chapter 9 : Sadness and regret

Deborah was working late at her computer when she had a bad feeling that caused her to drop the coffee cup she was holding with her left hand.

Her throat became dry and she felt a pinching in her abdomen.

 Slightly out of breath, she went to lie down for a while believing that she was feeling temporarily unwell or that it was from overwork when after a few minutes, her landline phone rang.

 She ignored the calls to the landline thinking that it was certainly nothing important because she was tired but her cell phone rang afterwards and she finally answered, it was Cecil.

 He wanted to know if Nolan was at home so they could both come to the GDA urgently because there were things he needed to tell them about their two sons but he wasn't going to be able to tell them on the phone out of consideration for them.

 When she understood this, Debbie felt immense stress rising within her and she told him that Nolan was not there so he warned her that agents would come to pick her up to escort her to her sons.

 She didn't wait long before a bright space door opened and two agents in black suits came out, one of whom was Donald, Cecil's assistant who greeted the woman with respect before asking to follow them, which she did with haste and worry.

 After passing through the luminous door, Deborah immediately found herself in the GDA premises where Cecil himself welcomed her with a certain stress in his expression, as if he had something very delicate to announce, which made Debbie's worry increase.

 Deborah : Cecil, I'm here. What's going on ?! Where are my sons?!

 Cecil: Debbie, I'm so sorry. Mark and Lucas faced we don't know what but he was strong enough to put their lives in great danger.

 Deborah : WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN CECIL ?!!

 Cecil: Mark is seriously injured but his life isn't in danger, he is currently in a deep restorative sleep. As for Lucas…I…I'm sorry Deborah .

 "No…you can't tell me that…Cecil…you can't…! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TELL ME THAT!!" she jumped on him with the agility of a cheetah to grab him and when officers tried to intervene he signaled them to stop.

 Cecil: Debbie, when we found Lucas his heart was already no longer beating and we rushed him here where we spent over an hour trying to resuscitate him in every way known but it was already too late .

 "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING FROM YOU, TAKE ME NEAR MY CHILDREN" she yelled at him as tears flowed profusely from her eyes while clutching the government money jacket so hard that it tore .

 With much desolation for her, he first took her to see Mark who was sound asleep and Deborah 's heart ached seeing the state of her son.

 She hurriedly walked over to him to check that he was breathing and when she got confirmation of his stable condition, she immediately asked to be taken to Lucas.

 Cecil guided her to a room where Lucas' body was covered by a white sheet. Deborah's legs gave out as they suddenly no longer had the strength to carry her due to her pain.

 The woman began to cry as Cecil helped her up. She walked over to the corpse, removed the sheet and saw the bruised body of her boy.

 The deep cuts across his face and much of the rest of his body but most of all, she saw the hollow in his chest.

 Not even having the strength to cry normally anymore, she stood there on the ground clutching her stomach which hurt strangely, as if she was feeling the pains of her last pregnancy again.

 Her child, her baby, the last born in her womb died and his corpse showed severe marks of mutilation.

 Cecil: I am truly sorry Debbie, from the bottom of my heart.

 " DARLING… "

 While the inconsolable woman wanted to respond angrily to Cecil, she heard Nolan call her as he entered the room and black anger began to rise within her.

Nolan approached and saw Lucas' body, a deep sorrow was drawn on his face because in truth, even if Lucas' death pained him, it was still going to serve his interests.

 *Slap*

 Deborah immediately slapped him while looking at him with tearful eyes. " Where were you ? Where were you when they faced this danger? Where were you when my child took his last breath? NOLAN WHERE WERE YOU?!" she asked while crying.

 "A Meteor…I had to deviate the trajectory of an approaching meteor ! I couldn't know my love...I couldn't know. The whole world was in great danger," he said, shedding a few tears as he took his wife in his arms.

 Cecil, upon hearing this, immediately frowned because no meteorites had been reported approaching but preferred not to say anything.

 Cecil: Nolan, Debbie know that-(interrupted)

 Deborah : This is all your fault Cecil, I knew Lucas should never have gotten into all this with his health and working with you.

