"I don't believe you! There's no way you are my dad! You just want to trick me!"
"After all, you have blond hair. I'm—"
"Your mother is dark-haired. You inherited hers..." interjected Kian. "Why would I lie to you? There's no need for me to go out of my way to make a lie like this. If I want to trick you, there are many other ways more effective than this one. Why am I standing here and not attacking, and even try to talk with an enemy? Because I am your dad, Ava. Your father, the one who raised you back then..."
"This can't be true!"
My hands were shaking. I tried to control it, but it was no use. I couldn't speak properly and just spat endless denial over Kian's statement. No, wait... There's no proof of it. No evidence whatsoever to back his statement up.
"..."
In the far corner of my eye, Lily was stomping on Relly's crystallized body over and over, perhaps making sure that she had definitely killed him. Of course, I knew how both of them were like in the past.
Lily was very obedient and never once did she disapproved of what Relly had ordered her to do. Still, maybe it was only me, but deep inside Lily, she could be harboring a bit of hatred towards him. Maybe, before she defected and joined Neo Africa, she was just following him so that she could get to where Caesar was at.
"I know it's hard for you to believe me. But, I am your father..." repeated Kian. He had taken a few steps towards me, his feet crunching the snow beneath before he halted.
"No... S-Stop..."
My Aegis spoke in my mind, "I already told you before. He might be your father. And... that crystal woman or whatever is your mother."
I balked at the thought of both of them being my parents. I didn't need to believe him. Right now, the identity of my true parents was not important.
"He just wants to play with my mind. Yeah."
I steeled my fighting spirit with that statement. After all, in a fight, there was no telling when your opponent had played a card so smooth that you didn't notice it from the very beginning. And when you did, that particular card was actually something that can get past your defense, like in a card game.
In fact, why should I listen to him? If he had a picture of me from my forgotten past, then I could believe that guy's words.
"You. Are. Not. My. Father!"
His face stiffened. "Ava..."
"Why should I believe you? All this time... No... Back then when we first met in Russia, you could have told me your true identity. But now, since we are already enemies from two different factions, anyone can pull something like this to get at their opponents' weakness. Isn't that what you are doing right now?!"
He clenched his fists. "Back then, I want to get into the underground city. So, I had to conceal my identity."
"Excuses! If I am your daughter, then why didn't you told me right from the get-go? I'm sure when Amathelia had taken over as the C.U's ruler, you could have tried to meet me or something. But you never did!"
Tears started to fill my eyes.
"You actually don't care about your daughter!"
Why am I sobbing?
"T-There's no father that wouldn't try his hardest for his child. You! are not..."
I couldn't breathe. When I was about to say the next few words, nothing came out of my mouth.
"Are not..."
Kian and the crystallized figure of Felicia stared at me. They patiently waited for me to finish my sentence.
"I am your father, Ava... Believe me," he said calmly.
"Don't you dare claim yourself as my father!" My eyes were red from all the tears. Something inside me kept forcing the notion of him being my father in my mind. Perhaps, in a way, that something was responsible for my emotions pouring out at that time. It was like a caveat that I would never learn the truth after this.
Could it be my past memories? I wanted to believe it, but the 'new' me didn't want to accept such a thing. Why don't you believe him, Ava? This question knocked at my heart ever since he told me he was my father.
"What can I do to make you believe me?" There was only sincerity in those words he muttered. For a moment, somehow, I saw a glimpse of three people in front of me.
A young Kian on the left, and a woman I assumed to be Felicia on the right.
And on the middle was a fairly small girl. I didn't recognize her exultant smile. Strange, but the girl reminded me of myself.
"...Father?"
Kian's eyes brightened up for a moment.
"...No." I shook my head. "You are not my father. I already have someone in this new life of mine that I cared the most about... Before, I saw him as my father. But now... Now, he's the one I want to spend the rest of my life with."
"I love him."
And after I said those words, Kian gritted his teeth and glared at me, while emitting a nauseating aura all over the area. I almost faint from it, but I held on.
