New Game+

Lynd felt his body tremble. Seeker\'s words had struck Lynd and his mental defenses that were preventing his emotions from affecting him began to falter.

A sense of pride surfaced. His parents were the key to their victory even in the past.

"Drop your guard, Lynd. It\'s ok." Seeker urged.

"And my mom?" Lynd asked ignoring Seeker.

"She was equally important. Your dad showed you the science. But your mom brought the data of Uncle Peters to our side with her life. At that time, everyone was pissed. They thought that your mother\'s sacrifice was useless and sentimental. What about that data was useful? No one knew the impact then. But Patient Zero and the messenger\'s sacrifice impact us even today. Sadly, in that timeline, no one remembered your parents or treated them as heroes."

"Knowing them... they wouldn\'t care..."

"The problem was that they were branded as... reckless idiots."

"What?!" Lynd finally showed emotions as his rage leaked out.

Seeker used his Realm to stop the surging energy that would have broken the room.

"Your dad was already dying by the time they reached him. It was too late to save him. Harker realized he couldn\'t get any information out of Uncle Peters. So he leaked his location and waited to know that many of the generals that accompanied the Dalisay would step in."

"It was a trap?"

"Yeah. Still, they would have made it out and retrieved your dad\'s body after it. But your mom saw the research on your dad\'s brain and thought it would have been a good idea to send it to the Pangean government. She thought it would be a good weapon to stop Programmed Slaves and other spies from entering our ranks. She didn\'t know just how important that information was. Everyone was against that plan. The Mikados and I helped Lynda as they agreed with it. But eventually, they needed to go. Lynda stayed behind and my parents and the Mikados escaped. That stunt brought a huge blow to the Pangean armies which became the first domino to fall and collapse everything. Your mom died delivering the information. She was caught in a trap and had to stay behind to ensure that the message was sent without interruption."

"So they died as unsung heroes... So notorious that they were blamed for Pangean\'s fall?" Lynd\'s anger was growing so much that Seeker had to use a weaponized bomb of the Realm King to harden the Realm. But Seeker needed to let Lynd release the pent-up anger. After the battle, he locked himself inside the room and was distant. Not even Alean could calm him down and Kristine, who had the skill of calming others was not around as she was with Arthur in the Many Mansions.

"You were angry at them, as well. No one bothered to know about how the drug of the Unlocked was developed. I only remembered all this, when I moved to this timeline. I saw every minute memory when I surpassed the former limit of what we believed our brains can do. The details told me what they were. Charles died right before he can even tell everyone who the heroes of these drugs were. I remembered that it was then when my memories gave me full access to the room where I was being experimented on and became the first Unlocked. So in that life, even when I died, your parents were not heroes. They were so notorious that they were considered traitors."

Lynd\'s anger began an opening that caused the influx of emotions to finally affect him. Tears began to fall and the power that surged around disappeared.

"Arthur has started recording the logs and official war announcement. Have you read it?"

"No."

"Mission Hunt of the Presiders, Codename Plagues of Egypt, Success. Victory against Top-Tier Garenjazz, who revealed Principal-level might, is attributed to the brave sacrifices of Lynda and Peters Indigo. First Class Heroes, who saved the Way and the Truth. The Unlocked Armies now have Principal-level techs thanks to the subjugation of two Presiders."

Lynd was quiet.

"Lynd. Do you realize, just how amazing that sacrifice was? We were supposed to lose you. We were once more, suppose to lose the Way. But we didn\'t. That sacrifice allowed you to make the winning attack. And now, we have... techs... weapons... and two Presiders who can tell us... everything." Even Seeker\'s voice was trembling in gratitude as he was starting to tear up and cry.

"You can observe my expressions and see my emotions when I say this... Lynd. Your parents gave us a winning shot, unlike anything we have had so far! I and the kid are relieved that you are alive. That was our initial emotions. But now that the dust has settled and we are counting our cards, we\'re happy. We\'re extremely grateful for the bravery that your parents displayed. And Arthur bestowed to them the title of First Class Heroes. They will be remembered as equals to Overcomers! So cry, damn it! Don\'t let them be forgotten again! Don\'t let their memory be tainted! You owe it to them to cry out." Seeker urged.

