Hard love

—I said that, but, please can someone help me? I'm bleeding.

That said Pow was the first to react and helped me sit on the couch, followed by Vander who still and angry wasn't going to let me out of this world easily, he quickly made a tourniquet on my leg before grabbing a bottle of alcohol and pouring it on the wound without care and fuck how it hurts!

—Fuck! Dad! Be careful!

He brutally ignored me and washed Powder's hands with alcohol before telling her.

—Daughter your hands are small and it's the best we have right now to get the bullet out of your retarded brother's leg, don't be nervous, I know you can do it.

She just made a face of concentration before wiping her slightly moist eyes determined to do her best but I didn't agree.

—Shit, you're not serious, are you, Dad?

With deaf ears, the others helped to restrain me as I had become restless, finally, Vi gave me a piece of cloth to bite into so as not to bite my tongue off, I was mentally preparing myself but without warning Pow began to poke inside my limb and I honestly don't know what hurt more the alcohol in Powder's hands making my wound burn or her sticking her hand inside me, the fact is that I was screaming and although these screams were muffled by the piece of cloth in my mouth they were still echoing in the room and probably outside the room as well, when finally her hand came out of my leg she was holding an inch long bullet, I couldn't see it much as quickly my other wound was being attended to I had to endure that process two more times for the simple fact that the damn bullet broke, at that point, I couldn't even scream anymore just hold on until it was all over.

When Powder finished, Vander with amazing precision for someone with such big hands, stitched my wounds and then bandaged them, and last but not least gave me a tremendous slap in the face just when he was done and said.

—What the fuck were you thinking about?! I told you not to do anything like this!

—Calm down father, no one saw me let alone found out I'm from Zaun there is no evidence linking me to the robbery except of course the loot.

—That's not the problem Deyn!

—So what's the problem then?!

Already frustrated I shouted too.

—Everybody out...

He said in a pretty normal voice as if he realized what he had to do to fix everything, just with his order everyone left, before leaving Powder looked at me, I guess she feels guilty for telling Vander what I was doing later I will talk to her.

Now that the two of us were alone, I looked at Vander intently.

—Dyn they trust you and I know you trust them if you tell them to swim they swim, if you tell them to run they run and you tell them it's time to set something on fire they ask how much oil you need...you shine too bright Dyn you are special and not everyone can follow you and if you are not careful they will die under your care, is that what you want? Lose Claggor or Mylo? Maybe Vi? Powder...?

—I understand, but you know what I want for Zaun, for my family, for you... I want us to be able to live like kings without worrying about the next meal is that a sin?

—I've told you before Dyn, it's not the time yet while it comes make yourself strong, organize a group, I don't know Dyn but you must be in Zaun's shadow it's too early for you to shine at your best make sure that when you do you don't fail....at least not like me...

*******************

Well that was much better than I expected, one possibility would have been that he would have kicked me out of here so within the bad it is not so bad, but in something he is right, what good is it to reach the top of the world if you are alone and you have lost everything you love along the way... And if I fail I will go to the realm of the dead to look for them if it's necessary.

Well, for now, it's time to investigate and finish setting up the workshops so I went to find Powder to take her with me since, in the end, it was also her workshop.

I went looking for her in many places I wasn't going very fast since I was hurt but I did what I could, in the end, I decided to look in our room since the three of us share a room, Vi, Powder, and I the two of them were supposedly in a bunk bed and I was in a single bed, but the reality was that quite often Powder slept with me, then when I got to the room I could hear light sobbing coming from Pow's bed which was the bottom bunk I approached and what I saw broke my heart, Pow was sitting on her bed in a ball, She was crying so hard, her tears were thick and her little face had an immutable sad grimace, she was so choked in her crying that she didn't even notice my presence when I sat next to her, she only paid attention to me when I put my hand on her head and caressed her softly, she raised her head and looked at me surprised, then I said to her.

—What's wrong Pow, why do you look so surprised?

—Because I betrayed you!

She said in a scream and instantly cried again and put her head between her knees right in the same position in which I had found her.

—Powder, since when is telling our family betraying me? If I didn't want anyone to find out I would have told you, besides here between you and me, the only person I trust to tell my secrets is you because we know how Vi can be with things she doesn't understand or dislike and I don't even want to start talking about Vander.

I said to finish by making a gesture in my head implying that I was a little silly, at least Powder laughed and was no longer crying so much, there were only a few snorts left.

—I like you better that way Pow, happy after all you are my favorite person.

—You're my favorite person to Dyn!

—Now let's go to our workshop, you'll love what I've brought.

*************************

We quickly went to our base with all the loot I gathered and started tidying up, well mostly Powder, he said something like "you've done enough, let me help" so I let her do whatever she wants plus I'm hurt so we both win.

Our lab hasn't turned out bad at all it's pretty complete, maybe too full of equipment but still, we have enough space to work so it's perfect and in case we need renovations there's plenty of room, on the other hand, the seeds I stole from the director's office, that will give the plants that will be used for the forced evolution serum, the notes say that they will be completely black and since they don't even have a name, for now, I will baptize them as "Dracneas" the good thing is that they only need a humid and dark environment to germinate and grow healthy so I planted them in the darkest corner I found inside the laboratory and I conditioned it the best I could for optimal growth.

I haven't told Powder about the formula experiment or what I plan to do with it, I want to do more research before she knows about it, or failing that if it has too many risks I will let him know when it is too late to stop me.

I also ordered all the books I got in a small library, by the way, I made an inventory of all the books I got, I showed Pow the ones she was interested in such as engineering, physics, and mechanics, I instead kept the ones on chemistry, metallurgy, blacksmithing, and botany, of course, there were more and when we have finished them we will exchange them.