Important Note

Hi All,

It was pointed out to me while I was writing this that this chapter contains potentially upsetting content.
The age rating of the story has been updated accordingly.

I will put a mark in the story where the upsetting content begins, feel free to skip it.
I have summarised what was skipped in a less upsetting manor below.

Thanks for understanding,
Cbehrills

BACK TO SCHOOL – THE STORY OF LARA

South of the Military Academy

Lara just looks, smiling as the two of them remain silent for at least one minute. The owl perches on Hannah's shoulder, watching in silence, not wanting to interrupt a moment between the two of them.

"Hello again," Lara says eventually, "You're Hannah aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm Hannah," the young woman replies, "This owl here is Claude."

Lara nods, Claude, she will have to remember that.

"You know don't you?" Lara asks, "Who I am to you, and who you are to me?"

Claude is dumbstruck by the interaction. Hannah may be just weeks old but she has the body and mind of an adult, Lara has lived for hundreds of years, the two of them seem to have the wits of infants. Lara is wearing the uniform of the Homeworld military. It's baffling that she's questioning her anonymity while practically wearing an ID badge. Regardless, he stays quiet, assuming that their behaviour is due to their emotional state.

"You're Head General Lara of the Homeworld military," Hannah says questioningly, "That means that you're my mother, and that I'm your daughter."

"Yes."

"I see, that's good."

Lara hovers awkwardly for another moment.

The military of Homeworld have been without family or relations for her entire life. This is a historic moment, the first time since Furst became emperor that a member of the military has spoken to their child. Lara knew this might happen when she decided to rebel, but she never thought that she would be the one. She thought this would be Clyde or someone like him, someone who is good at this sort of thing. Yet here she is, with her own flesh and blood, with her own child.

"I'm so sorry," Lara says as she steps forward.

"For what?"

"The way you've lived your life so far, knowing no friends, with nobody to care about, I know how that feels, I knew it until recently," Lara blabbers, "Nobody should have to feel that way, especially not my daughter, you don't deserve that Hannah. Just now I drew two marks on the ground, one for each of the people I loved, but I'm such much luckier than that. I have three."

Hannah pauses before looking at the owl, "You don't have to worry, I haven't been alone, Claude has been looking after me."

"I see," Lara says, glancing at the owl, "I'm glad about that, I owe you my gratitude Claude."

Lara has seldom interacted with the enlightened beasts of Homeworld only having encountered them once or twice during her entire life. Interaction between humans and the beasts has been very rare since the incident. This friendship her daughter has struck up with Claude is probably a piece of history for Homeworld, perhaps the strongest relationship between man and beast since the incident.

"You should come with me now Hannah, both of you, I'm going to take you to meet with your father."

Lara has overlooked something key about her daughter though, forgetting in her emotional state that receiving orders is not in her character. No, as Lara makes this suggestion, she is surprised for just a moment as Hannah doesn't even consider moving.

"Do you know about my divine ability?" Hannah asks.

"Ah yes, your supreme instinct," Lara recalls, "It heightens your senses but affects your brain doesn't it, you have a warped animal-like mind."

Claude rolls his eyes and tries not to think about how rude that was, considering that Lara is at least more pleasant than most humans.

"That's right, if you want me to come with you I need to accept that you're the boss first," Hannah explains calmly, "I will try and challenge you for the position, we will fight to be the leader of the pack. You will have to establish that you are my leader, that you are stronger than I am."

"Of course," Lara says before hesitating, "That is what you want?"

"It is."

"Don't worry then, I was merciful the last time when I let the two of you escape, good thing I was acting unusually that day. I'm happy to defeat you if that's what it takes to free you."

"Thank you," Hannah smiles earnestly, "So, what battle class are you?"

"You already know about battle classes? I'm impressed."

"I was born with the knowledge to survive in this world, with the body and mind of an adult. It was expected that I would be battle-ready, prepared to slaughter the enemies of my masters."

Lara feels a sudden pain overcome here when she hears this. Hannah was designed as a weapon, hearing that come from her daughter's mouth is more painful than she imagined. Has she already failed as a mother by letting that happen? How much must that hurt, how must that change someone? Then again, is it so different from what the Homeworld Military goes through? Aren't they all weapons who lose their free will once they are recruited to fight for the empire?

"You don't need to worry, I am class 5," Lara explains.

That's when it all goes wrong.

"What?" Hannah asks with a shaky voice.

Lara watches but doesn't fully understand the situation yet. As Claude guessed previously, the emotional nature of the situation has robbed her wits of her. She doesn't understand what's happening as the tears begin to flow from her daughter's eyes, as Hannah's horror is reflected in the widening of her lilac eyes. There can only be one reason for it, a reason that would be obvious to anyone else in this situation but is completely lost in the witless General.

