Chapter 102: Familiar Ties
Hugo moved through the Immortal Flame Manor quickly. It was late at night, so many of the awakened fire keepers were currently sleeping in their pods, fulfilling their duties in the Dream Realm.
There were a few masters hanging by. Some were here to guard the manor while others were there to relax and enjoy their time.
Either way, Hugo managed to avoid most of them, before finding a safe spot to transform into Big Chill and leave the manor at the dead of night.
His memory of NQSC was not that good, not to mention he did not know the routes of this gigantic city that well.
However, that was easily fixed when he used the internal system of his Omnitrix and entered a map app on the Network tab, finding a route to his previous neighborhood.
Thanks to Big Chill's amazing flying speed, Hugo managed to cross the gargantuan city of NQSC in a few minutes, reaching his old house.
He detransformed and landed on the ground gracefully, before moving towards the house.
Hugo exhaled, feeling a mixture of emotions in his stomach.
There were too many thoughts running through his head right now.
Such as: How would his father be? Was he even still alive?
And if so, what was he supposed to say to him? That he missed him? Or that he didn't want to carry out this hatred for him any longer?
To Hugo, his father had always been a villain, an evil man who represented everything that Hugo hated.
In fact, he needed his father to be that evil in his life, so that he could blame him for his misfortune and have a justification for his hatred.
That constant need to blame someone was something Hugo had developed as a coping mechanism, whether it was blaming his father, the Dream Realm and even Ben Tennyson himself.
It was the only way he had remained sane through his arduous journey...
But now... He realized it was an inherently negative trait to possess, if not downright pathetic. Blaming others and using them as an excuse to stay hateful... it only made you bitter, Small and terrible.
Hugo didn't want to be that person anymore.
He wanted to be better.
'Let's just see how it goes.'
Hugo finally gathered the courage to knock on the door.
A minute passed, and no one answered.
'He's probably drunk asleep right now.'
With a sigh, Hugo called upon his ascended ability and partially transformed his body into Ghostfreak, gaining the alien's intangibility.
He walked through the door calmly, phasing through it, and was shocked by what he saw.
The house was... Clean.
It was tidy, decorated, and filled with photos and paintings that gave it a warm, lived-in look.
It reminded him of those government propaganda ads, the ones about the perfect family, that preached the necessity of family in the age of the Nightmare Spell.
Hugo moved through the house, his eyes scanning the shelves. There was a photo of himself as a child and several more of his mother, each maintained in perfect shape.
But most shockingly... There were photos of another woman.
"What?"
Hugo's expression shifted.
He prayed that his assumption was wrong, but as he searched for more photos, he suddenly froze in his place, not believing what his eyes saw.
A wave of emotions crashed over him, making him feel all types of things.
On a shelf sat a picture of his father, arm in arm with another woman and a baby cradled in their hands.
Hugo picked it up and stared at it for a long moment. His grip tightened, and the photo case shattered in his palm, unable to withstand his ascended strength.
'He remarried And had another child...'
A boiling anger rose from the depths of his soul, His shadow deepened, stretching unnaturally across the floor, writhing in response to his fury.
'I was stuck in hell for two years... And he got to rebuild his life and have another child...'
Where was the justice in that?
And more importantly... Why did his father only decide to rebuild his life after Hugo was assumed dead?
'Did he hate me that much?'
Hugo knew he hadn't been the best son, not even close... But back then, he was just a child. He didn't know any better and yet his father had given up on him anyway.
His already fractured mental health cracked even further. For a brief moment, he even considered turning into Heatblast and burning this entire place to the ground.
Calmly, he walked deeper into the house and climbed the stairs.
His room was exactly as he'd left it. His games, his novels, his books, all were still there, maintained perfectly.
It had even been cleaned recently...
'Is this some kind of sick joke...'
Why had he kept his room?
Too many questions swirled in his mind at the same time, making him sick.
He explored the rest of the house and found a baby's room, which was empty, infact the entire house was empty.
