Proofread by de0borac
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"Is P'Babe still crying? Has he eaten anything?"
"Luk, my wound hasn't healed yet!" said Uncle, as Charlie moved without thinking even though he had just barely gotten up.
"Oh, sit down, don't move around too much!" Jeff said quietly while looking at his brother with annoyed eyes. He was just close to death, but still couldn't stop feeling excited and worried about Babe. But, when it comes to himself, I don't think he's interested at all. He's totally worth it to be hit!
"How is P'Babe?" Charlie kept repeating the same question because he still didn't get the answer he wanted . But at the same time, he stepped back and sat on the sofa because he knew that if he didn't answer him, he would still be stubborn. "You said he doesn't want to eat. Has he eaten today?"
"I'm not sure because we separated at the funeral, but yesterday he was forced to eat." Jeff answered while sitting on the small sofa next to the long sofa that Charlie was sitting on. "When it comes to crying, he can't stop. I don't know what to do either."
"I shouldn't have done this." Charlie looked guilty for the umpteenth time since the incident. The more he realized how much Babe was suffering from what had happened, the more he felt like he was a bad person. "I should have known P'Babe definitely couldn't take it and he would definitely cry for a long time."
"But you've made up your mind, Charlie. Sitting and thinking like this is useless."
"I know, but I feel sorry for him."
"Or do you want to have children with him?"
"That's crazy, Jeff. He even told me not to talk about it." Charlie's face became painful once again as he thought about the most unimaginable event in the world.
"Hey, didn't you say you missed your brother? But when your brother came to see you, you both started arguing with each other."
Uncle said in a low tone as he placed a cup of hot chocolate and a large oatmeal cookie in front of Jeff. The young man then bowed his head lightly to the kind old man in gratitude. Of course, this wasn't just for the drinks and pastries, but also for everything this man had helped them with.
"I'm not arguing. But look what Jeff said!"
"What?" Uncle raised an eyebrow in confusion as he sat down next to Charlie. "Is this about having children?"
"Oh, why do you say it like that?" Charlie was given the creeps, while Jeff could only smile sheepishly at him, amazed that his older brother was acting more and more strangely with each passing day. One of the strange things was the fact that Charlie quickly became close to Uncle, even though he was usually someone who was not good at getting to know people. But look now, he's only been with Uncle for a few days, and he's already good at putting on a good face.
Seeing this, made him realize once again that they really were taking that risk. From the beginning, they debated to death whether to take this crazy plan or not, but finally, now that Charlie was not doing well, Jeff became close to the uncle who helped them.
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2 weeks ago
"No!! Are you crazy?"
Charlie flatly rejected Jeff's suggestion of the most likely solution at this time.
"Charlie..." Jeff said firmly when Charlie just tried to refuse. He knew his plan didn't sound worth following. But he thought about it until his head was about to explode, to get a map with a high chance of success and as few risks as possible like this. "I know you don't want to do this. But there is no other way."
"There must be another way Jeff, it's definitely not like this."
"So what other path is there? Tell me?"
Charlie fell silent when he was asked back. He admitted that at this time he still couldn't think of a reasonable plan. There are many ways that are considered possible, but in the end there are too many loopholes. But Jeff's methods were too cruel. How could he let him do that?
"Jeff, listen to me," the older alpha opened his eyes and fidgeted with his hands like a child trying to explain something interesting to his mother, even though he probably wasn't. "I can't die. Absolutely not."
"I didn't actually say that you would die. Just pretend to be dead. It's just a play."
"This is impossible," Charlie argued in a high-pitched voice. "Babe will cry tears that will surely flood the world. I can't do that to Babe."
"But-"
"Listen to the end first!!!" Jeff didn't have time to explain further. The older one raised his index finger to stop the younger one, indicating that he had not finished speaking. "And if you engineered my death like that, Babe doesn't believe it was an accident. If he doesn't believe it, you know what will happen next? Babe will try to hunt down the person who did it."
"..."
"And then BOOM! Babe will become John Wick. Do you know John Wick? The guy who kills just because someone killed his dog. That's what happened."
Jeff looked at his older brother who was explaining the reasons like an 8 year old child with bored eyes. Why did he think that Charlie was more mature beyond his years and calmer in the past? Or is it because Babe raised him in such a strange way that he is now so stupid?
"You don't understand, Charlie."
