Standing in the bathroom, she looked at the frail figure staring back from the mirror. Her hand caressed the strands of hazelnut hair and her fingers felt around the bridge of her nose.
Because she was uncertain of what her previous dad, John, would do if he found her again, all of the characteristics that might have identified her with Emilia Lyon had been changed while she was laying under the warehouse rubble.
Will I get discovered? A sense of dread ran through her spine. She wanted to further change her appearance but stopped because Alice might notice.
She looked nothing like the Emilia of this world, but if she were to meet anyone from Earth, they would immediately recognize her as Ellowyn aside from her brown hair and brown eyes.
Ellowyn sighed and wore the pair of jeans and shirt Alice gave her. They were for casual occasions but looked neat nonetheless.
##
As their limo approached the Lyon's headquarters, She couldn't help but keep a slack-jawed gape at the scene. Unlike the fortress that was her home where all mounted weapons and turrets were well camouflaged within the walls and underground, the defensive structures there were not only in the wide open but also painted with black, a contrasting color with the rest of the white painted walls.
In addition, numerous patches on the walls were of slightly varied shades of gray, as if they intentionally painted it so. Craters of various sizes and depth blanketed the ground, even a little ground work could cover those up easily, so why?
"The Lyon take pride in the fact that they are attacked. Their livelihood depends on whether the weapons they sell are effective. Hence it’s a good sales tactic to flaunt how much beating they received. Though I do see that they might have taken this a little too far." Alice smirked.
Ellowyn gave a faint nod.
The landing was similar to the one she had when Tom first brought her home, butlers and maids lined themselves on both sides of a blue glowing carpet on the landing pad.
"I'm sorry, but Miss Sophie has had some urgent work for the moment and would like you two to wait for her in the guest room." The lead butler bowed and escorted them inside.
The guestroom was one of the most lavish she had ever seen, countless weapon models lined the walls, from force blades of all sizes to guns and shields, ten glass cases scattered around the vast room featuring fancy products.
A short, petite blond girl was staring at a large holographic screen several times her size.
"Keep me informed on the situation, I'll contact you again tonight." She held her head in her hands and sighed.
"Is everything alright, Sophie?" Alice said.
Sophie jerked her head at Alice's calm voice, her gloomy expression replaced by a cheerful one in a flash. She broke into a run and hugged Alice tightly, "I'm glad you're here!"
With such short posture, Sophie's head only reached Alice's tall shoulders, they looked like a pair of loving sisters.
Before Ellowyn could enjoy the scene, however,
Scan detected, initiating emergency shutdown
She winced, trying her best not to hold her head as the system forcefully pulled itself away from her consciousness, giving her a stinging headache.
Negative scan trace signature, restoring system
Words and numbers once again filled her vision.
"You must be Ellowyn." Sophie pulled out of the hug, only to give Ellowyn one.
Surprised and still tired from the system's backlash, Ellowyn only managed a weak affirmation.
Even in her weakened state, she could feel very well the two prominent bulges on Sophie's chest that somehow managed to beat Alice's record. How are they so impossibly big?
"I'm sorry to have Alice brought you here when you're still tired from the attack. I just wanted to see what my best friend's new sister looks like. You can rest in my room, it’s right next to here." Sophie smiled sweetly.
"Thank you, but I'm fine though," Ellowyn said.
She looked at the source of the scan after the system fully rebooted. It originated from a lean guard standing in the corner, he had combat gear and his face was partially covered by his cap.
"Ah, let me introduce you to our personal guard and hero, Alexis," Sophie said proudly.
"I told you not to reveal my hero status." Alexis sighed.
"Oh come on, Ellowyn is now part of Alice family, she'll be with us a lot more from now on," Sophie said.
It was only then that the faintest strand of memory came to her of the time in captivity when she eavesdropped a pair of maids talking about her siblings, Sophie was the name that came up.
Are you by any chance my sister? Was the burning question that almost blurted out of her mouth. A wave of emotions overcame her, sadness for she had never been able to meet her blood-related sister in this world and anger, for Sophie too, had never tried to contact her before.
She closed her eyes and willed herself to calm down. Taking rash actions then would only lead to disaster. She still didn't know why it was that John locked her in for all of her life. I need to tread carefully.
And my other sibling's name, Lucas was it?
"What is the commotion?"
Ellowyn turned her head toward the source of the sharp voice. A blond young man stood there, his thin and tall statue along with the long concave nose gave him a haughty aristocratic look.
"Lucas! Meet Ellowyn, Alice's new sister." Sophie said.
A shiver ran down Ellowyn's spine as he gave her a cold emotionless glance before turning back to Sophie. "Don't pester me for I have not the time for trivialities. How were the reports?"
"Can't you be more polite to our guests? And the reports are the same as always, no progress so far." Sophie gave him a glare.
Lucas frowned shortly before he turned around and left.
"Please excuse my brother, he is too engrossed in our family business for his own good." Sophie massaged her temples.
Ellowyn returned an awkward smile. "It’s alright."
"You'll get used to him." Alice said, "He's not as much of a jerk as he sounds."
Will I be going here more often? Ellowyn felt the dread of being discovered.
