The Weight of White Hair

In a groggy voice, Grace says as she walks through the front door of her large home, "Yaaaaawn. I'm home, babe."

She walks through the door of her and Natic's home. They only recently got married about seven months ago, only a little bit before the attack on Syzygy. Since Grace has such a high amount of medical knowledge in both treating patients as well as making medicine herself, six months later soldiers and civilians are still injured, so she spends most of her day treating the injured as of late. Natic is currently consuming a strong enough pain medicine to kill the entire population of blue whales, which even then can't stop him from feeling the pain of his body tearing itself apart from all the power held within him.

Grace asks Natic, "How ya feelin', dear?"

Natic responds, "Better than how I was feeling when you left this morning. The pain medicine wore off in the middle of the night. My body kept me asleep, but I felt all the pain rush to me when I eventually woke up."

Grace jokingly responds, "I think my ears are still ringing from this morning, actually, baby." She giggles.

Natic says, "I'm sorry about that, by the way, Grace."

Grace responds, "No matter how much my ears hurt this morning, it must be nothing compared to how you felt. Even then, not a tear fell from either of your eyes. Hey, I promise I'll get rid of the pain, Natic."

Natic responds, "I trust you. I trust you. You say that every day at this point."

Grace says, "I'll say it till it's done."

Natic says, "Okay then, dear. How were the civilians and the soldiers today, anyways?" He grabs a soda from the fridge to wash down the pills he had taken.

Grace reluctantly responds, "Well, it went normally as usual, and thankfully I lost no one the entire day. Although a couple I hadn't seen in a while came. It was my parents."

Natic nearly chokes on his drink when he hears what she says and responds, "Well, what did they say? It's been a while. Have their minds changed about me?"

Grace, in a quiet voice, responds, "I at one point noticed them watching me from afar, as there was a crowd. I saw a mixture of both sadness and anger in their eyes. I waved my hand at them, and when my ring shined because of the sun, my mom started to cry in my dad's arms while he was still looking dead at me. They left after that."

Grace turns around and closes the door behind her, then allows herself to collapse on the couch in the living room, wrapping herself around the stuffed animal they kept on the couch and digging her face into it.

Natic takes a sip of his soda and says, "Hey, dear, I'm sorry."

Grace lifts her head from the stuffed animal and says, "It's not your fault. Nor is it their fault. We all miss my sister and my niece, as well as her husband. But it wasn't your fault. You are no devil. You are no monster. Your eyes mean nothing to me, darling. I just wish my parents could understand you aren't the monster everyone painted you out to be."

Natic says, "Are you sure about that? I can still remember them… the screams. And in battle, it's as if all goes red and those very screams fuel power and desire."

Grace says, "It is your fault it's like this. Is this what you want to hear?"

Natic quickly answered, "Of course not, Grace."

Grace responds, "Come here and give me your hands."

Natic puts down his soda and walks towards her and gives her his hands. She holds his hands in hers and starts to rub the palms with her thumb.

"You can feel it, can't you? The blood running down your hands. You can still hear the screams. And even today… even with everything you've done—" She takes his palms and puts them on the side of her face. "—you still can't forgive yourself. The little boy can still only see himself as a monster. That's all he was ever told."

Natic says, "I'm nineteen, Grace."

Grace says while pulling his face closer to hers, "I know, dear. It's a figure of speech. Come here." She kisses him.

Grace uses her tail to push Natic closer and onto her lap. She's five-foot-seven; he's five-foot-three. She puts his face into her chest and caresses the back of his head. She then jokingly says with a smile, "Monster you sure turned out to be. What would reality think if they saw the man named Death in such a tranquil, docile way?"

Natic, with a slight blush, moves his head to the side, his snow-white hair ending up in her face. Now slightly embarrassed, he says, "Shut up."

5:00 AM

Both Natic and Grace are in deep sleep, as they were both very tired from their day. Although Natic's painkillers fail during the night once again, he starts to shake and subconsciously starts to claw at his skin to the point where he is causing severe damage to himself. He is also starting to have a slight shake. Grace is a very heavy sleeper, so she still hadn't noticed this happening, even though he is asleep in her arms. He's having that same nightmare again. His mind cannot stop reliving that year six years ago.