With the rush, Lynd finally allowed his emotions to impact him. He allowed his mind to fall into the abyss of sadness. He resisted it for so long, but he knew Seeker was right. It was an insult to their memory if he held it off now.

Seeker then placed a comm device at the table near Lynd.

"My dad gave this to me. He said that... all of them had already prepared a message to say goodbye to us." Seeker left it on the table and began to walk out.

"...Lynd. I never told you this... But in my timeline, we both grew up in a strange world. Politics, morality, and logic were being twisted left and right. But our three families always met and sat at one table. We never found out about their past. But in that time, our three families became friends. Aunt Lynda and Uncle Peters... were... very important to me too..." Seeker also allowed his tears to fall.

"And I\'m happy that you\'re alive. But... It hurts. I had to see them die... twice." Seeker left the room.

Lynd didn\'t move from his seat, but the comm device hovered and Lynd played the saved video.

Lynda was seated on a couch and Peters sat. He was the one who started the recording and say down on the couch.

The two looked awkwardly at the camera of the comm device.

"...Why does it look like we are shooting a porn flick?" Lynda frowned.

Lynd chucked as he heard his mom\'s usual snide remarks.

"Come on! Be serious! This is our last goodbye to our son!" Peters rebuked Lynda but was clearly laughing at Lynda\'s remarks.

"Anyway... Lynd. When you see this, it means, we are dead. And yes. I meant that. When you see this. Honestly, we, the Mikados, and even the Carleans really believe we won\'t make it." Lynda began.

"Yeah. We\'re not overcomers after all. But at the same time, we\'re not those weaklings who will be spending the entire war hiding in some underwater base. And you know we\'d love to be in the frontline."

"Yeah. We took this video right after we beat you to a near-death state for running away and going all emo. Please don\'t do that again. It\'s embarrassing. The Carleans and the Mikado always joke about us running away."

"Right. That was not cool. It was very embarrassing for our family. Don\'t do it again." Peters frowned.

Lynd sighed and recalled how his parents charged in and attacked him with Exoskeletons to give him a beating. This happened even when he was at the hospital wing of the underwater fortresses recovering from his fight against Seeker.

"Anyway... Lynd. We\'re very proud of you." Lynda smiled.

"Yeah. Very, very proud. Our little boy is not just some famous e-sport gamer with a teacher complex. But now, he is a famous e-sport gamer with a teacher complex, and a bi-polar personality, and has numerous yaoi stories about him. And to top all that, you are someone who can save the world." Peters was proud.

"Wait. Yaoi stories?"

"...You don\'t know?"

"I don\'t. And I\'m worried that you know."

"Harker sent me those! He sent me Chris the ones with Zeek and Arthur and there both of us discovered that there was a lot!"

"Why were you reading those?!"

"Well, Chris made a bet that there would be more yaoi stories about Seeker than Lynd. He lost that bet. Lynd has like, twice more stories.

Lynda was appalled but was clearly interested.

"Are they... any good?"

"...You want to read them?"

"Are they good?" Lynda repeated.

"Of course they\'re good! The one writing it is an Unlocked and has a skill in writing!"

"So you... read it?!"

"I was... I was curious! There was one with Greydon Meng, for crying out loud! Wait! Why are we talking about this!?"

"Ri-Right. Erm... Let\'s just have Gardo edit this video so he can cut off these useless parts. He does have those video editing thingy."

"Gardo? He\'s a bit of a joker."

"You really think that Gardo would do that the last message to our son?"

"...You\'re right."

As the video played, a subtitle caption appeared at the bottom.

"They were SO wrong. I told them I will edit it but I left it here. This is revenge for nearly killing me in your emo period, Lynd! P.S. My condolences and cheer up, kid!" A message appeared and Lynd began to laugh as he read it.

"Anyway... Lynd. You are one of the heroes of this Earth. You\'ve grown so strong and we\'re so proud as parents." Lynda began.

"Yeah. We\'re actually worried. You\'ve become so strong, that we can\'t save you from your battles. And that scares us." Peters sighed.

"We don\'t know how we will die, we can only hope that it would be so epic. But, honestly, against Presiders, who knows if we will just get killed in some random explosion or attack." Lynda added.