Lily sensed it as well and turned to face both of us.
"Why..." Kian started to walk towards me slowly. "Everything I have done... It's for the sake of our family. You are apart of it, and yet..."
Unconsciously, I had taken a few steps back. I reformed my fighting spirit and threw my flames at him.
With a swing of his arm, the flames disappeared before it could reach him.
"W-What?"
Did he just erase the flame itself? I considered it at first, but my Aegis corrected me.
"He simply 'pulled' the oxygen around him and sent it all over the place. Look, his hands are covered in his glowing white Aegis crystals," my Aegis said in my mind.
"Then, how—"
Before I could say anything else, Kian lunged at me without warning and swiftly grabbed hold of my neck. Then, he pushed me to the snowy ground with one quick motion.
"Why don't you believe me?!" he yelled with teary eyes. "Why?! Everything—" His foot stepped on my head again and again. "Everything I have done is for your sake! I want to create a world where no one in our family would be harmed again. Did you know that?! Amathelia has gone through decades of isolation because of the people around her. They are idiots. All of them! And you know what? Your mother died while protecting you, and I became a guinea pig to those scientists! Did you know that, Ava?!"
"G-Get away from me!"
I grabbed hold of his foot and my multi-colored flames wrapped itself around it quickly— after a few moments, the flames had already engulfed him. However, the same thing happened once again.
When I got back on my two feet, Kian's hand snapped at my face like a snake. As for my flames, it had ceased to exist, with large holes dotting his uniform.
"I have covered my body with my own Aegis crystals. There's no way you can hurt me!"
He tightened his grip on my head, allowing his glowing white crystals to flit out and then latched at my forehead. But, I wasn't going to let him have his way. So I threw my flames at him and it engulfed— or not... The flames disappeared the moment it was exposed to air.
"AVA!" yelled Lily.
Her left leg crashed into Kian's torso and he was thrown a good dozen feet away from me. Still, his Aegis crystals already had found its way to coat itself all over my face.
"Ugh."
I burned it off bit by bit while Lily took on Kian by herself. My eyes took a glance at him. He was on his feet pretty quickly, with his Aegis crystals underneath his uniform exposed for us to see.
Felicia, who had popped her upper body out from his back looked at me. Her lips parted and closed repeatedly but no sound came out. Of course, I could make out the word she wanted to say.
Felicia was muttering the word, Ava.
"Are you sure about this..." said Kian to me. "I could make the world a better place. No, WE could make it a better place. Ava, please... Come back to your family. Your real family!"
I clicked my tongue. "Get lost! You know, even if you are indeed my father, I won't acknowledge you. Never! The same goes for that Felicia thing hanging off your back. I don't have a mother like her!"
His expression changed. Before, during our fight, his eyes still portrayed kindness, unwilling to give up on me. But then, it seemed like something changed inside him. His face darkened, and his eyes glared at me so fiercely that I shivered from it.
"Ava... I guess it's too late now, huh," he said. At the same time, glowing white Aegis crystals forced itself out of his feet to cover the area ever so slow.
"Still, I... I can't believe my own daughter said that. Felicia and I love you so much. Ava... But why does it have to be like this? Even now, I'm sure your mother still does... Huh... How can you say such a thing to my face?"
Tears filled his eyes, and my heart somehow was wrenched from seeing him like that. The brief images of him and an unknown woman popped inside my mind over and over.
The woman's warm smile soothed me as she held my body up high in the air. Slowly after she put me down— Kian, who was in my mind, grabbed hold of my hand and I was unable to pull away. It was not because he was forcing me or anything, but his touch felt very nostalgic and my body froze on the spot. I couldn't find it in myself to let go.
By the time I snapped back to reality, tears also filled my eyes. My right hand raised up without me wanting to, reaching out for Kian.
"What am I..."
I shook my head. "What..."
"Did you remember?" Kian's eyes lit up for a moment.
"I... You and that Felicia. I saw you two. We were in a house, and I was... Wait..."
I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry so much but I held it in. Why is this happening to me?