"YAWN."

That was the noise this thirteen-year-old Natic made when he woke up in this house, in this worn-out bed, in this worn-down house. Living with this strange man working on his experiments and sciences downstairs, never giving him the time of day. The name of that scientist was Hawkin.

When Natic ran away from home, from Sagacity—the cursed one, the strongest being in reality—even though he had the full power to eradicate him the second he ran, he let him go instead. He said, "Oh, children. Not one ever listens to their parents. I'll tell you this before you leave. All will crash around you till the day you die. All will hate you, for you are the monster under the bed that they fear. For you do have strings attached to you."

He was merely nine years old when he heard these words. As he was so young, he didn't understand what they meant. But eventually, he reached a city forty million strong. It had a culture of heroes who were paid by the government to protect the residents from those who use their abilities for evil. He looked up to them, and he aspired to be like them. He wanted them to feel safe and protected.

Several issues arose, though. For example, his eyes. Natic is a Child of Apocalypse, a being whose only reason to exist is to conquer, destroy, and kill—to cause the most amount of destruction possible. The only way others knew he was one of the five was his eyes. Each of the five children share the same eye color. The bottom is a blood red that leads into a light orange with white dots on the orange part of the iris.

They are known as the Devil's Eyes, as others have interpreted them to mean those falling into eternal flames and drowning, their bodies to just pile on with the rest at the bottom. This folk legend was known by everyone far and wide, except for Natic himself.

When he got to the city, he wandered for days until he found this old home in this giant city, situated between two skyscrapers in a mostly unknown part of the city. The man living there allowed him to be there with him, just as long as he could use the DNA from his corrupted bloodtrait in his experiments. Outside of this, they never interacted. Natic always tried speaking to him, but he would never answer. Not even his name he knew. It didn't matter to Natic much since he wasn't home a lot anyways, as even though the others hated him, he still did the best he could to protect and help them.

That leads us to where we are now. The scientist heard the yawn Natic did from upstairs and said, "BOY, GET DOWN HERE."

Natic hears him and walks down in his pajamas. His black hair gets in his way, and he stumbles down slightly as he gets down the stairs. He regains his balance and asks, "Yes, sir. What do you need from me?"

He answered, "Your arm, of course. Why else would I tell you to come? It's that, or I might try to steal your nice, nice blue hair."

Natic sheepishly responds, "Y-yeah. I'm sorry, sir. Here ya go."

Natic walks towards the table he was sat on and places his arm on the table. The scientist picked up a syringe he had next to him and stabbed it into Natic's wrist, right where the corrupted bloodtrait was at its strongest. As the syringe sucked the blood from that area, the veins near it constricted and attempted to resist, although the attempt was futile and caused even more pain to Natic than the procedure already did.

The scientist pulled the syringe out of his wrist and lifted it up, flicking the glass while smirking. "Thanks, boy."

The scientist grabbed all of his equipment from the table and went down to the basement. That was the last time Natic saw him that day.

Natic went towards the fridge and opened it, just to remember it was empty. Unless he could find money today, he would go hungry. He goes back upstairs and changes clothing. It's a white robe that covers any part of the body open to air in a black smog unless the wearer decides to show that part of their body. The robe was too big for his body; it went below his knees and past his hands to where they could no longer be seen. Lastly, he grabbed a mask that hid his eyes from everyone else, but also his entire face so not as many could recognize him.

He went outside and used his BloodTrait—LifeStrands, strings that come out of his fingers that can copy the elements of their surroundings, stronger than any known material and able to cut through most things—to be able to swing through the city, latching onto the side of buildings and swinging along in an attempt to find trouble. Today was mostly a calm day.

Although perched on a building top, he noticed someone passing through an alley with someone with a large weapon in their hand passing behind them. He was going to check it out because of the weapon alone, but then it started to charge, and he then sprung directly into action, jumping straight down into the alley as he took the brunt of the attack to the face, which shattered his mask. He then lunged forward faster than the assailant could react. He tied his strings on one of his legs and knocked him off his feet. Then, while still in the air, he pushed him into the concrete by stepping down on the attacker with his foot. The attacker was knocked out, and with his strings, Natic cut the weapon into three pieces to where it was now useless.