Returning to the main floor, he released his ascended ability and leaned against the wall, before sliding down on it, untill he ended up in a seated position on the floor, utterly defeated.
He didn't know what to feel anymore.
Hatred? Sadness? Guilt ?
Hugo exhaled. Then, suddenly, he heard the main door cracked...
It seemed the owners of the house had came back, likely due to the cameras detecting another human being inside...
Hugo wanted to transform and leave quickly, but he couldn't muster the strength to do it.
He didn't move a single muscle, instead He just stayed exactly where he was.
As the door swung open, Hugo's father stepped inside.
He was alone. His second wife and child were nowhere to be seen, which was strange.
Aside from that, He was dressed properly, which was unusual, almost jarring considering he was a mess the last time Hugo had saw him.
His expression was solemn, deeply tired. The kind of exhaustion that came from sleepless nights and endless stress.
He suddenly froze the moment he noticed Hugo.
Hugo could tell he was about to scream but then he recognized who the intruder was.
His father stood motionless for a long moment. Then he sighed, stepped inside, and closed the door behind him.
"So it's true... You're alive," he said, keeping his distance.
Hugo stared at his father for a long moment, his expression unreadable.
He didn't speak, waiting for whatever pathetic excuse was about to come...
"Listen... I know you're angry with me—"
"Oh, you haven't seen me angry," Hugo cut him off. "I could skin you alive with my bare hands and not feel a thing right now. "
His father flinched slightly, but he didn't seem... Scared.
It was hard to explain, but Hugo even saw courage in his eyes, the same one that awakeneds would have when fighting powerful nightmare creatures...
"...I'm sorry. For everything. For neglecting you and for making you live in this shithole for year... And I'm sorry for all the things that happened to you, wherever you were these last two years."
He walked to the shelf and picked up the broken photo of his new family, staring at it as if searching for answers...
"I know no matter what I say, your anger won't be sated... But please, don't hurt me just yet... Your sister and stepmother still need me for now."
Hugo wanted to laugh at those words... Or maybe cry.
"And I didn't need you after mom died?" Hugo said, getting up and facing his father face to face... He only said:
"... Why wasn't I good enough for you?"
His dad looked at him for a long moment and answered.
"You were never the problem... I was. The alcohol, the prostitutes... It was all me, and despite everything, you were the best son I could have asked for."
His dad closed his eyes, expecting something to happen to him...
But the pain never came.
Hugo simply turned around to the door to leave.
"... I wish you well in your new life."
"Wait... Son."
Hugo turned his head, wanting to hear what he was about to say.
"I know this sounds incredibly selfish, especially coming from me... But I'm desperate. Your friend is Changing Star, right? Can you perhaps... Call her?"
Hugo seemed confused by this request, not understanding the reason.
"Why?" He asked.
His father hesitated before explaining:
"Your sister... She was born with a rare type of cancer... She needs to remain in the hospital at all times," he explained, moving closer. "We tried everything, all the surgeries they had available, all the medicines and we even paid an awakened healer to attempt healing her... None of it worked. We thought that maybe Lady Nephis could heal her when she does her monthly hospital visits but there isn't much time left..."
Hugo went completely still for a moment.
In his anger, he had forgotten entirely that he had a sister now...
And apparently, she was diagnosed with cancer. It was bound to be fatal, considering she was no older than two years.
Hugo still had mixed feelings about his father, but the life of an innocent child was at stake, so he could not afford to let his emotions blind him.
"What hospital is she staying in?" Hugo asked.
His father's eyes were immediately filled with hope, as he stammered:
"I-it's the Northern Hospital, the main one..."
NQSC was a large city, with its size being comparable to that of a country back in the old world, and thus the number of hospitals within it was massive.
To make it simpler for the people living there, there were seven main hospitals divided across the massive frame of the city, and several minor hospitals around them.
Hugo touched the faceplate of his Omnitrix, causing the dial to appear once again.
He circled it for a while, before picking Jetray and slamming the Omnitrix core, quickly transforming in a flash of blue light.
