He shuddered awake, something in his dreams scaring him out of his sleep. He didn’t even shoot up from the bed before the memories faded, and he was suddenly awake in a white room, gasping heavily in panic while a woman and a kid his age stared back at him. His first thought had been on how to get out of here…

His second?

“...Why the hell are you holding my hand, freak.”

He scowled at the kid at his side, slapping the hand that had been holding his presumably the entire time he’d been asleep. They had been there when he left the awakening machine as well, getting in the way when he had been trying to get out… “What are you looking at?” It only wierded him out more when the kid just smiled back, as if what Liam said had instead been a compliment.

It wasn’t.

The nurse chuckled at the scene as she went to a drawer and picked out a couple bottles, each in a brightly coloured color of different types. “Kids these days don’t know the importance of family. I’m glad at least your brother knows to be worried about you.” She placed each bottle down on her desk and pulled out a prescription, writing on it as she continued.

“I’d kill for a twin, you know that? Asked my mother about it when I was 6 and had a tantrum when she told me that wasn’t how it worked.”

She chuckled at her own nostalgic memories, which confused the hell out of Liam.

Twin?

“What are you… talking abou- ah. Oh, what the hell…” Ah man, he was an idiot.

He chuckled as his weary mind finally connected the dots, wondering what the hell had happened to get him here. He should have at least figured it out from the eyes. No kid in this school had golden eyes like that.

Like Liam.

He’d had enough.

He went to stand up, but was stopped at the crooning voice of the nurse. “Oh, sweetie… you wouldn’t want to do that…” He looked at her with confusion, until his body almost went crazy with shivers. And then he felt so… heavy. Yeah… he didn’t want to get up, huh. He just wanted to lay down and rest up while the nice nurse finished whatever the hell she was doing. Then things would be fine and he’d go home to his…

His mom.

Only four seconds passed until the hypnosis broke, earning a look of surprise from the nurse. He turned to his feet in fear, glad to find them no longer filled with lead. “Geez, you kids are getting tougher every year. I’m scared of what they’re doing to you these days.” Liam calmed down as he realized what happened. Mind powers… that was a high-class power, right? And for good reason. He had been immobile for a whole four seconds, just enough time to unload a clip into him…

Goddamnit, that was terrifying.

“...Sweetie? Are you ok?” He fought the urge to flinch as the nurse neared him, putting a hand on his head to check on his condition. No fever… but you’re sweating a lot. Today must have taken a whole lot out of you…” Her hand was cold, but for some reason it was comforting, to the point where Liam almost fell forward in a moment of sleepiness.

She caught him, setting him gently back down on the bed as she contemplated. “Complete exhaustion… this must have been a natural awakening. That damned Wyland didn’t tell me that. What happened to you… I’m calling your mother, and then you rest up. This is just a case of wearing yourself too thin.” Liam still wasn’t sure what she meant. He noticed it already but the way she and Wyland seemed to almost act like a natural awakening was a disease made him feel strange.

He looked up wearily at his clone, who was still just staring at him like he was the only person in the world. “Doesn’t everyone awaken naturally? Why’s that so messed up here?” The nurse gave him a complicated look, before turning back to her work in silence. He almost thought she had ignored his question until she spoke, her voice hesitant. “Not a lot of… people awaken naturally in Utopia. You might be the first case this year.”

That had him up again.

“What!? What the hell does that mean!?”

The nurse glaced away guiltily, before turning to him with a smile. “Nothing, sweetie. It’s just that. It is a utopia, after all. Now please… Go to sleep, you look tired..” The words hit like a truck this time, and he fell back to the bed like a brick.

…

ThIt e nurse sighed, going to take some pain pills from the headache she now had. That power always took it out of her when she had to be serious about it. She almost stood up to rearrange him until the boy’s twin went to do it for her with an almost trained precision. “Aw, thank you sweetie. Don’t worry about the crankiness, I’m sure your brother’s only having a bad day.”

The kids smiled, nodding his head before reaching for the unconscious boy hand again, holding it with one hand and calmly checking their pulse with the other.

The nurse forced a smile on her face as the boy’s thumb gently ran over the other’s wrist, unsure about how casual that had been.

Their was such a thing as too family friendly, after all

______________________________________________________________

The ride home was quiet. Liam had only woken up after his mother had come to school, and he was placed inside the car with little fuss. He was scared, and had plenty reason to be, especially since the nurse had talked to his mother about how nice his twin brother was.

And the natural awakening.

Liam’s ‘twin’ was in the back, blissfully smiling despite the tension. He already knew what thoughts were going through his mother’s head.

