Chapter Text
10 years ago… Months before the Fall of the Old Capital.
It’s the dead of night at Helios academy and Carol Arna walks quietly through the dorm halls. Each step measured and resolute, her path is dark but the moonlight shines through the windows and guides her. leading her to a door holding within the greatest treasure in all of New Eridu.
She opens the door to the room where her two little shooting stars, her children. Sleep. The room is cluttered, they didn't pick up everything on the ground like she asked them too, but this was of little concern. She wakes up Wise, gently kissing his forehead to wake him up.
“Mom..? It’s time?” he asks… groggilly.
“It’s time, shooting star. Are you ready?”
He nods, still half asleep.
“I’ll carry your sister.” She whispers. “Here, Eous will help you.” Eous waves from behind Carol, hugging Wise.
“Hey little bro...” The young boy pets the Bangboo’s head. the fog slowly lifted from his brain. as he walks down the halls with his foster mom, who carries her sister on her back as her little head still sleeps soundly. They walk across the silent academy. It feels… otherworldly, wrong even, to see a place usually filled with smiles and people so lifeless. Where Sunlight bathed the halls during the day, darkness drowned them at night, saved for the moonlight that guided the path like a trail of spotlights leading into the darkness.
Carol gently guided them, her memories coming back to the day she used to hold their hands as they walked through the academy. Yet while Wise had outgrown it, Belle was still young and she held her mother’s back like it was a lifeline.
Mother and children stayed silent as they headed towards the laboratories usually unused at this time of night. Something in the air persisted… A smell… like disinfectant mixed with something else.
Carol passed them medical gowns to change into as she went ahead to prepare the room with Eous in tow.
“Mom…?” Wise asks.
Carol turns around, watching as her son sits on the operating table, fidgeting a little.
“What is it, shooting star?”
“I’m a little scared… Are you sure this is safe?”
Carol sighs. Part of her wants to call it ridiculous to assume this wouldn’t be safe… but she would be lying, and she never wanted to lie to her kids. No matter how heavy the guilt on her back was, she still pushed on.
“Don’t worry… It’s safe. Mom would never let anything bad happen to you or your sister.”
“You promise?”
She kisses her son’s forehead. putting her hand on the back of his head. giving him the reassurance that everything would be okay.
“You won’t feel a thing. I promise. When you wake up, I’ll walk you through everything tomorrow."
Wise hugs her. Hesitant to let go. But she lets him hug as long as he needs too. She wants to remember this. She needs to.
Belle looked scared. Her body was trembling, Carol thought the room was cold as well. She puts an extra lab coat over her daughter. Holding her through the shivers.
Her big blue eyes look into her magenta eyes for reassurance. “Mom? Are we gonna be okay?”
She knew the risks of the operation, there was a low survivability rate, but a few sleepless nights, a few lines crossed were able to mitigate that by a large margin. She did everything she could to make sure those kids-- No. Her children, who she would give anything to see them smile, to see them happy would be safe from her mistakes. from those Exaltists.
She would give them the means to protect themselves, to help others, and…selfishly… fix her mistakes, be better than she was. Better than her father, who she tried to make proud, tried to heed his warnings, and her uncle, her ‘co-conspirator’ in this made they both dug themselves in.
They didn’t always approve of each other's methods, but they were the only ones who understood just how much they sacrificed.
She had sacrificed alot, but her children changed her.
And she would raise hell, she would rather see her lab burn. Her research destroyed and she would throw Eridu into the abyss before harm befell them.
But she believed in them, she loved them. She knew they would see everything through. Mother’s intuition, it exists.
She would perform the operation on herself, but she didn’t exactly have the aptitude for it anymore, now she was linked to the HDD. and time wasn’t on her side. right now, Belle and Wise had their exceptional aptitude, alas, they were the perfect
Calling them her test subjects felt repulsive, wrong.
Carol steels herself.
Because it had to be done.
Because this was the only way to give them a chance.
She reassures Belle,. assuring everything would be okay. Looking her in the eyes as she spoke to her softly.
She even brought her favourite plushie. which she hugs with joy. Making her chuckle softly. a dim light in this bleak atmosphere.
As she fixes up her surgical mask. She gives her blue-haired daughter another hug and a “I love you. “As belle lies down before she puts her under anesthesia. putting her daughter to sleep.
Wise watches, curious perhaps, but she knows her son very well.
She places her two hands on his cheeks. “Wise… Do you trust me?”
The gray-haired youth nods.
“Then trust me again that I'm doing this for your own good, that I'm doing this for you and your sister, and that I would never let anything harm you.”
“Ok mom… I trust you.”
“That’s my boy.”
“Oh, Mom?”
“Hm?”
“I love you.”
She gives his forehead a kiss. “I love you too.”
With her kids asleep. Carole let’s out a sigh and puts up her surgical mask looking back to eous who had settled on a desk, watching.
“Eous, Don’t disturb mommy for this, okay. It’s very important.”
“Eh-nah!” (“ok mommy!”)
Carol sighed, resolute with following through what would come next. “Let’s begin the experiment”
it didn’t take her long to install the implants in their brain. She was incredibly careful, maybe a little too careful. She plugged in a wire into their implants as she picked them up, one by one, holding the most delicate thing in the world as she placed them in a giant test tube, placing a harness and breathing apparatus on them. She walks over to a computer, typing a command as it seals the test tube shut. filling itself with a strange liquid.
The beeping noise of the heart monitor keeps her grounded. No abnormal changes. The vital signs of her children, their ether aptitude, and various other numbers, fluctuate and change within expected parameters.
She walks to the opposite side of the room, looking over a series of drives. Each from a Voidhunter, each labeled by their title: Swordmaster, Proxy, Sunbringer, Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Ego, and finally Helios.
It took her a long time to get some of these, but at last she had them all. The integral pieces. These drives contained the combat data of all seven voidhunters. With this installed, they would be able to adapt to most situations…. but even part of her knew that was too much power to give to her children…
She stared at the drives, pondering if that was even the right decision to make. But was the alternative better?
She looked to the briefcase beside her, opening it. It’s contents tempting her to use what was stored within. She moves away, back to her computer. an alert on it brings her back to reality.
The other gift was ready.
This was her gift to them. A way to protect them from the Hollows.
If she can’t turn them into Voidhunters, she can at least make sure that they’ll have all the guidance she can give them to be a fine pair of Proxies.
She types in a variety of commands.
“Begin HDD synchronization… All vitals green. We can proceed.”
When Wise regains consciousness, he feels a familiar weight on him, he can tell by the fresh smell and coldness in the back of his head that he’s back in his bed. His vision feels strange. like having a filter over everything he sees, but he chalks it up to him being groggy. He sees the silhouette of a man and what seems to be his mother talking.
“I believe in my dear children…” She says to someone
She turns around and Wise closes his eyes, pretending to sleep.
A hand passes through his hair lovingly as another kiss lands on his forehead.
“They are the brilliant Phaethon.” His mother says.
“They are the pride and joy of our academy.” He heard another voice, belonging to Professor Arche. “Have no fear, I’ll keep them safe.”
The both of them leave the room as Eous follows them.
Wise opens his eyes, staring into Belle’s who was waking up slowly. Her eyes glowed a gentle blue.
Following that night, Wise and Belle Arna were now bound to their family legacy.
Following that night, months before calamity is set to strike…
Phaethon was born.