Eric settled onto his bed with a sigh and kicked off his shoes. It had been another day of unexpected revelations. He had been looking forward to some time to himself to process everything, especially the shock of Anna’s pregnancy. He had been blindsided by that one.

  Certainly he knew that Michael and Anna were getting more serious about their relationship, but he thought they were going to wait to do the whole family thing until Anna was done with her residency. But life had other plans, apparently. Now his brother was going to be a father, and he didn’t even know about it and they had no way of telling him. It seemed like a cruel joke on top of an already heart-wrenching situation.

  He stared at the navy blue wall in front of him, his thoughts focused on Michael. His adoptive brother had always been the steady one, the rock, the one everyone went to with their problems. He was a good listener and always ready to step in to help. Eric was more of a drifter. A part of the family, but much of the time from a distance. Physically, and even emotionally. Losing both his parents at a young age had been hard on him, and even though his current family had been supportive and there for him, there were moments when he still felt like an outsider. Like he didn’t completely belong.

  Now there were large gaping holes in the family foundation that Dad and Michael had filled. They had been the steady presence that the family relied on, even if they didn’t realize it. Without them, everything felt brittle, as though a strong breeze might scatter them all. Eric knew he needed to step up, to be that steady presence for his mother and sisters. And now for Anna too. But he doubted his ability to be their anchor while deployed halfway around the world. The Seals had trained him to sever attachments, to exist in a perpetual state of goodbye—the opposite of what his fractured family needed now.

  Eric rubbed his eyes, exhaustion settling into his bones. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, setting it on the nightstand. There also on the stand was the piece of paper Mom had given him yesterday. He picked it up and eyed the single sentence typed out at the top of the page. It was the phrase that would supposedly unlock the memories of Michael when he’d first come to Earth. When Eric had known him as Adar.

  Remember Adar and the tree where you two first met.

  Eric stared at those ten words, wondering what memories they might unlock. What version of Michael—of Adar—existed in those forgotten moments? He traced the letters with his fingertip, feeling a strange reluctance to speak them aloud. Instead, he held them in his mind, willing them to shake the memories loose.

  He wanted to remember what he’d been forced to forget. So why couldn’t he? He had told Emmaline that he hadn’t had time to focus on the phrase last night, but the truth was, he’d spent the better part of the two hours trying to get his memories to shake loose. Only they refused to do so. Something was holding him back.

  Eric sighed and set the page back on the nightstand. He stripped off his shirt and plopped down on his bed to stretch out. He locked his gaze on the ceiling fan above him. It was on a slow turn. He got hot easy and Mom always kept the house temperature too high for him. The gentle breeze felt good on his bare chest.

  His mind drifted back to the words. He watched the blades turn and forced himself to say the words out loud.

  “Remember Adar and the tree where you two first met.”

  It felt weird saying Michael’s Ethian name out loud. It just wasn’t right. That wasn’t the person he had come to know. Adar felt strange, alien, and as if it belonged to someone else entirely. Was that his hang-up? That Eric didn’t fully accept this other name, this other person who he was supposed to have known? Or was he struggling to believe that both of his dads had agreed that his memory had to be tampered with in the first place?

  His chest tightened.

  That thought hurt more than Eric wanted to admit. Roger had been his father—his real father—and the idea that he’d taken part in messing with Eric’s mind felt like a betrayal. Even if it had been necessary. Even if it had been for protection. Eric had spent so many years trying to hold on to every scrap of memory he had of his father, and now to learn that some of those memories had been altered felt like a violation.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  He blew out a long breath and let go of some of his anger. “Okay, fine. I get it. I get it had to be done, or at least you thought it had to be done. Just help me remember. Help me see what I forgot, please.”

  The words hung in the air of his bedroom, and Eric closed his eyes, trying to focus on the blank spaces in his memory. The steady rhythm of the ceiling fan whirred above him, a metronome to his concentration.

  Nothing happened.

  “Come on,” he whispered, frustration edging into his voice. “Remember Adar and the tree where we first met.”

