Jeanna smiled and waved at Jon as he left the house. The door slammed behind him and she heard unhurried footsteps on the other side, lazily sauntering as if he did not care whatsoever about punctuality.

As soon as she confirmed that Jon would not be returning, her demeanor changed.

The smile from earlier faded completely. There were no traces of warmth left on her face. There was only a robotic indifference, and her eyes seemed nearly iced over. This was the unseen personality that unnerved Jon; the side she would never show him. And for good reason. If you were to see a completely different side of someone you thought you knew well, it would undoubtedly be jarring. If someone asked if this were her true nature, the answer wouldn't be a straight yes or no. Both sides of her could be considered her "true" nature. Like a coin, both sides of her existed simultaneously.

The affection she showed Jon was genuine...

*This "friend" he's talking about... I'll have to make sure it's not harmful.*

... as was the ice cold protection she vowed to offer.

Surprisingly, Jeanna was legitimately unnerved by Jon's recent improvements - they went way beyond her predictions.

*All of his skills have made rapid improvement. Hand-eye coordination, logic, planning, awareness, and many other facets... Is this "friend" really responsible for all of this?*

If this was true, the "friend" was an insanely capable individual. In other words, a huge potential threat. However, if this person was one of Jon's only true friends, Jeanna couldn't do much about it. Though she was always considering exterminating potential threats to Jon, she wasn't cruel enough to actually do it this time.

*But who on Earth could threaten our family? It's highly unlikely for such a capable individual to even be a high schooler. Unless...*

A stray thought entered her mind. It was not a likely possibility, but once it entered her head, she couldn't shake it away.

*9X... But that should be impossible.*

If it was truly 9X, Jeanna had a good idea of who this "friend" character was. She had known him for a long time.

Jeanna buried her head in her hands as she attempted to forge a positive outcome for this event.

"It's not too late... we can turn this into a new opportunity and still win."

If the friend was truly 9X, the only option Jeanna would have would be to play the "keep your enemies closer" card. And if that were to be the case, this turn of events was mostly a positive for her.

*I wonder what that family is truly planning...*

It made less sense the more she tried to think about it. Perhaps, it was a clue her cold-hearted personality couldn't crack.

"Oh well..."

As she mulled over the topic a little while longer, she decided to take a quick stroll around the house. Or rather, she had a very specific destination in mind. The hallway leading to Jon's room. Each of her footsteps on the hardwood floor, though not loud, seemed to reverberate endlessly against the walls in the quiet and lonesome house. If someone were here to witness this, they would feel an unnecessary rising tension as she proceeded closer to the entrance of the hallway.

"That Jon... he's never usually clumsy at all. I guess I really must have freaked him out yesterday. And the majority of his life, apparently."

With a wistful sigh, she continued her march; the floor transitioned from hardwood to carpet, and the lighting dimmed slightly.

"It's been a while since I've been here, looks like Dad renovated it a little? Oh, these pictures..."

Of course, the first thing she noticed when she entered the hallway was the empty slot to her right, as well as the backside of a canvas on the ground. However, she grew nostalgic once she saw the three other photographs, especially the one with all of the siblings together.

"Jeanne, Jonah... You guys are doing great out there. In these times, we need you to protect it better than ever. Now, I wonder what this last one is..."

She began to slowly lift the bulky frame from two of its corners. As soon as she was able to catch a glimpse of the painting, she immediately recognized it. She uncharacteristically paused for a long time, still holding the frame at an odd angle off the ground. Her previously indifferent expression warped into something impossibly cold. If Jon were to witness this sight, the wounds from his trauma would open, never to heal again. She gritted her teeth - Jeanna's eyes went wide and narrowed again. The entire atmosphere around her seemed to drop a few degrees. In fact, it literally did drop a few degrees. The thermostat went into overdrive as the heating for the house kicked in.

"... I was trying to forget about this, but it's almost time, isn't it?"

That's right. Today was the day. She had to prepare.

Jeanna let go of the corners of the frame, allowing the painting to fall back to the ground in the position it had been in earlier. As the painting remained face down on the carpet, she brusquely trudged out of the hallway, not looking back.

As Jon astutely knew, the subject of this painting was indeed a fictional work. Two oblong semi-ellipses of different heights crafted of an unknown material sat a few centimeters apart from each other. Right down the middle of the two, there was a circular carving, a semi-circle on each of the stones. A sphere of varying colors floated perfectly in the middle of the carving. A collimated beam of teal-colored light shot up into the sky from this sphere, electrifying the atmosphere around the whole structure.

The engraved plaque on the bottom of the frame which Jeanna had lifted read the name and artist of the work - "Monolith; Jeanne Xu".