The man sighed. "But this was a disappointment. And here I thought you'd be strong like your old man." He sighed again. "Perhaps killing your family might be a trigger for you to escape the boundaries of flesh?" He scowled. He wasn't joking.

"What?" My cold blood boiled.

He turned around, bemused, and walked towards the unconscious woman.

I knew I was outclassed but that didn't mean I could just let him have his way.

'DO YOU WANT POWER?'

I heard a voice, I heard the voice of that shadow.

I didn't respond. I already knew it was trying to take over.

My mind was unstable and I was sick.

'I CAN LEND YOU SOME!' A chuckling sound reverberated in my mind.

It was using this whole situation as a means to take over.

"Shut up!" My head throbbed painfully. The world around me spun.

This was not my day. The man didn't pay attention to me and just move forward towards the girls on the floor. I didn't care about power, I didn't care about the shadow and I didn't care about anything else, all I cared was about them.

'I CAN SAVE THEM!'

"NO!" I screamed louder than my throat could handle and ran straight. The earth swayed all around me but it didn't matter. Nothing did.

I infused my hand with all the plasma I could make in a second and tried to shove it directly in his back. This was my barrier-piercing attack and probably the only one that was capable of killing people directly.

The idea of killing someone or perhaps even being cowardly didn't bother me. Why? Because the lives of my mother and sister were in danger. I didn't care about morality when it came to my family.

"Who's the coward now?" He grabbed my hand and punched me straight in my stomach.

"ARGH!" It hurt more than anything else I ever experienced and almost fainted. My muscles tore, my bones broke and I was about to faint. But I couldn't. Not while I knew my mother was on the floor. I couldn't.

I didn't have the strength to stand. 'Stand!'

But since he held me by hand, I didn't fall down.

Blood came out of my mouth and nose, and I could barely keep my eyes open. But I couldn't faint.

The man grabbed my head and lifted me up, grinning. "You're too weak, son of Julio." I wasn't weak, he was just a monster.

'What kind of idiot are you?'

"POWER. ACCEPT ME AND YOU'LL HAVE POWER."

"No."

The voice in my head became louder and louder. "I'LL DEFEAT HIM FOR YOU."

"NO!"

"RELEASE ME!"

"NO!"

"NO?" The man looked at me, a little dumbfounded. "Did you lose your mind?" His voice felt distant.

My vision got foggy.

I could see him and the white interior in my mind at the same time.

It was like I was in some sort of haze. The suffocating feeling eased up a little.

I could see the shadow smirking at me through the prison. "Accept me and all your pain would end. All the suffering would end. I'll save them, I'll save our mother."

There was a reason this thing was kept locked. I'd seen the carnages. I knew the destruction it caused. But it was also true I needed its power.

"So how about we make a deal?" The thing offered, sensing my thoughts.

"What deal?"

"I'll give you the strength to fight. In exchange, you'll save mother."

"Save mom? What about you? I won't accept you."

"If mother dies, then what's the point in living?" The shadow glared at me. "I have an eternity to take over, but we can't lose mother."

Why was he worried about Mom? I didn't understand this. This all felt very stupid to me. And yet, it didn't feel like he was lying.

I knew this was a mistake, but I also knew I needed his help. There was no time to waste.

The man, meanwhile, was squeezing the life out of my throat and head with both of his hands. I didn't know how much strength he had but I had roughly a minute of life left.

I didn't have the luxury of time.

"Alright." This was a gamble, but it was worth taking the risk. I reached for the shadow's hand.

The shadow grabbed my hand, through the bars. "It's a deal then." I saw his smirk and I was kicked from that place.

The fog lifted and everything cleared. But the suffocation did not: it only increased.

"Oh, you're back. I thought you fainted back there." The man smirked.

The fact that he was still choking me, was weird. I didn't understand what he was thinking. One moment he was intent on killing mom, the next moment he was busy choking me.

"Trust me, you wish." It was very hard to speak like this but, I grabbed his hands, both of them.

'Please work.'

My veins puffed up and I could almost see steam coming out of them. This feeling, this feeling of being empowered was new.

I'd seen this through the Holo and all that but the real thing was different. I didn't feel pained, I just felt hot, and powerful. I grabbed his hands and tried to break them, just like he was trying to crush my skull.

"Now we're talking." The man squeezed harder: his muscles bulged.

But there was more to my squeeze.

'NOW BREAK DOWN THE ATOMS!' The shadow was giving me instructions on how to use this power. I guess it really was trying to help me.

I didn't know why I was still listening to that shadow, but I was glad. And with a smirk, I focused on the individual cells of this man's body and his atoms.

I once tried this power when I was little. Nothing had happened: I couldn't even dismantle a single atom. But I remember having a dream about this power. In that dream, I could decompose everything, even people and the earth. It was a very scary dream, but it was about to become reality.

"What the?" The man was dumbfounded for a second. "So you too….Or?" His laugh intensified and so did his grip. "You really are the one!"

'Why isn't this working?'

Even with this power and the constant rot of his arm, things weren't working.

We were both using a significant amount of strength and it was creating a very large crater beneath our feet: more like his feet.

I was decomposing his cells and he was dying just like I was. But there was one difference. This guy could repair his own body.

His arm was rotting away and healing at the same time. But my rot was stronger. But my breath was also limited. Meaning, this just became a battle of attrition.

'Think!'

'Think!'

'Think!'

'Think!'

But nothing was coming to my oxygen-deprived mind.

Breathing was near impossible and I didn't have anything more than a few more seconds.

'WHY DON'T we KILL HIM?' The suggestion popped up in my mind.

Kill him? Was that even possible?

I didn't know what the shadow had in mind, but if this man could absorb radiation, then killing him sounded like nothing more than fantasy.

But!

But I couldn't end things like this either. I had to win, and I had to win without a doubt.

I still remember the last words gramps ever said to me before disappearing. "Don't become a murderer." I didn't know when he said that, or where he said that, but that was the last thing I remembered about him.

'Sorry gramps but I've to do this.' I focused even more and used the last ounce of my powers to corrupt his body.

Kill a person? It was different from killing Mutors or animals. I was prepared to kill, but when the moment really came. Could I really kill?

But it didn't matter anymore. The problem wasn't whether I could or not, it was more like I had to. If I didn't, I'd die and so will my family. I didn't have a choice.

Since he was absorbing radiation, I didn't let a single particle loose. Instead, I used the rot and the plasma at the same time.

He was about to lose both of his arms.

"You okay boss?"

"Yeah, don't worry. Secure the package. I got this."

One of the men was about to leave when all of a sudden.

There was a shockwave and a boom.

This place was cut off from the outside, so what? Then another.

"ARGH!" That same man writhed.

The grip on my throat eased up as this guy looked behind.

'My chance!' I wrapped my legs around the man's neck and gave it a twist.

It didn't work, but my rot sure did reach him and then there was the plasma. I was totally prepared to end his life.

The man groaned and whacked me off of him.

The moment I reached the ground, the powers wore off, I was there, barely moving. I couldn't feel anything in my body. 'No! So close!'

I was going to faint, and I knew it.

One of the hands of the man fell off but he just grabbed it and shoved it back. He smirked at me. "You might grow up stronger than him." He was walking my way.

BOOM!

Another shockwave and the writhing man fell on the ground, blood splattering.

Sound from the outside came back as two figures appeared inside the room out of nowhere.

One the Battlesuin girl, the other- the headmaster.

I fainted.