's why he seemed lost—because he was.
The world moved around—birds called out to one another in the distance, squirrels ran by, bees and the like flew by, passing by the flowers around him—but none of it truly reached him.
He stood there frozen, like another statue in the garden, among the sea of roses. A symbol of love for others became the blood that caked the land for him. His gaze remained locked onto his trembling hands, covered in red.
A sticky, warm sensation curled around his fingers. The scent of iron filled his nose as a wave of nausea washed over him.
Whispers echoed in his ears, their silent screams repeating the same words over and over, 'Fate can't be changed', getting louder with each whisper till it was a yell, and then it vanished.
The scent of iron changed into a sweet floral aroma. The coarse, earthy feel of dirt replaced the sticky, warm sensation covering his hands.
And still he didn't move.
"How did I…" he murmured, voice barely audible above the garden breeze.
In another room, in another mood entirely–
"Ever think to trust that buffoon with something so delicate?" Herta scowled, flicking a strand of her black hair behind her ear as she read the research papers in her hand.
"Tch." Tossing them aside, she stood up. The sharp sound of her heels echoed on the tile, each click resonating like a heartbeat on the pavement, as she left the room and walked down the hall.
"I've got more important things to handle," She mumbled. White walls and floors, illuminated by fluorescent lights, stretched onward for what felt like miles. The only indication that you were traveling anywhere was the colorful strips on the floor denoting the different sectors of the lab.
It was something that had to be done if she wanted the idiots around her not to get lost. It was annoying nonetheless; it was her lab, but all those government moron just wouldn't leave her alone.
"Hah, Riven should just kill 'em all." She said as she turned the corner down into a more restrictive area, marked with purple.
Just as she stepped into the restricted area, a voice called out to her, "Dr. Damocles." An out-of-breath lab aide hurried towards her, clutching a clipboard and bending over to catch her breath as she approached.
"Dr. Damocles, I'm sorry to bother you when…" Herta held up a finger. "Oh, sorry. The US ambassador is on the phone wishing to talk with you."
"Hang it up," Herta said coolly, already turning to walk forward.
"Huh, but Dr. Damocles, that the US—"
"Hang. It. Up." Her tone didn't rise, but it carried the weight of command
"…Alright." She said a bit downcast as she walked away. Herta watched her go before continuing on her way.
Herta Damocles, a name that could turn heads instantly, a beautiful genius who earned a Nobel Peace Prize at just the age of fifteen, graduated from college at twelve, learned every language at ten, so on and so forth. There wasn't anything on earth she couldn't do.
She had even taken DNA samples of her family and used them to create the perfect daughter for herself, just to experience parenthood.
Even the Divine was no secret to her, thanks to Riven, but even beyond that, she knew things Riven would have overlooked.
She paused in front of the door, scanning her ID on the door pad. The door opened with a hiss. Walking through the dark room, passing by test tubes and other strange chemicals left lying around, until she arrived at a sealed door titled 'cold storage. '
She quickly typed in the password. The password in question was the simplest thing, but also the hardest to put in correctly, half of pi. And no, not the pi symbol with a two in front of it, actual numbers.
With a beep, the heavy wheel of the airtight door began to rotate with a low metallic groan, spinning slowly at first, then picking up momentum.
Each click echoed like a ticking chronograph in the silence.
A high-pressure hiss escaped the seal as it depressurized, and with a final clank, the thick steel door unlatched. It slid open, heavy and deliberate.
The chamber exhaled a thin chilling mist that slithered its way across the ground, moving slowly as if it were searching for something hidden.
Herta walked smoothly into the room, navigating through rows of preserved blood tissues, DNA samples, and even a few organs and full specimens. Finally, at the depths of the storage, she arrived before a much smaller safe.
This safe was the most important item in the whole storage. Even the precautions she went through to ensure the items inside were stored properly were over the top. The whole cold storage sat at a temperature of -200 °C.[1] Even with protected gear, many wouldn't enter.
But here, the temperature reached even lower at -900 °C.[2] The only reason she, herself, could walk through was once due to Riven's involvement, which she was grateful for. That's not to mention the small safe could survive a nuclear bomb and blunt force trauma at the highest of levels, and to top it off, the safe uses a special biometric system to unlock.
She had arrangements in place as well, but doesn't expect them to be used.
And what exactly is she protecting? Opening up the safe inside were around thirty or so vials of blood. To the front were the more useless vials, and to the back were the more important ones. But whose was it?
Well, there was only one person on the planet whose blood needed to be protected so fiercely. It was Rivens. To be more exact, the important ones and what she came to retrieve today were samples from before he left and were closer to the time frame she needed the samples from.
While the ones in the front are from his return.