The would-be victim walked up to Natic and tapped him on the shoulder, ready to express gratitude. In excitement for finally having someone be thankful for what he did, he turned around quickly—so fast that the wind from the turn knocked them over. When they looked up at Natic in the eyes, their bodies turned paler than a ghost. They tried to scream, but nothing came out. Fear had rendered them nearly immobile to the point where they ended up frozen on the spot. Tears flowing from their eyes and shaking unstoppably, the only words they were able to get out were, "-gulp- Th-th-the ey-eyes of the Devil himself. Please, I beg of you, don't kill me. I-I'll do anything."

Then suddenly, a flash of blue came from right outside the alleyway, and someone suddenly appeared in front of Natic with a fist filled with a red energy about to plow into his face. From the very roof Natic was on, though, someone came crashing down, and with their foot, they stopped the punch and put themselves between Natic and the would-be assailant.

The assailant said, "What the hell are you doing, Candy? Why are you stopping me from taking out the one with the Devil's Eyes?"

Candy responded, "Oh, come on, Alexander. This is just a boy. Do we even have proof that legend is real?"

Alexander responded, "Are you questioning my authority, Candy?"

Candy responded, "Yup. I have a kid only a little younger than this boy. You think I could sleep at night letting you deck the poor thing?"

Alexander responded, "Why must you always be a thorn in my side, woman? I wonder how the hell any man thought you to be a worthy woman to wed."

Candy said, "Well, I guess some of us have taste."

Alexander responded angrily, "I finally got to see the monster with my own eyes, and you decided to stop me from cutting it down with my own hands."

Candy, annoyed, responded, "How could you call a kid a monster, you ass hat?"

Alexander said, "Since the time he's gotten here, things have gotten worse. Only recently did we manage to get it back under control. If he is not the one responsible, his death will determine whether we are all right or not. Now get out of my damn way, Candy."

Candy, annoyed, responded, "No, Alex. I won't let you."

Alexander, now with anger, said, "I can just kill you both, if you would prefer that."

Candy responded, "And what will the public think when they find their favorite hero dead by the hand of the leader of the organization? Oh-oh, the chaos."

Alexander responded, "If you were anyone else, your head would be on a stick by now."

Candy giggled and said, "I know. You know you can't live without me, though. Who would bring excitement to all those boring meetings?"

Alexander's eye was starting to twitch in anger. Then he got an idea and said, "Fine. But the boy is your responsibility. If anything happens, it's on your head, woman. Do you understand my words?!"

Candy giggled and said sarcastically, "Well, I'll make sure if anything happens, I'll put on some special makeup to make sure my head looks nice."

Alexander flew away with crimson red wings that appeared from his back. But right before he left, he said, "By the dead gods, you are insufferable."

Candy, as he flew off, said, "Right back at ya, toots."

Candy watched him fly away and rolled her eyes. She turned around, added a smile on her face, and put her hands out. "Whatcha name, kid?"

Natic nervously said, "My name is N-Natic."

Candy gently grabbed Natic by the face and started to look around it. She then commented on his eyes and said, "Huh. So these are the eyes of a supposed beast. You just look like any regular Luminian to me, just with some weird but nice-lookin' eyes."

Natic, gaining back a bit of his composure, said, "Um, hey, thank you for that. Can you tell me what you are, exactly?"

Candy giggled and said, "Oh, sorry. I guess I am a bit unique myself. Well, I'm a mixture of a Bunny and Gotion half-beast."

Natic confusedly said, "Uh, what are those?"

Candy surprisingly said, "Oh, you sweet summer child. It will take a while for me to explain what I am. For longer than that."

Natic said, "Uh, okay. But one question: why did you stop him?"

Candy earnestly responded, "I have a baby sister about your age, maybe a little older. I imagine you're about as much of an idiot as she is, so you can't be some evil monster."

Natic responded while getting up from the floor, still slightly shaken, "So you don't hate me, then? Like everyone else?"

Candy said, "Oh, naw. I just go around helping any random bad guy I see. I get a kick out of seeing them do more rampage."

Natic's body got firm, and he took a step back. "R-Really?"

Candy responded, "Oh, dear. Do you not understand sarcasm?"