"Yeah... If we fight those Principals, we won\'t even know what hit us. How do you want to die, Hon?" Peters asked.

"Hm... If it was me... I guess I want to see Lynd one last time. He must be so pissed and will be getting so much stronger like in those anime stories. I want to see my boy become that bad-ass hero!" Lynda chuckled.

"What about you, hon?"

"Me? Honestly? I don\'t care, but I hope I\'ll be holding your hands." Peters smiled.

"Awww... Honey! This is for Lynd!"

"I know! But he can tell if I\'m lying, right?" Peters laughed.

"Anyway, Lynd. We suck at parenting. And we\'re sorry for it. You were too young then, but I\'m sure you can imagine what we had to run away from and how we were always covering our tracks so that our past won\'t catch up with us. We wanted to give you so much more. But we had to be careful even how we spent our money. We were rash, and stupid, and had to cover up our mistakes. I would look at Chris, Grace, Jade, and even that boring, strict prick, Stevenson, and I\'d say... wow! They are... great parents! I mean... they were smart! They provided... They got their kid\'s stuff... You... you had to stay and play with Seeker all the time but never had things of your own. I... hated that. I\'m happy you had Seeker and Meryl. But I was sad because I... I couldn\'t be enough." Lynda gave a bitter smile.

Peters watched silently and held her arm.

"We only did what we could, Lynd. I hope... for you... at least it would be enough." Peters smiled.

Lynd\'s heart hurt. They were wrong. They were the best parents as far as he was concerned. He realized that the last emotions that Lynda had were this regret.

"Mom... You did well... It was more than enough..." Lynd wept.

"Lynd. I really wish that I could give you more. I really wish I could have worked harder to give you a better childhood since now, your youth is being taken away from you. I know that it would be selfish to despise your burdens... But I... I just wished we could have done more. Somehow, I wish I\'d be like Zeek. I want to go back in time and use what I know now, not to do any world-changing or future-altering thing... You and Seeker can handle that. I would have just been... a better dad." Peters sighed.

"Sorry for being sucky parents. If we knew the burden you carried now. We would have done crazier things to make you much happier." Lynda began to cry.

"Welp... This is our regret. We just want to apologize. We don\'t think you blame us for our failures. We just know that we could have given so much more. Lynd. Live on. I hope that at the end of this, you\'ll be able to settle down and be your own parent. And you will be a very great and awesome parent. I mean... The Way as a dad? That is sick, dude!" Peters tried to force a laugh as he held on to his tears.

As Lynd continued to listen to the call, Seeker communicated with Arthur.

"My calculations indicate that Lynd ought to be fine three minutes ago. Was I right?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah... Three minutes ought to be that time..." Seeker answered.

"Good. At least the time wasted for this emotional processing was within my calculations. What about you? Are you ok? My calculations indicate your not."

"...No. I\'m not ok, Arthur. It wasn\'t enough. I was aiming for a perfect game in this New Game+. But a lot of deaths have happened. And... Lynd\'s parents are gone. It could have been anyone. But as you said... there is no time to waste processing this emotion."

"But you better get used to this, Zeek. My calculations are quite grim. Even with Alean\'s power, we had quite a few deaths from higher-ranking people. And my worry is with you."

"Me?"

"I calculate that it would take Eagle to help you get over whatever emotional processing you need if Lynd dies. We can\'t afford that. Have a mindset that everything you built and gathered so far, will start dying out from now on."

"... How much time did you calculate I would waste in this emo phase if you die?"

"I\'m rather touched, Zeek. I estimate an entire day. Not bad. Our yaoi shippers will be happy."

"...Yay Arthur-Zeek."

"We\'re actually called Arthur-Hump-Zeek. Way to murder my family name though. Dad is not happy."

"Calling him dad now?"

"We\'ve mended the bridge with my sister now saved."

"Well good for you."

"But Zeek. I was being serious. If you don\'t prepare yourself and you lose many of the important people that your Adult self vowed to not lose, you may decline in power. You won\'t get weaker. But you also won\'t get stronger. And Eagle may not be easily accessible by then." Arthur warned.

"I know... I\'ll set my heart right in this."

"You better. The Age of the Beasts is coming. One beast has passed. Three more awaits."