Past and present

"LETS GO!!" Danny shouted at the top of his lungs as he was exhilarated by Flare's performance. Flare took off his headphones and stood up smiling , giving his team high fives. Joseph expressed joy when the team was celebrating with him, the jovial mood that everyone was radiating broke his calm composure that he was so used to having. Danny was even more surprised by Joseph's mood given that he had never expressed such feelings before since he joined his school. Ellie quickly calmed herself down and told the team : "Lets prepare for the next round!", "No need, I think Joseph over here has issues" Flare pointed at Joseph as he expressed his concern for his well being. Flare turned to Oliver and said : "Lets call it a day here, I believe that Ellie is a Legend based on her game sense, knowledge, positional sense , decision making and also the trickery that she displayed. We could not see much of her aim but I think that is not necessary now." Oliver agreed with Flare's assessment and did not want to drag it on any further due to the unsettling nature of Joseph's mentality. Flare proceeded to walk over to his academy players, the players had their heads hung low, once again disappointed by their performance. Loren in particular felt immense guilt and stared blankly into his monitor, not daring to speak a single word.

Flare took a deep breath and started talking : "You guys did great today." The academy players looked up to Flare in shock, not expecting praises to be uttered from his mouth. "It is good that you have such emotions, losing is only a step closer to victory, we can only improve on what we did wrong today when we head back to our gaming facility." Flare signaled his team to the lift lobby as he said these words. The academy players promptly logged out of their accounts and walked out of the testing room, leaving Flare in the room alone. Flare turned to his temporary team and said : "I had fun with you guys! I hope to see you guys again". Danny said as he almost teared up : "Me too! It is a dream come true for me to play with a professional player." Ellie smiled at his goodbye speech and declared : "I will see you on stage one day Flare." Flare laughed and declared to Ellie : "You haven't experienced the true prowess of the Winged Rangers! I will see you on stage if it is meant to be." Flare waved at them as he walked out to the lift lobby.

Flare turned around and caught a glance of Joseph before stepping out of the room, he felt an ominous aura surrounding Joseph, throughout the entire match, he did not felt that Joseph was playing at his best, the most suspicious of which is during his aim test. A professional DPS player could with some difficulty achieve the score he had , but not with an entirely new mouse, unfamiliar settings and also a weird grip? Before the match started, Flare had to be paranoid about his settings, making sure his mouse Dots Per Inch (DPI) was the same, his mouse sensitivity, even his crosshair design had to be what he was familiar with. He did not bother bringing along his own gaming mouse as he did not expect to play in a test game, only wanting to guide his academy players on their full body scan. Joseph in stark contrast, was waiting patiently during the time when everyone was setting up. Flare felt chills in his bones thinking about his potential if he had played with his own settings and got rid of whatever that is haunting him mentally, but then again, it could just be his delusional impression of Joseph.

Flare tossed away such thoughts the moment he exited the room, choosing to focus on his academy team instead.

"Ellie Reacher and Joseph Phantom, you have both cleared the test and we at Full Force express our gratitude for the both of you coming here to take the test." Oliver said after Flare walked out of the room.

Joseph questioned : "Ellie Reacher?" as he looked at Ellie. "Yeah Why?" Ellie was suddenly curious about Joseph's reaction to her name. "Do you have an older sister called Lily?"

Ellie was stunned by Joseph's knowledge of her sister, she questioned Joseph back immediately : "You know her?" Joseph nodded his head and proceeded to plead with Ellie : "Can I meet her right now? I have a lot of things to say to her." Ellie appeared reluctant to do so as she did not want to bring back a total stranger back to her house. Joseph pushed on despite her reluctance to do so : "It is really important please." Joseph at this point was begging for a meeting with her sister. "Can I ask why though?" Ellie asked full of curiosity. "You wouldn't believe me." Joseph replied with a smile. Ellie gave up convincing Joseph otherwise as he seemed to be really emotional about meeting her sister, she finally agreed to Joseph's request after hearing his pleas. "Let me follow along as well! I'm curious about it too!" Danny asked Joseph. Joseph agreed for Danny to come as he found him trustable and most importantly, a great friend.

It was late in the evening as Joseph , Danny and Ellie walked towards a modest apartment, situated somewhere near the city area. They took a lift up to Ellie's place, where she is living together with her sister Lily. Upon reaching the fifth floor, they finally reached her place. She opened her door to let Joseph and Danny in. She led the way forward as she reached her living room, "Sister! I'm back!".

A door opened from one of the rooms in the apartment. Lily walked out and warmly smiled at Ellie before noticing her being accompanied by two men. Lily had an attractive figure, with wavy hair. She appeared charismatic, smart and approachable. "Ohh my Ellie, who are they?" Lily asked with a smug face.

"It's been a while Lily." Joseph said as she asked her question. "Err do I know you?" Lily questioned. Joseph smiled warmly as he said : " I'm the Dark Knight."

Ellie cringed heavily at the name drop, reminding her of why in-game names should not be used in a serious context.

"You??" Lily was flabbergasted by this revelation. "No way!" She exclaimed as she approached Joseph. Danny was taken aback as well, he recalled the conversation he had with Joseph yesterday and realized that it all made sense now. He was actually the duo partner of the Iron Queen.

Lily stopped in front of Joseph and faced him closely with an angered expression "Prove to me that you are what you claim to be! You could be one of those fake ones." Joseph responded back : "I broke down several times during my debut, you reached out to me and consoled me during this time."

Lily was fully convinced after hearing that and hugged Joseph tightly. She was visibly in tears as she cried out : "I - I I should have saved you back then." Joseph stared into the living room ahead of him, he thought of the life that his past self had lived and chose to shut his eyes for this moment. Just embracing the warmth from Lily, the room went silent with the sobs sounding out from Lily.

Ellie in all of her time with her never saw her older sister look so devastated. Ellie could only watch along with Danny silently as they both could not understand what is happening.

"Back then, back then, I could go on a little further- because I know at least I have someone who cared about me." Joseph whispered, his voice was shaky, his pronunciation was emotional and his feelings were...

Eternally grateful.