"..."
Riley never really thought of it before, he had no reason to, but it would seem Paige has been blaming herself all these years—blaming herself for Riley's deteriorating mind.
She has been trying to calm herself and stay strong, but she just literally cried for hours and put herself to sleep. She didn't even notice that Riley already got up from the sofa, and was now looking outside the window.
Some of the tenants of the orphanage school were still loitering out in the fields. The students seemed to be free to roam everywhere during their rest time… everywhere as long as it is within the walls of their school, that is.
Riley tried to find the children with similar abilities to themarians, but none of them were on the field anymore. Why exactly was Diana gathering children that have similar abilities to themarians?
Is it to try and isolate the supervirus carrying that specific set of abilities? As far as Riley knows, the abilities one would get if they're infected with the virus are usually already predetermined, not in any way by the one that infected you, but by the body you were born with—that is why most families that are infected together tend to have similar abilities.
Is that what Diana is trying to do? Or perhaps she just misses themarians and wants to be around similar people?
"...I suppose it doesn't matter," Riley could really only shake his head off of the thoughts he was having. His mind was already starting to fracture, he wasn't going to waste whatever time he had left as himself by trying to theorize whatever it is that Diana was doing here.
And so, Riley just took one final glance at Paige, before opening the window and flying out of it.
"I'll see you again, Paige."
He really thought that Paige would be able to help him, but despite her seemingly able to talk to everyone and get deep into what it was they were feeling, she won't be able to help Riley this time.
He almost forgot Paige was also broken, just like him. Broken people are not able to fix each other—they would think they could, but all they will be doing would be dragging pieces of their shattered self and adding them to an already broken shell.
"I understand now, Aerith…" Riley closed his eyes as he reached the clouds, "...I understand why I needed you…
…and I understand why you need me now too."
***
"I'm home."
"What do you mean you're home!?"
"Oh, Sister. You're here?"
"You…"
Riley hasn't even stepped inside the house, and he was already dodging all sorts of things that Hannah was throwing toward him as he opened the door. If it wasn't for Diana stopping her, then she would have also definitely thrown some of the larger furniture.
"You go back to Earth and the first thing you do is make trouble for everyone!?"
"I do not really know why that still surprises you, Sister," Riley let out a small sigh as he was finally able to step inside the house, "Father, Mother. It is good that all of you are here, I have something I wish to talk about."
"..." Diana looked at Bernard for a few seconds, before also letting out a sigh and shaking her head, "Why… don't we talk about it over dinner? It's been a while since we dined as a family."
"I… would like that, Mother."
"I… I'll help, Mom!"
"I wouldn't like that, Sister."
"S… shut up!"
"...Hm," a small smile crawled on Riley's face as Hannah raised both her middle finger at him—the fingers, not going down until she disappeared into the kitchen with Diana. It took almost an hour, but finally…
…the Ross family was once again sitting at their table, in their home.
A second.
A minute.
Another hour.
Several moments passed, and yet not even one of them started eating—just sitting there in silence and hearing each other's breaths. Soon, however, a sniffle snuck in as tears started flowing from Hannah's eyes.
"F… fuck," Hannah sucked in a breath as she quickly wiped the tears trailing down her cheeks, "I… I fucking hate this. Why… why couldn't we have just continued like this?"
"I… apologize, Sister," Riley gently held Hannah's hand, "Everything bad that has happened to this family is my fault. It is no one's fault but mine."
"No," Bernard lightly slammed his palm on the table, "They… say that a child's actions are a reflection of their parents. I believe that still holds true here…
…this is our fault."
And while Riley was holding her sister's hand, Bernard held Diana's.
"This is our fault in more ways than one."
"I suppose," Riley shrugged, "I wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for Mother injecting Biological Mother with weird stuff."
"..." Diana could really only close her eyes; letting out a quiet, wry, and soft chuckle while she sniffled.
"For what it is worth…" Riley then looked each of his family in the eyes, "...I believe the only reason why I am not worse than I am is because I was born here. Any other family, I would have probably already wiped out Earth."
"...Thanks?" Diana chuckled as she shook her head.
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