John: "The commander of an entire continent being that humble, huh? that does not fit right whatsoever."
Luca: "That's true, but i suppose it was due to Gabriel's strength that he had such behavior towards us. Man, sometimes i just feel useless because of my powerlessness when compared to both of you, I'm pretty useless aren't I? John is one of the strongest revenants there ever was and Gabriel is also among the strongest people I've met. You both are incredibly strong and can protect against foreign threats, on the other hand there's me..."
John: "You do know these powers are nothing but curses to us don't you? As for your supposed "uselessness", You are a Damn C.O. of one of the most feared crafts in the world. HOW ARE YOU EVEN USELESS MAN? WHY DO YOU THINK OF YOURSELF LIKE THAT?"
Luca: "That's true but I wish to be more, I wish to be useful...I wish to be like you."
Gabriel: "it is like that sometime, Luca, but trust me when i say this you do not wanna awaken this strength, and no you aren't useless. I know how it feels to be in that position, but you aren't useless, you are one of the best humans I've seen. Stop blaming yourself over something you don't have control over."
Luca: "It's MY life, why should i not be able to choose what i wish to be? I wanna be more, it's not like i have anything to lose anymore, my parents died a natural death, the love of my family whom I loved so much died to those sick revenant bastards and i couldn't do anything, The only thing which temporarily distracted me was my job, and i finally could talk my heart out for the first time when we became friends, Gabriel. The only love of my life whom i met in my college left me...mama, papa, Suzie... all of them...gone. I'm sure you both know the feeling. I'm getting old now and i Believe I'm becoming more of a liability to the navy rather than an asset."
John: "Our stories match commander, they do, with the only difference being that i didn't get to marry her. Since we've came to the topic of powers and age, how old are you both, really? I'm just 37, I know Luca is Around 49, But since Gabriel is a force user you must be older than you look right? I've heard that force users can replenish the health of their newer cells and sustain them at a particular vitality without their quality decreasing over time. So, essentially they can look the age they wish to look like, i think you use that too? I mean you look like you're a healthy 30 year old, but you aren't are you?"
Luca and Gabriel: "YOU DON'T KNOW MY/HIS AGE?"
Gabriel:" Seriously, kid? You don't know how old i am? Well, be read to have your blown, I'm Actually 58 years old, and I've awakened my darkness power 24 years ago, when I was 34 years old."
John: "DAMN! I'm sorry but damn you're old.... You've never told me how you awakened them, I just knew it was a very traumatic experience and it's related to your family. Could you tell me what really happened?"
Luca: "Don't, John, it's painful for him and he's already hurt after using his powers back in the sea."
John:" OH! I'm sorry then. You don't have to if you don't want to."
Gabriel: "It's okay Luca, sorrows weighs less when shared to another person. Let me tell you this beforehand, John, the entire story's gonna take a hell lot of time coz I like narrating stories."
John: "Well, then let me bring us another 2 rounds of beer then."
Gabriel: "Well then. Where do I start? Oh right, with my entire biodata first, We'll move on to the two of you once I'm done."
Luca and John: "Fine with me "
Gabriel: " Well, since we have the beers too, let me begin. My father had a normal 9-5 desk job. The doomsday happened in the year 2028, and i was born in 1997, my mom was a housewife and we came from an German family, my blue eyes and my distinct blonde hair should've gave that away. We lived in Munich and i had a normal childhood. In my college, I met a beautiful woman, "Anna" Whom i loved the first time i saw her, we talked and i proposed and she said she liked me too. Everyday with her was bliss, she was the only reason due to which i had the motivation to attend my college everyday. After college, I got a job in the Army, i introduced her to my family of my mother and father after i graduated. We got married after i talked to her parents and both of our families agreed to our marriage."
