“This Utrium gemstone has given me the power to look into people,” he continued. “I’ve looked into you, too. An immense sadness lingers within you, doesn’t it?”

Her head drooped, acknowledging that his conclusion was not farfetched.

He’s right.

“You don’t need to confirm it,” he went on. “I already know. Do you know what the root of it is?”

“No, I don’t.” she quietly said.

“You lack meaningful connections, even though you try so hard to establish them. That’s part of it. That’s what all my girls lacked before they came to me. See what they have now. I gave them a beautiful family. A family that loves them and receives love from them. Is that something you want?”

“I…” she started before trailing off.

“I know that’s not all there is to it. There’s something missing. There’s a complicated aspect that makes your being incomplete. You long for it to come back to you, right?”

“What do you mean by incomplete?” she asked.

“Every man, woman and child have a past, present and future. These three interlocking pieces make the diagram that is us. Without all three pieces, the diagram is incomplete. The diagram appears different from the rest. The difference alienates them, it makes them ‘other’. So, do you understand what makes you incomplete?”

Anwen looked down at the ground, thinking introspectively for several moments.

“The piece that makes me incomplete is… my past.” she concluded.

“There we go… now, if you let me, and if you join your sister, I can and will help you retrieve that part of you. On top of that, you receive the unconditional love of myself and the other girls. What do you say?”

“Will I… finally be welcome in a place I belong and become my whole self?” she asked.

“Of course.” the father said in a gentle tone, his hand brushing against the side of her leg.

“Will you really stop the Angels and free us all?” she added another inquiry. “Can we finally stop living in fear?”

“I will do that, thanks to yours and the other girls’ contributions.” he confirmed.

“Very well,” she accepted. “Please, retrieve that part of me. Give me that which belongs to me.”

“Yes, my dear,” he said. “Shut your eyes and lay back.”

She allowed herself to fall backwards onto the mattress, resting her arms at her sides while her feet hung off the edge of the bed.

Anwen felt the surface of her coat being ruffled against by prying hands. This went on for two or three seconds, until she heard the popping sounds of the coat’s buttons being undone. Meddling fingers ran across the soft exterior of the shirt she wore underneath, mapping out the curves of her waist. The father lifted the edges of her shirt so that her midriff was exposed. His slender, ring-bearing fingers rubbed against her delicate skin as if she were some sort of delicate, prized art piece.

“Oh my, dear… you might just be… the perfect candidate…” he said in a carnal manner.

His fingers dragged down her stomach until they met the waistband of her pants. His fingers slid just under them in preparation to reveal what was below, however Anwen decided to speak.

“May I… say something?” she whispered.

“Hmm? Now is an important time, but if you must, I’ll allow it. Just this once, however.”

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Anwen wrenched her eyes open, only to see Iris’ father resting above her, only his hands and knees preventing his body from touching his. Then, she smirked.

“You’re not my father, Hugo. Gareth is!”

Her left leg shifted in a series of rapid, brief mechanical motions. It didn’t even take a second for a blade to emerge outwards from her foot, slicing up through the material of her boot. Before the man could even make sense of what had just happened, the knife buried itself into his thigh. Anwen thrusted her leg forwards, unlatching the man from the weapon as he slammed against a wall.

“Artificial leg…?” he wondered in a daze as his thigh oozed red. “How… how did I not read that?”

“You were only looking at my body… I know looking into my past wasn’t your actual goal. You wanted my flesh so much that you neglected to acknowledge that part of me is metal!” Anwen affirmed. “You’re a sick man, Hugo!”

“My… name…” he struggled to stand as he pressed on his newly given wound to prevent himself from bleeding out. “There was no way… you could’ve already known…”

“I wouldn’t have known, had that nice merchant in Velves not told us… all I had to do was put two and two together. I knew it the moment I realized that what Iris had said didn’t match up with your being here. So, tell me what you were going to do with all those girls. Don’t tell me you already did to them you were going to do to me.”

“Those girls didn’t have fancy legs to protect themselves at that point,” Hugo managed to put a smirk on his face. “They’re in too deep to leave, now. I’m all they have… and you, you’re all I need!”

Hugo limped over to the door to shield it with his body, despite his physical state. However, mentally he was completely undeterred.

I could use my other weapon, Anwen thought. But that’s like using an explosive on a fly. I’ll just bluff until he decides to give up.

“I wonder if the sun will rise by the time you let me walk through those doors,” Anwen laughed. “If I had to guess, that’ll definitely be the case.”

“Terra needs a saviour, and that saviour… needs you… get back on that bed and I will look past this incident.”

“Seems that southern girls with Initiation are in high demand,” Anwen shrugged. “Could I ask how exactly you knew I was Initiated?”

“Your Initiation is same kind as mine… while it won’t convert your Reserve into strength and speed throughout your body, it’ll enhance a single part of your body to outperform all others. It’s called Concentrated Initiation. My enhanced body part is my brain, and yours if I had to guess… is the stump of that old leg.”

“So your brain can enter the deepest recesses of my mind by putting your hands all over me? I’ll believe that.” she scoffed.

“I’m not lying,” Hugo defended himself. “Would you like to know how?”

Anwen nodded with a derisive expression on her face.

“On that day 10 years ago, Gareth Koppel found you bleeding out in the home of your family’s neighbor. Your neighbor couldn’t help you, so Gareth saved your life by performing a small-scale Initiation. You see the scar on your left thumb?”

Anwen raised her left hand in front of her face, confirming the location of the scar. She had always seen it there, but had never thought anything of it, believing it to be a birthmark. Until now.

“I’ll tell you more… if you turn back to me,” he said, still trying to convince her to become one of his girls. “I’ll take care of you better than Gareth ever could. I’ll show you real love.”

Anwen stared into the man’s crazed eyes, hoping that he would back down. But of course, he didn’t.

I’ll have to kill him. He hasn’t tried to fight me yet, so he won’t now. This will be quick.

As Anwen shifted her footing in preparation for a roundhouse kick with her left foot aimed straight for his neck, the door forced itself open, sending Hugo down to the floor and immediately knocking him unconscious. Anwen looked ahead to see a huge man standing in the doorway, picking up the cult leader by the neck.

“We’ve found our guy.” Gareth said nonchalantly before even acknowledging his daughter’s presence. Anwen straightened herself out and jogged over to him, as Vi stood behind him out in the open underneath a rising sun’s sky. Upon seeing the masked guard, Anwen’s heart raced. Her jaw fell and she put her hands to her chest as if it would quell the fear of the punishment she would face for not fulfilling her part of the deal she had made with them.

“I was only trying to help them!” Anwen pleadingly tried to convince; afraid more than Hugo had ever made her feel. “They—they looked so lost, there was no way I couldn’t!”

“I supposed you should thank Gareth for convincing me not to have executed you the moment we stepped into this village looking for you. However, credit will be given for not attempting to take my life.”

“We were going to return here anyway.” Gareth shrugged.

“W-Were you?”

“How could I not when this place is brimming with Utrium energy? I sensed it earlier, but I was going to investigate it after getting some rest. However, our guest’s tracker’s noise prompted me to… reschedule.”

“So… you knew about Hugo? How come I couldn’t feel it?” Anwen asked.

“I didn’t know it was him necessarily, but I did feel his Reserve. You don’t have enough active experience with Utrium, so you didn’t sense it. Now,” Gareth said, holding up the unconscious Hugo up to eye level. “To take care of this one’s mess…”

Vi stepped aside to allow Gareth to return to the outdoors. Before them was the old village square, where about 30 young women sat on the ground, their hands tied together with rope. Undeniably the outcome of Gareth’s quick thinking.