A/N: The chapter ahead is raw, which means not been proofread yet nor edited.1****
Ohms angrily stormed back to his room and sat before the sewing machine. He cooled himself, calmed down, and when his anger subsided, he continued stitching.
He's not just a model; he also worked in the fashion industry. He worked with other designers and walked the ones he designed himself. His parents, ever since, only dressed him fashionably. They hired a personal professiobal stylist for him. That's why when he grew up, it became natural for him to wear expensive and stylish clothes.
And his son will be a natural fashion icon like him.
"Stupid Skadi Eira. What an idiot." He hissed and shook his head. He raised the swaddle over him to see how his stitch turned out to be.
Everyone would agree that it is stupid of His Equal to probe Ohms. He's really just built different: he's a paradox, he's like a complex logic, and he's been suffering from an incurable god-complex disease. He's too proud about his roots and no matter how strong a storm is, he won't budge. The strongest Xirquit as they say. Or maybe he's just fearless.
He once stood toe-to-toe against King LIFE to defend Spike who pushed Prince Fiery because he's teasing him. He can go as far as arguing with his parents to pulling the Highest Being by the collar.
He's moved on. Since the day he opened up to his mother, the thorn that's been keeping his heart from beating normally was pulled and now, he's relieved. Maybe it's the moment he's been waiting for: to tell the truth to his mother and then everyone. He can finally breathe more freely, just like how it was before they did it. Two of his longest secrets have been revealed. Secrets that's been imprisoning him, too. Now that they are known, he's free.
"My baby will like this," he said to himself with a smile. He put the softest cushion inside the swaddle to finish the product.
He was willing to risk it all for him but she won't. She can't.
"D-Dad..."
Princess Lorreign whispered after closing the door behind her. They're back in the room where Daro is in Watts's office. Daro is fast asleep. His limbs were still regenerating. Very slowly.
"I'm not mad," his voice is calm, "I'm not mad at you, Princess."
Princess Lorreign's tears fell. She looked down, scratching her nails to one another.
"I-I'm sorry... Dad, I'm sorry. I..."
King Liorei waited her to say it.
"I love Ohms."
He closed his eyes. He breathe in deeply and let it go slowly. He turned the chair around and tapped his lap. Princess Lorreign rushed to hug him and sit on his lap like a little girl. And she cried, and cried, pouring it all out at once.
"I... I just did what was the best for the both of us. We were wrong. I was wrong. I shouldn't have done that. It was me. It was on me, Dad. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin him. It was never my intention to ruin him...but I love him. I don't know what made him so different from other boy. I just love him and know he's the best. But we can't. We're...siblings. And that's bad. But I love him."
King Liorei wrapped his accepting arms around her.
The Princess sobbed. Her heart is breaking.
"I love him but I don't want to ruin him. He's at the peak of his career. Everybody loves him. They expect so much more from him. And I... I don't want to ruin that? I ended it because I need to while we still have control of ourselves. I know he's willing to risk it all for me, I loved that idea, but I don't want to face the consequences. My image is already as bad as it is and I don't want to taint his image with my dirt. I'd rather he hate me than love me. Both of us will crash and I don't know if we will be able to recover from that. But I love him. I love him as my man. And I hate that we were the way we were."
~
"Where's my boy?"
Ohms asked the moment he got inside the room. Celia bowed and stepped aside to present the recovering Prince to him.
"My boy," he smiled as his light footsteps traced the path down to his incubator.
"How's his health? Where's Mom and Dad?"
"In Emperor Watts's office as we speak, Your Imperial Majesty. Duchess Aviana Lavender gained consciousness and they went to see her."
Ohms nodded at that.
He showed the fancy swaddle to the Prince.
"Do you like it? I made it. This is very warm and very soft. Its buttons are magic stones to cool you when it's warm, and warm you when it's cold. What do you think? I will make more of this for you, my boy."
He spread the swaddle like a blanket on the incubator's glass. The Prince who heard his faint voice flinched and fluttered his eyes. He smiled when he saw the aura that surrounds the figure of his father.
"You smiled... You're so cute. You're doing great. Get well soon, okay? Daddy prepared lots of surprises for you,"
Celia couldn't help but smile. She often see this side of him before when Watts was still a baby. Now, he's doing it again but to his own son. She never imagined that she will make it to the time where she will see the great Ohms Xirquit as a responsible parent.
The Prince's recovery may be slow, but his ability to heal himself is superb. They're keeping their eyes on him, feeding him with an improved-type of milk to fasten his healing. The milk is blessed by Priedo, an Archmage, to boost the Prince's regenerative abilities. The Prince's Magic Resistance and Immunity applies both internally and externally. But with his milk blessed, rather than targeting his Core Essence, it seeps through his flesh instead and his body does the miracle.
"I want to hold my boy." He said and he didn't need Celia's approval.
