After I had laid down, I fell asleep and woke up the next morning with Haley wrapping her arms around me. I turned around and looked at her staring at me, “Hey munchkin, what is going on?”

“Mom told me you were drained from everything, I figured, I cuddle you when you are sleeping, to make you feel better.”

“Thanks, Munchkin, that means a lot to me. Where is mom?”

“Oh, she woke up already, and she left for the training ground.” I slowly got up and stretched. Haley sat up and yawned and stretched, “You have a big fight dad, you should not hold back like you do with our family. If she uses the safe word, just keep smashing her to a pulp.”

I looked at Haley, “Is there a reason you dislike her so much?”

Haley nodded, “She did not accept my greeting.” I had to laugh at that.

I sighed, “Do you think Megan will be fine?”

Haley nodded, “She is much tougher than you give her credit for, she might not be a fighter, but she managed to stick around us, right?”

I chuckled, “You are right, and when I fight Alice, I will not hold back, should, I show her my secret?”

Haley grinned, “If it is needed, yes.”

We made our way to the training ground, and I bumped into Funk. “Hey mate, how are you doing?”

He smiled at me, “You seem to be in a good mood.”

“Well, I am about to put Alice back in her shoes.”

Funk chuckled, “Come in for a hug, man, I am so glad to see you walk this path of light.”

I hugged him and patted him on his shell. “I think we can be great friends, how is Abby doing?”

Funk shrugged, “I am not certain, she is kind of drawn back.”

I nodded, “Well, it is time to kick Alice’s ass.”

All three of us made our way to the training ground. Alice seemed to be waiting there, Paul already sat on the bench with many other villagers. Abby came walking from the way the sheep lived. She has been in her hiding hole. I walked over to her, “How are you, Abby?”

“I am good. Thank you for asking.”

I smiled, “How is your boyfriend?”

“He is doing good.”

I took Abby a bit farther apart. “Are you sure he is friendly? I mean, I did not see him properly, but he looked like a purple skinned saliva drooping alien.”

Abby chuckled, “Yeah, he looks a bit like that.”

I kind of turned red, “I really don’t want to ask but, did you do the deed?”

Abby coughed a few times, “Since we used to be such a great team Steve, I am going to answer that, if anyone else had asked, I would probably not respond to that.” Abby sighed, “We did not do the deed yet, we have kissed and done some other intimate acts. Are you happy now? We are working up towards that.”

I nodded, “I just want you to be happy, and if Mimic makes you happy, then I am glad for you. If you really think he might be a long-term partner, then you should take that step, Abby. You should not be ashamed to show him around. If you are falling for a different species, then you should not be ashamed of that. I might not be the same man anymore, but I am trying to be here for you.”

Abby smiled and hugged me, this time, there were no black tentacles. Abby looked at me with a smile on her face, “Now go kick Alice, her ass.”

“Thanks, Abby, I will do that.” Then I walked over to the training ground.

Lory walked over, she had been swinging a sword to practice her stance. “Hey, did you speak with Abby?”

“Yes, I think she and I can be friends, it seems the base for building a tight relationship is still there.”

Lory kissed me, “It is good to see you act on the points you are worried about, now get in there and don’t hold back.”

I walked over to stand across from Alice. “Hey, how ya doing?”

Alice chuckled, “Very funny, I am going to kick your ass.”

I smiled, “Come and try.” I screamed, silver and dark energy spawned around me and started lifting sand and rocks. Red specks started flowing through my energy. Alice had to cover herself.

Alice started powering up, “Just because you think, you can wield a little bit of energy, does not make you strong!” Quickly, Alice powered up, red and void energy started gathering around her. Before she was done, however, I charged at her. I gave her a hard gut punch, and she flew against the wall.

“Sorry, not sorry.”

Alice launched back with a huge void blade. I spawned one blade and started making energy waves that flew at her.

She jumped over them, and slid under them and right before she hit me with her void blade, a huge dark tendril grabbed her right leg, and she got pulled back. Then it slammed her like a cartoon character left and right against the ground multiple times. She managed to cut my dark tendril and she flew aside. With great speed, I charged at her, she tried hitting me on my left side, I slid under her attack and charged up with the hilt of my sword.

