A/N: The chapter ahead is raw, which means not been proofread yet nor edited.
***
A sob catches in Voltage's throat, his chest tightening as panic sets in. His legs feel heavy, trembling beneath him, as he instinctively steps forward, though he knows there's nothing he can do. Everyone stopped him from going in to save his son. His hands, shaking uncontrollably, reach out as if to grasp the sight, as if somehow he could stop the devastation. The crackling of the fire and the collapsing walls reverberate in his ears, but all he hears is his own silent cry, pleading for this to be a nightmare from which he can wake
Tears blur his vision. His grief is too raw, too overwhelming to release. Every corner of the house holds memories of his son---of laughter, of milestones, of secret rendezvous. He gave the place to him. How come it didn't cross his mind at all? How come he didn't go here in the first place? Now it's all disappearing in the flames. He feels helpless, consumed by a profound sense of loss. This is not just a mere structure burning; it's the destruction of a life, of a place where his son built his future.
The firefighters had arrived. The flames are still alive but almost out. When he thought it was time, Voltage slipped through Paris's grip and ran to find his son inside.
Now, he found him. Burned alive. He burned himself alive. Or maybe not, because he found his dead friend's gun in his hand.
He let out a scream of rage and grief. He fell down to his knees before Ohms's remains. It didn't matter if it was hot, it didn't matter if he got burned. He carried his son and was staggering on his way out.
"Help me! HELP ME! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! MY SON CAN'T BE DEAD! HELP ME! DEARIL! LET'S BRING HIM TO DEARIL!" He sobbed on his way to his car.
He made it to her mansion, where he presented himself and his son on his knees, bawling his eyes out. Van just got home and it's the sight that welcomed him.
"What---"
Voltage Xirquit crawled his way to Mistress DEATH's feet and begged, "Please, help me! Dearil, I beg you! Help me! My son! I can't live without my son! PLEASE! I will do anything! I will do anything, Dearil! Please, my boy! AAAAHHHH!!! MY SON! OHMS! OHMS!"
Paris went to pick him up, but Voltage Xirquit resisted and hugged the Mistress's leg while still carrying his son.
"NO! SHE CAN BRING HIM BACK TO LIFE! I will kill myself! I will kill myself! My boy killed himself! He's innocent! I TOLD YOU, HE'S INNOCENT! AAAHHHH! MY SON IS INNOCENT! Ohms, please! Why did you do it!? I will kill myself!"
"He's gone." The cold Mistress said right to his face, "His soul is gone. He already went. I can't do anything about it anymore."
His ears became deaf on their own.
He slowly looked down at this son, then up to see the Mistress looking down on him.
He collapsed to the floor.
"No... He's still here... What... He's here. Hmm? You want to go home? O-Okay... We'll go home. I'll take you home. Son, I'll take you home," he talked to himself while smiling and crying at the same time.
He never left his side. Day and night, he stayed beside him. Just staring at the white case that imprisoned his son in a cramped place with a bed that is not so comfortable. Sometimes, he will talk to the air. But most of the time, he's just crying to himself.
"Volt..." Franchetti Xerene called and placed her hand on his shoulder.
It's their son's final day. Tomorrow, he will be buried.
"He's dead to you, dead to me, dead to us. He will reflect about what he did in his grave. My son is an animal. My son is a dog. My son is a rapist. He deserves to die. He's gone. He's gone..."
His acid tears began to fall lifelessly once more.
"B-But he's innocent... I r-raised that boy all m-my life. I-I never... I never looked away so I-I know. M-My son... My son is good. M-My Ohms---"
He shuddered and burst into tears. Elektra came and pushed her mother away to soothe her father.
"A-AH! My heart! It hurts so much! What did my son do? He was good! Xerene, why!? I love him more than anything! He's the fruit of our love! He's everything I never was! He's my heart! Why did you kill him? WHY DID YOU KILL MY SON!?"
"Volt!"
Their friends tried to get him away from his wife now that he's finally lost his mind. He strangled her and she didn't fight back. She accepted it.
"Why are you even here!? I thought he's not your son anymore!? My son, Ohms! I raised him myself! I watched him all my life! From the day he was born, I never took my eyes off of him! How could you not believe your son!?"
He collapsed to his knees.
"He won't do such a thing! My son will never! I never took my eyes off of him, Xerene! I raised him myself! He's my heart! How could you do this to me? Why would you do this to me, Xerene!? Why!?"
His eyes found the Mistress again so he went to beg before her feet once again.
