"Once again, I am not your enemy. My name is Vivi, your little sister."

"What...?"

There was an unprecedented silence in Galeon's mind. Although he was not much of a talker out in the world, in his mind, there was like constant buzzing of many different things. His thoughts mixing and mashing together into incoherent garbled messes that it was a wonder how he himself was able to keep up with his thought processes. He had a very overactive imagination so to speak.

But now, his mind was emptied out by a grenade chucked in there from a blind spot. It cleaned everything up, and for a moment, he could not think. He was preparing to fight for his life just a moment ago, then all of a sudden, he learns that the person he was being wary of was actually his sister. It was the greatest whiplash he had ever experienced in his entire life.

"Sister...? By blood?"

This was the main reason why he was so shocked. The fact that he might actually have a sister by blood that he did not know about all these years left him in confusion. Worse yet, he was the only one who did not know. His sister seemed to know him well. But Vivi shook her head.

"No, not by blood. I was an orphan too. I was found by Mom when I was still a baby."

"Orphan..."

Hearing her response, Galeon suddenly felt weak and dispirited. He did not know what he was expecting honestly. Was it a vain hope of a blood tie somewhere? Or was it a superficial relationship built on nothing but an indelible red ink?

Galeon, despite being socially inept, had always had a yearning for connection and kinship. Perhaps it was because he remembers vague recollections of the ruined city around him, overrun by strange creatures made of rock and Prisma. He should have been barely old enough to even walk at the time, yet his mind seemed to have captured that desolate and hopeless scene.

It was his mother who came and protected him from that danger. She saved him and brought him home, giving him a life he would otherwise not have had the chance to even enjoy. She wasted many years of her life and even her youth just to raise him. She was the one connection he truly had in this world.

And in a world where he felt less human than monster, life felt as fickle and whimsical as the sky. Sometimes it would be cloudy while at other times, it would be bright and sunny. And other times still, there could be a tempest whipping about the lands, ravaging the ephemeral lives that do not even come close to matching the tenacity of the storm's temporary existence.

He was a candlelight flickering amidst the billowing blizzard winds. He yearned for something, for someone to anchor him to the ground, to feed his dying flame.

And then, he caught himself fiddling with those thoughts in his head. Shame washed over him like a raging rapids. How could he not be satisfied that he has a sister? Just because they were not related by blood did not mean they did not share a connection. By denying that and wishing for more, he was practically spitting on his mother's sacrifices for him.

He shivered at the thought and calmed himself down in a hurry. He focused on the topic at hand. This was not only a meeting between brother and sister. This was a meeting between client and Contractor. With a calmer and more collected gaze, Galeon looked at Vivi.

"What help do you need from me?"

Seeing the flicker of emotions vanish from his face only to be replaced by a professional and detached tone, Vivi could not help but sigh. She knew this first meeting of theirs was definitely not going to be good. After all, she reached out to him by fronting a business relationship rather than familial. It was her fault, but she also could not do anything to change it. It was necessary at the time.

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"This is related to the commission I gave you, Gale. So before I tell you what I need your help with, I will explain how all this started. To begin, let me tell you again. I am your sister, Vivi. And I am not your enemy."

Galeon's eyes narrowed at those words. That was the third time Vivi had said those very same words and he knew it was not a simple statement. She was hinting at something. Whether she meant to do it or not was irrelevant.

"I have been studying a lot under Mom's guidance and my other teachers. About three years ago, our orbital satellites detected the approach of a cosmic debris. We initially thought it was another minor wave of Prisma, but analysis showed very different results."

"The cosmic debris was in fact an alien flora, a hardwood type to be precise. It was broken and very damaged, but it clearly came from a megaflora, the kind that could eclipse an entire city. This broken part was only the size of a small house when we first discovered it, but over the course of three years it slowly wilted away, its edges crumbling to dust as it continued on its trajectory."

"And throughout that time, we found signs of life from it. In fact, there were two of them. One was slowly diminishing until it fully disappeared about a month ago while the other was something hiding within the first."

"As more and more of the hardwood disappeared in transit, it slowly revealed the inside of its trunk. That was when we saw the origin of the second life sign. It was a glowing emerald amber that seemed to have been growing within the tree, sapping out its lifeforce to grow. The energy contained within it was unquantifiable, something that not even Prisma could match."

"Naturally, everyone feared the worst. Some wanted to destroy it or at least make it deviate from its trajectory which was straight for Corrin. But others also saw the potential within it. Mother was among the latter. And considering her high position in the organisation, she took command of the entire case and set me as her deputy."

"I monitored the emerald amber closely, and when it was finally about to enter the atmosphere, I activated some of our defense satellites to alter its course and sent it hurtling toward Vaulkeen's End. Once I'd confirmed it, I immediately sent you the commission."

Vivi paused for a while to make sure that Galeon was still following her. The man in question was just as silent and stoic as before. His mind, however, was like an enraged tempest as it locked onto a specific detail of her story. And the more he thought about it, the more suffocating their surroundings grew.

There was an unfathomable pressure coming off of Galeon that even he did not realise. Vivi noticed a strange oscillation in space around him that was preceded by a faint glowing of Galeon's eyes. She realised he was angry and that his power was leaking. Before she could calm him down, however, he spoke coldly.

"So you deliberately sent me to it knowing that it could kill me?"

"No, Gale! Calm down! I sent you to it knowing that it would not be able to kill you."

Galeon fell silent once more. He could no longer trust this supposed sister of his. He was even doubting whether she was actually his sister. For all he knew, she was just lying about it to get him under her thumb. She had no proof for her claim after all. Galeon's mother never told him anything about a sibling either. And although she was a woman with many secrets, he knew that this was not something she would have kept hidden from him.

Deciding that this was likely a prelude to a desperate escape on his part, Galeon immediately stood up and went straight for the door. His senses were already primed and he was ready to fight to the end if he had to. He could not let himself be trapped here with no means of escape. But just as he was about to open the door, Vivi raised her voice in frustration.

"Mom is missing!"

Although he really did not believe that this woman was his sister, Galeon still involuntarily stiffened when he heard her words. He turned his head only to find her head lowered, her face marred by anger and anxiety. Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears and her hands gripped the hem of her skirt tightly in an effort to control her emotions. But it was futile because her appearance gave it all away.

Her previously beautiful tapestry of a hair had changed greatly. It went of pale gold and pastel green to a bright scarlet and snow white. The cobalt sheen on it had turned into a fiery purple that gave the illusion of demonic flames rising all around her. Even her horns had changed to match the colours of her hair.

Seeing the genuine emotions coming from her, Galeon realised that she had thoroughly taken down her façade. No longer was he looking at the elegant and commanding woman who could manipulate other people with the simplest of movements. She was now just a little girl who was angry and scared.

Galeon sighed when he realised he had already made a decision. He sat back down and waited for Vivi to continue.