Chapter 207 - 206 - Comfort

Ren controlled his anger and his urge to rip the two men into pieces. There were a lot of things that didn't match up here.

He narrowed his eyes at the two young men. "You are adults now, right?" he asked coldly.

The two men nodded automatically, confused.

"Then it is about time you learnt exactly what your parents were doing," Ren said. "When you're ready to apologise to Fang for your words now, come and find us." He shot a meaningful glance at Wolf. If, after learning the truth, they still wanted to avenge their criminal parents, there was no need to show a shred of mercy to these two.

Besides, Ren didn't think that the matter was so simple. Why would these two young men wait for so long to avenge their parents? This wasn't the first press conference Ren and Fang had held since the matters of the Orchid Orphanage – if they wanted revenge for their parents, it didn't make sense for them to have waited for so long.

There were clearly other forces at work here, Ren thought, tightening his arm around Fang protectively.

Still, the most important thing right now was to protect Fang and take him to a safe place. Ren could feel the tremors running through Fang's body, and he could also see that Fang was in a daze.

He turned to the two veteran reporters. "Please enlighten these two about the 'noble' deeds of their late parents," he said. The disgust he felt towards this sort of criminals was not something he needed to hide - nor would he bother to do so. Those people deserved what they got, he thought.

"I have all the records, including audio and video clips, with the identity of the victims protected," Pax said. "Let's go and find a suitable place."

The veteran reporters nodded. They detested such criminals with all their heart; that's why they'd been working with Ren and the others all this time, both in Cosmopolis and internationally. As with most people involved in the clean up project, these two veteran reporters were also under the impression that Fang had barely managed to escape from these criminals and happened to run into Ren and save his life, which ended up drawing Ren's attention to what was going on and thus spelling the end for these criminals. It was what Fang had wanted back then, and so had the other victims, so Ren, Wolf and Pax had made sure that the identity of the victims who were still alive would never be revealed, and all the data had been redacted accordingly.

Seeing the determined looks of the veteran reporters, and the gesture from Pax that he would handle the matter properly, Ren was very relieved. He didn't want to stay here any longer than necessary; Fang's shivers were getting worse and Ren was very worried about him.

Then Ren turned to Wolf, who nodded.

"We'll also find out where the acid balls came from," Wolf said. Those were not acid balls, they all knew that – but they couldn't mention anything about dark magic here at the moment; there were non magical people around.

"Thank you," Ren said gratefully. "I'll take Fang home now, and we'll wait for you two, all right?"

Pax and Wolf nodded.

Fang was still in a daze and barely registering what was happening around him. It had been a long time since he'd been reminded of his horrible past and the beastly things which had been done to him...he thought he was over it already, but now, with today's incident, his mind kept going back to the past. He couldn't help it, and even though he struggled to bring his mind back to the present, part of him was still caught up in the nightmares of his past. The only reason that part of him was still sane and in the present was because of the warmth of Ren's arm around Fang's waist that grounded him and supported him at the same time. He barely noticed as Ren led him to the car and bundled him in, quietly instructing the chauffeur to take them home.

Ren's heart ached at the sight of Fang's trembling body. He silently pulled Fang closer and wrapped his arms around him, rubbing his back.

"Ren, I'm sorry, I..." Fang began, struggling internally to suppress his dark memories and shove them into a forgotten corner of his mind.

"Shh, my little darling," Ren said softly, kissing his brow. "You did nothing wrong. Please don't apologise."

Fang's eyes brimmed with emotion and he buried his face in Ren's shoulder, trying his best not to cry. There would be plenty of time for that once they got home.

Ren stroked his dark hair with gentle fingers and sent light strands of healing magic into Fang's body as he did so. Ren felt rather frustrated that he couldn't do much to help Fang in this situation, and he was also very worried about Fang's reaction right now. They had all been under the impression that Fang had recovered from his past already – and while a sudden incident like would naturally unsettle anyone with a past like his, to see Fang reacting so badly clearly meant that he was far from fully recovered, and his traumatic past still haunted him. Ren was already making plans in his head to go and speak with the psychiatry department the next day and find out if there was anything that they could come up with to help Fang.

The two of them were lost in their own thoughts and remained silent until they reached home.

The babies were waiting anxiously, having sensed that something was wrong. Rudy had been scouring the internet frantically, but back then, Ren, Wolf and Pax had made sure that no trace of any data about the victims, including Fang, would be left on the internet.

"What happened to Papa?" The six babies demanded as soon as they caught sight of Ren coming back with an arm around Fang's middle, and Fang looking rather listless.

Sylvia immediately ran to Ren and sniffed delicately, her little face scrunched up in distaste.

"Dark magic?!" she cried in horror.

Ren nodded. "We'll discuss further when Pax and Wolf arrive," he said. "It's an oversight on my part. I didn't think there would be dark magic in this world."

"I didn't sense it before, either," Sylvia said. "Daddy, do you think it came to this world with someone like us...?"

Ren sighed. "It's possible," he said. "It's also possible that the dark magic originally of this world was weak so no one really knew about it, but with our arrival, since light magic increased, there was a corresponding increase in dark magic as well."

"Ah, the balance theory," Sylvia muttered. She looked up at Ren. "Is that what's making you sick?"

"I think so," Ren replied. "I'll simply fortify my organs with magic later. If really is dark magic, I'll be fine in a couple of days."

Fang, who had been listless until now, looked up at that. "Really?" he asked Ren.

Ren pinched Fang's cheeks playfully. "My little darling, when have I ever made false claims?" he asked, bringing him to their bedroom.

The three furballs climbed up into Fang's lap as soon as he sat down.

"What's wrong with Papa?" Snow asked, rubbing her furry head against Fang's arm.

"We felt his distress..." Smoke said, looking rather distressed himself.

"And fear..." Shadow murmured. He patted Fang's thigh with his paw. "Don't be upset, Papa. We'll chase away all the bad guys for you," he said, puffing out his chest.

Fang gathered the three furballs in his arms and burst into tears.

"Did something bad happen to Papa in the past?" Rudy whispered to Ren. Sylvia and Ray, who looked rather lost as well, gathered around Ren.

Ren sighed and nodded. He wished he'd arrived in this world earlier before Fang fell into those despicable people's hands...

Sylvia turned into a snake and wrapped herself around Fang's wrist. Ray turned into a little dragon and climbed up on Fang's shoulder, nuzzling his face with his small head. Ren silently rubbed his partner's back and Rudy did the same from the other side.

Fang cried for a while and then stopped. "I'm sorry," he murmured, looking away.

"I told you, you've got absolutely nothing to apologise for," Ren said firmly.

"But those men wouldn't have tried to kill you if it hadn't been for me...if you hadn't saved me back then..." Fang muttered, his eyes closed.

Ren sighed. He cradled Fang's face with both hands and rubbed his nose against Fang's.

Fang opened his eyes slowly and looked into Ren's eyes. Dull purple met bright gold.

"If it wasn't for you, my little darling, I wouldn't be in this world at all," Ren said quietly, caressing Fang's face with gentle fingers.

A spark of life returned to Fang's eyes and the purple grew a little brighter.