After work, Marcus went to the hospital to check on his daughter, Sarah, who's got a late stage of cancer. He knocked on the door twice before walking in.

"Daddy!" the little girl cheered upon seeing her dad, a bright, dainty smile on her face. She spread out her arms awaiting her dad to hug her.

Marcus smiled and hugged her tight. "How are you feeling?" he asked, trying to keep his smile for as long as he could.

"I had a little headache this morning, but I'm feeling a lot better now," Sarah replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "Hey. Did you know? Nyxx came to visit me this morning!" she asked in excitement.

"Oh–". Marcus scratched the back of his neck. "She did?"

"Yes. She also said that once I get better, she'll take me to the amusement park. She said we're going to spend the whole day there.".

Upon hearing that, Marcus couldn't help it. Tears were dripping down his cheeks, knowing his daughter most likely won't live long to live that day.

"Daddy? What's wrong?" asked Sarah, with a sad look on her face.

"Nothing sweetie, I'm just happy and excited about the day you recover." Marcus forced a smile.

He spent some time with her before taking his leave. He went outside to speak to the doctor responsible for his daughter's condition. The doctor shook his head and told him, "She has a maximum of two months. I'm sorry." He patted Marcus on the shoulder before walking off.

Marcus walked off, feeling like he was drowning inside. He arrived home and sat on his desk. He looked down at his research documents, then swept them off his desk. All sorts of feelings were conflicting inside him, anger, rage, sadness, and sorrow.

"What am I supposed to do? My poor baby. Oh God please help me!" Marcus started crying.

---------------------------------------------

As soon as the class was over, Kira packed up her stuff and was planning on talking to Leo again. When she looked at his desk, he was already gone.

With the hope of still finding him, she went out to the schoolyard to look for him, but up to no luck. Due to that, she also missed the school bus.

On her way walking home, she spotted Leo walking down an alley.

"Oh, there he is." Kira rushed towards him in excitement.

She got curious and decided to head there as well to see what he was doing in that alley.

"Is he trying to take a leak there?" She thought.

She watched as Leo sat down and opened his book to read. Kira tried her best to stay by the wall without exposing herself.

"Don't tell me he lives here." Kira thought, deadpanned.

Leo reached for the garbage and searched through it until he pulled out a can of dog food, he then used his index and middle finger to eat from it. A rat approached Leo's feet, so he took a piece out of the can and placed it on the ground for the rat to eat from it.

A few minutes later it started to rain. Leo grabbed a plastic bag from the garbage and moved it above his head to protect himself from the rain.

A male placed an umbrella above Kira's head. "Young lady? What're you doing here?" He asked and glanced towards Leo.

Kira gasped and looked back, she was so engrossed in watching him that she got confused due to the sudden approach by that male "I was just –".

"Leo, huh?" the man looked at Leonardo then back at Kira. "Look, young lady. I don't know you and I don't know what your connection to him is, but better keep it outside that alley. You're probably sympathizing with him but let me tell you this, he doesn't like it when people help him out of sympathy, and he never tells anyone about where he lives for his own reasons. So whatever happens, make sure he doesn't figure out you know where he lives... If you really care about him then at least respect his secret, have a good day." he finished and headed back to a bar, opposite the road.

Kira went back on her way, thinking about Leo and how tough his life was.

She went back to her house, thoughts clouding her mind and not paying attention to her surroundings.

"MY SWEET KIRA!" her father dashed to her with his arms spread sideways for a hug.

"Hi dad!" she walked up the stairs without even hugging him.

"Eh?" Her dad froze in his place like a statue after being ignored like that, with his arms still spread out. He looked like an idiot with his lips shivering and the only thing that paid attention to him was the door.

"How humiliating." Mia, his wife, teasing him.

"NOT FUNNY!" he snapped back, looking like a grumpy little kid.

Kira spent the night in her room, unable to sleep after seeing Leo in that alley.

----------------------------------------------

Marcus was still sitting at his desk, staring at his research. He decided to pick it up and read through it all over again until a word attracted his attention in the research.

"That's it! OF COURSE!"

"Maybe there's still hope!"

He started writing notes and decided to head to the corporation's lab at night to do some experiments.

----------------------------------------------

The following day, Kira prepared for school and got on the bus in time. She arrived in the class early but this time Leo wasn't there. Max and his buddies arrived late but other than that, things seemed normal. She spent her day as usual until break time.

As she headed to get her food she heard one of Max's buddies saying, "But damn, Max went full rocky mode on that Leo guy, it was hilarious that he kept smiling like a retard.".

Angry and bothered by what she heard, she decided to check on him. Even though the school wasn't over yet, she ran outside and went to where Leo lived. She stood by the wall, peeking at him and that's what she saw.

Leo was sitting there, leaning on the wall while holding a picture and staring at it, all bruised up. His torn books were splayed on the floor.

Leo was staring at the picture that had him, his mum, and his father however, his father's face had an 'X' mark on it. He was having flashbacks of the last time he saw them while staring at the picture.

His father came back home drunk and went to the kitchen. Typically, his dad yelled at his mum and called her a whore. The man had found out that Leo wasn't his biological son which meant Leo's mum cheated on him. He was too upset as he thought Leo was his kid and wanted to pass his legacy to him, but that wasn't going to happen anymore. Shouting angry curse words, he grabbed Leo's mum by her hair and started slapping and punching her. Leo was still eight years old, he tried to push his father off his mum, but his father was obviously stronger. His father grabbed a knife and tried to stab his mother to the throat, Leo intercepted it and took the knife to his right eye. Leo started bleeding and his vision went completely blur. His father pushed him aside, he fell on his right side unaware of his surroundings.

His mum screamed and tried to wrap her arms around him to shield him from his brute father. His father started stabbing her with the knife while yelling "YOU BITCH, HOW DARE YOU, FUCKING WHORE!" He ended up stabbing her in the back three times.

A few minutes later, Leo's vision slightly came back to normal. His father wasn't there anymore and his mum was laying on the floor, in a pool of her own blood, taking her last breath. Tears poured from Leo's left eye while blood drops were pouring down his right.

"You – have to – run," his mum said to him with a sad, weary smile, as she placed her left palm on his wet cheek. "Don't lose your necklace," she added, trying to touch the silver pendant hanging around his neck. Tired, she couldn't and dropped her hand back to the floor.

"Live, my little boy. Never lose hope. Keep your head high and no matter how tough life will be – always – smile,"

"S– Smile for me, Leonardo. Please." With that, she breathed her last breath.

Leo nodded and tried to force a smile. He stared sadly at his mother's bruised face. Though her eyes were wide open, she was gone. Leo stayed on his knees with tears falling down his left eye and blood falling down his right, he remained there for an entire hour on his knees, grinning with his lips shivering until the police arrived.

Leo forced a grin while looking at the picture and a tear rolled down from his left eye down his cheek.

Kira couldn't bear to watch, she ran off back to school. She felt her heart torn for Leo getting beaten up like that by Max.

She managed to reach the school one minute before the break was over. She went back to class and as soon as her eyes laid on Max she became furious. As furious as a volcano.

*End of Chapter 3*