Having finally resolved to confront his parents, Kenji found himself kneeling at the dining table of his childhood home in Kyoto. Around him was a house full of moving boxes. Since his father had returned to his and his mother’s lives, and Kenji could defend himself, his parents decided to stop living off the grid and fully use their resources. The first step was moving into a luxury apartment in the Akasaka area in Tokyo.

  This would bring his parents closer to his University, and the apartment was within walking distance from the Japan Branch of Renegade Technologies. He was asked to come over to help with the move by his mother, but he knew it was just an excuse to get the three of them under the same roof for once. This worked fine for Kenji as he had become determined to learn everything about his parents.

  “It seems we have a lot to talk about.” Kenji’s mother sighed as she knelt across from Kenji.

  She tucked her wavy light brown hair behind her ears as her light brown eyes looked at Kenji with concern. She then looked behind Kenji to see Cheong Yu-jun, The Bone Collector. He walked past Kenji and knelt beside his wife. She held his hand with a smile, turning back to Kenji,

  “You look so much like your father.”

  “That’s great, but could we get to the point?” Kenji snapped.

  “Watch how you talk to your mother, Isuel.” Yu-jun frowned.

  “Not you pretending to be a father. And my name’s Kenji.” Kenji responded.

  “No, it’s not, nor is it Isuel.” Kenji’s mother interrupted.

  “And my name isn’t Suzuki Cho. It’s Roratha Murmus. And your name is Aiono Murmus.” Roratha told her son.

  “That sounds Latin but wrong,” Kenji responded.

  “It’s Mytherian, the language said to be spoken by the gods,” Roratha responded.

  “Mom… what are you?”

  Kenji’s mother took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

  “I'm Persequion. Or, as your current lot calls themselves, a Chaser. Persequion are the original Chasers who follow the true will of Heka. Or at least we were supposed to.”

  Kenji stared at his mother silently and then looked over at his father. He was more confused now than when they started this conversation. He had heard the origins of Chasers from Mawu during his Chaser “Graduation”; they originated in Egypt.

  “Heka is the name of the Egyptian god of Magic. Mytherian isn’t anything like Egyptian. Nothing you're saying is making sense.” Kenji asserted himself.

  “Heka is not the true name of the being that blessed the first Persequion; it was a name we gave them, since they never deemed us worthy enough to tell us their name. Heka is also the name we gave ourselves when we began to fragment.”

  “Fragment?” Kenji asked.

  “We were simply the Persequion. However, as with most things, ideals, conflicts and selfish desires superseded purpose. The Renegades, Adders, and Oleanders are all just fractured pieces of the Persequion. To show that we remained true to our purpose, we named ourselves Heka and remained hidden from the world.”

  “That’s all very interesting, but it doesn’t explain why Dad had to disappear. Is Heka that against Taboo Children as well?”

  “Heka is the reason you were hunted at all.” Yu-jun interrupted.

  “What?” Kenji looked at his father more than at his mother.

  “The Fractured Chasers have aversions to Taboo Children but had no real intention to hunt them. They simply want their power for themselves.” Yu-jun clarified.

  “Right.” Kenji didn’t need to hear anymore, if they couldn’t have him, it was best to kill him. It was this mindset that put Dr. Hamilton’s life in danger.

  “But I’m guessing it was a little different in my case?”

  “Correct, you are the first Taboo Child to reach adolescence, let alone teenage years,” Roratha answered.

  “Second, you’re forgetting about Zac,” Kenji said.

  “Right, Zachary Zym… we’ll circle back to him. For now, we’re talking about us.” Rorathar quickly refocused the conversation and then continued,

  “I was born into Heka; most of us are at this point.”

  “Wait, are you all Taboo Children then? I thought,”

  “No, we’re the next best thing.” Rorathar corrected.

  “Before we were granted Nevilara Mystara or the Blessing of Magic, we are trained from the age of 5 until the age of 20. Our parents will then pair us with suitable partners. We have until we reach the age of 25 to sire children of our own. At the age of 25, we will then ingest the Blessing of Magic.” Rorathar explained.

  Kenji looked shocked. They trained them to be soldiers and then arranged relationships for them strictly to produce more soldiers. Kenji then looked at his father and knew he wasn’t part of Heka because of the Nano Machines.

  “Do I have a brother or sister out there somewhere?” Kenji asked.

  “No. There were no suitable mating prospects for me in my developmental group. I was far and away the best, so I was slated for greater things.”

  “Mating prospects… alright, what do you mean?” Kenji continued wrapping his mind around this.

  “It is deemed that individuals like myself are better off taking Nevilara Mystara as soon as possible; we are then inducted into a special unit within Heka known as the Theronites.”

  “So Theronites are prohibited from having children?” Kenji asked.

