A young boy around 7 years old sat down all alone in the wooden chair of a garden. He has dark hair, tanned skin, and dark eyes. he was dressed in a pair of cargo shorts and a simple black t-shirt. He was looking at the sky and stars as if he was searching for something.
"Oh? Why are you still up this late in the night?" The boy was not surprised at this as he looked at the stars. The speaker smiled gently as they walked gently towards revealing long blonde hair and green eyes.
"Can't sleep." The boy said lazily as he looked to the sky. "Fire... screams..." HE muttered, hearing this, the male's eyes widened for a fraction of a second as the boy looked at him.
"Oh, would you mind telling me your dream?" The man asked, sitting beside the boy.
Nodding, the boy looked at his hands.
"I was dreaming that I was in a village. I was all alone and there were a lot of people, screaming and crying." The boy said, hearing this part, the male nodded and continued to listen. "Then, there was this big monster humming a song as it ate people."
"Oh? Can you tell me about this monster?"The Blonde asked, a barely concealed smile on his face.
Timeskip a decade later
? Schicksal
A tired-looking young man of around 20 years old sighed as he chewed on what seems to be a cigarette. He is dressed in an ordinary pair of jeans tucked into a pair of boots as well as a button-up shirt. Over his attire was a leather jacket with a snake on it. He looked to be an average teen if it were not the fact that a rather eyecatching and beautiful blonde-haired girl was trying to steal the cigar off of his hand.
"Give me a break..." the tired voice of the young man said as he leaned back to prevent the blonde from taking it. "You already dragged me in here during a holiday, and you also want to steal my smoke from me?" The young man was quick to react as he stepped back and quickly took a puff, blowing a small puff of smoke towards the blonde who pouted.
"Reve, give it to me." The blonde said with a determined tone, her blue eyes sharpening as she glared at the male who sent a small cloud of smoke at her face. It did not smell good, in fact, it stank.
"Hell no! this is the only time I can smoke." He replied to the girl, who huffed and looked away to hide a pout.
"This is the first time in months that I dragged you out of your lab and you ignore me." The blonde muttered as she puffed her cheek and glared at the young man.
"Ever heard of asking?" Reve asked sarcastically as he took a deep breath, the nicotine helping him relax as he blew a small cloud of smoke and looked around the area they were in. It was a small park, surrounded by trees.
"You won't even get the time to hang out with me if I ask you." The blonde said as she fixed her jacket.
"Because I am busy. I don't have time to spare for things like this. I'd rather be back at the lab, collecting data." The young man said causing the blonde to pout and reached in to grab his cheeks. Making him look at her, the girl asked something that shocked the male.
"Do you hate spending time with me that much?" The way she asked that was neutral, yet Reve knew that the 15-year old was steeling herself from his answer.
"No, I'm just busy all the time," Reve said as he looked at her and eyed his cigar, it was finally empty and he put it out on an ashtray and threw it in the bin. "Besides, why spend time with me when you can just spend more time with the others, like Rita for example."
"But I always go to parties and events with Rita. We rarely get to hang out anymore since you got promoted."
"Bianka. I have a lot of things to do. You know that I run the maintenance and Research for the immortal blades." Hearing this, Bianka 'Durandal' Ataegina, the strongest Valkyrie of Schicksal sighed in annoyance. The young man was her best friend and someone who helped her a lot during her training days. "Besides, do you even need me now that..." Looking to the side, Reve saw a familiar person approaching them. he stopped what he was doing as he fished out a phone from his pockets.
It showed a familiar pattern of snake scales and a code popped up. It was the personal code of the overseer that he was given to in case of emergency. Opening it, the young man's eyes widened as he saw a message.
"Well, duty calls," he said while standing up. Hearing this, Bianka sighed. This was one of the few times she was able to get him to come out of the lab and he got a mission. Seeing the downtrodden vibe the strongest Valkyrie emitted, the young man said something he knew he would regret. "I promise you, we'll hang out on my next holiday." Reve said as he rubbed her head.
Reve hummed as he walked away with a wave through the streets of London.
Once he was in a commercial part of the city, the young man entered a tailor shop and entered a dressing room where he pulled a hook like a lever, and the room he was on slowly descended. Reaching the deepest floor, the young man entered the door revealing a woman wearing a visor with white hair.
"Welcome, Dream. Your briefing will start soon," The woman said as she opened the door to reveal a huge monitor. Saying nothing, the young man stripped himself of his clothes as he entered the room. Putting on a pair of cargo pants, combat boots, a dark flak jacket over a long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of gloves, the young man put on a mask over his face and looked to the monitor.
"Dreaming Snake. Your current mission is to shadow Director Catherine and hunt down any possible snipers and vantage points that overlook this location." The voice said as the screen opened up to reveal the face of Otto Apocalypse.
"Overseer. Permission to use lethal force?" Reve asked, his voice calm and collected despite receiving the task of possibly taking the life of someone.
"Granted, try to persuade them first. I have a feeling that one of them will be using a key," Otto said, making Reve or Dreaming Snake flinch.
