When I woke up, I was laying in a hospital bed again, with Issac and Dylan at the other end of the room, wrought with concern and grief. I immediately groaned as my memories flooded back, causing them to perk up.

  “Steve! You’re awake!” Dylan shouted excitedly.

  “Took you long enough,” Issac added, before his shoulders immediately sank as he went over to hug me.

  “Sorry, that was rude. It’s just.. you were out for so long…”

  I melted into the hug, and Dylan hesitantly joined it. I tried to fight back the urge to sob. I wanted to stay in that embrace forever.

  But inevitably, it had to end, and they pulled back.

  “How… long have I been out?” I asked, starting to notice my vision is a little blurry.

  Dylan shrank.

  “3 months.”

  I chuckled, “Guess I missed the girls’ funerals.”

  Nobody laughed. The following silence was painfully awkward. With the way Dylan and Isaac were tensing up… I could tell there was something else.

  I scanned the hospital room, not finding who I expected to be there. Confused, I asked “Where’s-”

  “Bob’s dead,” Issac said abruptly, to which Dylan swung his head around and strictly stared at Issac.

  Dylan look back to me, waiting as I desperately tried to process the cherry sundae of the shit show news of my life.

  “After bringing you back here, he…” Dylan’s voice choked, “He took his own life. He was found by one of his sons in his room a month after you both got back.”

  No, he couldn’t have… why would he-

  My eyes widened.

  “No… he didn’t.”

  They both frowned, and Issac spoke up soon after, “Look, I know this is a lot to process, but…”

  “No, I mean he can’t. Even if he managed to use water to weaken himself enough, he wouldn’t be able to die. He must’ve faked his death.”

  For a moment, Dylan seemed to mentally dismiss my idea, but after a while, he said “That sorta makes sense… he’s always been near impossible to damage. But… why?”

  Dylan looked at me expectantly, but I shrugged. Then he turned to Issac, who also shrugged.

  I pondered for a moment, before saying “Well, anyways, I don’t think we should tell anyone, especially since we don’t know why he did it. Not even his sons.”

  “WHY?!” The both of them shouted.

  “He’s a smart man. He certainly wouldn’t have done it out of cowardice. I… think he must’ve done it to protect his sons somehow.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  They carefully, slowly considered what I said. After a bit, Issac was the first to speak.

  “So… who will raise Matthew?”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Huh? What about Elijah Freeman?”

  Another awkward silence.

  “You wanna tell him, or should I?” Issac asked his lover.

  Dylan sighed, and said “He… ran away. He said he’s gonna join Robert’s army.”

  “Fuck…”

  …

  “Can I… have some time alone to process all this? Please?”

  Dylan and Issac looked at me, lovingly and concerned, but they agreed, and left the room.

  So… Steve… what now? Who will raise Matthew? Should we go after Elijah?

  I don’t know… but I do know one thing. At least Knightmare taught me something… there’s no point in me loving.

  If Hope had a body, I’m sure he would’ve been facepalming.

  Steve… no. You need to keep loving regardless.

  What’s the point? Everybody around me just dies…

  …

  I’m so sorry Steve… I know you must be hurting immensely…

  I swear, as long as I live, I’ll keep hunting Knightmare to the ends of the earth… for my parents. For… Rowan…

  Meanwhile

  I expected to wake up in a hospital bed, or in Steve’s arms, but instead… I awoke on a cold, hard floor in a hallway with red fabric covering the walls, laced with gold stripes.

  “H-Huh? W-what…”

  A sudden surge of pain in my gut appeared. It simultaneously felt agonizing and… empty.

  “S-Steve? W-Where are you…”

  “Get up Rowan,” a familiar voice said behind me.

  I rolled onto my back, and spotted my brother, Alexander, reaching out a helping hand. I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up to my feet. The pain in my gut was quickly fading.

  Suddenly, I remembered what happened, and I flung my head down to look at my gut, expecting a massive gaping hole, but… I was fine.

  “W-what… was that all a d-dream?”

  Alexander frowned, then turned to the far end of the hallway, where there was a large pair of golden doors.

  “Cmon, we have a meeting to attend.”

  My head spinning, I nodded sheepishly, and followed my brother.

  “W-what happened?” I asked, shuffling my fingers.

  “You were training with Cornelius when he accidentally knocked you out.”

  “T-then… why did I w-wake up here?”

  Before Alexander could reply, the doors swung open, revealing a red carpet that went up to a large, shiny wood desk in a red room littered with art of various historical events, mostly wars.

  In front of the desk was my father, wearing his usual jeans and black suit with a black tie. And behind the desk was a large, red leather chair, turned so the back of the chair hid who was sitting in it. There was also Cornelius, standing several feet away from my father.

  We stepped into the room, and Alexander closed the doors behind us. We then stood in between Cornelius and our father; Alexander standing next to our father and I was standing next to Cornelius.

  …

  Robert coughed, and I heard a surprised gasp from behind the chair, before it swung around, revealing a bald white man with maroon eyes…

  Wait isn’t that…

  “Glad you could make us my sons,” my father greeted with a warm smile, “This is Bob. One of our investors. I wanted to introduce him to you, cause he’ll be overseeing the production of our robot army.”

  Cornelius frowned. I whispered to him “What’s wrong?”

  Whispering back, he said “Your father told me that’s Knightmare. And we’re just talking with him instead of attacking him. He’s right here.”

  “So…” the man trailed off. “How have all your projects been going?”

  Alexander stepped forward, confidently.

  “My assignment involving recruitment of a special warrior has gone excellently. I found and recruited a subject and as we speak we’re currently prepping her for her future contribution to our great army.”

  “Good… Rowan, was it? How have Cornelius’s and your work on sowing chaos throughout the world gone?”

  Before I could say anything, Robert stepped in front of me, “Fine. I must say, Rowan especially has been quite impressive with his work.”

  Cornelius frowned again.

  “Good… alright, Cornelius, you’re dismissed. I’d like to discuss some personal stuff with the Griggs,” the man ordered.

  Sighing, Cornelius phased into the ground, disappearing. After a moment, the man melted into black goo, which flowed over to Robert, who absorbed it.

  “Good. Now that he’s out of the way…” our father said, walking to the chair and sitting down in it as he transformed into Knightmare.

  “We got some work ahead of us… it won’t be long before we’re crushing the world under our boots.”

  Knightmare began to cackle. I shrunk, hoping Steve would be able to stop him.