"Hannah, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Claude says, "This is all my fault."

"What's your fault?" Lara asks.

"I brought her here. It was I who convinced her to find you. I didn't realise that it was you we bumped into before otherwise I would have done something then. I told her to find her mother, I thought there is no way she would be able to defeat the leader of the military. It looks like I overestimated the Homeworld military."

"Just spit it out, what class is she?" Lara asks impatiently.

"You won't be able to defeat her. Hannah is a class 7."

'That's impossible,' Lara tells herself.

Last time she met Hannah, Claude desperately dragged her daughter away, fleeing from the woman they stole from. When Hannah drank Lara's blood she didn't understand it at the time, but perhaps there is something wrong with her genetically, something that passed on, something that makes the two of them different from everyone else.

Most importantly, last time Lara met her daughter, Hannah ran away because she was weak. She attacked her with 'light' energy and Lara could tell at the time just how pathetic her daughter's energy was, not even close to her own. Lara is a general with enough skill to attract the attention of the imperial guard, to warrant urgent recruitment to the military academy by the aristocrats who taught there. Somehow, in such a short space of time, Hannah has already become a class 7, that shouldn't be possible.

"This isn't fair," Hannah weeps, "It's not fair, it's not-"

"It's fine," Lara says, putting on an unusually comforting voice, "I can find a strong warrior who can be trusted. I can find someone who can defeat you. Don't worry Hannah, it's not over for you, I can-"

"You don't get it!" Hannah yells, cutting her off, "I can't cooperate with you, it goes against all the instincts in my body to obey a weaker predator."

"Then what happens now?"

"I can't let you escape, I wish I could but I can't. Mom, you and I are going to fight, and I'm going to kill you."

Lara watches her daughter being torn apart by her grief and wishes she knew what to say to make her feel better. Is there some kind of clever lie that a parent is supposed to be able to tell, some wise truth that their child has not realised? Lara has nothing like that, she is not Clyde, nor Mirai, Naruto or Sarada, she is just a trained killer and a commander, that is all she has ever been before now. She does fall back on that training for just a moment though and thinks about who must have done this to her. King Weiss Max and Emperor Furst Jonas, she burns their names into her brain and swears that she will do everything she can to end them. This is a different kind of anger to what she has experienced before, an anger on behalf of another.

"Please run," Hannah says, "Run! My instincts have already interpreted this as a confrontation, it won't be long before I won't be able to control myself."

"What does that mean?" Lara frantically asks Claude.

"It means she's going to attack you fool, run, run now!"

Hannah's anguish continues and only worsens as she sees her mother stood in the same spot, unmoving. She has killed several people now, unable to control this instinct brought on by her divine ability, but that didn't matter, just sad mistakes that she couldn't help. Lara is different, if she ends up killing Lara it will haunt her for the rest of her life. So, why isn't Lara moving, is she stupid?

"I can't run away," Lara whispers.

"Don't be stupid mom! Just run! You can't beat me, I'm two classes higher than you, fighting would be stupid," Hannah cries, "Just run, please!"

"I can't run away from you Hannah. You're one of the three check marks. You're my daughter. If I was overcome by fear in the face of one of those marks, that would make me a coward. I can't afford to be a coward now. You don't deserve a coward for a mother."

"It's better than a dead mother, please!"

"Run!" Claude says again, raising his voice as loudly as possible as if to frighten Lara.

Lara smiles. She takes a slow methodical paces as she walks over the grass. She closes the distance between herself and her daughter until she gets close enough to touch her. She starts to notice certain new things about Hannah from this distance. She spots things about her that resemble Clyde, the shape of the eyes, the way she holds herself. Then there are elements of Lara in there too, they have a similar skeletal structure. Hannah has unique elements too though, being slightly shorter than either of her parents, and her lilac eyes and white hair are likely a result of imperfections in the experiment but Lara doesn't see it that way. There are no imperfections as far as she is concerned.

Lara wipes a tear from beneath her daughter's eye.

"I'm sorry, but I'm determined. I'm your mother and this is my decision to make. I won't abandon you here, I'm going to beat you, I'm going to have you recognise my superior strength, and then we're going to leave together."

Hannah looks up into the eyes of her mother.

She feels reassured, just for a moment, the best moment of her short life.

This is shortly followed by the worst moment.

Warning: Upsetting Content

Hannah's arm throws itself out sideways, betraying her will and giving in to the instincts that govern her. Her fist slams into Lara's ribs like a club. She feels cracking, vibrating, she feels her mother's body give but barely and pain in her hand. It is like striking a sheet of paper and she watches, terrified as her mother is sent careering to the side.

Hannah screams as she curses the unfairness of the situation.

