As Gabriel pondered these questions, he realised the life he thought he was living was anything but that. For the first time, his bubble had burst. He was finally seeing things in a different light. Things weren't just black and white like he once believed, and the thread holding his family together felt like it was unraveling at the seams. The lines between right and wrong were blurred, and the people Daniel had trusted were not what they appeared to be.
"Whatever decisions your dad made, you don't need to follow them," Gabriel said, his voice barely above a whisper. "You can see they're wrong, so why not do better than him? Be better than what you were exposed to. Show the system—and everyone—that you don't have to be a product of your environment. You can be where the change starts."
"Because if you don't take that step, then who will?"
He let the silence linger before continuing, his voice softer now.
"Look, I get it. Your dad being in bed with a criminal? That's messed up. And I hope to God he sees sense before it's too late. But you're seriously gonna throw your life away based on how you feel right now? Because how you feel in five, ten years—it might be completely different. And if your younger self pays the price today, you'll look back full of regret, angry that the decisions you made when your head wasn't clear cost you everything."
He looked Daniel dead in the eye.
"You're turning to them for guidance—a figure to look up to and follow—but that only gets you one of two places: prison or dead. And I'm here to tell you, with both outcomes, they'll forget you. They'll move on. There'll be another one of you to take your place. Another name. Another number. And the city? The city'll swallow him whole, just like it did you."
He stepped closer.
"And the cycle will keep spinning. Use you. Chew you up. Spit you out. Then do it all over again. Until someone finally stands up and says, 'Nah. I want more for myself.' And breaks the damn cycle."
He paused, letting it sit, making sure Daniel felt every single word he was saying. His voice dropped—quiet, but powerful, like a heavyweight punch to the chest.
"You can stare at the same picture a thousand times and still miss what's right in front of you. Because an angry mind is a clouded one. But lift that cloud… and maybe you'll finally see the truth."
Daniel stood there, letting each word hit him like a knockout blow—one after the other, with no room to breathe.
Then suddenly, Gabriel's ears went into overdrive. He could hear his brother's heartbeat spiking, the blood rushing to the surface, the grinding of his jaw.
Daniel's voice tore a hole through the tension.
"I already took a peek behind one picture—my family's. And what I saw? I didn't like."
He looked away, then locked eyes with Gabriel, his voice sharp like a blade.
"And don't even get me started on my brother."
Gabriel froze, his body heavy. That sound—Daniel's racing pulse, clipped breathing—it was all too familiar. A hurricane was brewing. And whatever was left of the glass house he'd lived in for so long… was about to shatter.
"He's meant to be there for me. To look out for me," Daniel continued, voice soaked in resentment. "But where is he? Too busy with his own life. We go to the same school, and he doesn't even look my way."
Gabriel's eyes widened. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Surely that's not true…" he said, voice trembling.
Daniel let out a cold, hollow laugh.
"Stop—I don't wanna hear excuses for them. I live this. Every day. I would know." He turned slightly. "You're just like the rest. Another one brushing it off like I'm overreacting."
Gabriel winced. The words landed like punches. He'd been so caught up in his own world, he hadn't seen the cracks forming right under his roof.
"Do you know what it's like to have a brother everyone praises?" Daniel said, voice bitter. "A brother everyone compares me to? 'Why can't you be more like Gabriel?' You ever had to carry that?"
Gabriel's heart sank. A tear slipped down his cheek. He never knew Daniel felt like this.
"And when I finally try to reach out—when it gets too hard, too heavy to bear—he's not there. He acts like I don't exist," Daniel's voice cracked. "No one in that house sees me. No matter what I do… I'm just in the background. An accessory to the main product."
Gabriel felt the lump in his throat tighten. He didn't know what to say. Guilt dug deep into his chest.
"So I found people who did see me. Who accepted me—or so I thought," Daniel whispered. "But even that was fake. Turns out, you're only as good as what you can do for them."
He paused.
"But I stuck with it anyway. Because what else did I have? Nothing. Even if it isn't real... at least I felt something."
Gabriel's heart shattered. His little brother—left alone in the noise, in the silence, in the shadows he never even knew were there. And now… now he had to face it.
Tears flooded down Daniel's face as he dropped to one knee, sobbing uncontrollably.
He couldn't hold it in anymore. The door had opened—and the tsunami had already crashed through. There was no closing it now. The pain poured out, raw and unstoppable.
Gabriel rushed to his brother's side, grabbing his arm and pulling him in without a word.
Daniel collapsed into his chest—broken, shaking, scared.
Gabriel held him close, resting his brother's head on his shoulder, one hand steady on the back of Daniel's head, like he was afraid that letting go would break the moment. Or break them both.
Slowly, the symbiotic mask slid back from Gabriel's face, revealing eyes filled with pain and regret as tears streamed silently down his cheeks like a waterfall.
He didn't wipe them.
He didn't hide them.
He just held on.
Tighter.
After everything…
After all the silence between them, They were finally here.Together. Bonded.
"I promise you, little bro," Gabriel murmured, his voice cracking, quieter than a breath. "I'll never let you down again."
Daniel sniffed, his voice muffled in Gabriel's chest.
"You say something?"
Gabriel looked out over the city, tired streets, city lights, the world still moving beneath them, and then his mask eased silently back into place.
"Nah," he said softly. "Just thinking."
He wrapped both arms around Daniel and took off, rising fast into the night sky.
The wind howled around them.
The city blurred beneath their feet.
But Gabriel wasn't thinking about the wind, the view, or the weight of the world waiting beneath them.
His mind was fixed on the boy in his arms.
His brother.
His responsibility.
His second chance.
Because this time… he wasn't flying to save the city.
He was flying to save his family.