================================

Chapter 443: Meeting Reunion

================================

Rex couldn’t help voicing out, “How long?”

[Fifteen minutes.]

“Do it.” A murderous look warped Rex’s face. He did not fear anything as he walked inside his house and looked around it. “Some things were moved.”

His anger rose to another level. He could recall the last scene of the house, the last memory he had of it before the accident and before he was brought to that townhouse unit.

His feet were light, almost no sound and he was very careful not to make a sound, feeling the entire house and sensing for the slightest of presences.

He closed his eyes to concentrate. Then, after a few moments, he opened his eyes and looked at the corner, towards an upper deck stair area, that was where their rooms —his, Baron’s, and also his parents’ rooms— were located.

‘Someone’s in there!’ Rex’s breathing shortened as he suppressed his rage. Just who dare disrespect my family’s house?!

He pulled all his strength to control his impulse to kill and retreated on a corner to wait until Cortana finished decrypting the hardware.

Eleven minutes into the task, Rex was almost at the edges of his patience when Cortana reported.

[Sir, I’ve encountered resistance. The owner of the device seemed to have detected my hacking. His skill is pretty good sir.]

‘Are you able to win?’

[I can win but it will take a lot of time. In worst case, he can disconnect online but since he was within the premises of my scan, even if he disconnect online, I can still continue my hacking.]

Rex weighed his chances and knew that being the impatient one will ruin everything. The owner of the hardware might even choose to destroy it if he found that his life was threatened. People with the geeky aptitude of being a cracker and a hacker are 70% prone to being cowardly. The remaining 30% are special ones who get lead or supporting roles on techy movies.

Not too far away, in his parents’ room, Rex heard a grunting roar as if someone was encountering a big problem.

“God damn it. Who is this guy?”

Rex found the voice eerily familiar. Uncle Faust?

He suppressed his rage as he went closer to the upper deck of their bungalow. There he heard the furious sounds of keyboards and curses. There is no mistaking it, that voice belonged to someone he thought was his last family, Faust.

Rex clenched his fists as he prepared to punch the door open but his mind screamed as he recalled all the things that might get lost if he startled this man who betrayed his trust.

Instead, he went to his room. He was very careful not to make any sound and even made sure that the door hinges were moved slower and bit by bit while Cortana made sure to press the offensive to snatch all Faust’s attention from his surroundings.

When the door was large enough for him to enter, he moved as quiet as the wind and only gently closed the door. The air con is off and so the room felt hot inside but with his bodily constitution he did not need to open the window to let cool air inside.

“It feels awkward now.” he murmured.

Looking at his room now, a typical room of a teen with posters, tennis racket, a basketball, a baseball glove, cabinets full of figurines and models for his childhood projects, a holo-TV, old game consoles, school stuffs… everything in this room made Rex feel that he was back to those days of being just a teenage and not a [God] who was used to killing.

Thinking about the people he killed on his way in this place, he couldn’t help but feel awkward. Did he really kill those people without blinking?

On a much broader perspective, aren’t they his very first kills in the real world?

And he didn’t even blink when he killed them.

He looked at his hand —two hands that are now officially drenched in blood— and then looked at his old room where the last vestiges of his youthful years still lingered, and couldn’t help but feel that he had missed those years… although the fact was that it had only been less than a year.

But to him, now that he had recalled everything, it’s all been so long that it made his eyes watery.

Many things happened, Sam, his parents, his fights on the streets, Baron, Terroa… Mefisto…… many things happened and they all changed the direction his life was headed to in a general way that even he knew that there was no going back.

No matter what the UNICORN wanted with Terroa, or whatever Terroa is to Panorama Corp and also to UNICORN, whatever Pegasus was planning all this time, whatever the reasons Uncle Faust had as he betrayed his trust… Rex knew that even if he put all his power in brooding over it, he could only look back at them and nothing will still change.

What he can do, what he was capable of doing and what he ought to be focusing his all for… is facing all obstacles that’s stopping him from keeping his family safe from everything.

And Rex also knew that what this ‘everything’ was is actually the world —as long as this society move around the concept of ‘material desires’ the people will never look at their family in a kind light.

Until he can make sure that they will be safe, Rex knew that could only crush them if they block his path. The lives he took today were just the start of the storm he was prepared to conjure if all of those people won’t stand at the side as he walked on.

He clenched his fists, resolve on his face.

