Rifting Realities chapter: My Human Brother. Type: Family

Warnings: murder, loss, trama, etc.

A human child returns home after a day at school, but when he makes it he is horrified by what he sees, eeveelution bandits are leaving his house while it burns behind them. The bandits see the child and say "oh, well it's better to not leave witnesses." Before running after the child. The kid. The child gets cornered by the bandits, while walking backwards he falls into a rift behind him, falling out of the sky in the other world, the bandits looking down thinking the fall could be lethal decide not to go down themselves. The human child isn't killed by the fall but is rendered unconscious.

A young glaceon who lives in a city on the outskirts of the continent is skipping around a field. He noticed that some of the tall grass ahead of him is parted. Curious, the young glaceon walks up to the parted grass and sees a small human. He talks to the human, "hello, Hello, you alive, HELLO?" He starts poking the human with one of the claws on one of his front paws, getting no response. "Oh I know" he says, before using cyan tendrils to pull the human toward his home with immense struggle.

2 glaceon parents hear a sound outside their door, opening the door to see their son carrying something behind him. The mother says, "hi honey, what do you have there." The son says, "this." Before using the tendrils to pull the human into his house. The mother than says, " oh you brought one of… them… here. Could you wait here for a second, your father and I need to have a talk." "Ok mom" the young glaceon says as his parents walk to another room. "What is it sweetheart?" The glaceon father, named Nix says to his wife. The mother, named Hera, responds with, "are you sure we should let one of… them in our house, what if it does something to us?" Sighing Nix says, "I know we aren't on the best terms with their kind, but he's obviously young, alone, and unarmed. On top of him being young, we are known to win unarmed fights against them, and we outnumber him, he will not be a threat to us, and if we just leave a child to die wouldn't we be proving what they think of us correct?" Hera says, "I guess you're right, we will help him get home, wherever that is." The 2 walk back to their son, Nix talks to him, "I will take him and put him to rest ok." The son says "ok" before running off to his room."

After a while the young human wakes up, neveras as he is in an unfamiliar environment. Nix comes up to the young human, hoping they have the same language Nix says, "Hello young one, what is your name?" The human child stuttering says, "it's… it's Cameron." Nix says, "hello Cameron my name is Nix, how did you get here?" Cameron says, not looking at Nix, "I don't actually know, I was near my home one minute and here the next thing I knew." Nix calls to another room, "Angus, could you come here, your guest is awake." Angus, the young glaceon that brought Cameron here, comes into the room, "yes dad?" he says. Nix then says, "when you found our guest here, was there any place someone might live nearby?" Angus then says himself, "No it was out in the middle of nowhere." Nix with a confused face says, "hum, that means he either has memory loss or was moved while unconscious, what's the last thing you remember Cameron?" Cameron thinks for a second before saying, "Tripping and falling that's it." Nix thinks to himself, "with all those rifts around that doesn't really help." Then speaking he says, "I am guessing that you don't live where you have anyone like us as nabors correct." Thinking of the bandits that hunted him, Cameron says, "no where I live there are not any of you… things." Nix thinks, "ok so it's likely he somehow went through one of those rifts, and he seems to have some kind of grudge against anyone like us, that might make this harder." Nix speaks up trying not to seem offended at being called a thing. "We want to help you, could you write down everything you know about where you live while I see what we may be able to do." Cameron says, "fine I will" as tendrils from Nix hand Cameron a piece of paper and pencil.