As Lara comes to a halt she groans. She took on a class 7 once before when she fought Carmen. That time she had Clyde, Naruto and Sarada fighting alongside her, no such luck this time. There is nobody whose element contrasts perfectly with her own, nobody who is willing to try anything to help her loved ones live another day, nobody with the power of 'life' to help her as she hurts herself, and no merciful opponent. Hannah is unlike Carmen, designed to be unbeatable in her own class, never mind to those of lower classes. It seems that the situation is hopeless. But Lara is Hannah's mother, she can't abandon her, not after all she has been through in recent times.

Lara forces herself up to her feet, clenching her teeth and doing her best to hide her groans as she fights through the agony. She comes into a standing position and chuckles reassuringly.

"Don't worry Hannah, I'm not going anywhere," she says.

Lara teleports to Hannah's rear and punches towards her head, deciding that if there is any chance of victory it is to use her teleportation divine ability combined with the element of surprise.

Hannah's divine ability is unlike any other though. She has supreme instinct levels that allow her to detect what even the senses cannot. As the unforeseeable strike approaches the rear of her head, her instincts force her to duck, to dodge that which should have been unavoidable.

Hannah lifts her hand and catches Lara by the wrist. She slams her mother over the top of her head and down into the floor, and then the ruthless aggression begins. She maintains the grip on Lara's wrist and stamps on her. The general tries to teleport away but the physical contact between them just brings Hannah with her. The daughter continues, all the will in the world unable to make her body stop as her foot continues to raise and fall.

As the seconds pass Lara's resistance weakens and Hannah watches as her mother goes alarmingly limp. That isn't enough to satisfy her instincts though as she releases Lara's hand and starts to descend to attack with her fists.

Lara uses this brief moment of freedom to fire some point-blank 'light' energy attacks at Hannah, but these have absolutely no impact. Hannah simply uses her powers of 'darkness' and 'light' that she inherited from her parents to slap them away. She kneels atop her mother and punches her repeatedly, switching between her left hand and her right, maintaining constant contact with her knees to not allow Lara to escape.

The fists continue to rain down until Lara stops even trying to resist. Her breathing and the movement of her eyes the only signs of life. After a dozen more strikes Hannah finally stops to see that her mother is still just barely alive.

"Don't worry," Lara just manages to smile, "I'm here, you'll be fine."

Hannah places her hands on her mother's torso. She summons energy both 'light' and 'dark' to them and unleashes all the energy into her familial adversary. The energy attacks Lara's organs from within, flashing such a bright colour at one point that Hannah's instincts force her hands in front of her eyes.

Then it is done.

Hannah's attacks stop as her mother stops moving.

Lara lays there completely motionless.

"Mom… mom…" Hannah calls, "Get up! Mom!"

Nothing!

Claude watches as Hannah cries over her mother's body. He has seen humanity do some terrible things in the past but none compare to this. He watched as they deceived Hannah's parents to harvest their energy. He watched as the scientists did terrible experiments to create a divine ability to mimic the most extreme instincts of animals. He saw Hannah's birth and tried to take her away from all this immediately. He watched her born with an adults body, with an adults mind, robbed of the chance to enjoy development as normal humans do. This is beyond that though. This act of human brutality is just as bad as what they did to the beast kingdom.

"Please move!" Hannah says, "Why didn't you run, you should have run."

Claude considers what may happen now before flying over to Hannah and lifting her from the ground. He flies her away from Lara as quickly as he can.

"Let me go!"

"I'm sorry but if there is any chance that she survived I can't let you stay with her," Claude says.

"She's my mom!"

"That's why I have to bring you away, I can't let you stay there anymore Hannah. That's my responsibility to you, and to her."

"My mom Claude! My mom!"

"Just close your eyes Hannah and keep them closed until I say it's safe to open them again."

Hannah does just that, she closes her eyes and keeps them shut. Never again will she see her mother.

Several minutes pass before help arrives. Clyde, Mirai, the others. They arrive looking for Lara having felt the tremendous energy flaring in this direction, having felt the tremors in the earth.

"Oh my god," Mirai says as she finds Lara, "Clyde she's there."

The two of them run over ahead of everyone else, kneeling either side of Lara. It's hard to even look at her like this, so lifeless.

"Have we… have we got any medics?" Mirai asks, "There must be something we can do."

"I may be able to help her," Clyde says reluctantly, "But this will hurt her, a lot. Be ready for it Mirai, it's going to be hard to listen to."

Mirai closes her eyes and nods.

Clyde lifts a hand to his head and wipes a tear from his eye. The others only have to listen to her pain, he's about to cause it and that hurts so much more. He takes a deep breath and asks himself if he can do it, but then he looks to Mirai, to Elliot and the others who are desperate at this point. He closes his eyes shut tightly for a moment before hovering his hands over Lara's torso.

