Thalia…
Seeing Julian stare up at her from the floor of the arena made her feel too afraid to remain so she and Alta left with Fayebel following after them in curiosity.
“So who the hell was that creep? Why was he staring at you?” she asked.
Thalia couldn’t seem to find the courage to say anything and just wanted to head home.
Alta decided to answer in her place as he said, “Marcus and Thalia came from a different universe and lived on a planet called Terra. Julian is also from there and right before they came to this world, Julian kidnapped her and tried to use her as leverage against Marcus. Kayron then appeared and brought them both to this world and they have been living here ever since."
“Oh...I see…,” Fayebel said slowly as she tried to process all that mind shattering information.
Then it seemed to click in her head as she grasped the most important details of everything Alta just said.
“Wait! Julian kidnapped her?” she asked with a freaked out expression before facing Thalia, “Did he hurt you or…?”
Thalia looked up at Fayebel, and with quivering hands, she reached up to the side of her cheek. She pointed to a small faded scar where Julian had cut the side of her face with his knife.
“This...this is about all he did to me. I don’t want to think about what might have happened if...if my brother hadn’t killed nearly everyone there.”
Alta and Fayebel looked at each other before turning back to her and he asked, “Why didn’t he finish off Julian while he had the chance so that he wouldn’t follow you two to this world?”
Hearing that question made her heart sink as she remembered the event with frightening clarity.
“I...it was my fault...I got scared of my own brother because I saw him kill my attackers so brutally...I was afraid of him and I asked him to stop killing when he was choking Julian to death. Its my fault that he’s still coming after us…!”
Saying that out loud caused the tears to start flowing from her eyes. When she tried to wipe them away, they just kept coming and she couldn’t stop.
“Whoa, hey! No one said its your fault. It is not your fault Thalia!” Alta said as he knelt down and put his hands on her shoulders to try and calm her down.
Thalia’s crying eyes met his own as she said, “But...if I didn’t...If I didn’t tell him to stop then none of the bad things happening to us would have happened.”
“Thalia? Look, you are far too young to try and claim responsibility over everything bad thing that might happen to those around you. You are still a child. Let us take care of you and-”
Thalia broke away from him and shouted, “No! I hate being a helpless child. When Kayron came for us, I had to watch as he stabbed my brother against the ground while I did nothing! I couldn’t do anything and I hated being weak! I don’t want to be weak anymore.”
Alta looked up at Fayebel and they seemed to have a silent exchange between them before he stood up and said, “If that’s what you want, then I’m willing to teach you how to use magic so that you can be strong.”
Thalia’s eyes widened for only a moment before she wiped her tears away and said, “I don’t want to be weak anymore.”
“Alright then. We can start as soon as you want. But for now, we should go home and rest for the day.”
“Okay…”
She turned around and seemed ready to head back home, yet just as she had made it a few paces forward, the sound of Julian’s crooked laughter made her freeze in place out of fear.
She slowly turned around and stepped behind Alta, hiding behind him.
“Now hold on a minute. I have some business with that girl you have with you. If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a few words with her before you go,” Julian said from behind them.
He was walking towards them after coming back from his fight. His weapons were gone but that didn’t make her feel any better about seeing him.
Alta’s hands began to tense up and his eyes started to narrow. Fayebel eyed him warily as she asked, “What are you about to do Alta?”
Then, in the next moment, Alta vanished.
Thalia and Fayebel stepped back in surprise and then looked at Julian in time to see Alta reappear with a sword made of ice in his hands.
In one swift strike, he swung his blade and caused it to explode against Julian’s body.
Thalia covered her face to avoid getting hit by anything flying towards her, but when she moved them away, she found that Julian was completely unharmed.
“Marcus must have ordered you to kill me on sight if I ever came close to her didn’t he?”
Alta didn’t answer him as he formed another sword in his hands and swung it once more.
Julian then threw a punch and shattered Alta’s sword before it could land and then wrapped his right hand around Alta’s throat.
“No!” Fayebel shouted as she pulled out her sword.