The day passes and the world's star begins to set over the horizon, Hera walks into the room, looking disappointed in the fact Cameron is still there she says to Cameron, "so you… humans… need to eat, right?" Cameron looks up just saying, "yes." Hera says, "then come eat, I am not having you starve to death in my house." Hera then walks off to the kitchen. After some hesitation Cameron follows Hera to the dining room of his host's house. When Cameron gets there he sees Angus and Hera sitting at a table, eating chicken. Angus says to Cameron from the table, "hey come sit down." Cameron reluctantly takes a seat, and just sits there doing nothing. Hera looks up at Cameron, "This stuff from your world has become very popular in ours, what's it called again, chicken or something." Cameron says, "yes it's called chicken" not looking at Hera. Hera then says, "Well I know your kind eats this, so you better eat because you are not leaving this table till you eat at least some of it." Cameron looking down says, "you're not my mom" Hera responds, "yes, but as I said before you WILL NOT starve in my house, so EAT." Cameron looks down at the cooked chicken on the table, he doesn't trust that they hadn't done anything to it, but he had been knocked out when they first got him here, so if they were going to kill him they already would, plus he was in the more Vulnerable position here, and shouldn't get on their bad side, so he begins eating with the 2 glaceon. Cameron can't taste anything abnormal in the chicken, in fact it tastes quite good, not having actually eaten in over a day he eats all of the food given to him. Hera looks pleased that she didn't have to argue too much with Cameron. Angus, who is now also finished, asks Hera, "Mom, can Cameron stay in my room tonight." Hera then says, "well he is not staying in ours, and we don't currently have any other suitable room, so it's that or he sleeps in the living room, so in other words, yes." Looking quite happy Angus says, "come on Cameron I will show you my room" before running off, Cameron follows as he doesn't know what else to do.

Cameron walks into Argus's room, Argus shows him around, but Cameron doesn't pay attention in the slightest just thinking to himself the whole time, Argus gives Cameron a sleeping bag, that while not designed for him, is general enough to at least work. Cameron sits on the sleeping bag even after Argus is asleep. After a while, Nix comes into the room and walks up to Cameron, speaking quietly Nix says, "hey Cameron, I think we may have gotten quite lucky, come see me tomorrow once I wake up, might be a little later as I am quite tired, good night Cameron." Nix then leaves the room. Cameron decides it will not be useful to just stay up and be tired when the chance to leave comes up.

In the morning Cameron wakes up with a paw on his chest, looking up he sees that Angus is standing above him. Cameron jumps up now awake. Angus says, "good morning, want to play? Please play with me." Cameron is surprised by this request but says, "sure, I mean it has been quite boring just sitting around all day" Angus says, "Hooray come meet me outside" before running out of the room. Cameron follows all the way out of the house and goes up to Angus outside. Upon seeing Cameron Angus says, "come on let's play tag, you can be it first, come catch me." Before running around. Reluctantly at first Cameron chases after Angus, but after a while he gets sucked into the game, the 2 children run around chasing each other. After a while they both lay on the ground looking up at the sky describing shapes in the clouds. While looking up at the sky Cameron sees the face of Nix, snapping him back into realizing his situation. Nix says to the children, "Hey you 2 glad to see you are both having fun, could you 2 come inside with me?" As Nix turns around and begins to head inside Angus says, "alright dad, come on Cameron" as the 2 children follow Nix inside.

When the 2 make it inside Nix and Hera are both there waiting for them, Nix is the one who speaks first,"so I looked into the rift situation nearby, and at the information you gave me about your home, and I think that there is currently a rift that can at least get us somewhat close, but we don't have much time, we don't know when that rift will close, and if it does we don't know how long it would be before we got another chance, so if we are getting you home, we have to leave now." Cameron is excited, he will actually be able to go home, he will not be stuck with this family. Angus says, "Can I come too, please please please please please." Nix says, "why not, a little adventure for the family." Hera then says, "ehem, you don't actually think I am letting you go take him on an adventure to that place… without me there, if he's going, I will as well." Nix says in response, "alright, a trip for the whole family, alright everyone let's get ready to go, pick up anything you need and we will set off." Before the family splits up to prepare.

