"And here we stand in the church of our Mothers where we pray this day for protection from the demons of Mors! Mothers! Here our prayers and-" The church crier shouted, he was a priest in training but, he considered himself one already, and no one in the village he lived in questioned or complained. The church was large, three rows of thirty seats each, each row in lines of five seats. All filled. The crier, center of a stage, large curtain behind him.

Ocia village was small, always has been. It's two generations old, fairly new as a mere ten generations ago, the universe life knew changed, sentient life of the old vanished, and was replaced with new sentient life in a new world made from the old. Texts, ruins and told the new people all they know know. They know the past sentients didn't just die off, more...vanished.

"Now let us rejoice in prayer as the Mother of Life and The Mother of Worlds grace us with their image!" The crier shouted again, pushing the curtain behind him aside as statues of the Mothers made from stone were revealed. Both tall, the mother of life had blond hair, long banhs hiding her eyes, and a dress made from white rose petals. The Mother of worlds, as tall as her partner and lover, long black hair also covers her eyes, a dress made from leafs, held together by vines. Both mothers were pregnant, nine months by appearance.

"This crap again…" A teen spoke in the back most row of the church. Red hair, green eyes, black hoodie, and reptilian scales across his arms and hands. One fifth dragon.

"Dude, why come if all you do is mock the church?" The teen next to him asked, black greased hair, white shirt with khaki pants. Pure human.

"Well Jake it's simple, I'm bored." The teen replied.

"Why? You work in town protection Dean. What's boring about fighting the monsters of Mors?" Jake asked.

"They're all small fry, level three Shadow creatures and the occasional monster, still a low level mind you."

"And you just can't be happy?"

"No chick in this town is hot enough for me. That's another reason?" Dean said, twirling his finger sarcastically.

"You are a man whore you know that?"

Dean punched Jake, his scaled fingers leaving a cut on Jake's arm. "Shut up. And sorry. Damn scales get jagged after punching a tree for three hours."

"Run em' on a sander or grinding stone then." Jake grumbled, rubbing his cut. "Why can't you use a sword or gun like every other fighter?"

"Too easy."

"Thank you crier, I'll take over from here." Back on stage, the priest, Sam Thomas, spoke as he took the stage. "Ladies and gentlemen of the crowd, we gather here today as we do every Friday, to show our live for the Mothers that made our universe and continue to make it and expand it. As are here today as, the Mother of Life is bestowing upon our village a new sibling!" As the priest said that, the crowd started up again.

"A new sibling?" Dean questioned. "It's been like, what, eleven years since the last one? Why now?"

"Maybe the Mother remembered? I dunno." Jake replied.

"And, this child is coming with a preselected big sibling, selected by her!" The priest continued.

"That's new." Dean said. "So some poor sap in here gets to raise the new sibling."

"That's how it is. Only the Mother can give children and babies to Trifecta, after raising the soul in Playground, once we arrive and grow up we gotta raise the newcomers." Jake reminded Dean.

"And the sisters and brothers that hook up and have their own kids? They come out just fine. Why does the church label it taboo if they come out healthy and fine?"

"Don't start that again. You take it too personally."

"I should, I'm one of them."

"The priest and town don't treat you any different than everyone else. So what if you're a nephew and not a brother?"

"I feel like an outcast. Plus remember that priest from Decade city? He nearly broke my arm when he found out I was a nephew not a brother!" Dean whisper yelled.

"Shush!" The girl in the seat in front of Dean said. Her hair blue, skin green. Half nature fairy. "The priest is gonna pull out the sibling."

"Fine Jessica." The two said, turning their attention back to the priest on stage.

The priest stood in front of the statue of the Mother of Life as her stone belly became water, still floating in place and shape. The priest reached his hands in and when he pulled them out, wrapped in a blanket, binkie in mouth and bottle of milk in hands, was a small dire wolf pup, human baby body but body covered in blue fur, a patch of black hair on his head, and a tale with a black stripe of fur running down to it's tip. In golden thread his name is sewn on his blanket. Joy. "Now then," The priest started. "The Mother of Life has given me the name of the one who is to raise our newest younger brother Joy."

"I hope it's me." Jessica pleaded.

