Lunar Awakening-Chapter 50: Remember Me...?

"What did you just say?" Leo barked, feeling his heart beat faster.

The look Kevin gave him made him calm down a bit, on his face was a look of loss and regret. "Listen I know you would only come here if you had something you wanted from me. I thought you might have remembered me."

Leo stared at the man oddly-- wondering where the previous hostility had gone. Still he was on his guard since this "Kevin" was no ordinary man, yet a part of him wanted to pity him.

Kevin looked at him a bit more before letting a dry chuckle escaped his mouth. "You really are have grown."

"Why did you call me here? Why did you even keep in touch all this time?" Leo asked with a hitch in his voice.

"To be honest I’m a bit of a selfish prick." Kevin snapped his fingers as a drone flew towards him and sprayed a thick white foam on his wound, causing him to wheeze in pain for a second before he relaxed slightly. "I missed the days when we used to run around as kids around the house, back then we didn’t know better."

Leo said nothing, he simply looked down at the young man in silence. The more he listened to him-- the more he felt something breaking free in his head.

"Back when the three of us were still close", Kevin sighed heavily as his gaze fell to his suit of armour in pieces. "You, me and Cassy."

Leo’s eyes flashed for a second, "You know Cassie?"

Kevin smiled softly and said, "Sure, you were really obsessed with her back then, I wasn’t sure why since she was always stuck up."

Leo felt a sharp pang in his head for a second, a memory flashed in his head. It was one he was familiar with, a young Cassandra holding on to his hand as they played around his house. He had always felt something missing from this picture, and for the first time he really felt something.

There was another figure holding on to his arm in the memory, one hidden in darkness.

It had only appeared for a brief moment but he shook it off, almost instinctively.

"You were always so warm and sunny back then, now look at you. A brooding superhuman who doesn’t know how messed up in the head he is." Kevin’s voice grew colder. "After your mother died you became shut off, you started to forget people, names. Even worse, it was like that happy boy you once were died inside of you-- leaving you hollow and broken—

"You pushed me away and everyone who tried to help you, I kept trying to contact you hoping you would respond one day."

The pain in his head came again, this time with the same memory that did not fade. Leo clutched his head and let out a loud grunt, "What the hell are you doing to me?"

Kevin looked up at him with his gaze steady on him, "Whatever that’s going in your head is all you, old friend. Haven’t you felt that there was always something missing within you?"

Leo snapped and walked up to him, he picked him up with one hand and pressed his back against the pillar. "Listen, I’ve had enough of your tricks. I have no memory of ever meeting you."

Kevin’s looked down at him, his eyes reflecting conviction instead of fear. "What you are suffering from is called dissociative amnesia. It’s a defense mechanism triggered by severe trauma loss, it affects people differently. For you it blocked off memories of people you cared about, maybe to protect you from feeling hurt again."

Leo pushed him harder against the wall and growled. "What the hell are you saying." This was the first time Leo was feeling his head about to split open in such a way, it felt like a nasty headache that wouldn’t go away.

Kevin continued despite the pressure being applied to him, "It happened to Cassy when she lost her father, she forgot you and abandoned you. It also happened to you when you post your mother, you forgot me. Try to remember dammit."

Leo watched Kevin choke as he struggled to breath, something in his head suddenly broke loose and he let go of Kevin in a moment of shock and stepped back.

A pain unlike anything he had ever felt rushed back into his mind, it felt like something was consciously flipping through his memories.

His head was on the verge of bursting when a soft voice quieted everything.

"My word, the three of you-- always a menace. Why don’t you have some cookies I bakes for you."

He could not see the person but he could tell it was a woman, her voice sounded so familiar he could almost feel it on the tip of his tongue. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

He could see jagged siloutes, of a woman standing with a tray in her hand as three little figures stepping into light.

"Yay, cookies." Screamed a happy male child with smooth blond hair.

A female character with long black hair and green eyes stepped into the scene, "You eat too much, one of these days you will die fat."

"Now now, don’t say such bad things Cassie." The woman said.

The last figure was a boy with short dark hair he always forward and took a cookie, "Thanks mom."

Leo felt his lips begin to tremble as the memory fractured and fell apart, he was back in the mansion standing above Kevin-- with tears streaming down his face.

"I can’t believe I forgot her voice." He mumbled before falling to his feet. "I can’t even remember her face. What son can’t remember his own mother’s face?"

He had not noticed it earlier but he had no memory of how she looked like. Was that even possible?

Kevin reached out to him, "Honestly, I don’t know why I didn’t give up. Maybe I wanted my friend back, or maybe I wanted you to remember."

Leo gases upwards at Kevin with trembling eyes and new found recognition. His lips broke apart as he spoke—

"Kev?"

Kevin smiled as he chuckled. "Real men don’t cry you doofus."

A their figures appeared back in the room dressed in a suit and tie. Gerald stopoed and observed the damage before he spoke in his normal composed voice. "I see you boys played nice, I have a bath ready for you if you need it."

Kevin waved him off. "No, can’t you see I just got my bed friend back?"

Leo did not know what to say or what to do, he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had forgotten everyone that cares about him.

If he thought about it, that would make some sense why Cassandra never actually acted like she knew hi-- at least not till she saw him having a mental breakdown in Hellscape. He had never known that such things were even possible, and capable enough to shake a superhuman.

"You don’t have to apologise for anything Leo, it’s hard for a child to see their own mother murdered in front of them. Fuck, I sound like some kind of priest." Kevin chuckled softly.

Leo’s eyes perked up. "I saw my-- mother died?"

To think even he did not remember that, this made him even more distraught.

Xavax chuckled from within with a dark smile growing on his face. "My word, you are a fucking mess-- little rat."

Leo’s breathing grew more erratic and he soon found it hard to breath no matter how many times he tried. He even started pounding on his chest trying to breath.

Kevin perked up and scrambled to get to him, "Shit, he’s hyperventilating. This could be bad for him."

Leo but his lower lip and felt the cold metallic taste of blonde bathe his mouth. He used the pain as a stimulant so he could recover all his body functions.

"I’m fine, I just have a lot to process." He replied coldly. "I don’t have time for all this, I’m actually here for something else."

Kevin chuckled nervously before saying, "Let’s get in my hot bath and relax, we can talk business later. Huh, doofus?"

Leo threw his head back and sighed heavily. "Curses."