Babysitting to become Cultivator?!

A loud screech. A huge mind blowing spark and that's all it took for Tiara to run forward and grab Percy from behind, wrapping her arms around his torso and pressing into him for life. Her words shivered with fear, "What's happening?"

Percy frowned and looked left, then right. He didn't see anyone. 'Was it Dramons?' he barely thought when he felt the ground under him shake and suddenly, they were falling.

A cold rush of air hit their skin and the duo's eyes flew open to meet the lights of their studio room. Two figures in front of them were awake and stood up in concern.

Tiara groaned and turned her head to look at the boy whose hand she was holding.

He was screaming, clutching for his throat, "I CAN'T BREATHE!" he yelled, sitting up and curling up, "I can't breathe!" He then clutched his head and shook it, the pain overwhelming the rest of senses. Tiara wasn't so okay herself but she reached forward and held his arm, "Percy it's okay. We're back."

But he couldn't hear, "What is happening?" he said more quietly as he felt the pain recede bit by bit. He touched his eyes, they were hurting so much.

"Oh God!" Hazel exclaimed and fetched some clinical swabs, an ointment of sorts and a few claspers and lay Percy down on the bed. He grit his teeth as he lifted his hand to cover his hurting eyes but Hazel stopped it.

Mitchell leaned over them both, staring at Percy in horror, "What is going on, nurse?"

"His eyes, they are bleeding!" she dabbed his eyes with the swab and he broke out in screams again, poking their ears like toothpicks. "It's the strain...it made his outer nerves pop. Thank God it wasn't the retina."

Mitchell left the nurse to treat Percy and turned to a tired Tiara laying on the bed, completely spent. "Why couldn't you both just be on the same terms for once?" he chided her.

"How did you know?" she croaked back.

"Hazel and I came in through Ghost Race," Mitchell explained and Tiara's eyes noted the extra two torn packets of the syringe.

"He's just bloody arrogant. What can I do about that? And he doesn't like me at all! Why are you scolding me? Take it out on him!"

Mitchell shook his head, pinching his eyebrows, "Can you just both be on good terms anyway?"

"I can't handel arrogant jerks! They annoy me!"

Mitchell dropped to his knees and held Tiara's hands, looking into her eyes, "Sis, please. Please be tolerant. WIthout you both, our chances at taking down Goren are very low. You both need to clear the game and master cultivation as soon as possible. It will only work if you both work together."

"But…" she tried to protest but stopped when she knew that her brother won't listen to it anyway. Sure, they could work together. But how could they when Percy was always taking the lead and ordering her around? Then Tiara finally realized what was the problem.

"Percy...he still sees me as a twelve year old."

Mitchell sighed, "So that's why." He placed his head in his palm, "We need to change that."

Tiara liked that idea very much, "Yeah but how?"

Mitchell shook his head, "Like I know. Just...you both get better. We will talk tomorrow morning."

Tiara's jaw dropped, "Tomorrow morning? Uh...how long have we been in Dimension Zero?"

"Six hours."

Tiara's tummy rumbled noisily and Percy, Hazel and Mitchell turned to look at her in surprise. Well Percy at least tried to, his left eye was patched up by now.

She smiled sheepishly, "Have any pork chops?"

Hazel smiled, "You kids must be tired. We don't have pork chops, but I can stir up delicious noodles. Okay?"

Tiara nodded, slightly disappointed, "Okay."

"I'll add meatballs."

Tiara looked up at her in joy, "Okay!" she beamed wide, now satisfied.

"Tch," Percy turned to look the other way, slightly smiling at the innocence of his Partner.

Mitchell followed Hazel out of the room and helped her unpack the noodles. She kept the water to boil and took out the about to expire meatballs from the fridge.

Mitchell cleared his throat, "So...how do we…" he started, but she got what he was referring to.

"Get them to agree with each other?" she turned around and asked him, leaning against the kitchen counter, constantly glancing towards the water to catch it boiling. "You have any ideas?"

Mitchell shrugged, shoving his hands inside his pockets, "Nada. I don't understand teenagers."

"You were one yourself," she joked, now starting to think. "Wish we could stimulate the things happening in the game that would lead them to being closer and making decisions together...but that isn't possible is it?"

"Nope, no that I know of. Dimension Zero is solely another parallel world. The System simply helps a human to travel into it,"

Hazel nodded sadly, "And we can only go as Ghost Race for a considerable amount of time, but Ghosts can't influence anything in there." She cocked her head and stared at a random painting on the wall. "So we bring them closer here, in this world."

"How? Tiara can't move and Percy...well Percy's case is complicated."

Hazel looked around, "Then why not just here? No need to step out of the house."

Mitchell shook his head, "No, I don't understand what you mean, nurse."

"Babysitting," she concluded, remembering her babysitting days when she was a teenager herself. Oh the mess, but in the end, the kids' favorite person in the world weren't their moms or dads. It was the daily babysitter.

"We will leave them here, asking Percy to look after her while we are gone. Let's see what will happen," she smiled knowingly and turned off the stove when she caught it boiling before pouring the noodles out slowly.

Mitchell wasn't convinced, "Won't that make him treat her even more like a kid? We need them to Dream for longer, not shorter. And even if it could work, where would we go?"

She scooped the noodles into their plates slowly, her smile falling, "We have business to attend to, don't you think? Goren is now a growing threat. We can't be in the dark anymore. We have to find what his motive is."

Mitchell raised his eyebrows, "You mean going as spies into his company. Isn't that a suicide mission? We'll get killed if he catches us." His mind was questioning everything right now. It was the only way to be safe.

"We will get help. You have a good friend right? Valentine?"

Mitchell nodded, "Yes, V. You remember?"

"Of course. You mentioned that he was a world class fighter, how can I forget that? We will need him. And I have a friend that goes by the name Miwen. She is an expert hacker," Hazel said proudly, slashing the air, "Her record? Full country outage in seconds."

Mitchell was intrigued. "Which country?"

"China. Surely, a building is nothing for her."

Mitchell nodded, trying not to show his excitement, "It's settled then. I'll call V."

She lifted two plates in each hand, "And I'll set up the table and a wheelchair for Tiara to roll around the house." Mitchell flashed a thumbs up and went to stand outside the balcony, dialing out V's phone number. If that phone number was a trophy in the house, it was caked with dust and spider webs. It had been that long since Mitchell had called his ex-gang leader.

"Uh hello?" a deep, husky voice of a fighter sounded from the other side.

"Hey V, it's me Doublesip."

V stretched inside his rococo bed and sat up straight, his muscles flexing with the movement. He blinked his eyes and looked at the phone number lazily before putting it to his ear again.

"Mitchell?" he managed to say, his voice heavy with throbbing memories.