SHIELD Agent Rhapsodos: A Part That Remains

:: Secrets ::

Robert sighed with regret. It had been a week. Genesis hadn't shown his face at the hospice and he was getting worried. Actually, he was inwardly terrified. He was terrified he would never see the kid who he started to like because he was too persistent in trying to know of a sensitive issue: Genesis' past.

The old man knew he should have taken the situation more seriously, but all he ended up doing was repeating the same mistake like he did with his son. He was about to give up, until the nurse volunteer had come into his room, and demanded him to talk over the phone and get Genesis to come over. Hazel wasn't going to take no for an answer until they both made up.

Under Hazel's glaring eyes that bored into his head, he was able to call Genesis and ask if they could meet again. He had a lot of apologizing to do. Fortunately, the adolescent agreed to visit the hospice the next day even if he only agreed thanks to Hazel's insistence. Robert wasn't going to let this chance pass by, he needed to correct this mistake than repeat a lifetime's mistake he did with his son.

When Genesis did arrive in his room, there was a heavy silence between them. Robert had to suppress down a pang in his heart they were back to square one again. The adolescent was keeping a healthy distance away from him. However, the old man noted his energy was nervous. Far too nervous than what the former agent expected him to be.

"I'm sorry for pushing you too far," Robert started. "It...wasn't in my place to ask you about what happened in the past."

Genesis on the other hand bit his lip. "You didn't have to see that...It doesn't matter."

When Robert wanted to ask, he stopped himself and shook his head. He promised himself he wouldn't ask about what was behind it. "I'm just concerned for you. No one should keep having nightmares like that."

"I deserve it," Genesis said with remorse, "for what I've done."

This time, Robert tactfully observed that Genesis' mannerism was more adult-like. He chose to handle this carefully. "You think you haven't redeemed yourself?"

"I thought I already did, but I'm not sure why I'm here now," Genesis said without thinking. His emotions had been a jumbled mess throughout the week. "I try to find out why, and the answers aren't there. The fighting, the sacrifices, it's muddled up somehow."

Robert's eyes widened when Genesis said that. All the clues and bits of information he had collected since he decided to know more about Genesis came to an unbelievable conclusion. It was so farfetched it was like when he found out about Hydra's horrific experiments during his government agents days. Information that Hydra's power was something related to Norse Gods in the ancient times and that they were true.

Did he dare ask about the possible chance that Genesis was involved in something so mind-blowing? Robert was afraid that he might be considered crazy, but he decided he'd brace himself if it were true.

"Genesis?" he asked, "I've tried to guess for some time. Yet, are you really–" Robert gulped, "some sort of time traveler, or from an alternative world?"

To the former SOLDIER it was too late to mask his alarm when he tried to answer. No words could form on his lips when his secret, he tried so hard to conceal, was out in the open.

So it was true. Genesis wouldn't have made such an expression if he were lying. To Robert it was an amazing realization, "You really are from somewhere else, are you?"

"I think you know whether people lie or not, Robert." the now not-so-teen said. Genesis paused before he questioned, "How were you able to come to that assumption?" He was inwardly panicking, but he was now questioning at the same time why Robert took it more calmly than what he predicted.