Chapter 12

She felt it.

She felt the metal burn in her chest, as it struck right were her heart was. Melee cringed as the moment she felt this was all coming to a drastic end.

The only bright side to it all was the fact she didn't hear the sound anymore.

Her mind became oddly clear, but the last thing she remembered seeing was the look of devastation on Garou's face.

She couldn't remember anything after that, the world was black and she thought for certain she was dead.

After all, she heard a familiar voice.

"Oh Darlin', you've been through so much already… don't lose hope now, you're gonna get through this. You're stronger than you look…" she swore that she felt someone run their fingers gently through her hair. It was soft and yet the fingers were massive. Garou's were slender, so needless to say it wasn't Garou.

"Uh… my head…" Melee moaned.

Slowly, her eyes opened.

Looking about, she knew she wasn't at the Association. That alone worried her. Even more so when an alien was staring down at her! "Master Gene, she woke!"

"Gene?" she whispered weakly.

But he appeared, Genus's last clone of himself. However, he was greatly different than before. "Melee!" he cheered. He did a quick check up of her, despite it she had no strength to move.

"I'm so tired…"

"It's to be expected, you did everything you could to hold yourself back. Not to mention the tranquilizer was a little stronger than anticipated. But we had to mimic death as best as we could…"

"Mimic death…" she asked weakly.

But then an arm came over her.

Looking over her shoulder, Garou found the strength to roll himself over, he pulled Melee into his arms and held her against himself. "Thank God…" he whispered. "You're alive… thank God…"

She wept in his arms. "Oh Garou…"

Despite their weakened states, they were alive, that's what mattered.

#

It took a month for the tranquilizer to work its way through. There was relief on the faces of the children, however Goliath looked about and noticed someone missing. "Snek?"

Snek wasn't among them.

"Oh God…" whispered Alley. "Snek…"

Suiryu had yet to wake up, yet as Alley looked about, she found Goliath was right, Snek wasn't among them. Despite everyone being awake, no one was quite fully recovered. "Hey Alley… did you know about this?" her father asked.

She shook her head at the notion. "No dad, I didn't. I knew something was coming for us, but I never suspected…" she paused. "Oh God… Lt. Cane… Snek…"

"What about Snek?" asked Draven.

"The best method in stopping him… was using Pig God to…" she stopped herself.

The room froze to the news. "Wait, he wouldn't…" her mother protested.

"No, he would… for the greater good." Muttered her father.

Then, they heard sobbing.

Alley turned and found Suiryu clenching his stomach and went into a fetal position. "Suiryu…"

He opened his eyes, but could barely look at Alley. "I failed as a father… I couldn't protect them…"

Alley choked up as well, he had lost the weight he had holding the twins. But now, there was no children to look after. "It's not your fault Suiryu…" she whispered.

"Indeed," came the voice of Gene. "Besides, we found them already. Boros went back to where they discovered you Suiryu, and he found the twins."

Suiryu suddenly tried to sit up, but was forced back down on the bed again, he was too weak to do so. "They… they're okay?" he asked in a trembled voice.

"I believe so, Boros left them on earth to be tended to, he claims he found a maternal one to look after them. A massive serpent like man who looked similar to Amai Mask…"

Alley was relieved. "Thank God… wait, the six are okay?!"

He nodded again. "Despite 106's attempt to obtain them and your twins Garou and Melee, they are indeed fine as well…"

"Amai found them in time…"

"Actually…" Gene began to say. "I… just got word from Boros, who spoke with Amai… He didn't do anything, by the time he arrived, the lab that held the six and the twins was in tact… but everyone within had been killed in a very brutal fashion."

No one in the room moved. Alley looked to Gene, stunned to his findings. "Who…"

Gene shrugged. "I don't know, Boros didn't know, but Amai merely said one of the six did it all out of rage. No one was left alive when he was through."

Alley was stunned that one of the six went berserk to say the least. Her father sat up in bed with a stunned look. "Titan…"

Her mother nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't be shocked…"

"Wait. Titan did that? You believe that TITAN… OUR TITAN did that?" demanded Hunter.

Father nodded once more. "I know he has been training himself, not to mention if the twins were in danger, his beloved little brothers and his own siblings. He is the one I know would snap in order to protect them. Question is, how did he do it?"

"You'll find out soon enough as soon as we send you back home. For now, you must rest." Gene insisted.

"Is everything okay back home?" questioned Max. "Is my sister okay?"

"Yes, and she has taken up the mantle in defending the people in your honor. She is still going after Ubet, but at the same time, she is fighting monsters. Boros is going to be confronting Ubet soon enough and free the Brawlers…"

"He knows they got hacked?!" Alley's mother demanded.

Gene smirked. "He's the one who hacked them. He got them to play along and was able to shut down their emotions so they appeared brainwashed. They have been recording everything." Gene said with a wicked grin of his own. "It's going to be rather interesting when the world see what he has been up to…"

Alley sighed as she began to feel tired again. She lay next to Suiryu and sighed aloud.

His arms wrapped around her as she pulled her in closer. "I want to go home to our family…" he whispered.

"Me too, but we need to get stronger."