Natic responded, "What's sarcasm?"

Candy pinched her nose, shook her head, and laughed. "Oh, you sweet, sweet thing. Allow me to help you a bit. Where are your parents, anyways? I've only ever seen something said about you, but never your guardians."

Natic looked at the floor and asked the question, "What's a parent?"

Candy's smile faded from her face. She squatted down to see the boy face to face and asked, "Who takes care of you?"

Natic responded, "N-no one does. I take care of myself. There's a man who lets me live in his house, but that's about it."

Candy responded, "Do you even know this man's name, dear?"

Natic softly responded, "N-No."

Candy sighed and said with a smile, "Hey. Grab my hand. Let's go for a walk, why don't we?"

Natic responded, "But my mask is broken. They'll see my eyes. They'll run, or they might scream at you as well."

Candy giggled and said, "Eh, they can shove it where the sun don't shine. If any of them wanna press me, they can go ahead and try. We're just walking to my home real fast. I don't live far."

Natic responded, "Are you sure?"

Candy said, "As sure as the love I hold for my family. Now, come on, kid."

Candy stopped squatting and held the boy by the hand as they walked down the sidewalk in the day. While walking down the street, cars zipped by, and others screamed out really nasty things when they saw her and Natic. Others screamed and ran when they saw Natic. Even small children threw insults and felt fear when they saw the thing they had all been told was an uncontrolled monster.

Even while in the hands of a hero, he was still seen as nothing more than what the folklore said about his eyes and those with his eyes. Natic lowered his head while walking, his spirits lowering the more and more abuse was hurled towards him. As he realized that none of the work he had tried to do as a hero since he had gotten here had changed any of the public's opinions on him, he remembered what Sagacity said to him before he ran away.

"A monster the day you were born, a monster the day you will die. Not one will accept a beast into their home. Blood shall run through your hands whether you like it or not. You do not get to decide."

Candy looked down at Natic and saw he was holding his head low. Noticing how low he felt, she said, "Hey, have you eaten anything today? There's a milkshake place near here if you want one."

Natic asked, "What's a milkshake?"

Candy said, "You know what? Hop on my back and close your eyes."

Natic jumped onto her back and grabbed her by the goat horns on her head. She then, with her powerful goat legs, started to jump and leap over even buildings. Others below watched them as they jumped across the city, with Natic knowing not one idea where they were going. Then suddenly, they stopped in a small crater on the floor in front of this small ice cream parlor on the other side of the city they were in. Natic, astonished at how fast they were able to get from one side of the city to the other, while amazed at what had happened, had his nose catch the whiff of something sweet and turned his head towards the small ice cream parlor.

Candy walked towards the parlor while Natic was still on her back, and the parlor owner said, "Whatda I do ta ya, Candy dear? Tryna get me killed?"

Candy responded, "He hasn't killed me yet, so why would he kill you? Anyways, could you make me four chocolate milkshakes, please? Make them large, por favor."

"If ya say so, lady. Money is money."

The parlor served up the milkshakes and put them on the counter. "How ya gonna carry dat?"

Candy looked up to Natic and asked, "Hey, your BloodTrait is strings, right? Could you possibly wrap them around the shakes so they don't spill on the hop back to my home?"

Natic responded, "Uh, okay."

Natic used the strings to wrap the shakes, and Candy jumped across the building again. Natic noticed the place they stopped at wasn't too far away from where he was currently living before he got off Candy's back.

Before opening the door leading into the home, Candy said, "Welcome to my humble abode. This is where the lackluster magic happens."

Candy's husband opened the door with their five-year-old daughter standing behind him with a pink teddy bear in her arms.

Candy's husband then said, "Huh. Ain't that the monster everyone keeps talking about?"

Candy flicked her husband's forehead and said, "Don't call a child a monster, ya jerk."

Her husband responded, "Sorry, sorry. What's ya name, kid?"

Natic nervously responded, "M-my name's N-natic."

Candy said, "Look, ya made the kid nervous right when I got him calmed down. Away from that, though. Here ya go, kid."

Natic grabbed the large chocolate milkshake and said, "Uh, thanks." He sniffed. "I-is this poison?"

