Ohio's Choice - Choosing Felix [Felix x Ohio]

{3} Memories Rather Left Forgotten

Just one more time before I go
I’ll let you know
That all this time we’ve been afraid
Wouldn’t let it show
Nobody can save me now, no
Nobody can save me now

Stars are only visible in darkness
Fear is ever-changing and evolving
And I, I feel poisoned inside
But I, I feel so alive

Nobody can save me now
The king is crowned it’s do or die
Nobody can save me now
The only sound
Is the battle cry

Felix was standing beside the bed in which Ohio rested; she hadn’t woken up since she passed out on the Pelican on their way back. “Hey, little red guy!” Felix called and the small AI appeared. “It’s Rho…” it said almost… ashamed? “What’s up with her? What happened in there?” he asked and Rho hesitated before answering. “I don’t know. I couldn’t see anything. And right now… I’d say she’s dreaming” it answered as it turned, as if to look at her. Felix sighed. “What happened to her earlier? Physically I mean…” Felix asked. “Well… increased heart rate… Elevated breathing etc… In short, a panic attack. It seemed as if she experienced something traumatic.” It answered and Felix nodded. “But why did she tell me to go away…?” Felix muttered to himself. “Fear.” The AI answered making Felix frown. “Fear? Was she… afraid of me?” he asked himself but didn’t have time to ponder as Ohio stirred slightly. “No… Ed…” she muttered in her sleep. Felix now felt the bitter taste of jealousy. Who was Ed?

“Talia…” Felix mumbled as he shook her shoulder slightly, making her bold upright in bed. “No!” she screamed before looking around, her eyes landing on Felix. “Sorry…” she mumbled before looking down on her hands. “Hey…” he said as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “I think we need to talk…” he said softly, making Ohio quickly look at him. “What did you see?” he asked and she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.” She answered and Felix’s eyebrows shot up. “Doesn’t matter? You had a literal panic attack, you pass out and you’re barely fucking functioning. Yes, it matters. Tell me” he said angrily, making Ohio flinch slightly and then sigh. “Fine…I’ll tell you.” She said and told her everything she saw, up until Felix shooting at her. “What happened before we met?” he asked her with a frown and she looked down at her hands. “A lot…. “ Ohio said, fiddling with the sheets. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

~Some years ago, Somewhere on Earth, Ohio age 7~

Ohio awoke to the feeling of something pressing lightly against the side of her head. When she looked up, she saw her dad close the door to her room. She frowned before she swung her legs over the side of her bed. She walked out of her room and saw that her brothers’ door was open. Ohio rubbed her eyes and walked up to the door. She saw her dad standing over her younger brother, fully dressed. “Daddy? Are you going somewhere?” she asked and yawned. He didn’t answer he just walked passed her and she frowned, following him. “Daddy?” she said as she saw him walk towards the door. He turned around and kneeled down by the small girl. He brushed her blonde hair behind her ear and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be back before you know I’m gone… Would you do me a favour Talia?” he asked and looked at her with his light brown, almost golden eyes. Talia nodded excitedly. “Give this to your mother tomorrow at breakfast.” He said, handing her a letter. “Yes sir!” she happily replied, saluting him before grabbing the letter. He smiled at and patted her head. “That’s my girl. Now go back to sleep.” He said and she nodded before walking back upstairs.

Two years later, he still had not returned and Talia was racing her brother Edward to their house to show their mom the wooden statuettes they had carved. “You gotta be faster than that Edward!” Talia called to her younger brother as they ran across the field on the backside of their house. “Mom!” She called as their mother came into sight. “Ed! Talia!” their mother chimed happily as the two of them embraced her legs. “Look, mommy, look!” Ed exclaimed happily, as he showed her the statuette, Talia presenting a similar one. “Oh amazing!” their mom chimed. “Yeah… I just wish I could show dad when he returns” Ed said sadly, making Talia grow angry. Not particularly at Ed, but at the father she’d once loved, who had now abandoned them; the father she had grown to hate. “Don’t you talk about him! That bastard. He will never come back, don’t you understand!” Talia had yelled at her brother, tears forming in his eyes at the sudden outburst from his sister. “Talia…” her mother said softly, trying to calm her down but she just ran inside and up to her room. She wrapped her arms around her legs and cried softly into her knees.

A few months later, Talia and her brother was playing hide and seek when some men had broken into the house, threatening their mother and her brother. “Where is he?!” they yelled, pointing a gun towards Ed. “I don’t know who you’re talking about!” her mother cried. “Please… Just let my child go…” she begged but they only held onto him tighter. “Oliver Trace! Where is he?” the man yelled. “Tell me!” he said, pressing the gun to Ed’s head. “You’re Maria Trace, right?!” he asked and she nodded. “Then tell me where he is or the kid gets it!” he yelled and she stated crying. “I don’t know where he is…” she muttered reaching out for her son. Ed tried to get away, making one of the intruders flinch, shooting him in the stomach. “You idiot!” one of them had yelled as Maria screamed. “Finish her, we’ll find him some other way….” The man said, walking towards the door. One of the men quickly shot the mother before they all left. Talia was still behind the curtains in the reading room, where this whole scene had gone down, she watched as the blood pooled on the floor. During the entire time, she could have reached the phone and called the police, but she didn’t. Once she was sure the men were gone, she ran up to her mother. “Mom! Mommy!” she cried as she shook her mothers’ lifeless corpse. She looked to her brother and saw him squirm slightly. “Ed!” she called and raced over to him. “T…tal-…” Ed stuttered, not able to say anything else, trying to say her name, to tell her something. Before he could, his almost golden eyes grew dull and he closed his eyes. “No…Ed… Edward!” she yelled before she let out a pained scream. “Damn you dad! You bastard! It’s all your fault!” she screamed before she broke down crying. She shook her head before she hurried to the phone and called an ambulance before she left the corpses behind. She couldn’t bear to look at them anymore.

She came back to the house a few months later, looking at it. The police tape was gone but as she entered the house, she noticed that the blood was still there. She shook her head before she decided what to do. She grabbed the matched from the kitchen and lit a few, throwing them at various places, curtains, rugs, the couch etc. before she left the house in flames. She caught a ride into the closest city where a friend of her parents lived. She knocked on the door and the man hurried her into the house. “Did anybody see you?” he asked and she shook her head in confusion. “Why do you smell like a wild fire?” he asked and she looked down. “I burned my house down…” she answered. “You stupid girl!” he yelled before sighing. “But it was probably for the best...” he continued. “Mr. Knox…. Can you help me?” she asked and he sighed yet again. “Fine… only as a favour to your father and because I think you can handle it. But from now on you leave the name of Trace behind, you hear me?” he said and she nodded. “From now on you’re O’Cleary. Talia O’Cleary! You hear me?” She nodded again. She was soon thrown into training; she had only just turned ten but was training in the use of guns and hand-to-hand combat.

~Chorus, Present time~

“That’s how I became a mercenary… and that’s what happened before I met you” Ohio told Felix who looked at her. “Oliver Trace… Why do I know that name?” Felix pondered and Ohio couldn’t help the bitter expression that coated her face at the mention of her father. “He used to work for the military. Developing experimental technology…” she explained, the resentment clear in her voice. “I don’t know what happened to him after he left and frankly, I don’t care” she added as she looked away.