"I’m fine, I promise." Reid petted the heads of his worried Forged-Beasts, offering them reassurance.
Rusty let out a doubtful squeak, clearly unconvinced.
[What exactly happened in that dream, Reid?] Evo asked, her voice laced with curiosity.
She had no way of knowing the details unless he chose to share them himself.
Reid hesitated, running a hand through his hair as he exhaled. He wasn’t sure how to explain what had just happened—not when he barely understood it himself.
"Rember when Malrath attacked?" he started "when I had to fight waves of primals?"
[Of course,] Evo responded [you almost died that day and that’s when you started acting different after waking up from unconsciousness].
"That’s a sort of different personality of mine" Reid continued
"I call him Red-Eyed ... and the dream—no, the mory—I just had was the mont he was born," Reid said, his voice quieter than before.
Evo remained silent, listening intently.
"But instead of it being just a dream or mory..." Reid hesitated "The younger ... knew I was there."
[But that shouldn’t be possible] even Evo was surprised [there’s nothing in my database that suggests that that’s possible, except..]
"Except?" Reid asked when she took a pause.
[Except, maybe your subconscious actually travelled back to that mont in ti] Evo explained [but that shouldn’t be possible either].
Reid exhaled sharply, feeling a chill run down his spine. "That doesn’t make sense. I don’t have ti-related abilities—Rusty does, but I wasn’t using him and I also never copied an ability from it before going to sleep."
[True. Which ans either this is sothing unique to your mind... or it wasn’t entirely your doing.]
"You’re saying, my subconscious might have been pulled back in ti?" He asked.
[It’s a possibility,] Evo admitted [but the question is, by who and why?]
Reid massaged his forehead. Thinking about all this was giving him a headache and for all he knew, his red eyed self could just be looking at sothing behind his present self.
Even he knew that was a lie, but it was a better explanation than his subconscious travelling back to the past.
"Sigh" Reid sighed, shaking his head. "Thinking about this too much is just gonna make paranoid."
[Ignoring it won’t change what happened,] Evo pointed out. [And if sothing—or soone—pulled you back to that mont, you need to figure out why.]
Reid leaned back, staring at the ceiling. "Even if I wanted to figure it out, where would I even start? It’s not like I can just summon Red-Eyed on command, he only surfaces when I’m extrely mad, annoyed or about to die."
"Even if I do succeed in bringing him out, it’ll be of no use since I’ll still be , just a bit murder happy" Reid groaned in frustration.
[We’ll find a way to deal with that] Evo said [for now, let’s focus on your upcoming fight with that Darren kid].
"Right" he said and climbed off the bed.
A sudden knock on the door made Reid pause.
He approached the door and opened it, only to find Lisa in her new officer’s uniform standing there.
"You ready?" She asked.
"Give a few minutes" he answered and stepped back, allowing her to enter.
"ow." The tiger, Atlas, in its cat form, let out a soft sound of recognition as soon as Lisa walked into the room.
After all, it had spent most of yesterday in her arms.
Lisa blinked in surprise seeing all five of his forged beasts on his bed, "you have five forged beasts?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "Axie and Atlas were created by , while Rusty, Nyx, and Beel... only needed fixing when I found them."
"I see" she said and walked towards the bed "do you mind if I take a seat?"
Reid gestured casually. "Go ahead."
Lisa sat at the edge of the bed, reaching out to scratch Atlas, who had approached her first, behind the ears. The small feline form of the Gravity Tiger purred in satisfaction, leaning more into her touch.
"I’ll be out in a few minutes" Reid said as he grabbed his uniform and walked into the bathroom.
As the bathroom door clicked shut, Lisa let out a small sigh, her fingers still running through Atlas’s fur. The little feline rumbled with contentnt, curling up in her lap like it belonged there.
"You really like , huh?" she murmured, scratching under its chin.
Atlas responded with a deep purr, nuzzling into her hand. Lisa couldn’t help but smile.
Axie, the little axolotl, tilted its head and blinked at her curiously before wiggling closer, nestling against her other hand. Lisa exhaled a quiet laugh.