"I understand, I really understand," Charlie continued to confirm with a serious expression. "But you also have to understand that your methods are too cruel towards Babe. I'm not saying this too much, but Babe is like that."
"..."
"You could say I'm overconfident, but Babe really loves me, Jeff. And just think, if he found out that I lied to him with something like this, how angry would he be?" Charlie's tone and expression became more serious when talking about Babe. This attitude of Charlie made Jeff start to feel more sympathetic. But Charlie still didn't understand that at this time, sympathy alone will not solve any problems. "I once lied to Babe. And I also saw how bad it was. Babe is very hurt, he has been cheated over and over again, I don't know how many times. And are you still going to let me trick Babe into my death? I can not do it."
"So between pretending to be dead and actually being dead... which would you choose?"
Jeff's voice reached a new level of seriousness at this point. The expression that showed no signs of teasing, made Charlie freeze because he knew that when Jeff acted like this, it usually meant that he had seen a bad future happen.
But what kind of future does Jeff look so serious about?
"What does it mean?" Charlie asked, not understanding. Another person still refused to tell what he saw. He constantly says that something bad will happen and proposes crazy plans without saying anything clear. "Why do I really have to die?"
"I told you to fake your own death. Because if you don't do it, in the end you will really die." Jeff answered in a calm voice. And as soon as that sentence ended, the atmosphere in the room suddenly felt quieter. In fact, the number of people in the room was the same as before. and the sounds around him were as loud as ever. But, it made him feel uncomfortable like that. "And it's not just you. It's all of us."
"Wait, Jeff, what do you mean?"
"As long as you still have special characteristics. Pa will never let you go." The younger Omega looked into the older man's eyes without giving up. He knew this issue would be very emotional for Charlie. But if he doesn't tell anyone else about his impending fate, Charlie may not realize that he doesn't have many choices left. "Eventually, we have to get back to it."
"We?" Charlie frowned in confusion.
"Yeah, Us," Jeff confirmed firmly, "you and I, we'll get back there eventually."
"Why..."
"Pa has a way of cornering us until we have to follow him. When we return home, Pa will use aphrodisiacs on us."
"..."
"I think you can probably guess what will happen after that."
"Are we really going to do that, Jeff?" Charlie said with a sour expression, not believing that something like that would actually happen in the future. "What happened to you and me?"
"I don't want to think about it, Charlie. But I've seen it all. You don't know how much I cried when I saw those pictures!"
"Did you see...everything?"
"At first, I only saw the last image," Jeff answered quietly before letting out a soft sigh. "Then, I went back to see everything."
"..."
"I know it's a lot worse than I thought, but no matter how many times I try to look at it, the truth is that it's like that."
"Does that mean we will have kids?" Charlie asked in a soft voice. In his heart, he really wanted Jeff to answer no, but in reality, he was disappointed when the other person just nodded back with an embarrassed expression. "Why...why is that, Jeff?"
"You might think having kids is bad, but it's actually worse than that."
"If you're lying because you want me to carry out that plan, I'm really going to be mad at you, Jeff."
"This isn't a joke, Charlie!"
Charlie flinched a little when Jeff slammed the table and shouted at him because he had never done that before. His eyes were red and he was panting, as if he was panicked by what was going on in his own head. Charlie had to quickly reach out and hold the younger's hand and nodded lightly, as if telling him to calm down. He listened attentively.
"I understand. Calm down."
"You don't understand, Charlie. Do you think they would joke about life and death like this?" Jeff looked so uncomfortable that his little hands were shaking. And that made Charlie even more convinced that this wasn't a joke. What Jeff saw must have been huge to make someone who hardly cared about anything feel this nervous. "Did you know that this won't just end when I get pregnant? When the baby is born, Pa will kill us both."
Jeff's words made Charlie's eyes widen in surprise. However, that was less surprising than the next incident Jeff told him.
"Then, what happens after we both die? Your John Wick will come home, as soon as he hears the news waiting for you. He will kill that old bastard." Jeff's lips trembled as if just thinking about the incident was enough to scare him to the point where he couldn't sleep. "P'Babe is willing to let you have a child with me, because Pa promised that once the child is born, he will return you to him."
"But Pa lied..."
