"Alright I'll be back in a few days," Second said, hugging Michio and Mieru. "Be nice to your dad."
"Bye mom!" Michio said hugging her tightly.
"Say hi to Aunt Fourth for me!" Mieru said.
"I will, I will," Second said patting Mieru's head. She got up and went to Vector. He smiled a little and then hugged her.
"I'm sure you can handle them." she said, smirking a little.
Vector snorted. "Of course I can, haven't I proven that to you?"
"You have, you have," she said with a small laugh. "But you know, just in case."
"Yes yes, I got it. You have—well, as much fun as you can there."
"I will." She kissed him. "See you soon."
And then she disappeared.
"Where'd she go?" Mieru asked.
"She went to Astral World," He said, not really caring to explain it.
"Oh, all right then."
"Hey can I make dinner tonight?" Michio asked.
Vector shrugged. "Yeah, sure, go ahead."
"Yay! I'm going to make my special, Potage le Magnifique!" He said, pronouncing each word with practiced perfection.
"You know I don't understand fancy words like that, but fine make what you want, as long as it doesn't poison me."
"I wouldn't do that to you dad!" Michio whined. "I'll make it perfect! Come on Mieru, you're going to be my assistant." He said, taking her hand and pulling her to the kitchen.
Second walked through the glittering halls of the palace, and while she felt like she was back home, she felt a heavy sense of dread she couldn't shake.
Eliphas appeared in front of her, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"I see you did it again," he stated. "I warned you about having a second child."
"Yes, I'm aware, but I've been careful since then."
He shook his head. "You should have been careful from the start, but it was your choice, so that means you'll have to take care of it it on your own." He said.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked him, her face instantly showing concern.
"In short, that dimension we were watching has been pushing more aggressively. We think they'll manage to break into our world in a matter of a few years."
"Do we know what they're going to do?"
"From what we can see, they're planning an invasion."
She looked down at her feet. "I see. So because of that I'm probably going to have do more work to care for my children then, right?"
"No, I need you to be free when this happens, you can't have anything that might get in the way, like those kids. You need to get rid of them."
Her eyes widened. "What? I can't do that!"
"Well you must because I'm telling you to." He looked down at her sternly.
"But, you can't make me do that—they're my children." She was almost close to crying, but she was trying not to show it.
"Do you want to possibly lose them then?"
She sighed. "No, no I don't. But doing something like that...how can I?"
"Come with me." He said, not answering her.
She followed behind him, not looking up at him once. She was mentally cursing herself. This was one of the few times she actually regretted having kids, and it had been years since she had even felt such regret. Maybe...her choices...her decision to have kids...was a mistake.
Second sighed. She hated such thoughts.
Eliphas lead her into an observing room. There were screens that lined each wall and they showed cities, some that she didn't even recognize.
"What's going on in here?" she said looking around.
"While trying to figure out what was trying to attack us, we found—how should I say it—other dimensions." he told her.
She looked closely at all of them and was amazed.
"How many are there then?" she asked, forgetting what he had said before for the moment.
"We found four, but that doesn't mean there's more."
"I see. So what makes them different from each other?"
"Well they appear to be their own world: different cities, different people, different names. Apparently, they are named after a summoning method. Our attackers call themselves Fusion; we are XYZ, and the other two are referred to as Standard and Synchro."
Second looked back at the different worlds. "Hm, all right."
"But that doesn't matter right now." A diagram was pulled up. "Each world seems to be connected. The invasion started in Fusion, and then branched to Synchro, and now they're trying to breach our world."
"And what about Standard?"
"We haven't found much, it's possible they have been invaded, but they haven't done anything violent to them if that's true."
"Then how do you know they're going to do anything bad to us?"
"Because of how it's being done. It's like they're trying to break into this dimension." He looked down at her. "And that's why I need you to get rid of those...things. I need all your attention here, and not worrying about those beings."
She looked away. Eliphas had a point, but just thinking about losing her family was making her upset.
"Where could they go then? Wouldn't the whole world be in danger?"
"It's possible to send them to a different dimension, and I'll allow you to do it, simply so you'll focus on what's needed."
"But...is that safe?"
"We believe so, you can always try it on your own."
"Fine, I will. Where should they go then? And how can I manage to get them to agree to such a thing?"
"Standard seems the safest," he said. He then thought for a moment and then put a hand on her head. "And I'll lend you a little help too." Second glowed for a moment and her eyes flashed. Then it was over.
"What, what did you do?"
"Erase memories, look at memories, and change them if you must—you have that power. It's what I could have used on Astral, and possibly you."
"Oh..." She looked at her hands, unsure of what to think. "So you're telling me to make them forget me?"
"I'm not telling you anything. You do what you want. I just want you to take care of this problem and focus and what's needed more."
"I see, thank you." She bowed her head. "I'll figure something out when I get home."
"Good, now come on, we need to discuss things with the others."
Four days later Second arrived back home. While she was happy to see them, she also didn't want to see her family, as if not seeing them would prolong the time she'd have with them later.
When she walked in the door, she was instantly hugged by Michio and Mieru.
"Yay, you're home!" they both said. She hugged them tightly back.
"How are you two? Did you get in dad's way while I was gone?" she teased.
"No, we were good," Michio said. "I got to cook dinner every night."
"Oh how nice. I'm sad that I missed it," she said, patting his head.
She stood up and glanced at Vector.
"I need to talk to dad alone, so you two go and play."
"All right," they both said, going to their rooms.
"That look... something's wrong." Vector said.
She instantly fell into his arms."I can't do it, I can't," he heard her whisper.
"What can't you do? What's wrong?"
She looked up at him and he saw tears in her eyes. "I—I—I was told I have to get rid of them...the kids," she said, trying to keep her voice down.
"Why? Did Eliphas tell you that? He can't really make you do that."
"Just—" She wiped her wet eyes. "I was told that my attention has to be focused on protecting the world, so that means I have to get rid of the kids."
"Are you serious?" He clenched his fist, and accidently tugging on her hair when he did so. But she seemed too distraught to care.
Second buried her face in her hands. "Yes, I am. But I can't do it. I just can't—it sounds so heartless."
"I don't know what to say." He just looked down. "Are you going to actually do it? And how can you?"
She shook her head. "He just told me what I could do, and gave me something to help make it easier, but that was it. He says I need to do it."
"So there's no way of talking him out of it?"
She shook her head again. "I just have to, and he wants it done soon."
"I see. Hm, well, I will help you however I can then."
'Wait, you're okay with this?" she said, shocked.
"No, of course I'm not! But what can we do? It's Eliphas. Considering what he can do, I rather not piss him off anymore then we already have."
"You're...right. Still, thinking about it. I don't like it, I don't want to do it."
"I know, but—I don't know." He sighed and put his hands on her shoulders. "I'll help you with anything that happens, all right?"
"Alright, I'll talk to him then. Maybe we should visit Standard. I might feel better if I at least know what the place is like."
"Yeah, that might help you," he said.
"Still...it hurts to even think about it."
"I know," He paused. "Maybe if this problem gets fixed quickly, we'll get them back quicker. That's a good reason to focus on."
"You have a point." She looked down. "All right, all right, I'll talk to him. At least he'll be happy to have a quick response.