"Every time i looked at her in college, it was pure bliss and blushing. I couldn't even come to accept the fact that she's gonna be my wife. She hailed from a French Family and none of that mattered to me, i was like a kid around her and she was my comfort. I had to be away from my home due to my army postings, from one side of our family , or both of them came to stay with her so, that she wouldn't be lonely. We had a kid after 2 years of marriage, who was a girl and i put a request to work at a station not be posted away from home for months and months. My request was accepted after 2 months and i moved into Zurich where both our families were near and fortunately my office was near too, We named our child "Lana". Everyday with my wife was beautiful, man. It was so....pure and blissful. my kid, my wife...my home...and peace. We had another kid who was a boy. By this time it was 2022, and my life was so freaking smooth, everything was so good and we were just a lovely family and I was a clingy husband. My father died in 2023 when Lana was only 6 years old and my son, Timothy, was only 1 year old, my mother died in 2026. "
"My wife was there when i was feeling down and i was there for her when her parents died too. She was the beacon of light in my life. After the doomsday, we had to move to the capital to stay safe, the journey there was...hard and deadly, some remaining semblance of the German army set up a safe haven, and i got my friends to allot me a place there, we had to travel through road and the journey was deadly, turned monsters everywhere ,trying to destroy our car, desperate humans who tried to scavenge our cars due to hunger or were begging for a ride to the capital. It was so....miserable. All of it. Children seeing their parents die or families being turned or parents and children being orphaned, but somehow, we pushed through and made it to the capital."
"There we got a room and a bit of rations from the army, who were trying to manage the shelter and protect the city from external threats too. Remember by this point, no one knew something called "Essence users" existed, or humans had any type of "powers". After a few days of living in fear and high tensions, i had to serve in the shelter too, since i was part of the military too. The coalition didn't exist by now. it was formed after 8 years of the doomsday, in the year 2036. After a few weeks of trying to survive and hold off the infected, the capital was attacked by some humans. They came quickly in some helicopters and dropped some humanoid creatures, they were both revenants and modified "shadows" who were even stronger, they killed everyone in the shelters and i managed to flee the scene, with my family. I was wondering where others were, while holding my rifle and trying to hold off some infected on our tail, i saw....them. The same people who attacked our shelters managed to neutralize the city's military forces. The ones who managed to do this impossible thing were...force users. The first time i saw them i was...horrified. They showed no mercy and killed off any and all people without mercy, while i tried to comprehend the horror while also trying to flee without being spotted by the force users, one of the infected tried to take a hit on me, luckily i fought him off and we started running again, but firing off rounds attracted the infected towards me and my family and we ran into a dead end a horde of infected surrounded and i tried to kill them off, one by one, with my arms, my legs...and my wife took care of the children meanwhile. But...I wasn't enough...from the mindless horde came a revenant, whom i didn't know what they were back in the day, he rushed at me and i dodged him, while i tried to hold him off, my daughter got bitten and was turned in front of my 2 very own eyes. My wife soon followed, while she was trying to get the infected off my daughter. I rushed to there aid and try to calm my son down, amidst all the chaos."
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"By this time all the force users had already evacuated and the remaining few revenants who didn't evacuate, were told to kill off the remaining civilians, the instructions coming from a helicopter in the air. The revenant spotted the crowd and came near it, to find a human family, my family. I was scared to my bone when i saw him, his peculiar eyes, his skin was.....moving. He could manipulate his muscles and grow appendages at his wish, like u might know, John. He killed my son and....there i was...amidst all of this chaos...with my family in my arms, they're bodies mutilated and dead. The revenant said, "What a beautiful sight, hahaha.", just a few weeks ago everything was normal, everything was so....peaceful, it was plain and normal. But....now...my....wife, son...daughter....gone. All because of this person and these infected. "I hate you all. I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU , I HATE YOU!!!!!!!" i shouted, to which the revenant only laughed and the mindless "shadows" charged at me. But...My anger grew...my hatred grew...a feeling to avenge my family came over me and I wanted that person's laugh turn into begging to let him go."
"My body temperatures shot up and i could feel it because the skin of my family was being burnt. I turned into a mindless monster who only wanted to destroy, The ground began to rumble and all suddenly turned to naught, every light ray was absorbed by body. Before this, all i remembered was i put my family's bodies down and slowly walked towards the revenant who was laughing maniacally, i wanted him to pay, i wanted every infected there to pay. After the blackout was over, i was directly looking over the revenant, towering over him and once he looked at me, he instantly begged for forgiveness and said he didn't know it would came to this. I grabbed him by his throat and chocked him while i was crying, my mind racing at unfathomable speeds, frames of my life, which was normal till now...the frames of my life being displayed over the screen in my mind, all the times I've been happy, all the times I've been angry, but every time that happened I was alive, but now....I died with my family, only a shell of what i was remained.
