Inside a military facility, a boy looked out of the window of a building into the courtyard adjacent to it. His head rested boredly on one hand, while with the other he moved the food on his tray with a fork.
His eyes were tired, and he kept yawning without bothering to cover his mouth. Meanwhile, dozens of people gathered around him, most of them dressed in military suits, enjoying their lunch break without paying any attention to the lone boy occupying a single table.
Time passed and the food on his tray did not diminish. The boy stopped looking out of the window and looked at the mashed potatoes, still untouched.
'Ah... I don't want it'
He stood there in silence, staring at the white pasta, and knowing he wasn't going to eat it he got up from the table and carried the tray to the dustbin, where he threw away all the food. Then he left the tray on the bin and walked out of the cafeteria.
The boy walked through the facility with no apparent direction until he stopped in front of another window where he could see the courtyard again.
There, several men sparred intensely with each other while watching them, a boy stood silently. His appearance was at odds with his surroundings, his frail body and clean skin contrasting with the muscular soldiers and their sweaty bodies, but none of the soldiers seemed bothered by his presence.
The boy stared out of the window, watching as the boy in the courtyard seemed to speak from time to time, and everyone nodded at his words. Although the boy had no idea what they were saying, he could clearly understand what was going on.
The boy in the courtyard was giving instructions to the soldiers, something that would normally be unimaginable.
The boy stopped concentrating on the training down in the courtyard and instead looked at his reflection in the window. His black hair, white skin and green eyes were the same as the boy in the courtyard, even his features were almost identical.
Suddenly, a man appeared in the courtyard, standing next to a woman. Both had black hair, the man had crystal blue eyes, while the woman had the same emerald, green eyes as the two children.
The man approached the training center and then placed his hand on the boy's head before shaking his hair, causing the boy to groan in annoyance and try to remove the man's hand from his head.
The man's response was to tease the boy, while the woman smiled silently as she watched them interact amicably.
Watching them interact made the boy looking out of the window feel a tightness in his chest, but he made a great effort to ignore the feeling and stop looking at them before continuing his walk through the facility.
Noah and Nathan Aeterna, twins born in the womb of one of the greatest and most powerful families. Where each Aeterna individual was known for their power and leadership, but for a pair of boys who had just turned ten, that was still a long way off.
The boy giving orders in the courtyard was Noah Aeterna, while the boy looking out the window was Nathan Aeterna. Both brothers had the same destiny, to train and become strong for the moment when they would awaken their power and continue to leave the mark of the Aeterna family in the world.
This would be the duty of both of them, if only there was nothing that could change this destiny. At the age of 7, in a situation where several people's lives were in danger due to an accident, it was discovered that Noah had been born with a special power to see the death of someone other than himself in a matter of seconds, and thus be able to prevent it.
When it was discovered that Noah had such a power, he was branded a genius, blessed by the gods at birth. Meanwhile, Nathan had no power, so interest was naturally focused on his brother.
Coming from a prestigious family, it was only natural that priority was given to the development of those who could bring even greater achievements to the family. So it was that Nathan slowly fell behind in his family's attention, to the point where there were times when he would not interact with his parents and brother for days.
It was difficult for a child to understand why his parents suddenly ignored him so much, or why his brother stopped having fun with him to train with older people, it was simply impossible for Nathan to fully understand.
But as the years went by, he realized that Noah and he were different, and that no matter what he tried, he could not compete with such a genius.
Lost in thought, Nathan went to his room, he threw himself on his bed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. The hours passed and the moon began to rise in the sky.
When he opened his eyes, he realized that he had been asleep all afternoon. Suddenly his stomach rumbled, and a grimace appeared on his face.
"I should have eaten…"
Nathan regretted not having a proper lunch, but he wouldn't be able to rest properly on an empty stomach, so he slowly got up from his bed and stretched his arms before leaving his room.
As he left his room, he closed the door and looked down the corridor on both sides. He immediately frowned.
'Why is it so empty?'
After taking a moment to look around, Nathan shrugged and headed for the cafeteria, which was supposed to be open 24 hours a day.
As he approached the cafeteria, he saw several groups of soldiers with tense expressions on their faces walking in the opposite direction.
Nathan let them pass, not understanding what was happening, until he saw a soldier who had stayed behind, walking quickly to catch up with the rest of the group.
Nathan crossed his path, forcing him to stop before asking with all the innocence of a child.
"What's going on?"
The soldier was momentarily annoyed to be stopped, but when he saw who was responsible, he immediately changed his attitude and replied respectfully.
"Nothing to worry about, just doing our job. You should go back to your room and wait"
The soldier apologized and walked away until he caught up with his group and turned a corner to disappear from Nathan's sight.
Nathan stood there in silence, knowing that something was going on, but even if he had high status, he wouldn't get any information from anyone.
'Maybe if it was my brother...'
He shook his head to dispel the thought and continued on his way to the cafeteria. But just as he arrived, he saw all the cooks and cafeteria workers leaving.
Their expressions were frightened and tense, they did not care about Nathan's presence in front of them, so they made their way to the place he had come from.
Nathan tried again to ask what was going on, but no one stopped to answer him, they seemed more interested in running away than talking to a child.
A few seconds after the last worker had left the cafeteria, the lights in the corridors turned red and an alarm began to sound, shattering what little calm the workers had left and they began to run.
'W-what's going on?'
Nathan paled and started to get nervous. Only once before had he heard these alarms, but unlike now he was with his parents and brother, now he was completely alone.
With fear and nerves, the first thing Nathan did was to follow the crowd of people running towards the exit of the military facility.
Nathan had to run to catch up, but it didn't take long. There were so many people that they got in each other's way.
"Let me through!"
"Don't push me!"
"Get out of the way!"
Nathan watched from behind as they struggled to keep going, some falling down and getting up to keep going.
Seeing the fearful attitude of the adults, whom Nathan had an image of as calm and collected, he began to lose faith in them. The same image he had in his head began to crumble as he ran on without stopping.
They continued to run for several minutes, during which the fear and terror only increased. For a while, gunshots could be heard in the distance, adding to the tension of the group.
When they reached an intersection between the corridors, they all started to run faster, knowing that the exit was close. Nathan ran only to follow them and not be left alone, he wanted nothing more than to be reunited with his family, knowing that his parents could protect him, but he was afraid of being left alone in the vastness of the facility, not knowing what dangers awaited him.
'Where are them?' he thought with fear.
The group of workers entered the large intersection of corridors and Nathan followed. As he entered the intersection, he could see something out of the corner of his eye coming from the corridor to his right, but when he turned his head to look, all he could see was the ceiling. Strangely, his vision began to spin as he felt a slight pain in his neck as he realized he was not looking at the ceiling, but at his own body... headless.
'Eh…?'
His head spun around until it fell to the ground and rolled a few meters until it hit a corpse and stopped, he could even see his own body falling lifelessly to the ground.
A moment later his vision changed again, and he could see the backs of the group of workers approaching the crossroads.
Gasping and out of breath, Nathan fell to his knees, clutching his neck in pain and panic, feeling his head still attached to his body, but quickly remembering what he had seen, he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Stooop!"
None of the workers heard his cries and they crossed the intersection, only for seconds later what appeared to be a black whip to move so quickly lashed out at the group that Nathan could only see the workers' torsos being cleanly severed from their lower extremities.
Nathan saw so clearly the blood covering the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, along with the screams of suffering and pain from the workers, creating an image that would remain etched in the depths of his mind.
He had grown up hearing stories of heroes defeating monsters and defending the weak. These stories always had a happy ending.
But all those stories faded from his mind as he could not relate them to what was before him.