Rex burned the image of his room into his mind as he buried this sense of nostalgia and longing deep in his heart and memories. He promised himself to only go back here when everything is okay.

He went into the drawer beside his bed and then pulled it. Just as his memory served him right, he saw the item he came here for, his invitation to The Conclave to years ago.

Securing the small envelope into his jacket, Rex was just about to clear his tracks when he caught sight of his old student ID.

—should I still pursue my college diploma?

[Do you still need it boss? I’m here.]

Rex also laughed at the romanticism of his idea.

‘Just for the fun of it.’

[Your security will be prone to compromise and if you do attend college again, the people aiming for your life will know exactly where to find you.]

Rex thought deeply about this warning. Pegasus… he knew Pegasus was one of them.

Then there was also the UNICORN. What can’t the UNICORN do? They even have this sinister tech that changed his constitution, turning him into this half-human half-NanoTech creature that even he finds hard to accept.

‘No, Cortana. Even though our plans for the future are as solid as it seems… you should know already that no plans are 100% accurate. There will always be those existences that will be detrimental to any forms of the plan. I myself is a living proof of it.’

Rex, no, [Siva] may have been a product unknown by the creator of whatever reasons there were to the creation of the secrets in Terroa… but knew it as clear as day that there will be a time where the conflict for the secrets of his existence will be fought.

Rex knew that blood will flow in rivers if the people behind his creation found out about him.

By then, if he was alone would he stand a chance?

[So you’re going to recruit young people to be the pawn on your game?]

Cortana’s ‘image’ was only visible to himself and as she stood there behind him like a real adjutant, he almost imagined the criticism of that thought from her words alone. He didn’t dare imagine Cortana making a disdainful expression, there, behind him.

He knew that Cortana was only stating the facts and is also stimulating his mind to not go to that path which would only feed nutrients to his demon.

‘No.’ He told himself and Cortana. ‘—I will train the future protectors of this world.’

Rex knew that no matter how much he kept sealed the secret to his creation, the fact alone that AG and UNICORN had done this to him means that the procedure exists and the possibility that there were still other people out there that might be enduring the same experiments like he did… was high.

His old Student’s ID brought him a new sense of awareness to his situation.

Yes.

He was a successful product of an experiment, but if they think that he will serve their purpose, then he could only make them regret.

…regret the fact that they messed with his family.

He took the ID and put it on a zippered pocket on his jacket for security. Now that he’d taken what he came here for, it was time to ask questions.

‘What’s the status?’

[One minute more to complete decryption.]

Curses rained on the other side of the room. The sounds of hammering and things being broken was making Rex’s rage boil to its limit. How dare you mess with my parents’ room!

‘Why didn’t he plug his hardware off?’

[I don’t know. There might be something important in the room that needed it to be online.]

“What the fuck… who the fuck are you!!!” Faust was really raging and Rex could hear things being broken in there, fueling his anger more.

Rex couldn’t endure it and he pushed his hand on the wall to detect what was on the other side.

And what he saw there actually brought his senses to a stop. Faust had just made an office out of his parents’ room.

Rex dashed out his room and kicked the door on the other side open with a loud bang. The sound startled the doctor and what Rex saw there fueled his anger more.

“Wh-who… wait, you’re…!!”

Rex ignored his startled face as he scanned the entire room. The bed was there and seemed to be where Faust slept. A table was there and there was also a bunch of trash that littered the entire floor in every corner. It was a messy office.

Looking at Faust now, Rex immediately knew that this was a man who’s been obsessed with his work he didn’t even take a bath.

On the table was laptop and on the side is a metal box that hummed silently. It looked like an external HD sort of thing like the one on his room, only a bit smaller and conventionally low-tech.

Rex’s hair was long and covered the side of his face but Faust was still familiar with his face for he had watched him grow up like a second parent.

“Rex… is that you…” Faust stood slowly, looking at him in disbelief. “I thought you were… I thought you were taken away by them…”

[Decryption complete. Files copied and archived… data analysis initiated… completion rate at 0.00471 every second. Completion period in 6hrs.]

After the report was sent to his mind, Rex’s eyes darted to the ‘thing’ behind Faust. He fully ignored the man as he scanned what was on the cylindrical tube behind Faust.

“Is that what I think it is?” Rex asked, hissing.

Faust looked back at the 1m large cylindrical tube with a green liquid in it and he was startled.

