Ren-Shai sat down on the bed with the paper cover in the waiting room - as only his father entered with him. They sat quietly until the nurse stepped into the room to do the rudimentary check-ups. Blood pressure? Perfect. Reflexes? Abnormally fast. So fast, in fact, when she hit the tendon, her forearm got kicked before she positioned her arm like she had wanted. The nurse stared at Ren-Shai, only to receive the same passive stare everyone else had received. After being slightly unnerved, she stepped out of the room and left Thomas and Ren-Shai sitting alone.

  "Why did you kick her?" Thomas asked.

  "I didn't. She hit a part of this biology and it was what you would call a reflex, yes?" Ren-Shai asked.

  "Where did you even learn those words?" Thomas asked.

  "I was there when they were invented," Ren-Shai replied. Thomas face-palmed, worried desperately for his son's mental state.

  "... I only hope the doctor can help us," Thomas said. Thomas was missing Tyler's usual curious and joyous nature. The thing in front of him appeared stoic, unmoving, and uncaring. Thomas could no longer read his son - and it hurt him more deeply than he cared to admit.

  They sat in silence until the doctor opened the door. Thomas sat and explained what had happened as well as explaining the financial situation the family was going through to the doctor. The doctor sat down and looked at Tyler, sighing.

  "Tyler? I'm Doctor Sullivan," he said. "What do you remember before you went to sleep?"

  "First, call me Ren-Shai. Tyler is dead," Ren-Shai began, ignoring Thomas's wince. "Second, are you asking for this body's memories or the collective of memories older than your universe?" Ren-Shai asked.

  "Why don't you try telling me about both?" The doctor asked, pretending to be interested.

  "For the child, he was playing in a jungle gym with his friends. They dared him to monkey-climb at the top of it. It had been in the sun all day. He remembered a blinding… pain as Thomas calls it. He let go because it hurt, landed in the sand, and hit the side of his head with enough force to cause severe trauma. It caused multiple ruptures in the ley-lines of his body which you would translate to blood vessels, which caused brain swelling, unconsciousness, and then a coma. In his coma, he heard Thomas and his mother crying. He heard his sister Sasha asking him to wake up and play with her, but could do nothing. Eventually, there was too much pressure on his brain and it blocked off the vessels. It died when no oxygen could reach it. At the verge of life and death- my brothers' domains- I was able to connect to the child's fate, inhabit his body, and reverse the damage," Ren-Shai explained. The doctor's right eye twitched. There was no way he was talking to a five year old.

  "Alright, suppose you were billions of years old. What killed the dinosaurs?" the doctor asked.

  "That was myself and my brother Lan-Shai. They were surprisingly hard to kill. You wouldn't believe how many times we tried to clear the board of those boring, persistent things. First, we tried flooding the planet. Turns out, there were some of those that lived underwater. That was the majority of the problem solved, though, what-with the flooding. We let the waters recede, tried letting volcanoes erupt - it lessened the oxygen here and all the megafauna, as you'd call it, shrank. Did nothing about the water dinosaurs. So, finally, we just reset most life with a meteor by freezing them out and providing them no sunlight with the ash cloud the meteor caused," Ren-Shai said. "Removing entire species requires a little bit of focus, even for us. We're not entirely sure how you biological beings function, so it's mostly trial and error until you're gone."

  "... Ah, he's combining what he knows about the Bible and what's being taught in school," the doctor said, breathing out a sigh of relief.

  "I know of your religious book and may be related to its creation, but it does not apply to me," Ren-Shai began.

  "I think I can explain what's going on with your son, Mr. Ray," Doctor Sullivan began, "Your son did experience brain trauma. However, this is a phenomenon we've seen before - albeit rare. Some people who have taken head trauma have developed a wide variety of not only negatives, but some have gained benefits. Some develop new personalities, others gain new skills, and some even speak other languages," he explained.

  "Does… this mean my son is gone? The Tyler I knew?" Thomas asked, looking down at his lap.

  "Unfortunately, yes. He may recover with time, but he's displaying symptoms of high-functioning autism, multiple personality disorder, and even so much as fake memories," Doctor Sullivan said, reaching over to pat Thomas on the shoulder. "He legitimately believes himself to be someone named Ren-Shai. I'm sorry. But if you don't mind, I would like to give his head an X-Ray. I won't charge you anything for it. I think your family's been through enough."

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  "You would turn down the opportunity for extra resources? Most predators would take advantage of the desperation," Ren-Shai said, raising his right eyebrow in a questioning fashion. Kindness violated what he knew about the laws of survival he was part of in most species. At least kindness outside of the relatable gene-pool.

  "Yes, I would. Because, sometimes, you can tell someone is hurting. Look at your father, Tyler," Doctor Sullivan said. "Can't you see how sad he is? That he's hurting?"

  "Nothing struck him. Why should he be hurting?" Ren-Shai asked.