"Now, Joy's big brother is none other than our town's own Dean!"

Everyone in the church gasped as they turned to look at Dean. His jaw hit the floor in disbelief. "Wa-ta go 'poor sap'." Jake said, trying his damnedest not to laugh.

Hesitantly, and ever slowly Dean stood, walking up to the stage til he finally stood in front of the priest, who handed him baby-pup Joy. "I...I don't get it?" Dean said, disbelief still across his face.

"Mother has spoken Dean, she wants you to raise Joy."

"But I'm not a brother."

"We know Dean, but clearly, that's no concern to Mother."

"You know what they say about my kind Sam."

"Rumors and hypocrisy of our siblings unwilling to accept the new and unexplored. Joy is your responsibility now Dean, raise him well."

"Well, here we are… Joy…" Dean said, after the service had finished the priest gave Dean a month's worth of baby supplies. He took Joy to his home, a pre-new era bunker. After the Mothers reshaped the worlds, majority of the bunker's exterior was surfaced above ground, showing the first two floors. Sadly for Dean, who claimed this bunker as his home many years ago, the door is on top of the exposed bunker. He made a nice sized three story balcony up to it.

Once he entered he placed Joy in one of the beds and sat down himself on another. The bunker had many, many beds, likely made to house many people. As Dean stared at Joy he couldn't stop thinking about why he was chosen by the Mother. According to the church, nephews and nieces aren't born from the mother so it's said we don't have souls or even true bodies. Why pick me? Dean thought, as he did he started his own dinner, like always, something he hunted earlier that day while on the job. Right, raising a baby bro...without a sitter I can't work...or even leave to hunt, and bringing a baby is like having a neon sign over my head to the animals can run… He internally grumbled. Tomorrow would be a busy day for him.

Joy started to stir at the smell of the cooking meat. It wasn't until the little anthro pup barked that Dean looked over at the little one. "Oh, hey small guy. You don't have teeth yet so no meat for you."

"Arf, arf!" Joy barked.

"Guess you're hungry though…" Dean said, picking up the bottle Joy arrived with and gave it to the pup, who began drinking from it instantly. "Wow you were hungry...not gonna enjoy changing you at all though...crap I don't even know how to do that… Who do I know that has taken care of a baby before? ...Cripe…" Dean sighed. He knew of one person who took care of a baby, Jessica's big sister… She hated him, not because he was a nephew, but she babysat him for his Raisers. He made her life hell even after he grew up. "Gonna have to bite the bullet… best find some old pre-era tech she doesn't have then. Only way she'll let me in the door."

"Urp." Joy burped as he finished the bottle, giggled, then tossed the bottle to the side, it fell and shattered on the ground.

"And gonna need plastic bottles...I should make a list."

The rest of the night Dean managed to clean and change Joy and spoon fed him formula since the bottle broke. As Dead was laying down to rest Joy started to whimper. "Cripe…" He muttered, getting up and looking at Joy, who was frightened by the shadows in the room. "It's just dark Joy, not Shadow creatures or any or Mors's evils, and you don't care cause you can't even understand me...right…" Dean sighed. I think I had candles somewhere, cause I am not wasting power keeping the bedroom lights on. Dean thought, picking up Joy and using his magic to create a small flame for light from the palm of his hand not holding Joy. "Okay, got a magic torch in one hand and a baby in the other...how did I think I could pull this off?"

The night went unrestful for Dean. Even after finding the candles for Joy to have a nightlight the baby dire wolf woke him up five times that night, twice for attention, the rest for a change. Dean woke up around midday, bags under his eyes and cricks in his back. "Shit...how do people do this?" He said to no one, getting up, stretching until his arms and back popped and relief flowed through his joints. After that he picked up Joy, who was still sleeping, and carried him to the kitchen, where he placed him in a high chair the bunker had had before he moved in. Once set in Joy began stirring and finally awoke. "Sup alarm clock?" Dean joked, seeing Joy act as full of energy as yesterday. "Man, when did you get to sleep? We were awake at the same times last night." Joy giggled upon seeing Dean's tired smiling face and messy hair. "Yeah, laugh it up, you caused this. Hey, Karma, likely not when you're a baby, but when you get picked to raise a sibling, Karma."

