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I wake up gasping for air as a little child crawls over my body. I try to suppress the sudden burst of adrenaline and gently wrap my arms around her, drawing her into a hug.

“Pumpkin, what are you doing?” I say with a smile.

“I didn’t wanna sleep anymore, so I get out of bed so you could sleep more,” she says with her big golden eyes shining at me.

“So you thought caving in my rib cage was a good way to keep me asleep?” I ask.

Cali turn her little head in confusion. “What is a rib cage?”

I point at my chest. “This area”

Cali looks down then nods to herself. “Pretty much.”

I let out a sigh. “Okay, baby, next time you can just shake me awake, okay?”

“Are you sure? People tend to get angry when I wake them up” Cali says.

“I am sure, after all I can never be angry with you,” I say as I stroke her hair.

“Really?”

“Yes, really,” I say, planting a kiss on her forehead. "How about we get breakfast now?”

Cali nods with enthusiasm and jumps off me. I lift myself up out of the frankly really cramped bed and follow Cali, who has already run out of the room and into the hall. In the hallway I head to the door opposite of Cali into our own room to put on some clean clothes. I find Cierra. She is still in bed, but her eyes are open, observing me as I walk in.

“You only got back just now?” she asks, sounding concerned.

“No, not really. I went to check up on Cali, and I fell asleep while trying to put her to sleep. Sorry,” I explain a bit sheepishly.

“It's okay. Come here.” She says, gesturing me over.

I have no reason to refuse, so I walk up next to the bed. Once I am within reach, Cierra stretches her arms out and drags me into bed with her.

“How are you feeling?” she asks as she rubs my head.

“Fine. Did not sleep much, but that is an issue that can be fixed later.” I say as I let out an contented sigh.

“You can sleep some more now.” Cierra suggests.

“I can’t, I have a hungry child in the kitchen, and probably a second one somewhere else in the house.” I say as I start to struggle free.

Cierra smiles at me. “That is fair, what is for breakfast then?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. With all that is going on, I thought I’d let Lyssa do the cooking,” I say as I walk to the closet to grab some comfy clothes.

“Oh, that sounds nice. Make sure she makes me a big plate.” Cierra request in a dreamy voice.

I quickly put on the clothes and walk back out. “Sure, no problem. What would you like?”

“Uhm don’t know. Just let Lyssa decide, she knows what I like,” she says as she rolls around on the bed, covering herself with the blankets again.

That sounded like a bad decision but I did not feel like warning her about that fact. Instead I decide to smile at the display in front of me before I start moving again. “Should I bring it in here, or are you going to get out of bed soon?”

“Mwha anf we som.” she answers.

I let out a little chuckle as I leave the room, making it to the final door of the hallway and knocking three times. I wait a bit and then slowly open the door. Shinon is awake, sitting straight up in the bed, blue eyes staring at me intently.

I give her my warmest smile. “Hey there, did you sleep well?”

Shinon gives me a small nod.

“We are about to grab breakfast; do you want some too?” I ask.

Shinon nods again and slowly gets out of bed. I lead the way down the hall and into the kitchen, where I find Cali curled up in Daisy's dog bed. The big oaf next to her smiling happily. I smile and lean down to pat her head.

“You know that is Daisy’s seat, right?” I ask.

“But it is so soft.” She says with a bit of a whine.

“I know, and she probably does not mind sharing it once in a while, but you will have to eat breakfast at the table.” I say as I gently pick her up and put her on one of the bar stools surrounding our kitchen island.

“Any preferences for food” I say as I move to the other side of the kitchen island.

Shinon raises her head. “Mango flavour?” She asks in an unsure tone.

I nod. “I am sure we can swing that. Anything else?”

“Lots!” Cali shouts, raising her little arms into the air.

I smile. “Sure you can have as many refills as you want. Lyssa if you could.”

Certainly.

With that, three big bowls appear on the counter. I quickly open a drawer to grab three spoons and stick them in the bowls of… I think it is granola with like yogurt and lots of fruits. I gently pick up two of the bowls and put them down in front of the kids. Cali picks up a spoon and starts shovelling the food down. Shinon however looks less sure, poking the food with her spoon until she takes a tiny piece and lifts it up to her face.

“What is this?”