“Rex… you have no idea the breakthrough of this technology will bring to…” He stopped here and he excitedly grabbed Rex’s arm. “Look! Rex, I call this technology the [Cradle of Life]… isn’t it beautiful? I took your parents’ ideas and work and also brought in new insights and inputs from other scientists on all related fields and put them all together into one complete matrix! Look! Look! If I complete it, there will be a day that we can bring your parents back to life… we can bring Ellie back to life!”

Rex was in disbelief. If he wasn’t looking at a fetus like something inside that wired cylindrical object, he wouldn’t even believe a thing he said.

This here was what he’s been requesting the humans in Asgard for. But Maki was stubborn to not give the technology to anyone no matter what happens. He even swore to bring the technology to his grave if it meant it won’t be used to do evil.

—and it was true.

The 150+ years advanced Genetics Technology of the humans in RPG: Terroa was more mature than the ones in the real world it actually produced two fleshly bodies —Galatea and Maki’s— to existence.

If he can obtain that technology, saving his parents and Samantha would be a hundred times simpler.

‘Cortana, scan that fetus.’

[Scan complete. Unknown DNA signature.]

Rex looked around the messy room and found his parents’ things… more specifically, he found his mother’s, Ellie’s, things amongst the items. There, in a clean table, there was a familiar hair brush of his mother’s.

A horrifying thought came into his mind and Rex couldn’t help but breathe deeply as rage formed on his chest.

“What have you done?” he slowly faced Faust.

Faust was still ecstatic and didn’t detect the enmity from Rex’s voice.

He said with a smile, “I’m bringing Ellie back to us.”

A shadow flashed and a hand seized Faust’s neck as he was lifted up, choking.

“How dare you!” Rex roared as he clenched hard as if he was going to snap Faust’s neck. The man chocked and struggled but Rex had three times a normal man’s strength and he was still becoming stronger by the day.

“R-Rex… I c-can’t……. breeeeathe…”

[Boss, I just found an IP Address with a unique DNA Encryption. It’s using a language amongst the files I’ve scanned and according to the logs it was where Doctor Faust was storing his findings.]

Rex was startled with this news. ‘It’s online. Can’t you hack into it?’

[The Firewall Signature is easy to crack but there was a DNA Encryption connected to the core of the Firewall. If I force my way in, the firewall will do a self-destruct sequence and will destroy the files and everything in it. If we want to know what Faust knew and what he’s been doing here, we need him alive to show it to us.]

Rex’s eyes went wide and he opened his hand to let Faust fall to the floor with a heavy thud.

He coughed and chased his breath, cold sweat fill his head and back as he looked at Rex in horror.

Looking at the room and the cylindrical tube, then thinking about the words Faust said presenting his work to him, there was no need to think twice and ponder deeper as to what his goal was.

In fact, Rex felt disgust right at this moment. Was he a stupid kid to Faust to not know the reason as to why he focused his work and words on Ellie, to his mother?

Rex felt disgusted at Faust right now.

He was his uncle! His father, Neth, trusted Faust with his back… with his life!

HE trusted Faust as his second parent!

And he… he betrayed that trust to chase his lust for his mother..... it was unthinkably intolerable. He will not let his mother’s honor be hounded by this traitor who could turn his back on his own people.

“I will never allow you to blaspheme my mother’s honor and name! You’re lucky I didn’t kill you.”

Rex hissed the words as he gritted his teeth and his fists.

“Get out of my house.” He said coldly. “Don’t ever come back here ever again. Don’t ever show your face in front of me again. The next time I see you, I will kill you myself.”

Faust seemed to have been poured cold water as he looked up at Rex in horror.

“No! My work here isn’t done!” he stubbornly stood but there was a rare resolve on his expression. “I already lost Ellie… I will never lose her again.”

Rex really wanted to kill him right now but then he recalled Cortana’s words earlier.

He looked around and saw the fingerprint scanner and the other tools in the room and pulled Faust on it. With Cortana’s control and his strength, the man wasn’t able to fight back at all and his imprints were all scanned and stored.

“Now you’re useless to me alive.”

Bust just as he was about to finished him—

[Oh no. Boss, we have an issue.]

‘What?’ Rex was alarmed.

A video was then played for him. It was a message.

It was AG speaking.

.

.

================================

AG’s grasp on Faust was solid…

================================

.

.

.

.

.