The Bloodforged Kin

Cass and Zavier were in the garage, Cass standing in the kill box. Zavier and Tess had spent a long time fighting about this the night before, and it was only after heated discussion and the presence of the healing pills that she'd finally agreed to his plan.

"He needs to learn to control his fear, and the only way I know how to do that is controlled exposure," Zavier had argued.

"But you are in no way qualified to put him through something like that," she'd wanted to shut down this plan before it started. "You're going to throw him into the deep end and tell him to learn to swim, which can have serious emotional consequences."

"We're all already in the deep end, Tess! I need to make sure he's not going to get pulled under when it matters the most! I'm going to be right there to monitor him. This has to feel real to work, Tess, but it'll be completely controlled. We start small - just him and a single Scamperer, over and over until he can stay calm."

"Like what you did with Luna?"

"And she's stronger for it!" Zavier had thrown up his hands in frustration.

"She isn't just stronger, Z," Tess had said, "she's also more reckless. What you did impacted her in ways you didn't plan for. She's riding high off that teenage feeling of invincibility, after surviving that snake bite."

"But she survived!"

"What if she doesn't next time because you've convinced her that she can handle anything?"

"What if she doesn't because we didn't prepare her properly?" Zavier exhaled sharply, calming himself. "Look, I know you're worried, but this is how we figure out his limits. We need to know when that skill triggers and whether he can control it."

"You may strengthen his skills, but I'm worried about what this does to his confidence."

"I'd rather he suffers a blow to his confidence and learns the scope of his ability over him - or us - dying because we were too scared to put him through his paces. The reality is, he's going to try out these powers no matter what. We can either do it now or wait until we're out there, and something else does it for us."

He could see his words got through to her. "I get it, and you're not wrong. It's just… these are our kids, Z! And we're about to scare one of them so badly that some magical power activates - on purpose! We've never hurt our kids on purpose before, and it just feels like that's what we're proposing."

"I wouldn't hurt him, Tess. I'm his father."

She'd shaken her head at him. "You wouldn't hurt him intentionally. But sometimes you push because you think it's necessary, and you don't always see when you've pushed too far."

"Then help me see," Zavier had said. "Be there. Set the limits. If you think I'm going too far, you call it off. But we need to know what we're working with here."

Tess had finally agreed, but with conditions: she'd be nearby, she'd hold the healing supplies, and she could stop the experiment at any time if Cass seemed overwhelmed. "Just basic fear conditioning, Z. Nothing elaborate. Promise me."

"I promise. Just him and a Scamperer until he can stay calm."

Now, standing in the garage, Zavier felt the weight of that promise. But they needed this information.

"Okay Cass, here's the plan. You're going to set the living room as your return point and we are going to put you in situations where you're scared. The first few times I want you to just let the skill take you - get a feel for the trigger. After that, I want you to start fighting that fear. The goal is to put you in control of when it activates, okay?"

Cass nodded, looking around the kill box nervously. He was anxious to prove himself, but scared of what would happen. "I got it, but what am I going to face in here?"

"This," Zavier pushed the garage door button and Cass's eyes went wide when he saw that their SUV had been backed up to the garage door, the back open and a Scamperer chewing on the seats.

"I don't have any weapons!" Cass looked around frantically.

The Scamperer shot out of the SUV and straight at Cass. Zavier let out a relieved breath as Cass disappeared without even a pop of air.

Zavier poked his head in the door when he heard Tess scream "JESUS CHRIST!" from the living room.

"Sorry, Honey!"

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"Give us some warning next time! I think I peed a little. Jesus, Z!"

"This is your warning - he's coming back out!"

"Luna, move your stuff out of the living room. Last thing we need is you getting hurt when your brother materializes."

Cass walked up to Zavier a moment later, shields on his forearms and a baseball bat gripped in his hands. His face was flushed with embarrassment. "I'm ready for another round."

"Oh Buddy, not with all of that." He met Cass's frustrated eyes. "You could take one of these things easily with all that gear. You're not here to kill it - you're here to understand your fear response and learn to control it. Besides, it was a pain catching that thing and holding it while I backed the car up. I don't want to do that again."

Cass's shoulders sagged slightly. "Okay, so what do I do when it comes at me?"

"Did you get a good feel for how the trigger worked?"

"Not really," Cass admitted. "My heart jumped into my throat and then I was in the living room. No transition, nothing."