Candy responded, "Kid, the fact you know what poison is and are afraid I'll use it on you while giving you a milkshake is kinda sad. I promise I'm trying to do anything but hurt ya. Come in. The couch is over here."

Natic sat down on the couch and took a sip of his milkshake. Suddenly, the rush of sugar and chocolate flavor rushed his mouth, and dopamine sprinted towards his brain. Dopamine he hadn't felt in a while. He even closed his eyes and kicked his feet a little, his face lighting up the room.

Candy had a little giggle, and with a smile, she said, "Ya like it, don't cha? Hey, I wanna ask you a question."

Natic said, "Sure. Um, go ahead."

Candy excitedly responded, "Ya don't know too much from what I've seen. I don't wanna be mean, but I do wanna be blunt. So how about you come back here, and I can teach you some stuff to help ya out?"

Natic's face lit up even more, and he shook his head up and down in excitement as he went back to continue drinking his milkshake. They spent the rest of the afternoon spending time with each other and having fun—playing games, telling jokes, and just generally having a wonderful time with one another. As well as having a nice, hearty meal before he left, as Candy could tell how hungry the poor boy was.

But eventually, it had to end, and Natic did have to go back to where he had been staying for the past four years, or the scientist would be angry. So eventually, he saw himself off. But before he left, Candy grabbed a camera and took two pictures.

"One for me and one for you. Don't wanna forget this day. We can all look back and see how we've all grown and changed throughout the years. Bye-bye, Natic. Get home safe, kid."

Natic walked home with a pep in his step, and when he eventually got near the home and saw the scientist, the man immediately said, "The heck is the smile on your face for? Did ya turn into a masochist and start to enjoy everyone's abuse towards ya? I don't give a shit about your answer. Get in so I can take some more blood to experiment on."

Natic's face dropped, and he said, "Okay, sir."

Natic then walked into the building, placed his arm where he always did, and the painful procedure continued as always. But some of the blood spilt, and it ended up burning a hole through the floor. The scientist just smiled and said, "I'm not surprised the blood of a bastard would do that. I wonder how it doesn't just burn through the rest of you as well."

Natic tried his best to ignore what he said. Natic then went to his damp, dark room and went to bed. He then woke up the next day and did hero work like always, but now at the end of that, he goes to Candy's house. He treated it as a reward for all the things he did in this thankless job. Eventually, Candy ended up going and doing hero work with him. Slowly, those who lived in the city started to show less and less hostility towards him, including the other heroes.

Alexander always kept his eyes on Natic, though, from afar, to make sure he didn't do anything. Although he still woke up and went to bed to have his blood being taken from him by the scientist. He experimented on it and went to the place where the city's water was controlled. He explained to Natic that his blood was helping the citizens of the city, giving them better health. Natic did notice the citizens being happier and crime lowering a bit while all this extra experimentation was happening.

This all went on for three weeks, and Candy decided it was time for Natic to be allowed into the hero organization officially, thinking it wasn't fair for him to do all this work and for him not to get compensated like the rest of them.

At this meeting, Candy started. She stated, "Hey, Alexander, it's almost been a month. And look at the boy. He's way happier and no longer is hated by everyone, at least. And if he officially becomes a hero, less will hate him as well."

Alexander responded while moving his head in a way where he saw Candy from below his nose. "Citizens will riot if we let a monster join our ranks. It's like letting a child rapist join a daycare. Do you expect those parents to keep those kids safe from there? Even if they fire the monster."

Candy said, "Okay, I understand your point. But unlike the man from your crude point, Natic has done nothing wrong. Just stupid legends someone decided to make about his eyes. Has anyone ever actually seen a supposed Child of Apocalypse do anything? Or anyone else besides this poor boy with these eyes? We can't rule out this just being a coincidence as well, that his eyes match the legend."

Alexander rebutted, "Such an exact description is a coincidence you want to tell me? Do I look like a fool to you, girl? You think I have the intelligence of a rat? Why do you want this boy to be so happy any damn way?"

Candy quickly answered back, "Because it's our damn job to help others. Are you even listening to your damn self? You sound crazy."

Alexander responded, "Trying to protect my citizens is crazy rambling to you?"

Candy responded, "That's not what I'm trying to say, and you know that."