"Yeah, in the end Pa didn't keep his promise because if he let us both survive, too many people would know about this. In the future, we'll try to help that kid." Every story Jeff told started to sound more and more plausible. He thought that for someone like Pa, doing such heinous things wasn't considered excessive at all. As long as he still made a profit in the end , the man was ready to do it without hesitation. "When Babe found out about this, he was very angry. He will try to break in and kill him. He will be ten times more cruel than when he fought you."
"..."
"But in the end, it won't be Pa who dies."
Charlie held his breath as he was able to fill in the next blank without waiting for Jeff to answer.
"Babe's going to be killed in that house, Charlie."
Charlie's hand holding the back of Jeff's hand trembled after hearing those words. He knew if Jeff explained this, It would definitely happen. No matter what Jeff saw, if they didn't try to change it, it was bound to happen eventually. There were some things he tried to change course about, but the future still went on like that.
But this time, he couldn't let that happen.
Absolutely not.
"What are the chances of your plan succeeding?"
Charlie asked quietly after sitting silently for a long time. He tried to calm himself from what he heard. And he struggled hard with himself between keeping his promise not to lie, including protecting Babe's feelings, and preserving the lives of the people he loved most, not just one, but even two people who had to end their lives because of this crazy whirlpool. The two people he loved most had to pay the price for the misfortune in his life, which he could not allow to become like that.
"Higher than otherwise..." Jeff answered firmly. Of course, there is always a risk in this method. However, after thinking carefully, the chances of success are actually higher than other methods. "But it is very risky to pretend to have had an accident. We have to make it so realistic that everyone believes that you really died in that accident."
"That's not a problem."
"That's a problem!!" Jeff immediately argued, "It has to be very realistic, but they won't just believe it if you're really dead. So we have to prepare everything very well."
"Can't we tell P'Babe about this plan?" Charlie still feels uncomfortable because he has to make a plan to lie to Babe. "At least if Babe knows I'm not really dead, he won't feel so bad."
"Absolutely not!!" Jeff answered immediately without wasting time thinking about it. "Don't forget that P'Babe was hypnotized by P'Way and that would be very dangerous, so it's best Babe doesn't find out."
"What does that have to do with it?"
"An Enigma that can hypnotize, if he has cast the spell once, then he will be able to connect his own mind with his victim's mind for a long time." Of course, what Jeff said was something he didn't know before, because in his life he had never known anyone who could be hypnotized before. "The fact that Pa knows your movements recently, partly stems from P'Way being able to penetrate P's head 'Babe too."
"..."
"What P'Babe knows, P'Way will also know until the connection is lost, which will probably take a while. And I think you should know that we don't have much time."
Hearing that, Charlie's head hurt even more, because it meant that his way of reducing Babe's suffering was gone. If he told Babe about this plan, Way might be able to find out about it too. And if that was the case even if he tried to follow his plan, it would be useless. If the main goal is to cheat, getting caught is considered the end of the plan. And if he waits until the mental connection between Babe and Way is severed, it's definitely not the time, because now he's being followed every step of the way. He thought Pa definitely wouldn't move this week.
"What if everyone thinks I'm dead? What will we do after that?" Charlie asked about his next plan because right now it seemed like the only way he could use it to protect Babe. "Where should I go, where no one else will find me?"
"I'll take care of it."
"Where?"
"It doesn't matter where you are, what matters is who you are with." Jeff said as he picked up his phone, pressed the screen to unlock and tapped it a few times before handing it to her. The image he saw on the screen was a photo of a man taken secretly from afar, which, looking at it, did little to help him understand it.
"Who?"
"Reval"
"Reval?" Charlie raised his eyebrows, not understanding what Jeff was talking about. He wasn't even familiar with that strange name.
"I don't know his real name. But according to the people around here, they call this guy Reval," Jeff explained, before looking at the photos, which were all photos of an old man secretly taken from afar. "He has a special ability, just like us."
"What ability?"
"Destroyer." Charlie blinked at the answer that didn't help him understand any more than he already did. Jeff saw this and quickly explained. "That means he can remove other people's special abilities."
"Is it true?" Charlie asked in a high pitched voice. Hearing this, he began to understand more. And that allowed him to see more of the opportunities that Jeff was talking about. "Is there anything like this?"
"Oh, I just found out that there is an ability like that too."
Jeff locked his phone screen and placed it face down, once the image disappeared. "It is an ability that can control other people's abilities. He probably has the same characteristics as you."
"That means we can ask him to help us?"
