“Secure the area, arrest the target. Don’t let her get away.”

The lights of the flash bang dimmed and lasers spread around the room through the smoke. Armored guards stood at each exit of the room and Eves face was ferociously smashed into the ground as they rushed over and grabbed her.

Boom

They repeatedly smashed her head into the ground until she was unconscious. Then they wrapped glowing handcuffs around her hands as she was forcefully restrained.

Her nose was bleeding and her eyebrow split open.

The guards held hand guns at the heads of Lucifer and Aruna who were now down on the ground. “Make a single move and you die.” The guard fiercely waved his hand and warned them.

Aruna was screaming and Lucifer’s rage boiled as he thought to himself. ‘You dare point a gun at me? Don’t you know who I am bitch?’

But he quickly calmed his anger; he was no longer the big bad wolf he was once. He was just a puny 12 year old kid. He needed to garner power before he could act wild and arrogant.

He experienced another surge of electricity as his mind filled with memories. These guards were from the United Colonies Punishment Squad. They had a reputation for being vile and vicious. They often tortured, raped and killed innocent civilians for no reason at all. It wasn’t that rare to see them raping and killing each other as well.

They seldom do their jobs properly but today they came in with one goal, to arrest and detain Eve. It seemed like overkill to send in an entire guard regiment to arrest one young lady. Eve didn’t resist even when she was knocked unconscious.

‘Why are all these armored guards attacking us in our run down house and arresting my mother? She’s not a top secret spy is she? No, don’t be ridiculous. If she was then we wouldn’t be starving little children.’

Aruna screamed, “Don’t hurt my mum. Why are you arresting my mum? My mum did nothing to you!”

“She stole an $85 Vitamin A supplement packet. The evidence is right there!” He pointed towards the packet she had opened and given to Lucifer.

‘$85? They sent armored guards for such a small matter. Talk about ruling with an Iron fist.’

“Let’s go to the courthouse, we have to find out the sentence.” Worry and anxiousness was written across Aruna’s face.

‘Well, it was only a supplement. The punishment won’t be too harsh.’ Lucifer thought to himself.

They dragged Eve out of the building, strapped her down and then took her to the judicial courthouse. Of course all of this was a pretense; the operation had already been organized and planned beforehand. Their machinations weren’t as simple as they seemed on the surface. The so called theft excuse they used was a blatant lie, they wouldn’t need to send an entire guard regiment here just to arrest someone for theft. There was definitely something shady going on in the background. But Aruna and Lucifer were none the wiser.

As they exited the house they were surprised to see that over 5,000 armed guards were stationed outside. “Why are they all here?” Both Aruna and Lucifer’s mouth dropped open, a great feeling of uneasiness rose up inside of them. Even the guard’s expressions held a tint of fear, like they were arresting some sort of terrifying monster instead of a young beautiful woman.

The court process was incredibly fast, in only 2 minutes they gave a verdict. She was sentenced to life in the slave mines with zero family visits allowed. She would never see the light of day again. Once a verdict was handed down it could never be changed. This was the ultimate law of the judicial system. Even the wrongly accused prisoners that were later proven innocent wouldn't have their punishment revoked. It was a completely barbaric system.

“This is ridiculous, what kind of person gets life in prison for stealing a supplement?” Lucifer was furious; this world was vastly different than the one he had known. Usually the punishment fit the crime but this world ran on a zero tolerance policy.

Eve was such an amiable person; she kept a wide smile the entire time as she was dragged out of the courthouse and strapped into a straitjacket.

“Aruna look after Lucifer. Don’t let him get into trouble; I’m sorry for being a useless mother and not being able to look after you two, be safe my children and be strong.”

The slave mines were a death sentence; no one ever came out alive. As she and 12 others were dragged away she kept smiling happily, she wanted to leave them with a lasting impression that they could carry for the rest of their lives. When they remembered her they would remember her smiling face.

Once they were out of sight one of the convicts next to her started speaking “It’s alright, they can’t see you now.” Eve’s lips trembled and she slowly burst into tears. She knew she would never see her children again; there was no return for people like her. She just hoped they could survive long enough to get off this god forsaken planet.

Aruna’s tears fell like rain drops; even Lucifer shed a silent tear. Lucifer was by nature a stoic baby, when he was born he didn’t cry once. He was a battle hardened soldier that had lacked the ability to express such emotions.