I look at the piece of yellow fruit. “Sweetie that is a mango, you know, the fruit. You should try it.”

She looks at the fruit with suspicion but eventually does take a small bite out of it. I watch in amazement as her face morphs into a little smile. Then she takes her spoon and starts shovelling spoonfuls of food into her mouth.

I smile brightly as I start digging into the breakfast as well. Just as I put the second spoonful of food to my mouth Crow speaks up.

“Evelin, Maniac, I would like to formally request the use of our body for an extended period of time. To make sure there are no problems while raising the kids, I suggest we improve our mental implants so that you can stay here using the light,” Crow says.

“What kind of stuff do you need to do?” Maniac asks.

“The basics, really. Install surveillance, increase defence, infiltrate high-risk areas, and take over the world,” Crow explains.

I choke on the yogurt and start coughing my lungs out. The two kids instantly snap their attention to me, looking weary.

“Sorry, kids got distracted and choked. You can continue eating,” I say between some more coughs.

I quickly create a digital avatar in my mind space so that I can shout at Crow without scaring the kids. “Crow, why the fuck is world domination on that list?”

“It’s only if I have extra time in between and everything goes smoothly, so it depends on how easy it is to achieve my main goal.” Crow explains

Maniac appears next to me, rolling on the floor with laughter. “Only you can see conquering the world as just a side quest.”

“Side quest is not how I would describe it; more as a tedious distraction,” Crow continues in the same monotone.

“Right, that is well, whatever, I guess,” I say as I drag Lyssa into the conversation. “Lyssa, any way for Crow to take our body and like we stay here with the kids that we can afford?”

Not with your current gear. luckily PsyCo servers are very advanced, coming from a class 3 catalog, so you can use that to unload a big part of your brain function on

“So how do we do that?” I ask, not being all that familiar with encoding a brain.

Lyssa has already been granted permission to modify the servers. It will take about an hour to format properly. In this time, things might feel hazy.

I nod “Thank you.”

I focus back on my meal and, most importantly, the kids. Cali has already finished and is in the process of licking out the bowl. I smile and slide over my bowl to the other side of the table. Cali’s eyes light up as she picks up the bowl and starts eating with abandon.

I notice Shinon looking at the interaction closely.

“Do you want some more food too?” I ask.

Shinon shakes her head and continues eating her food.

I smile. That is alright then. I turn back to Cali. "That just leaves one last thing to discuss and that is your names.”

Both look up at me in confusion.

“Shinon is a good name, but,” I turn to Cali. “What you have, my dear, is not a name but some numbers. So I thought of naming you Calliope or Cali for short. Is that okay?”

Cali slowly nods. “Why that name?”

I nod and turn to the fridge, taking out one of the markers and writing out Cali, then I put the C4L1 underneath that.

“See this,” I point at the numbers. “They look kind of similar, so I thought that would be nice not a complete change, but a small one.”

Cali slowly nods. “Okay,”

With that out of the way, I start cleaning off the fridge until I hear a loud crunch. I turn around only to see that Cali has taken a bite out of the bowl. I teleport over in an instance grabbing the bowl and checking her face for blood.

Luckily, she seems to be fine physically. My rapid movement and the way I just grabbed stuff must have shocked her as tears start to form in the corners of her eyes.

“I am sorry, mama” she says as the tears starts streaming out, making me feel a pang deep in my chest

I slowly and carefully wrap my arms around her, hugging her tight. “I am not mad; I was just scared. Scared that you were hurt, that is why I became so intense.”

Tears keep streaming for a bit longer as I try my best to pacify the little girl. When she has stopped crying I carefully pick her up into my arms.

I turn to Shinon “I am going to take her to the med bay to see if she is okay. Do you want to come or stay here?”

“I’m staying.” She says in a small voice, seeming every bit as shaken as Cali is.

I nod and make lyssa put out a plate of food for Cierra before we head for the elevator.

“Where are we going?” Cali asks as she nuzzles her face into my neck.

“We going to make sure that you are healthy. Afterwards we can do something fun, okay?” I say, patting her on the back.

As I get into the elevator, there is one thought that crosses my mind. Why was being a parent so hard? Maybe I should ask someone for advice. Do I know any parents that are also Samurai? I guess I know Jason. It is a bit early, but I should give him a call.