Chapter 74: Unanswered Questions

* NEFFEX - New Beginnings *

***

"Alright, umm, do you want to watch some TV? Maybe see what happened while we abandoned the city?" Camilla said sarcastically.

"Sure, we can do that, I'm feeling good enough that I can help if desperately needed, I guess," Raven said while stroking Kuru who was cuddling happily on her lap.

However, just as Camilla was about to turn in it on, she jumped suddenly from her seat, startling everyone, including poor Kuru, and tried to cover the TV screen with her open arms.

But with the huge size of the TV screen, and her own small size, it was pointless.

It took a second for Ted's words to click back in. Remembering what he'd said about watching S rankers fight, Raven was sure hers would be on TV as well.

"Please, don't!" she said to Camilla who suddenly remembered and realized why Raven was acting as such.

Raven's fight is ought to still be broadcasting on the TV channels, and the plan was letting her tell them on her own, not force her by 'accidentally' stumbling across footage of her almost dying.

That would be bad for everyone, most importantly Maria and Raven.

'F*CK! I screwed up...' Camilla thought as she looked at Maria while biting her lower lip in guilt.

"Ah I remembered something really important!" Maria said, standing up too while clapping her hands together, "why don't we go to the garden again? It's pretty good outside after all."

She didn't remember something, and no, it wasn't good outside, with the smoke and all.

Her fidgeting with her hands didn't help at all and even gave the impression that she's a school girl asking her first crush on a date.

'Oh my gosh... mom is terrible under pressure...' Maya thought as she face palmed while looking at Raven.

"So... you already know, huh?" Raven lowered her arms in defeat and regret as a sad smile appeared on her face.

Looking up at Maria, she could already tell that she was one day too late. 'So their behaviour yesterday...'

"Yes." Maria said bluntly as she bit her own lip hard enough to cause herself a light bleeding. She was trying hard to repress the tears and prevent them from escaping to her eyes and down her rosey cheeks.

"I'm so-"

"So sorry?" Maya cut Raven off and finished for her as she stared at her eyes with some mixed feelings.

On the one hand she was so mad at her stupidity, but on the other hand, she could understand where she was coming from.

If the events weren't recorded, then she might have been able to avoid hurting Maria's heart. But now that it was broadcasted, and Maria had already cried her eyes out yesterday, Raven owed it to her to explain herself.

She never needed to attack the stupidly strong monster. She could have just ran away with them.

Walking up to her, she gave her a good shoulder punch as she gestured towards their mother. "She deserves better than a few words of apology."

Nodding silently, Raven approached Maria who was now bleeding from her lower lip, with sad eyes that were ready to burst out spraying tears everywhere.

With each step Raven took, Maria lost more control over her eyes. By the time the two were engaged in a tight hug, tears were already covering her cheeks and dripping down Raven's back.

"I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to let you suffer... I- the only reason I-..."

"I know. You wanted to avoid worrying me." Maria finished for her as she squeezed her even harder.

"Uhm," Raven nodded as she couldn't help but tear up. Not a second after, Maya pushed Axane towards the hugging duo, "you know, Axane cried her eyes out and almost got blind from watching you almost... you know."

Raising her head up, her eyes met the silver shining eyes of Axane who had a pained expression on her face, as if holding herself from crying was hard on her.

Releasing her mom slowly, she gave Axane her own warm hug. "I'm sorry for worrying too Axane, I didn't mean to..."

However, the silver girl didn't reply, but rather embraced the warmth she was feeling at the moment.

After giving Axane her share, Raven approached Maya who had a rather angry expression on her face.

"I'm sorry, lil Maya," hearing that, Maya only huffed and shrugged it off. Raven's behaviour was still stupid in her eyes so she didn't want to forgive her easily.

If she didn't appreciate her own life, she had to know others did. And any pain to herself would put others in danger too.

However, even Maya with her anger didn't expect Raven to kiss her. It was a quick peck to the cheeks yet it gave her face a 180 change.

Not leaving room for Maya to reply, she wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug, but this time, she couldn't fully prevent her tears as they ran down her cheeks, making her golden eyes emit a light of their own.

In her vision, Maya was the first to die. She still remembers how the monster had passed his sharp claws through Maya's face like a hot kitchen knife through butter.