He removed the swaddle on the incubator and opened it. Celia helped him get the Prince. He gently danced him in his arms.
"You're getting heavy, my boy. Very good, very good. Let's sleep together tonight. Hmm? Come with Daddy for now. I will show you your toys."
And he left the room with his son and with Celia behind him, pushing the machines and tanks that supports the Prince.
And in Watts's office, everyone were waiting for Aviana Lavender to wake up again. She did wake up once: she just opened her eyes and Duke Paris was there to see it. When he returned after he left to tell it to everyone and to inform Wattroid, she was asleep again. Her vitals were stably down low. Her husband is in coma. Lying right next to her.
"K...Ku---ya..."
They jumped from surprise and gathered around her bed, but Watts told them to clear her surroundings. Now they're watching by the sidelines and only Duke Paris is the closest to her.
Aviana Lavender's eyes fluttered until she opened them. The white ceiling is the first thing she sees. She drag her eyes to the person beside her. It didn't excite her at all, nor felt a feeling of salvation. She looked at the ceiling again.
"Why is it...you again?"
Duke Paris was dumbfounded.
Her acid tears leaked from her eyes, pouring down the pillow below her head.
"It's always you. Before, then now. I don't need you... I don't want you... The one I needed is my Kuya. But where is he? Why am I always... Why is it always...me?"
Duke Paris clenched his fists.
"What did I do? Why is it always me? Why is he never there? I waited for him. I waited for him but he never came! I hate him! I HATE HIM! A useless brother! A brother for a show! Just kill me! Why did you save me!? I wanted to die there! I never wanted to see you again! I HATE HIM!"
Duke Paris held her down when she pulled the tubes in her. She bled, but she didn't feel hurt at all. She screamed on their face, pushing Duke Paris and reaching out for the bread knife beside him to take her own life.
"LET ME GO! LET ME DIE! PLEASE, JUST LET ME DIE! I DON'T WANT TO SUFFER! WHAT DID I DO TO SUFFER LIKE THIS!? MY BROTHER! HE NEVER WENT TO SAVE ME! HE TOLD ME HE LOVES ME BUT HE NEVER WENT TO SAVE ME! THIS WILL HAPPEN AGAIN, SO JUST LET ME DIE!"
Watts sent Wattroid out to get a tranquilizer.
Duke Paris looked at Chancellor Titania. She went to help him pin Aviana Lavender down the bed.
"What did I ever do to deserve this?" She asked as she look straight into their eyes. One by one, she looked at them. And they all looked away.
'Why? Why can't they look me in the eyes?'
"Baby girl, he loves you. You know that, right? He'd do everything---anything for you," Duke Paris gently told her as his grip loosened.
Aviana Lavender smiled bitterly and almost whispered to him with tears flowing from her eyes,
"But he didn't do anything when I was in that hell. I don't want to see him...ever again. And if you make me, I will take my own life."
***
Duke Paris entered the room. It is now cleared, and he found Aviana Lavender sitting upright while looking at the space past the windows. It's mesmerizing. The stars were beautiful and so the planets.
"I brought your meal. Titania made them specially for you," he said and tried to smile. Aviana Lavender remained still.
He placed the table on the bed. He prepared the utensils for her and sat by her side, facing her.
Aviana Lavender is ignoring him.
So, he looked at the space outside, too, and shared his thoughts with her. She deserved to know what happened to her brother, and why he didn't come to save her himself.
"Max... Until now, is in a deep sleep, baby girl."
He began, and he received no reaction from Aviana. Even after telling her what happened to him, from the moment Prince Maximilien stood toe to toe with Prince Maxigaufeas, to the time where he shot Emperor Maxism and cursed him. She didn't react at all.
"---You're the only one who can help him, Aviana. Because you're of the same blood. Earthling, familial blood. Maxism would've gone had he know. Please, you know he will do anything for you. Once he wakes up, he will make them pay. He will avenge you. WE WILL avenge you. So please,"
Duke Paris hold her hand tightly and begged, "Please, help your Kuya Max."
Aviana Lavender breathe in.
"How old is Princess Azarese now?"
The Duke was perplexed, but he answered her anyway. What's the Princess relevance to this?
"She's 19, baby girl."
Like it was the trigger, Aviana Lavender's tears poured again as her broken laugh filled the room.
"19 years? So, it's been 19 years. 19 long, fucking years. And he's only asleep for a year. I WAS IN THAT HELL FOR 19 FUCKING YEARS!"
She turned over the table before her and pulled the Duke by his collar, scaring him.
"19 years, and you didn't do anything for me. Am I that easy to forget? For you to not notice my absence! Did you even look for me in those 19 years!? No. NO! And now that I just got out, you're going to ask me to give my blood to him!? After betraying me like this!? 19 fucking years, you were enjoying your long life while I! I, with my husband were going through another hell! Are we cursed to suffer such fate in every lifetime?"