Of course she had her own forged beast, but these were different, these almost felt like Reid’s children.
As soon as that thought crossed her mind, a furious blush covered her face and she couldn’t help but withdraw both hands petting the forged beast and smacking her cheeks.
’what the hell are you thinking?’ she scolded her self.
Axie and Atlas looked at her in curious confusion, wondering why she suddenly stopped petting them and started smacking her cheeks.
"Umm... Do you guys want to et a new friend?" She asked, causing them to tilt their heads.
She took that as a yes and proceeded to summon her own forged beast, the lightning wyvern.
Unlike Reid, most tars bonded with one or two forged beasts since their soul power couldn’t handle too much strain.
That’s why so choose to discard their forr forged beast when they move to a new rank.
Reid didn’t have to worry about the strain because Evo had upgraded his soul power, which ant that he could basically bond with as much forged beasts as he liked.
"Axie, Atlas et Storm, my lightning wyvern" Lisa introduced.
Axie blinked up at the much larger wyvern, although it was also in its mini form, seemingly unfazed, while Atlas, still in its feline form, narrowed its eyes with cautious curiosity.
Storm let out a soft rumbling growl, lowering its head slightly to get a closer look at the two unfamiliar beasts.
"Be nice," Lisa warned, scratching under Storm’s jaw in a way that made the wyvern close its eyes in appreciation. "They’re Reid’s, so play nice, alright?"
Atlas flicked its tail and hopped onto Lisa’s shoulder, still watching the wyvern warily, while Axie, much braver than it looked, wiggled forward and booped Storm’s snout with its tiny paw.
A small zap of electricity sparked between them, but Axie just blinked, unfazed.
Lisa chuckled. "Guess you just got a static shock."
She then turned to the other three on the bed that were keeping an eye on her.
"Not as social as these two are you?" She asked.
"Squeak" Rusty was the one to reply which caused her to tilt her head in confusion.
"I don’t understand what you’re saying ?" Lisa said.
Rusty squeaked again, this ti tilting its head, mimicking her.
Lisa smirked. "Are you copying ?"
Another squeak, another tilt.
"Okay, now you’re just ssing with ."
Rusty let out a small huff that almost sounded like a laugh before approaching her.
Beel, on the other hand, just acknowledge her and flew towards Reid’s snack table. A lot more interestes in the snacks than Lisa.
Nyx also flapped towards her, resting on her head which caused her to let out a chuckle
The bathroom door opened, and Reid stepped out, now fully dressed in his uniform. He ran a towel through his damp hair before glancing at Lisa, who was still surrounded by his Forged-Beasts.
"Looks like they like you," he noted.
"I guess" she said before she turned her attention back to Beel, who was now enthusiastically devouring a bag of snacks it had sohow opened with its tiny legs. "Is he always like this?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Reid answered. "If it’s edible, Beel will eat it. If it’s inedible, Beel will probably eat it anyway."
Lisa chuckled. "Good to know."
Reid rolled his eyes. "Let’s get going before we’re late."
Lisa gave Atlas one last pat before standing. Storm let out a small huff before dematerializing back into her inventory.
Reid did the sa, sending his own forged beasts back to his inventory leaving only Atlas who had made itself comfortable in Lisa’s hands.
As soon as Reid and Lisa stepped out of the room, they were imdiately t with Damien who was also just walking out of his room.
Damien raised an eyebrow when he saw them together. His gaze flicked to Atlas, still curled up in Lisa’s arms, then back to Reid.
"You two seem cozy," he comnted, crossing his arms.
Lisa blinked. "Huh?"
Reid sighed. "What are you talking about now?"
Damien gestured lazily. "What do you an, ’what am I talking about?’ You two just walked out of the sa room. Alone." He tilted his head, smirking.
Lisa’s face imdiately turned red. "What?! No! It’s not like that!"
Reid rolled his eyes. "Don’t be an idiot."
"Whatever you two say," Damien said with a knowing smirk before heading toward the elevator.
Lisa, still trying to explain, hurried after him, while Reid followed with an exasperated sigh.
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