Julian’s other hand grabbed the back of Alta’s head as if he was about to snap his neck, but his own head fell to the ground before he had a chance.
Fayebel had swiftly cut Julian’s head off using her elven shadow magic and Alta pulled himself free of Julian’s grasp.
His corpse fell to the ground behind them as they walked towards Thalia.
“My swords stopped before they could reach his skin. How were you able to cut him?” he asked through his coughs.
“I...I don’t know. I don’t have an answer. Let’s just leave and get you two home before-”
Fayebel’s voice was cut short as she was struck from behind and knocked unconscious by…
By Julian, whose body had risen off the ground with his skull reforming out of blood magic.
“That hurt...I didn’t think anyone would be able to touch me with these rune formulas,” he said as he then kicked Alta in the face and knocked him out too, “I guess there is still a way to get past it. Good thing I still have my fail safe.”
“Kayron’s magic…” Thalia said with a quivering voice as she took a step back.
“That’s right Thalia. Now that those two are out of the picture, you and I can finally-”
Before he could lay a hand on her, someone else appeared to stand in his way once more, and it was none other than Ruvick himself.
“You take one more step closer to her and I will rip your soul from your body. It will be a most excruciating and permanent death. There will be no coming back from that, I promise you,” he said as he stared daggers at Julian. He did not have his sword out but Thalia doubted he would need it.
“Ruvick…!” She cried as she clung onto his black overcoat and stuck close to him. He turned his head briefly to look at her with mild surprise on his face that she was clinging to him, but he did not seem bothered by it.
Upon hearing Ruvick’s name, Julian’s eyes widened in shock but he did not seem afraid and stood his ground.
“Kayron told me about you. He said that you are the strongest person in the world.”
“I am the strongest person in all existence. You have no chance of winning any confrontation with me. Turn around and leave, and I will not kill you right now.”
Julian threw up his hands and said, “Alright! I surrender. I don’t intend to fight you, and I don’t plan to take her anywhere. I don’t even want to hurt her. The only reason I’m here right now is because I want to tell her something important. Something that I think she needs to hear.”
“Is that so? Then I can only assume that the reason these two are lying on the ground unconscious is because you...acted in self defense?” Ruvick asked in a feigned sense of diplomacy.
Julian played along with it as he said, “Well yeah. I mean, I’m pretty sure that the black elf man was ordered to kill me on sight. I at least have the right to self defense, don’t I?”
Ruvick tilted his head back as he looked down at him.
“No.”
Julian frowned, “Well, shit.”
Thalia was frustrated that everyone was speaking for her, but she at least felt more confident now that Ruvick was here with her.
She mustered up her courage as she stepped around Ruvick and asked, “W-what do you want Julian?”
He smiled as he looked towards her, and as much as she wanted to run away and hide from him, she stood her ground as well.
“I just want to deliver a message to you. Now if you might convince the scary undead guy to stop threatening to rip out my soul, then I promise I won’t hurt you. I’ll even swear to never come after you again, but only if you will hear me out.”
She then looked up at Ruvick as if to silently ask him to calm down and let him speak.
“This is a bad idea Thalia. Are you sure you want to let him speak? If you want, I can kill him now and you can be rid of him forever.”
She swallowed her fear and said, “No. I want to hear what he has to say.”
Ruvick sighed as he said, “As you wish.”
He then raised his hand and patted her on the head affectionately which calmed her down significantly.
He then waved his hand and manifested a table and chairs in front of them before waving Fayebel and Alta away.
“Where did you send them?” Thalia asked.
“I just sent them home. They’ll be fine.”
Ruvick and Thalia sat down, but Julian looked down at the chair in front of him nervously. It was as if he were wondering if Ruvick would kill him for sitting down.
“Sit. Down.” Ruvick ordered in a forceful voice.
“Yes sir,” he replied as respectfully as possible as he sat down.
“Now is your one and only chance to speak with her. Use it wisely.”
“Right…” he said as he went silent, as if thinking about how to approach her without provoking Ruvick’s anger.
