Chapter 5

After the three days passed Storm came up to Lian's bedroom and knocked on his door. "Father said it was alright to talk to you now," Storm said nervously. He rocked back and for from his heels to his toes while he waited for Lian to respond.

Lian opened the door. His hair was a wreck, sticking up in places, completely covering half of his face instead of just falling into it. He didn't have the clips in his hair and his hoodie was twisted up around him.

Storm stopped rocking and smiled, "Just woke up?"

Lian nodded and rubbed his face. He shoved his hand into his hair to hold it back. "What do you need?" he yawned.

Storm took off the visor he wore. His eyes were a pretty, saturated teal. But he had a pretty bad, healing cut on the side of his face. The cut reached from his eyebrow and curved around his eye and finally ended at his cheekbone. He held the visor out to Lian, "It's started glitching a little bit. It's not a nuisance yet, but I thought I'd bring it up with you before it became a problem."

Lian took the visor and looked it over. His hair feel back into his face. He blew at it indignantly. Almost instantly he looked up at Storm, "Probably just some minor damage from the training you were doing the other day." Lian noticed the cut on Storms face and nodded, "Yeah. You got hit on the side of your face didn't you?"

Storm nodded, "Father said I wasn't guarding well enough and told Aria to stop holding back. And he hit me in the side of the head."

"Ouch," Lian commented sympathetically. He looked back at the visor, "Well it should only take a few hours to fix."

Storm smiled, "Thanks."

"No problem." Lian smiled back at him.

Storm started to shift his weight from one foot to the other, "I-I guess I'll leave you to it then. I'll be in my room."

"Alright." Lian watched Storm walk away. He sighed and closed his bedroom door. He pulled his hoodie off and took the visor apart. "This is loose," he pulled at a loose connection.

The fox growled in protest when he accidentally hit his bed with the drawer when pulling it out.

"Sorry. Sorry." Lian stepped over the drawer and petted his fox a couple times. He quickly returned to fixing his brother's visor.

Once he fixed it he paused, "Father said he wasn't guarding well enough huh?" He pulled the notebook out of his pocket and flipped to a blank page. He sat down on his chair and spun it around slowly. He chewed on the cap of his pen. Suddenly he sat up straight as a board. He grinned, "That's it!" He started to draw out the visor. "I'll just need to add a few..." He trailed off as he focused entirely on what he was drawing.

When he was done he started to rebuild the visor. He added an extra little piece that glowed a little bit and vibrated at a frequency that most wouldn't be able to feel. Lian could feel it. And he was sure Storm would be able to feel it, being the god of magic and all. Lian grinned and proudly held up the visor. The process had taken him four hours in total.

Lian knocked on Storm's door.

"Just a second." Storm called.

Lian heard him squeak and heard a thud. He stepped towards the door just as it opened. Storm used the door to pull himself to his feet. The room behind him was a war zone. Clothes were strewn across the floor and his desk was covered with notebooks and books from the younger boy's classes. It looked like he had tripped over one of his shirts.

Storm straitened his dark blue blazer and fixed his white tie, "Thanks." He patted down his wavy dark purple hair and put the visor back on.

Lian nodded, "I added a few things to it that should be able to help you in training."

"I can tell," Storm nodded. He tapped the side of the visor with a gloved hand curiously.

Lian studied Storm for a second, hesitant to leave. "So..." He swallowed, "Do you need anything else?" He hoped Storm would say yes. If only because he'd have some company for a little longer.

Storm thought for a second, "Um. No…? I don't think so." He glanced over his shoulder to his room, "Father might get mad if he finds you helping me clean my room."

"So?" Lian responded instantly, "If you need the help I'd be happy to."

Storm shook his head, "Sorry, Lian. I don't want us to get in trouble."

Lian sighed, "Alright."

"Thanks again." Storm started to close his door. He hesitated just before the door closed fully, "Sorry."

Lian stared at the closed door. He reached out and touched the door lightly with his fingers. He made sure not to move the door or in any other way lead Storm to believe he was still there. A second later he pulled away and walked slowly back to his room. He shoved his hands into his pants pockets and kicked his door closed. He leaned against the door and sulked.

