The Earth After Rebirth

"It\'s okay Raul, no need to blame yourself." Kiro said while propping himself up on the seat. He looked over at Felix and he was sleeping soundly.

Kiro had always assumed Felix never slept. The dark lines that were always under his eyes made him think so, now he just thought he had some kind of condition.

"But Sir, if things had gone awry..."

"They didn\'t though, stop being such a worrywart. My body aches a lot though." He complained. He shook his head before Raul could suggest the hospital.

His mind quickly wandered to the Sanctum, area 51 and his grandfather. For some strange reason, Phinix had lit a flame of hope within him. He couldn\'t help but want to believe that his grandfather was being kept somewhere, in this area 51. Now all they needed to do was find out where exactly that is.

Which proved more difficult the more he thought about it. He knew the map of their world by heart, and he couldn\'t see, notice any unoccupied lands that could be the 51st area.

Anything beyond there were mines, and very poisonous air for them to breathe. They weren\'t allowed to go further than that line, as it was not inhabitable.

He thought his head would crack into two, thinking of places they could hide a whole area from the public. An area that had its own population of kidnapped individuals. He couldn\'t wait to tell Hiro the good news, his father was likely also there.

It may not have been the final answer but it was something, it was hope and that\'s something his best friend could use right now.

"Sir, did you..."

"Kill that guy? Totally self defence." Kiro answered nonchalantly.

Raul didn\'t know what to make of this. Kiro didn\'t seem like a scared sh*tless kid who had just killed someone. He seemed way too relaxed, his eyes were unwavering.

"I could take the blame for you if you\'d like."

"It was self defence, there\'s no case here. Besides a very bad man died by my hands, I have no reason to feel guilty." He shrugged.

"He\'s right, they were going to kill us first if we didn\'t." Felix chimed in waking up from his slumber, he yawned, stretching his limbs.

Raul nodded, convinced at their answers. He realised he was questioning him because he felt guilty about abandoning him. He swore to be better next time, he also wanted to take fighting lessons.

He figured he could be a driver and a bodyguard. He didn\'t mind expanding his resume.

"I thought we\'d arrive before I even woke up." Felix mumbled.

"Why? Don\'t want to be stuck in a car with me?" Kiro rolled his eyes.

"I mean, it\'s not that, I\'m not really talkative and people make me uncomfortable for that."

"Oh." Kiro didn\'t know what else to say.

"What are we gonna do? Regarding that thing?" Everything was starting to come back to him, the things that stupid man confessed, they were deeper than he thought his world was.

"We will discuss it, at that place." Kiro told him curtly.

Felix understood to drop it. Raul had grabbed them something to eat while they slept, so he gave them some food.

They were both very hungry and grateful. They devoured their dinner and wished he had bought them more food.

There was something about being tortured that made them extremely famished. Kiro couldn\'t wait to get home, he was sure they had cooked.

"Could I sleep at your house tonight?" Felix blurted out. He wasn\'t the type to ask things like that, so Kiro didn\'t bother to question him. He simply just nodded allowing him to.

He could guess more or less why he didn\'t want to go home and he wouldn\'t probe him until he himself said something about it. They finally pulled up their street, and the street was littered with people. This was certainly a peculiar sight.

"There they come!" Voices of unknown people shouted as they were swarmed by a small crowd.

Getting out, he realised it just his family, Hiro\'s family, Isla\'s family... Kiro had already concluded they must know what happened.

"They know." He whispered with the corner of his mouth to Felix.

He was shocked to see even his father amongst the people who were coming up to him. He must\'ve really worried them if he made him fly over here again before Christmas.

He expected to be questioned and put on the spot about the events. But when his parents reached him, they looked for wounds all over his body, ensuring their son was fine before they embraced him.

"Don\'t worry us like that again!" Freya cried.