After a short time of preparation Cameron and the glaceon family meet at the front of the glaceon family's house. Nix then speaks to the group, "alright is everyone ready to go." Everyone nods in agreement. Nix then says, "alright then let's go." Before the group sets out. Cameron looks back surprised to notice that the house he just came from was actually a beach house, he had just never looked behind it. The group only has to walk for a few minutes in order to make it into the nearby town. Cameron was constantly getting all different kinds of negative looks from those walking around the town. Before making it to their destination a vaporeon walks up to block their path, the vaporeon says, "what the fuck are you doing with that…

disgusting thing." Hera responds to the vaporeon , "we are taking him back to his home." The vaporeon scoffing says, "you should have just left the mistake to die." Hera responds, "trust me I didn't want him at first either, but my husband is right, leaving a child to die would just prove what they say about us right." The vaporeon says in response, "well I am taking it and making sure that thing doesn't cause any more problems." Before the vaporeon walks closer and a blue tendril appears near Cameron's leg, only to be crushed by one of Hera's back paws as she steps in front of him, be saying "No you are not, he hasn't caused any problems and will not be causing any in the future, he simply wants to go home." The vaporeon says, "fine, I am not going to fight you." Before walking away. Nix smiles at Hera, Hera sees this look and says, "what?" To her husband. Nix, still smiling, says, "look at you standing up for the little one." Hera blushing a bit says, "well we have put so much effort into helping him and he really hadn't been bad, he is a very cooperative child, I can't really see him causing problems anymore when he hasn't caused any conflict the whole time he was here." Nix says, "Ok, right, let's go, we should be getting close to our destination" before the group heads back on its way.

Eventually they make it to a technology repair shop and Nix knocks on the door, an espeon with a prosthetic eye opens the door, well to Cameron it seemed like the door opened itself. The espeon speaks, "Welcome Nix, I was expecting you, come in." As Nix and the rest of the group walk into the building he says, "Thanks Zar for your help, I really appreciate it." The espeon, named Zar says in response, "don't mention it, I saw you talking around about the rifts, and one showed up in my back room not long ago, I had looked in out of curiosity when I first found it, and when you brought up the town name you were looking for I remembered seeing a sign of that exact name thru the rift, just helping a neighbor out." As Zar and the group walks thru the shop Cameron looks around at all the weird technology, a lot of it looks damaged, some seem familiar to him, things that looked like cooking equipment, microwaves ovens, etc as well as many other things that were both strange and familiar at the same time, but a lot of the stuff he sees are completely alien to him. He gets so enraptured by the environment when they make it to the back room he ends up bumping into Nix. The back room door opens showing a room full of boxes, but everyone actually pays attention to what is in the center, a glowing rift. As the group gets ready to enter Zar walks up to Cameron and speaks to him asking, "Hello little one, you must be the one they came to me to help, what is your name?" Cameron gives Zar his name, "it's Cameron" Zar then says, "nice to meet you Cameron, I hope everything goes well." Cameron then hears Nix talking to him, "come on Cameron we're ready to go." Cameron responds, "alright" before walking up to the rift with the others. The group looks into the rift, psyching themselves before they all walk in.

The group find themselves on the other side of the rift, right near a sign showing the town name. Cameron, seeing where he is, says, "I do live here, just on the other side of town." Nix says, "alright let's go then" before the group begins to walk through the town. The humans of the town look at the glaceon family with contempt, but don't do anything until someone throws a gas ball, and while the group is distracted.a guy runs up and grabs Angus and Cameron before putting a washcloth over Angie's mouth and putting Cameron down next to him. Nix and Hera are furious, but before they do anything the adult human speaks, "don't either of you do anything, or I'll kill this one here" pointing to Angus, Nix and Hera stand there trying to figure out how to deal with this situation. Cameron looks at the person who just took him and sees a knife in his pocket, deciding to repay the glaceon family for their kindness he takes the knife out of the adult's pocket and stabs it into the person's leg. The adult screeches in pain he certainly didn't expect Cameron to attack him, he drops Angus, loopey from the drugs in the washcloth, but not exposed long enough to pass out, Cameron helps direct Angus back to his parents. The assailant is stunned, he can't understand what just happened in the slightest, before the assailant can react Nix has a tendril pick up and put Cameron on his back while Hera does the same with Angus and they run past.

