Luke found out quickly he didn't have as much patience as he thought.

"Why do my armpits smell funny all the time?"

"Why does my voice creak like a bad door?"

"Why does my wee-wee grow big sometimes?"

Luke wasn't prepared for this. Alpha was going through puberty and he had the mind of a seven-year-old. This made for an awkward disaster. Luke never had any siblings and his parents just gave him a book to read about puberty when he reached that age. He could answer every question, but when he tried it always ended up with another set of questions that led down a crazy detour.

"See," Luke tried explaining the last one. "When you like someone a lot, your 'wee-wee' grows big because..." Luke was stumbling for the correct way to end it. Because you want to have sex with someone? Too straightforward. Because it's pointing at someone you love? Luke hoped that wasn't the case all the time because things could get problematic quickly.

"...because it wants to hug someone." Luke immediately face-palmed himself. What kind of stupid answer was that?

Alpha looked like he just unlocked the secret to passing life on legendary mode. "Oh, so does that mean it wants a hug right now?"

Luke did not need to know that—like at all. Then Luke started connecting the dots. Alpha probably hasn't seen a girl, let alone interact with one since he's been admitted to SGA. Luke had stood up for him twice already against Victor who was like a bully to him.

Oh God, Alpha has a crush on me.

Not only was this not possible for multiple reasons, including the age difference (Luke was 19 and Alpha was only 15), but Luke already had a girlfriend and thought of Alpha as nothing but a little brother.

So, he told Alpha that. "Hey Alpha, you know you're like a brother to me, right?"

Alpha seemed to like the idea. "I've never had a brother before. Does that mean it's fine if I call you Lulu?"

"You already did it in front of a crowd," Luke recalled being called the embarrassing nickname back at the mess hall at SGA.

Alpha laughed and then sung. "Lulu Bells, Lulu Bells, Lulu all the way."

Great, Luke thought. He has a song and a last name for me too. At least the conversation had been steered away from puberty. But Luke couldn't risk another derailment back into penis growth.

"Hey Alpha, wanna do Sirius and me a big favor? Think you can guard Nil for a bit while we talk about the mission?"

Alpha saluated like a soldier being given the greatest opportunity to prove himself a worthy fighter. "Sir, yes sir. Come here Nilly Willie."

Alpha walked and took Nil's hand. Sirius fell back while Alpha asked Nil what his favorite color was because his was Mac and Cheese (yeah, Luke knew that's a food, but apparently, it's also a color in Alpha's mind).

"By the way," Sirius said once he joined Luke. "I'm sorry for being taken down so early in that last fight. I couldn't believe I left you alone to deal with all those enemies. I won't let it happen again. I'll be on my toes."

"No problem; but that is what I wanted to talk to you about," Luke said. "The demons called you the descendant of light and they knew to target you first for some reason. They heard of what you did to their brother, the Aeria you commanded to come out of Tejero back in the Rockies."

Sirius stared at Luke as if waiting for him to go on. Luke wavered. "So..."

"So what?" Sirius asked. "You want me to clarify what they meant because to be honest I'm not sure myself how I'm able to do half the things I can do." He looked at his feet as if the thought ate at him every day. At least Luke knew he was adopted by Uriel. Nefs like Sirius and Alpha have no clue how they got to be so powerful.

An idea sparked in Luke's mind. What if Sirius was one of the important people he was meant to influence in the prophecy? What if he's the second coming of Christ?

As soon as Luke thought about it, he shrugged the idea away. Why would Christ reappear as a 17-year-old boy?

But the demons said he was the descendant of light. Who else is light Himself besides God, the same light Nil was staring off into?

But Luke knew he was hiding something. Luke heard his memories, or at least what he thought were his memories. Sirius might've murdered people before. Then Alpha said that Sirius's mind was "so lost and sad." Did Sirius express regret over killing someone? Or was all of this just in Sirius's imagination, rather than an actual memory Luke had experienced?

Luke wished for it to be the latter. He was warming up to Sirius and didn't want to find out he was being possessed by a demon too like his girlfriend had been when they first started dating.

"Sirius," Luke said. "You know you can tell me anything, right? I mean, we're not just roommates—we're best friends."

Sirius let the thought sift in his head. "Sometimes I wonder if the Aeria know more about me than I do. I..." He stuttered. Luke could relate, since he first discovered he was adopted by Uriel from the demon Lilith, who once possessed his girlfriend.

Then Sirius finally admitted, "Luke, I don't remember my life before entering SGA half-a-year ago. It's like it was erased sloppily from my mind. Streaks of memory are left, and I struggle every day to piece them together. But sometimes..."

Sirius looked at Luke with a painful expression on his face, as if he has just received news that he had an incurable disease. "Sometimes I'm scared to find out what I was before coming to SGA."

If what Luke heard inside Sirius's mind was any indication of Sirius's past, then he would be scared for Sirius as well. But it didn't matter what Sirius did in his past—it matters what he does now. "Well, I know the Sirius I know now is an awesome friend. I don't care about what you did in your past. I just care about what we can do together for the future."

Sirius's grim face relaxed when Luke made him feel included. "Thanks Luke."

Luke nodded and the warm moment couldn't have been capped off any better than Victor cursing them out. "Well, it looks like we failed."

"Failed?" Luke asked.

"According to this map, we're standing right at the entrance to the Garden of Eden. As I said, seems like five is a crowd," he rolled up the map and stared at Luke.

Luke looked to Alpha. Was it really his fault the entrance wasn't here?

"Nil doesn't like to talk much," Alpha said and then quickly wanted to hide himself when everyone was looking at him. "I promise I didn't fart this time. It was Nil."

"No, Alpha it's not that," Luke said suddenly noticing a weird smell in the air, like sulfur clashing with palm trees and pollen. He had promised he wouldn't leave Alpha behind, but he also had to get Nil inside the Garden as well.

"Okay, maybe I farted a little, but I promise the smell is not mine. It's coming from over there." Alpha pointed at a barren wasteland that went on for miles.

"There's nothing there," Victor slammed his face with the palm of his hand, trying to contain his frustration—either that or cover his face from the strong smell. "Please explain to the idiot that he's ruining the mission."

Everyone looked at him. Luke needed to find a solution quick. The sun didn't rise or set so fast down here near the South Pole, which made it difficult to tell time, but the Spring equinox was starting.

Alpha's eyes deflated like saggy balloons. He sniffled. "Fine, I'll go hide behind that door then."

"Door?" They all said.

Alpha slumped over and walked a couple of paces forward like a child moments before he unleashes a stream of tears. He put his hands in the air, twisted it like a knob, and Luke felt his skin being sucked up like a vacuum and his head went spinning.

Suddenly, he wasn't in a cold environment anymore. There wasn't a blanket of whiteness all around him. The sun blinded him, the wind tore at him and drowned out the screams of his friends who were scrambling for their backpacks.

Because Alpha had just opened the entrance to the realm where humanity first began, and now they were all falling from the sky.