Five years earlier...

It was the year of 2010. There were many creatures who hid amongst modern day society within human countries, such as the United States, France, England, Russia, Japan, and so many more.

None were aware of the space colony, Luna Base, orbiting the Earth, nor of the continental islands hidden in the Pacific, harboring most of the monsters of the world, both technology and magic far more advanced than any were aware existed hiding them from prying eyes. Nor were most aware they had even influenced almost every aspect of human history.

Life moved along peacefully for most of time since Diablos, the strongest demon and Jalaiya, the strongest angel, had vanished centuries beforehand. But as history tends to repeat itself, peace would not last.

Hidden deep in the heart of a ruin on the gulf of California, a couple made their way through the ravine. Sven and Kara Blaze were well known for being globe-trotting archeologists, though this little detour would have them discovering more than anyone could've bargained for.

Sven was a light skinned man with brown hair tied in a ponytail as Kara was a woman with black, wavy hair and amber skin. Both wore dive suits as they wandered deeper into the cave, curiously shining their cave lights along the rock walls. A large mural covered in glowing symbols stood before them, reflections of the ocean water at their feet shifting along the walls. Kara ran her hands along one of the diamond shapes, frowning. "What sort of language do you think this is?" she asked, shifting her gaze to Sven.

Sven rubbed his chin, his eyes shifting among the shapes and the walls around it. "None I'd recognize. It's almost like some sort of ancient Latin... but, I know it's not. This looks like some sort of door."

On the other side of the wall, two large pods within an empty cavern room awaited in the dark. Despite the time being locked away, no cobwebs or insects lingered around them. In one pod was a young girl with long black curly hair and pale skin. In the other pod, a boy with tanned skin and short black curly hair.

Both were suspended in a red bubbly liquid, asleep. As light knocks came from the wall, the girl's eyes opened. Violet purple shined from her pupils as the glass of her pod shattered, releasing the red liquid into the blue waters below.

...How long has it been? The girl thought, feeling her head. It was ringing, and the dark cavern took several blinks for her eyes to adjust. Slowly climbing out of her pod, she took a moment to get used to breathing. If I'm awake, that means we've been discovered. ...My name is... Iris. And you...

Her head shifted to the boy, placing her hand against his pod. His eyebrows were creased, as if he were having nightmares in his sleep. You are Leon...

Iris turned to look at the wall that kept the humans out. I'm not sensing anything powerful from them. They must be ordinary humans, nothing special. It'd probably be best to find a way to use them for information. The world's surely changed since we were last awake.

Her eyes shifted downward, inspecting her own body. They both resembled eight year old children at best. Their aging had been paused in their sleep. It would progress the same as normal humans from here on, yet their minds were vastly more advanced. It's all going exactly as Gaia wished. Now to wake Leon... but, what should I tell him?

Iris looked closely at Leon's face. Even with her emotions suppressed, her heart clutched with a sudden longing. She cursed silently to herself. Why did you create me with these emotions... They serve no purpose more than to give me the adolescence of a child. I am to be his guardian, nothing more.

His eyes opened, and before Iris could react, his pod opened. She stumbled into him. Leon groaned, not reacting as he looked down at his own hands. "What... What is this?" he whispered, croaking as his throat spoke the first words he'd said in centuries. He looked down at Iris, who'd frozen, embracing him. "Who are you?"

She let go of him, standing a few feet apart. "I'm your-"

But the moment their eyes met, static ran rampant in Leon's mind. He yelped and grasped his head. Alarmed, Iris reached her hand out. "What's wrong?"

"Your eyes. Your face... I don't know you, but... you seem... familiar," Leon struggled to say, gritting his teeth.

Iris's face whitened at those words. "Is there... anything else you remember?" she asked, a violet mist starting to take shape from her fingertips.

The room grew colder, and Leon forced himself to meet her gaze. There was a foreboding in that question. "...No. You just remind me of someone else... she looked a lot older, though," he said, climbing out of his pod. Looking down at her body and then his own, he sighed. "I don't remember my voice being this squeaky either. Did something happen to my body? Why are we naked? Do you have a name? Do I have a name? ... Everything hurts."