"Before I get to the point, it’s been quite a while since we had our last practice. Would you mind if I tell you while we spar?" Sophie did nothing to hide the excitement in her voice.
"It’s my pleasure."
##
The Lyon's training room was not only larger but more lavishly decorated than her own, the walls were lined with stylistic practice equipment of varied colors.
The spar took place in an enclosed practice room the size of a basketball court. Ellowyn and Alexis stood outside the room, watching numerous projected holographic screens recording from different angles.
Sophie wore a blue exoskeleton suit with sturdy metallic arms and legs. Limited by its weight and thickly armored joints, its movement didn't seem as fast as the defense humanoid bots. However, the suit seemed to have much more flexibility in its movement. She held a large force axe in each hand.
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Alice was in her usual practice light armored gear, holding a shotgun with forceblades attached.
"Ready?" Sophie asked.
"Ready."
They lunged at each other at speeds faster than the eye can see. It seemed Ellowyn misjudged the suit's combat speed, as it exceeded any of the robots she had seen in the raid.
Sophie attacked first, swinging both of her axes downward.
Alice dodged the first and blocked the second axe with her shotgun and pulled her shoulder around to dodge as blue flashes appeared from the tip of the blocked axe, signaling the firing of bullets.
"You remember when Lucas and I found out that our dad had been visiting an enclosed, off the grid facility in the outlands?" Sophie said while pulling the axes back and giving out a kick.
"Yeah, what about it?" Alice said, dodging the kick with a side roll.
Ellowyn could only gape as she didn't know what was more astounding, the fact that Alice was strong enough to block the axe strike of a powerful mechanic exosuit or that they were having a nonchalant conversation despite being engaged in intense combat.
"It was only last week that he revealed what it was for. And can you believe it, the place was used to house my sister!"
Alice froze for a second, before doing a side step to evade Sophie's lunge. "But you don't have a sister. At least you've never told me that you do."
"Because I never knew!" Sophie leaned her body almost 180 degrees back as Alice's forceblade swept past her face, her suit deployed a tripod stand from her back to prevent her from falling flat.
"Dad never told any of us. It was only when she died that he decided to show us the body. And guess what."
"What?" Alice did another side roll.
"The body went missing before it got to our burial site. We found traces of break in, someone stole the body of my dead sister."
"Okay, Stop!" Alice held her hand up to signal a break, "I don't quite get what you're saying. You have a sister that John had kept a secret from, only to reveal it on her death. And now her body was stolen? None of this is making sense!"
"I know right? I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it all." Sophie threw her arms in the air and sat down. "Thank you though, I haven't had a chance to vent my frustrations for a while now."
"You're certainly welcome. Let's tidy things up and head back to the guest room where you can tell me more about it."
Ellowyn sighed. It was as she had expected, John had kept her existence a secret to everyone including her own family. Although she still didn't know why he had done so.
Back in the guest room, they all sat on the sofa and Sophie explained everything in detail. That the news of her sister's death arrived out of the blue and that John had mentioned Emilia, Sophie's dead sister, dying along with his first wife in a car ambush eighteen years ago. Why it was that he kept her secluded in such a place, Sophie didn't know because he never explained.
Ellowyn frowned, it had only been one week since the name Emilia was used to address her. It had then belonged to a dead identity.
"I'm sure there must be a good reason for John to have done so, you of all people should know that he is much more sensible than he seems," Alice said.
"But it tortures me to know that for the past 18 years, I've had a sister whom I never knew, that she had to suffer being locked inside that place for all her life." Sophie sighed, "I seem to be the only person who cares, even Lucas simply said it doesn't concern him."
Ellowyn clenched her teeth, suppressing the desire to reach out and give Sophie a hug and to comfort her with the news of her being alive and well.
"What about you, you should have known something. Or is it in your contract that you can't talk about it?" Alice looked at Alexis.
"I think it is because I'm not required to withhold information to Sophie and Lucas that he did not inform me with any info regarding Emilia," Alexis said.
I know this voice, Alex? Ellowyn widened her eyes. The tone was much deeper and clearer than what she remembered, but the timing and wording were nearly identical to the Alex she knew. Peering at his face, her quickened heartbeat slowed down as she was filled with a sense of disappointment. His nose was long and concave instead of short and snub and his eyes were slightly lower, making his forehead stand out more. He was also much taller.
An idea popped into her mind, that he really was Alex and that he could change his features easily using the hero system.
She shook her head and dismissed the thought almost instantly. The odds of meeting someone in that world who bore similar characteristics to Alex vastly outnumbered that of him being Alex himself. Even his name is similar. She wanted to chuckle.
"Are you alright? You have been spaced out for quite a while." Alexis said, raising his eyebrow.
Ah, crap. Ellowyn realized she had been staring at him the whole time. "I'm fine, sorry. It’s just the first time I get to meet a hero."
"I'm just a normal human being like you. Although with just a few extra perks." He raised an amused smile.
"Hey! I just lost my sister here and you're going to leave me for that girl?" Sophie gave him a light slap on the back.