"Please, show me his truth! At least that, Dearil! Please! My son will never do that! You know that, too! He's your favorite, Dearil! I know you know! Please, show me his truth! Please, I can't do this anymore! I can't do this anymore!"
Van tried to shield his wife from him, but the Mistress raised her hand to stop him.
"What would I get in return?"
Voltage Xirquit didn't think twice.
"My soul. Take a piece of it---take it wholly! Just show me his truth. My soul is yours! Yours! Please, I want to know. Show it to me!"
"What's so interesting about your soul? That doesn't excite me."
He held onto her wrists. Vans snarled and wanted to take him away but his wife forbids him from doing so.
He looked straight into her eyes and she found what she needed.
"I will kill Lorreign. I will make her suffer. Everyone that didn't believe my son will suffer. I will make them regret it."
The Mistress smirked, toying him, "The whole world turned its back on him. Are you saying you will commit genocide? What about your wife? Are you sure you can hurt her?"
"YES. I don't care anymore! Because of her, my son killed himself! His mother betrayed him. She betrayed us! I am a fool for her love, but I am not blind! She killed my son. Everyone...who took part in it... Everyone..."
The Mistress saw and heard everything she needed. It's enough. Still, she will take a portion of his soul. Just because. A deal is a deal. She's the devil, a genie, or whatever you can call her. She grants wishes because she's powerful. If he wishes to see his son's truth, then she will show it to him.
And so she did, breaking what was left of his soul.
"As a treat, here's Lorreign and her bastard. Ah, I will include Selene as well," she smirked and began walking away, "Let's go, dog. Forget about your bastard from that bitch. Not like I considered Selene as mine. Disgusting."
"What!?" The Mistress didn't let her husband do anything or say anything and let her invicible hand drag him out, leaving the silent Voltage Xirquit still down to his knees with the darkest expression on his face.
Voltage Xirquit was the only one who sent his son to his final destination. Just as he wished, he will go past the skies. He made it happen by launching his ashes to space.
He returned to the same house. He can never call it a home ever again. He ignored Xerene and went to sleep. By morning, he left to go to the place where his son took his life. The place is in ruins. Everything got destroyed, but not the door to the underground room below it. There where he will make Lorreign Dragunovv's miserable.
Including her son. The bastard he will never call his grandson. He will never accept it. Never.
Her mouth was stapled that's why all she could do was moan and grumble. She's naked on the table and he's heating a metallic rod.
"You loved my son's, so you will love this rod as well."
He pressed a button and her legs spread open. A robot assisted him by opening her hole wider so the access of the rod will be easy.
Lorreign's eyes almost popped out from their sockets as her veins popped on her neck when he shoved the melting rod inside her vagina.
"I've been wishing that I hope Maxism was here. He will certainly stand by my side. Had he been here, none of this would've happened at all. You will never get to lay your hands on my son. He can read people easily...and I can't. If only he's here, then my son will still be alive. If only Maxism is here, I will watch him handle you."
Voltage Xirquit pulled the rod out and put it aside. He went to the huge case that he placed on a table. He opened it, revealing a beautiful, shining orb inside that he got from Mistress Dearil after selling his soul again to her, with a promise to destroy the offspring of their common enemy, Gerson Liorei. Even after his death, they hated him. Now they've found another way to torment him.
"I took you in like you're mine, Lorreign. You're like a daughter to me. I forced myself to accept you and love you, because you're my wife's daughter. You may be his daughter, but it doesn't mean that you will be like him. At least, that's what we believed in. You failed us. You shouldn't have. You had nobody, Lorreign. Not even Xerene, because she's mine."
He carefully took the orb and placed it on the incomplete machine he's crafting. For now, he will heal her wound and maximize her sensitivity that even a blow of his breath will make her writhe in pain.
Lorreign shook her head to him. Her face is filled with tears and snot.
Voltage Xirquit wore a knuckle duster with points and faced her. He looked at her womb, fueling his rage.
"That is not my son's. That is not my grandson."
Lorreign let out a suppressed scream and coughed up blood when he punched her stomach powerfully.
"Are you terrified? Who are you calling for for help? Did you think I'm indifferent? Did you think I couldn't do this much? You heard about what Paris did for Aviana. Morbid, it is. I would've done the same but he took the vengeance for himself. Did you think I'm very lenient? Did you think I'm under my wife? Those thoughts must be the reason why you had the guts to do that to Ohms."
The orb healed Lorreign, so he punched her again. This time, on her face.
"I won't ask you anymore. You were having fun while you were destroying his body and soul. You loved his misery. Ohms...is my son. My pumping heart. My life. He's everything I could ever ask for, he's everything I never was, everything his mom never was. So..."