The tension dissolved immediately as Iris breathed a sigh of relief. "We weren't officially alive until now... I am Iris, and you are Leon. It's my responsibility to take care of you and prepare you for the future. Until the time is right, we will live together," she explained, turning her gaze to the wall leading outside.

The sounds of hammers and chisels began to ring as Sven and Kara attempted to open the door. "No living creatures can find this place and live... We might have to kill them," Iris said, frowning.

Leon's eyes widened. "What are you saying? What have they done to deserve that?"

"Our existence is a threat to everyone and everything without getting a grasp of our situation. Until then, we need to avoid other people," she explained, her eyes narrowing.

Another shock pierced Leon's head, and he screamed, falling to his knees. He didn't see anything, but a wave of guilt stabbed him. His eyes watered as he clutched his chest. "We can't... I won't let you kill anyone," he said coldly, meeting her gaze.

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Iris flinched, the cool brown he had shifted into the same color as her eyes, mirroring her cold violet-purple. She took a deep breath, kneeling and putting a hand against his shoulder, "Leon, this world is dangerous. If you're truly against it, I'll try to see if we can resolve this peacefully. Please, calm down."

He resisted the urge to smack her hand away. His entire body was trembling, and beneath the guilt threatening to engulf him, a hidden rage could be felt within. Leon grasped her arm and took several breaths. When he finally collected himself, they rose to their feet. As they stood side by side, he said, "We'll introduce ourselves as brother and sister. We got lost and can't find our way out... It could happen to anyone. We're supposed to be children, right?"

Iris stammered at the idea of being brother and sister. She swallowed back the desire to protest, sighing. "Fine."

It was the most awkward conversation they'd ever have in their life. Two children walking out of a cavern room like something you'd see out of Criminal Minds. Iris did most of the explaining, making up that they'd been abandoned and had nowhere to go. Thankfully, Kara and Sven didn't pry too much into their backstory. They took them in and gave them clothes, food, and shelter.

A month in, they fully adopted them into the Blaze family. They lived in the town of Brailles, their home, a beautiful two story house with four bedrooms. Slowly, they were both taught the ways of society and technology. Taught manners and learned other forms of language and slang off of the internet. "Shit," was a word Leon and Iris liked using in common.

Leon's dreams were haunted. Every night he slept, he would awaken perched atop the glassy surface of a lake. Surrounded by a pitch black sky and endless dark fog with dead flowers rooted from the depths of the water, to the old, worn archway that towered over him. It always left him feeling a sense of relentless dread and loneliness. For a time, he was afraid of sleeping.

He often sought solitude, taking long walks and falling asleep in the forest behind their house. with Iris having to search for him. Their home life was warm and comfortable. Despite his tendency to be distant, Sven and Kara were always kind to him and gave him space whenever he wanted it. Iris tried to be supportive, but he could tell she was growing impatient. Even a year later, Leon never fully adjusted to his human life.

One thing that he learned was that he couldn't watch anything with violence and murder. Shocks ran rampant through his mind anytime he read or saw anything with blood, forcing him to walk out. It was as if the sight of it terrified him.

"It's natural to be appalled," Iris would tell him, sitting on the cushion chair in his room. "If you felt some sort of thrill watching death and pain, there'd clearly be something wrong with you."

Leon sat on his bed, his hands idle on the bass guitar his parents had bought him. It was one of the few hobbies that took his mind off of the worries that seemed to pile on day by day. "But it isn't like what we're watching is real... It doesn't affect you, or mom and dad nearly as much," he pointed out. "Am I just a coward? Dying is normal isn't it?"

Iris sighed. "Yes, but not for a long time. We're too young to be thinking about things like that."

"But these bodies... we're not actually children. We know too much. None of the other kids are anything like us," Leon said.

"Well of course not. Even if we'd been born the same way as them, do you honestly believe we'd be the same? Everyone is different, Leon. You worry too much," she said, leaning back. "Now go back to playing. I liked the last song you were performing."

