"For countless years man has often pondered and explored the secrets of the stars, looked onward and even left the cradle of mankind to form a new age. But it was only recently that we unlocked the secrets of ourselves. The Xel'Naga were worshipped as gods by the Protoss for their psionic power, not their technological power. But the First Civilization wrote a secret into the human race in the event the Xel'Naga would be hostile. In times of strife we will evolve into something else. Something that can defy fate."

Chapter 10: Painful Summer Part Three

2020 AD, Nishinomiya, "Alpha Point"

Her words echoed in his head as he laid her to rest, closing her eyes and whispering "Rest in peace."

His eyes shifted to red as he felt some before unknown power flow through him. The sniper can't be human to take a 30-6 FMJ round to the head and not even flinch.

Everything changed as Ray lost all control of his actions, behaving like some kind of primal animal as he suddenly flickered out of sight with a massive red explosion in the sniper's nest across the field. Ray had only one thought in his mind. Kill this girl.

Ray was effectively unarmed saved for his hidden blades and his friend's Murasama, hardly modern armaments but his newfound psionic fury was pushing the sniper back who abandoned her rifle and activated what appeared to be the fabled Sword of Eden, thought both lost and inactive but somehow this thing had recharged it.

Ray activated his Nanite blade and clashed swords with the girl, Ray's eye shifted to purple and he was now tapped into his eagle vision, he then knew the person's name, not that it seemed to matter. Konou Suyou.

After evading several ranged bursts from the Sword of Eden Ray felt a searing heat in his hand as he accidentally sent a pulse of red energy from his hand, slicing through several skyscrapers in the distance as his hand appeared charred and burned. Without his nano-tech he would have had to amputate it but it began to heal as Ray continued to move at paces unmatchable by Suyou as Ray quickly disarmed her with a sword motion and slashed her some thirty times which seemed to have little effect other than bleeding her out. Suyou began to catch up as she flickered behind Ray and reacquired the Sword of Eden and impaled Ray from behind which only caused him to turn with his eyes staring into her own as he drew his Murasama blade and sliced clean through Suyou and dashed away to pull out the blade that impaled him, his nanomachines unable to keep up with the scope of his injury.

Things began to shift as Ray felt he was losing himself but he refused the urge to calm down as he charged at Suyou once more holding both his Murasama and the Sword of Eden which he decided to mentally refer to it as Excalibur as it met the criteria throughout history as the sword King Arthur pulled from the stone.

Ray lost track of time and even his own humanity at a point as the fight proceeded to his own unit. As Ray dashed around his allies who for only a moment caught a glimpse of him before he slammed Excalibur into the ground causing a surge of energy to destroy what was left of the city around him and presumably Suyou as well.

A rather large crater that used to be the ruined city of Nishinomiya, March 22nd, 2020 AD

Ray was at the epicenter, calming down as he sweated profusely and panted heavily before taking in the scenery. Excalibur in his hand not only intact but also glowing red, he had charged it with his own psionic energy subconsciously to destroy practically everything around him, there were no buildings, there was no rubble. The destruction Ray caused surpassed any nuclear weapon he has ever seen before, even that of his native time in the UED.

He released the grips of Excalibur and the Murasama and cried uncontrollably at what seemed to be his fate before he heard a kind of screeching sound behind him.

On instinct he turned and tried to shove his hidden blades into what appeared to be Asahina Mikuru who barely evaded his reaction and said "Calm down! It's me!" Ray stared for a moment before saying "Your TPDD, give it to me now." Mikuru sighed and replied "This is the future Ray, my past. I-".

Ray did not let her finish and quickly fired his hidden pistol, latched onto his gauntlets at Mikuru's shoulder causing some kind of remote to fall from Mikuru's sleeve and dashed to grab it as Mikuru regained her footing and, before she could retrieve it, Ray phased out as he pressed a button on the Device, both going back in time and stranding Mikuru there for who knows how long before her superiors send a retrieval unit.

Island Mansion, 7:18 AM

Ray woke up, he was used to dreaming these memories, used to the sight of Haruhi taking a bullet for him. For a moment he just laid there, taking in the ceiling as he turned onto his back and snapped slowly back into the reality that he was in the past and in a position to change the future.

After a few minutes Ray got out of bed to notice Haruhi already at the door, a slightly cheerful expression on her face told Ray something was about to happen and for once he was looking forward to it.