"I'm sorry," Clyde whispers to her.

He brings 'darkness' energy to his hand and pushes it into Lara's body through her wounds, controlling it as best as he can to beat Lara's heart for her, to pull oxygen into her lungs and to start her body working again.

Lara yells in pain as she wakes suddenly, vocalising her pain so loudly that people cover their ears and avert their eyes.

Elliot remains the pragmatist, "Clyde, as soon as you stop all of her organs will go back, she will die ag-"

"Yes I know!" Clyde shouts at Elliot, "She will die, I know! Don't you have anything useful to say, do you have any great suggestions for me General Elliot? Because if you don't I strongly suggest that you shut up!"

Elliot stops speaking immediately.

"Hey Lara," Mirai says with a weak smile, significantly lowering the volume.

"Hi," Lara says, her body shivering uncontrollably.

Mirai feels her heart break with Lara's reply, she gets to her feet and moves around uncontrollably. "I'm going to try and find Naruto," she says, "He's the only one who can help Lara, Clyde if you keep going with your energy then-"

"Mirai-" Elliot begins.

"You heard what Clyde said, don't speak if you don't have anything useful to say!"

"There's no point going to get Naruto," Elliot explains calmly, "He will be too far away by this point, by the time he got back-"

"Don't you dare say it, don't tell me what I can and can't do!"

Shikamaru steps forward from the group of onlookers and approaches Mirai, urging his teammates to follow with him. He has been looking after Mirai all her life, and she has been hurt many times before but he has never seen her like this.

"Mirai, I'm sorry but there is nothing you can do," he says, "Right now you need to be calm."

"What good will being calm do?"

"It won't do you any good," Choji says before nodding back to Lara.

Mirai looks back around and knows straight away that Choji is right. If this is the end it's not about her, it's about Lara. She glances back at Choji and does her best to produce a look of gratitude, of acknowledgement, but she doubts that she has succeeded given how she is feeling right now. She kneels down on the floor beside Lara and takes her hand hold tightly.

"It's alright Mirai," Lara says, "I know this is the end, I've lived a long time, everyone dies eventually."

"Don't say that!"

"Clyde, it was our daughter that did this, it was Hannah."

"Is she still here?" Clyde asks.

"The owl took her away. He did a good job that stupid bird. He's keeping her company so try not to worry."

"I'll try not to," Clyde offers.

Mirai looks at Clyde and wonders how he is keeping up this façade. He's just found out that his daughter has effectively killed her mother, that she can't control herself at all, that her only friend is a bird. What's more, he's about to lose the person closest to him, that cares so deeply for him, that he almost certainly cares for in the same way she does. This day is about to be the worst he has ever endured, so how does he keep so calm? Perhaps that's just the way Clyde was born, he is better at this than anyone else.

"The two of you have to find her, you have to help her, promise me that you'll help her," Lara begs, "She was just forced to kill me by her divine ability, she won't last long without your help. She's just like me in that way."

"I'll look after her," Clyde promises.

"Mirai, you too, promise me."

"… I'll find her Lara, I promise."

"That's a relief, I'm a lot happier now, I can go knowing that none of those marks will be alone," Lara forces a smile, "I struggled for a long time with rage, but you two saved me, you showed me how to love another person."

Mirai smiles, "You did good."

"I loved," Lara stammers, "I love the two of you."

"We know Lara," Clyde nods, "We know."

"Did either of you-"

"Yes," Mirai replies before Lara has even finished, "Yes I do. I should have told you back in the academy. I should have told you when you asked me about you and me before. I'm so sorry I didn't say anything, but yes, I do."

Clyde nods, "I love you Lara."

"I love you," Mirai adds.

"Thank you," Lara says, relief washing over her. "You know the two of you really rubbed off on me, just like that Uzumaki kid. Never give up yeah, keep going until the end and… and save Hannah."

Then Lara moves no more, even as Clyde tries his best to keep her alive. After twenty seconds of trying to bring her back General Peterson places a hand on his friend's shoulder, pulling him away from the mother of his daughter.

The agony washes over those that she left behind, she lived as a loner, so full of rage, nobody thought that Lara would ever upset anyone when she passed. They were all so wrong. She had her three check marks, people who depended on her, people who loved her. Mirai and Clyde were wrong though, she was not a coward when it came to those three, she stood up for what she knew was right at the end. That is forever what will define her.

This is the story of Lara.

A life of hatred.

A death of love.

Author Note

Summary of Skipped

1 - Hannah loses control and defeats Lara

2 - Claude takes Hannah away in case Lara survived

3 - Clyde and Mirai arrive, Clyde temporarily revives Lara

4 - Lara tells Mirai and Clyde she loves them and asks them to look after Hannah

5 - Clyde and Mirai tell Lara they love her too before she dies