"How is my sister?" Muriel asked, "Mallory pulled through, she's in a good condition...You know Mallory, she's tough." Ned answered.
"Thank goodness! thank you for everything Neddie." Muriel replied.
"No need to thank me, just next time listen to Thorn when he tells you to go home, You need to sleep Muriel." Ned said.
"How can I sleep! When I got the call last night that she was in the hospital, I had to come, she is my family." Muriel replied.
"How's Mallory...doing?" Tacito suddenly asked, "You two are back...Mall, she's doing great." Ned replied.
"That's good." Yurei said breathing a sigh of relief, "You're Alright love?...you didn't sleep...or eat Anything." Tacito asked him.
"Funny right? I never thought I would be worried about Her, but I am." Yurei replied.
"You're not the only one who thought that." Yuri said after popping out of nowhere.
"Seems like our impostor knocked Mallory out while she was driving, which caused the car crash." Jasper who joined them, spoke-up.
"I don't understand, you guys are sure it wasn't Grey?" Thorn asked, "Fernando thinks someone switched Bodies with him." Yurei replied.
"He's the expert, so we have to believe him for now." Jasper added.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Muriel asked, "You'll be putting yourself in danger, so don't attempts to help us.
You have to focus on yourself Muriel." Ned replied.
"Whomever this is, he has hurt my sister! you cannot expect me to sit still and do nothing!
We should at least speak with the Style family." Muriel said.
"Jade already beat you to that! my sister talked to the family and explained everything." Jasper replied, "Guess what? Those idiots don't know what's going on.
in fact, they believed that Grey was in the library this whole time! plus, they didn't notice any changes in him recently...other than the fact the he began skipping meals especially the family's dinner, entirely for a while now." he added.
"Although he does stay inside the Library all day, Grey Skipping the family's dinner was the sign the Styles needed to know that something was wrong, but of course they brushed it off...
They had no idea that the imposter was limiting Grey's only interactions with them that happens through that dinner, and therefore the family would not notice Grey was different or gone.
However It is the Family's fault, Mainly because they rarely-ever interact with Grey in the first place, they should have tried to check-up on him when he stopped having dinner with them." A voice spoke-up, "Faunus!" Muriel was pleased to see the voice's source, he jumped to hug him.
"Too tight Sweetheart, watch out for your belly!" Faunus said.
"Oh sorry, I got excited!" Muriel replied sheepishly as he let go of Faunus.
Giggling, "If you are that excited Muri, wait until Jade sees Faunus is here, she's gonna flip." Jasper commented.
"What's making me flip?" a confused Jade asked as she approached the group.
She then immediately noticed Faunus and understood what her brother meant, "O...M...G...BITCH!...come give me a hug!" She yelled running and crashing towards Faunus.
Wrapping her arms around him, Jade lifted Faunus into the air.
Terrified "OH MY GOODNESS JADE?! PLEASE PUT ME DOWN!" Faunus begged her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" But Jade only Screamed in pure joy.
"Tch, look at these dumbasses I call a Family." Ned said trying hard not to smile.
Fighting Their own smile, "Jade likes Faunus a lot, does that means he got your approval too?" Yuri asked, "He got it long ago.
Faunus's good guy, it's been a while since I've seen my kids this happy to reunite with someone outside our family." Ned replied.
"Please I think you hugged me enough! Jade, put me down!" Faunus begged her again and this time Jade did as told.
She placed the frightened Omega back on the ground, and supported him when he nearly fell out of shock.
Faunus took a deep breath and sighed, "Do NOT ever! do such a thing to me again dear." He said.
Joining them, "I guess you're still afraid of heights brother." Fernando said, "What is HE doing here?" Jade asked annoyed.
Opening his arms, "What I'm not getting a welcome hug like my brother did?" Fernando said Sarcastically.
"Of course not." Jade answered, "I was joking Hun, I'm not much of a hugger anyways." Fernando replied.
"Before this whole charade happened, What were you trying to Say earlier Faunus, about the Styles not interacting enough with Grey?" Yurei asked.
"Oh right! I said That family does not interact enough with Grey, Since he is always in the library...that is probably why they were not alarmed, and to be fair, Grey wasn't exactly skipping meals, he was just skipping to having those meals with them in person.
And since Grey is such an introvert, no one cared when The imposter started requesting his dinner to be sent to him in the Library.
Normally Whenever Grey needs something, the servants would just bring it to him to the Library, that is just how the things are for him on regular, and the imposter took advantage of his routine." Faunus explained.
"A routine that makes it easy for anyone to pretend to be Grey...Your cousin, he's such an easy target." Ned replied.
"Yeah! Aside from his introvertism, what could possibly be the reason your cousin stays 24 hours in his library, Faunus?" Jade asked.
"Many things! Grey is a bookworm and loves books more than real people, he also prefers to be left alone while reading.
The Styles Library is heaven on earth for people like Grey, and the family provides him with everything he needs without asking questions, as long as he is in there." Faunus explained.
"Wow, for cold-hearted murderers they sure take care of their adopted ones." Jade said, "Or wanted to make sure that Grey never leaves them, it could be a strategy to put Grey on voluntary lockdown." Jasper replied.
