Lying in bed, Paxton was reading a book to pass the time. There were bandages wrapped tightly around his chest to stop the flow of blood, not that he cared. He had long since healed his body, which had taken more damage than he had ever healed before. One of his ribs was broken and his right lung was collapsed, but the stupid doctors of this time didn't even remove the schrapnel. It was a good thing that he was able to heal his own wounds, or else he might be crippled for life.

He had already spent a week in bed after having passed out for a day. He was catching up on studying, learning what this world was and how it had come to be. The ancient history was fascinating, with multiple eras and legends before truly accurate records were being kept. It was all very absorbing, something that Paxton hadn't been able to indulge in during his past life's escapades. Crystal was suspisciously quiet during these times, not that he was complaining.

Everyone was strangely distant, something that Paxton half-expected due to the revelation of his magic. Even his mother, who had remained by his side while he was comotose, was avoiding the confrontation.

Crystal said that having two types of magic was impossible for any living creature, but it was true that Paxton somehow had two magic systems.

Black magic, shadow magic, or whatever it would turn out to be called did have very powerful abilities. Crystal explained that black magic had a million devious uses that gave it's users a bad reputation. He had been experimenting with it and realized how stupidly overpowered black magic was. Turning into shadows, teleportation, generating an infinitely sharp blade; black magic was a killer's best friend. Even something like raising the dead was a special class of black magic, as unnatural as it was.

Paxton had been thinking through these phenomenons, which was why he was so distracted ever since Crystal had inhabited his body. Now that he had plenty of time to himself, Paxton was able to catch up on his reading. Using the time to it's fullest, he was sitting next to two tall stacks of books; one for reading and one already read.

Hearing the door creak open, Paxton looked up from his book to see Goddard standing in the doorway. The eight year old's face was like stone, staring hard at the creature wrapped in bandages with a book in his hand.

"What's on your mind?" Paxton asked kindly. "Here to apologize?"

"Who are you?" Goddard demanded, almost as if he was barking orders.

"I'm Paxton Byron, hier of Lord Byron, and brother of Goddard Byron," Paxton stated certainly.

"Who are you really?" Goddard clarified, clearly in no mood for Paxton's light tone.

"That's a different answer entirely," Paxton answered honestly. "What about you? Who are you?"

"I'm me," Goddard answered with a hard edge to his voice. "I've always been me, nobody else."

"Great," Paxton mocked happily, "then how about we make a deal? When you tell me who you really are, I'll tell you who I really am. Sound good?"

"Don't give me that horse shit! Just tell me that you remember the future, don't be so condescending about it!"

"What are you talking about?"

"THE WAR, Paxton! The invasion of demons, the one that almost wipes out the entire continent! Stop pretending you don't know about it! There's no way you can do all these things if you didn't come back like I did!"

Paxton stared at his brother, hearing his words but failing to comprehend what they actaully meant. He had mentioned remembering, but these things about a demon invasion didn't make any sense.

"COME ON! We were a part of Sin Squad, we took down the Demon Knights! You were the greatest white mage in the world! You had the power to heal an entire army. How do you not remember?!"

Paxton was quiet as he looked at his raging brother, clearly overcome by some very pent up emotions. He couldn't quite understand what Goddard was talking about, but Paxton could feel the hatred aimed at him.

The room became very quiet, silence thick enough to eat. Paxton looked at his brother with bewildered eyes, a stare that Goddard returned with ire.

As they waited for something to happen, Goddard exhaled heavily and broke the silence. This time, it wasn't hatred or anger, but disappointment. To know that someone is keeping your secret, it's like looking at them through impenetrable glass.

Despite watching them for years, you will never know who they really are.

Goddard turned to leave, but he felt a hand on his shoulder. Paxton was behind him, with a very grim expression of his own. It was bewildering to think that he had crossed the room in complete silence within a single second.

"What I'm about to tell you is going to sound like utter lunacy," Paxton forewarned, "but I swear on the life of our family, it is the truth."

Goddard started to smile, brighter than ever that his brother shared his same horrible memories. He would finally have someone to talk to!

"I don't remember the circumstances of my birth," Paxton began, "but I knew from a young age that my parents had given me away...."

Goddard's glee faded as he listened to a horrible, twisted tale about a sad and lonely child tortured for the sake of power. Paxton told the story of Peter Norman, a man robbed of all humanity for the sake of power. When Peter found his family, he was happier than he had ever been, but life wasn't fair for Peter. On the run, he was forced to train his surviving family in the ways of assassination for them to live.

Paxton told Goddard everything, he laid bare the senseless killings, the righteous justice, and the wholesale slaughter committed by Peter Norman. He told Goddard about assassination, about how easy it was to kill another human being. He tried to justify his action, but even Paxton knew that there was no redemption for a killer as heartless as he was.

Every day was drenched in death, from the debonaire to the duebauchery.

Paxton explained how he had made it into old age, miraculously. Peter was fully prepared to die, to be sent to hell or wherever he might appear.