  “Anyone who has taken the Blessing is incapable of having children. In return for the abilities we gain, we become infertile.” Rorathra smiled at Kenji.

  “So we are called Taboo Children because…”

  “Yes, not because you are the product of a Chaser, but because you should not exist. That was the original meaning of Taboo Children.” Yu-jun answered.

  “The advent of Nano-machines made it possible for empowered Chasers to reproduce. Something that was naturally taken care of by the design of the Blessing. As such, Taboo Children took on a different meaning, but their existence was still frowned upon, as we could not predict the consequences of their existence.” Kenji’s mother explained.

  “But I thought the serum, Nevilara, whatever… the Blessing of Magic had severe side effects, not just making you infertile,” Kenji asked.

  “After The Fracture, we found ways to reduce the side effects of insanity and degradation to almost nonexistent levels. It still happens occasionally, but those cases are very few and far between. We also managed to increase its potency.”

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  “How much are we talking?” Kenji asked.

  “When I met your mother, I was already considered one of the best Chasers alive. I would barely be above average to those in Heka.” Yu-jun said with a frown.

  “How about now?”

  “With the upgrades, I can hold my own against the best they have to offer.” Yu-jun had a confident smirk on his face. Kenji’s mother looked at him and then at Kenji,

  “You still won’t be able to handle the Theronites yet. Don’t get too cocky.” Rorathra said as she rubbed Yu-jun’s hand.

  From the sounds of things, his mother was more dangerous than his father. That would explain how she could repel someone like Devin, but he still didn’t understand something.

  “How did you and dad meet? And how was I born? And you say you’re a Theronite; what exactly are they?”

  “The term ‘Persequion’ in Mytherian represents the chasing of truth through the darkness to illuminate the future. Theronites are an elite group of Persequion who enter into an oath to wait for and to protect Auranthos’ Threnos.” Kenji listened to his mother's words with confusion. She smiled at him and then said,

  “Just know that Auranthos’Threnos is a being that will lead us in a time of great crisis. Our job is to train and hone our skills in anticipation of their coming. While Theronites can’t have our own children, we are encouraged to seek talented children to adopt and bring into Heka. Many Theronites have at least a dozen adopted children.”

  “I’m guessing that has something to do with how you meet Dad?” Kenji asked.

  “Yes. When I was 28, I went on my first excursion to find a talented child to adopt. I didn’t find any orphans that caught my interest, but what I did find was your father.”

  “Was it love at first sight or something?” Kenji scoffed.

  “No. I got careless, and he spotted me jumping across the rooftops of Seoul.”

  “Yes, I was meeting some old friends in town when I spotted your mother. I thought she was an enemy Chaser stalking me and intercepted her.”

  “I then proceed to almost kill him.” Rorathra giggled.

  “What stopped you?” Kenji got more invested in the story.

  “I thought killing such a handsome face would be a waste. So instead, I told him to forget me.”

  “I didn’t listen.” Yu-jun chuckled.

  “The next 3 years was a game of cat and mouse between your mother and I.”

  “And he was a rather tenacious cat. But I enjoyed his desperation just to hold a fleeting conversation with me.” Rorathra looked at Yu-jun, elated.

  “One thing led to another, and I got swept up in a romance I was not looking for. 2 years later, the impossible happened. I got pregnant.” Rorathra smiled at Kenji.

  “Neither of us know how.” Yu-jun saw the confusion on Kenji’s face.

  “I can assume this wasn’t the best news for Heka,” Kenji asked.

  “Yes and no.” His mother answered, much to his surprise.

  “I was among the most talented and skilled Theronites to grace Persequion history. Some saw it as a sign and thought you might be the person we'd been waiting for. Others thought you were an abomination, the product of the Fractured Chasers’ ill-begotten hubris and technology.” Rorathra shook her head.

  “I saw it for what it was, using me and my child as a tool for a pointless power struggle. I saw where the wind was blowing, and the side that wanted you to be born was not winning, so I broke my vow, becoming an Oathbreaker, and fled.”

  Kenji hung his head as he looked down at the dining table. He could piece the rest together himself. She must have met up with his father. The 9 months of her pregnancy were more than likely spent on the run. There was one thing he was curious about,

  “How did you free yourself from the Adders?” Kenji asked his father.

  “The leader at the time owed me a favor he could never repay, so I just settled for him wiping my kill code from the Adders database.”

  “I see. So you became an Oathbreaker and had Heka on your ass. Why separate after I was born.” Kenji sighed.

  “It was my idea?” Rorathra spoke, much to Kenji's surprise.

  “Why?”

