Her expression faltered, confusion led to utter amusement as she fell into low laughter. “Ha, I was not expecting the first thing you would ask, would be that. To answer you, yes, I am your stepmother.” She put out in the gravelliest voice she could. “If you’re lucky, I won’t cut your hand off.” Tossing him a wink, she earned no major reaction bar the same neutral straight lips he’d held since awakening.

“Thank you. I quite like having hands. They’re useful… for stuff…” Lucca replied cooly, keeping his eyes locked firmly with hers. “To repeat what I asked earlier, who are you? You told me what you were to me but you neglected to tell me your name.”

She blinked a fury, her mind raced back a few minutes finding that she had in fact, not told him such a crucial tidbit of information. A flush took to her cheeks, “right, sorry about that.” Clearing her throat, she straightened her posture and said, “anyways. My name is Lena, Lena Crowley, though nowadays I go by white.”

Lucca’s eyelids fell to half-moons and he implanted her name and face into his bank of people. Archiving her into the ‘family’ category.

“And you’re also my nurse then?”

She nodded, “yep, been that for a while now.”

Something told him that was a little more than an understatement.

“So you thought it was appropriate to sleep with the father of one of your patients?”

Lena jolted, her expression trembling to slyly look away, “yeah, won’t lie. You’re not the first to be judgmental about that.”

“I’m not being judgmental about anything,” Lucca muttered, feeling a slight upwards crease of his lips, “I just find it funny that it took me turning into a vegetable for dad to finally get laid. And by someone legally obliged to stick around and keep me alive.” What he amounted to a chuckle escaped him.

At first, Lena gave him an utterly confused look but just as quickly joined him in his laughter, “Yeah, I guess he did.”

Letting the fond atmosphere diminish, Lucca went silent and a little happier with this decent moment where he for once didn’t feel faint from insanity and pain. Leaning into his bed, he cast his eyes upwards but flinched as a beam of light snaked like the cruel serpent it was across his room and struck him in his working eye.

“Could you close the curtains please.” He squinted and turned away as he waited.

“Of course, one second.” Lena pushed out of the seat and made way to the windows, pulling them closed on shiny silver railing until Lucca wasn’t being assaulted by the cruel mother that was the sun.

“Thanks,” Lucca let his eyes fall shut and simply let himself exist. Feeling the ambient, comforting warmth of this insulated room, of his safety.

“Do you want me to let you rest for a bit? I’ll try to hold Catia back for a while so you can get some sleep if you want.” She softly said.

“No, no. That’s fine. I’m just enjoying life.” He replied, “I’ve been in pain for a long time. It just feels nice not to feel it anymore.” Ignoring the feeding tube stuck in his gut of course.

Lena tilted her head, ‘he was in pain?’ she looked to the feeding tube thinking it might be the cause. “Don’t worry, once we get you on some decent liquids we’ll take out the tube and I’m sure the pain will be completely gone then.”

‘That’s not the pain I’m talking about,’ he corrected her in silence.

Hearing a light ticking noise, Lucca parted his eyelids and tilted his gaze to the side, eyeing on his nightstand a small mechanical clock ticking by and saw the time. 8:21 in the morning. Couldn’t be in the evening as Lena had said she was there to give him his breakfast.

“Lena…” he murmured hearing what sounded like skidding tyres coming from outside and rapid, heavy footsteps like a rampaging volgrun crossing a field leaving in their wake the noise of a slamming car door. “How long have I been comatose?”

Pausing, Lena visibly hesitated and turned to him. Retaking her seat she pulled it closer, her expression sullen and unsure. “That’s…”

“More than just a two or three I’m guessing.” He met her eyes and held them firmly, “and dad wouldn’t just marry a woman he didn’t know longer than a year. Say you started dating a few months after the plane crash then that would be what? Minimum of a year, two after the crash.”

He then turned to look around his room, locking onto the various machinations keeping track of all his bodily functions. “And these things. They’re not cheap. Now I know we didn’t have the money to afford stuff like this before the crash. So somehow we got the money that I could stay at home. I doubt that just happened overnight. Dad was looking for a better job than at the warehouse so unless he got a massive pay raise he couldn’t have earned enough for all this in a month or two at the same place. Years at least. Unless of course, you pitched in. But at that point, your relationship with dad would have had to have been solid.”

Lena’s jaw hung wide ready to swallow flies as she listened to Lucca rattling off his thoughts one after the other without pause.

“I’d say at a minimum five years, likely even more…” as his words trailed off he could hear the screech of tire squealing from outside and drew his gaze to the curtained window. Soon it was followed by a slamming car door, footsteps and a slamming front door. The steps were heavy, hasty, with little care to silence as the person they came from rushed up the stairs.

