Ow.

Liam flinched as he tried to move the knuckles on his fingers, only for it to have no effect. They were almost completely swollen now, with a shade of purple that really didn’t look good. Not to mention the pain… He was really feeling it now that his adrenaline was wearing off.

So was his mom, apparently.

“Gah, what kind of food do they feed you bastards in this city…” She rolled a shoulder, her arms moving in tandem with her handcuffs. The poor cuffs stretched ever so slightly, as she moved. They had been placed on her more for the look than anything else, barely even staying on her as she casually moved. Wyland had been forced to put them on her and Liam when the soldiers had come armed. None of them could harm her, and Liam had already died once, but the teacher had been more worried about the ricochet than anything else.

On the other side of the table, the man in question was sitting down, looking more like the one being held hostage.

“I… Miss Kingbreaker. I apologize for not being able to protect your son.”

Liam groaned at the name, and Mika snarled.

They hadn’t known that the people in Utopia had a last name when they’d come here, so Mika had just put the title she had been given back when she had controlled a part of the third district. Needless to say, the title had gone down to him as well.

So his name had become Liam Kingbreaker.

The two of them had tried so hard to forget their past in their last district, but having to write down the name of his mother’s district title always made Liam a bit reminiscent. Not to mention how embarrasing it was to be reffered to someone who could break kings when he had been a non-super. At least he could have brought some worth to that name now that he had obtained a power. At least, before all this happened.

His mom snarled at the man slamming her hand down on the table between them. The cuffs had finally snapped off. “You didn’t ‘fail to protect’ him. Your stupidity got him fucking killed. You and I both know his power had been the only thing to save him, and he hadn’t even known that.” Liam grimaced in anger as Wyland looked at him in shock.

Him and his mom had been put here for a while before Wyland had come back to speak to them, and he had explained while his mom listened quietly. It was a hellish experience to watch the fire in her eyes build when he told her how he died, and how it felt like he’d just woken up from a dream.

She had been ready to maim someone, but the fire left her eyes when she saw Wyland sink his hands into his hair. He looked like he finally broke.

“I… I wasn’t aware that Liam… Oh, oh my god.”

The teacher had looked ready to cry, and for a moment both mother and son froze.

“I… I caged your son inside that room. If it wasn’t for me he… he would have been ok. When I walked in there and saw the… When I saw your kid next to the mutated girl, I didn’t know what to do.”

Liam was shocked to see the man so shaken. They were usually so upbeat, and today he’d seen more sides to him than he had ever cared to.

That didn’t change his mind on the hero, however.

While his mom looked like she had been ready to forgive, Liam leaned forward with a snarl. His body may not have been feeling the best, but dying here didn’t mean actual death. That meant he could go crazy.

“You tried to kill me asshole, tried to kill my mom. I’m never going to forgive you for that.”

The words seemed to have hurt more than when Liam had punched them.

A lot more.

Good. “I wasn’t… I didn’t mean to kill you, kid. It was just all so fast- I, I didn’t think something like that would happen.” Liam didn’t let up, seeing through the bullshit. This guilt episode meant someone on the outside probably had their backs, someone stronger than Wyland. That meant Liam could be honest. “Don’t bullshit me! You were going to kill me when I showed up to school smelling like blood. You told me that!” He leaned in, happy he was finally able to get this off his back.

“You were going to kill me because I smelled like a fucking clone! It was just a clone of me and I was going to die because of that… You were going to kill mom too! You sick fuck, she was just trying to… to… why are you looking at me like that?”

Both Wyland and his mom were looking at him with wide eyes. He had expected that from the hero but not his mom. All the blood had drained from the hero’s face, to the point whe he had seemed ready to pass out.

Even his mom seemed to have gone pale. The hero was the first to speak, though it was shaky. “Liam, I wasn’t going to kill you, what the hell are you…” He covered his face in horror, as he realized what his mom seemingly already figured out. “Oh, fuck… You don't know tha do you? Liam, we don’t do that in this district. We put you in a jail. We don’t execute our criminals.”

What? What the hell kind of a joke was that?

He looked to his mom, and was surprised to see her nod. Thoughts were rushing through his head, the clones, his death, the anger in Wyland’s voice when he’d been put outside…

His death.

Liam felt sick, and this time he’d had enough.

“Cut the- gah…” He stood in his anger mid -rant, and the cuffs linked to the metal handle on the table pulled him down, making his swollen hands ache in agony. It only stopped him for a second, though. “C-cut the bullshit Wyland! You told me you were going to put me down! You said I wasn’t gonna see tomorrow!”

The teacher looked visibly more sick, recalling the words he had said. He went to speak, but paused, and shuddered before trying again.

“Putting… Putting you away; You weren’t going to see the sunlight, that's what I meant kid.”

Liam raised an eyebrow, wondering what the hell the teacher was getting at. “That’s what I said.”

He saw his mom facepalm at those words.

The hero had stood up at this point, and went to hold himself with one arm against a wall, clutching his stomach. “We Reform our criminals here, we don’t put a fu- …A bullet in their heads when they start acting up… You thought I meant I was going to put you down, like… like a dog… I feel sick.”