In the final moments, Peter stopped breathing, and he held his breath for what felt like an eternity. The next eternity, he started to breathe again, held by their mother with their father right behind her.

"I know it sounds crazy," Paxton said with a meloncholy grin, "but I was reincarnated as Paxton Byron. I have the memories of a legendary assassin from another world, but I've been here since birth. I'm your brother, Goddard, I always HAVE been and I always WILL be."

Goddard had to think, he had to compute everything that he had just heard. As much as he didn't want to believe it, Paxton's story made more sense than anything. Paxton had the same mind as Peter, they would have caught it a long time ago.

But this....

It was crazy.

So crazy, it was the only other answer that Goddard could have accepted.

But that left Goddard with one very important question.

Was the Paxton in front of him the same Paxton from his memories?

"I want to ask you a question," Goddard said, locking eyes with his brother. "What would you do if someone killed mom?"

"I would kill them," Paxton said, "and everyone involved. I would do thing that will make it hard to look at myself in the mirror, but by god, I would enjoy it in the moment."

"Wow, so that really was you?" Goddard asked, smiling a little bit.

"What was me?"

"Paxton, let me tell you something," Goddard began his side of the story. He explained the future, what was going to happen, how it was going to happen. Goddard told his brother about his raunchy escapades, how he fell in love with a princess, and what happened on his fifteenth birthday.

Wild animals had killed their mother, much the same way that their aunt was killed. Paxton grieved somewhere alone, but Goddard caught up with him in one city where they had an altercation. Paxton admitted that he knew something was wrong, their mother was murdered and he was tracking down the guys who did it. They swapped information, then they left each other to go their seperate ways.

A week later, Goddard heard about how a central fiefdom adjacent to the Byron fief had been decimated completely. Their cattle had been stolen, the villages had been burned to the ground, and the lord had been beaten and strung up with thousands of parchments detailing his shady business dealings.

The kingdom called for blood, and the corrupt thief was executed a few weeks later. That's also where Goddard ran into Paxton, who was watching the execution. When asked whether he had a hand in it, Paxton only chuckled and watched as the traitor was beheaded.

"I thought it might be you," Goddard laughed, "but you were so lovey-dovey with your girlfriends, I couldn't picture it!"

"Girlfriends?!" Paxton exclaimed, "I actually had more than one girlfriend?"

"At a time, or just in general?" Goddard asked provocatively. "You were a famous lust machine when we were going through magic school."

"I can't beleive it," Paxton said, a smile spreading across his lips. "I can't wait until puberty! But, how do you know all of this?"

Goddard started his own story, the one that began with what happened when he turns ten. He told Paxton about the amazing magic school, their domination in the tournament, and then their graduation at the top of their classes. Goddard explained how the two top positions earned them the spots of general and Royal Guardsmen. Goddard moved troops around and Paxton stood by a princess and listened to her problems. Eventually, the two brothers started to get into the political stage, finding themselves pushed to move at the behest of government officials.

Then, a portal opened in the western mountains of the continent. Demons poured onto the realm of man with excrutiating circumstance. They dragged everybody away, adding to their legions through sheer power. Every one that was dragged away become a member of the demon legions, which were headed up by the four Demon Knights. Goddard went into explicit, gory detail about the ending of the world.

Paxton listened, his smile and cheerful disposition wilting away at the story of the future. Paxton absorbed the information soundly, listening as everybody they once knew was killed or turned evil. Then came the part about the Sin Squad, and Paxton chuckled a little at how he was Lust. The story reached it's climax at the battle with the Demon Knights, and then there was an eerie stillness in the room.

"Well," Paxton said, "what do you think about that, Crystal?"

'It certainly seems like something the demons would do,' Crystal mused. 'They are all very prideful. Though, they are not stupid. They wouldn't attack the human world if there wasn't a legitimate reason.'

"Who?" Goddard questioned, not being privy to Crystal's voice.

"Say 'hi', Crystal," Paxton told her.

'Hello,' Crystal greeted, her voice transmitting into Goddard's head.

"Woah!" Goddard shouted, looking around wildly, "Who said that?"

'I am Crystal, a dragon that was saved by your brother. I was trapped in my own sorrow beneath the mountain, but your brother gave me the power to choose a life once again. I'm currently in the process of turning him into a dragon, hoping that he might be the saviour of my kind.'

Goddard stared bewildered at Paxton, who rolled his eyes.

"Hey, if I wasn't growing horns during your lifetime, I'm not going to be doing it here," Paxton stated easily.

'Aye, but the world has already been changed,' Crystal remarked. 'Ever since you arrived in your young body, things have begun to subtly change. Am I right?'

"That's... correct," Goddard admitted, sharing an uneasy look with Paxton.

'Then you have already shifted the events of the world. I would guess that your brother's black magic was not discovered in the past world, meaning that he might not have discovered it either. Know this, the world from now on is not the one that you know, Goddard Byron. Things may be the same, but everything has already changed.'