“I-“ Lena stuttered at a loss for words. “I think I should leave that to her?” she said, unsure of what to properly say.

The thunderous footsteps softened to a stop before his door and with surprising gentleness, his door was pushed open and there, stood with sweat to her brow that dashed her striking cinnamon hair to strands and made her skin glisten more than those wide emerald eyes, was a woman.

Not a girl, but a woman. Just past her teens coming into the prime of her life. She stood tall but with a panted hunch to her spine as she locked onto him as if in disbelief at the sight before her. “Lucca-” tears welled in the corner of her eyes and she shakily pulled herself into the room, her hands rose to cover her mouth as the waterworks began to descend in snail trails down her cheeks.

Lucca said nothing, keeping quiet as his lips parted sadly. He’d been prepared for something like this but having the confirmation so firmly and undeniably presented to him like a boxed dishing him a right hook… it was still saddening.

The woman brought herself closer and Lena escaped her seat ready to let the woman take it in her place. Lucca forced a smile to curl his lips and once she was stood beside him, eyes now turning a bloodshot shade of red, she reached out her hands to hold his cheeks and pat around making sure it wasn’t just another of her dreams bringing her hopes up.

Bringing one hand up, he set it over the woman's and gave it a soft, comforting squeeze as he finally spoke. “Hey, Catia.”

The moment those words escaped him Catia lunged, her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders and squeezed him with an almost bear strength hug and let out wails reminiscent of a banshee’s. Patting her back, Lucca mulled within his thoughts, attempting to push those intrusive ones, those ones that stood so out of place, the ones that failed to see his sister. The ones that saw a woman.

He couldn’t deny she looked like his Catia with her soft features and thin form with almost sunken cheeks that while not skeletal, made her look incomparably thin. But now… now she was older, different. And it just didn’t click with something inside him.

Slowly, her wails came to lessen and her tight grip loosened, giving him enough reprieve to suck in a deep hissing breath as that disconnected part of himself lamented the departure of her bosom pressing against him.

Collapsing in the chair, she pulled herself closer, “I, you’re- I just-” her trembling jaw prevented her from finishing a coherent sentence. Leading only to more spilling tears that she tried to wipe away but would only keep coming like an unending waterfall. “I-I can’t believe it. You’re-you’re awake. You’re actually awake.”

He nodded slowly, “indeed.” He threw his eye to Lena leaned by the window then back to his sister to scan over her appearance. She was beautiful yet similarly adorable, not overly buxom, nor the most curvaceous body, certainly nothing like that hellspawn queen, but she had this strange allure to her. That her strength would create strong…

‘no, what is with these thoughts? She’s my sister.’ Lucca silenced the thoughts before they could finish and moved to inspect her choice of clothing. It was odd, off for the modern world yet at the same time strangely fitting.

It was that of a pair of skin-tight jogging pants, one that hugged her body, kissed her features and kept what muscles and fat there was supported. Covering her chest was a simple tank top and above that the truly medieval apparel of light leather armature. A bolero of brown descended to her wrists and fell into a pair of fingerless gloves. Dotted across it was the evidence of wear, scratches and light scars that had been patched up repeatedly and oiled for care and now that he was thinking about it, striking across her right cheekbone was a thin scar.

“Indeed?” She laughed with a sniffle, “indeed? You go full sandbag for twelve years and ‘indeed’ is all you can say to me when you finally wake up?” the laughter a respite from her tears.

Lucca’s mouth fell wider, his head tilting down as he finally discovered exactly how long he’d been gone for… for normal people that is. To him it had been over fifty years of torment so discovering the truth, that it had only been a measly twelve years was strange.

Catia froze, head pivoting to Lena to ask, “you didn’t tell him?”

Lena shook her head and uncomfortably scratched her arm “no. By the time I was going to say you were already storming up the stairs. So I thought I’d let you tell him.”

“That’s-” Catia returned her focus to Lucca and reaching out, took his hand. Revelling in the familiar warmth she’d missed for so long. “I know this is a lot to take in Lucca. But yeah… you’ve been… you’ve been asleep for a long time. Twelve years in a month. You were in a coma by the time the rescuers were able to get you out of the ocean. The doctors doubted you’d even survive past a year or two.” Her voice a mournful remembrance of the event.

“I see…” he frowned, “how many survived?” he wasn’t the only one, back in Marga he’d seen at least three dozen in the arena, though how many of them were simply partners made by the transported he couldn’t be sure.