10210102101201212012. 8:30 AM

The SOS-dan was relaxing on the beach. Nagato was reading a book, Haruhi and Mikuru were swimming and Ray seemed to be laying on his back against the sand watching the cloudless sky. Sasaki turned her head towards Kyon who was also just taking in the scenery and said "You have a lot of fun around the SOS-dan don't you?" Kyon nodded and said "Yeah, though now I'm a little concerned at how long it will last. Things aren't exactly the same as they were last year."

Sasaki replied "Then just enjoy the moment while we still can. It's not like in only a few seconds world war three will break out." Kyon simply nodded and didn't reply as he got up and went to grab a soda from a cooler that was laying next to them.

0101012012012012012

Ray turned his attention to Ryoko who had walked up to him and sat down. Ray said "What do you want?". Ryoko shook her head slightly and replied "I can have fun too you know. A vacation from all the usual happenings is fine and I can still observe Haruhi without any incident at the same time.".

Ray grinned slightly and said "It's not work if you're having fun at the same time." just before sitting up, noticing Haruhi and Mikuru setting up a net and assumed she intended to play volley ball. It was one of the few games Ray had never played before.

11:30AM, Island Jungle

The SOS-dan plus Ryoko and Sasaki were in the island's jungle exploring and as per Haruhi's instructions, find anything of interest.

Ray decided to, for once, ignore Haruhi's instructions and proceeded to climb a tree as Haruhi asked "What are you doing?" Ray reached a branch and just laid back on it in a sitting position and shouted "Taking in the view, this jungle isn't really that thick." Haruhi let a small scowl make itself known and proceeded to try to climb the tree as well, nearly reaching the top before grabbing a weak branch and if not for Ray quickly grabbing her hand, she would have fallen a 20 foot drop.

Pulling her up she found another branch and decided to take in the view as well, the tree was tall enough to overlook the entire island save for the other side of the mansion which was even more tall. Ray said "Does this count as something interesting?" Haruhi nodded and replied "How are we going to get down?".

Ray laughed a bit and said "You should have thought of that before following me up here." Haruhi stared with an annoyed look before Ray stood and jumped down and landed with a roll. Haruhi stared for a second as Ray shouted "Just climb down, if you fall I'll catch you." Haruhi sighed and managed to climb down safely after a few minutes.

1:15 PM, Island Mansion

Ray sipped some tea as the SOS-dan was gathered around a board game Ray had brought along when his cell phone rang. He grabbed it and saw a familiar number, though not one he wanted to see. Getting up he said "I have to take this call, I'll be right back.". The SOS-dan seemed unconcerned save for Haruhi who gave him a suspicious look.

In the hallway Ray got on the phone and said immediately "I'm retired, how dare you call this number William. Not only could you make me have to throw this phone out but you're interrupting my peace and quiet."

On the other end a man known now as William Miles replied "It's important, we've lost several more cells in Japan. Abstergo has been making some movements there and I wanted to let you know." Ray was furious and replied "How the hell do you even know where I am? Have you been keeping tabs on me in secret?"

William replied "I had to keep an eye on you because of the stunt you pulled last year. You took a high-value artifact from Abstergo on an arbitrary mission and got your name on their list." Ray replied "You know as well as I that this artifact is too powerful and too important to let the Templars hold onto it. And I've told you several times before you should be focusing on tracking down and taking care of Juno. She is the more important issue here, more than Abstergo or any other precursor artifact."

Will replied "I understand that and I have been focusing on finding that bitch but the trail disappeared suddenly, it's as if she vanished."
Ray grinned, sighed and then said "Other than telling me to watch my back which I do constantly, was there any other point to this call?" William then replied "Tell me. How long do you plan on lying to that girl, sooner or later you will have to use your blade and she will notice."

Ray lost control of his temper and shouted into the phone "You stay out of this! That is none of your business and the sooner you accept my departure the sooner you can focus on what's really important!". Ray quickly looked around and noticed no differences around him and tapped into eagle vision to scan the area and saw Haruhi behind a corner, within earshot of the entire conversation." Ray said softly "Shit..."

William said "What's going on?" Ray sighed and replied "Don't call me again." and with that he hung up and tuned his eyes to normal and said "I know you're there Haruhi."

Haruhi walked into view and said "What was that about?". Ray replied "How much did you hear?"