Her trembling eyes glared at his.
"I have no dignity left in me anymore, Kuya Paris! I am not human anymore! I am but a pig! Did you hear me!? A FUCKING PIG! Raped! Defiled! Used for pleasure and the like---A PIG! I kept my faith in you for 19 years. I didn't even know that it's been that long. Every second, every minute---I did nothing but pray for my heroic Kuya to save me---BUT HE FUCKING DIDN'T AND YOU DID AGAIN! I DON'T WANT YOU! I WANT MY OWN BROTHER! WHY IS IT ALWAYS YOU!? WHY! WHY! I HATE ALL OF YOU!"
She collapsed to his chest and screamed her lungs out.
"I'm a pig! I'm a fucking pig! I AM NOT HUMAN BUT A PIG!"
Duke Paris didn't move. His bloodshot eyes were wide open as he couldn't conceal his fury no matter how he try to hide it. His veins were popping from holding himself back, from storming out of the room and go to beat the shit out of the people who did that to her out. He want to kill them. He want to avenge her. But the worse of all is his self-loathing.
To this day, he could still see it in his mind so vividly. Back when he first heard that Maxism had a sister, sold in the black market as a sex slave and more. He can still remember it, as clear as water, as red as blood. Though he killed those people, it didn't satisfy his bloodlust. He wanted to hurt them more, torture them for, until they will beg for their lives to be taken, or until they've gone mad. He wanted to do more. For Aviana, for Maxism's little sister, because he would've done it himself but couldn't, thinking that he's dead.
And now, it happened again. In another lifetime, in another world.
"Do it..."
He immediately went soft when she said it.
"Take all the blood you need from me. I don't care. Just take it. You need it, right? Do it. Save him."
When she smiled at him, he didn't like what it meant.
"Wait for me, Colt. I will come back," she whispered to her husband and kissed the back of his hand.
"Aviana, if you don't want to, we won't," Chancellor Titania said, trying to change her mind. But Aviana only smiled at her, and she didn't like what it meant.
"I want to, so just do it."
They looked at each other.
They didn't like her smile. They've seen something like it before.
Since it seems like they cannot change their mind anymore, Watts opened a portal to the room where Emperor Maxism is. Emperor Claxiord, the Empress Dowager, and his brother were waiting for her. They've been waiting for her.
They've been waiting for her so she could save him.
Did they even want to see her at that point, if not because of his condition?
"A-Auntie---"
Prince Maxigaufeas didn't finish his word when Duke Paris gave him a terrifying glare. That shut him up.
They placed Aviana's bed next to the Emperor. When she turned her head to finally see him, and saw that they were in the same body state. Nothing but almost a skeleton with skin.
She reached for his head, making up her mind. Then she smiled, and they couldn't what's it for. Was she happy to see her brother? Was it a forgiving smile? They couldn't tell at all.
"We will now begin the transfusion between Maxism and Aviana," Franchetti Xerene announced, their doctor.
Aviana closed her eyes. Is it possible for them to get blood from her frail body? She hopes they will drain her out, then she will die. An excuse to die.
Duke Paris gestured Emperor Claxiord to follow him into the corner.
"Gather all your forces and prepare for a war. We don't know who our enemy is yet, but Priedo knew something and we will ask him later. For now, just prepare. Once he hears a word of what happened to her..."
Emperor Claxiord understood.
His father will turn the world upside down. They should be hiding inside their mothers' skirts by now, because the true monster is coming to get them.
And with Duke Paris at that. If Aloisia and Calamity were the most merciful, then Avalanche and Wildfire are the devils. Not even their wives will be able to stop them from wreaking havoc and from destroying everything until justice is served.
That thought alone scares him. He's never seen it, but he heard stories about their madness. Emperor Maxism is a psychopath. Even Ohms wouldn't want to mess with him. The King' won't as well. Because like as they always say,
"Hes a psychopath."
Duke Paris furrowed his eyebrows at him. Emperor Claxiord gulped and looked down before going back to his position to see the process.
As Aviana's blood crawl in the tube to get into Emperor Maxism, their archmages did their roles. A magic circle light up beneath their beds and over their faces. Slowly, they see how Prince Maximilien's bullets get pushed out from the holes where they were buried. Empress Dowager Clastigaufeas covered her mouth as she try to control her tears. It's working. Her husband...is waking up soon.
And when every bullet is finally out, Voltage Xirquit picked each of it and hid it in a container to look into it later. The archmages used everything they got until their essence were drained to the boot. They did not stop healing until the Emperor and his sister's health were restored. The servants immediately transferred the exhausted archmages to another room. That's when the Imperial Family gathered around the Emperor.
Emperor Maxism opened his eyes. And for a split second, his eyes were golden.