Julian breathed in as he asked, “Thalia...do you remember William?”
Hearing his name come up was a surprise. She hadn’t heard about him in years.
“Y-Yeah, I do. But why? What does he have to do with any of this?”
“Did you ever hear about what happened to him?” he asked.
“I...well no. I just thought that he left to go fight in the UFC again,” she said and Ruvick raised his eyebrows curiously.
“I see...I guess Marcus never told you about what happened to him or who he was huh?”
“No, why? What’s the big deal? Your dad hired him to train Marcus how to fight, right? I thought that was all it was.”
Julian shook his head and said, “Okay, moving on to the next question then.”
Ruvick leaned forward and pressured Julian with a hard stare and Thalia had to reign him in with a gentle hand on his arm.
“Go on.”
“Thalia, have you ever once asked Marcus about your father?”
She went still as she realized that, no, she had never asked Marcus about her father. Not one in her whole life did she ever ask about him.
Why…?
Why had she never asked about her father?
“I…Marcus has...he is my brother, but he’s also always been like a father to me. I never...thought about what my real father might have been like.”
Ruvick’s eyes widened as he seemed to have realized something, “I don’t like where this is going.”
Thalia looked at Ruvick and then back to Julian and noticed the hint of malice in his eyes and the hint of a smile on his face.
Nonetheless she wanted to know what he had to say.
“Julian, please tell me more.”
Julian…
Fourteen years ago, a year after Marcus came back from his job in Japan, he, Julian, and William would start sparring together in the same old gym that they used to.
The past two years had been kind to Julian as he had gotten better at mixed martial arts, enough that William had become more open to training him.
After several practice matches, the three of them sat down together. William had a towel around his neck and was downing a bottle of water before he said, “I can’t remember the last time I actually had a fun match. Look, I know its been a little over a year since you’ve been back Marcus, but its glad to have you back. Things have been rather boring lately.”
“Hey, come on! Was I really that bad?”
“Yes! You suck! Nobody but Marcus can pressure me so hard that I actually have to fight back for real. Although the money you paid me was nice so training you wasn’t all bad,” Julian teasingly joked.
“What would you have done if I hadn’t come back or if you didn’t have Julian to keep you company? were you thinking of going back into the UFC?” Marcus asked.
William waved him off and said, “Nah, I’m probably too old for that. I think training people is just what I’m gonna be doing from now on. It’s not as exciting as being in the octagon but it’s alright and it pays well. Seeing other people that I’ve trained fight is also pretty fun I guess.”
“You know when I got back here I noticed that a lot has changed around here. Things with Romano have gotten a bit complicated as he’s been having more and more meetings. Julian has his own little side business started too apparently.”
“You’re damn right! I got a few pizza places started up with some of my family’s old recipes. It was doing well enough that we were able to expand to multiple stores across the state,” Julian said while puffing out his chest.
“Yeah. A lot changed when you disappeared…” William said as he started to trail off, but then he seemed to remember something.
“Oh, by the way. What made you decide to stay away for so long anyways?” he asked.
“Yeah, spill it. First thing you did when I saw you come back was twist my arm around my back and slam my face against the wall. You broke my nose over it,” Julian said, still bitter about that.
Marcus expression became distant as he seemed to be hiding something about his time in Japan and said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Julian shook his head but William didn’t back down as he said with a grin on his face, “Oh…? Come on. You can tell me. Was it a woman? Were you chasing some tail or something?”
“Hmm. I guess you could say that’s part of it, but it’s probably better to leave the topic alone,” Marcus said with a somber tone.
William didn’t notice his expression as he laughed and said, “Yeah I guess I can understand that. It’s part of the reason I left the UFC too. In fact, let me tell you a story.”
Marcus looked at him wondering where he was going with this and said with a sigh, “Okay, let’s hear it.”
“Alright. Well, this was well over a decade ago when I was still knocking people down right? I was still in the UFC and I was meeting all kinds of hot women. Hell, most of them would have taken the next opportunity to get a night with me-”
“Playing a little into your own fantasies huh?” Marcus laughed and Julian joined in as well.