The fox was seemingly asleep on the pillow. Or at the very least ignoring him. Lian smirked a little bit, "Probably thinking I'm being melodramatic, huh?"

The fox didn't respond.

Lian sighed. His smirk faded and his voice was hollow as he muttered, "Or just asleep." He rubbed his face with his hands then slowly dragged them down his face. He tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling, "If only you could talk."

He straightened abruptly and walked over to his desk. The mouse was chasing one of the tiny balls Lian had made him that rolled around on it's own. Lian chuckled, "C'mere, Little Guy. We've got some work to do." He picked the mouse up and set him on his desk. The chair's wheels whirred in protest when he yanked it out away from the desk. He spun the chair around so it was facing his bed and pulled the drawer out from under his bed. He set it down on the chair.

The mouse sat on the desk, sniffing at the air and looking around. It poked it's nose into some of the stuff on the desk.

Lian noticed and picked him up, "Stop that. You're gonna cut your nose." He gently patted the mouse's nose with his finger and set it back down on the desk. He petted it between the ears, "Now don't hurt yourself, alright? I'll have to put you back in the drawer if you do."

He grabbed the notebook off of the desk and flipped back through some pages. He eventually stopped on a design for a headset obviously for the fox that would connect to the computer that was hidden in his closet. On the page next to the headset was an idea for a transforming robotic body for the fox. Both pages had all manner of notes and descriptions and close up drawings of certain aspects of the design. There was also some smudged ink on the pages and a large coffee stain spread across both pages.

Lian grinned and started working. He pulled the computer out of the closet and set it up on the floor next to the desk. He sat cross-legged in front of it.

The first priority of the project was developing a program on the computer. There needed to be a place where the consciousness could be stored as a file without deteriorating. He needed a program that would be able to re-upload the file back onto the headset so it could be transferred into a new body.

Lian nodded approvingly, "The hope is, I'll be able to talk to them when I transfer them into a robotic body. Naturally there would need to be predetermined conversation points. But I can always expand the speech programming when the need arises. I'll just start with the basics and go from there."

Programming took six days. Lian didn't sleep until he passed out from exhaustion and then he woke up a few hours later and continued working. He built two headsets. One for the mouse. One for the fox. The mouse was much more cooperative when it came to making sure the headset fit properly.

Lian chased the fox around his room, "Buddy! Hey! Come here!"

The fox leaped onto his bed, it's tale waving back and forth. It yelped at him.

Lian gave it a flat look, "Oh shush. I know you're being difficult just because you can be." He dived onto his bed but the fox leaped off of it. He scowled and slid less than gracefully off of his bed, "Why are you so much faster than me?" He got to his feet and brushed some of the dust off of his pants.

The fox sat down next to his desk and yawned.

Lian raised an eyebrow, "Oh. You're bored are you?" He crossed his arms over his chest, "That's fine. You can be bored. That's not going to stop me from getting this hat onto your cute fuzzy little head."

The fox barked.

Lian sat down on his bed. He ran his hands through his hair, "C'mon, Buddy."

The fox's tail flopped around behind it.

He sighed, "Fine. You'll come to me." He took the headset off of the mouse.

The fox whimpered.

Lian looked over at it, "What? If you want attention then get over here." He motioned for it to come closer with a wave of his hand.

The fox stood up and trotted over to him. It shoved it's head under his hand.

Lian smiled, "Hi, Buddy." He wrapped his arms around the fox and set his head on it's back. After a moment he pulled away, "Alright. Give me just a second." He managed to finagle the headset onto the fox's head. He adjusted it so that it fit perfectly and then took it off. He petted his fox a few times afterwards, "Sorry, Buddy. But now that that's done I don't have to do it again for a while."

The fox flicked it's tail into his face.

Lian batted it away and rubbed at his nose, "Really?!" He patted the fox's head, "That was low, Buddy."

The fox barked in a way that sounded like "Nope!"

Lian raised an eyebrow, "Smacking me with your tail when I'm trying to work isn't low?"

The fox growled softly and rolled onto it's back.

Lian laughed, "Alright. Alright." He rubbed under the fox's chin for a little bit before returning to work. He tested the headset on the mouse. The mouse twitched and squeaked but nothing happened. The little guy quickly fell back to sleep.