When she was sure Kiro was fine, she moved on to Felix, checking if he was okay. Felix was uncomfortable with the whole thing, he was stiff and didn\'t know how to react. But he didn\'t hate having someone fuss over him like this.

They were both glad there wasn\'t media around. Area 1 was great like that, none of them could enter without permission.

Kiro knew he\'d have to tell them something even if they don\'t ask. He didn\'t know how much to tell them exactly.

"What exactly did they want?" Jesús asked.

They were all standing in a circle-like manner, in front of the Waynworth estate. Nobody wanted to really ask them, so Jesús took the bullet for them.

"They questioned us, wondering what we knew about the Sanctum." Kiro said, not taking his eyes off Jesús, he was searching for something, anything that told him he was guilty.

He couldn\'t trust anybody rich, even if it meant they were the father of the woman he liked. He had to expose the society nonetheless.

"The Sanctum? What the hell is that?" Sekani asked.

Kiro didn\'t immediately answer, as he was still having a stare down contest with his possible father-in-law.

"Beats me dad, that\'s why they tortured us because we didn\'t know but they didn\'t believe that." Kiro shrugged finally letting up.

They told the modified version of their truth. They were so much in sync that it surprised even both of them, they didn\'t even discuss the story before hand but they were able to discern what to tell and what to leave out without communicating at all.

Hiro wished he was there with them. It was scary but it was also kind of exciting in his eyes. He didn\'t know how he\'d fair against them but he was convinced to start learning how to fight.

Even Kiro had an ironclad resolve to learn more about fighting. They had a long and perilous road ahead of them. If they wanted to defeat the people who thought their world was a playground, they needed strength. He saw himself wishing he could be his avatar in real life.

That would make everything easier for him. He shook his head to get rid of the dream that threatened to consume his thoughts completely.

They were sitting at the kerb while the adults talked about this incident and how to better avoid such situations in future. Isla softly caressed Kiro\'s palm, it was surprisingly calming for him.

"Was it scary? Doing all that?" Isla asked, vaguely.

"Of course it was, but you have to realise, they were bad men. If we didn\'t fatally attack first, they would\'ve ended us." Kiro reassured her.

He didn\'t want her to think he was some kind of monster. He only punished the bad after all, couldn\'t be that bad right?

Isla wanted to cry thinking about it. Tonight could\'ve been the day she lost Kiro. Waiting for her dad to approve him was something she no longer had the patience for. Kiro could tell how uneasey she felt.

He didn\'t know what to do, or how to comfort her. So he started gently combing her hair with his fingers. Hopefully it could tell her everything was okay now.

"We don\'t have to wait." She whispered to him.

She was resting her head on his thigh. Not even looking at his face.

"We can." Kiro whispered back in her ear which startled her a bit.

He continued, "I know what just happened was scary, it made you question a lot of things but I\'m not gonna die."

"You can\'t promise me that..." She trailed off.

Kiro thought about it and he really couldn\'t promise her that he wouldn\'t die. He\'d died once after all. He thought for a moment.

"Then how about this, before we go back to school, I\'ll talk to your dad, how\'s that for a compromise?"

That made her turn her head towards him. Their foreheads met, she held onto his neck with a really beautiful smile.

"Really?"

"Really." He reassured her.

\'you\'re so damn beautiful.\'

The others were looking at the spectacle with a tinge of disgust.

"Okay lovebirds, we\'re still here." Hiro commented.

"I don\'t want to hear that from you." Kiro shot back. He was dating Saanvi and didn\'t even tell him.

"How did the media even get ahold of our names?" Felix asked, more to himself.

"My guess? The person who hired them leaked our names, to cause panic within our families and it worked." He said looking intently at his father.

His brain started to put things together. \'What if we weren\'t exactly the target, what if we were the distraction?\'

He looked around slowly zooming in each and every person who was on their street. Nobody seemed out of place, nobody seemed to be snooping.

\'Okay, don\'t be so paranoid champ.\' He consoled himself.