His mother put a hand on his shoulder, and Liam was painfully forced back onto his seat.

She seemed like she wanted to say something.

_______________________________________________________

The car drive back home had been deathly quiet. Even at normal times, the two hardly spoke unless it was needed, but these past couple days… They had been a complete mess.

He looked back at the clone behind him, the one he had abandoned somehow in order to get away from the guards. It had apparently been a nightmare for Wyland to bring it back to him due to accounts of trespassing and resisting arrests.

The rest of the school had finally evacuated by the time Liam and his mom were let go, and at that point the school had been completely empty. They were fortunate to have had Wyland to back them up because if not for them they wouldn’t have been able to leave, period. It had all been explained to him while they had been detained, Wyland and his mom taking turns.

It was illegal to kill someone in Utopia, unless it was a case of complete self-defence. Even then there were some serious repercussions under certain occasions, that were listed in great detail by his mom. Wyland had seemed caught a bit off guard by that, And Liam couldn’t blame him. They continued about the idea of reforming, and how people could be changed and not thought of as hopeless… Though the way they’re reformed seemed castly different when it came between Wyland or his mom’s point of view.

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Liam at least knew better now. There was a reason the supers at school were scared of him, at least, sort of.

No one wanted to be put in prison.

Liam thought it was leagues better than being turned into paste, or being sold as a Jit-toy, though. Being sent to a strange place without any idea of what was going on and not being allowed to leave was also kind of messed up, however, so he could empathize.

He noticed the sun was all the way up now, and he looked at the car clock in shock. The day had only started, so why did the clock read 2:00pm!?

“Hey, is the clock broken?”

“...No.”

…What kind of an answer was that?

“Didn’t the, uh… day just start? What happened? The thing came after us like… seconds after class started.”

“...It’s been hours since the lockdown. I don’t know how… Ah, I guess you weren’t there for most of that, huh...” …What the hell did that mean? Mika looked at the road and didn’t continue speaking after that, so Liam had been forced to connect the puzzle pieces together.

He had died after a brutal fight with the Ego-death, but the fight itself had only been around ten minutes, max. When he died he had been too shaken up to consider it but there had been a hell of a lot of people by the time he had reached school. He’d only taken twenty minutes to get there on the bike, not enough time for such a big crowd. There were helicopters going around for heaven’s sake.

…That meant there was a time when he had been fully dead before he had gone into one of his clones. He had probably been dead for a couple hours, apparently. That stuck with him, and for a second he wondered if that had been the case for every time he switched now, until he remembered switching to a copy of himself during the fight between Mika and Wyland. That had been almost instantaneous…

That meant either two things.

Either the shift between clones took longer when he died, or it had something to do with distance…

The car slowed into their driveway, and he flinched as he saw the scissors on the pavement. “Liam?” Mika looked at him with concern, her body suddenly straining every muscle at once, until he dismissed it with a hand. “A-ah, nothing. I was just remembering waking up here. Look,” She turned and saw the scissors, as well as the half trimmed bushes, and laughed. It had been the first time she’d done so in weeks. “Ah, I remember now. He told you two to take care of the house…”

Yeah, he… did? Wait.

“Wait, why’d you…” He turned to her and pointed to himself. “You know its me, right?” The woman put a hand up to her mouth in shock, looking at him as if she’d been caught. “I, I mean. I didn’t say… I did but… Liam, I know you’re also my son, and I love you. And the rest of you as well…”

He looked at her as if she was crazy, and maybe he was the crazy one for not realizing it yet. His mom thought they were all alive, but different versions of the old Liam. She thought he was a clone. His heart started pounding with fear.

“Oh, shit. No, no no no no… wait. Mom, none of these clones have brains. They don't think. Look, uh-” He snapped a finger at the clone in the back of the car, he didn’t even flinch. Looking back at his unimpressed mom, he decided to get a bit more techical.. “...Get out and hop on one foot, and don’t stop.” The clone nodded and walked out, hopping with as much grace as a cat, barely even needing to reorient himself. The mom glanced outside the car but her expression didn’t change. “I… I get it, Liam. You can stop jumping now…"

…This bitch!

Couldn’t she see her own fucking son when they stared her in the face!? He snarled, going forward and slamming his good hand agains the headboard in anger. She didn't even flinch. "He can't hear you! He can't think! He isn't real, mom. I am!"

"I’m not going to abandon you just because of this, you know tha-”

He slammed open his car door, no longer willing to listen. Walking towards the scissors on the ground, he knew one way to make her realize.. There was one way to show her those things were braindead.

Mika had already gone out of the car, walking towards him with fear and concern in her eyes. “Liam, what are you-"

He slapped her away when she had reached for the scissors, and ducked past her.

Towards the clone still hopping on one leg.

“I’m not a fucking clone! I don’t heal, I think, I’m alive! These. Things. Aren’t!”

He’d almost jabbed the scissor directly into the eye of the clone, who was still hopping with an unimpressed look in its eyes. His hand was stopped moments before he could follow through, though. “I’m not… I’m not a fucking… Goddamnit.” He was way too frustrated. He’d been killed by a shitty Ego-death barely worth its weight, Wyland had broken his hands in two different places, and now he had to deal with this…

His mom thinking he was just a…

Just a fake.