Dean made another bowl of formula and spoon fed Joy while cooking himself leftover meat and some potatoes. Once he burped Joy, something Priest Sam quickly taught him before he left the church, and waited for Joy to need a change, and changed him, Dean cleaned himself off as best he could, put on the baby holster, and strapped Joy to it, the infant hanging on the harness on Dean's chest. "I look...so stupid… making an elevator and getting a stroller, cause this look...not a chance in hell." Dean ranted, to Joy,s humor as he left his home. Once in town Dean received some glances, but kept to themselves. Ocia villaged held hope for new ways of thinking with how it's siblings treated each other.

In many areas the beliefs the churches hold about Nephews and Nieces lead any who enter them to be imprisoned, discriminated, and those who strayed too far from the path of kindness of the Mother of Life, they execute them. As Dean walked through town, he wondered how this place must have looked before the new era. Was it a town also, a city, it's unknown. When the new era began, all the previous sentient lifeforms vanished, leaving the Mothers to reshape the universe and worlds, so cities were leveled, towns swallowed by new oceans, mountains leveled into flatlands, and so on. Ruins such as buildings and items are scattered across the world, and digs suggest many advanced technologies and magics now lost, hopefully to be found in the rubble of the past. All anyone knows for sure is that the Mothers appeared after previous life vanished, breathed new life into the world's after they were reshaped, and life before could travel to other worlds. It's a goal for life now to revive that ability, and explore the worlds the Mother of Worlds birthed for Life to grow on and explore.

Dean reached Jessica's home, a pre-era style barn she built from her sister's small shack. Jessica used her magic to grow the trees she cut to make the barn. She even painted it red, but kept the door normal. Dean took a deep breath, swallowed his pride, and knocked on the door. After a bit Jessica opened the door. "Dean? What brings you here, and this cutie!" She said, poking Joy's nose. He gave her a confused look then giggled.

"Hey Jessica...I'm here about...Rosie…"

"Why?"

Dean rolled his eyes and pointed at Joy. "I kinda need help from an expert."

"Oh...oh. Heheh, right. Well she's in her room but just a warning, let me hold Joy, and take this." Jessica said, handing Dean a computer chip. "This is an upgrade for that computer she rebuilt I was gonna give her on her birthday so you might wanna take it instead."

"Thanks." Dean said as he carefully handed Joy over to Jessica and Dean took the chip.

Joy looked at Jessica curiously before spotting a leaf growing out of her arm. He started messing with it. Jessica noticed immediately. Being half nature fairy, she could feel what nature felt around her, within fifteen feet at least, but especially the leafs and flowers that grew on her body. She smiled, and had the leaf change, revert into a small sprout before it regrew, this time, as a honeysuckle which Joy drank from. "Does that hurt?" Dean asked.

"Tickles really." Jessica said. "My body can make sap and nectars like this normally and faster than, well, normal nature so it keeps us in sap. Can't make too much cause then I get really hungry so can't make money off it sadly."

"Can ya make fruit?"

"Yes but takes half a day and that does hurt when picked off."

"Oh, alright. Well I'm gonna see Rosie...wish me luck."

"Already prayen." Jessica said, taking Joy into her living room while Dean went upstairs. Jessica kept the house design simple, living room and kitchen downstairs, basement below that, and upstairs was two bedrooms and one large bathroom. Both Jessica's bedroom door and the bathroom door were open so the door at the end of the hall lead to Rosie's room.

Dean walked slowly towards it, remembering all Rosie was capable of. Being a full water imp, she could pull water from the air and counter all of Dean's defensive abilities. Since he could get hot enough to harm her, making her body of living water evaporate on touch, or boil her, he just had to be ready, but wasn't going to use that. That much heat would burn the house down in minutes. He stood in front of her door and knocked. "Rosie?" He said weakly.

She opened the door, her aquatic body made it capable to literally SEE through her, it was blurry, and wavy, but you could see though her head, arms, and legs, and her eyes were pebbles floating in the specific part of her head where eyes would be. She had no mouth but spoke anyway, and wore special clothes enchanted not to get wet when she wore them and kept her water body from getting whatever she touched wet or soaked. "You. Have. Some. Nerve." She said with a rage full tone.

