Ania lived pretty well off with her new family; her every need and desire were given unconditionally. Whatever she asked, they wouldn't question her. But one thing that confused her was whether the Demonfire would let her become one of them. At a very young age, she had already witnessed the cruelty of the Hellgazer and the people around her. She wondered if only she had the same ability as the others, she could help them fight off the evildoers.
As she was sitting on the balcony sighing, Tyler happened to see her consecutive sighs. He went directly to her and asked her why.
"Ania, what's bothering you?"
"Big brother Tyler, can I be like you?" Ania asked straightforwardly, looking directly into Tyler's eyes.
Tyler was caught off-guard by Ania's question. He didn't expect her to ask something like that. He immediately phoned the others, and even though they were so busy with work, they left it all behind and rushed home for Ania. One by one, they arrived home, and Tyler, together with the confused Ania, settled in the living room waiting for the others.
When all of them were gathered, Ania broke the silence.
"Big brother Tyler didn't answer my question, and yet he called everyone home. Is being a vampire that serious?" she asked innocently.
"Oh Ania, being a vampire isn't something you should wish for." Li sat right next to her and caressed her back.
"But I wanna help fight the bad guys. If I had powers like all of you, then big sis Ara wouldn't have died like that." She began to sob upon remembering Ara's death. Everyone was stunned. Ania may be young, but she had already experienced cruelty that a normal kid shouldn't be experiencing.
"Ania, you may see us differently in your eyes. But if you only knew what we've been through, you wouldn't dare to wish to become one of us." Sofie said softly.
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't you hate what you are? You've got superpowers and can defeat bad guys." Ania lost her temper and began throwing a tantrum.
Slacovich picked her up and glared at her, bringing chills down her spine. Ania stopped crying and buried her face on Slacovich's shoulder.
"Ania, listen very carefully." Slacovich lifted her head gently and stared at her lovingly. He then put her down and started showing off what they were capable of. Each one of them turned into their vampire form except for Harry, who sat right next to Ania. They ran at tremendous speed, appeared and disappeared like teleporting, and showed other skills they had discovered throughout their experiences.
Ania was pretty amazed. Then all of them stared at her with their bloody eyes and bared their fangs. Ania felt terrified and held back her tears. Then all of them turned back into their human forms.
Harry brushed off her hair and pinned it behind her ears. He could see Ania shaking in fear. Then Slacovich started talking.
"Ania, now tell us. Do you want to become like us?"
Ania didn't say anything. Harry, on the other hand, explained to her what happened in a way she could understand.
"Ania, when someone forces you to be someone you are not, are you gonna be happy?"
"No, I don't wanna live to please anyone. I want to be myself. That's what big sis Ara tells us every time."
"Ara's right. Then tell me, what if someone forcefully takes your favorite toy and locks it up? You are able to see it but can't get a hold of it. What will you do?"
"I will cry. And I'll do my best to get it back."
"So Ania, what happened to your brothers and sisters wasn't their choice. They were forced to be one and can't do anything about it. In Ara's case, she joined the project to give you and your brothers a good life. Tyler exchanged his humanity for life, Slacovich got tricked and was forced to be experimented on, Sofie, on the other hand, searched for something interesting and joined the project, Li agreed on this to save his friend's life, and lastly, Diego was promised by the government for his father's medication. Now do you think if there was no exchange, they would agree on it?"
Harry could see her sad face. He knew that everything he said sank inside her. She fully understood the consequences and the sacrifices they'd all been through.
"I'm sorry, everyone. I should just cherish my life and live it to the fullest. I know for a fact that when I grow up, I can help you in ways that I am capable of." She sobbed and hugged everyone. They all felt relieved that Ania understood the situation.
"Ania, what else is bothering you? You can ask us." Diego smiled at her.
"Actually, I still find your powers amazing. But don't worry, I won't be that close-minded. I'm still confused about how each one of you can be so powerful."
"Ania, I can explain that but I don't know if you can comprehend." Harry looked at everyone as he scratched his nape.
"Harry, that's gonna be a tough one." Sofie giggled.
"Please big brother Harry, you can tell me." Ania showed off her puppy eyes that no one could resist.
"Okay, I'll try to explain it to you slowly." Ania nodded and eagerly listened.
"The vampire project is an experiment applied to the rightful specimen."
"Wait, big brother Harry, can you explain it like before? Comparing it to a much simpler example for me to understand?"
Harry facepalmed and everybody laughed.
"This is gonna be tough."
"You can do it, Harry, we will try to help you along the way." They all laughed.
"Ania, listen to every detail, okay? Example: the water is Tyler and the juice powder is the project. Before adding the juice powder to the water, it's made with lots of ingredients like orange extracts and other stuff. Do you get it?"
Ania nodded, and Harry continued.
"When the doctors figured out that they had the perfect juice powder, they needed something where they could add it to figure out what they could create with the mixture. First, they tried it with oil but it didn't work. The oil prevented the powder from mixing and ended up a failure. That's what happened in the first experiment with the monkeys.
Next try was with gasoline; at first, it gave off a mixing chance but then the gasoline was not fitting enough for the powder, causing the powder to be abnormally contained and fail.
Finally, the doctors searched for the perfect pair for the powder and found six waters. But the waters they had were placed in different containers. This matter needed to be handled cautiously, so the next problem was the exact amount of powder needed to be added to each container. That was the trickiest part.
But the head doctor was brilliant, and with days and days of observation and study, he figured out the exact amount for each container. He labeled each powder with the rightful amount needed for each water.
It all went well except for that one particular prank someone did to sabotage the mixing process."
"Someone shouldn't do such pranks in the middle of a delicate process; it may end up too sweet or too less." Ania obviously got the idea.
"Exactly, little princess. That prank caused one water to have less powder than the other. Causing the water to be less penetrated, while the other water, which contained bacteria, got the exact amount of powder it needed to ward off the bacteria."
"So what happened to the other water with less powder?"
"That water lost control and freaked out. So the water that was supposed to get what she has shared the powder with her. Even though it's already mixed with its own water, it still works."
"I see. Then what happened?"
"All six waters were successfully mixed with the powder and became new ones. They have different flavors according to their water content. The powder enhances every bit of that talent and boosted them up top-notch. So every water has its own talent they can showcase."
"Why do they fly? Why can they disappear and reappear?"
"Ania, have you seen a rubber band?"
"Yes."
"The powder in the water serves as a rubber band wherein it adjusts to whatever the water wants. The water wants to fly, so the powder stretches up and deploys wings for the water. When it wants to run fast, it just changes to whatever shape you want it to. Stretch it all you want or create a star with the rubber band. The powder is like that.
But also, it takes time for the band to return to its original form. That's when the water needs to check the powder whether it's getting too much stir on them or not."
"That's why they can do all those cool stuff. And yet they always need to check themselves. They always have their limits in the end."
Ania got every point Harry explained to her. She was satisfied with all the new things she learned as well as grateful for having them by her side.
"Ania, you seem to get it immediately." Li kissed her forehead.
"Big brother explained it pretty well." She smiled at Li.
"But one more thing. Big sis Sofie, what about the shadow who always stays by your side every time? What about them? Is it due to the powder?"
Sofie just smiled at her.
"For that, I think we need Old Nicholson's help explaining it to you." Sofie kissed her cheek.
"Okay, then after school tomorrow can you take me to him?" Ania was so excited that Sofie couldn't refuse her wish.
"I will. But be sure to study hard first. For now, let's all go have a bite. All that explaining made me hungry." She teasingly showed off her fangs when she said "bite."
"It's like you're the one explaining while I get all the talk." Harry teased Sofie.
They all had dinner happily like a family always should.