At least, that's what he thought until he’d been turned around and crushed in a massive hug. The woman didn’t say a word, just falling to her knees after a couple of minutes and bringing him along with her. She was shaking, and he could feel the tears on his shirt as she silently sobbed into his chest. The only words he could hear had been the occasional mention of his name, and a thank you at some point, but it had been so quiet he had barely heard it.

The woman had been hiding her grief over her dead son, he had realized. She probably didn’t know what to do when she had seen him back in the school and thought of him as just a clone. That didn't explain this, though. It wasn’t a big deal if you died in the third district, death happened every day after all. It was more an action of pride when people fought for families, a way to keep other factions away from messing with each other… That was just fear governing people’s lives. Love and grief just weren't an affordable luxury there…

He had assumed it would have been that way with Mika as well… but sometimes…

He felt her squeeze harder, the silent sobs turning into something more along the lines of gasping.

Sometimes someone’s death hurt really bad.

She pulled back, giving him a glare even behind those flushed eyes. “You’re… You’re really Liam, right? I’m… going to kill you if you aren’t.” He rubbed his stinging eyes, trying not to make this another big scene like yesterday. “Yeah, you idiot. I was fucking terrified when you thought I was a clone… That was messed up, mom.”

The woman laughed at his not at all joke, and he couldn’t help but smile back. “Well… Good.” Eventually she let go of his bruised body and got up, brushing herself off, leaving him still on the floor with a sore body. She had not been at all gentle when hugging him, but at least she seemed to be in a good mood now.

This might have been the happiest he'd seen her in a while.

“I’m sorry for being such a mess, Liam. I can’t believe I thought that you were actually dead… my boy wouldn't just die like that, he's made of sterner stuff, after all. How… how about we go get some lunch? Let’s get changed first, though.” She walked off into the house while he struggled standing back up with bruised hands.

This'd take a while to heal which sucked. It would be a hell of a pain to study now. If it had been a normal clone then they'd be gone in a moment, but…

Wait a second.

He looked at the clone in front of him, the one that he had almost made blind to make a point. Even though blood had been smeared on its nose from when Liam had been tackled, it's body was in pretty good condition. It seemed the soldiers had actually taken pretty good care of it since it didn't resist afterwards. Maybe if Liam figured how his power worked he could…

Goddamnit. He dropped the copy to the floor with a kick to the leg, which had been pretty easy to do considering it has still been jumping on that leg. He almost went to kick it back down when it stood up and tried jumping again until he remembered how these stupid things worked.

"Godamn it… Stop fucking jumping already. Look, she's already gone."

It looked at him with calm eyes as it stopped, and Liam almost went back to trying to figure out how to shift into it until he noticed the shaky way it stood on its legs. No, it couldn't have right? Not from a fall that small… right?

He looked at it for a moment in denial before pushing it a bit, and noticed it's flinch as it landed on its butt, the ankle it had been jumping on twisting to the side and causing the whole stupid scene to play out in front of him again.

He kicked it in anger. "How… how the hell do you sprain your leg on a fall that low, moron!?"

Why did everything have to go bad with these stupid clones when he hit them!?

He groaned, almost going down to punch it until he remembered how messed up his hands had been. Now what was he going to do-

While he'd been outside, something inside the house sounded like it shattered. He almost thought something dumb had happened until his mom shouted in fury. "Stand still, bastard!" Liam realized this was more than just a small tantrum and ran inside.

What he saw was a complete mess.

The first thing he noticed were the mess of underwear all over the floor. At first he had only seen his mom's until he realize some of his boxers were among them as well.

Whoever this pervert was, they swung both ways.

His mother had been in the living room, swinging at some guy wearing a hoodie and a cap over some sunglasses. They were dodging whatever Mika had been throwing at them, returning a few kicks and punches that Mika took head on without worry. That didn't mean the hits weren't strong, however. This guy must have been a super.

"You can't hurt me, freak! So stand still and die!"

Their hits sounded out with a bang every time they landed on Mika, and even though they did nothing to the powerhouse of a woman they still were beyond something a human could do. He thought it had just been a regular super with low physical enhancements until one of their sleeves had been torn off, revealing their smooth, steel black skin, along with the sharpened fangs on each finger.

He had to help, somehow.

He remembered the combat knife still lodged in the door frame just a few room, and almost went to go for it before he realized his hands wouldn't even wrap around it in the state they were in. His crippled self outside would be even more of a nuisance…

Wait, he had another clone!

The one he beat the shit out of! They had to have healed fully by now, right?

He wondered where it had been, until he realized it had probably still been in his room. Something inside him lit up when he remembered, and he clenched his fists as hard as he could, thinking about wanting to trade places with-

His eyesight shifted, and he found himself in front of his mom, her anger directed completely at him.

"Wait, mom-"

He was punched in the stomach, with a force he'd never experienced during his sparring sessions with the woman, and suddenly everything went black.