Catia chewed her lip, forty-three.” She went weak, her head coming to hang, “eighty-five dead.”

Lucca leaned into his bedding, “Forty-three… more than I expected.” In turn, Catia raised her brow as if to question his choice of words. “Just talking to myself. The crash was violent, I just didn’t expect so many to live after that.”

“No one did. A crash like that in the middle of the ocean isn’t something that people just survive.”

“Mom!” Catia bellowed but calmed when Lucca placed his hand over hers to calm her.

“It’s fine.” Facing Lena with sharp eyes he then asked, “what happened to them? The survivors I mean.” She shook her head.

“As far as I know, they’re all comatose. Every one of them. Then again, I haven’t kept up with news about them and they’ve been transferred all over so it’s impossible to say for certain.”

‘So then I would be the first to awaken?’ as he mulled, his grasp on his sister's hand tightened and drew her gaze down. Mistakenly thinking it was some form of trauma, she clutched him tighter, letting him know exactly where she was.

“You’re taking this quite well,” Lena commented softly.

“Am I?”

“Mhm. Incredibly. You’re lucid, enough that you're able to talk coherently and understand us. It’s almost like you just woke up from a long nap.”

‘If only she knew.’

“It feels like that.” If the nap took half a century that was. “Though I must say, how twelve years has turned my bratty little sister into a bombshell, I don’t think I’ll be getting over that just yet. You haven’t gotten yourself a boyfriend, have you? I’ll need to break a few of his fingers if you have.”

Catia gaped then snorted, “God no, everyone’s an asshole nowadays.”

“Language,” Lena sang from the window.

“Screw you!” his sister stuck out her tongue pointed their stepmother's direction and got one in return. When she did turn back to Lucca, she hadn’t the time to react before a loud and powerful snap sent her head rocketing back as Lucca felt a dull sting at the tip of his middle finger.

“Gah! Did you just flick me!?”

“Indeed. I did.” He blew on his finger as if blowing away the rising smoke of a recently fired gun.

“Why!?”

“You swore and as your brother, it is my job to make sure my little sister stays on the right path.”

“I’m old enough not to need a spanking Lucca!” she argued though Lucca couldn’t care in the slightest as he went in for a secondary flick only to be nimbly dodged by Catia.

He narrowed his eyes to slits and met with hers. Displeasure rose to his voice as he said, “cruel. Dodging your newly-awoken-from-a-coma brother when he’s trying to teach you a lesson. Oh, how father failed to raise you in my absence.”

“He did not.” She grumbled with a slight shade of amusement, “I have grown up to be a fine and perfect woman.” Her chest puffed out as if to prove a point.

In response, Lucca merely eyed her narrowly and curled his thumb and index together before clamping tight atop that little bump on her chest he presumed to be her nipple and twisted.

“Gyah!?” shrieking, an unrelenting pain filled her radiating out from her sensitive place, “I give, I give!” she pleaded.

Being the kindly brother he was, Lucca released the nub with a proud huff, now having properly cemented himself within the new hierarchy of his family.

“Why-y-y?” whimpering like a kicked puppy, Catia rubbed her bosom, flinching at the fiery sting.

“Cocky girls get proper punishments.” Internally he felt that disconnected piece just wanted to test the springiness. ‘No. She’s my sister. Stop that. That’s wrong.’ He tilted his head and stared at his hand confusedly that he would be so uncaring for thinking in such a way about his blood. Lifting the limb into his vision, he checked it over a few times till he could only frown at the sight.

As Catia continued to massage her pained teat, her gaze fell over her brothers form with an analytical gait. He looked good, healthy, not quite to the degree of the other boys in terms of fitness but he looked nothing like he did yesterday or the day before but there was something about him. Like there was this strength in him that no one else had. It was faint, but it was there.

Sensing the strange incongruity, she looked back to her stepmother and gulped. They met the others and Lena already knew the question she was bound to be asking and shook her head.

Catia’s expression soured even more. “I’ve… I’ve missed you, Lucca.” Her voice quiet, belying the confliction raising within her mind.

“Hmm,” he hummed pulling grey hued orb onto hers and smiled, “I missed you as well, brat.”

***

Time swiftly passed as the sibling chattered with each other. Mostly Catia taking the lead to describe all of the miraculous invention and events that had happened over the years since his comatization. The investigation being one of the major things she hit upon.

Apparently, some form of a bird—Catia had flinched saying that—had crashed into the engine and caused it to explode, sending the plane careening into the ocean where nearly fifteen hours later he alongside the other survivors would be found floating comatose atop some wreckage.