It felt like my heart was trying to fill this sense of longing for those two people. I didn't want to admit that my past memories were knocking, telling me to embrace my family once more. But, I was content with my new life. I met a bunch of people all over the world which I cared about.
After everything I went through in this new life of mine, anything else my old life had to offer couldn't compare with this one.
"I-I don't want to go back..." I said with teary eyes. "I love the new people I met. While I did go through a lot of horrible stuff, I still prefer this new life. Whatever you and... my mother says from this point onward to persuade me... It will not work. After all, those people I met, they are wonderful people... and kind... nice... honest... I feel loved whenever I am with them."
Kian's mouth gaped as if the words he wanted to say got stuck in his throat.
"So, please stop. Because I can't see myself betraying them just because of you two. Maybe Amathelia will not give up, but still... Still, I prefer to be with these people. I love them."
Kian took a deep breath. "What about Hope Domitius?"
"I love him. I love him so much. I want to say by his side. I want to... I want him to see me as a woman. He is the reason I am still alive right now. He cared for me and stood by my side through thick and thin... and it warms my heart when he did what he did back then... And I know it's strange to feel this way for someone I barely know when I was still ten years old at that time. But... But, I just have to be with him, you see..."
Kian breathed a sigh. "Love is not strange at all. No one can really comprehend why he or she fell in love with a certain individual. It's all in your heart."
He brandished a glowing white Aegis blade from his arm. "Even so, I have a duty to fulfill. Your grandmother wishes you to go back, and she is my mother after all. This outweighs everything. I'm sorry, Ava. Bear with this... and if you don't want to get hurt... please don't resist."
Lily took a fighting stance and gritted her pointy teeth at Kian, ready to take him on earnestly.
"Hmm?"
Friendly fighter jets cut through the sky and circled the area. After a few minutes, it aimed its missiles at Kian. The missiles then darted towards him but with just a swing of his blade, plasma shot out and destroyed the missiles in an instant.
"Plasma?!"
"I actually can produce my own plasma. Don't forget that my Aegis crystals could manipulate any type of matter around it. Plasma is the fourth state of matter, so it's possible."
With another swing, his plasma shot at Lily and it bounced off her crystallized body with no difficulty.
"As expected of Lily. I suppose no Aegis specialties will ever work on you."
When Lily and I were about to attack him, a deafening sound pierced the air from out of nowhere. I clasped my ears with both hands, trying to deaden it. When the dark clouds dispersed itself, an incongruous, massive object took shape.
"What the..."
Hiding behind the clouds was a huge fortress... A flying fortress! The lower half of it was a huge, jagged chunk of rock resembling a mountain, hanging upside down. The upper half was covered in white, glittering crystals, with a huge muzzle pointing forward at the center of it. The muzzle was also coated in white.
From far away, it was not really obvious to those on the ground, but when the flying fortress approached us quickly, the muzzle appeared to be wrapped in thin, spiraling metal that almost resembled the spiral of a drill.
"Mom..." muttered Kian.
"Amathelia is in there?" I mumbled.
"Can't you wait until I finished this task first... Why are you so impatient to destroy Neo Africa with the new weapon?" Kian said to himself.
Before I could ask him anything about the fortress, a helicopter flew close by. That was when we noticed a large, transparent dome encasing us.
"Jessie is in that helicopter, and she's using her specialty!" said Lily. "Ava, it will be dangerous. Let's put up some distance away from Kian."
"Alright."
Sure enough, after we distanced ourselves, Kian suddenly fell on both knees as if he was attacked mentally. His eyes bulged, and he screamed from the top of his lungs. His countenance distorted into a mixture of anger, sadness, rage, and pain. Felicia was unaffected by Jessie's reality perception ability, so she tried to snap Kian back to reality by shaking his body.
However, her effort did nothing to assuage Kian's emotions. Suddenly, still affected by Jessie's Aegis, Kian shot a glare at me. It was as if Jessie's specialty had triggered a hidden switch inside him, a herald for the worst to come.