Lian sighed, "Oh well. I guess we can't expect it to work on the first try. These things rarely do." He pulled the little headset off of the mouse. He got to his feet, "I'm gonna go get us some lunch. I'll be right back, guys." He made sure to close the door behind him. He took a platter up to his room with him, despite the fact that he wouldn't be able to eat that much. He gave the mouse a little piece of bread to munch on while he reworked his calculations. And he just let the fox pick through the meat and fruit he'd brought up. Lian nibbled at some bread himself.

He continued to work for another couple of weeks. Three more tests failed, but he was getting closer. The most recent test had managed to reach the point of uploading the file onto the computer but an error had occurred and the action had been canceled.

Lian was about to perform another test when his father threw open the door to his room without knocking first.

He dropped the mouse and whirled around. He stared at his father in shock and horror and stumbled over explaining himself.

Seth'ius towered over him, his face twisted in rage the likes of which Lian had never seen before, "What do you think you're doing, you selfish rat?!"

Lian flinched and lowered his gaze.

"Well?" Seth'ius prompted impatiently.

Lian eventually lifted his head and looked at Seth'ius. He swallowed and licked his lips nervously, "I was just trying to make something that would help my fox talk. So I'd be able to talk to him."

"You little scumbag. You have your family here to talk to! You don't need anyone else!" Seth'ius grabbed him and tossed him onto his bed.

The fox growled but Lian held it still.

Bright white chains wrapped around the computer, the drawer that held all the supplies Lian used to make these things, the mouse, and the two separate headsets. The mouse shrieked. The drawer caught fire and the computer and headsets started to melt.

Lian was stunned into silence for a moment. He quickly got up and grabbed Seth'ius's arm, "Father. I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! Please stop!"

Seth'ius shoved Lian back into the bed.

Lian grunted with the force that he landed with. He sat up, "Father! I wasn't trying to hurt anyone! Please! Please stop!" He felt a lump forming in his throat but ignored it, "I won't do it again! Please. Please just stop."

Seth'ius grabbed Lian's notebook off of his deck and held it in front of Lian's face, "You won't do it again?"

Lian reached for the notebook but white chains wrapped around it. He squeaked in pain and pulled away from it. His finger tips quickly turned red and then started to blister.

The notebook caught fire.

Seth'ius snarled, "You didn't mean it? You weren't trying to hurt anyone?"

Tears started to run down Lian's face. He whimpered, "M-my notebook."

Seth'ius crushed the notebook into ashes and threw the ashes into Lian's face.

Lian flinched and coughed.

Seth'ius grabbed Lian by his chin and neck and dragged him closer to him, "Don't you ever betray your family like this again. Do you understand me?"

Lian nodded.

Seth'ius let him go.

Lian fell forward. He caught himself and managed to clamber ungracefully back onto the bed.

Seth'ius turned away from him, "Stop crying over this waste of time and clean it up." He stalked towards the door. Before he left he warned, "If it isn't cleaned up by dinner, Mii'lian, you are going to be in even more trouble." The door slammed shut.

Silence weighed down on the room suddenly.

The fox snarled.

Lian patted it's head with one hand. He sat numbly on his bed.

About twenty minutes later Lian wiped his tears away and got to his feet. He put his hoodie back on and wrapped his arms around his torso. He took a deep shaky breath and cleaned everything up. He worked silently until his room was pristine again, not a mark on the walls or the desk or anything. He cleaned out the desk drawer he had turned into the mouse's home and threw away everything he had made for the mouse. He threw away his pens, all of which he had almost chewed through completely. His face was blank and his mind was empty. He ignored the burning sensation in the fingers that had touched his notebook.

Seth'ius fetched Lian for dinner and checked the state of his room. He didn't knock, again.

Lian jumped and turned to the door. He quickly lowered his gaze, "I cleaned my room, like you asked, Father."

Seth'ius nodded, "I can see as much, thank you Mii'lian."

Lian took calm controlled breaths, even as fear placed an invisible weight on his chest.

Seth'ius stepped out of the doorway, "Go down to dinner. If you ever try anything so inconsiderate again, you'll face far worse than just the evidence of your betrayal being destroyed."

Lian nodded, "Yes, Father. I won't do it again."