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The energy hilt hit her face and blood flew everywhere while Alice flew back. She landed on the ground with a thud, and then she got up. She spat blood on the ground, “Not bad, but I am done fucking around.” Her wings started gathering energy. She flew up and started shooting energy beams my way. I dodged them and deflected a few with my sword, I threw my sword in the air. Then I pulled out my gun and started firing at Alice, she saw it too late and one of the bullets hit her shoulder and blood splashed over the ground.

While she had been distracted, I jumped up with a massive leap, she gasped as I suddenly was in front of her. “Surprise motherfucker,” I pulled out an energy grenade after I put my gun and away and jammed it in her mouth. I crashed down and rolled aside while a huge energy explosion rocked the sky.

We all saw Alice get launched very far away and blood splatter everywhere as one of her wings had been torn off.

I ran over to her and jumped on her with my elbow and cracked her ribs. I grabbed her left wing, “These grow back, right?” She just grunted in pain. I ripped it off and blood squirted everywhere. Then I started punching her face to a pulp. After beating her an inch away from death, I pulled my gun and put it on her head.

I panted as I had spent almost all my energy into one massive grenade, an energy implosion grenade that drew in Alice’s energy to boost the explosion. Things went through my mind, killing Alice would feel good. She deserves to die, she almost killed me, she disrespected Lorraine. It would not even surprise me if she had something to do with me getting captured. Slowly I started pulling the trigger, is this really the best option? She is rusty, and she is weakened now, unable to conjure the void or her energy properly. Something is blocking her true power. What would secret agent S do? He would shoot Alice without thinking twice. She does not deserve to live.

What would Steve from before the dream world do? I would have shot her for trying to kill me. And disrespecting Lorraine when we met. But, now the big question, what am I going to do, after being through the dream world, learning there is something hiding inside of me. Killing does not trigger it, energy does not trigger it, but something does. Behind me, I could feel utter silence.

People had just seen me take the woman down that seemed to be the strongest around here. It was just tactics, I used her energy against her. My daughter would see her brains get blown out. Lory would not even be shocked. I knew Alice was unable to access her true power, just like with me, something was blocking her. If I let her go, then, she might unlock it, and the next time it will be insanely hard to take her down. But the moment, she does something bad, I can put a bullet through her brain.

I closed my eyes for a moment, what is the worst Alice can do now, talk smack against people? What is the worst she can do if she gets access to her true power? Dominate this reality? “Alice?”

“Get it over with, or stop pointing that gun at my head.”

“What is your goal, Alice?”

“To find Micheal, the man I love, and hope he still loves me back. You remind me of him. Now pull the goddamn trigger or let met me live.”

I looked at Haley to see if I should pull the trigger. She nodded, then I looked at Lory, she nodded as well. When I looked at Funk, he also nodded. Then, Abby also nodded. They agree with me taking out Alice. As I looked at Bella, she even gave me two thumbs up.

I looked back at Alice, “Do you see what is going on? People hate you! People want me to kill you! I want to kill you. But, I can't since I am trying to be better, and, for the feelings we share for each other. You have not done something bad, you haven’t tried to take over this reality, but you are hiding something, Freya. When I find out what, and if it is bad, expect this bullet to bury deep into your brain.”

She gasped, “How do you know her name?”

“I don’t know, it just popped in my head.” I was lying, the voice inside my head told me that. I removed the gun from her head, “Remember, Alice, one wrong thing, and this bullet, will find its way into your brain.” I aimed at her head, and fired my gun. It burrowed deep into her left eye.

She screamed in pain as I basically just removed her left eye from the equation. Blood splattered everywhere, and as I walked away from the screaming Alice, I put my gun back in its place. Lory and Haley ran over to me. Lory smiled, “I am proud of you, we would have backed you, if you had put it in her brain, but I guess, putting it inside of her left eye works as well.”

Haley smiled, “You did not even show her your secret.”

I smiled, “I did not have to, I just had to use her energy problems against her. She has difficulties manipulating her energy, since it is locked, just like mine. The grenade sucked up all her energy and boom, two against one.”

Funk ran over, “Holy shit, that was tense.”

We all looked at Alice, slowly getting up and flipping me the bird, then she walked away, towards the forest.