A scenery of glowing red.
Riley thought that he would really never truly see a scenery like this again, but now he was surrounded by glowing eyes.
Themarians, or are they?
Riley might be losing his mind, but he clearly remembers that back in New Theran, when the themarians were just wiped out, Diana seemed adverse to the idea of cloning their species.
But what is this?
Since Paige and his mother were working together, this means that Diana was primarily involved in this. Riley worked smart in wiping out their species, but now they are very slowly growing again.
Should… he just kill all of them while they were still young? He can just tell Diana that it was an accident because he was losing his mind.
"..." Riley placed his hand on his chin as he squinted his eyes. Come to think of it, he has gained another excuse he could use whenever he does something—and no one would be able to discern if he was lying or not.
Finally, something positive from his crawling illness.
Riley then stretched his hand to the side—and as he did so, the sea of gra.s.s that was endlessly dancing with the wind completely stopped. The children whose eyes were violently glowing red, now flickering as they blinked several times; slightly confused as to what was happening as even the sounds of their breaths could no longer be heard.
"None of you have to worry, children," Riley looked at the child closest to him, "I will make it as painless and as instant as possible. None of you will even know that death has already—"
"Riley!?"
And before Riley could start his routine dialogue, a loud—almost shrieking voice echoed through his ears.
"Is… is that really you!?"
And as the voice once again reached his ears, Riley could really only let out a sigh as he relaxed his arms. The gra.s.s that halted dance, now once again swaying with the wind. The confused children, now all kneeling on the gra.s.s as they felt their hearts and all of their organs momentarily stop for a fraction of a second.
"Riley!"
Riley then turned his eyes to the direction of the voice, only to see a large pair of wings flying toward him, carrying Paige as she leaped into his arms without any hesitation or restraint.
"...Paige," Riley whispered as he just stood there, letting Paige hug him while he looked at the children kneeling on the ground. Perhaps he could just kill them some other time when Paige wasn't here.
"You…" Paige then pulled herself away from Riley; her eyes, reflecting his face and his face only, "...You look so young. You really haven't aged a day—no, you look even younger."
"I believe it is the hair, Paige," Riley just blinked as he returned Paige's gaze, "You look older."
"That's…" Paige adjusted her gla.s.ses, letting out a light sigh as she smiled, "...because I am. It's been 5 years."
Although Paige still looked pretty much the same, there was a certain maturity in her face that wasn't there before. Her hair was also styled shorter, showcasing her pet.i.te face even more.
"I… thought I would never see you again, Riley," Paige was about to embrace Riley again, but then noticed that everyone outside was staring at them, "You… you guys! How many times do I have to remind all of you not to use your powers on the field!? Riley, can you wait in my office, I'm just going to talk some sense into these children—just enter the building, you can't miss it since there are a lot of directions."
"Hm…" Riley nodded; walking away as he took one final glance at the children whose eyes lit up earlier, memorizing their faces just in case he needed to kill them later.
"And did you just try to attack a guest!?" And as soon as Riley was gone, Paige started reprimanding the children that attacked Riley, "And more than that, you attacked the son of the one sponsoring all of your food. Do none of you want to eat!?"
"S…sorry, professor!"
"What did I say about consequences? There is…"
Paige's sermon probably took the entire quarter of the hour before she joined Riley in her office—and as soon as they were alone, Paige once again wrapped her arms around Riley; deeply burrowing her face on his chest.
Her words were barely recognizable, but her breaths were enough for Riley to know how much she missed him.
…Does he? Does he actually know? There was a time he wouldn't even know what sort of feeling 'missing' someone is. Was he… actually becoming human? Or was this just once again a product of his shattering mind?
That would be funny if it was the case—it took for him to lose his mind to finally gain a semblance of humanity.
Once again, Riley just let Paige release whatever it is she wanted to release as he just stood there; his shirt, now drowned with her tears as she continued to cry for almost an entire hour.
"Your sister…" And after she was done, her eyes were completely red; the two of them, now just relaxing on the sofa, with Paige resting her cheek on Riley's lap, "..she told me you're back. I couldn't really believe it at first, but now that you're here… it's all I really want to believe in."
"Hm."
"She told me that you might go here," Paige smiled, "Is this the first place you tried to find when you arrived on Earth?"
"No, I went to see Hera first," Riley quickly shook his head.
"O…oh," Paige blinked a couple of times.
"I applied for a job there," Riley nodded, "Hera was capable of bringing out emotions in me that I didn't know I had, so I a.s.sume that by spending more time with her or working under her, I could understand my human side more."
"That's—wait, a job!?" Paige then quickly sat up as she looked Riley in the eyes, "Are you going to work as an actor again? Do you know how many times I've watched your scenes as Pharos!?"
"They released that?" Riley could not help but blink a couple of times as he returned Paige's excited gaze, "I was under the impression they did not release that since I was revealed to be Darkday not a long time after."
"It was posted everywhere on the internet! I had it saved on my phone, but the file became corrupted for some reason," Paige then let out a small but very deep sigh as she shook her head in disappointment, "There was also a lot of behind-the-scenes footage. You have a talent for acting, Riley!"
"Hera told me it was more like a talent for pretending, Paige."
"It works!" Paige giggled; her excitement growing by the second, "Wait, wait… don't tell me you're going to voice one of the characters in the new season of Italian Mafia Reborn!?"
"There will be a new season?"
"No. But maybe you could ask Hera to buy the license!?"
"I am in the process of trying to convince Hera to do so, Paige," Riley nodded in agreement several times, "I will actually be withdrawing all of my savings to invest in her company to make it possible."
"I'm… I'm getting excited."
"I could see that, Paige."
"I was going to ask you to try and work here, but I believe your work there will be as important as what we are doing here," Paige also nodded.
"And what is your work here, Paige?" Riley then asked, "I initially thought this was a school for orphaned supers with disabilities, but I saw themarian clones outside."
"Oh, they aren't themarian clones," Paige shook her head, "They are just normal supers."
"...Hm?"
"Your mother gathered children that have similar abilities to themarians. I don't really understand most of the science stuff, but I think she's doing… something? Trying to isolate a certain supervirus or something something...you know what, I'm actually not exactly sure with Diana," Paige sighed and shrugged, "And before you can ask, she didn't kidnap any of them—they were voluntarily enrolled here by their parents."
"They chose to enroll their normal children here instead of Mega Academy?" Riley tilted his head to the side, "Were they aware that their children will be sharing their s.p.a.ce with people like me?"
"There are no people like you, Riley…" Paige rested her head on Riley's shoulder, "E…except for all the clones you keep on sp.a.w.ning."
"Hm."
"So…" Paige then closed her eyes, "...Why exactly did you come find me?"
"I have questions about your ability, Paige."
"Our ability," Paige smiled.
"How do you discern what is real or not?"
"I don't," Paige let out a long and very deep sigh, "My illusions have always been real to me. Whether they were bad or good, I needed to accept them… but of course, the amphetamine helps calm my mind."
"Do you think the medicine could help me too, Paige?"
"That…" Tears suddenly seeped from Paige's closed eyes, "...No. What you have, it can't be cured...
...my abilities just made it worse."