He could tell she was changing the subject deliberately. It seemed to happen any time he questioned anything too deeply. Leon granted her wish regardless, and Iris listened in silent wonder. Listening to the strings was one of the few things that got her to smile. He wished he could share those emotions.

Nothing made any sense. Even when nothing was wrong, he felt hollow. Emotionless. His parents had them go to school, study, and learn. Leon didn't struggle in anything, and he didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Conversations with strangers felt lifeless. For some time, he was beginning to wonder if the world was mirroring the blank landscape he returned to every night he slept.

He would wake up every morning staring at his own reflection. Leon would grit his teeth and walk out after brushing his teeth. It was like he was disgusted at the sight of himself. He wasn't overweight. He had no deformations or infections. Yet, it felt strangely natural to hate himself. Reading books sometimes helped distract these terrible feelings, but sometimes they would also make him feel worse.

One night, he decided to try something different. Leon stood up within the endless abyss and attempted sprinting through the fog. He instantly regretted it. Cold voices followed him within it, screaming in agony, hammering his head with havoc.

"Why!"

"What have we done to deserve this?"

"My home... my family... you have taken everything from us!"

The souls whiplashed him with curses. Unexplainable pangs of guilt gouged his heart with dread whenever he heard those breathless cries drummed against his ears. Wiping sweat from his black curls, he stared down at his hands. "I don't know what you're talking about! Who are you?" he tried screaming desperately, falling to his knees.

Looking down into the lake, his eyes widened. Eyeless, decomposing faces stared at him from the depths, cursing him. His body froze. Shaking his head, he ran back the way he came. The shadows rippled and twisted around him. Grabbing, pulling, ripping, tearing. Leon cried out as he was thrown into the lake, bouncing off the water like a pebble.

He landed in the dead flowers, grasping at himself. Leon stopped when he realized he couldn't feel any wounds. Sitting up, shapes could be seen from the fog in every direction. They pointed at him accusingly. He could feel their fury, their hate. Nothing but unexplainable pain and anguish. Closing his eyes, he willed himself to be freed. When his eyes finally opened, he was lying in his bed drenched in sweat.

"Having a nightmare?" Iris asked, making him flinch.

Realizing it was her reading at the end of his room, he grimaced. "What are you doing in my room, Iris? You know I hate it when you do that," he protested, grasping his face.

She frowned. "I couldn't sleep. You have all the good stories, so I was hoping reading them would wear me out..." Rubbing her arms, she added, "Is your room always this cold?"

Leon paused as he felt it, too. He could see the mist off of their breath. "It wasn't like this when I went to sleep. ...Iris," he whispered, turning to her.

"What is it? You want me to read you a bedtime story?" she asked, smiling at him.

His eyes narrowed. "No. I was going to ask if you always wake up in a dark room when you're sleeping?"

Her smile faded as she stood up, raising an eyebrow. "Waking up in your sleep? Care to elaborate?" Iris asked, sitting beside him on his bed.

With a deep sigh, Leon began explaining the dark abyss he always returned to. The voices and shadows that attacked him within the fog. Everything. To his relief, Iris wasn't smiling anymore when he was finished. They sat quietly with only the fan and air conditioning humming, filling the silence. "I wouldn't put too much thought into it now... It only hurts you if you run into the fog, right?" Iris asked, looking at him.

Pondering on it, he nodded. "I never want to do that again..."

"If it's somewhere you go every time you sleep, I don't know if it's something you can avoid. ...For now, just stay by the flowers and the archway. Maybe I'll find a way to keep you from visiting that room, but for now you can't just avoid sleeping," Iris said, pulling up the covers.

"What are you doing?" he asked, flinching as she laid her head down on his pillow.

"You're struggling to sleep alone too, aren't you? It'll be more comfortable this way," she said, closing her eyes.

Leon groaned. "I don't really see how... fine. Maybe with any luck, having you here will make it better." With that, he laid down and tried to sleep.