He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty One - Know Thy Enemy

Their discussion continued long into the night, but fortunately Adam didn't have a shift that night and the following day was Saturday. If his aunt was startled about the fact that two young men had fallen asleep cuddling the other on the sofa, she did not say anything. But they did find that a large blanket had been neatly placed over them.

The bathtub was not really wide nor long enough for two men, but it did not stop them from trying. Owen squeezed in between Adam's legs and rested his back against Adam's chest, his head nestled into Adam's shoulder. They laughed and joked as there was not the space to wash themselves nor the other as they soaked. The mood was light when they finally went down for breakfast.

Adam introduced Owen to his aunt as his boyfriend. Aunt Emma was open minded, but had to question his sexuality, after all he had only dated girls before. Adam claimed that there was something about Owen that surpassed gender and he just couldn't let pointless obstacles like that keep them apart. His aunt smiled, she could see how much her nephew cared for this boy and how much he was loved in return. This made her happy, now if only she could find a good man...

The boys chose to take a stroll through a nearby park after breakfast.  The sky was currently cloudless and though there was a small chilling touch in the air due to a recent bout of rain, the sun was already cutting through it and spreading its warmth.  They held hands as they walked in a comfortable silence, sharing the sights of children playing football on the field, dogs bounding after sticks and other dogs and birds flocking around a fallen half burrito, probably dropped the night before. 

Owen sighed and pressed his shorter body against Adam's, who simply smiled at him.  "I don't want to go back home and face that woman," Owen told him.  "I thought my stepmother was a bitch, but at least she left me alone so long as I didn't cross her path."

"Then don't go back," Adam suggested.  "Stay with me."

"Beyond tempting," Owen grinned.

"You never told me why she frightened you so much," Adam said to him.  "I mean, you went on a suicide mission before, knowing you were not going to come back alive and yet she has you trembling like a fawn."

Owen said nothing for a moment, just pulled him over to a nearby bench that happened to be free.  He sat down and waited for Adam to sit with him.  "The way... the way she talks, the way she manipulates... I thought I might be being paranoid, but..."

"Go on," Adam encouraged, enfolding Owen's hands into his own.

"When... when my soul was split," Owen began, "and I partially woke as Kyan, but was still Cornelius... there was this man. Cornelius thought he was his friend, but I knew differently. He was just using us. He claimed to be a messenger from the System as the System couldn't reach me and he was the one to give Kyan those tasks you prevented. At first, I did them without question, but when they turned darker, like adding drugs to drinks, trapping the children..." he stopped, closing his eyes against the horrible things he had done in that life, his stomach churning. Adam sensed his distress and gathered him closer.

"It's okay, it's okay," he reassured him. "The worst case scenarios were prevented."

"No, it's not," Owen replied. "It really isn't. I tried to say no to those tasks, after all, I knew better. The people in the worlds... I'd dismissed them before as mere programs, but I was just trying to protect myself. The tasks... if I thought about what I was doing, who I might have been hurting, I wouldn't have done those things at all. And so I resisted, finally, but... but that man used the same persuasive arguments, made what he said sound so reasonable, turned me back into the System's puppet and began to pull my strings."