Meanwhile, Zeus sought Zaria for a chat.

"I meant it literally when I said my name had been stolen." He explained.

She studied him with a small frown. "Who would do that? Someone stole your identity to replace you?"

"Not to replace me. Just to protect the person she cares about." Zeus hoped she would understand it now.

Her eyes widened slightly as she tried to make sense of what Zeus was saying. Could it be…

"Yes, it's our mother." Zeus confirmed her suspicion.

"I knew it." Zaria muttered. Part of her had suspected it for a moment, when Zeus introduced himself as the creator of Creszone.

When she was little, she once heard Lucy mention it.

______

Two decades ago.

"What are you busy with? You have been stuck on your computer the whole day." Theodore asked as he placed a cup of coffee on Lucy's desk.

"I'm creating an application. I will name it Creszone. When I'm done, I will take a break and let you work while I stay at home like a housewife." She pecked Theodore's cheek and thanked him for the coffee. "Can you take care of Zaria for a while?" She carried over Zaria who was playing with a doll and gave her to Theodore.

"But I want to stay with mommy!" The little girl protested.

Lucy held her small hand and kissed it. "I'm sorry, baby. Mommy has to work. If I stay with you all round the clock, you will have no future."

_____

Zaria shrugged at her mother's reason. She wasn't wrong, but that was just her opinion. Theodore worked hard too, but he had time for her as well and she still had a future.

"What are you sad about?" Zeus asked when she spaced out.

"Nothing. I do remember her mentioning such a thing as Creszone in the past. I knew she was its creator, which is why I was surprised when I learnt that it was a man."

Realization dawned on her as soon as she said it. If she thought back to all her encounters with Zeus and imagined him as a woman, it all made sense. She no longer found it creepy that she was being watched over by a man. On the contrary, she felt safe, being protected by her mother.

"So you are the stubborn son she was training." She laughed when she recalled her complaint.

"I'm not stubborn." Zeus protested.

"Why would she use your identity to get close to me anyway?" She still couldn't make sense of it.

Zeus coughed. "It's a long story, actually."

"I have all the time in the world." She reclined in her chair to listen to him.

He leaned towards the desk. "Listen closely. Mother was in danger before and had to hide away. She needed a fake identity to keep her away from her enemies' scrutiny."

"And she thought her son's name was the best option?" Zaria found it ridiculous.

"It's quite the contrary. Her fake name was Zeus." Zeus sighed.

"She named you after her alias?" Zaria found it even more baffling.

He let out a breath. "It was my choice after that incident happened."

"What incident? Will you die if you explain everything at once?" She was losing her temper.

His eyebrows furrowed. It was probably an incident he didn't want to recall. "It doesn't matter. Anyway, mother was on the verge of death. I took her name and was planning to use it to avenge her. It would have been thrilling for the enemy to hear that Zeus was back. But trust me, they were even more shocked to see the real her instead of a substitute Zeus."

It sounded as though he was talking about something related to the mafia and she was not ready to know all the details yet. She skipped to a milder part. "Why didn't you restore your true identity? I would like to call you using your original name."

"No you don't." He laughed.

"Don't tell me…"

"Yes, my original name was Theo Roatta." He beat her to it, making her face-palm. What the heck?

"When I learnt my father's name, I decided to keep my name as Zeus. At least that's an alias. So, you know who has been protecting you all these years. I would have used my entire life to protect you but I was still too weak." He sounded as though he was complaining. Was it such a loss for him to be unable to protect his sister? "If I was strong enough in the past, we wouldn't have been separated from you and dad for all these years."

"What are you even talking about?" He sounded as though they had no choice but to stay away and could only return now.

"What happened in the past might be incorrigible but Zaria, she would never make the same mistake twice."

She hated Zeus for messing with her mind. She was officially confused. "What's your major point? That she couldn't have hurt dad?"

"It was not her fault, Zaria. He is the last person she would want to hurt." He explained.

"I'll pretend to believe you for now." She harrumphed. She should have known. Zeus' reason for coming here was to try and convince her that Lucy didn't intend for Theodore's accident to happen. How could she give him time to explain? They had been together for all these years, of course he would be on her side. What was worse, she was starting to think that Lucy was really innocent.

___

"Dad, I have to tell you something." Zaria started when Theodore arrived at the villa.

"What is it?" He sat down on the couch and looked up at her.

She didn't know how to say it without making him immensely worried. "Well… I just want to tell you to be more careful."

"Is this about the accident?" He smiled at her. "Don't worry, Lucy will no longer get to me."

"You know?" She was shocked at the revelation.

"She came to apologize to me. How sincere." He snickered.

"She apologized?" She was even more shocked. Lucy was more arrogant than Desmond and had an ego bigger than the whole city. Such a thing as her dropping her pride to say she was sorry was quite unexpected.

Theodore smiled. "Aside from being very pretentious, I think she was quite sincere. I'll go to take a shower before dinner."

She raised an eyebrow as she watched him go upstairs. His expression when he talked about Lucy was quite interesting…

Out of the blue, she recalled one of Zeus' messages in the past. She joked about wanting to drag her husband to vote for Jupiter… because it might create a spark between them and make them reunite.

What in the world?! Lucy still loved Theodore?

Her phone chimed. She had received a text message on Creszone.

[It's your brother. Let's be friends, okay?]

She smiled and added him as her close friend before asking, [When do you plan to barge into dad's office and declare yourself as his rightful heir?]

[What rightful heir?] He sent over a confused sticker.

[Isn't that what long-lost sons do when they appear out of the blue?] She laughed.

[You're the worst! I'm not an illegitimate child, okay!] He complained. [Let's talk about something more serious.]

Her heart skipped a beat. So he really had a reason for contacting her. What was it about? She had enough shock earlier when he revealed the true identity of her protector.

Zeus' response was a video that looked blurry from the thumbnail.

Her hands trembled when she recognized the content. Wasn't that the day when Gabe tried to abuse her?

She didn't want to remember it but she knew that it could be a major clue so she gritted her teeth and watched it. She watched her past self cry for help only to be slapped by Gabe who found her yells for help annoying.

He grabbed her neck and just when she thought he was really going to have his way, a hand grabbed Gabe and threw him onto the ground, before he was beaten black and blue by her saviour.

Her saviour helped her up and left when Theodore appeared in the alley. Now that she saw it from an outsider's point of view, her saviour hesitated before leaving.

"No way…" She almost dropped her phone when she saw the saviour's mask accidentally slip off.

"It was mother!"

All she saw was a small part of her face but it was definitely Lucy!

______

AN

I hope I didn't get anyone confused.

A short summary just in case

Lucy's alias is Zeus. She pretended to be the other gender because no one would look through men's details when searching for a woman.

Her son took her name to revenge but Lucy didn't die. So basically, there are two 'Zeus' but the one who has been chatting with Zaria is the original Zeus (Lucy).

To avoid confusion in future, I will refer to Lucy as Lucy and Zaria's brother as Zeus. If I have to refer to Lucy as Zeus, I will make it obvious.