Haruhi then said "Everything you said, couldn't hear the other person though but I would very much like to know what this was about?" Ray sighed and said "I would rather not tell you, you've been exposed to the darkness of the world but only a part of it. That incident before summer was nothing compared to the things that happen in the shadows. It's like I said, Every day is pain and suffering, every day something bad happens. It might not happen to me or you but it will happen to someone. Every day someone dies of old age or is killed by another person. You hear it on the news all the time. There is no sugar coating the way the world is."

Haruhi sighed and said "I know the world isn't nice but you mentioned an artifact, I-"

Ray interrupted Haruhi and said "Don't bring that up again, I understand you're intentionally seeking out the unknown but right now you're not ready to handle the truth. The things that happen in the dark, the things that go bump in the night. You are not ready for that. You are nowhere near mature enough to handle the world I know, you should just accept the bliss of ignorance until the moment that bliss is taken away forever."

Haruhi shouted in response, and with a decent amount of anger "I'm sick of living in ignorance! I want an interesting life not a normal life! It's unbearable. Nothing happens, nothing seems to matter, even with all the things the SOS-dan has done it's still not enough, I know there are secrets out there and I want to know them, I want to have fun! Yet every time I think I'm about to have fun someone shoots it down and throws me back into that rut that I'm usually stuck in. Every day it's the same. Wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, hang out with friends, eat lunch, go home, eat dinner and go to sleep and repeat! I'm sick of it!"

Ray noticed Haruhi's eyes were glowing golden slightly but fear wasn't what was in his head right now, it was anger. He paused for a second, clenching his fist and then said "A normal life is all I would ever want, my life has either been filled with pain, anger or sadness. If you lived through everything I have, if we swapped positions for even just a moment you would feel the same way. You wouldn't want to have a strange or abnormal life. To me having what you consider a boring life would be paradise!". Silence filled the hallway for a few moments before Haruhi said "I'm not asking for everything, just, what's that saying? Throw me a bone here? That's all I want, just something interesting that you would be willing to share, something to prove to me the world isn't dull."

Ray sighed and said "Fine, something small." with those words he held up his right arm and deactivated the holographic emitter, revealing one of the Gauntlets of Eden to Haruhi's surprise. Haruhi said "What is that? It looks like a gauntlet of some kind."

Ray replied "This is the artifact I was talking about, a precursor artifact known as the Gauntlet of Eden, there are two, I have both. It's cybernetically grafted on my right arm. The illusion it can make mimics the appearance and touch of human skin but otherwise the graft is permanent, my right and left arms and hands lack skin, instead the gauntlets are there, they can fool metal detectors and even thermals by matching the temperature of the body. With these I am a living weapon. So many people believe Humanity has been alone. But 75,000 years ago there were those who came before, they looked like us but spoke a different language, were different on the genetic scale. Normal Humans have a double-helix DNA base, the First Civilization had a triple-helix DNA base which made them more physically durable and more perceptive. There are still people who are partially descended from them, there are no longer any survivors of the precursors but they did have children with humans. In fact they were responsible for our evolution. We evolved naturally but they took it further, Neanderthals were the initial humans and the precursors took several and altered them the same way we made dogs, through selective breeding. Descendants of the precursors have both double helix strands of DNA and triple helix strands of DNA."

Haruhi listened to every word and after Ray was finished with his speech Haruhi pondered a bit before replying "Are you descended from them?". Ray nodded and said "Yes, it's why I'm able to use the gauntlets. Because of my heritage. Any other questions?"

Haruhi nodded and said "Just one more, you mentioned Abstergo, that multi-national company that pretty much does everything. You mentioned another word though that gets me thinking. The word Templar." Ray nodded and said "The Knight's Templar were born long before it says in history, why does it get you thinking?"

Haruhi replied "The nightmare I had, I've had it many times over and in it I'm part of this group called the Assassins, and their enemies are called Templars and were the real people in charge of Abstergo, in my dream at least. It was so vivid and.. I'd rather not talk about it further but it gets me wondering." Ray stared at her for a moment before saying "Nothing is true." Haruhi's eyes widened and replied "Everything is permitted.".

Ray then says "I don't think you're having dreams, I think you're having visions of a potential future." Haruhi then says "It started after my dad bought a trinket for me when he was on a business trip to a Native American reservation in the Eastern US. It's a partially clear sphere that glows when I'm near it. In fact I brought it with me." Ray then replied "Does it look like this?" and with those words he pulled out an apple of eden to which Haruhi replied "Yes, or rather mostly, its larger and looks more like glass than metal." Ray then says "It's a Nexus Sphere, a variant of what the Assassins call Apples of Eden. Nexus Spheres calculate possible outcomes, possible futures and can calculate so well and accurate they can predict the future up to 150,000 years ahead with unnerving accuracy."

