The next week or so seemingly normal enough. We fought to continue making progress to the final battle, whenever the hell that might be, after BLI can no longer make drugs. Not for a while at least. Even then, I was still more scared then ever now that my parents know I contributed to destroying the drug lab.

This morning at the dining table, there was an aggressive knock on the door. "I got it this time!" said Poison as they rushed to the door and opened it. The rest of us followed them there, and I immediately hid behind the rest as to not be seen because it was my parents there.
          Oh shit. I knew they were still after me this whole week after the drug lab's destruction, but at this point, they might actually kill me now that they can't drug me. Their arms from last week were already healed. Fuck. "You thought you guys were done with us!?" yelled Dad.
          With my body shaking from Dad's cold, triggering voice, Kobes discreetly held my hand from in front of me. "We want to be done with you," said Poison.
          "What do you guys want?" Ghoul asked my parents.
          "You know who we want," bellowed Mom. And I knew they wanted me. The rest of the team knew already too.
          "And what do you really want her for?" asked Kid.
          "Because she's our kid, obviously," answered Mom.
          "Where is she!?" asked Dad. "Don't fool me, I know she's behind you."
          Might as well own up to it. So I squeezed in between the others and faced my parents. "Can I ever catch a break without having to worry about you?"
          "Again," said Dad, "we birthed, clothed you, fed you, and gave you a roof over your head! We worried about you as we should have when you were little. Why can't you just do the same for us?"
          "Because I don't owe you respect that you never gave me!"

That's when things got scary. Instead of striking me, my parents attempted to strike my friends. At this point I couldn't care less what they do to me... but if you hurt my friends, that's where I draw the line.
          I know they were only doing it to isolate me again and put me back under their control with no one at all to turn to, but I was still even more in the battle for my friends. I didn't even think much about myself. I spent most of the fight defending my team
          "That drug lab was our prized possession!" said Dad, his teeth gritted and his face looking scarily close into mine.
          Mom talked to me the same way. "And you ruined it all because you want to be miserable and rebel against your own family."
          "I'm actually pretty happy with the Killjoys, thank you!" I argued back. "Because it's not fake happiness."
          "If it's happiness, it's happiness. I don't care how real or fake it is," said Dad. "At least I won't ever be sad again!"
          "What if something terrible happened to someone you love? Would you be sad then?" asked Kobes.
          Dad's face went blank, telling me everything I needed to know. "No emotion, just anger at who did it."
          "Is anger not an emotion?" asked Jet.
          "Sometimes you need to be sad! Sometimes you just have to know what it feels like to feel and have someone there to support you and give you a hug!" argued Kid.
          "It feels quite good to feel things and talk about the bad things with someone who'll do that for you. Because the people that you both sold me to never did that for me either!" Rainbow confronted Mom and Dad.

There is no loving bone inside Dad's body. Just pure hate in his heart. Neither with Mom, either. Back when she was sober before this whole BLI thing, she was the parent who did less of the speaking, less of the punishing. But when she did, she was harsh. I always saw something in her back then which looked like a sign that she was somewhat disgusted with Dad when he would make his comments about her needing to be a submissive housewife type of woman. So maybe there might be a sliver of hope for her?

Not yet. Because we now had to run and fight for our lives. I stuck with Kobes, Jet, and Kid, while Rainbow grouped up with Poison and Ghoul. My group focused most on fighting Dad, while the rest went for Mom. Most of the fight consisted of dodging one another's shots and arguing. Despite the fact that I was in physical pain, the words my Dad said hurt worse than that. "I already had low expectations of you, Lucy!" he shouted to me. "And you managed to break those too!"
          "I was the one who put high expectations on myself to try so hard to impress you for once! But I guess nothing's ever good enough, huh? Where's your heart?"
          "I guess you'll never change! But guess what? Neither will I. You're just going to have to deal with it. I'm your father, I have all the power over you, I can do what I want! You have to stay with your old parents."
          "No I don't!" Even though I knew what to expect from Dad, it was still so chilling. The last thing I want is to become desensitized to it. "I'm strong enough to know how wrong you were about everything!"
          Dad just stared at me. "Those may just be your last words, Fireball Frenzy or whatever you call yourself!" Then Mom ran over to stand next to Dad, the rest of the Killjoys following behind to stand by my side.
          "And don't think I have no idea of this whole relationship thing going on," said Mom. "I saw you holding hands earlier with that Kobra Kid or whatever its name is. I will not hesitate to kill that worthless boyfriend of yours to get you crying back to us!"
          "Try getting through us both together first!" Kobes stepped in. "You underestimated her power by itself. Just you wait till you see what we can do together!"
          "Oh how sweet," mocked Mom.
          "If I see you guys holding hands or hugging or doing any of that again," threatened Dad, "that time will be the last."
          "What can you do about it? Have you ever felt love before?" asked Poison. "You have no room to talk."

That's when my parents stepped away in a huff. "This time was the last warning. Next time, you're all dead on the spot," Mom bellowed. They let us off free this time. But each time puts us in even more danger. It's coming slowly. I was almost sure I was gonna die before this goddamn corporation falls... I may be right, I may be wrong, who knows?

The end of the fight led us a few miles from home with no car and no motorcycles. So we had to fast-walk home, sometimes run. So in about an hour in a half with some Drac fights scattered throughout, we were finally safe inside our home. "Wow," Poison sighed.
          I sighed along, just waiting for the perfect moment to be alone so I could cry in peace. "I know. Wow."
          "It's only one o'clock, and I feel like going back to bed already," said Rainbow.
          "Same," the rest of us simultaneously answered with a nod.
          Ghoul turned to me and Kobes, giving us a smirk. "Are you two really dating?"
          Kobes and I just looked at each other, then shrugged as we agreed to say the truth. "Yeahhh," we laughed, holding hands.
          "I always knew you two were close," said Rainbow with a smile.
          "I was suspicious of it too," said Kid. "Well, congratulations!"
          Kobes and I couldn't help but laugh and say "thank you" to her.
          "You guys have your alone time for a while, then we should still do something else later," suggested Jet. "I think we'll need a break day this afternoon."
          The rest of us agreed, then took some time to wind down before heading out.

I didn't need to say a word to Kobes, and he didn't have to say a word to me. We just sat in the bedroom for a short time, just the two of us, and hugged. My energy was too drained to cry, so I didn't. All we had to do was enjoy each other's company. "You don't have to be afraid to walk this world alone," he said before we left, "but you don't have to walk it alone."
          "And you don't have to be afraid to live on without me," I told him, "but you don't have to live on without me."