His tears stream down his face once more, carrying the anguish, the blame, and the regrets he bears. He couldn't save his son. He failed to see that something was wrong. How could he be the best father now if his son is gone?
He just have to be the worst then. Against the bitch who ruined him.
Before the day ends, he will return home clean. When the morning comes, he will leave again to go to work. The cycle went on until the machine he created specially for her is complete. To heal her continuously without fail, to torture her even in her sleep---to keep her alive forever.
Elektra begged him to bring her to Lorreign, so he did. She had her fill. She did anything she could that will delight her heart, hoping that hurting her will relieve her pain and grief. She lost her brother, her second father. Ohms will do anything for her. He will always be there for her. But now that he's gone, her life will never be the same.
"He's still not yet done testing my crush... He's still keeping an eye on him... He's still helping me win him over... My cute farmer...finally gave me flowers. But it's not for me. It's for him. Because of you, my love story tastes so bitter now."
Elektra catches her tears on her bloody palms. Her father consoled her. When she looked up to him, she was dumbfounded to see how empty he had become.
An empty shell.
Voltage Xirquit had become an empty shell.
Since then, they never returned to see Lorreign Dragunovv. The orb will do its job to torment her for the rest of her life, and so is her boy who will slowly die right before her eyes. They never questioned him: they all thought that she deserved whatever he may have done to her. But to the young boy? A child?
The child is innocent.
But so was Ohms.
"Daddy! Look, the teacher gave me stars on my first day of school!"
"Really? Let me see. Woah, so many stars up to your arms! What does my boy want? I'll buy you a robot!"
"Yey! A robot! Thank you, Daddy!"
He spent the rest of his life watching his memories with his son using the Vision. They never heard him talk again. They never see him smile again. An illness came to him one night. His pain almost killed him and paralyzed him. The Mistress knew that it's one of the side effects of selling his soul. The year after, he suffered from stroke.
His relationship with his wife was shattered. He had signed the divorce papers long before, but it was Xerene who refused to sign it. He's not wearing their rings anymore. He forced himself to forget everything but his son. Though the Mistress can just turn him back to what he was once, she didn't. She didn't want to, and she knew he wouldn't like to.
What's the sense of being a perfectly functional human being if his heart had long stopped beating and living?
"Daddy, what's your favorite color?"
"My favorite color?" He doesn't have one particularly.
"Well, what's yours?"
"Green! I like color green! The nature's color!"
"What~? That's my favorite color, too! Are you copying Daddy? You're copying me!"
The shades of green he wears went from light to the darkest hue. Since his son's death, he only ever worn green. The color he used to dislike because of its vibrant shades, but loves now because it turned out to be his son's favorite color.
His highlighters, green. All of his neck ties were in different shades of green. In formal settings, he would wear dark shades of green. He had a personalized closet in his room where it's just things in green colors.
As an in-house patient, he still wears green. He wore the brightest green at first that gradually turned darker and darker, until he's just wearing black green for the rest of his life.
If not his wife, their friends who will come to pay him a visit often see him crying silently alone while clutching a picture frame close to his chest. That's how he earned the title 'The Most Broken Man Who Ever Lived.' The people called him that. The people who played a part in his son's downfall. Because of their unnecessary opinions and judgments, he took his life. But it is true that he's broken. He will never have another son like Ohms.
He couldn't even walk Elektra down to the aisle. His body is present, but his soul is not anymore. He's just there, existing, but not living.
"Look, Dad. My baby is a boy. Are you happy? It's your apo!" Elektra told him while showing her firstborn to him, but he had no reaction. He controlled his wheelchair and left her. It's time to see his son again using the Vision, to the time they performed in school for a Father's Day event.
Ohms loved Michael Jackson. He's obsessed with MJ. Voltage Xirquit is not born a dancer, but he danced Billie Jean with him for that event. He stressed Paris Kean to teach him the dance steps (and paid him ten million for his service).
Since Ohms is so obsessed with Michael Jackson, he went to auctions to win the icon's belongings. Xerene, if not the world's greatest collector, has the most belongings of him. She's even acquainted with the said icon, that's why she had lots of his stuff. From his microphone to his hat and shoes. He built a room to display anything related to Michael Jackson and gave it to Ohms as a birthday gift.
He did everything he could for his boy.
He loved his son more than himself. Even more than he will ever love his wife.
Because he's his first son and he's everything he never was.
Now, he's old and grey, but his wife is still as young as ever, but she's not immortal. She's aging very slowly all thanks to the Dragon's Seal's effect. He's old and grey, but he's dark green as well. The time of his death has come, but he's long been dead.
