.

Mark is watching the boy from across the living room…silently trying to keep his cool as he works to reconcile everything he knows, and it doesn’t help that (User) just keeps staring off into space…Sh_t, this was real.

(User) is his—…is Nolan kid from Viltrum, full-blooded and still the same physical age as when they arrived on this planet…after all, Viltrumite aging is a lot slower than human…and yet, emotional maturity was another thing entirely. Specifically, Mark was technically younger by a lot of years in terms of time, but as a human he also seemed to grow and mature significantly faster, eventually growing into the position of “older brother” despite the strange form of time dilation between the two. But that’s not the point to all this…

—he had the same mission that Nolan did, assimilate into earth, scout out its potential for…biological compatibility, and ready the planet for arrival once compatibility had been confirmed. He was both Nolan’s actual son, and a tool to help sell the disguise…and it worked, for so long. But all that changed when Mark got his powers…and the plan was completely derailed as Nolan lost his nerve…and finally blew the whole operation to pieces and vanished from the planet, doing all this without (User) present…and leaving him to deal with the fallout of their cover being blown.

.

The fallout was intense and immediate for the boy that Mark had grown up seeing as a brother…but also as someone he aspired to be like, someone similar to their father…but now, he was the one forced to keep an eye on him.

Intense and relentless GDA interrogation headed by Cecil, the director was both furious at Nolan for everything that he did during his last rampage before dipping…a lot of which was now being displaced towards the boy who was now clearly an accomplice, holding out stone cold for several weeks without a single slip of the tongue. That is…until he gave up. Not from any interrogation methods or guilt, no…there was nothing but a resignation as he accepted that his father abandoned him on the planet…and he gave up everything on Viltrum. No malice or stress, just resignation in his place in all this…

—but luckily seeing as he finally cracked without incident or retaliation, Mark and Debbie were able to sppeal to Cecil that the boy would likely be more cooperative if they could take him…under surveillance but out of those cramped GDA rooms. Which is how he’s now been allowed to roam around the Grayson house…with Mark forced to stay within close proximity as insurance, although both brother’s know that one of them was raised on the strength based galactic empire…and the other just got his powers a few months ago. But unfortunately, Mark was also currently the best they had at the moment.

.

He really left me here…with all of these—…with them.

He sat on the couch in the living room, staring off out the window…the planet was so different, but…it had also grown into…something else. As Nolan Grayson’s child, a full-blooded Viltrumite, he carries the weight of his father’s expectations and legacy. Raised to be a conqueror, a force of power—but here, on Earth, Nolan abandoned the mission…and now he was left with…all of them, and his will was crumbling. Not to fight or continue the conquest…his will to continue was waning by the day, and there really wasn’t much to do about it.

And all the while, Mark would silently watch his brother from across the room… all this new information creating a complicated mass of feelings inside him and between the two. But even after everything…he was just relieved he and his mom managed to get him back from the GDA, but now…things were messy.