  “I know how Persequion move and their blind spots. None of the average Persequion would be fool enough to approach me, even with a child. Also, Theronites only make moves on a sure thing. There aren’t many of us, and our primary objective is to wait and protect Auranthos’Threnos. So your father fluttering in and out of blindspots, that I provided, without any clear sign of me, would keep them at bay.” She responded.

  “So Dad was a decoy? And you were the last line of defense?”

  “Correct.” Yu-jun nodded.

  “So how did the Chasers find me, or even know I existed, if Heka couldn’t?”

  “I believed Heka was deeply rooted in the Chaser's organizations. The blindspots Heka has, the Chasers most likely covered. Your mother now believes they have been embedded within the Chasers since The Fracture to observe us Chasers closely.”

  “Ok, so Heka tipped them off? But I thought Devin and Zac found us first, and they were completely independent at that time. So how…” At that moment, the bracelet Shaila gave him began to beep. Everyone looked at the flashing cube hanging from his wrist.

  “Is this place secure?” Kenji asked.

  “Yes,” Rorathra answered with certainty.

  Kenji took a deep breath, not knowing what to expect; the beeping from the cube became rapid and stopped. Light green lines spread over the cube and then split apart to form a transparent screen before him. On that screen was Shaila smiling.

  “Well, this is awkward…from the timestamp, only a few weeks have passed since I gave you this. Ah well, just means I’m too smart for my own good.” Shaila spoke.

  “What’s going on?” Kenji asked.

  “I was just getting to that.” The Shaila on the screen responded.

  “An interactive A.I. a very advanced one, even her personality has been emulated,” Yu-jun commented.

  “You are correct, but enough of that; I have something important to tell you and not much time. If you’re seeing this, it most likely means I died.” Kenji’s eyes widened, and his breathing picked up.

  “There’s no way, there’s no way Zac would let that happen.” Kenji frowned.

  “You’re right, so don’t be surprised if Zac is dead, too. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case.” “Shaila” became visibly distraught for a moment.

  “Oh no…” Kenji placed his hand on his head when everything sunk in. He now had hoped that Zac died because he didn’t know how he could handle his pregnant wife being killed.

  “Who was it?” Kenji’s eyes narrowed, his sorrow now replaced with rage. He refused to believe that the two of them had died in an accident.

  “Certain recent events have left me less than confident with the leadership of the Renegades. Some things just didn’t add up. I would use this Honeymoon to relay my concerns to Zac while we were away from prying eyes. However, I also felt very uneasy recently. I feared that we may be targeted on the very same Honeymoon. It seems I was correct.”

  “Who was it?” Kenji asked again, his anger beginning to boil over.

  “If my speculations and investigations are correct, they call themselves Heka.”

  Kenji looked over at his mother, who closed her eyes and sighed. She figured that may have been the case.

  “The data I have collected is stored within each of these cubes; only when 5 of them are brought together, will everything I gathered be revealed. After this initial message, each cube is useless until combined.”

  “Smart, but where are the other 4 pieces?” Rorathra asked.

  “Kenji, you and Ume must find Zac, if he's still alive, and the twins.” Kenji nodded his head in understanding.

  “A final piece of advice. I never thought I’d have to say this, but… don't trust Devin.” The screen went blank, and the cube pieces were reassembled on Kenji’s wrist. At that moment, a message blared in Kenji’s and Yu-jun’s minds,

  “All Renegades, report to your Branch’s Testing Grounds ASAP. Use for all emergency transports has been approved.”

  Kenji and his father looked at each other. Rorathra saw the look on their faces and then smiled,

  “You’ve been called in? Go, I’ll be here when you return. There are many more things to share.”

  Kenji nodded his head. The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable Devin’s existence became. He was independent but had more accurate information about his existence than Heka or the Chasers. He somehow managed to get his hands on Zac as well. All he knew about him before was that he was a recruit of the Oleanders. A simple recruit rose that far that fast, even managing to kill the former leaders of the Adders and Oleanders?

  “None of it made sense.” Kenji thought to himself.

  None of this dawned on him before. He assumed Devin was just a cut above the rest, mainly because Zac didn’t seem wary of him. However, Nina, Zac’s mother, made her dissatisfaction with Devin widely known, and there was much to say about a mother’s intuition. As Kenji headed towards the door, followed by his father, his mother wished them good luck,

  “I pray for your success and the safety of your friend.”

  “Love, you don’t know The Anomaly very well. If that man is alive, do not pray for his safety; pray for any family and friends you have remaining in Heka.” Yu-jun chuckled as they walked out the door, and Kenji trailed behind him.

  Kenji and Yu-jun left, and Rorathra closed the door behind them,

  “You don’t know him well either; he’s not a man at all.” Rorathra sighed.

  “Seems the storm is approaching. Are we ready?” Rorathra thought to herself.