Haruhi's face went from surprise to sadness and said "Then...if that's true. In the year 2020, one of us will die." Ray replied immediately "That won't happen! I know what you're talking about Haruhi and it won't happen, I can't say everything but I can tell you that I know what your vision was. I've had similar visions, all ending with only you dying. I wont let that happen."

Haruhi looked to the side and said "If you know the vision, then you know what I told you in that vision." Ray pauses for a second before replying "I do know what you said. What I'm interested in knowing is what your intentions are at this moment in the present." Haruhi shakes her head slightly and says "I don't know. I feel confused around you but I wouldn't call it love exactly. I just don't know. Ever since those people broke in I haven't felt safe unless I'm around you. If you've seen those visions too then it explains why I feel you're afraid for me when you look at me. Can I just know something, what are your intentions, how do you feel?"

Ray doesn't break eye contact but is still silent for a moment before saying "I don't know how to respond to that Haruhi. Last night you were right about one thing, I'm not like most people. Most people would jump at any opportunity to be with you. People still talk about the rumors at school, that you went out with anyone who asked. But never longer than a week and at shortest five minutes and from what Kyon has told me you seem to view love as a mental illness, which I cannot agree with, emotions are what make us human, they define who we are and play a major role in our decisions. Countless times people have been motivated by love or other emotions to do great things like exploration, diplomacy or discoveries of science. Sure it has also caused wars and suffering in history as well but it depends on the person, not the emotion itself, for what happens. I am interested in you, but at the same time I don't want to get into a relationship only for it to be doomed to end."

Haruhi didn't respond for quite a while but eventually she said "I...I need time to think. I'm not like I was back then, I only went out with everyone because I was trying to find someone interesting, someone who wasn't the normal person who only cares about how I look or is so focused on intimacy that it's all they think about. I always had rules and anyone who tried to break them met my foot. You seem different in more ways than one but I just don't know what to think anymore. In my dreams, or visions I develop feelings for you after two years of meeting you. You made the same promises then that you're making now. You promised not to let me die, not to let anyone harm me and you never broke them, I made the choice to die instead of you because I wanted to make the same promise to you but never could."

Silence filled the hall again before Ray replied "I understand, it's confusing to me as well. But I know how I feel and nothing will change that. I want to just not care and live a good life but I know about things that will happen. A horrible future I have the power to prevent. It's not related to your visions but...it's a grim future indeed." Haruhi replied "You make it sound like the end of days." Ray flatly replied "It is, the end of everything, even the stars will die, there will be nothing left, no hope, no sorrow, no joy, no anything. Only darkness."

Haruhi closed her eyes for a moment before saying "We should head back to everyone else, we're supposed to have dinner soon, its..." Haruhi opened up her phone to look at the clock on it and then said "It's 3:12 pm now, we've been here for nearly two hours." Ray nodded and they walked towards the main room.

The Next Day, 8:30 AM

The alarm clock buzzed as Ray pushed the button to silence it and got up, noticing Haruhi looking out the window on the other side of the room, staring at the ocean.

Ray then said "Did you get any sleep?" Haruhi shook her head slightly and said "I got some sleep, I had that nightmare again though, I should keep that sphere further away I guess." Ray paused for a moment before saying "Come on, I'm sure breakfast is ready by now."

Haruhi nodded and walked towards the door, taking a glance at Ray as she grabbed the doorknob and said "About yesterday, do you think if we tried being together would things get more interesting?" Ray closed his eyes for a moment and said "There is no trying. I have no intention at being in a relationship that wont be lasting. For me if I intend to be in a relationship I intend to be in it for the rest of my life." Haruhi didn't reply and opened the door to proceed into the hall as Ray followed in silence.

6:15 PM

The day went normal on the outside as the SOS-dan enjoyed time at the beach, explored the jungle again and took a walk around the Cliffside. Ray and Haruhi though had not said a word to each other the entire time and the others began to notice.

Haruhi had gotten up and went to her room early though Ray remained in the main room with the others. Kyon began to speak once Haruhi was out of earshot, saying "What's going on between you and Haruhi? You haven't said anything to each other the entire day." Koizumi also spoke, saying "I've noticed that as well and would be very interested in an answer."

