IV

Leilyn wakes to the persistent voice of her A.I. She sits up with a groan, a hand rubbing down her face.

"Zoranne… what time is it?" She asks, still rubbing her face.

"It is currently 12am Ms. Leilyn"

That has Leilyn's head snapping up at the ceiling, eyes wide in shock.

"Wha-?" She murmurs. Her head whips to her bedside clock, and truly, it's 12am. "Zoranne." She groans out. She has had a long night, with inventions and such. And not only that, she had a drinking contest with her brother through a video call. Clearly, she won, but at what cost?

Why?

"Yes, Ms. Leilyn?"

"I better be under attack for you to wake me up at this bloody hour." Leilyn growls out, eyes glaring at the ceiling.

"No, you are not under attack." Zoranne impassively replies, getting an irritated grunt form Leilyn. "Although, the young Smith is standing by the gate for two minutes now."

"What?"

Suddenly, Leilyn is wide awake. She tosses aside her duvet and hurriedly gets up from her bed. She dashes over to the balcony, opening the curtains with force and opens the doors with a bang. When she couldn't see anything, she remembers that her room is facing the woods.

"Oh. Right." She face palms. She dashes back into the room, picking up her silk sleeping coat from her desk chair. She stares at the window alcove a little ways away from her - which provides a clear view of the gate - with furrowed brows before sighing in defeat. "Zoranne, feed."

A hologram screen pops up few feet away from her, its source from a distributor above. It shows Zack, who has his hoodie up, head down and hands in his hoodie pocket.

"Let him in." Leilyn commands.

Zoranne did as command. Leilyn watches as the gates opens, allowing the teen to walk in, head still bowed. His body is awfully tensed and Leilyn could see that he's limping. Leilyn's brows furrows in worry and the dark red copper head proceeds in leaving her room. She hurries down the stairs, thin night coat floating behind her in her speed. Once she reaches the foot of the stairs, she sees Zack through the one-way-see-through door.

"Zoranne, door." She doesn't pause in her steps as she commands. The door slides open and see steps out, meeting Zack. "Zack? What are you doing here?" She asks softly.

Zack has on his back pack and his hover board was thrown sideways. It looked as if it has seen better days. That was alarming.

Leilyn's hand slowly reaches out, taking hold of his face. Zack flinches and moves his face away from her hand. Leilyn retracts her hand, fisting it. Then she felt it. It was as if her hand was wet and her head snaps down. Leilyn's eyes went wide when she sees that her hand was stained with blood. Her head snaps back up, looking at the teen in shock.

Leilyn narrows her eyes into slits, forehead folding into a frown.

"Zack, remove your hoodie." She orders. The teen flinches at her tone, making her eyes to go soft. "Zack, let me see your face."

The teen, after a minute of hesitation, finally acquiesced to her request.

Leilyn's breathe hitches when she sees the state of his face. Zack's face is seriously battered and swollen. He has a split lip and blood can be seen dripping from his head, down his face.

"Zack. Wha-?" Leilyn stutters, gently placing her hands on his cheeks. She angles his face for her to look at him clearly. "What happened to you?!"

Zack doesn't reply her. He just kept his eyes down. Leilyn becomes more worried at his timid nature. She doesn't waste another second in gently leading him inside. She commands Zoranne to lock the gates and door as they step in. Leilyn sits him in a couch, commanding him to remove his hoodie. Zack doesn't argue and does as told. While he was dropping his backpack, Leilyn ran back upstairs, dashing into her bathroom. She grabs the first aid kit and rushes back down to Zack. What she sees makes her inhale sharply in shock.

Zack's body is black and purple. The arm she bandage early looks as if was broken. Cuts decorated his body and his hands are bloody.

"Zack…" She croaks out. "Wha- who…"

The question is on the tip of her tongue but she dismisses that. She shakes her head, breaking herself from her shock. Right now, she has to see to Zack; questions later.

She sets the kit down on the couch. She opens it and reaches for a syringe and vial.

"This will take away the pain." She says before carefully inserting the syringe into a vein and pumps the liquid into his body. Once done, Leilyn gets to work in cleaning him up.

Leilyn went to the kitchen and fetched a bowel of water. She sat the bowel down on the floor before she ran back upstairs to grab an unused towel. She came back down with two white towels on her shoulders. She soaked one in the bowel full of water and started cleaning Zack up. She didn't even flinch or paid any attention when she, her couch and floor were being stained by water or blood. Once Zack was thoroughly washed of blood, Leilyn dried him off with the other towel. Due to him being clean, Leilyn could see that some cuts required some stitches.

She first looked at his head to see how bad his injury there was. She heaved a sigh of relieve when she saw that it wasn't bad. She cut a small ball of cotton wool and soaked it in a medicated alcohol – the one made for delicate injuries – and used it to clean the wound, which was still bringing out little blood. Zack hissed in pain and she apologized, blowing on the wound. Once done, she cut another ball and placed it on the wound before gently bandaged his head.

Leilyn cleaned up the other wounds; the ones that needed stitching. She stitched and cleaned them up, before she bandaged his body. Due to the body numbing drug kicking it, Zack didn't feel any of them. She even set his arm back in position and bandaged it up without him screaming..

All in all, it took an hour for Leilyn to clean Zack up. Specks of blood dirtied her here and there, but she wasn't moved. She has had worse.

"There, you are all better now. I just need to give you the Nano-Healer drug. By tomorrow, you will be as good as new." She gives the boy a soft smile.

Zack stares at her in shock. The next thing she knows, tears are streaming from his eyes.

"Zack." Leilyn gently raises his head, hands on his cheek. Her eyes were filled with worry, her expression that of a worried parent.

"Why?"

"Zack?"

"Why do you care so much?" He whispers. "Why do you, who isn't even related to us, care so much about us? You don't even know us that well!"

Leilyn blinks owlishly at first at his question, before a soft smile takes over her lips.

"Because everyone deserves a shoulder to lean on." She replies, getting a look of surprise from Zack. "I care, Zack, because I hate seeing people go through what I went through. I hate seeing innocent people, kids especially, suffer at the hands of pathetic pigs, who prey on everybody. It's hard staying in the sideline while I see people like you suffer." She cleans his tears, but more keep flowing down. "It's hard to ignore the cries for help. It's very hard for me to see you three suffer and not intervene. I might not be related to you, but I vow to see you three happy. No matter what it takes."

Zack broke down into hysterics and Leilyn gently hold him. She rests his head into her bosom, not caring if he made a mess of her gown. She sat down, making him to lie on the couch, his head on her laps and face in her stomach.

To calm him down, Leilyn began to hum a song. It seemed to have an effect seeing as he calmed down five minutes later. Leilyn peeped down and smiled when she saw that he was knocked out. The drug had fully kicked in, along with exhaustion.

With the gentle nature she uses only with her family and clan, she gently picked Zack up, grunting a little at his weight. She commanded Zoranne to switch the stairs to escalator mode. The door to the guest room slides open and she walked in. She used a leg to push the duvet away – almost falling as a result – before she laid Zack down on the bed. Once she saw that the boy was comfortable, she went back to her room, into her closet and in a secret compartment and grabbed a new syringe and the vial containing the newer version of Nano-Healers. She filled up the syringe before hurrying downstairs and grabbing a ball of cotton wool and a band-aid, before going back up. Once again, she inserts the syringe in a vein in his arm and pumped it into him. Once done, she applied the band-aid on the cotton wool before covering him up with the duvet.

With a soft smile, Leilyn laid a warm on Zack's bandaged forehead for a second or two, before walking out of the room, door closing behind her.