Reaching in, Herta grabbed one labeled 'eighteen' before closing the safe. As she walked out of cold storage, she grabbed two other samples off a shelf before once again sealing the door shut.
Walking back out of the room, she walked deeper into the restricted area till she arrived at another lab. This lab was one of the many labs she used within the restricted area; this one focused more on specialized DNA tests.
The lab had everything she needed currently, from stuff for sample collection like buccal swabs to software for data analysis and matching like LIMS[3].
There wasn't anything about DNA she couldn't find out here, but what made this lab different from other labs with the same equipment was the Technology. The restricted area was restricted not just cause of her main labs being here.
No, even beyond that was she had technology well beyond Earth's capabilities, all designed by her and Riven, before he left.
It would take the complex and long DNA test she was about to do and turn it into a simple two-hour endeavor.
Herta set the labeled vials on the tray and peeled off her gloves before slipping on a new set of gloves. A quiet mumble escaped her lips. "Sorry, Riven, a genius curiosity isn't simply stopped with a no."
That's right, she was here, in this lab, for one thing only: to complete the paternity test of Riven and the girls to satisfy her curiosity. To her, it mattered not if they were her brother's kids or not; she was already their aunt, and who cared if her brother had a near-impossible chance to have kids?
It wasn't impossible, just highly improbable. And he could live forever, and she, too, could live forever, and they could make just about anyone live forever, be it by her scientific studies or his divine abilities.
There was plenty of time.
But not enough time for the answers she wanted to appear before her, and finally, after two hours of a boring process, she held the answers in her hand. A single page of paper that simply answered the question. Were they his?
And now, of course, she knew the answer, but she wouldn't tell. She's a genius, not a relationship counselor. She had the highest IQ and EQ amongst all the mortals on this planet, and could even outsmart the divine if need be. How could she not understand what the truth would do?
So for the time being, it was going to a place no one could reach or knew about, except Riven. Walking over to the corner of the room was another small safe like the one before, but a bit different. On top of the case was a small writing that read 'B2R5,' which simply meant Box two in row R's spot number five.
Placing the test result in the safe, she slammed her hand down on a red button. Blaring alarms rang through the room as a mechanical hand stretched through a sealed hatch, grabbing hold of the safe. It carried it off deep into the faculty.
The safe was carried smoothly to a large box in the lowest reaches of the faculty, where it was neatly placed in its spot, along with everything else that Herta deemed as disposable under circumstances.
If they needed to be disposed a hatch would open under the giant box, dropping it directly into the mantle and destroying all the contents.
"Problem dealt with." She said with a bit of satisfaction in her voice as she removed her gloves.
It was then that a voice came through the Entercom. "Madam Herta, your guest has arrived."
"Oh, good. I'll be there shortly." Then with a single step, Herta disappeared from the lab and appeared in her personal office, where her guest was waiting.
"Truly a wonderful technique. You wouldn't mind telling me how it works, dear old friend of my brother's." Herta leaned in her eyes gleaming with something too sharp, too precise. Like she wasn't just watching, but calculating.
The guest sat calmly, legs crossed, hands folded — posture too perfect, still as if the world moved around them instead of with them. Then they opened their mouth.
Elsewhere, Riven walked with a slow yet sorrowful pace. His clothes, not the boastful or formal outfits he normally wore, but a simple black jacket and jeans.
To others, it might seem strange, even more so on this planet, but for him it was nostalgic. These were the clothes he wore when he first came here, though not exactly the same, but similar in style and look.
As he looked around, he noticed how much this place had changed from his memories. The dark green grass that reached his waist had become pure scarlet, while the emerald leaves of nearby trees had been painted a deep crimson.
And he knew why, of course, he did. He had planted the seeds that became the gracious rows of swaying grass and put down the saplings that grew into beautiful trees that held the heavens. All to atone for the damage he caused here.
But it was clear as day that there was no atonement for what had happened here, just a reminder of loss.
He continued deeper into the array of red for hours until he stopped at a tree, far larger than anything in the surroundings. Its white leaves danced in the wind like it was waving to a long-time friend.
It was beneath this tree, lying at the base of its trunk a small grave was hidden. It was nothing fancy, just a small stone with no name written on it, just like the owner would have wanted.
"Hey, it's been a while since I visited, and I know, I won't mention your name in a sorrowful tone, or you'll haunt me," he chuckled lightly, patting a bit of dust off the stone.
Sitting down next to the grave, he rested his back on the trunk of the tree, looking up to the sky.
"I've made a pretty big decision, and I thought you deserved to be the first to know." He paused, taking a deep breath. "I've decided to seal it away."
[1] -328 F
[2] -1588 F
[3] Laboratory Information Management System