Ray sighed and said "I have no intention to answer that question." Ryoko then said "Looks like I was right, you are causing interesting reactions for me to observe."
Koizumi sighed and said "Whatever is going on between the two of you I suggest you don't let it get out of hand. The last thing we need is for Haruhi to have another fit of closed space. That last incident where those two broke in caused such a large disturbance that some of our organization actually died fighting Celestials. Normally we have no problem dealing with them but they were much faster and more focused on attacking us than the surrounding environment. Haruhi hasn't created any new regions of closed space as of yet though I continue to fear it is because they are building up energy for some kind of large action."

Ray got up and said "I'm going to bed, I'm not going to talk about this anytime soon or perhaps at all."

A scream caught everyone's attention, and more specifically the fact it came from the direction of Haruhi's room.

Ray turned around immediately and activated his gauntlets of eden openly and dashed towards the room, blades drawn.

6:18 PM

Ray tried to open the door but it was locked, he then kicked it open with brute force and saw a black robed individual jump out the window with Haruhi over his shoulder unconscious. Ray tapped into eagle vision and began a pursuit, Nagato and Ryoko being the only ones able to keep up with Ray's speed.

Ray took a leap of faith from the window into a well and grasped onto what seemed to be a hookblade's mark with his own hookblade and quickly climbed out and followed a golden trail only he could see, Ryoko and Nagato close behind whilst his 360 degree vision noticed Kyon and Koizumi looking out the window.

Ray proceeded to the docks as he saw several other individuals in black robes dash at him while the kidnapper set Haruhi in a black speedboat. Ray quickly dashed to the side to avoid what he noticed was a hidden blade, he continued his run ignoring the others and directly proceeded towards the boat which began to speed off.

Ray dashed into the other boat and quickly noticed an explosive charge which he disabled with a pulsed Eden Blade and stabbed a Nanite blade in the dash of the boat to immediately get it moving, leaving Ryoko and Nagato behind to deal with the other hooded figures.

6:33 PM, Open Sea

Ray continued to pursue the kidnapper, following him and trying to close the distance as he noticed another boat approaching. Tapping into Eagle Vision again he saw it crewed with people glowing red and he noticed thanks to his proficiency the sight that they were affiliated with the Assassins. Why were they kidnapping Haruhi?

Ray however did not hold back as the boat got closer and he extended his right hand at the boat and destroyed it with a blast from his gauntlet of eden, killing the assassins in it instantly. Ray managed to get adjacent to the Kidnapper's boat which caused him to get desperate and draw an automatic pistol just as Haruhi woke up to notice her hands were tied behind her back as the Kidnapping Assassin fired as Ray dashed onto the boat with inhuman speed, the bullets did nothing except reveal that Ray's Nanite Shield was active.

The Assassin kept the boat in gear and quickly got up and moved at rapid pace with dual action hidden blades to try and kill Ray only for Ray to flawlessly execute a counter kill by deflecting two hits from the Assassin then turning around with one of his hidden blades striking the Assassin in his left temple, killing him instantly as Ray then formed and stabbed another Nanite blade into the boat, causing it to slow and eventually stop.

Ray walked over to Haruhi who was petrified in fear at the sight of the blood on Ray's hands as he cut her bonds with one of his hidden blades just as two more boats were approaching. Ray quickly scanned them with Eagle vision and they were also Assassin boats, red hue indicating they were also hostile. Ray told Haruhi to stay down as he took a life vest from the back of the boat and gave it to her to put on.

Ray got back to the Boat's seat as Haruhi snapped to her senses and placed the life jacket on as Ray Nanite-hacked the boat to move back towards the Island. Ray used his nanites to form his white plated Desert Eagle which Haruhi noticed had the symbol of the Assassins engraved on the right side.

Ray drew and aimed his DE at the other boats as he drove at full speed back at the island, firing several shots at the other boats who started zig zagging instead of shooting back which had Ray realize they wanted Haruhi alive. Ray continued to fire without needing to reload as he approached the beach and shouted "Hang on!"

The Boat slammed into the beach and continued on for about 18 feet before stopping on the land. Ray wasted no time and told Haruhi to run towards the Island Mansion. Ray turned his head to notice Ryoko and Nagato had disposed of the other two assassins just as the other boats approached. Ray got off the boat and formed a rather large rifle from his Nanites, a C-10 Canister Rifle. Despite the rifle being longer than Ray's body he held it without any difficulty and fired a shot at one of the boats which caused it to explode. The sound deafened Haruhi despite her being at the Mansions door by then.