My body started to be consumed by darkness and that revenant tried to escape my hands but to no avail. Once he saw my body being consumed by darkness he begged for mercy and said he's ready to do anything, but i only heard him, I didn't listen to what he was saying. The memories of my family overwhelmed my mind and suddenly my thinking capacity was reduced to nothing. I stopped thinking. I threw him on the ground and my body exploded and every ray of light was consumed by my body, a scorching wave of nothingness spread over the city, it was like i exploded in a supernova, but in my case, i released onto the world a horrifying darkness. After the explosion, all of the city became nothing, everything was leveled and the remaining city was engulfed in flames. The entire area in the radius of 20km was lit up, my family's bodies were burnt and so was that revenant's. The explosion attracted some attention and some force users came to subjugate any threats. There they saw a figure wandering around, engulfed in darkness, a barely visible shadowy figure who limped with no thought and was stumbling in his every step. One of the force users who flied over to the ground zero tried to illuminate me, by using his light to see what I am."
"All of them were scared out of their mind, they were levitating over me, who was walking around making a whimpering sound while i was crying, they were flabbergasted by the sheer amount of energy being released by me, i could hear them while i roamed around without a thought, one of them shouted to others and told them to stay away from me. One of them charged at me and to supports him, one after another followed, I made quick work of them, I didn't even know how to use my powers I just killed off every single one of them in hopes that it would fill the empty void within, but it did not, it was just hoping I'd be able to feel something after losing my entire family. It was for nothing. After many hours i was just roaming around the city ruins like a maniac with nothing on my mind, i was conscious but my thinking capacity had died, when it turned to day time, i was laying on the ground when some of the German soldiers woke me up and glad to see me alive. They took me to a base somewhere, they had enquired about what happened and were sorry for what happened to me. After a while, they released me, deeming me innocent and i joined back into the force after many months of psychological help and guidance. It didn't help me at all but helped me with the random outbursts of the dark energy which i had. I didn't join back the army but went missing for the next 4 years to train my power and come back, i had no idea how i would do that but i tried, and i somehow succeeded."
Luca: "Puts tears into my eyes every time."
John: (he was already crying and said) "I'm sorry man. It must be hard being this person you are. To overcome your grief and be strong for the sake of others. You are a role model, Gabriel"
Gabriel: "Thanks man. well that's it for my story, now onto the 2 of you."
Luca: "i don't have anything more to say than the story I've already given you, My mom and dad died a natural death and my wife was killed in an infected breakout in our city, which was supposed to be safe, i went to my job and when i came back...all i saw as her remains. From then on, I've been a nomad, no place to stay at, just keeping on moving, and i tried to distract myself from the workload."
John: "Well, you both already know my story so no point in reciting it again, well then, i suppose it is quite late, let's go to sleep now."
Gabriel: "yep. and remember john, take care of yourself. Don't let your grief get to your head. Nothing good is gonna happen if it does, and Luca, you still are seriously one of the strongest humans I've come across."
Luca: "Thank you."
All of them went to sleep, and wake up next morning and Gabriel deicides to start with the proceedings to adopt tommy. Not because he feels so familiar to his son but to gain closure by raising another child and guiding him. Gabriel explains what's going on to tommy and he accepts, the authorities didn't do any issue , for they didn't know who the boy is and they couldn't find information on the boy too. Tommy was adopted by Gabriel and they celebrated it by going out to dinner.
After a few days of staying in the place provided by the headquarters, Matteo called Gabriel and informed them that their ship had completed it's maintenance and said they were assigned a mission to investigate a place in Australia, which might be related to the organization. The squad packed their bags and left the town of Brasilia to go Rio De Janeiro.
After reaching the port Luca took his position and ordered the crew to board the ship and take their positions, Tommy, Gabriel and john came too and tommy was told that they were going on another journey. At this point, tommy was habituated to this life of travelling as well. They were later joined by Cassius who was assigned to this operation as well.
Gabriel was a bit guilty since he couldn't tell what actually happened with anyone, even the ones who considered him their best friends, it was because of his training, sure, but the truth was important too.