She doubted she'll ever forget that scene. Heck, she couldn't even prevent it from playing nonstop in her mind right now. Which caused her aura to faintly flare in anger, desperation, and pain.

Feeling that, Maya started to cry without even noticing. "Raven, please... what's wrong?" she said in between sobs.

Taking a moment to relax and calm down again, Raven explain what had happened in her vision in detail to the group.

Raven wasn't the type to share her burdens, she never was. But this time, she needed to, otherwise she might go insane. She needed to share it with someone, and not anyone, but her family and close friends.

'They already know, I need to explain why I did it so they don't think I'm suicidal, right?' she tried to convince herself.

Even though she's killed the monster, her mind has kept nagging at her to get stronger. What would she do if she was in a similar situation? There's always someone stronger than her after all.

Hearing the full story, the group was shocked that the girl was keeping all of that to herself. Maya for instance, rather than appreciating that Raven had shared that with them, was mad angry.

"LISTEN HERE, YOU!" she yelled at her face while holding her by the shoulders, "You keep saying we're family, right? F*CKING ACT LIKE IT!" she was so mad that Raven would keep such secrets from them.

"Please," Maya dropped her loud voice and got back to sobbing, "we can't live without yo-eigh"

Maya was surprised that Raven had squeezed her so hard that she couldn't complete her sentence. "I can't live without you either."

...

After taking a breather and understanding what had actually happened, the group sat back on the couches against the TV, without it being on.

"You know, unpopular opinion, but I think she's went with the best course of action," Camilla said, staring at the floor in thought. "If the b*stard had endured one of my attacks, even though it wasn't my strongest, then it's dangerous.

"And I'm more that willing to believe he would, after seeing how he'd given even Jaime a hard time."

"But maybe you could have worked together and-"

"No" Camilla shook her head, cutting Rain off.

"The monster was speed and strength based," Joey said in response, "Standing in front of him for a second would be a death wish, it's just a bad match.

"Even hiding and waiting for an opportunity would be useless since Raven wasn't able to handle him properly at first."

"Yea," Camilla said, "we didn't know how far Jaime was nor if he was even able to deal with such monster..."

"Uhm," this time it was Maria nodding. "Raven?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened... when you 'fainted' I mean?" Maria said with some hesitation as it wasn't easy for her to discuss the matter. "When you woke up, you were more powerful, right? What was that white light?"

"I don't know for sure..." Raven admitted. "but I know I had a conversation while I was unconscious, and was 'blessed' by a person, err, or rather I think his real identity is a dragon, because his blessing is called the Primordial Dragon of Light, unless he was a proxy of sorts I guess."

"Eh?"

"Say again?"

"To be honest I'm surprised my self, but it's not the first time we meet." Raven said and explained to everyone about what had happened in the trial, and how the dragon had destroyed the planet more than once in one attack."

"My p- Raven!"

"Yea?" Raven looked at Joey who had his mouth wide open.

"Can you please describe how that man looked like?"

"Umm, well he was white, like so white that it was hard to see anything but blinding light, yet it was so easy to see his features... I guess it was pretty weird but I was kinda busy at the time so I didn't pay it much attention."

"Do you NOT know who that was?"

"U- no? Should I?"

At that, Joey face palmed. 'It is so annoying that her majesty had lost her memories, but I guess I can't help it now...'

"Let me ask you this, since you can see his blessing using your system, is it something along the lines of Brilliant Radiance?"

"Yes but no..." Raven was actually surprised but she tried to hide it nonetheless, "The blessing is called Radiance of the Primordial Dragon of Light, but I've do received a Magic Skill called Brilliant Primordial Radiance."

"Oh my... I've always known you were special, your majesty," Joey said as he kneeled on the floor.

"Hey you're making me and everyone feel awkward, please explain. And call me Raven, am I just getting a deja vu or have I already told you this?"

"Yes, your- Raven," Joey said with a quick bow as he started to explain, "Let me start with the general information everyone on Erembourc, the planet of Soul Weavers, knows. It's about the nine rulers of existence."

"Or rather the seven Absolute Keepers, and Two Supreme Sovereigns..." he corrected.