Natural awakenings were dangerous, and only happened to someone as young as him when they were desperate. It was a miracle he hadn’t become an Ego in the process. “I was just a bit stressed, you know how it is, right… The awakening was a big thing, and, uh… I guess I beat it to the punch?” Damnit. He wished he’d shut that nurse up before he had passed out, because his mother looked about ready to crush the steering wheel. That wasn’t exaggeration, Liam was scared the thing would rip right off and they would crash.

His mother was taller than he was at six feet, and with a physical strength power that could make high-profile supers swear, she had been a walking tank ready to blow. He’d never seen her this mad before, looking ahead of the road with dead fish eyes. Even when he’d been caught with Skimmer back at the badlands, it hadn’t been to this level, he’d almost needed to use the damn drug to survive her beating that time.

It took until she spoke that he realized it wasn’t anger, but sadness.

Her voice was trembling.

“Liam… I’m… I’m sorry.”

What?

“What?”

Everything in his stomach did a somersault as tears ran down his mother’s face. It had been such an unexpected scenerio that he pulled back against his window in shock, as if she’d pulled a gun on him. He wanted to throw up, never having seen her like this.

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Liam almost threw himself at the driver’s seat, before realizing that was a stupid idea, instead he leaned over and put a hand on her back. “What!? Mom, what happened!?” She turned away guiltily, trying to wipe her tears on her shoulder with little success. “Damnit… I’m sorry. I, I didn’t… I didn’t know you were having such a hard time.” The weak, hiccuping voice sounded so miserable coming out of his usual drill instructor of a mom.

She was Mika the Kingbreaker, for fuck’s sake.

“W-what? Mom…” He hated that his own voice sounded ready to break as well. His throat burned as he tried not to cry. “M-mom… I’m fine really. This was just a… Everyone back in the third district awakened like this so I didn’t know it was… mom…” Damnit, god fucking damnit.

He was crying now, wasn’t he?

He could feel the sting of the saltwater in his eyes, and snarled. 16 years with this woman and the only two times he’d hurt her had been outside of a sparring match. Fortunately for her it was also just about as painful for him this time. Her breaths were short and shallow, and he could tell she was also having trouble trying to pull back her tears. “I-I’m sorry, Liam. I ne-eever knew you were having a problem.” She spoke between sobs and deep breaths, her hands bending the steering wheel in front of her in awkward angles..

It had almost been a comical sight, if Liam didn’t feel like he was being stabbed in the gut.

This was going to be a hell of a long car ride.

They’d made it home without too much of a problem, at least. Nobody had died on the way so that was definitely good news. The two were in shambles though, each of them were ashamed at their own show of weakness in front of the other, but each too worried to leave the other’s sight. Liam rubbed his face, wondering if his eyes had been as red as his mothers. The woman looked like she was sculpted out of stone when she had fought, so seeing her swollen eyes as she sniffled occasionally was definitely not something he thought could be possible.

He felt his face, and realized his eyes were about just as raw.

What the hell was he supposed to do here?

Hug her?

That was something a son did, right?

Would she kill him if he did that?

Did that even matter?

…damnit.

He stood up, and his mother watched with steely eyes as he walked over to her, before tentatively reaching out for her. He reached in before pulling back a bit and starting again, like a kid did whenever they saw a stray dog they wanted to pet, gauging how dangerous the situation was. A couple seconds passed but eventually the kid managed to do it, reaching around her just enough to squeeze tightly.

It wasn’t anything to someone as strong as her, but considering how her body relaxed he assumed he was on the right path.

An awkward few seconds passed before he let go, analyzing the state of his mom.

She had leaned forward onto the table, and her hands were gripped so hard together that he could see the skin turn white. Maybe he wasn’t on the right path after all.

“A-ah. S-sorry mom I guess that was the wrong, uh-”

“I love you, Liam.”

Huh?

He almost didn’t catch the words, too abrupt for him to get it.

Her grip tightened, and he saw a crack along the table beginning to form. “You’re my son, and I love you. I love you more than anything in this world.” Her eyes glazed over as the words left her, and he could see her chest heaving in that familiar way that meant she would start crying again.

Ok, this was getting scary.

“If… If there’s anyone at school giving you a hard time. And, and I know you wouldn’t want my help or, or a-anything but… But if anyone’s giving you a hard time just know that I can-”

Even in between crying sobs, the table shattered underneath, and Liam jumped back, both at the exploding shards of wood and the sudden bombshell his mom had dropped. This was just too ridiculous.

“What the hell, mom!? You think I’m being pushed around!?”

By those pansies!?

She looked at him with grief-filled eyes, which looked considerably more menacing with the ruined table in front of her. His mom wasn’t shaking anymore, but he could see a new fear in her eyes. It was the same one the newbies in the badlands had when there had been a new purge…

The eyes of someone who wasn’t sure they would come back alive.