"Then we keep going until you understand it," Zavier said. "Go get back in the car and be ready. I want you to try to stay calm, and when you start feeling scared, I want you to focus on that feeling instead of running from it. Ready?"

Cass nodded and headed back to the SUV.

Three hours had passed, and Cass was feeling genuinely good about his progress. What had started as immediate panic was now manageable anxiety. He'd gone from disappearing the instant the Scamperer moved to lasting nearly a full minute of grappling with it before his skill activated. More importantly, he was starting to recognize the feeling - that spike of terror that preceded the teleportation.

"I think I'm getting it, Dad!" he called out after his latest return. "I can feel when it's about to happen now. A few more tries and I might be able to stop it completely!"

Zavier nodded approvingly. Cass had made remarkable progress. But as he watched his son's growing confidence, a troubling thought occurred to him. In a real fight, it wouldn't just be Cass in danger. What would happen if Tess or Luna were hurt? Would Cass's skill trigger and leave them behind? They needed to know.

He could stop now, call Tess, discuss it. But Cass was in the zone, confident for the first time since getting these skills. If they broke momentum now, would they get it back?

The decision felt tactical, necessary. They had healing pills. It would be quick, controlled.

"Alright buddy, one more test," Zavier called. "This time I want you to try something different."

The door opened and Cass jumped into the garage, hands up to catch the Scamperer like every time before. But this time it wasn't there. Cass looked around in confusion when he hear a noise from the back of the garage, where the kill box tightened into a funnel. In the back his father was grappling with the escaped Scamperer. As Cass watched in horror, the creature's teeth found Zavier's neck. Zavier screamed in pain as a spray of blood geysered into the air.

Cass appeared in the living room and immediately ran back toward the garage, only to disappear again as soon as he saw the Scamperer latched onto his father's throat, blood running down Zavier's neck.

"Help," Zavier wheezed weakly, reaching toward him with one hand while trying to pry the creature off with the other, and Cass was gone again.

This time he grabbed the bat he'd left by the door and rushed in, but before he could get close enough to help, he met his father's pained, desperate eyes and the terror erupted inside him again. Gone.

"MOM! HELP!" Cass's voice cracked as he sprinted for the house and slipped on something slick, disappearing mid-fall. He was back in the living room instantaneously, Tess already moving toward him with alarm.

"What, Honey??" Terror filled her voice.

"DAD! The Scamperer got him!" He pointed toward the garage and started running again, Tess close behind. She'd grabbed Claw as she sprinted out the door, and they slid to a stop in the garage to find Zavier standing alone in the kill box, wiping blood off his neck and shoulder with a paper towel.

"What is going on?" Tess's voice was sharp with fear and adrenaline.

"Dad was being attacked!"

Zavier continued wiping blood away, not meeting their eyes. "I'm fine. I let it bite me."

"You did WHAT?" Tess's eyes went wide with fury. "Why in the hell would you do something like that?"

"Cass was doing great controlling his fear when it was just him in danger. But we needed to know what happens when family members are threatened. What if you or Luna get hurt in a real fight? Does his skill trigger and leave you behind, or can he stay and help?" Zavier finally looked up. "We had to know. It's better to find out here than out there."

He realized how that sounded when he saw Cass's face drain of all color.

"Cass, wait - you made incredible progress today. Three hours ago you couldn't last five seconds, and by the end you were lasting over a minute. That's huge improvement, and now we know-"

But Cass was already gone, this time running toward the house rather than teleporting.

Tess watched him go, then slowly turned to face Zavier. Her voice was deadly quiet. "You promised me basic fear conditioning. You promised nothing elaborate."

"Tess, we needed this information. In a real fight-"

"You lied to me." Her words cut through his explanation. "You made that decision without me, without warning me, and you used our son's love for you against him. You let him think you were dying."

"I had the healing pills right here," Zavier held up the bottle. "I was never in real danger. But his reaction had to be genuine or the test wouldn't work."

"It was still messed up, Z," she said, her voice tight with controlled anger. "You know his biggest fear is failing us when we need him most. You just made him live through that nightmare half a dozen times in the span of a minute. You confirmed his worst fears about himself." Her voice broke slightly. "What you did was cruel."

"We had to know, Tess," but even to him the words sounded hollow as she turned and walked away, leaving him alone in the garage with the bloodstained paper towels and the weight of what he'd done.

From inside the house, they could hear Cass's door slam hard enough to rattle the windows.