"I think..." said Jeff, not completely convinced. "People say that this uncle doesn't care about other people and just stays in his own house. But if there are people in trouble who ask for help, he seems like he will help Babe."
"How do you find something like this?"
"If they can find it, then I can find it all too."
"It's scary. If you say you are a spy, I will believe it."
"Oh, I'm a spy after all." Jeff replied nonchalantly, before bringing the topic of conversation back to the most important issue at the moment. "In essence, I've tried writing a letter to ask that uncle for help."
"Why do you have to write a letter?"
"Uncle doesn't want to talk on the phone."
"Oh," Charlie nodded, confused. "So what did he say?"
"He told me to take you to see him."
"Is it true?"
"Yes..."
"Why did he agree to help so easily?"
Jeff fell silent when he heard the question. The other person's strange behavior made Charlie realize that the man behind him is more than just a mysterious old man with devastating powers.
"Actually, besides his special abilities and general personality, I also secretly went to investigate that uncle's history."
"Jeff, you're starting to get really scary."
"Shouldn't I check it carefully first? How could I let you chase it blindly?" Jeff hastily corrected himself when Charlie squinted at him like he was some kind of unaffiliated spy who liked to mess with other people.
"Okay, what did you find after investigating?"
"I know uncle moved into the house he lives in now about 20 years ago. No one knows where he came from. All they know is that he had just come out of the hospital and bought the biggest house in the area, even though he was alone."
"What's so strange? He might be rich."
"That's not the case." Jeff argued, before continuing in a calm tone." "In essence, from the hospital history, it is said that the uncle was taken to the hospital with his son who was so malnourished that he fainted."
Charlie's heart suddenly jumped when he heard Jeff's words. He thought that what was in his head right now was probably just his own imagination. But he couldn't help but wonder.
"But after realizing, it turned out that Uncle had lost his memory and had to be hospitalized for further treatment."
"And what about the son?"
"A relative took him home."
That answer doesn't make sense. When father and son are so hungry that they have to be taken to the hospital, it means that neither of them has any relatives who can come and help them. But, why was it that as soon as he was admitted to the hospital, relatives suddenly appeared and were willing to take the child back to look after him? Plus, Uncle suddenly lost his memory. This was strange, no matter how he looked at it.
"Strange..." was all Charlie said. Because those were the only words he could say right now.
"Yeah, very strange," Jeff nodded in agreement. The other person took a deep breath, before turning his gaze to meet his and speaking in a serious tone. "Because the moment this child leaves the hospital, is the same moment that Pa adopts a child."
The doubts he had tried to push away now resurfaced, as the more information he found out, the more it was locked in. The story fit so well that he didn't know where to find a point of rebuttal.
"Are you sure, Jeff?"
"I checked," Jeff answered with a confident look on his face, "That's right."
"But Babe's father is dead." Charlie whispered automatically, as if he was afraid someone would hear something he shouldn't say.
"P'Babe just thought he was dead because there was no evidence that he was alive."
"But, it's been 20 years." the tall man continued to argue, because no matter how accurate Jeff's information was, he didn't think it could be a coincidence. Plus, in the past, Babe had never once told him that his own father was capable of doing something like this. "Didn't he ever go looking for his son?"
"Do you think a father who saw his son nearly starving to death would want to take him back, if you knew that your son would have a chance of getting something better?"
Jeff answered his question with another question that made his point clear without needing to explain further, based on what he knew from Babe's story. He thought Babe's father would catch on to the fact that Pa was going to adopt Babe. It was a deal. This is definitely not child theft.
Babe's father at that time probably thought that even if he was discharged from the hospital, he would not have the means to continue raising Babe or he would really starve to death at any time. Therefore, it is best for Babe to be with someone who can give it all. Of course, Pa would never speak of his evil intentions in the first place.
However, this means that the father Babe thought had been dead for decades is actually still alive. He was just trying to hide and act as if he had died according to the deal that Pa might have offered, because he had heard about the deal himself, and they had to break up with each other, then his child would be well taken care of. But if he contacts them again or tries to ask for a return, the child will be at risk and the family will suffer due to breach of contract.
If he thought like this, the information that the man was Babe's father suddenly seemed fitting. Each piece of the puzzle can be put together to form a large, almost complete picture. And that means he'll create a drama about his own death and seek help from Babe's father to prevent everyone from dying with him.
He believes this problem is becoming increasingly complicated.
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