They keep running, not even looking if they are being followed, until they finally make it to the other side of town. Hera says to Nix, "I will stay with Angus while you go with Cameron" Nix nods and say, "alright, let's go Cameron." Before setting Cameron back on the ground and walking behind toward Cameron's house. They go over to where Cameron's house is, only to see that the roof has caved in. Cameron is shocked, but what really breaks him is what he sees at the front where the door used to be, his mother, not breathing, crushed under the rubble. Overwhelmed Cameron collapses on to the floor while saying, "no no no no no" over and over again, when he finally gets up he runs off crying. Cameron runs off to the top of a hill he used to play on, sitting down under the tree in the center. Nix comes up and sits down next to Cameron. Nix says, "hey Cameron everything isn't ok, is it." Cameron responds, "they're gone, I…I will never see them again, I can't go home, it's gone too, everything is gone." Nix says, "I can't relate to everything but can relate a little bit." Projecting his feelings onto Nix Cameron says, "YEAH RIGHT, WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND!" Nix responds calmly, "I saw my mother die, while I was as young as you" Cameron feels a lot of guilt at his outburst after hearing this and can only say, "oh" Nix says to Cameron, "I know how hard it is to lose a parent, and can only imagine what it must be like to lose both." Cameron breaks down and begins to cry, Nix holds Cameron close and Cameron cries into Nix's fur, Cameron's tears rolling down Nix's fur. Cameron, still crying Cameron says, "I don't know what to do, what can I do now, I'm all alone." Nix thinks for a second before responding, "you don't have to be alone." Looking up at Nix with tears still in his eyes and says, "what do you mean." Nix looking straight into Cameron's eyes says to him, "If you would like you can come home with us, we would be happy to take you in as our own son." Cameron is shocked, and at first doesn't know what to say, he thinks about it, even Hera the most apprehensive of the family had been fairly nice to him, and they all went through unnecessary effort to help him. Right now he would still rather go back to his biological family, but he sees that is not an option, and really Nix and his family are the closest he has to a family right now as he never really meet any of his relatives, he decides that it's better to go into the care of the glaceon family rather than a stranger. Cameron wipes tears off his face and says to Nix, "alright…Dad." Nix hugs his adopted son before saying, "come on let's go tell the rest of our family the news." The 2 walk off the hill and toward where Hera and Angus are waiting.

Hera looks worried seeing both Cameron and Nix returning instead of just Nix, she says, "what happened why is he not with his family?" Nix responds to his wife, "unfortunately he will not be able to return to his old family, they're gone, but he is with his family." With a confused face Hera asks Nix to explain. Nix does so by saying, "Hera my love, say hello to your newest son." Hera doesn't know what to think about her husband adopting a human, she looks at Angus and can tell he obviously supports the idea, knowing Cameron is a good kid, she puts down her apprehensions and says, "alright, come here my son." Cameron was worried about if Hera would accept him, now feeling part of the family runs up and gives Hera a hug. The family holds a makeshift funeral for Cameron's bio parents, and tries to salvage keepsakes from the house's ruins until the setting of the sun. When they sneak across the town and back to the rift, which is luckily still open, the family goes in. Cameron goes last, looking back at his original home town one last time, before following his new family into the rift.

The family steps out into the back room of Zar's shop, with Zar sleeping in the corner. Nix wakes up Zar who says, "am I seeing things or is Cameron still with you." Nix responds, "yes he lost his family, so he's our son now." Zar smiles and says, "it's quite nice to you to take Cameron in." Nix says, "thanks for the help Zar, even if he ended up coming back it still meant a lot." Zar says, "of course you're welcome, now I am guessing you want to get home, follow me out." Zar and the family walk through the store's entrance. Before Cameron walks out Zar says to him, "I promise you that you are in good paws, Nix is a good friend of mine, and I know how kind he is, enjoy your new life little one, and you are welcome back anytime." Cameron happily follows his new family sticking next to Angus until he gets back to the glaceon family's house.

Angus happily directs Cameron to his room, as Cameron doesn't have his own place in the house yet. The 2 children lay down and begin to talk. Before they go to sleep Angus says to Cameron, "you know you're one of us now, so I guess that makes you… My Human Brother."