RE.4

That night I didn't tinker, no matter what bullshit it was to build something from scraps that just logically shouldn't work, even if I have the material to build Multi-Purpose-Tool, or shortening, MPT, I lack any tools to make it, and most importantly, we live in an apartment building, and just the noise in the night wouldn't wake up just my parents, but even our neighbors...

What I did was something I did with just mom every morning, I sat on the bed, my legs crossed as I put myself into a meditation position, trying very hard to concentrate on my last thoughts...

Especially at the thoughts of not trusting my parents and the sudden desire to move to Brockton Bay...

The latter could be explained that now I have power and means to become stronger, Brockton Bay's chaos would serve as an excellent ground for me to build things, especially when Cauldron did meddle into that city, possibly making me able to move more freely, as if I stay in DC who knew if PTV would send some PRT agent knock at me doors once my capabilities became know...

That, and with dad becoming manager of that UniTech branch, I would be able to use the laboratories and workshops they have there for my work, using the multimillion costing tools, without the need to rob someone to buy or build my own, at least at the start, as I know how to build better ones...

In short, even if bad one, oh how very bad, moving to Brockton Bay would be the safest option for me, letting me more freedom than in other cities, I don't know if PTV could see me, but even if it could, in Brockton they wouldn't meddle, at least not too much, maybe they would use their pawn Coil or others to test me, but at that time I should be already strong and equipped enough to defend myself...

That is if these ideas in the first come from the shard, and I'm a standard tinker, for if not, then PTV shouldn't see something it doesn't know about, as it works more as simulation with information it have than future sight or prediction...

So if I'm not, then even better, as before I start meddling with parahumans with shards, or the people with gemmas or those close to them, I should be invisible to PTV, Simurgh, or any other Thinker with the ability to simulate the future...

But then...

My hands tightened...

Something, something in me was telling me that I SHOULDNT trust my parents, even if such thought would be impossible when I still didn't have these powers in my head...

My hands tightened as my breath became more forceful.

Because I know, no, I know I did plan to tell my parents if I gained powers, I WANTED to do it, but now I didn't?

If this wasn't some kind of mind fucking meddling, then I don't know what else...

And that, that...

That made me both scared and angry at the same time, I don't know what was first because if someone could meddle with my mind, didn't that mean they could change even something other?

Was all that sudden logic to moving to Brockton Bay flawed too?

The more I thought about it, the more my heart raced, my mind trying to search for anything suspicious, anything that shouldn't be there...

Would even Mind Shield help me?

Or did it have any backdoors for those who gave the idea to me, leaving me always vulnabre to these beings...

"Could I... Could I even trust myself?" My hand trembled as I looked at it, my right hand catching it and calming my left hand down...

Was it still me?

Or was I becoming someone other?

I don't know when or how I even arrived before my parent's bedroom doors...

But with one swift movement, I opened the doors, seeing my parent's bed, with them soundly asleep, mom was always a messy sleeper, with her legs on dad's chest and her head almost falling down from one side of the bed...

Where my dad was always a heavy sleeper, not even minding when mom kicked him in her sleep...

Still, the opening of doors was probably louder than normal, as I could see mom's head sleepily move, as her dark brown eyes opened, taking the sigh of the bedroom until they moved to the sound that wakens her up...

For a while, mom looked at me with a questioning and sleepy gaze until something kicked off in her head, and the previously deadly asleep eyes shot wide open...

"Rey?! Honey! Wh-whats wrong!!!" Mom shouted, alas, her sudden movement made her already risky sleeping position shift too much, as she fell from the bed, right on the fluffy grey carpet that was covering the entire bedroom's floor...

Something I always wanted in my own room...

"Oooouuuuuchhhh!!!" Mom made a painfully sound, I wasn't worried, this, this was very common, it was as if moms body already instinctually knew how to fall from bed, or couch, or lawn, or anywhere where she slept and could fall, even if falling head first, she always was somehow alright, maybe few bumps on her head, but that was all...

"Mmm? Is it already morning?" Dad, who waken up from mom's shout, uncaringly opened his eyes, already too used to mom's everyday morning ritual fall from bed, that is until his eyes noticed me, as he too shot wide open, after taking my form into his mind...

I couldn't fault them, I saw how I looked when I went around the full body mirror we have in the hallway, my hair messier than normal, my body trembling either from lack of sleep or just because of my fears, with my eyes bloody red...

I looked like a cheap knock-off zombie in the making...

And the paleness...

I could make even vampires pale in the shame of how my normally more tanned skin was fully pale...

But...

I needed to do this, or...

Or I risked IT having control of me, I needed to do this, even when SOMETHING screamed in my mind that it was wrong, that I'm making a mistake...

That is, if some of my other parts of mind screamed at me that it would be a mistake not to do this, not to come clean...

One part felt alien to my mind, while the other felt like my own desperate part that didn't want to be shackled by the invader...

"Rey?! What happened, oh god, Rey!" Father quickly and uncharacteristically from his normal behavior, cursed as he jumped from the bed, almost running to me, my mom who now stood up and joined him as she almost sped up to me...

"I...I need to tell you something!" I grounded out, somehow managing to calm down my fretting parents, my dad now looking seriously at me, while my mom was still fully worried, but as if sensing my need to speak, they quieted down...

"I...I have powers! I... Im... Tinker!!!" There, finally...

"I..." Somehow I wasn't able to end my speech as if something had left me...

The worry, the need to stay quiet, the need for secrecy...

It was as if the moment I spoke, it left me, suddenly making me feel more lighter, freer...

"W-what?" Mom, her voice worried, I didn't look up to them, suddenly collapsing down as all strength left me...

There, I have done it...

I came clear to them...

That should make things right, right?

I could feel hands catching me as I almost fell down...

"...I see..." That was my father's voice...

"Yua, prepare hot cocoa, our son needs time..." I could hear my father's voice say in a steely voice...

Ah... This was a voice I always heard him speak when he was on the phone with his coworkers...

"I... You, you are right, Rey, don't worry, mommy loves you, you know that, right?" I could feel a gentle hand patting me on the head as I nodded...

Too weak to speak...

"Common Rey, let's go." My dad said, and I could feel myself being lifted up as dad took me into his arms, especially into princess carry as he carried my feeble body to the living room...

With me too numb to even move, even when I now felt freer, lighter than previously, it was as if when the worry and untrustworthiness left me, it took a good amount of strength with it...

I still could see images, the blueprints in my head, each time I looked on some device, one that I could use for my purposes...

So the power didn't leave me...

Maybe just some...

Geas?

Conflict Drive?

Did I have that or something similar?

Did I get rid of it, or it became more insidious, more hidden, just waiting to make me more paranoid?