 Cecil: So he didn't tell you anything?!

 Nolan: Tell us what? SPEAK !

 Cecil: Lucas hasn't worked with the agency for a while due to an incident with Dark Blood, He was sometimes doing us a favor but that was it. 

Apparently it was the little girl who told us what happened there since she called him urgently to help Mark against his opponent.

 Nolan: The little girl ?! Who ?

 Deborah : Don't tell me…SAEKO!! Was she there too?! Where is she ? She's fine ? I want to see her.

 Cecil: Calm down Debra, the kid is fine. She has a few injuries but she came out better than the others. She is in another room recovering but has withdrawn into herself after briefly recounting what happened. She doesn't want to talk to anyone but maybe you could...

 Nolan: What was that little girl doing there?!

 Deborah : Lucas told me that Saeko had superhuman powers and that she wanted to start a heroic career. He helped her at night and Mark also tried to accompany her.

 Nolan: According to Mark this story seemed to be trivial...if only I had known...

 Deborah : Please give me a few moments with my son. I'll go see Saeko right after.

 Nolan: Honey, can I-(interrupted)

 Deborah : You weren't there when he was in almost the same state on his crib. I have always been alone near my son when death each time wanted to claim him and not you. LEAVE ME ALONE WITH MY SON NOLAN, YOU NOW HAVE WHAT YOU HAVE WISHED FOR HIM SINCE HIS BIRTH. 

 Cecil was shocked by Deborah's words and Nolan frowned before lowering his head and walking out accompanied by Cecil.

 Debbie leaned over Lucas' body and began to cry uncontrollably again, the distress in her cries was such that a severe atmosphere of sadness invaded this place.

 Of all the men in her life, it was her son Lucas who showed her the most affection and attention.

Images of him smiling despite his weak state and her memories with him came flooding back.

 The woman felt like someone had crushed her insides and experienced horrible nausea as she mourned her deceased child.

 It was only a little later that she walked out of the room with a weakened and blank expression. Cecil then led him to the room where Saeko was.

 When they entered the room, they found the little girl curled up on the floor as her face was covered in tears and snot.

 Deborah : Saeko darling, it's me...it's your mom.

 Saeko listening to Debbie's voice opened her eyes to start crying looking at her. "It's because of me…I'm the one who called him there to help big brother Mark. I killed Lucas onii-san...it's my fault, he saved me and I killed him." she declared while crying with guilt.

 Debbie immediately took her in her arms to console her and tell her that it wasn't her fault because if she hadn't called him it was Mark who might have died and that he died to save them both because his family was in danger.

 Saeko cried even harder and Deborah , already exhausted with sadness, started shedding tears again.

 A little over 24 hours later, Mark weakly opened his eyes to find that he was alone lying on a bed in a treatment room. His body hurt like hell because even though he had started to heal, Battle Beast's blows were no joke and had seriously damaged his body.

 After a few seconds of looking around, he understood why he was there and the last events he remembered, immediately, his eyes became moist as he remembered seeing his brother fall in front of his opponent.

 "Lucas…! There is someone ?! Where is…my brother?!" Mark tried to speak but with great difficulty due to his sore jaw.

 He was tired, so tired that he couldn't move or even concentrate hard enough to float in the air. He could only stand there in silence, stress and worry when the door opened for Deborah to walk in with Saeko behind her.

 Mark: Mom...

 "Mark, it's such a relief to see you awake. We were very worried about you!" Debbie said moving closer as she tried to hide her sadness.

 Mark: Mom, where is Lucas?

 Deborah : Your little brother left us Mark. He had a seizure when he came to help you in addition to the extremely serious injury he had to his chest, not to mention his great loss of blood .

 Mark shook for a moment before calmly lowering his eyes from which tears began to flow.

 "I should have left and not him, Lucas was better…better than me. If I wasn't so weak then he would never have had to face this monster alone with his health. It's all my fault, mom." he started to cry and Debra came to console him. Nolan came afterwards to see his son and try to talk with him.