Ray fired another shot at the second boat, destroying it as well and noticed some of the Assassins had survived and were swimming in his direction while underwater, if Ray lacked eagle vision he would have missed it. Ray disassembled the rifle and formed a psionic beacon which summoned his HF Murasama Blade with its gundraw scabbard and wrapped it around his hip as several assassins got ashore, lacking any firearms.

Ray quickly dashed at one of the four assassin survivors and cut him in half with the gundraw and quickly slashed behind him without turning, taking the life of a second Assassin. The others drew what appeared to be High Frequency modified Katanas. Ray parried several strikes before driving his hidden blade into the forehead of one assassin and turned to the last to parry another strike just as he removed his blade from the previous assassin. Ray continued to sidestep and parry until he saw an opening with one of the Assassins and impaled him in the heart with his Murasama.

The Assassin did not die immediately and said with difficulty "You...betrayed...everything...we stand for...You even betrayed...the entire human race..."

With those final words the light left his eyes and Ray withdrew his blade from the man and slashed the air, sending the blood on the blade into the sand of the beach before sheathing it. He proceeded to close the eyes of the assassins present and proceeded to walk towards the mansion before stopping halfway, looking towards the beach and said to himself "Rest in peace my brothers."

It felt like killing his own family, even though he was both an only child and his family had not even been born yet, it felt the same. It was the only time Ray regretting taking another man's life despite knowing it had to be done.

7:01 PM, Island Mansion

The other members of the SOS-dan along with Sasaki and Ryoko were in the main room discussing what had just happened though Ray was not present with them nor was Haruhi.

Haruhi was moving part of her hair around with her hand slightly while looking at the moon from her bed in a sitting position. This incident was nothing like the break in, at least nobody died. But this time Ray had killed them to save her and he did so without hesitation. Ray walked in as the door was open and knocked on it a few times to get Haruhi's attention.

Haruhi turned to face Ray and said "Come in..." Ray sat down on the bed next to her and said "How are you holding up?" Haruhi let a tear fall from her left eye as she said "I'm not injured...You were right, the world is a dark place." Ray nodded and said "This incident was uncalled for, these men were definitely assassins and for some reason they tried to kidnap you. I get the feeling they were acting on their own though and not with the rest of the brotherhood's consent."

Haruhi replied "What makes you think that?" Ray then said "I called the current Grand Mentor, William Miles. He was the one I was talking to yesterday, I told him about the incident and he said he had specifically told the assassins to avoid any contact with me. I told him their names, my sixth sense, called eagle vision which I inherited from my ancestors allows me to learn a person's name and affiliation. I used to be in the Assassins and Miles had a team keep an eye on me when I retired since I took these gauntlets from the Templars. He said it was for my own safety and when I told him the names he said it was the observation team and that they for some reason went rogue."

Haruhi replied "I see...will anything like this happen again?" Ray sighed and said "Most likely yes, the two that broke into your house that other day were affiliated with Abstergo Industries, ay-kay-ay the Templars. And there are other neutral parties unaffiliated with either the Assassins or the Templars who have an interest in you."

Haruhi shook her head and said "Why am I so important? Are they using me to get to you?" Ray sighed and said "No, if that were the case then they would just directly come after me instead of you. And furthermore only the observation team and William Miles know where I was and what I am doing, the Templars were after you specifically, I was in the right place at the right time."

Haruhi turned her head to look at Ray for a moment before saying "The way you moved wasn't natural. Please just tell me everything, why am I so important to these people that they tried to kidnap me. Why are you even here, why did you get involved with all of this. I keep feeling like you're hiding something from me. A secret about myself it seems, what is it? Tell me.."

Ray closed his eyes for a second then opened them, saying "I can't tell you everything just yet, but I can say that even the precursors had double-helix DNA strands, they had a 80% triple helix DNA composition but 20% was double-helix whereas normal humans have 100% double-helix, people like me are 30% Triple and 70% double. Haruhi, I did a lot of looking into you before getting involved. Including your medical records and a lot of things have been hidden from you by several neutral parties. Your DNA composition is 100% Triple Helix. There is not a single strand of DNA in your body that is double-helix. You are something completely different and furthermore your DNA was altered somehow." Haruhi's eyes widened and she replied "Altered? How? When?" Ray replied "Four years ago during the Tanabata festival. You drew a short sentence in the written language that the precursors used. It meant I am here. The medical exam you had after that showed your DNA was 100% triple-helix. Every time before that your DNA was 100% Double-Helix. You went from being a normal human being to being something neither First nor Second Civilization."

