Katherine welcomed Alexi inside and led him to the living room. Cass and Zeke followed behind. Cass whispered to Zeke, "Who is he? He seems close to Aunt Kat. And why did he hug us like that? We just met him for the first time."
"Second time. Aunt Kat said that he last met us when we were newborns. He must be a friend." Even though Zeke knew about Alexi, he chose not to tell Cass about it. He would know later anyway.
They both sat down on the sofa. The atmosphere was a little awkward so Katherine decided to break the ice by introducing Alexi.
"Boys, this your Uncle Alexi. Alexi, the one on the right is Ezekiel and the one on the left is Castiel."
"You boys have grown so much. You were tiny the last time I saw you."
"You guys talk, I'll check the turkey." With that, Katherine left.
...
The awkwardness was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Neither of them knew what to say. Zeke knew he had to do something so he said, "Aunt Kat said that you guys met in the school we are attending. How did you guys become friends?"
Alexi shot him a grateful look.
"I and your father grew up in the same orphanage. After our city was attacked, we came here. We were 11 years old at that time.
We met Kat and Izzy about a year later. We were in school, and one of our seniors got jealous of Magnus. Girls used to flock around him like flies.
Long story short, that senior challenged Magnus to a spar and lost. A pretty big crowd had gathered for the match and Kat and Izzy were also there.
Your mother being the battle maniac that she was, later challenged your father and he lost. They started sparring almost every other day and the four of us started hanging out."
After that, Alexi started telling them stories about their school days. Soon Katherine also joined them. The atmosphere had changed from awkward silence to cheerful banter.
Soon they all got hungry and went to the dinner table. Katherine had cooked up a feast with a bunch of different dishes. And they tasted divine.
They had ice cream for dessert and returned to the living room. The adults drank a little and they resumed their conversation. While Katherine was telling a story about the time Alexi had burned his eyebrows off, Alexi was staring at the two boys, seemingly lost in thought.
"Alexi. ALEXI" Katherine called him as she shook him. She noticed that his eyes were wet. Then she saw that he was looking at the boys and understood what was going on.
"Sorry, I think I drank a bit more than I should have. Anyway, you were saying?"
"It's fine. I was just telling them about the time you burned your eyebrows."
"Oh. Wait, you were telling them what? Why?"
"Because it's funny."
They started at each other for a minute and then both of them started laughing. Zeke and Cass also had a lot of fun but soon it was their bedtime. They both went upstairs with Katherine who tucked them in their beds before coming back down.
She also got a bottle of fine whisky with two glasses. She poured it into both glasses and gave one to Alexi.
"They resemble him a lot don't they?"
"If it weren't for their golden eyes and the platinum blonde streaks, I'd almost think that Magnus had created two clones of himself.
I just got the news a month ago. I was so angry that I went on a rampage. Twilight Woods no longer exists. I slaughtered all those bastards that attacked Luna City. I would have continued but the military stepped in and stopped me.
You know he was stronger than me. If it weren't for that injury, he could have killed those monster bastards himself.
I used up all the holidays that I had saved up over the past seven years and applied for a leave. Now, I can look after the boys with you and keep the promise that we made to them."
Alexi said as he started reminiscing about the day Zeke and Cass were born. Magnus and Isabelle had just told them that they wished for him and Kat to be their children's godparents.
He and Kat agreed. That day, they had made a promise. If an unfortunate situation where Magnus and Isabelle were no longer with them were to arise, they would raise the boys as their own. Together.
They continued talking but they suddenly heard footsteps. It was Zeke.
"Why aren't you asleep young man? It's way past your bedtime."
"We need to talk."
"We can talk tomor..."
"No, we need to talk right now." Katherine was a bit shocked. it was the first time that Zeke was talking to her like this. She could hear the seriousness in his voice and knew that he was something important.
"Alright, what did you want to talk about?"
"Before I do that, I need a favour from both of you. Please make a System Oath that you can't divulge the information I'm about to tell you to anybody, intentionally or unintentionally or else it will be erased from your minds.
I know that it's a big ask but do know that it isn't because I don't trust you or something like that. Its just that there are too many ways of reading somebody's mind without them knowing. The things that I'm about to tell you are just that sensitive."
Katherine and Alexi looked at him in shock. They could almost hear the desperation in his voice. They didn't know how a kid only seven years old could speak like that. But they decided to trust him.
They both made the System Oaths. Two contracts materialised in the air between them, one for each of them. Suddenly the contracts split in the middle. One part of their respective contracts flew towards their foreheads and the other flew towards Zeke.
He breathed a sigh of relief and saw that both Katherine and Alexi were staring at him.
"Well before I start, I hope you will bear with me. Everything will become clear in the end.
Aunt Kat, how much do you know about Project Half Blood? You worked as a biologist in the Federation Institute of Research so you must've heard or seen something about it."
"How do you know that name?" Katherine was surprised by the question.
Alexi asked, "What's Project Half Blood?"
"It's a project that took place about 50 years after the first Demi-Human was born. Some researchers took inspiration from the birth of the Demi-Human race. They discovered the plasticity of the human bloodline and sought to fuse our enemies' bloodlines similarly. The wanted to
There were only three races that were discovered to be eligible for the project; Angels, Demons, and the Elves. But they failed miserably and the project was shut down. Every trace of its existence was erased. Even I know this limited information because I accidentally read some of the Institute Head's notes about it while I was working under him. It was one of the reasons that left the Institute in the first place. Nobody except some individuals of the top brass should know about so I'll ask again. How do you know about Project Half Blood?"
"I figured it would be like that. And I told you before that everything will become clear in the end. Do you guys know anything about my biological family? I meant do you know anything about my grandparents or our surname?"
"Nope, according to our Director, he found baby Magnus on the orphanage's doorstep. He was the one who gave him the surname Ashbourne after his ash grey hair. Why do you ask?"
Zeke didn't answer but looked at Katherine.
"I don't know anything either. As far as I know, Isabelle chose the surname Morningstar herself."
"What about their affinities? Which affinities did they have?"
Alexi answered, "Magnus had a strong affinity for the Shadow, Fire, and Soul elements. As for Isabelle, she had a strong affinity for Fire, Light, and Life elements."
Zeke was silent with a pensive look on his face. His brain was working at its full capacity. He took out a chocolate bar from his pocket and started eating it. When he was done, he said, "It all makes sense now."
"What does?" They both asked curiously. Zeke looked at them brightly as if he had discovered a big secret and said, "It's time for a combined history and biology lesson. Trust me it will all make sense.
First, we need to go back to Project Half Blood. A group of scientists tried fusing the bloodlines of Angels, Demons, and Elves into humans. According to the surviving records, they failed miserably. Except that they didn't. Not exactly.
The ones with the Elf bloodline didn't survive. But the ones with the Angel and Demon bloodlines were different cases. These two bloodlines were very strong, so they started devouring the human bloodline to strengthen themselves. In the end, the humans with these bloodlines would become Angels and Demons completely. That's why the project was shut down.
But I guess that there were two very crazy men among those researchers. They fused these bloodlines into individuals and forced them to reproduce with humans. Then they killed them before they could turn.
They repeated this process, and with each generation, the Angel and Demon bloodlines got weaker. I'm guessing the evolution into Neo-Humans caused these bloodlines to go into dormancy.
The repeated clash allowed the Neo-Human bloodline to strengthen and with no replenishment of Angel or Demon bloodlines, they simply disappeared. All but two. The Angel and Demon blood in my parents was very strong. Dormant but strong. I think their bloodlines had become avatistic but they had passed the best times to awaken them and without the right trigger, they could only affect their physical appearance and affinities."
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