Artificial 7: Genesis Requiem

Chapter 32: The Truth

Narration: The next day,
everyone at Belladonna's mansion went about their daily routine.
Eat, train, goof off.
"Hey kiddo, how come you don't want to say hi to your dad?"
Selena asked Anton,
who was reading a book on dark poetry on the couch.
"Eh, I've spent nearly eighteen years with pop. I want to live with you for a while."
Selena parks it on the other side of the couch.
"So what kind of books do you like to read?"
Selena leaned forward with her hands clasped together.

"Poetry, book on William Shakespeare's work, book on all of Edgar Allen Poe's work. He's really well known for his short stories, poems, and dark writing to my knowledge."
Selena,
though not interested in poems,
is interested in what makes Anton tic. Whether it be fun and games to reading and writing,
she wants Anton to feel safe and feel like he can open up with her.
"I mostly read anything I can get my hands on, so I'm not all that picky on what I read."

Anton notices Selena is absorbing this information and listening.
"Not trying to compare you to your other self, but normally when I get to talking like this, she'd tell me she doesn't want to listen to it or she has more important things to tend to."
Anton smiles at the bitter memories,
and his eyes reflect the lack of light that was needed in his life as a child.
"Poetry isn't my favorite thing in the world, but if it's what you like. I'd happily listen to it."
Anton's eyes brighten with just those simple words.
His expression reflects his shock.
"Are you sure?"
Slena smiles and nods.

"Of course. Any hobbies or interests you have, you can tell me. I won't shut you down. I'm here for you, I promise." Anton starts to get a bit emotional but looks away from Selena,
holding back the tears and choked up throat.
"Thank you, mom."
Anton speaks the words he's always wanted to say.
"Come on. Let's get you some new clothes."
Selena says in a motherly voice.
"Why? What's wrong with my current clothes?"

Anton book marks his page on the book of dark literature.
"You wear nothing but dark coloring. Let's get you some more diversity. Also, you only have like four pairs of everything, and they're starting to smell."
Anton follows Selena,
and they spend half the day at the mall, having some mother and son time,
with Anton trying on a mix of clothes he likes and clothes Selena would like him to wear.

In the end,
she bought him black and white clothes, some coats,
a few hoodies and some T shirts.
The two then hit the food court for some lunch,
meanwhile,
back home.
Morgan was holding baby Natalie and spoiling the almost 2 year old while Seth talked with Chase and Sora.
"How come you two didn't tell Selena that we killed Brandon?"

Sora, despite still being mad at Seth and holding a grudge,
speaks.
"We've been too focused taking care of our family, that and also we didn't think about it."
Seth nods a little as he also tends to get carried away with taking care of his baby,
so he knows all too well what they mean.
"Alright. I'll tell her the next time I see her."

1 week later,
after Selena week of taking care of the baby was done,
the first thing she did before her shift was swing by Seth's through the dimensional door and make sure she's all situated.
"Good morning. Hey, Selena. Do you have a minute?"

Seth asks with a low, sincere tone, causing Selena to look at him a bit confused before pulling up a chair.
Seth sits on the couch,
and he leans forward with a serious look on his face as he rests his elbows in his knees and his chin on the back of his hands.

"It's about your parent's killer. I know him, and the twins helped me kill him 3 years ago."
Selena's face hardens as she locks into the conversation while Zoey and Yuzuhara prepare breakfast.
"Tell me everything. Hold nothing back." She says deathly serious.

"Alright. So that file you had on me. After the defeat of Jackal, I ran into Brandon Yeets about a month later. He offered me money, power, and a new family sense the twins weren't in my life at the time, and I just severed my connection with my grandmother. He taught me everything I know about runes and Artificial Demons. As I just recently turned into one at the time. His work trained me to fight Exorcist, and I made three good friends. Anton, Penny, and Leon. Leon gave me combat experience, Penny was the heart of the team and helped me out in a rough spot, as well as trained with me for so long, she's the reason I have the Shadow Flames. Anton helped me hone my craft and create weapons out of shadows. Months later, after the twins entered my life, Brandon Yeets tried to get rid of me and hired or manipulated other Demons into fighting me. He even used Penny as a hostage, knowing I'd react on emotion, not logic. When the supposed final war between Exorcist and Artificial Demons kicked off, Brandon was the traitor the whole time and fed information to the Exorcist about our plans to destroy the factory. In the end, his plan wasn't to cripple the Artificial race but instead offer up the souls of the dead and obtain Demon Lord status so he could kill all Exorcist and Artificial Demons. He made a deal with the Demon King himself. Satan, Lucifer, whatever name you want to give him. He offered the souls Demons and Exorcist to get the status, but his plan didn't account for me living and Kenneth's platoon helping me. So Satan, instead of fulfilling Brandon's request, he gave me the other half of the Demon Lord power and made us fight to the death for the other half of the power. In the end, I killed him for the first time, taking his half the power even though I didn't want it. He took Penny and Leon away from me. Two people who were my new family...... his dying words were to find these Legendary Weapons scattered across all the Tribes and prevent another him from happening. I weeded out the corruption in all the Tribes to the best of my abilities, gathered all the weapons, and broke the seal on a demonic dragon named Valla who needs a host to do anything. Chase pushed me out of the way and fled my old mansion. The place he ended up going to was the spot I killed Brandon, and Chase drained himself of all his power to fight off possession, causing Valla to flea into the nearest body, which happened to be Brandon and Brandon came back to life as this Dragon Demon Lord thing and we followed him into this whole ass new realm...... he exposed me to illusions that caused me to black out and go out of control like that time in Regalia. My adopted sister beat some sense into me because Brandon used the corpses of Penny and Leon, put an illusion rune on them, and basically had them lead me to a trap. Anyway, that's off topic. After I came back to my senses. Brandon separated me and the twins through this dimensional nonsense and well...... it was a long fight, and eventually, they broke free, and they helped me kill him. I absorbed Brandon and Valla's soul so they won't be coming back at all."

Selena tries to process the information, and her expression tells as much before she stands up.
"I see..."
Selena stands up and goes to the dimensional door,
then turns back and looks at Seth. "Thank you for sharing your experience with me. I need time to process all of this."
Selena leaves the room and leaves Seth with Zoey, Yuzuhara,
and the baby.

After breakfast,
Yuzuhara met up with Ventus and Zoey met up with Male Terra,
and they did their daily patrol with Selena.
On the surface,
Selena looked calm and in control.
On the inside, though,
her mind was going a million miles a second,
coming to grips with the fact that someone else killed the man she spent her childhood hunting and training to kill and he did it all in the span of half a year.

He was considered one of the weakest Artificial Demons,
and yet the Demon King took enough interest in him and gave him free power in exchange for a fight to the death between Seth and Brandon.
Male Terra noticed Selena working on autopilot,
and Zoey clued him in on what's going on,
so Terra just let Selena run her course for the remainder of the patrol.
Even when Selena was working out with the guys in the weight lifting section of the gym.

[Guys being Terra, Ventus and Seth] Selena was off in her own mind,
and even talking to the twins in her head about the whole Valla situation and they told her about the stories of Penny, Leon and Anton while they temporarily trained under them and what it was also like temporarily working under Brandon.
They even told her everything that happened leading up to the final showdown.

Even though the twins are out and about,
their bodies are more like avatars for their real bodies as their souls are bound to Selena's body.
After a few days,
she approches Seth on her day off,
still in her Exorcist uniform,
and what comes out of her mouth,
took everyone by surpise.
"I want to fight you."