Marianne groaned and shook her head groggily. Cold thermanite restraints pressed against her limbs as she slowly regained control of them. She struggled against the metal chair she was bound to, rattling it violently.

“Vivian! Vivian, you’re awake! What’s going on?” A very familiar voice called out to her.

She looked around, her eyes widening with surprise and happiness at the two unbound people sitting on the floor in front of her. Marianne broke into an uncontrollable wide smile; she had thought them lost forever.

“Mother, father!” she exclaimed. “I missed you so much! I thought we’d never see each other again!”

“Wait, you’re not Vivian,” the man said, not hiding the disappointment in his voice. “Marianne, what are you doing here?”

“She’s here because of your incompetence.” Firdaus’ dry voice butted in as he walked into the room.

“Firdaus! What is the meaning of this? I thought we had an agreement,” the woman snapped.

“If I recall the agreement correctly, you are supposed to make the perfect sonic transmitter for me.” Firdaus’ voice dropped menacingly. “I trusted you and used it, but its effect only lasted barely a day.”

He walked slowly towards them, his fingers resting on the hilt of his sword at his waist. “And now Vivi has broken free of my control and went missing. Surely you should have to pay for my loss in some manner, shouldn’t you?”

“Hey, leave them alone or I’ll burn this place down!” Marianne shouted at Firdaus, her body temperature rising as she struggled against her restraints again.

“Ah yes… Go ahead and cremate your parents alive while you’re at it,” Firdaus turned to her, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “You’re not so bright aren’t you, Marianne Cha? You must be the inferior twin. You and your fellow enhanced friends have caused me quite a bit of trouble.”

Marianne scowled murderously at him, fighting the literal fire that raged within her. He moved closer to her, tilting her chin up with the tip of his fingers.

“My, the resemblance really is uncanny,” Firdaus muttered. “But you’re not Vivi, and you never will be.”

“Vi-Vivian? Sister is alive?” Marianne’s voice trembled with shock, looking at her parents. “B-but… you told me she drowned!”

“Silence, girl,” Mr Cha growled.

“Ahahaha… HAHAHAHA!” Firdaus broke into an abnormally high pitched laugh. “You two are truly the worst parents I’ve ever seen! Drowned?! Shall I tell her what really happened?”

His voice quickly dropped back to its guttural quality. “My dear girl, your sister is very much alive, and she is the most evolved mutate I’ve ever seen. Your parents, being eugenics experts, surrendered her to the government for study when she was just a child. It was through her that we finally found out the key to trigger the next stage of humanity’s evolution.”

Firdaus smiled almost warmly. “After that, it was just a matter of getting her under our control.”

“Y-you brainwashed her?!” Marianne screamed at him. “You sick bastard!”

“Shut up, you insolent woman! How dare you talk back to your master!” Firdaus growled, raising a hand to hit her.

Marianne glared back at him defiantly.

“Sorry, that was… uncalled for.” Firdaus put his hand down calmly. “You’re an enhanced as well, but unlike your sister, you’re not nearly as evolved as her. Pity, I’ll just have to settle with a downgrade. Perhaps the device will work on you instead.”

“Hey, what about us?” Mrs Cha asked impatiently.

“Still you dare ask that? Both of you have long outlived your purpose in my place. Be thankful I am not using you as target practice for our soldiers. You will be housed here with Marianne so she doesn’t burn this place down.”

“In the meantime,” Firdaus smirked and turned his heel to walk out. “Do enjoy your reunion.”

----------------------------------------

The sound of heavy breathing added to the oppressive atmosphere in the stuffy room. Marianne looked down, not daring to make eye contact with her parents.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Screw this. I’m not a child anymore.

“Just how much have you been withholding from me?” she started, her voice sounding a little harsher than intended.

“No more than what is your business,” Mrs Cha hissed.

Marianne closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the memories of every interaction with her parents came rushing back to her. Nothing had changed at all.

“Not my business?” Her voice rapidly rose with agitation. “She’s my sister! Aren’t we family? Why was I kept in the dark for fifteen years?”

