"No need to be angry, my darling~. I get it. We, the Daviirn~, have suppressed your people for... what was it again in human terms? Ah! Three decades~. That anger can not be quelled with a simple~ peace talk~. I understand~." The War Officer spun around and mused coyly, tapping her mask with one finger as she remember before continuing as she spread her arms out.
Craaack~!
I had moved slowly behind her as she spoke. As soon as she finished, 10 more soldiers had their necks spun in a full circle before dropping down dead. The War Officer slowly turned around as she let her arms fall to the sides. She stayed silent for a bit, standing still, ominously.
"If you talk with me and stop killing my men, I promise to let you go." The War Officer spoke slowly, a hint of anger in her voice now.
"Hahahahaha!" I couldn't stop myself from bursting into dark laughter.
"There you are~. See~. I'll stay right here~." Her head snapped directly towards me, her voice purring coyly as if to speak with a distressed child.
Yet, she didn't move. I let out a long sigh as I turned to look at her, my hands balling up into firsts. One thing mattered to me more than my life. My family. For this bitch to have been partially the reason that I was pushed into a scenario where I'd leave them behind, hurting them with my death. It pissed my off. It burned a fire in my chest like never before.
"The only reason I haven't kill you is because I can feel it. It does not have a good outcome." I snarled at her through gritted teeth.
"That makes~ perfect sense~. After all, you are scientifically my child now." The War Officer nodded repeatedly before placing her hands on her hips.
"What?" I asked with a hollow voice, my face falling with grim shock.
"That serum. It is of my own creation~ and has my dna~ inside of it. If you killed me with your own hands~ or with the powers gained through the forced evolution, it'd kill you~. Yet, if I die~ by other means~, you'll keep your life~." The War Officer spoke with glee as she raised her chin up, her seductive voice filled with arrogance.
"No." I whispered with horror as I took a step back.
"Must I prove~ it?" She asked while tilting her head.
"No!" I yelled, trembling in anger and disgust.
She didn't need too. My own intuition screamed it like it finally realized what kind of an abomination it was. I was a hybrid... of my own mortal enemy too. Anger, resentment, disgust and horror filled my heart.
"Are you disgusted with yourself?" The War Officer asked slowly, her voice filled with disappointment as she lowered her head a bit.
"Yes!" I hissed at her. "You, humanities enemy like all of your kin, dare to stain human blood with your genetics!?" I yelled, beyond outraged.
"But you are more powerful now? Stronger, healthier, deadlier. Why be disgusted of yourself when it is a better version?" The War Officer asked with confusion as she took a step back, her playful tone gone.
"Why? You! You dare ask why!? Three damn decades! Three, very long, damn decades! We have done nothing but hide in fear! In fear of being wiped out from our own home planet!! You do not have the right to ask why!!!" My voice started out as a slow whisper but grew louder the more I spoke, my finger pointing at her in rage.
"I know." She answered softly. "That is why I made that serum. To bring our people together and stop the needless fighting." Her voice was filled with sadness and soft.
"And what you made was an abomination! I will never side with your kind. Nor can I feel human ever again. That. Is the reason why I am disgusted." I growled at her with a shivering voice, trembling as I understood my new reality.
It bit into my soul and heart like a hot knife. A pain that I could not feel but ran through my very existence. I am an abomination.
"Then go. Go back to your human family. If they don't accept you, I will. I'll stay here for a months time. If you don't come back, I'll assume you were accepted by them." The War Officer looked away, waving me off as her voice trembled with shame.
"If they don't accept me, I'll become the Daviirn's Scourge." I growled wrathfully and waved my hand, my combat knife being pulled out of the dead body and into my hand.
I sheathed it and sprinted off back towards my Krix. As I entered the treeline, I heard a female cry of pain. I stopped for a single moment and looked back, seeing the War Office holding her head as she cried loudly on her knees. I felt both saddened and angered, the emotions conflicting to an unnecessary degree. I turned away and rushed into the forest, feeling tears run out of my left eye while my right eye remained dry.
