The Ikari Warriors were still on holiday. Heidern had allowed Gaidel to stay in the same apartment that he and Leona did. After all, who was he to separate a father from his daughter?
So Leona sat, relating her life to her biological father.
Gaidel listened, a little sorry that he wasn't there with her when all of those happened. Heidern sat behind, hearing bits and pieces of their conversation.
"It was all my fault, papa," Leona said sadly. "I destroyed the entire village!"
"It wasn't your fault, Leo," Gaidel said, gently stroking her blue hair. "It was that darned Goenitz! Always with the destiny! Destiny this, destiny that. He needs to learn how to love his life! What kinda of a human says that his destiny is to destroy humanity? He isn't humane!"
"He isn't even sane," Heidern added from the back, reading the day's newspaper.
"And that too," Gaidel agreed. "Don't worry, Leona. You are what you make of yourself. Don't think about when someone else manipulated you for their advantage. It wasn't your fault."
It was one of the rare moments where Leona shed a few tears. Heidern threw the newspaper aside and came to Leona's side. The two fathers comforted her.
"Don't worry, dear," Heidern comforted.
"It isn't your fault," Gaidel crooned gently.
Leona smiled through her tears. Her fathers smiled too.
"Wanna visit the candy factory?" Heidern suggested. "I'm sure you'd love to see how it's all made."
Leona instantly perked up.
"And we can have dinner in the vegetarian restaurant afterwards," Gaidel added. "I know how much you'd love a good veggie pasta."
The three of them took Leona to the candy factory. Sweets weren't exactly Leona's favourite, but she couldn't help but waste her money on them this time.
So they walked into the factory with nothing but their phones and wallets but walked out with three big bags of sweets.
"I think I'll give some to Kula," Leona decided. "She'd love some."
"And that big guy too," Heidern said. "He loves candies just as much as that kid!"
They laughed and drove to Leona's favourite Vegetarian restaurant. She wasn't exactly vegetarian, but she loved vegetarian food.
Leona ordered a plate of her favourite spaghetti squash pasta with marinara sauce. She enjoyed their day out.
They returned home, pleased that they managed to cheer Leona up. Leona separated the candy for Kula and some for Rimururu and Sylvie. Well, Kula received extra since she was her favourite among the three girls. She even made a cute little pouch just for Kula. She smiled as she put the sweets away in the fridge.
Leona went back to her room and got ready for bed. She changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top and turned the lights out before crawling into bed.
But just as she was about to close her eyes and go to sleep, she felt a familiar sensation within her. Her blood was boiling within her. Leona tried really hard to resist but...
Heidern and Gaidel both heard an animalistic scream in the night. They both ran out of their rooms and met each other in the hallway.
"Leona!" They both shouted as they raced towards her room.
They broke the door down and saw her ripping the bedsheets off her body. She had somehow gotten entangled in it and was furiously tearing it off.
Her hair had turned red and her eyes were glowing crimson.
"Leona!" Gaidel exclaimed, running towards her. But before he could go near her, Heidern stopped him.
"Don't," Heidern warned. "It's no use. She'll kill you again."
"Then what do we do?" Gaidel asked, worried for his ballistic daughter. "We can't just leave her."
"We'll have to tie her up," Heidern said. "Or else she would cause destruction that she'll greatly regret!"
Gaidel stood at a safe distance as Heidern went to his room to bring some rope. He came back and saw Gaidel trying to calm her down, to no avail.
In the end, he grabbed her wrists and held them together as hard as he can. He was having a hard time and she was close to escaping. Heidern quickly tied them together.
"Are you sure that'll hold her down?" Gaidel asked. "She destroyed an entire village!"
"I don't know, but it will help for now," Heidern said. "We need to make sure she couldn't move. She will tire out eventually, don't worry."
Well, he wasn't so certain either. He just said that to comfort Gaidel.
After successfully tying her up, they had to roll her up in her comforter like how the police do to unruly criminals.
"We can try talking to her," Heidern said. "She still has some of her consciousness left in her."
"She didn't when she killed us," Gaidel said, remembering how his daughter killed him and his wife before destroying the village. "I mean, she did, but Goenitz kept tormenting her. But we can try."
They made sure that Leona couldn't escape the blanket by tying some rope around her. Heidern and Gaidel tried to speak to her in soft voices. It clearly didn't work since Leona was violently thrashing under the blanket, roaring and growling.
Gaidel had an idea and sang her the lullaby that his wife always sang to her as a baby. Slowly, she stopped thrashing. Her face started turning calmer as she fell silent, letting herself feel the lullaby. She closed her eyes and gave a soft sigh before drifting off to sleep. Her hair slowly turned back to its original blue.
She looked peaceful as she let out gentle snores with her eyes closed, her long lashes lining her eyelids.
Gaidel stroked her hair and kissed her forehead before pulling Heidern out of the room, a finger pressed against his lips. He softly closed the door and pulled him towards the living room.
"What a nightmare!" Heidern said when they were out of earshot. "Poor Leona! She would always end up with terrible headaches after one of her episodes. Wait... that reminds me. How come you're not affected by it?"
"I am able to resist it," Gaidel said. "I was just like her when I was young. My father taught me how to resist it."
"Then why didn't you teach Leona about it too?" Heidern questioned. "You could've prevented your death!"
"I was waiting for her first encounter," Gaidel said regretfully. "That was the first. And the last I ever saw till now..."
"Okay, now I have another question," Heidern said. "Why didn't you sing it to her when she was young? You know, the first time?"
"We didn't think about it," Gaidel said. "We were trying so hard to snap her out of it. Besides, Goenitz was right there, destroying any efforts we did to remind her."
"That darn Goenitz..." Heidern said, shaking his head. "You know what, let's go to bed."
They went back to their rooms and tried to fall asleep.
Gaidel stayed awake a little as he silently prayed for something like this to never happen again before falling asleep. Heidern on the other hand was very much awake.
He was concerned for what might be triggering the Riot of Blood within Leona. Was Goenitz resurrected too? He wasn't so sure. What if Orochi himself had been resurrected? He had to do something about it.