Natic tried to speak up and say something, but Alexander immediately said while staring at him with a frightening look as well as stomping his hand against the table, "Quiet."

That was enough to keep Natic quiet and stop him from attempting to speak again.

Candy said after seeing this, "Treat this boy like you would anyone else. He hasn't done anything."

Alexander responded, "I'll treat it any way I see fit. Now get the hell out of my sight. We will not be holding this meeting again. Understood?"

Candy responded, "Hell no, not understood. I'll leave for today because it's getting late in the day, but I will be back here."

Both Natic and Candy left the room, and on the outside, Candy bent down a bit to hug Natic and told him, "Hey, kid. I'm sorry. I know we'll be able to deal with this. Just another roadblock towards the future. Now, wanna go get a milkshake?"

On the other side of the road stood the scientist who Natic had been living with for the past few years at this point. He then said four simple words.

"Black-blooded beast… Arise."

Suddenly, a black goop started to flow from Candy's mouth, eyes, and ears. She pushed Natic away, afraid of what was happening, and then tried to say something. But the black goop was stopping her from being able to speak—hell, even breathe. She fell to the ground and tried her best still to stand up, but fell again. The goop was creating a searing pain on whatever part of her body it was covering.

Natic tried to rush forward towards her. Panicked, confused, and scared, he grabbed her and tried to lift her up off the floor. With the last remaining part of her strength left, she looked up to him and, in a muffled tone, said, "Please… help me."

Right after she said that, a Malice Titan came rocketing out of her body, crashing through the side of the building and knocking Natic through the building across the street, ending up on the other side of that building. Natic eventually got up and saw a Malice Titan the size of a skyscraper with goat horns on its head, screaming a blood-curdling scream that nearly destroyed Natic's hearing, shattered windows, and caused others to go screaming and running.

Black malice goop was falling off the Titan's body, and whoever got touched by it also started to turn into a Malice Titan of varying sizes. Then suddenly, a bunch more Malice Titans of varying sizes started to crash through the roofs of buildings, each and every one of them having blood-curdling screams, terrifying everything and everyone around them.

The scientist on the other side of the road was just laughing his life away, clapping and looking around at everything that was happening. As he walked away, he screamed, "Success."

Natic, terrified as red mist started to fill the air and a smell of blood permeated, suddenly felt some of the goop from the Titan that used to be Candy fall on him. It started to react with his corrupted bloodtrait, causing him a searing pain as the corrupt strain went through the rest of his arm and started to go up his neck. Although he didn't end up turning into a Malice Titan like the rest of those covered by the goop.

While getting up from the goop, Alexander came flying down from the top of the building he was in, using his bloodtrait to make hardened blood around his foot and shaping it like bird claws as he crashed Natic's head into the concrete floor, shattering it below them like glass. With the same foot, he lifted up Natic's head and continued to smash it down into the floor.

Then suddenly, a giant explosion of Malice Titans erupted from the top of the skyscraper where the meeting earlier was being held. As they fell from the top of the building, they came down crushing homes, other buildings, and civilians, causing others to also turn into Malice Titans as well. Both Natic and Alexander looked around in pure terror at what was happening around them.

Then Alexander started to scream at Natic, "You goddamn bastard! Look at what you've done! This couldn't have been me—my blood's never been exposed to anyone else. Tell me, you bastard, what did you do??? How the hell did you cause this?"

Natic, trying to get the blood out of his eyes, looked at Alexander's arm where his bloodtrait was and saw the same corrupted marking on it. Then a colored contact lens fell from his eye, showing the very same Child of Apocalypse eye color Natic had. Confusion now started to run through Natic tenfold. Before he could digest what he was looking at, he got his face re-smashed into the ground, then lifted up and kicked away into a collapsing building.

Alexander flew away in an attempt to destroy the most Titans he could so he could possibly save whatever would be left of the city. Natic managed to protect himself by covering himself in his strings before the building ended up falling onto him. He managed to crawl out of the rubble and decided to go run towards where Candy lived. Others on the street were yelling and screaming. Although they weren't just yelling and screaming in fear, but also in hatred towards Natic.