Within a few hours, I got onto my Krix and learned that my invisiblity extends to the vehicle. If not for the need and usefulness of the ability, I would have let go of it in disgust. It roared to life and I throttled it as I whipped the vehicle around. I raced through the forest throughout the night, down broken old roads during the day and only stopped near the old house I had stayed in before.
The feeling of digust wouldn't leave me. I felt like the shell that is my body had been stained and that I needed a deep clean in a shower. Yet, I knew it would be pointless. There was no 'getting clean' from that. I stayed up the whole night, unable to sleep because of my disgust and worry. Even if it made things worse, I would tell my family about what I've become. If they don't accept me, I have no reason to be around them.
I rather be outcasted than live a lie full of pain. Only when the sun rose did I stir from my corner. The same corner I had sat in while holding my knees. With a deep sigh of sadness, I stood back up and got onto my Krix. The drive was silent, filled with my raging thoughts of disgust, anger, fear, resentment, rage and reluctance. Only when I entered the secret scavengers tunnel did I dispell my invisiblity.
After a brief check with the guards using minimal words, I entered Fort Illyad as night fell again. I didn't rush home. No, I took it slower than usual even, as if prolonging the inevitable. Eventually, I parked my Krix in the garage to see three cruisers there as well. I felt my face pale as I realized mom and my older sisters were home. Yet, I gritted my teeth and clenched my hands as I entered the elevator.
The ride up felt far shorter than usual. Far shorter than I wanted it to be. The elevator opened with a ding and I stepped out slowly. With slow, hesitant steps, I walked down the hall. Much to my displeasure, I soon found myself standing before the door of the Losman Family quarters. I was starting to hyperventilate from the emotions that ran through me. I was torn from going in or just leaving.
Click.
"Jack? You're back already?" The door opened and I trembled in fear as I saw Presley standing at the door with a shocked look.
Presley had long black hair with a beautiful face, her green eyes being the best characteristic she had. Standing 5 feet 7 inches tall, she had a healthy athletic figure with a palm sized chest and a small but perky rear. She currently wore a blue blouse with a pair of jeans and sneakers. It looked as if she was going to an outing with her friends like usual.
Yet, as her eyes trailed down, they widened as her pupils shrunk. Her shock expression turned to raw worry as her face paled. She reached out the grab my wrist as she opened her mouth but froze when I step back. She finally noticed that I was trembling.
"Jack?... Are you okay?" Presley asked with worry.
"No? Yes? I... I don't know." I stammered before shaking my head.
"Come in. Please." Presley asked softly.
".... Sure." I nodded and she gave a weak but sad smile.
Presley walked backwards slowly, keeping her eyes on me as I entered and closed the door softly. When she could, Presley side stepped to the side and let me walk past her into the living room. I passed through the living room and entered the dinning area. Mom and Amora were both shifting through paperwork at the table. Upon hearing the heavy steps, they both frowned in confusion before looking up.
I glanced at Amora. My second eldest sister had dark brown hair that bordered on being black with a playful look naturally on her face and a pair of light green eyes. Her blue and white peace keepers uniform hugged her stong but lithe frame, unable to hide her large chest and small round rear. Amora looked the best in uniform but even that didn't bring a smile to my lips like it normally would.
Seeing my battered, bloody and dirty form, Mom and Amora shot up from their chairs. Amora held her hands over her lips, looking at me with eyes full of worry. Mom rushed over to me, with a pale face and eyes misty with water, and grabbed my helmet. She yanked but I held it in place as I grimaced. A new surge of disgust filling me at the mere fact of mom touching the armor I wore.
"Why won't this come off!?" Mom growled with a shaky voice full of urgency.
"Because I won't let it." I whispered with a hollow tone.
"What?" Mom gave me an incredulous look.
"I won't take my armor off. Not... Not until I tell you all what happened." My voice cracked as I clenched my hands.
"You can do that after a shower! Now get this damn helmet off and let me see you!" Mom growled, a bit of confusion in her tone.
"Anything but that." I pleaded with a whisper.
"...." Finally sensing something was off, mom stopped trying to pull my helmet off and gazed at me with a complex expression.