 Mark had later asked to be left alone, he badly needed it to realize everything that had just happened and release all his pain, his guilt and his regrets over the disappearance of his younger brother, he had again and again images of him falling weakly to the ground as the life left him.

 As his fatigue overcame his tears, he tried to look on his smartphone for which he saw several messages and calls from Eve who apparently was worried.

 He sent her a message saying that they would talk about something important later and that he needed to be isolated for a while.

 Four days later at high school, there was a poster with Lucas' photo which shocked all the students who knew him from afar and up close.

 The poster stated basically that the student "Lucas Grayson" died in an accident in which he and his brother were victims. Luckily, Mark was only injured, but Lucas was unable to survive his injuries due to his fragile health.

 Many were saddened by the news because Lucas, unbeknownst to him, had excellent popularity at school because even if he was quite distant, he was someone who liked to help others, especially those who were bullied by beatings their persecutors.

 In addition, he was one of the most intelligent students and with excellent grades in sports disciplines.

 Most students came to lay flowers in front of this poster, several girls and teachers were saddened by the news and even Principal Winslow came to regret this student in front of his photo on display.

 Amber had just arrived at school with music in her ears to relax because she was nervous and quite upset because Lucas had not responded to her calls or messages for the last five days and even her brother Mark n had not been seen in class.

 She saw Eve who had also just arrived with stress on her face as well. Mark hadn't said anything to him since his last message four days ago and that really worried him.

 They tried to chat for a bit before seeing a gathering of people in front of a sign near the parking lot where they saw flowers on the ground.

 It was a sign of homage to a deceased member of the high school and the stress overwhelmed the girls who accelerated their pace.

 When they arrived in front of the poster after weaving through the crowd, they felt like they were struck by lightning.

 "It's not possible…no!! This can't be possible...not him, not Lucas! » Amber said as the notebooks in her hands fell.

 She looked at Lucas' smiling face in the photo, he had a peaceful smile that was extremely rare to see on his face. An immense cold came over her and she began to cry with her hand over her mouth as she found it increasingly difficult to breathe.

 Eve felt slightly dizzy and felt like the floor was foam for a split second. Her heart felt like it wanted to come out of her chest, she was in a relationship with Mark and loved him a lot but the one she would have wanted to be interested in her died and his photo was right in front of her.

 She quickly left there for the girls' bathroom where she vomited before crying and understood why Mark hadn't contacted her yet, he was certainly grieving.

 The two girls did not attend classes for the day and went to the Grayson home where they were greeted by Deborah who knew them and knew why they were there because she was the one who passed on the news to the school as well as Lucas' photo. Debra knew Eve was Mark's girlfriend and told him she could find him in her room upstairs.

 As for Amber, Deborah had seen her several times at Lucas's home, He had already introduced Amber to his mother .

Amber saw Saeko and hugged her as tears simply fell from their eyes.

 Debbie served them tea and they started talking about what happened to Lucas but Amber didn't want to be lied to.

 Amber: Ms. Grayson, I knew Lucas' secret identity and somewhere I'm sure he knew about the fact that I knew he was FEAR.

 Deborah : How did you know ? Let me guess, he left his outfit lying around at home ?

 Amber: No, not really. I know from his video for Africa, they have exactly the same eyes and the same voice. Lucas only hid the bottom of his face.

 Deborah : You are really very attentive Amber, you must have been very close to him.

 Amber: I was a huge fan of FEAR and above all, I was in love with Lucas Ms. Grayson. (sobs) I loved him and I still love your son, I so wanted to tell him that I love him (Cries).

 Deborah : My son wasn't very expressive but if he was able to smile or laugh with you it was because he loved you very much. I'm sure Amber, my son had a lot of affection for you.

 Amber: How did that happen?! I want to know Mrs. Grayson.

 Deborah after sighing deeply began to tell him what happened and they stayed in the living room with Saeko while Eve was in Mark's room.

 They were lying on the bed while he cried in her arms, they had said nothing to each other, there was nothing to say but everything to cry about.