‘Strange, I remember drowning. Did Loki save me?’ Something, he didn’t know what, made him doubt that thought.

“…things are hectic at the academy. Combat class is,” she rolled her eyes not noting her brothers own raised brows, “Ohhh, it is tough. My wrists hurt, my fingers hurt, and I’ve got bruises in places I don’t want to think about. Honestly? I wish I could drop out…” she groaned and rolled her shoulders, “but its getting better. Things are calming down now that the more bustling rifts are closing, so, hopefully, I won’t have to dive after I finish studying there.”

Lucca blinked in a slow, repeated fashion as he stared blankly at the girl. She’d so easily glossed over several topics only to suddenly appear at an academy and these things she called ‘rifts.’ “Do you want to slow down and explain why you are being taught combat, and what the hell is a rift?”

Catia froze, blinked once then made the connection that Lucca didn’t know a single thing about the last ten years. She turned to Lena and asked, “how do we explain all of… that?”

Lena shrugged, “honestly? Give him the laymens and let him watch a documentary about it. He’ll figure it out on his own time.”

“Right. In other words, ignore Lena and just explain it as simply as I can.” She sighed.

Sucking in a sharp breath at the curious tilt of Lucca's head, she contemplated if she should explain it. Was it too much for him after just waking up not an hour ago?

“A few weeks after the... the plane crash. Something happened. Something no one can explain. Strange holes rips in the fabric of the universe just up and appeared all over the world. Holes into other worlds, into strange dimensions filled with monsters and things we’ve only ever dreamed about.” She paused, giving him the barest amount of time to process before continuing. “ Dragons became real, magic became more than party tricks… and then they started attacking people. They surged from the rifts killing tens of thousands before the first Sparks appeared. People who had connections into the other worlds, who could control magic and had stronger bodies strong enough to fight the monsters head-on” Pausing she caught her breath.

“I know this must sound ridiculous. Monsters and all that crap, but it's real. Schools, academies, places where people could learn to control their ‘spark’ were made to teach people like me, Sparks, on how to control our powers and fight against the rifts and explore inside of them.”

Lucca’s sunk deeper into his bed and mulled, ‘so the earth’s being attack is it? I feel like this isn’t Loki’s doing. He didn’t seem prepared.’ His gaze hardened, knowing full well that it was an inevitability that Loki would be bringing his beasts and soon the others would start awakening.

“You have to believe me, all of this sounds just as ridiculous to m-”

“I believe you.” His calm tone drew her to a pause.

“Wait, you do?”

He nodded rhythmically, mechanically, “of course I do. My soul was abducted by a god and I was thrown into another world for nearly a decade. So yes. I can believe monsters are currently invading earth.”

“Haaah!?” the noise, a unison cry of two women filled the room as their focus fell absurdly onto Lucca, the boy who was as calm as could be no matter what they said.

“Can you repeat that for me?” Lena pushed off the wall and asked, hand bobbing a motion of reassurance to what she heard.

“Of course I do. My soul was abducted by a god and I was thrown into another world for over half a century. So yes. I can believe monsters are currently invading earth.” He repeated with near-perfect intonation. “Do I need to repeat that again or can we move on?”

“Move on?” Lena mumbled, “we can’t just move on from something like that Lucca. You can’t just up and say a god, because apparently those exist now, abducted you and what do you mean half a century?”

Normally Lena would never take something so childish sounding serious, but the way he said it, as if with utmost certainty. It was unnerving how it made her believe him.

“Well, after the crash a god took my soul and the rest of the survivors and sent them to another world so we could become strong enough to fight against the monsters he is currently preparing to have invaded Earth. After we die in that world we were supposed to be transported back to earth to fight his creations for his amusement. Except for me of course. I ended up spending fifty years hugged by the abyss before entering Marga where I was then repeatedly tortured until my will gave out and then eventually died when the other survivors thought of me as a monster and now I’m back on earth where I’ve learnt it is already being invaded by other forces that I do not know of.” he shot off in one single motion, not once pausing for breath or giving the girls the chance to catch up.

It was a short explanation but one sufficient enough for the moment.

Except that it drew only more confused stares from the girls. So confused in fact that neither processed the screech of tires grinding to a halt, the slam of a car door followed by the thunderous stomps of a man's footsteps and the slamming shut of the front door. Soon finished by the appearance of a brown-headed man lingering in shock in the doorway, wrinkles beginning to rise to his cheeks and hair patchy in places with the rising greyness of time showing.

“Lucca-” His father uttered, wholly unprepared for the confusing conversation he was just moments away from having.