This was wrong.

All was wrong; this shouldn't have happened. Ale was at the wrong, she was mistaken, she had abused their good fortune. Ale already knew it, she had all the evidence but she had refused to see it. Why?

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

Because it was inconvenient, because it shed light into the truth. More truth than ever, because it would mean that there were more things that they didn't understand. Because it would mean that Alexa was... not what she appeared to be.

And because Ale had refused to look at this simple truth...

"....She died because of me..." Ale couldn't help but say that as she clawed at her face, she didn't need to look to know, she was crying.

"Well... that is surely one way to go about it." Ale quickly jumped away as the voice of an unknown woman sounded beside her. Midway through the jump, Ale quickly donned her Arm-mament as she glared in the direction of the unknown person.

"A feisty one then... Hello there, my name is Miriam Eversoul. You are Ale I assume?" The unknown woman asked calmly, Ale quickly looked around and found only one exit, the door seemed to be made of a metal alloy unlike the rest of the room. No...

[Main Core, send tendrils to scan around.]

[Order acknowledged...sending nanite units..]

[Found a layer of an unknown metal layered under the carpet, possibility of the current room to be covered in the four directions is high. Care is advised.]

Just as Ale suspected then. This place looked as if it had came from the dreams of a child, a place filled with plushies, a comfortable looking bed, a comfortable looking carpet.

Everything besides a window to the outside and a door that looked more like a security door.

"Where are we?" Ale asked as she blinked away the tears that had been forming on her eyes, a simple prompt from her was enough to reabsorb the liquid back. "Who are you?"

"We are in my bedroom, obviously." The woman said smiling at Ale, "And I already introduced myself, my name is Miriam Eversoul. Nice to meet you Ale, Alexa asked me to help you."

"...You sleep in a containment cell, likely story." Ale asked smirking, "And endorsement from Alexa means nothing, I don't know you. We can't afford to take risks anymore, so excuse me if I don't believe you."

"Because Alexandra I assume." The woman said nodding, "Care to shed some light on that?"

Ale of course didn't bite the obvious provocation. Instead she took a deep breath and decided to think what to do.

"Alexa, what is going on?" And by that Ale obviously meant to ask the cause of this.

"Ale!" The answer from the little girl came back instantly, "You are fine now! You were going in circles before, so Alexa pulled you out. good that it worked!"

She was going in circles?

"What do you mean?" Ale asked, confused, she... remembered Alexandra's presence within their shared mindscape disappearing, then the older woman manifested in the real world at the same time as she was out.

That wasn't possible, they only had one body. But Alexandra had somehow made a secondary one, and then... she had used a new application of their power... That or she had catalyzed a new power. Somehow.

And using that...

"What happened Ale?" The little girl asked, "What happened to Alexandra? Why can't Alexa find her?"

...

"Alexandra Saintsworths died," Ale said aloud, both for Alexa and the mysterious woman's sake, "I was attacked by a hostile Core User with a power that was going to kill me, but Alexandra took that hostile attack into herself and saved me...but because of my mistake, she died."

"...Is she..." Alexa had started to say, "...Can Alexa fix this?"

Fix...this?

Hah!

"... Why did they attack you with that type of power?" The woman asked as she closed her eyes for half a second, then as if to make sure her clothes were in place she fixed something, but Ale noticed it, she had pushed one of the buttons on her gown, perhaps a silent type alarm? "Why would anyone want to kill you? You look like you are barely ten."

"Mellisandra Singh is not the most stable person to be around," Ale answered with a sigh, "She should be stuck in a facility to be studied or helped, but instead she was allowed to escape, then she sent [Humans] dominated by her Core power to attack us."

All because they hadn't finished her when they could.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Because of that...they had lost a precious member of their family.

"Melissandra Singh?" The woman asked as if the name was someone she recognized, "Ah...The little girl with the bad trigger, yes I remember her."

"Don't you mean Test Subject MS2?" Ale said with a smirk, "Only the people that wanted to study and use her would know of her."