“We can… We can go back to district three after I’m done. I know it’s a rough change all of a sudden. I was told the students weren’t cruel but I should’ve known better when they put those powered freaks near the kids. There aren’t many people in that school that can take me so just single them out and I can-”

He had knelt down in front of her and grabbed her shoulders to speak, even when he was sure it meant he’d break a bone or two.

“Mom! Trust me, I’m not being, uh… bullied? That sounds so…”

Just the words alone sounded so goddamn ridiculous coming out of his mouth, now. It really made him feel like he was just another kid in a school, like he hadn’t been through so much worse. At least he understood why she was acting like that now. It had almost been half a year since they’d come here, and he had almost come to terms with the fact that the super-powered kids just kept to themselves. His mom didn’t, though.

She was probably thinking they were as bad as the freaks back in district 3.

She had been the kingbreaker back in the badlands, so that kind of thing wasn’t acceptable when it came to her kid.

It took a couple more hours before he could explain completely and calm her down, and in the end she had put her hands around her face and hadn’t moved for a while. He could understand the sentiment. He was… happy that she would go to those lengths for him, but he was also embarrassed as hell for having put her through that.

This just wasn’t the sappy emotions they were used to.

“Go to your room.”

He gave her a look, almost scowling at the order before he remembered the situation.

“Uh, yeah. See ya mom.”

She flinched at the words, and he immediately went for the stairs. He heard something crack on the bottom floor before he closed the door to his room, and after a few seconds of silence, he slid to the ground in relief. He was at least finally alone-

“Gah!? What the fuck!?”

He reached for one of his dumbells in preparation for a fight as he noticed someone sitting on his bed. They seemed well built, and by the way they seemed so calm even after he’d walked in meant they were ready for a figh- Goddmanit. It took a few moments to realize it had been the clone, but luckily Liam figured it out before he left a dumbbell shaped hole in the wall.

The damn copy of him was sitting on the bed with a calm smile, barely moving from the center of the bed except for the occasional rising of its chest. It must have snuck into his room when he and mom had been acting like little girls.

…he shuddered, knowing today would haunt his memories for the rest of his life.

The clone blinked, and Liam flinched. A moment later it turned away, and Liam put his hand over his eyes in relief. He wondered how many more times he’d have to see the thing before he stopped jumping like a rabbit. The fact he had powers still didn't click with him for some reason… He recalled the moment he’d acted like a know-it-all in class, mocking the Ezekiel kid for not immediately using super strength only moments before he’d gotten them.

God, Liam knew he was pathetic but he didn’t expect to be a hypocrite.

He glanced at it again and noticed it looking at him, smiling a bit wider when they met eyes. At least he didn’t flinch this time.

“...wipe that look off your face.”

As if on cue, the face immediately gave way to a snarl, enough to get Liam back on guard.

“What the fuck…”

He almost went for the dumbell again until he saw his own face in the mirror, looking ten times scarier. The copy didn’t move, except for the occasional glance towards him, as if to keep him in check. Everything it was doing was the same, but Liam couldn’t help but feel the tension in the air.

Despite it, he barked out a laugh.

“Ahaha… Goddamnit, that’s a riot” …Damn. He knew he made a bad face normally, but it really only hit him just how he looked like from a different perspective. Maybe the school had been right to steer away from him, he was scary as hell after all. A weight lifted of his shoulders and, no longer quite so tense. He even found the balls to stand up and sit next to it, though he made sure to sit as close to the edge as possible.

Now that it lost that stupid look on it’s face, he was starting to see the resemblance.

The golden eyes were set to slits, shifting to him occasionally before looking at different areas of the room. It’s eyebrows were curved a bit at the sides, something he’d been made fun of back in the third district before he’d put in the effort to shut them up. People thought he had done them himself, which was completely ridiculous. It took years before people stopped calling him a Jit-toy, and even then it was only after he took a life.

…huh.

He neared it, and pulled on its sleeve hesitantly, it offered the arm with no resistance, which was strange as hell considering the look on its face.

So, this was his power, right?

What the hell did that mean?

“...What do you do?”

It looked at him, its arm still in the air despite Liam already having let go of it.

“Did I really just get another one of me? That’s a hell of a shitty power…”

Its eyes shifted to his hands as he said that, and he caught the look.

“What?”

It reached for him, and he almost slapped them away before he noticed it just reached for his hand. He let it take it, but was still on high alert.

“What’s my hand got to do with my power? I don’t get it-”

His hand went into their mouth, and he couldn’t pull back in time before it sunk its teeth into his palm.