  It felt right changing the words, so the statement was in first person––like Eric was speaking to himself. He repeated it just like that in a mantra, letting his mind drift, his only focus being the words he spoke. The ceiling fan blurred as his eyes unfocused. Something tugged at the edges of his consciousness—a feeling more than an image. It was a feeling of compassion. A deep desire to help. A need to connect. It felt like desperation and love both woven together in a tight bundle of emotion so strong that it brought tears to his eyes.

  Eric bolted upright, gasping. The room seemed to tilt for a moment before righting itself. That feeling—it wasn’t his. Or rather, it wasn’t his now. It was his from before, from that missing time. Eric breathed out a shaky breath as he laid back down. He closed his eyes and focused on the words and the feeling.

  Remember Adar and the tree we first met.

  And there it came. Young Eric was sitting in his favorite climbing tree in the backyard. He was spying on the people below him. Dad had brought three strangers home. He had snuck them in from the woods off the back of their property. The strangers walked slowly, looking nervous and out of place as Dad ushered them toward the back door. Their clothes were strange and like nothing Eric had ever seen before. But it was the little boy who really caught his attention.

  He was much younger than Eric. Maybe five or six. He stood there holding the woman’s hand––the woman present-day Eric immediately recognized as Cassandra, even if her look was a bit different from what he was used to––as Dad unlocked the door. The boy held a plush toy tightly in his other arm and glanced about the backyard in wide-eyed curiosity. Then he happened to look up and found Eric in the tree.

  The boy’s bright blue eyes focused on Eric, but he didn’t say a word. He just stared. Eric stared back. He couldn’t help it. In those blue eyes, he saw something that made his heart ache. Fear. Confusion. Loneliness. Without thinking, Eric raised his hand in a small wave. The boy blinked, then tentatively raised his own hand with the stuffed toy in return.

  “Adar,” the woman—his mother, young Eric guessed––whispered in a thick and strange accent to get the boy to move forward as Dad––Roger––had finally unlocked the door and waved them into the back of the house.

  Eric quickly scrambled down the tree and followed them to see who these new people were. He entered the kitchen, and his father gave him a pointed look.

  “How many times have I told you not to climb trees when no one is here to watch you?”

  Eric dropped his head in shame at the reprimand. But it didn’t last long as his curiosity got the best of him. He lifted his head just enough to get another look at the strangers as they huddled together near the kitchen table and eyed the room like they’d never seen such a room before.

  “Sorry, Dad. This Won’t happen again. Who are they?”

  Dad frowned like he did when he was trying to think up of an answer that would satisfy Eric without telling him the whole truth. Finally, he sighed and crouched down at eye level.

  “These are friends who need our help. They’re going to be staying with us for a while.”

  Young Eric studied the strangers more carefully. The woman wore a long dress of dark green made from a material that seemed to sparkle whenever the light hit it. The boy wore a long coat of the same green color, which hit his ankles and sparkled just as much as the woman’s dress. The man was dressed all in black, in garments Eric couldn’t begin to describe—a high-collared coat that fell to his knees, made of a strange fabric that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.

  Present-day Eric was speechless as the memory washed over him. This was the beginning. This was when he’d met the people who would eventually become his family. It seemed inconceivable that he could ever forget this memory. The moment when it had all begun, or that they had seemed so different from anyone his younger self had met. They truly appeared alien in the way they dressed, stood, and even looked around like they were newborn, curious about the world around them. Eric wondered how his younger self had never seen the truth staring him right in the face.

  The younger version of himself stepped forward to the little boy and held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Eric.”

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  ? Overpowers: Magical Girl Crossover [Grimlight Progression Urban Fantasy/Genre based Power System] ?

  by Moawar

  He, Life, had a simple job.

  His responsibility as an Overpower was to make sure that fiction stories and the characters in them follow their dictated path. He always did his job well enough, not more or less than was needed.

  His latest assignment, however, would, in retrospect, prove to be his most challenging one of all.

  He would find himself in a unfamiliar world. There he'll have to quickly adapt to guide Nozomi.

  The strongest magical girl with the potential to accidentally destroy those she seeks to protect in her fight against evil.

  What to Expect:

  -If you like the psychological aspects of Madoka Magica and the mixing of different genres a crossover story brings then this story is for you