He grabbed his father and leaped out of the house, flying through the city at an incredible speed, while controlling his speed just enough to make sure his father didn't die from the momentum.
High in the sky, near one of the central hospitals, Hugo asked his terrified father:
"Is this the one?"
His father held on for dear life, and nodded in quick motion.
"Y-yes!"
Hugo went down, entering through one of the windows and detransforming again, dropping his father to the ground.
"Lead the way," he said.
As they walked through the corridors of the hospital, his father asked hesitantly:
"What exactly are you planning to do to her?"
Hugo didn't look at him as they continued walking "I have a healing ability, I should be able to fix her."
His father nodded... He was uncertain about the whole thing, but he was desperate by this point, if not changing star, then his son should be the next best thing, considering his fame and previous feats that the government spread around like wildfire.
They quickly reached the private quarter where Hugo's sister was being held. The room itself modest, with a glass window looking into the room, revealing the small figure inside.
Outside, slumped in one of the chairs, was Hugo's stepmother, a woman in her late thirties, maybe early forties. She was fast asleep, clearly exhausted from this situation.
She didn't stir as they approached which was a good thing for Hugo, he really did not want to deal with anymore drama right now.
Hugo turned his attention to the room beyond the glass.
It was a sight that could break the toughest heart...
Inside the crib, his sister lay surrounded by countless machines. Needles pierced her tiny body, tubes snaked across her skin and monitors beeped oftenly, showing her heartbeas. all of this was working just to keep her alive.
She was suffering, Barely holding on for dear life...
The poor thing...
Hugo realized just how cruel this world truly was, even without the Nightmare Spell...
He used his ascended ability and partially transformed into Ghostfreak once again, passing through the wall.
As he did, he walked towards the glass-protected crib and extended his arm, the one with the Omnitrix on it.
Hugo mentally commanded his watch to activate the [Genetic Repair] trait.
"Omnitrix, use all your energy to make sure she lives, no matter what." he said, also activating the [Voice Command] at the same time.
[As you wish.] the Omnitrix responded.
A blue marvelous light engulfed the room, and poured into Hugo's sister. Her heart, which was weak and sick, was suddenly empowered by a new form of vitality.
The tumor that had been growing inside of her receded and shrunk quickly, before disappearing completely.
The Omnitrix fixed all of her bodily problems, and at the same time, it destroyed all the chemicals they had injected into her to keep her alive, rewriting her biology to the peak of human biology. Making sure that she was as healthy as a baby can be.
There was a reason Hugo had not gotten Nephis to heal his sister, not because he wanted to save her personally but because of how Nephis's flames worked.
Her flames focused on restoration, by restoring the body to a previous condition.
His sister had been born with the cancer tumor inside of her, making it so the cancer was her natural state so nephis's flame would not have done anything. Perhaps if his sister had gained cancer later on in life, then Nephis would be able to heal it, but she had not.
Cancer was a genetic mutation, so using the Omnitrix's [Genetic Repair] trait, Hugo made sure his sister was healed entirely.
He nearly stumbled as the process finished, the drain on his soul essence was far heavier than he'd expected it to be. Causing the omnitrix to temporarily enter its recharge mode.
He carefully removed the tubes and needles from his sister's tiny body, then opened the door and stepped out, looking paler then when he had entered.
"Call the doctors," Hugo said, his voice worn out "Tell them to take her out of there, she's healed."
A tear appeared on his father's face... As he tried to get closer to him.
Hugo raised his arm, blocking his path "Save it. I didn't do it for you," he said, looking at his dad in the eyes. "We are over. Don't ever think of communicating with me again. From this day forward, you don't know me."
With that, Hugo turned and left the hospital in the dead of night, not even waiting to see his reaction.
Stepping out of the building, Hugo was left alone, still wearing his training clothes, which were now soaked thanks to the rain.
The city of NQSC was beautiful at night, especially now that it was raining, granting the city a mystical vibe that could not be explained in words...
Hugo looked at the sky, with an empty expression on his face.
"..."
He took a step forward, not looking behind.