"Let me clarify this again Sophie. I'm here as your bodyguard, not your boyfriend or lover."
"You just had to ruin the mood just as I was feeling better." Sophie pouted.
"You two do look great together though." Ellowyn chimed in, repressing a wave of jealousy in her mind. Quiet down, my heart. He's just an imitation of Alex, not the real thing. She patted her aching chest.
Silence filled the room as the atmosphere turned serious once again.
"Thank you, Alice and Ellowyn, for being here and helping me share my frustrations." Sophie said, "but now I have more pressing matters to discuss that affects all of us."
"I'm all ears," Alice said.
"Do You remember the Allied Church had been lobbying very aggressively to pass the Educate Every Child Act?"
"Yes? Although I had been too busy lately to keep up with the news. Had they succeed?"
Sophie nodded. "To our surprise, they managed to push it through Congress and it had been passed just yesterday."
"How did they managed that? The whole thing was more of a joke than anything else. This is bad." Alice frowned.
"By doing a very effective media campaign. I have to admit that was some phenomenal work to have convinced people to agree to that ridiculous a policy." Sophie rubbed her temple, "We've tried our best. But they had much more influence in the public's eye. Now that shit has hit the fan, we can only brace ourselves."
"This is certainly alarming. When will it come into effect?"
"At the start of this school year. All students who aren't eligible to be exceptions are required to attend a government-approved institution. Homeschooling of any kind is outlawed unless the child has more disabilities than a zombie." Sophie said gravely.
"Do we at least know why they are doing this?"
"So far I can't find conclusive evidence. But you probably know already. In the worst case scenario, they're planning a mass kidnapping to coerce as many as they can into following demands, the lightest case, still selective kidnappings and perhaps forcing us to do under the table bargaining and generally just making life hell for everyone."
"I guess it’s too late to do anything now. Which school are you planning to have us go, the Armadillo or Sapphire Valery? I haven't the time to really look into them yet."
"You really should pay more attention to what's happening in the world and stop overexerting yourself. I guess I can see why Ellowyn is needed to keep you from working to death." Sophie chuckled. "Anyway, I'm staying on the positive side. If we're going to be forced to attend school then might as well use the opportunity to socialize with the children from other influential families. Though I doubt there'd be enough time for that."
"So the Armadillo? I'm assuming you don't want Sapphire for its all girl policy."
"I find an environment with solely one gender to be dull. And perhaps you two can find yourselves some men of your taste?" Sophie gave a mischievous smirk.
"Sophie, we need to take this seriously."
"I'm just trying to lighten the mood." Sophie's phone beeped. "Ah crap, I have to take this."
"Take your time, I have to return and tell John to have everything ready as soon as possible."
Sophie nodded before answering the phone and walking out of the room.
##
Back inside the limo, Ellowyn contemplated over the events. It was a relief knowing that her siblings had no idea of her existence until now, but she still hadn't find out Tom's motive for locking her up. The conversation about the Allied Church and the new policy also confused her.
"Sorry Ellowyn, after all the hardship you've been through, I would have thought you deserved a break. But now there's another storm on the horizon." Alice hugged Ellowyn's shoulders and leaned her head on top of Ellowyn's head.
"You don't have to worry so much, I'm a lot stronger than I look." She gave a silly grin.
"I know you are." Alice returned the smile.
"Could you explain a bit more about the policy? I'm a bit lost."
"You heard Sophie talked briefly about it right? It basically forces all student aged citizen to attend an educational institution. That means people like us whom because of various security risks, have to learn within the confine of our home. Going to any school would be inviting kidnappings and possibly public assassinations."
"Then why did the government approve such an insane policy?"
"You see, the Armadillo and Sapphire Valery are two of the many so-called secure private schools that recently opened. They have a much more secure environment, with professionally trained guards and defense equipment. The thing is, we can't really be sure of their credibility and their security level doesn’ really match up with that they advertise. The two schools I mentioned are the most reliable for the moment."
"So the worst case scenario Sophie mentioned was based on the fact that these institutions can be easily attacked?"
"Worse, the offenders could simply bribe the school staff to let them in. Wait, I'm making this sound really terrifying to you aren't I?" Alice chuckled, "Don't panic, all is well for now. Everyone is allowed to have some measure of security such as personal weapons and one or two guards to accompany them. And if it is the Church's intention to kidnap or kill, they can't do it too often or else there'd be too much public outcry and the policy will be scrapped."
"You make it sound like the Allied Church is some evil organization." Ellowyn raised an eyebrow.
"That's an interesting way to look at it. No, not really. They are the most influential organization in our country and they have their own agenda. We did some poking and found that they're trying to conduct some sort of experiment, 'Soul Stream' is a fancy name, isn't it. Anyway, they're much more aggressive recently, trying to recruit researchers and scientist alike. I can only imagine the passing of this policy is them trying to gather even more resources by coercing from other influential factions."
"And they don't get any backlashes?"
"They do, and quite a lot too. I'm surprised they're still holding up with all the negative propaganda that almost everyone is throwing at them. I guess being the largest religion means they can take quite the beating."
Alice decided to put the conversation on hold after seeing Ellowyn's tired expression.