"Let's hear him first, mom." Presley stepped forward and asked softly, trying to place a hand on my shoulder.
Yet, the air rippled where her hand was as it met an invisble wall. Mom flinched as she took a step back, staring at Presley's hand as it touch the invisible wall. Presley blinked a few times as her face cortorted with confusion.
"When I had reached the com tower, there was a War Officer that had 5 hostages. She injected them one by one with a white serum. Three bled from their eyes, then their noses, next the ears before vomiting blood and falling dead onto the ground.
One lived but spat blood in the War Officer's face and got his neck snapped. The final one, I didn't see how it happened but I later learned their head had been blown off. By the time I watched fourth hostage get their neck snapped, I saw a Jaeger Ranger squad with two infantry squads. The com tower was highly protected due to the presence of a War Officer.
A fight broke out. Long story short, I blew up the com tower and had grabbed one of the serums the War Officer was using to conduct human experiments. As I ran away, without ammunition, I was hunted down by five scouters. I took a gamble, knowing I'd die regardless of the chances." I began explaining slowly, trembling more with fear as I spoke.
"No." Amora whispered in horror as the faces of mom amd Presley paled more.
"Yes. I took the serum. Blood leaked from my eyes, nose and ears but I made it out as a success. I had lived through the process, just barely. I went back, angry at being hunted and became the hunter. I... I learned things I wish I never knew, having spoke with that same War Officer." I lowered my head and clenched my hands even more, disgust and shame filling my heart.
"Wh... What do you mean? Learned things you wished you never knew?" Mom stuttered as she stepped forward, only to find an invisble wall blocking her as she paused her words.
She only paused for a moment but asked. I gritted my teeth and swallowed dryly. I took a few deep breaths before I spoke.
"The serum, it is a forced evolution drug with that War Officer's dna in it. I am... a hybrid." I forced out, speaking the last words throught gritted teeth.
"A what?" They all asked at the same time in shock.
"A hybrid." I answered grimly and waved my right hand.
The chair to the table pulled out on its own, making them all look at it. Yet, Presley's loud gasp drew Amora's and mom's attention. When they looked back, I had vanished from their sight despite being right in front of them. I reappeared to their view and took my armored gloves off. They floated into the air as I waved the chair to me. The chair floated over and I grabbed it by the back rest with my barehands.
Crack!
Without any effort needed, I snapped the back rest in half. Setting the chair down softly at my side, I felt mental strings form from my forehead, connecting with mom and my sisters. With another wave of my hand, I made them sit down in front of me in a row of chairs while they had dull looks over their faces. Gently, I removed my mental influence from their minds and they blinked awake as I put my gloves back on.
Mom and my sisters shared a look of confusion and fear, seeing how they all suddenly appeared in those chairs in their own minds. Mom held her head, seemingly having remember it all as she gained a strange expression. I sat in the chair I broke and let out a long, hollow, shakey sigh.
"She made me into a Human-Daviirn hybrid, genetically making herself my mother without me even being aware that it was a consequence of my actions. An action I took to live or die by my own hands." I explained further as I slumped into the chair, looking at my own hands with disgust.
"Are... Are you okay, Jack?" Presley asked with a trembling voice.
"No. I'm disgusted with myself. I'm stronger, yes. I can do cool things like move stuff with my mind and vanish from reality. But... I loathe what I have become because I hate it so much." I shook my head and spoke truthfully, giving a dry laugh before pausing, unable to hide the anger and resentment in my voice.
Mom stood up and walked over slowly. I shivered at her approach but I didn't stop her. This was the moment of truth and I expect her to smack my helmet before telling me to get out. As I prepared for the worst and fear filled my heart, two arms wrapped around my neck and pulled me in. I trembled, tears falling from my closed eyes. My heart swelled. I felt hope.
"It's alright. Come on, go take a shower and lets get you something to eat." Mom patted my helmet softly, her voice both filled with sadness and warmth.
I hugged her, trembling as I cried in her embrace. Soon, Amora and Presley were hugging me as well.