The Bennets would be forever grateful for the gift of a second life—a life they promised to treasure, one where they lived on their own terms and beca better because of it.
Slater was one of them.
Just like Lola, he, too, rembered his first life. And just like her, he wasn’t born with mories of the past the way Penny or his brother-in-law, Finn, were.
Slater only rembered his first life after a self-harm attempt.
Despite his success in the music industry—which propelled him into the broader world of showbiz—Slater was suffering behind closed doors. Behind the smile, he often found himself sitting alone in his apartnt, an unbearable emptiness weighing heavily on his heart.
So when he finally decided to end it all, he did.
Thankfully, his manager—Jas—had noticed that sothing was off. And on the night Slater attempted to end his own life, Jas went to check on him.
Slater almost died. He would have—if not for his manager rescuing him.
But when he woke up, he carried mories of a first life he hadn’t known he’d lived. Unlike the good life he had been ready to throw away, his first life had been almost the sa.
Success, fa, recognition, talent—he had it all then, too.
That was until their family business, Global Pri Logistics, run by Atlas, made the headline news.
At the center of the controversy was their company—and then, his sister, Penny. It was strange. Atlas was the one running the company, yet Penny beca the first suspect.
That controversy led to the downfall of the entire Bennet family.
Penny was imprisoned. Hugo was deployed on a dangerous mission, where he eventually died. Atlas tried to save the company, but to no avail. After the bankruptcy, Atlas beca obsessed with Penny’s case, desperately trying to prove her innocence.
As for Slater, he fell into a deep depression.
All the fa—gone overnight.
The love he sought from the world turned into hatred.
The career he had worked so hard for crumbled, and in the blink of an eye, the once-beloved musician was forgotten.
Did Slater hate Penny in his first life?
So much that he couldn’t even put it into words. He loathed his little sister. He had even wished her dead.
Atlas’s obsession with proving Penny’s innocence angered him to the bone.
To him, it felt like betrayal.
Penny was the reason Slater lost years of hard work. So he refused to help. If anything, he fought Atlas every step of the way. But when Atlas finally uncovered a lead that even Slater couldn’t dismiss, he was forced to reconsider.
In the end, Slater helped his brother clear Penny’s na. But unlike Atlas, who only wanted to save Penny from the death sentence, Slater believed that clearing her na would return everything to normal.
Sadly, it wasn’t that simple.
Atlas got into an accident before they could save their sister, and Slater... disappeared.
Or at least, that was what everyone believed.
Slater hadn’t disappeared at all.
He was taken sowhere else by people he had never t in his entire life. They manipulated him, made him believe Atlas had been taken by people who wanted him dead. And in Slater’s vulnerable state, they offered him a deal.
A deal in exchange for Penny’s freedom.
He took it.
Despite having no experience with what they demanded of him, Slater took a leap of faith. Not just for Penny or Atlas, but for himself.
They kept him locked away, training him day and night until he beca sothing useful.
An assassin.
They gave him two targets: Zoren Pierson, and the head of Holand Security—Mint.
Slater was not born to kill.
In all the years he had lived, he never believed he could take another person’s life. But he was cornered, forced to choose between staining his own hands or letting soone else stain theirs with his blood.
He chose the forr.
And sohow, Slater was good at it.
He was reckless at first. But over ti, as more people stood in his way, what remained was the crushing weight of every life he carried with him.
In the end, Penny was executed.
Atlas was gone.
And so, Slater’s journey ended the way it was always ant to.
Lucky for him, he was given another chance at life—a chance to start over. It just took one self-exit attempt for him to rember everything he had done in his previous life.
*****
[Present Ti]
Since rembering his first life—and believing, for a ti, that their biggest problem had been resolved—questions lingered in Slater’s mind.
Where had he been taken back then?
And who were the people who trained him?
He didn’t know.
He had been kept in a small compound with towering walls—walls impossible to climb without proper gear. During transport, he was sedated and blindfolded. When the blindfold ca off, he was already back in the outside world.
After Atlas took over the Order, Slater traveled with him on multiple missions. He stayed close, hoping that being with his brother would eventually lead him back to that place.
It never did.
Until today.
The drone image displayed a massive wall. One that looked exactly like the one Slater used to stare at in the past.
A wall that had separated him from the world, keeping him ignorant and dependent on whatever information they fed him.
"Slater."
Atlas’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Slater looked up, eting his brother’s gaze.
"We’ve confird that the wall you identified is part of the mayor’s personal property," Atlas said quietly. "Are you certain this is where you were...?"
He didn’t finish.
Not because others might overhear, but because of sothing deeper.
In this life, Slater had never been abducted or turned into a weapon. Yet Atlas knew the trauma lingered beneath his brother’s playful deanor. He knew how deeply it still affected him.
Slater rocked his head slightly and released a long breath.
"There’s only one way to find out."
He slowly rose to his feet.
"First Brother," he added, "I need to enter Ravah."
Silence fell between them as they stared at one another. After a mont, Atlas nodded in understanding.
"I know."
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