The mergeverse

So called family.

I woke up, feeling a bit groggy. I wasn't surprised by the dream I had, but it was annoying, considering I had been trying to ignore the tension. I didn't feel like getting up right away, so I ended up just continuing to lay on Miles' lap while he just ran his fingers through my hair. I let my mind wander a bit.

I started forgetting the whole situation with Corbin and started focusing on that one scientist. Anthony. There had been something else familiar about him. Not just that he had taken my brother. Something much deeper that I felt the need to figure out.

I snapped out of my thoughts, feeling Miles gently tap me. "You good? You've been zoned out for like 10 minutes." I nod and sit up a bit. "Yeah, just thinking about some stuff." I suddenly remembered the fact that there was still a new shock collar on my neck. I tugged at it a bit, wincing. "Damnit forgot about this stupid thing."

"Is there a way to get it off without it hurting?" I shook my head no. "There's these like metal hooks digging into my skin. It's gonna hurt getting it off no matter what." I tried using my claws again to rip it off. It was working a bit, and wasn't hurting as much. However there were still the metal hooks. "Here, Maybe I can try and help with the hooks now that it's ripped a bit. I think I should be able to get them out with less pain and less damage to your neck."

I agreed, letting him get close to get the collar off. It did actually hurt a lot less, however it did take like 20 minutes to get it fully off. After getting it off, we went upstairs to grab some bandages, since it did still kind of fuck up my neck a bit. While upstairs, I also noticed how much the black stuff had been spreading across my face. It was covering close to half of my face at this point. My eyes were also back to 'normal', or well the normal they were with being merged with Killer and Horror. However the markings I usually had from them were not there.

"Bleh. I can barely even recognize my own face at this point." I sighed and got away from the mirror, not needing a reason to have a panic attack or crisis or something. "Must be difficult huh, not being able to fully recognize yourself?" I nodded. "It's.. weird. Like I know it's still me, and like mentally I haven't changed a whole lot. But I just look.. so different."

We both headed downstairs, Miles having his arm around my shoulder in a comforting way. "Hey, wanna head back to our universe? I wanna show you something." I asked, and Miles nodded.

I teleported us back, teleporting specifically to the all familiar clearing in the woods. I noticed the familiar figure of the Shadow Walker I had met months before further into the woods. I wondered if it still remembered me. If it even could with how different I looked. I decided to just let it come over on it's own if it wanted to. "What is this place?"

"Me and my brother used to come here all the time, my old house isn't far from here actually. It's got a great view of the stars at night. Plus, it's a nice place to go when you need some quiet time." I looked up at the sky. It was bright out, probably about midday. "So I'm guessing this place is pretty special to you, huh?" I nod. "Yeah, it's probably one of the only things I have left to remember my brother by." 

I felt Miles grab my hand yet again, this was what, the third time he's done this? I honestly didn't mind it, but I was starting to think maybe there was more to it and than just comfort. Better to not dwell on it though. "Sooo, wanna see my old house, sense we're in the area? I need to go there anyways to grab some stuff, so y'know might as well show you around." Miles agreed, and we both headed towards it.

It was nice being back again. Sure, the house wasn't much, just a small cabin my father had built when him and my mom first got married, but it was nice. It had really been the only place I'd considered home. This was still my first time actually walking around it sense I had left it the first time. It was surprisingly in well shape still, just really dusty was all.

We ended up stopping at a shelf I slightly remembered my mom putting in herself, just to be able to put up pictures. I grabbed one off, wiping the dust off of it. It was a picture of me and my brother from when we were younger. I couldn't tell the exact ages, but if I had to guess I had probably been around 10 or 11 and he had been around 14 or 15. "Wow, you really did look a lot different."

"Yeah, this is also not a good comparison picture, but there wouldn't exactly be any recent ones of me here. They most recent would still be from like, maybe 5 ish years ago. Yet I looked somewhat normal just months ago. I might have an idea to find some picture of me then, though. But maybe later."

We continued looking through pictures, until I found one that stood out a lot for some reason. I dusted it off, trying to understand the picture itself. It was me, probably about 12 years old? The picture was just of me and some other guy, who looked kinda similar to my dad. He also looked much to similar to the scientist from the lab I had been taken to. "Isn't that the guy who had taken you to the lab the first time..?" Miles asked, pointing at him. "It.. looks like it. But why would he be in a photo with me?"

Then the realization hit me. "Shit. I think I know exactly why now." I explained the one dream I had, another one of the memories coming back to me. I explained how in it, when my parents had been fighting, my dad threatened to give me to his brother. My mom argued back about not sending me to, quote, 'that damn scientist'.

Everything lined up. If I was right, it meant that fucker who took me the the lab was my uncle, whether he remembered he was or not.