"Xe...rene..."
His wife's eyes widened and went down to her knees to hear him. They're in their private beach, watching the sunset, but he's looking at the sky where he sent his son. The clear skies he had always loved. Is he traveling now in space? Did his curiosity about aliens been proven? How many planets did he visit? Is a supernova as pretty as they say? Is the universe as as endless as they claim it to be?
"You..."
Xerene squeezed his hand. She's smiling at him apologetically, but she's happy to hear her husband talk again. For the very first time since.
"You---made me regret...ever loving you..."
And when she thought they can finally now have the closure they deserve, she was wrong.
Voltage Xirquit took his hands back and embraced the frame of him and his forever young son.
"Was it Aloisia who killed my boy? ...No. It was you. His mother, my wife...killed us both." His eyes began to shut. And for the very first time once again, he laid his eyes on the face he used to memorize. Now, he couldn't remember an inch of it.
"You...assassinated us."
***
When Voltage Xirquit opened his eyes, he was in the same world but in a different era. He's been ressurected like the rest. The past destroyed his soul, but since he sold some of it to the Mistress, he was brought back to life.
In one piece, youthful, and healthy. But his son... His son is not with them. He's been reborn, but he stayed the same.
An empty shell. A robotic-like life form. The Mistress's puppet.
And to their surprise, they found out that Gerson Liorei was alive all along, preserved perfectly by the Godfather. They took him in as an ally, but they have not forgiven him. When he asked about his daughter, they feared what Voltage would do.
He didn't do anything but sit under the Vision and watch the memories he had with his son.
Lorreign reunited with his father when they found her. Alive and cursed by the orb from the Mistress. She watched her boy die and rot and become nothing but bones. The boy even came to the point of eating her flesh and the sibling in her womb.
But what became of her is not enough to pay for what she had done to his son.
Since Voltage Xirquit only listens to the Mistress, she used him as a killing machine to exterminate zombies. Yes, the era they woke up to is during a zombie apocalypse---Thorn Rivera's and Sennoma's era...with Prince Astaroth, Schionna, and his wife, Fionna.
And they made it to Dragunovv, or Cosmo-Vale as they call now. The Mistress used him this time to fight against Veils.
'The only broken human.'
'The Supreme God's puppet'.
'The void of Armageddon War.'
Those were the titles they named him, but it didn't matter to him.
On the sixth year after the Armageddon War, his wife is with child.
Spike Rotor Xirquit, she named him, but Voltage Xirquit felt no spark when he saw him.
"Not Ohms," he said when he first saw his third child, and left.
Elektra did her best to be present for Spike. When he was older enough to comprehend, she became honest with him and told him why their father is 'like that'.
Voltage Xirquit never looked his way. No, he never looked at anyone but at his son's picture frame. Does he even know that Gerson Liorei is alive? Does he even know that Lorreign is free? Does he?
But everything changed for good when Watts Nikola Xirquit was born on the 20th year after the Armageddon War.
At first, he said the same thing to him,
"Not Ohms."
However, when the child turned 1, he said something that shook him a little to wake him up.
"K-Kuya! Kuya Ohmy!"
Watts Xirquit was playing by himself, but it looks like he had company.
When he was four, he said, "You can't see Kuya Ohmy? Kuya... My Kuya is here."
Ohms Xirquit smiled at him wryly and patted his head.
It brought Voltage Xirquit down to his knees. His truest tears streamed down his face. It woke him up a little bit to the truth that his eldest is gone forever. But is his youngest truly seeing his eldest brother? He remembered what the Mistress said before when he asked why she couldn't bring him back to life, too,
"His soul was gone, Xirquit. No trace of it was left lingering. I would've if only his soul remained. Did it go to heaven? Or was it shattered to the point of no mending? Your son's soul is gone, and I can't make another one of him."
"Daddy, don't cry. Sorry. Sorry, Daddy. Please don't cry." The young Watts Xirquit burst into tears and threw his hands around his father to soothe him.
Voltage Xirquit desperately clung onto him.
"My son must be reincarnated to be my son again," he said to everyone as his youngest became the sole subject of his newfound love.
Only for him to fall back into the void when he sees that Watts is of a different soul. The Mistress told him he is not Ohms, that he is with a different soul, a new one without a trace of Ohms's identity.
He accepted his death in the hands of the cruel Empress, Empress Azarese Elyzena. And so, he became a broken soul again.
His soul is in the saddest scheme of blue, with the angriest scheme of red outlining it.