"Very well, although may I request a week off?" Reve said as he looked at the weapons on the wall and took the weapons he might need. He needs to be light and maneuverable as he knew what kind of weapon the third key will be. All Crozzos know about the key as well as many other things about the previous era.
After all, the very first Crozzo, Achilles was a biological weapon created not only to store knowledge but to use them to prepare the current civilization with each Crozzo having access to select memories to view from each prior Crozzo before them.
There are some exceptions to these as every once in a generation, there will be a Crozzo who can access all the memories of previous Crozzos and understand them as if they were the ones who experienced these events. After the death of Reinhardt Crozzo, the family or rather a clan has slowly faded to obscurity and acted as their own information network, with the gift being treated as a curse as it cost the lives of a lot of fools from the family who wanted to help others. It was only with the help of the overseer, that the Crozzo bloodline was not wiped out.
(London Holiday manga events happen)
Dreaming Snake pressed his gun, a pistol on the back of the prone hooded woman's head. It was a heavily modified pistol with the use of knowledge from the past civilization as well the ingenuity of humanity, a gun that can fire off condensed Honkai energy, corroding and putting those who received its venomous bite in a dreamlike state.
"The overseer would like to talk with you." Dreaming Snake said as the woman's eyes widened. how did he find her? Where were her guards? Her traps?
"What do you want?" She said. Her key was damaged and she was in a bad position.
"The overseer would like to talk with you." Dreaming Snake repeated as he used his foot to push her away from the 3rd divine key. He then got on top of her and cuffed her hands, behind her back. "What's your name?"
"Raven..." The woman begrudgingly said as she was held at gunpoint. With an emotionless face, the dreaming Snake struck like lightning and his 'bite' injected his 'venom' towards the blackbird.
"Rein." Looking behind him, the young man around 20 years old looked at his old friend, Otto Apocalypse.
"Oh, Otty," Reinhardt greeted with a smile as he looked at his blonde friend. The two were in the Crozzo clan mansion with Reinhardt resting under the shade of a tree after a very taxing mission that involved him infiltrating and destroying a cult of Honkai worshippers.
"Ein," Otto greeted with a smile as he sat down near his friend. The Crozzo and the Apocalypse lazed under the tree as they looked at the clouds. It has been a tradition for the two to spend an hour lazing around and doing nothing.
"So, I heard you were doing some research about the plague." Reinhardt said as he reached inside his jacket to pull out a cigar. Seeing this, Otto shook his head and reached in for a fire striker to light Reinhardt's cigarette.
"Yeah, I figured I might as well do it," Otto said while Reinhardt hummed as he took a puff of smoke from his cigar.
"And because you don't want Kallen to leave you as you have deluded yourself that she will leave you just because you did not find a cure," Reinhardt said what Otto always thought without any problem. The two of them had known each other for almost a decade now and they were as close as twins, hell even closer than that.
Seeing that there was no point denying it, Otto nodded and gratefully accepted the cigar Reinhardt offered him. It was ironic, he was the youngest son of his family yet he felt like he was more of a Crozzo than he will ever be an Apocalypse. In fact, he even had his own room, study, his little kindergarten where he takes care of the little ones with some nagging from the elderly, as well as a regular seat at the family dinner table and family tree.
"But, you're still a bastard." Reinhardt said as without any warning, struck and playfully tackled the blonde to the ground.
Otto who had been used to this type of thing by now merely caught the more physically active man in a chokehold and started to press and rub his knuckles on Rein's head. The two young men were the most skilled in their fields but outside of work and seriousness, they were just two idiots sharing the same brain.
As the two finished their playful fight, Otto and Reinhardt both lied on the grass with smiles on their faces.
"Oh, Otty. Follow me, I have something I want you to have." The pair of young men soon arrived at the basement where a glass coffin was surrounded by liquid and wires. From the entrance, it looked like a blooming lotus.
"This is..."
"Well, since you are already a member of the Crozzo Family in all but blood, big brother Renault agreed that you should be able to access the prized genetic memory banks of the Crozzo Family. Mr. Otto Crozzo Apocalypse." Reinhardt said with a grin that made Otto feel something he did not expect, pure happiness.
"Well, aren't you to use it?" A young man wearing a white coat over his clothes, said as he looked at the young men in front of him. He has black hair, slicked back, a pair of glasses on his face. He had an athletic build and looked more like a modern scientist. He has a holster on his right thigh holding a weapon similar to the judgement of Shamash.
"Renault!" Reinhardt said with a smile aimed towards his oldest brother, 8 years his senior and the wielder of the Judgement, a weapon similar to the divine key passed down from the Kaslana family.
Opening his eyes, Reve groaned as he looked around to see that he was in a hospital of some sort. Groaning, the young man held his head only to notice one thing. He was covered in bandages in some areas. His left arm was missing and his right eye was under a medical eyepatch.
"What happened?" Reve asked as he winced in pain. Everything was a blur and his body hurt a lot.
"Reve!" The door opened to reveal the overseer, Otto Apocalypse with a relieved smile on his face. Walking forwards, the overseer rubbed the dreamer's head with a smile. "Thank goodness you're awake."