Kill to evolve: A system that demands blood
Chapter 38: Next destination

Chapter 38: Next destination

Chapter 38

Ronan couldn’t sleep.

He’d tried, closed his eyes, shifted in bed, even counted backwards from a hundred. None of it worked. His mind was a storm, and the thing gnawing at his thoughts wouldn’t leave him alone.

Losing emotions...that was no damn joke.

He couldn’t stop thinking about it. The System hadn’t said much, but what it did say kept replaying over and over in his head like a cruel echo. "Emotion conscience and autonomy will be terminated."

Would he even still care about his son? About the people he loved? Would he wake up one day and look at his son like he was just another face in the crowd?

That thought hit him like a punch to the chest. He didn’t even like the imagination of when such thing finally happened.

He sat up on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, palms over his face. The room was quiet, but inside his head, it was anything but.

Would I still recognize how much I love him? Or will that just... disappear?

That scared him more than anything. Noah had been the only one giving him the will to survive till now, his life had turned an absolute mess after his mother suddenly dropped a baby she claimed to be his and left saying she was too young to be a mother. At first, he didn’t believe that the son was his, but the DNA test proved otherwise.

It had been a living hell for Ronan, working several jobs to take care of a baby and having to drop out of college. But later on, it now became something he found joy in doing, taking care of his son, the smile on noah’s face whenever he bought something new or nice for him was enough to ease all his fatigue from work. But the fucking system was now saying he was gonna lose all that? The joy of being a father, of sacrificing everything to make his son Happy? Hell no, it better be joking.

By the time the sun crept up, Ronan hadn’t slept a second. His body was heavy, his eyes stung, and his thoughts were still racing. But he pushed himself up, grabbed a towel, and headed into the shower. He needed to look alive, even if he didn’t feel it.

Fifteen minutes later, he was out the door.

He needed to see Noah first, just for a moment, he really missed spending time with the little dude. Talk about how kids growing up so fast. But right now, things were beyond his control, and no way he could explain to Noah about all the mess going on in his life.

Moments later, he stood outside Dean’s apartment for a long second before knocking.

The door opened faster than he expected.

Dean stood there, brows lifting in surprise. "Ronan?"

Ronan gave a tired half-smile. "Yeah."

Dean looked him over, trying to look for any sign of injuries, but he found none. He had been worried about Ronan suddenly disappearing,but seeing him perfectly fine, he heaved a sigh of relief. "Noah is awake." Dean just said quietly, not asking any further questions. He knew at this point that they were a lot of things going on in Ronan’s life that were far beyond his level of understanding. At this moment, he was just glad that Ronan was unharmed.

"I’m sorry for not mentioning something before leaving last night... something came up and...." Ronan started speaking, but Dean quickly interrupted.

"It’s fine, I’m just glad you’re fine... besides, you don’t have to explain anything to me, I know that what’s going with you is way above my level of understanding.

Ronan kept quiet for a moment, caught off guard by how mature Dean sounded, really rare. But, he quickly regained his composure and tapped Dean on the shoulder playfully...."Thanks man." Ronan muttered, Then he quickly brushed past Dean and steeped into the apartment.

Dean didn’t stop him.

Just then, the bathroom door cracked open, steam rolling out, and a small voice followed. "Uncle Dean, I forgot the towel agai—"

Noah froze when he saw who was standing in the hallway.

"Dad?"

Ronan stilled.

For a second, both of them just stared. Ronan didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to explain any of this.

But Noah didn’t wait, he ran over and hugged him tightly, his wet hair dripping onto Ronan’s shirt.

"You’re back..." Noah muttered. "I missed you." This was a first....the very first time Noah stayed a whole day and almost two without his father, so he had felt it a lot...but he still refused to show too much.

"I know," Ronan said quietly, hugging him back. "I just needed to see you."

"You’re not staying, are you?" Noah asked, pulling away, eyes scanning his dad’s face.

Ronan hesitated. He hated this part. "No... I have somewhere I need to be."

Noah didn’t say anything, but Ronan could see it in his eyes, the disappointment, even if he tried to hide it.

"I’ll make it up to you," Ronan said, trying to keep his voice steady. "I promise."

Noah gave a small nod, then stepped back. "Okay."

Ronan ruffled his hair, then turned toward the door.

Dean hadn’t said a word, but Ronan could feel his eyes on him. Questions hanging in the air, unanswered.

Ronan didn’t give him any.

He just walked out.

And a few minutes later, he was in a taxi, heading toward his previous work place, Genesis biotech, the same place where it had all started.

—

Meanwhile...

Back in Squad Four’s dorm sector, the mood was anything but quiet.

Everyone had heard the news that Ronan had woken up.

Naturally, the rest of the squad wanted to visit him. They needed to see him. To make sure he was really okay. To get some kind of closure after everything they’d gone through.

But when they requested to see him, they were denied any access claiming he was VIP.

Mila slammed a bottle down on the table in frustration. "Why are they keeping us out like we’re strangers? He is Vip, and so what? He still got some damn questions to answer from us. Like why the hell he ran off in the middle of a mission, causing one of us to die and then suddenly showing up and playing hero then passing out."

Hugo sat on the edge of the bunk, arms crossed, jaw tight. "He’s one of us now. We almost died out there together. We have a right to know what’s going on."

Karla paced the room, tension practically radiating from her. "They think we can just move on like nothing happened. Like that mission didn’t nearly kill all of us."

Siena was standing near the door, arms folded. "He’ll be back."

"You don’t know that," Mila said. "None of us do. You saw what happened to him."

"I said," Siena repeated, more firmly, "he’ll be back."

But the others didn’t agree,not out loud, anyway.

"Yeah?" Hugo muttered. "Let’s just hope it’s him that comes back... and not something else."