I breathed in… and then breathed out. Even with all the encouragement and pep talk, I was still nervous.

This wasn’t like the countless missions back in Kitran. This was an assault on my own family. No matter how much I disliked them, part of me still felt bad.

“That’s the signal. We’re up,” Iron Pack informed us whilst keeping her hand on her ear.

I steeled myself.

“Oooh boy. Here we go. One evil family’s kicked butt coming right up!” the utterly unimportant meat shield of ours exclaimed.

“Buckler, remember, our objective is to distract right now,” his sister reminded him.

He simply grunted in annoyance, probably also because of the codename he got stuck with.

“Alright, everyone ready?” Pack asked and received nods from everyone.

I nodded too despite having enough nervousness to fill up a bottle.

“Let’s go then.”

With that, the wolves our party was sitting on charged forward, Iron Pack in the lead. We ran up to the iron fence around the mansion before a metallic bear appeared out of nowhere and smashed it down. We were free to roam around in the gardens.

As soon as we stepped inside, we were already swarmed with dozens of guards armed with guns rushing to intercept us.

Luckily for us, I wore my awesome costume and everyone else was fitted with Fractal’s bulletproof armor sets, making it easy to bulldoze over everything in our way with ease.

It was mayhem. People shouting, guns firing, iron wolves growling, and all I could think about was that we were assaulting my family’s home and feeling kinda guilty about it.

The guards seemed to have realized their puny little guns couldn’t do anything to us and began backing up. Not even a minute later, their reinforcements arrived.

“Whoaaa?!” My ride abruptly stopped and I was sent flying. Luckily for me, my fall was cushioned by the face of one of the guards.

“Ow, what the heck?” I rubbed my aching butt as I looked around.

All the iron wolves had their feet stuck in the ground as if it was an extra sticky quicksand. In the meantime, Iron Pack, Fractal, and Miran- Apefist already adapted, jumped off their rides and engaged in a melee with all the guards.

I quickly jumped to my feet and adopted my signature battle stance Fern had definitely never called adorable. The guy I landed on groaned beneath my feet.

As I scanned the battlefield, I noticed the man in a sandy-yellow facemask and a cloak standing by the mansion’s main door, moving his hands like a musical conductor. Me being a natural genius, I immediately figured out he was the one creating quicksand and charged him.

I had yet to even begin my hand-to-hand combat training, but despite my apparent lack of experience, I skillfully outmaneuvered every guard who dared to get in my way, and left a line of people fallen in odd ways in my wake. My moves were all definitely intentional and not the result of my power. Yes.

“Hiyaaaa!” I shouted as I closed in on the quicksand dude.

My punch utterly missed and I instead slammed into him with my entire body, causing both of us to fall and roll. When we finally stopped, I was lying on the ground, and he was looming above me.

“You…!” His eyes widened behind his mask as if he’d recognized me.

He jumped off me and shouted, “Take her inside!”

“What?” I tried standing but found myself stuck in the ground. With me immobile, the grunts swarmed me and grabbed me. “Hey!”

My protests didn’t amount to much since I was completely immobile. Not even support fire from Kell- from Shockshot and her energy blaster helped. Not with this many of them, and not when I was already so far away from everyone else.

Maybe not the best idea to charge ahead on my own…?

The quicksandman’s underlings ignored my protests, pulled a bag over my head, and carried me away. A moment later, I heard the door slamming behind me and everything was silent again. As if there was no chaotic battle going on.

Then, I felt myself being tossed to the ground.

“Ow! Screw you!”

I hurriedly gathered myself and pulled the dumb bag off my head, only to realize I was in a dark room, with several figures standing over me. The one in front of me looked straight into my eyes. I recognized her instantly.

Reddish black hair like mine, judging eyes, and the expression passively informing you she was superior to you. There was no way I could forget.

“Welcome home. I’m glad you could make it. Sorry, but your guests will have to stay outside for now,” the woman said with a grin.

She already knew. We got counter-ambushed.

Part of me wasn’t surprised.

“Mother…” I felt myself shiver, before remembering the pep talk from a few days ago, and straightening myself up. “I’m not afraid of you anymore!”

“Of course, that’s why you are shivering, hmm?”

“It’s, uh, cold outside,” I masterfully deflected.

She raised her eyebrow, eyeing my thermally insulated armor.

“Well, that aside, you’ve grown up, haven’t you? I almost don’t recognize you. To think you’re the same person as… him.” She spat out.

“Shut up! I’m a different person now!” I bristled. “I love who I am now, and I’ll never go back to being him! I’m not Cain, I’m Aster!” I shouted in her face, somehow finding the courage to talk back.

She nodded. “Good.”

That caught me off guard. I choked out, “W-what?”

“You aren’t him. Good,” she repeated.

I could only stare at her.

When I didn’t say anything, she began explaining. “Cain was worthless, powerless, a liability. He would never amount to anything. It was clear to everyone. Aster, on the other hand, you… you have powers, achievements, a girlfriend.”

The mention of Fern sent shivers down my spine.

“If you think I needed you to be my son, you are sorely mistaken. What I wanted was for you to be someone, rather than failure,” she said, her voice hard.

I had no idea how to reply. I expected her to call me out, to be mean to me for who I was. But instead… She was happy about it. In her own way.

“So, why don’t you leave your worthless self behind, and become a daughter I can be proud of?” She smiled. The same smile that had always unsettled me.

“I…”

My reply was interrupted by the entire building shaking, making everyone lose their footing.

Mother frowned and shouted “Reinforce the main entrance! Don’t let anyone through!” Everyone else surrounding me ran off.

The assault must have begun in full force. An assault on my family I was part of, I reminded myself. My gut clenched.

“Now, let’s meet the rest of the family, why don’t we? It wouldn’t be much of a family reunion with just the two of us, would it?” She turned and strode over to the door on the other side of the room.

I was torn on what to do. Part of me wanted to book it and rejoin my allies. But another part of me still held on to the hope that I could have an actual family.

I idly reached up to my communicator, wanting someone to help me with the dilemma, only to find out the signal was blocked. My hand fell down to my side.

An entire minute after mother left through the door, I finally managed to squash down the doubts… and followed after her.