They were screaming and yelling things such as: "You monster!" "How could you do this to us?" "Where are you running, you coward? How dare you hurt our families!" "What did we do to deserve this?" "That fool hero wanted us to trust you." "You truly were a devil! A MONSTER!"

Natic heard every word they said but still forced himself to continue forward, running towards Candy's home. And suddenly, without warning, a Titan shot up from their home, with a pink teddy bear hanging from its mouth. It was also smaller than the rest of the Titans. A bloody arm falling from the sky fell in front of Natic.

Natic's breathing started to heavy. He fell back, and his pupils shrank as he also started to shake. Although right before he started to scream, he remembered something.

Wait. Wait, wait. The scientist. Yes. Yes. Yes. He must know what to do. He must know how to stop this.

So with this thought process in his head, he started to run towards where he had lived for all these four years. While running through the streets, from within all the screaming, he kept hearing the word.

MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER. MONSTER.

YOU DID THIS, DIDN'T YOU, MONSTER?

It got to such a point where he couldn't tell if the word just kept ringing in his head or if this truly was reality. A dream, a farce, a villain with hallucination powers. Natic just could not believe this was reality. He could not believe that he was a monster, the reason this was all happening.

Natic got to the place where the home was, but his eyes shrank even further as he didn't see the building. It was gone. The two buildings next to it just joined with one another as if it had always been that way. Natic's confusion had hit a peak, and he started to stumble backwards, cars zooming past him. Suddenly, his vision went blurry, and he was flying through the air, tumbling across the road as he was hit by one of the zooming cars.

He stood up with wobbly knees and looked around him. He was not only surrounded by the heroes that were left, but also by rowdy civilians asking for the monster's head. He looked up, and Alexander's eyes were back to normal, and his arm with the bloodtrait was out of vision.

Natic screamed out, "Hey! I swear! I swear I had nothing to do with this! I'm just as confused as you all are! I want this to end just as badly! I was trying to find the scientist I was living with in the… house… over there!"

Alexander shook, and his hands tightened on the base of the bloodfeather he had in his hand, ready to strike the boy down. But he allowed him to speak. As a response, he said, "What home, monster? You deem us fools? Idiots who are not smart enough to understand your intentions? You dare try to legally become a hero the very day you do this? Is this retaliation for your rejection?! ANSWER MEEEEEE, CHILD OF APOCALYPSE!"

Natic frantically responded while pointing his finger at Alexander, "I-I-I— You're not better! You're also a Child of Apocalypse! Your eyes! Your arm—I saw them! You're lying to them! Did you do this to frame me? Why would you frame me?"

Natic then tried to use his strings to lift up Alexander's sleeve and take off at least one contact lens to prove what he was saying was the truth. Then suddenly, someone's weapon or power struck Natic's string, causing it to fail reaching Alexander.

That very same hero screamed at Natic, "YOU DARE CALL OUR LEADER A FRAUD!!! YOU DARE CALL OUR LEADER A LIAR!!! OUR PROTECTOR! OUR GUARDIAN! YOU DARE AND TRY TO DISGRACE HIS NAME, YOU MONSTER!!!"

All of them started to charge forward, but then suddenly, it was as if time stopped. Arms started to wrap around Natic's neck, and a voice he thought he had heard said, "Oh, children. Not one ever listens to their parents. I'll tell you this before you leave. All will crash around you till the day you die. All will hate you, for you are the monster under the bed that they fear. For you do have strings attached to you. Let me complete your cross brace for you."

Suddenly, Sagacity appeared in front of Natic with an ear-to-ear grin. But he only smiled with his mouth. He didn't smile with his tired eyes.

Natic suddenly could not move his body. Sagacity placed his thumb on the base of Natic's stomach and slowly raised it all the way up to the top of his chest. Suddenly, a white tree appeared across his stomach and chest. Its branches stretched across his arms, and its roots stretched across his legs. Then circles with the faces of dead gods shined brightly, then dimmed down to the amount of light the rest of the tree was emitting.

Pain. An unimaginable amount of pain crashed through Natic's body—the pain as if he was being torn apart from the inside out. The purple corrupted strain on his bloodtrait also shined brightly. Sagacity then flicked Natic's nose and said, "Remember. Puppet master decides the story. The audience must be entertained."