The Truth

Perhaps if she knew the truth; she would only vie for a lie.

"Are you ready to go? I said I would fetch you soon, Luce." A breathtaking blonde man said as he approached a pair of girls, his emerald gaze soft and affectionate. He was speaking to a girl by the name of Lucy – a girl who had (unfortunately) been born in the Kurabayashi laboratory. He had taken care of her ever since she was little, and had soon grown to think of her as a daughter rather than a useless experiment.

She looked surprised, and a frown formed on her face. "Already?" She asked, obviously upset. "Please, can't I stay a little longer, Papa?" The blonde man looked at the young teen for a while, before a smile lit up his features, and he nodded slowly.

"A bit longer." He promised, an amused chuckle passing by his lips when the black-haired girl's eyes lit up with excitement. Before he turned to leave however, he cast a glance at the girl's raven-haired companion. Kohaku. That girl was always up to trouble, and he was worried something might happen to Lucy … His gaze was hard as he looked at her for a bit longer, hoping the warning it held was clear, before he brushed away, walking slowly out of the door and down the hallway; making his way to his office.

His office held all of his important files – copies of the other experiments' data. Whenever he ran some tests on an experiment, he would add to those specific files, before eventually notifying the head scientists – Dr. Kurabayashi; his boss – of the changes … Once he was secluded in the small four-walled room, he sat down in his swivel chair. Instead of going through paperwork however, tears came to his sparkling green eyes. Liquid crystals dotted along his lower eyelids, threatening to spill.

With a gentle hand, he brushed his soft blonde locks out of his eyes and dabbed at them. There was no sense in crying … The damage was already done – he couldn't fix it. T'was impossible to change the past. However, he would forever hold that burden over his head – and in return, over Lucy's head. She just wasn't aware she was bearing the weight … It pained him to know that – but at the same time, he was rather happy … After all; he wouldn't have a daughter if that burden had never been born …

Perhaps if she knew the truth; she would only vie for a lie.

"It's your mess, Kaeda, so you have to fix it!" Kurabayashi boomed, shoving a gun in the blonde man's hands. The fire-haired male was livid with him. And he had the right to be. This man – Sakura Kaeda – had deliberately broken the most vital rule at the Kurabayashi laboratory; burdening not only him, but the newborn baby and her mother located in the room behind him. His heart felt as if it was being squeezed; his stomach was churning and it felt tight … There was no way he could do this, he thought as he gazed down at the black gun that was forced unto him. There was no way he could kill them.

Kurabayashi seemed to sense his thoughts, and gave a frustrated groan before slapping him fiercely across the face. "Kill them, dammit!" The blonde gave a startled yelp as he was pushed into the room, stumbling slightly. He gazed at the beautiful woman lying in bed, a blanket pooled around her waist, a child in her arms. She looked up when she heard the man enter, her brown eyes warm her smile wide. She then looked at her new daughter, who was sleeping peacefully, wrapped in a plush pink blanket. The woman – Alice was her name – looked up at the blonde again, before speaking; her voice soft.

"She's beautiful … Isn't she, Sakura?" She asked as she ran a thumb along the girl's cheek. "I named her Lucy," she continued on; oblivious to the gun that was hidden in the blonde's coat sleeve. "She was named after my grandmother. It's pretty, isn't it?" She chuckled softly, blinking. "Your daughter …" Those final two words made the blonde cringe, and he had to fight to keep the tears at bay …

He was proud to hear those words utter from her mouth; glad that they were directed towards him and not another. At the same time however, guilt swept through his system – he had committed the biggest taboo he could commit besides freeing the experiments … He fell in love … Ever since he had laid eyes on the black-haired beauty, he was captivated by her. Her eyes were always warm and confident, and she always had a defiant grin on her face. As if to say that no one would ever be able to break her … He was only twenty-three when he first laid eyes on her, she sixteen. Not even a year later he confessed that he was in love. The strange part was – she felt the same way …

She claimed that statement to be true because he was always so kind to her; he was always gentle and caring … And the look in his eyes gave him away; the look of true affection told her what he felt, the emotion was strong. And in time, she found to accept that – she found that she returned those feelings with haste … However, neither of them had anticipated that their relationship would go this far … Three years after their confession to each other, a little girl was born. A little girl who shared the DNA of the experiment girl, and her scientist lover. A girl born with powers herself … A girl he was supposed to kill …

Alice appeared as if she wanted to say more, but she stopped when she heard the cocking of a gun. She looked at Sakura quizzically for a few moments, before fear quickly replaced her puzzlement. He raised the gun and aimed it at her, the expression on his face that of true pain. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that would come out was a frightened squeak. She clutched at her baby fervently; squeezing her eyes shut tears bubbling over her eyelids, carving paths down her milky cheeks. He pulled the trigger and ended it all with a bang. He took her life in one short moment, and he had to struggle to keep from crying out in agony … What's worse … He had to take the life of the baby, also …

Perhaps if she knew the truth; she would only vie for a lie.

He didn't kill her that night. He couldn't kill her. He had managed to persuade Kurabayashi into keep the child – at a price. Kaeda would take full responsibility of the child and he would stay with her full-time – even during his duties. His pay would be docked; his reputation tarnished. He would raise the child by himself – but never once would he tell her the truth of her origin. Never once would he tell her what really happened. And he accepted that; he was fine with it, as long as the child's life was preserved …

The man – now at the age of forty-two – was ashamed to see that he had in fact started to cry, even though he willed himself not to. The thought that the woman he loved the most died at such a young age – and the fact that he was the one who killed her – was too much to bear. It sent him over the edge, spiraling into despair. He felt saddened every time he laid eyes on his daughter. She looked so much like her – there was practically no trace of him in her appearance. Though their personalities did in fact, border on identical …

Lucy was born with the same powers her mother had acquired – the power to create natural disasters, and the ability to breathe underwater. Her first power was quite prominent. She had it since birth, and she always will. However the second ability – breathing underwater – didn't come until later, when she started to develop small gills behind her ears. They were hardly noticeable, but for a prioritized father they were. He noticed them as soon as them began to form – when she was eight years old …

The story he had created for Lucy was bordering between what is real and what is fantasy. There was a thin line between the two. He had told her both of her parents were experiments, but they were punished for "mating" without permission. Therefore, they were killed. They were going to kill Lucy also, but he had persuaded them not to; saying she would be a valuable asset and would further their research. In return they spared her life and assigned her to him to take care of and was given his last name for the lack of one … It wasn't an entire lie; but it wasn't the truth, either.

The fact that his beautiful fifteen-year-old daughter, Lucy Kaeda, would never know the truth hurt him beyond belief. But if she knew the truth … She would be heartbroken … And that was something he didn't want to happen … It was safer to keep the truth from her and let her live happily, rather than know that her father was a murderer and that he was supposed to kill her, also …

Perhaps if she knew the truth; she would just vie for a lie.