The woman narrowed her eyes at Ale's words. But Ale didn't take back her words, she wasn't an hypocrite, she wouldn't be one, she refused.

"We were going to help her," The woman said, "Let me introduce myself again."

The woman then stood up and pulled a card from her lab coat, "Miriam Eversoul, Head Scientist of the Laboratory dedicated to the Humanitarianism and Pharmaceutical Development for the Saintsworths Conglomerate." The woman then pulled out a badge and showed it to Ale.

As if that meant something to Ale.

"And as the head of the humanitarian branch, I can promise you this. You are safe here, not even the high council from the Saintsworths can touch you while I am here." The woman said seriously, "That was part of the promise they made to me when they offered this position to me."

What the hell was this woman going on about?

"Why would I care if you can get a council to respect your decisions? Shouldn't it be pointless if the blonde asshole said no?" Ale pointed out, returning her arms to normal. At least for now, it seemed this woman was not an enemy.

"...Against what that man would have you think. He does not rule above all," The woman said shaking her head, "He is powerful within the Saintsworths, and could even rule fully. But he is still a Nascent Scion, he is not the true patriarch just yet. That title is still reserved."

...The blonde asshole wasn't even the one at the top?

"But that doesn't matter right now," The woman said shaking her head, "What matters is this, so long you are under my care, this place is safe. So... you can let go."

...Let go?

"Tell me, why do you think you are at fault for whatever happened to your sister?" The woman said sitting back at the bed and patting the spot besides her. "What happened? What really happened?"

"...." Ale narrowed her eyes at the woman, what did she know? Could Ale trust her?

Something within her told her this woman would not betray Alexa's trust. She was...safe.

"First let me ask a few things," Ale said shaking her head, she couldn't trust vague impressions, she wouldn't make the same mistake again. "First, how did Alexa get us here?"

"She doesn't know, she told me you were the one who had brought her here, Alexa was wearing this body armor... I was wondering why this size or if it had tried to shrink to adjust to Alexa, but seeing you... I assume this Pounce Armor is yours?" The woman said, pulling a small cylinder that unfolded into a weird tablet-like thing, on it was a picture of Ale's body armor, and even the mask was in its bracelet form.

"...I did not do that, Alexandra is the one who knocked me out..." Ale answered, Alexa was still seeing this right? Ale could feel the presence at the back of her mind.

She couldn't risk Alexa to get a weird idea, not now. Not unless Ale was fully sure about what had happened.

"Second," Ale said raising two fingers, "What are your intentions toward us? What are you planning to do with us?"

That was important, even if Alexa wanted to trust and believe in this unknown factor...

Ale couldn't allow a new weakness to spring up later, if she bared her fangs towards them... Ale would end her.

"I want to help you both of course," The woman answered with a shrug, "That is what I do, most of the facilities to help orphans and the needed came from my initiatives."

[Main Core, search that info. Connect to the intranet if possible to verify, use all the credentials we have available, but try to not get caught.]

[Order acknowledged...starting data download.]

[Done. Found evidence of several initiatives under the name Miriam Eversoul, all oriented towards the help and empowerment of those who provide nothing to society, usually named the needy.]

So Alexa didn't even need to actually find work and shelter? She could have just gone to one of these sites?

[Data suggest that those that are taken in wil lbe assigned a work within the Saintsworths umbrella, some are then guided into positions that end up with them taking jobs as guinea pig testers. This data was not pulled from the public network but from the private one.]

Or not. If they would ned up back with the Saintsworths, then taking this route wasn't an option, at least not at the beginning.

"And how can you help us?" Ale pointed out, "You know nothing about what we need, what we want or who we are."

"I can listen," The woman said raising a finger, "I can get you a roof over your head, at least while we await for your family... Or so I would usually say, but you claimed some outrageous things before as Alexa."

"We don't have parents, no mother or father...Not anymore anyway." Ale said closing her eyes, "For a second...for the briefest moments...we had something very close to a Mother. But not anymore."

Ale would not cry, not again, not here. Not now.