“Because you’re not the type to think about the bigger picture,” Mr Cha snapped back. “All you would’ve done is whine and try to stop us. You’re so unlike your sister; she knew what was best for our family, and as a woman.”

“Exactly,” Mrs Cha chimed in. “You weren’t even smart enough to get into the sector university. All you ever cared about was your damn fighting tournaments. Who cares if you won them? That contributes nothing to our family.”

“This has nothing to do with what I asked. Stop dodging the question.”

Mrs Cha let out a loud snort of exasperation. “And you can’t even tell we’ve already answered? How did we have such a dumb daughter?”

“The answer was plain. You’re utterly worthless to us and you never deserved to learn the truth,” Mr Cha said. “I might as well let you know; we had only planned to have one child, but you had to come in and ruin our life. There’s not a single thing you had that could measure up to Vivian, but yet we still had to take care of you. Do you even understand what a burden you have been?”

Marianne bit her lip, holding in the pain of a thousand needles piercing her heart. Twenty eight years of this, and she still could not get used to it.

“W-why do you always have to treat me this way?” her voice trembled with hurt. “Am I not your daughter too?”

“Yes, and it is my life’s biggest regret to have opted for a natural birth when I could’ve just aborted the unnecessary baggage,” Mrs Cha said cruelly.

“If I did anything wrong in the past, I’m sorry. I’ll do anything to make up for it.” Marianne choked softly, her face glistening with tears. “Father, mother. Please…. Please don’t abandon me again.”

“Foolish girl, we can’t abandon what we never owned. We’re stuck in here because of you. If you want to make up for it, then you’d best pray Firdaus finds your sister soon.”

“Why are you allied with him? That madman means to take over the world!”

“Silly girl, don’t you see?” Mr Cha replied. “More than ninety percent of humanity are either dead or mutated. Mutates are the new dominant species of this Earth, and he has the means to control them. Why wouldn’t we be right hand men to the new king of this world?”

“He’ll just use you and dump you! Look at us right now! How can you two be so short sighted?”

Mrs Cha stood up and slapped Marianne. “It’s your fault that we’re here! Don’t blame it on others!” she shouted. “Why couldn’t you have just died in the mutation wave or something?”

It’s hopeless. No matter what I do, I’ll never be deserving of their love. No matter how hard I try, it always comes to this.

“And now she’s crying even though she’s responsible for this,” Mr Cha grumbled. “What did I even do to deserve this nuisance?”

A loud sound blared through the PA speaker in the room. “Warning! The hydras have been set loose in the compound. All residents are to report to the helipad for immediate evacuation.”

Mr Cha leapt up, his eyes wide with fear. “H-Hydras?! But we’re only just above the lab!” He banged on the door desperately. “Hey, let me out!”

But it was too late.

A familiar humming sound reverberated the glass window before it was shattered by a large tentacle. The tentacle swept across the room, slamming Mrs Cha against the wall. A trail of blood smeared behind her as she groaned, crawling on the glass littered floor painfully. A second tentacle reached into the room, landing directly on Mrs Cha’s legs. She let out an undignified scream as her bones were instantly crushed under the impact.

The door suddenly burst open. Mr Cha sprinted out of the room, knocking over the man who had opened the door. His speed was incredible.

Marianne’s restraints popped open as the stranger pointed a device at them. He held out his hand to her. “Come with me if you want to l-”

A loud humming sound cut off his sentence.

Oh no… Not this thing again. Marianne immediately covered her ears and shut her eyes, crawling away slowly from the source of the hypnotic noise. She felt a pair of hands yank her, causing her to tumble to the ground. Marianne opened her eyes, finding herself outside of the room. But Mrs Cha was not so lucky.

The giant mutated cobra wrapped its tentacles around her, pulling the screaming woman closer to its giant eye. Blood splattered all over the floor as it snapped her head off with its beak.

The man quickly pulled Marianne to her feet. “Hey you, enhanced mutate! Calm your emotions or it’ll get into your head.”

“Who are you? How did you know I’m an enhanced?”

“Is this really the time to be asking such questions? Just follow me.”