Haruhi then said "Second Civilization? Oh, us." Ray nodded and said "I will say this, one of the neutral parties involved are in fact Koizumi's entire family. This mansion, Arawaka, Mori and several others are part of what they call The Agency. Their intentions towards you are favorable right now so we don't have to worry. Their concern is your safety. Haruhi, even I don't know the full nature of your DNA shift but I can say with honesty that it will make itself known sooner or later. I will keep you safe no matter what. It's not just the Gauntlets of Eden or my experience with the Assassins. I'm what you could call an Esper though the more accurate term is Psionic. Though because of my eagle vision the term Esper applies as Espers are those who have ESP or Extrasensory Perception. Psionics are, well the best way I can put it are those who can do things like in the Naruto series, or what many people for years have superstitiously called Magic or witchcraft. There are two kinds of Psionics in the human race. There are psionics like me who can manipulate both matter and energy and those who manipulate only a specific type of matter or energy to an absolute extent. The latter are commonly called Conduits and I've met a few."

Haruhi was silent for a moment before saying "What about you? Are there any more secrets you have or have you told me everything?"
Ray paused for a moment before saying "Haruhi I want to tell you everything about me, about where I am really from, about what I can do. I really do, but I can't just yet. I will someday, someday soon, but not today or tomorrow or even next week. You have to be patient. I promise you I'll tell you everything one day. About myself, about you." Haruhi nodded and replied "Could you sleep next to me tonight, just next to me." Ray sighed and said "Haruhi, you're emotionally vulnerable right now and I can't tell if you're honestly trying to get close to me or are just looking for someone, anyone to raise the illusion that everything is going to be ok."

Tears began to roll down Haruhi's cheek as she said "I'm not asking you to go out with me or to get close, I just don't want to feel alone." Ray placed his right hand on Haruhi's cheek and wiped the tear away whilst saying "Don't ever think you're alone. You have me and the SOS-dan and several other friends. Tsuruya-san, Asakura-san and even Sasaki-san. It may seem that they're afraid of you and they probably are but they still do care about what happens to you. And I can tell Koizumi does most of all, he's the first one to get concerned whenever you're emotionally upset. I'll be next to you if you want me to, if you need anything just tap my shoulder." Haruhi grabbed and held onto Ray in an embrace, head buried just under his head as she slowly stopped crying.

After a few minutes though what seemed like hours Haruhi managed to fall asleep, her back against Ray's, her head facing the window whilst Ray was on his side facing the opposite direction, towards the door. Ray was still awake and tapped into eagle vision to scan the perimeter, making sure there were no threats and it was clear. No boats approaching, no Assassins creeping on the other side of the door or near the windows. The rest of the SOS-dan had gone to sleep. Asakura and Sasaki were in their room finishing a card game and were seemingly heading to bed. Ray turned his attention towards Haruhi, his 360 degree vision (Due to eagle vision) making it so he did not need to turn his head. With focus he removed the blue shimmer and background and merely saw 360 degrees with an 80 degree visual arc and focused on Haruhi who seemed fast asleep and didn't seem to be having a nightmare at the moment though most likely because Ray had found and moved her apple of eden in the closet rather than in her suitcase. Ray tapped out of eagle vision and was thus seeing only where his head and eyes were facing.

He thought in his mind "Haruhi seems to want to get close but also seems to be hesitant for the same reason I am. She doesn't want to lose something that she would want to hold onto for the rest of her life. I'll let time decide how that plays out. This vacation was supposed to be uneventful but it seems that isn't going to happen. Sooner or later I'll have to tell her everything about herself, that she is a Shinjin, that she can alter reality. If I don't then Amon will have his future, there won't be anything left. I'd rather Haruhi live a life without the suffering or responsibilities that will happen. But that won't come about until Amon either is made unable to revive or revived only to be killed once more, this time permanently."

With those thoughts in mind Ray managed to fall asleep quicker than he thought he could, though he stressed himself to remain aware of his surroundings incase someone else tried to make a move, like Abstergo or the angels.

To be continued...