  "Yep. Lost empathy, definitely something on the autism spectrum," Sullivan commented, scribbling something down on his clipboard. That said, he led Ren-Shai to a small room with an X-Ray machine. Once positioned behind it, the doctor took an image. The results were astounding. At least to him. He took Thomas aside, not letting Ren-Shai hear what he had to say.

  "I don't know how to explain this to you, Mr. Ray," Sullivan began.

  "... Is it something bad?" Thomas asked, clenching his fists.

  "The opposite. I've never seen this before," Sullivan explained. "Our brains wrinkle to conserve space. If you take a look here," he said, pointing at the X-Ray. "There are more wrinkles than a standard man in his fifties and his brain is so compact it's almost unbelievable. Your son's hit to the head may have very-well caused him to become a genius. That might explain the change in vocabulary and speech. Tyler may not be dead, Mr. Ray - whatever happened may have just changed how he sees the world around him. For him, talking to us might be like us trying to talk to a dog now, but that's just my theory," Sullivan concluded. "If you'll let me write a paper on this, I'll waive the appointment fee. This may very-well make my career if I follow his development."

  "I just want my son to have a normal life, Doctor Sullivan," Thomas said, looking down at his feet.

  "I didn't mean that I would interfere. I would just ask that I become his primary doctor. I'll personally waive any appointment fees if any problems come up," Sullivan offered.

  "If that's all, then, sure… I'll take that deal," Thomas said. At least his son could be taken care of. It was all a poor man like him could hope for.

  "I'm afraid to say - your son will never be the same again, but he will always be your son," Doctor Sullivan said, reaching over to try and give Thomas a comforting hand to the shoulder.

  "I can only thank God that he made it. Even if he's different now, he's still my boy. I'll never stop loving him, no matter how much he's changed," Thomas said, deciding that in his heart as well. He strode into the room where Ren-Shai was waiting. "Come on, son, we're going home. You have school next week," he said, giving Tyler a smile as he bent down to pick him up.

  "Can you please stop picking me up? I have a pair of fully functional legs," Ren-Shai protested.

  "Working legs or not, I'm still happy my son is okay. I'll stop and get us some ice cream. You've gotta be hungry," Thomas said with a smile.

  "... At the very least, I'll get to see what the big deal is about food in this world," Ren-Shai said with a sigh.

  "If I remember - strawberry was your favorite, right?" Thomas asked.

  "I don't know. I'd like to try a few before I decide on anything I would favor. Much like I decided to test the human race," Ren-Shai replied.

  "Fine, I'll get you a triple-twist cone," Thomas said, laughing. It was a chance to try and bond with his son again. He'd make sure that, even if Tyler was suddenly smarter than he was, he'd always feel like he could trust his father.

  "Wait. What did you mean school? I have no need for education. I am billions of years old," Ren-Shai said, staring flatly over Thomas's shoulder.

  "Sure you are, son," Thomas said, laughing. "Also, what did that old lady mean by you speaking Mandarin?" he asked.

  "Oh. Anyone can understand Fate if it speaks to them," Ren-Shai replied. "Just like Fate can see people fighting against it, understand their objections, and still not feel anything. I just am. I've heard the pleas of countless civilizations, numerous mothers, fathers, and children begging me to save them. To give them another chance. I could, but I choose not to. Not that it would change much for me, it would simply use up some of my precious time of creation, but that is how I understand them; Fate speaks the same language to all those who follow its paths, but it is not a human language," he explained. "I think that's the best way I can explain it to lessers. Is that understandable?"

  "Say I believed that 'Ren-Shi'," Thomas began, rolling his eyes. "Wouldn't that make you one of the most meanest, coldest, and heartless things to ever exist?" he asked. The fact he was having such a philosophical discussion with a five year old was blowing his mind. Tyler really had become some form of genius.

  "I will forgive you the slight. It is Ren-Shai. In your language it is best translated at Thread-Three. I connect the threads of life and death through time and fate. Do you consider the wind mean for blowing over a tree? The ocean heartless for its tides taking a child who can barely swim? Perhaps you consider time itself heartless for taking youth and vigor, leaving those who have won the struggle to old age to die from their own body decaying?" Ren-Shai questioned. "No matter what I do or want to do, the end is still the same. Whether I save a fly today, it will still only live until tomorrow. Its Fate is set in stone. Just like I can cut a thread and tie the end to a new one, the end of all the threads is still the same. Everyone has the same cards at the end of the day is how you would understand it," Ren-Shai commented. Thomas looked like he had been slapped in the face.

  "What you do within the confines of your fate is entirely up to you, however. While you would think free will does not exist - you'd be correct when speaking to me, as I know all threads. Or, rather, I did before inhabiting this body. Just like the fish doesn't know the tides of the oceans and decides what to do based off the currents and what it sees, so do you," Ren-Shai concluded. "So, you do have free will, because you do not know the destination."

  "... Let's just go get that ice cream, son," Thomas said, his brain hurting.

  "Sure," Ren-Shai agreed, giving a nod. For the first time, he decided to acquiesce to another being for the purpose of easing its worry or frustration. Ren-Shai could, at least, understand frustration at that point.