"Okay, BEFORE you drown me with water from the air, this is my peace offering." Dean said quickly, pulling out the chip.

Rosie took it and looked it over. She then looked at Dean, still with anger. "What do you want?" She said, walking over to the massive computer she had built from parts she bought or dug up from pre era ruins.

"I need help, ya know in church yesterday-"

"You got picked to raise a baby sibling by the mother and are unsure about it, I was there dumb ass." She said, getting tools out to install the new chip.

"Yeah...well, look, you baby sat me when my raisers-"

"Parents." Rosie interrupted/corrected.

"What?"

"If you payed attention to the radio you'd know they dug up a pre-era library, and in many of the books the term 'Parents' was used to describe a man and a woman who came together and made a baby. The man is then called a father after the baby is born and the woman is then called a mother."

"Oh, let me guess, church labeled it blasphemy?"

"Within the hour."

"Figures. Anyway, You're the only person in town I...think can help teach me how to take care of Joy…"

"You you want my help to raise your little sibling?"

"I'm not Mother born, I never expected this, neither did anyone in town!"

"According to recent discoveries-"

"Don't even start with that just...will you please at least babysit him while I work?" Dean said that last part quickly.

Rosie laughed. "So you want me to take up babysitting again? Dean, I have a job now, I excavate sunken pre era ruins, I leave for a new site in like a week."

"I have no one else I feel comfortable asking! Can...can't you help teach me things and Jessica so she can watch him while I work, she works here helping crops grow so she won't be far!" Dean was pleading.

Rosie sighed, finished installing the new chip, she closed up the computer, plugged all the wires back in and started it up. "...Fine, but on one condition."

"Fine, anything." Dean said, relieved.

"How many floors does your bunker house have?"

"Seven, all fifty feet by thirty feet and I use and live in the first three floors."

"Fine, let me renovate the bottom four into my own museum."

Dean grumbled. He knew she'd take her time and make his quiet home a busy attraction. "Fine, but even try to charge me rent for living in MY house and I'll burn your crap down."

"Fine, but I don't have to pay rent."

"You….Fine!."

"Then we have a deal. You, downstairs, tell Jessica, I'll be down in a half hour."

"Finally." Dean said, stomping down stairs.

With Dean gone and her computer working properly with the new chip, Rosie began looking over the site photos taken. It was a building, skyscraper type that had fallen apart in three main chinks. The top was the worse it seemed, barely anything other than the frame was left of that. The midsection of the building was damaged, but still had a few windows in it. The base was the most intact, the door and everything was intact. What made this site most interesting was the fact it the sign above the door still had power. "Freak Inc. Main Offices? What did you do?" Rosie says to herself, wondering why this pre era building still seemed to function. "What is in you?"

Over the next six days Rosie taught both Dean and Jessica all she knew about baby care, how to bathe them, properly cook for them, play with them, baby proof their surroundings, she even gave Dean some of her old babysitting items, mainly toys, plastic bottles, and washable diapers. Now she was packed, standing next to the Wood Deer drawn waggon that was taking her to the excavation site far east. "Well I taught you two all I could, you gotta do it alone from now on." Rosie said, packing her last bag onto the waggon.

"How long you gonna be gone sis?" Jessica asked, holding Joy in her arms firmly.

"Five months. This excavation means a lot to the Historical Discovery Department."

"Yeah, yeah, the HDD." Dean said. He found it annoying how Rosie always liked to day the whole name rather than the simple version. "Well, thanks for the help...I'll uh, try and clean up those floors a bit for you."

"Thank you Dean." Rosie said, hopping on the waggon. "Onward!" She said, the wood deers began pulling the waggon at the sound of their march word. "See ya."

"Bye!" Jessica said, waving goodbye until her sister was no longer in sight. "So...when you gotta head into work Dean?"

"Today's my day off. Why you ask?" He replied.

"Well, I'm getting attached to Joy here, was hoping we could, you know, playhouse?"

"Play...house?" Dean Questioned. "That something your sister and her pre era junk discovered about parents?"