“Shut up, both of you. Anyways, I had plenty of opportunities to meet a lot of great women right? But see, there was this one woman who came to see my matches every now and then and sometimes I would see her in the gym that I was at there. Anyways, she was beyond beautiful right? So, I actually came up to her, we hit it off, and she had this...i don’t know what it was but she had this atmosphere to her. It was like no matter what was going on she made everything feel better. It came to a point that I was spending so much time with her that even my agent, and my trainer started to complain, but I wasn’t having any of it. So, I dropped out of the fights after a while and tried to spend more time with her. She was really great.”
Julian looked at Marcus and noticed a strange expression on his face, as if reminiscing over something comforting.
Maybe he really did meet a girl in Japan.
“Sounds like she was an amazing person. What’d she look like?” he asked with a smirk.
William’s eyes became a bit dreamy as he said, “Well, for one thing. She had an amazing ass like there was no tomorrow, and since she trained with me every once in a while she was also pretty fit too. I remember she was tall and also had really nice black hair.”
Marcus raised his eyebrows as he said, “Oh really? Well aside from remembering her ass, what was her name?”
William groaned as he racked his brain trying to remember before snapping his fingers.
“Oh! I got it! I’m pretty sure her name was Hestia. God she was beautiful…” William’s voice trailed away.
Julian then laughed as he said, “Hestia? Like the Greek Goddess? That’s a bit of a weird name, but if she was as hot as you say...”
He trailed off suddenly as he noticed Marcus staring at William with cold analyzing eyes.
Julian then looked back at William and then back at Marcus. It was as if he were trying to take in every significant detail about William in that very moment.
Marcus’s voice then came out slightly forced, as if he were trying to hold himself back as he asked, “William. Did you ever have sex with her?”
William gave him a weird look as he said, “That’s a bit of a personal question but...yeah I did. Why?”
Marcus leaned forward and looked at William with every muscle in his body taut and ready to pounce as he asked, “When?”
William looked at him with confusion as he said, “Why does it matter so much to you?”
Marcus sharpened his tone as he said, “Tell me when.”
“Uh...I guess a little over ten years ago. Probably around the year 2007. Why?”
Marcus swallowed as he stood up and said, “Nothing I guess. Never mind. I’m gonna head to the bathroom.”
“Alright. When you get back we should probably leave,” William said.
“Yeah…” he said as he left.
William looked at Julian and said, “You should go check on him. I don’t know why, but I get the feeling that something about that bothered him.”
“Alright, I’ll go.”
He walked over to the bathroom and had to move out of the way as one guy dashed out of there with a panicked expression on his face.
He then went in after Marcus only to find him washing his bloody fist after punching the mirror.
“Holy shit, what the hell happened?”
Marcus looked back at him with a freaked out expression on his face that stayed for a moment before he returned his attention back to his hand and said, “Nothing. That guy who ran out had roid rage and tried to fight me. Must have scared him off when I missed my punch and broke the mirror.”
Julian knew that he was lying but didn’t pressure him any further about it.
“Come on. I won’t bring this up to William or anyone else. Let’s just head home.”
“Alright…”
It didn’t take much to figure out the rest as he later asked Thalia what her mother’s name was to put everything together, but when he did, he understood why Marcus had acted the way he did.
Thalia, Now…
“Thalia, before your mother was pregnant with you, she moved to New York with your brother and moved to The Bronx. Pretty soon, she met someone at a gym she went to and saw that man for a while before she had you. That person was William, your father.”
“Julian, you should leave now,” Ruvick said.
“Yes sir,” he replied as he stood up and took a quick step back.
“Wait! You said that something happened to him. What happened?” Thalia asked.
“Thalia, I don’t think its wise-”
“Ask Marcus. He knows all about it,” Julian said as he turned around and left her to think about this new discovery about her life and the fact that Marcus knew about her father and never told her.
For the first time in her life, she felt doubtful about how much she trusted her brother.