"To the world we have a brother I guess, but that asshole I don't think cares about us to come and search us." The blonde asshole had claimed the spot of their big brother, but Ale wasn't sure how much she could believe or use that. "There are some people who may be worried about us I guess... But I don't know if they would come to a Saintsworths facility."

Actually.

"You haven't told us, so imma use this chance to ask," Ale said, raising a third finger, "Where are we? The actual place, position, coordinates, or name of the location."

"That is...well, you are currently within one of the facilities within Laboratory 2." The woman answered with a shrug, "That is why I was asking you and Alexa how did you get here, this place is... Sealed to mana interference from the outside. You are in the crown gem of the Saintsworths."

Then the woman pulled a second photo from her device, this time it showed...a facility?

Ale could see the outline of a facility surrounded by tall fence, Ale could see in the picture guard posts all around the perimeter and a parking lot with a high tower in the middle as if to monitor whoever came in.

The photo then turned into a video as it showed an aerial view and highlighted all the guards and defenses, it was... "Designed to ensure no one goes out?" The design reminded Ale a little of how it had been when she started infiltrating the facility in her latest mission to be honest.

"Precisely, it is harder to get out than it is to get in. But that doesn't mean it is particularly easy, and you..." The woman said pointing at Ale, "Triggered no alarm on your way in, even if the blonde asshole whitelisted you for some reason. You would still have triggered the sensors, but you weren't there, and then you were there. There is no middle point."

"........... I don't know," Ale answered honestly, "I don't know how Alexandra did it, or what she did."

And that was the honest truth, "What she did... Shouldn't be possible, not to us." Ale was as confused as this woman, Alexandra had somehow made a new body for herself, taken in the [Death] into that body, and also triggered a new Core? That was not possible. "Can non-humans even trigger a Core? I know animals have shown that..."

And the fact that Alexa herself had managed to do it implied that non humans, but... could fragmented entitites like Ale and Alexandra?

"We don't know," The woman answered, "It's not my field of expertise, I focus in what make people humans. The Core Powers and those type are more a Laboratory 7 thing, or I guess you could ask... Your brother."

Ale would not do such a thing, the blonde asshole reeked of problems, and the purple haired woman that accompanied him seemed dangerous.

"What I can answer is that... as far as we known, so long it has some degree of inteligence, anything who can think or plan can have a Core." The woman added after thinking for a few seconds. "If that means that something that doesn't have a defined form can trigger a Core Power, or a thing. Well, that depends on your definition of inteligence, by that same metric an artificial intelligence coudl trigger a Core Power, but we haven't seen machines cellphones or smart tvs awakening Core powers by making their own Wish."

Wish...

Alexandra had done that right.

"Ah yes, I am part of those that believe that a [Wish] is the key to awaken a Core Power, even if I myself am not a Core User." The woman said with a silly smile on her face, "Sorry, but I like to believe that over the stupid theories about pack triggering or bathing in mana to create the Core Power."

Ale...

"I also think the [Wish] is the right way to go about it," Ale couldn't believe anything else, she had seen it for herself, Alexandra proved it. Making a [Wish] was the way.

But if so...

"Hey you assholes," Ale said looking to the ceiling, "I wish for Alexandra to return."

Ale said as she glared at the sky, "Give me back..." Ale couldn't help but start crying once more, "...Give her back..."

Nothing came out from that of course, Ale knew it. She knew that Alexandra had done something else, she had something more. She had felt it, even in that area devoid of Mana. The older woman had moved as if nothing, then she had used that... it wasn't a wavelength, was it?

No, it felt as if Alexandra's Consciousness Stream had bloomed and covered them in an embrace, just like how Alexa did from time to time. Alexandra's whole self had covered Ale, and then whisked her away.

The travel had knocked her out, so Ale didn't know the means that she had used.

"...I guess my wish will not come true," Ale said sighing, only to feel herself be suddenly hugged by the older woman.

"It's fine...everything will be fine," The woman repeated, as if Ale was a little kid.

As if she required that, no. Alexa needed that, she was fine, she was- *Sniff*

She was *Sniff*

"I'm sorry........." She was....not fine.

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