"Kinda, yeah." Jessica admits, petting Joy. The pup enjoying the affection.

"Well, Other than Jake coming over I got nothin else to do other than clean up those floors. You can…'playhouse' but just keep Joy safe when things start getting rearranged and cleaned."

"Can do!" Jessica said as she did a small jump, Joy enjoying the feeling of the jump.

"Heh, little guy liked that jump. Well come on then, I wanna get a head start on the cleaning, you...don't mess with too much. I'll put on a movie or something for you."

"Oooh, what ya got?"

"Just whatever was on the hard drive I picked up at a pawn shop some years back. Has like ten movies but they're not that bad."

"Oh, okay, I'll pick one that Joy can watch and not be afraid of."

"Fine." Dean said, Jessica following him while making small jumps to entertain Joy...til the constant motion made him vomit on her neck. "You can take a shower too…"


One Month later.

Rosie was in her element, one with the water around her. The excavation was going well, lots of common pre era items were recovered and being cataloged, her challenge though, the base of the skyscraper ruins. Behind those revolving doors was an elevator, and fate was playing with her as it also had power, but was sealed shut, likely some kinda safety feature incase of flooding, though, that brought up more questions to the archeologist, why would a skyscraper had flood locks on their elevator...and why was their only the one? She was using a lot of mana to try and force the water away from the door, making a bubble of sorts of air to hopefully trick the old system that the water was gone and hopefully, it would unlock.

She was getting tired now, she had to fight the water pressure around her to pull this off, and being a mile under the sea water made that extremely hard, but still, she was determined to discover this secret. She squeezed all the mana she had into one final shove, and finally, the air bubble went over the elevator doors. There was a click as they opened. Excitement went over Rosie as she quickly jumped in, the doors closing just as the bubble broke and the water fell back over them. She was trapped now, but she wasn't too worried, a place that still had power after all these years must have some kinda emergency exit.

"Hello." A voice spoke from the elevator, startling Rosie. "What floor do you wish to exit on? And we are sorry for the inconvenience, but all above floors are out of service at the moment."

"Oh...okay…" Rosie says. "Um, how many above floors are their?"

"4.7 million and still upgradable to more. But as stated, they are all out of service."

Yeah right, damn system must be bugged, a building big enough to hold that many floors would reach the moon. Rosie said mentally. "How many floors below?"

"Two hundred and seventy."

That's more believable. She said internally, finding that a more acceptable number. "Well...what floor should I go to since all the above floors are gone?"

"Our backup customer service office is on floor eighty five, descending now." the voice said, the elevator moving down.

"Okay..what is this place?" Rosie asked the voice, hoping to get some more answers.

"This building is the Freak Inc. Main Offices, where we deal in developing more products for both consumer and military use. Our goal is total species integration, uniting all life under a single flag to deal with the threats of all enemies against life both new and old." The voice replied.

"Huh...so, any idea what happened to it?"

"What are you referring to?"

"Well...it's been ten generations after the new era and I have no idea what this Freak Inc. is."

"Are you implying that life was nearly extinguished?"

"I'm saying it all vanished till the Mothers breathed new life into everything."

"Was it the Inhumans, Shadow Creatures, or the Psychopaths?"

"The what? I dunno, all three maybe? No one knows what happened."

"Activating Emergency protocol, ARMAGEDDON."

The elevator stopped, the lights turning from standard to red and then dropping quickly. Rosie screamed at the sudden drop. After a few minutes the elevator stopped, the doors opening as a set of metal arms somehow grabbed her...and she couldn't make herself phase through them. "W-what are you gonna do with me?!"

"Armageddon Protocol, collect surviving sentient life, and basic life forms for preservation til proper training and weapons have been developed. Scanning all Freak Inc facilities… scan complete, 23% of total creation wide facilities functional, 2% in need of repairs. Beginning assembly lines."

The light's in the room where the arms came from all turned on, revealing a room where Rosie couldn't see the walls or even the roof. But for as far as she could see, she saw machines, machines creating human looking machines, each being armed with weapons, and Mothers knew what else. "W-What is this?"

"Armageddon protocol, preserve life, collect it and protect it till life can fight it's battles."