He felt a lot more human in this life than he did in the past. As he thought some more he felt as if this lady was his real mother and his past life had been one long bad dream. The familial bonds formed between him and his new mother were incredibly strong, of course these weren’t his own emotional ties but those formed by Lucifer that existed in his memories. But regardless, the pain he felt was real. If he had someone he could call mother then she was the only one worthy of birthing such a King. The love, care and self-sacrifice she had shown over the years moved Lucifer to no ends.

She gave him the warm feeling a mother should, it had only been one day since he met her but the years of memories that continued to flow into his head slowly melted his frozen heart. Slowly but surely Lucifer and Liuchan Shibai were becoming one person, the memories of two lives woven together into a single being.

Lucifer’s heart ached, he felt vulnerable, like a gaping hole had appeared in his heart that continued to grow larger.

Aruna was quick to put on a poker face and wipe her eyes. “Come on, let’s go.”

She grabbed his arm and they returned home. Both Aruna and Lucifer were breathing quite heavily. She was a very strong person and was used to dealing with pressure and change in circumstance.

As Lucifer saw this, his heart hardened once again. ‘She stole that medicine for me; she gave her life for me. Why was I named Lucifer? Because I am the Devil they need, the Devil that will make the rivers run with blood.’

As he muttered to himself, Aruna’s arms stretched around him. “Don’t get any ideas; you are no match for them. They have high tech weapons and armor. Even if there were a hundred of you, you wouldn’t be able to stand up to one of them.”

Her shoulders shivered as she remembered a certain trauma that happened in the not so distant past. Even though Lucifer never said a word, she was sharp and guessed what he was thinking. Her judge of character was impressive; it was no different than mind reading.

“Then, what do we do?” He hated himself for being so weak; he hated himself for being ignorant about this world. But what could he do? He was only a new arrival.

“We bow our heads and survive; it’s all we can do.”

“I won’t bow my head like some dog.” Lucifer lashed his tongue in response.

“We have to push on and struggle because right now there are no solutions. We just have to wait until we find an opportunity to pursue a better future for ourselves. Otherwise mum and dad would’ve given their lives for nothing.”

Lucifer, “…”

He had no choice but to nod his head in agreement. He might not be able to fight the guards as he is now but she didn’t know that in his past life he held 19 Olympic Gold Medals. Starting today he would train his body back to the peak of fitness and do away with these puny muscles. He had the perfect training regime to reclaim his once perfect body.

The only problem he faced was energy consumption; he needed a vast amount of energy which can only be gained from protein and supplements. Otherwise his body wouldn’t make any progress. What kind of supplements did this world have? He had no idea but he was determined to find out.

He couldn’t steal them though, what would he do if they sent 5000 guards to arrest him? Even in his prime he couldn’t take on that amount of people. Even martial arts legends like Bruce Lee would die from exhaustion before fighting them all off.

‘I need a job. I can’t let my sister do all the hard work; I have to pull my own weight. Even though I’m only 12 and my body is malnourished I still have the mind of an adult.’

He slammed his fist down and proclaimed “Sis, I’m going to get a job.”

As he said the word ‘sis’ he felt weird because it was his first time using such a word. But regardless, this was his sister so he knew he had to quickly adjust and get use to treating her as such.

She looked at him for a second and in the end didn’t reject the idea. The truth is that they are in dire straits, without Eve’s income they would wilt away until they were nothing but ash. One income wasn’t enough to survive, even two incomes were barely enough to afford a sizeable amount of food. At least they didn’t have to pay rent. They lived in an abandoned building so it was free.

Lucifer set out to all the surrounding factories and walked around for hours trying his best but was declined at every turn. He was feeling dejected until he overheard a conversation coming from a nearby shop.

“Yeah, we still need 100 workers but not many people can take the burden of 12 hour shifts under such laborious conditions.”

Lucifer’s eyes lit up when he heard this, “Hey sir, I happened to overhear your conversation. If you are looking for workers then look no further. I’m young, fit and can easily work a 12 hour shift.”

The man looked over his body in an inspecting manner. Lucifer felt a sense of unease rise up inside of him. It was this man’s aura. It was akin to that of a fierce beast. It was something only apex predators could release. This man was obviously not a normal human being. He was probably a powerful martial arts practitioner or an ex-army solider.

“I like your spunk kid but this is a tough mining job. We can’t have little twerps running around a busy and dangerous workplace like ours.”

“I understand your thoughts but how about this? I work the first week for free. If you think I’m not fit for the job then you can fire me right away.”

The man looked at Lucifer and saw a small fire burning in his eyes, “Hmm, okay. Let’s see what you’re made of.”

And like that, after only a short exchange of words he had found himself a job after hours of searching.