"If that hypothesis is correct, the style family is benefiting from Grey somehow." Muriel said.
"What could they need from Grey?" Thorn asked.
looking at her phone that just buzzed "Apparently he's really important to them, because Henrietta just texted me, she's on her way here and wants to meet us." Jade replied.
"We know the family treats its members based on their contribution to the family itself.
for example, Leonard is the black sheep who got the family into scandals and problems with the law, so he's getting punished and treated like an outcast within the family." Ned said, "And Faunus is the business genius who's not only bringing them a fortune, he's also mated." He added.
"As for Grey, according to what Faunus said, he's getting a super good treatment, too good to be true especially for an introvert.
So he must be providing something to the family, something they need.
What is it?" Thorn said asking.
Remembering something, "Fernando, is it possible to use someone's ability when you body-switch with them?" Jasper asked.
"If the ability is a physical ability tied to the body of the person, then yes! for example when I took Aroon's body, I was able to switch to his animal form, Shapeshift and even go invisible but I couldn't use his magic." Fernando answered.
"What are you thinking Jasper?" Ned asked, "I just remembered, When the imposter came to our house, he asked about my talent, he said he possesses an ability that's like some sort of a radar for abilities like mine.
And when he asked for demonstration, I used my ability on him." Jasper answered.
"Which means we are dealing with an imposter, who possess a radar ability." Faunus said.
"Shit, he knew about your ability?!" Jade was surprised, "Back to subject, Any idea why Grey is spoiled by The Style family Faunus?" Ned asked.
"Aside from the crazy Money he inherited from his real parents?" Faunus replied, "Grey's mother is a human woman who was the owner of a successful publishing company, his father was A pure blood vampire, one of the richest and surviving members of a vampire clan that used to hate humans.
Well that vampire who birthed Grey survived long enough to marry Grey's mother and have Grey born, before he too alongside his human wife were murdered, By the Style family instead of the hunters.
Which meant their extraordinary wealth became Grey's." Faunus explained.
"Instead of the hunters? What happened to that vampire clan?" Jasper asked, "For some reason, beginning in the 70s, that Vampire clan members started dying one after another, killed to be specific and the blame was falling on The supernatural Hunters.
The time between each kill was different, sometimes it took couple of years for a new member to be killed, and sometimes multiple were killed in the same year.
Grey's biological father was lucky enough, it seems that the hunters did not target him." Faunus explained.
"Faunus, can we have a word in my office." Ned requested and Faunus nodded.
"I'm coming with you." Jade said, "No, stay here and make sure everything is okay." Ned replied.
"There's something you don't want us to hear." Jasper stated, "Yes, Please Jasper, stay with your sister." Ned replied.
"I don't appreciate you leaving me in the dark." Jasper replied, "I have my reasons." Ned said before he ushered Faunus to follow him.
...Few minutes later...
"You have been silent, I thought you brought me here to talk?" Faunus said.
"Could it be that the Levine family is the one you were referring to earlier? the clan that hates humans." Ned said
Surprised, "How did you know it was the 'Levine Clan'?" Faunus asked.
"I have an enemy among that family, Edward Levine.
He's a pure blood vampire, and the son of Lenny Levine." Ned replied.
"Lenny Levine?!" Faunus's Jaw dropped hearing the name, "Why are you surprised?" Ned asked.
"Goodness now I get it."
"Get what Faunus?!"
"Lenny Levine, is the name of Grey's Father!" Faunus replied.
"Grey's also Lenny's son?! that means Lenny died!...and Edward is Grey's half brother." Ned said.
"Oh no! mother, does that mean that the one going around pretending to be Grey, is This Edward Levine?"
"Possibly, I just spoke with a friend who said that Edward visited his parents shop a while ago, tried to buy a book about the trap party, and that book told a faulty story making me as the mastermind behind the demise of Derora's kingdom." Ned explained.
"Jesus...Such a book exists?!"
"Unfortunately Fau, but I'm not bothered by the existence of a book that implicates I'm a murderer, even though I'm not.
I'm bothered by the fact that Edward Levine tried to have that book, and my friend luckily didn't give him the book." Ned replied.
"Since Edward does not know that I survived what he did to me, I think we can use this to our advantage." Faunus suggested.
"There's something I thought about...I don't think Edward is going to go back to pretending to be Grey, there could be a huge chance that he's headed right now to retrieve his original body and to kill Grey, if he hasn't already done that."Ned said.
"Let us not think of the worst outcome! I have a gut feeling that Grey is still okay, I mean he might be a weird guy but Grey is a natural born survivor.
Most kids with his sickness wouldn't even make it to their 18th birthday, but Grey survived his illness and he's in his late twenties.
He's Smart, and not one to just die easily, I know he figured a way to stay alive.
Now that we know that Grey is Edward's brother, maybe after all Edward did not kill Grey And just kept him locked somewhere." Faunus replied.
"Let's hope you're right, because the Edward I know...is a cold blooded killer." Ned said.
"What good is intuition if your heart gets in the way of hearing it?"-Shannon Alder.