The cold early morning wind carried a heavy silence over the city, a silence that hid secrets far greater than the simple darkness of the streets

The boy appeared suddenly, panting, his eyes burning with a mixture of fear and stubbornness. His dirt-stained boots and the small device still sizzling on his wrist betrayed the impossible: he had crossed from the future.

It was no coincidence. It was no accident. He had come with a purpose.

In his time, in his home, one of his parents was dying. A strange disease, caused by years of exposure to chemicals and radiation at the research base, was progressing rapidly. It was a rare ailment, one that once had a treatment, but the world had stopped manufacturing it because of the rarity of its cases. No one was safe... unless they found the source of that lost cure.

The boy couldn't accept seeing his family fall apart. He knew there was no hope in his present, so he chose to risk everything: travel back in time. But when he arrived, the first thing he found was a scene that tore him apart.

Leon... his father... wasn't with the person he should have been. He was with someone else. With Ada.

The boy frowned, his heart racing. It didn't make sense; this wasn't his life, this wasn't the family he knew. And if he was sure of one thing, it was that even if everyone tried to confuse him, he would recognize his mother anywhere, anytime.

"It's not you," he murmured, his voice breaking as he looked away from Ada to search the air for a familiar trace. "You're not the person who raised me." With the stubbornness of someone who knows the truth is in their blood, he turned and ran. He ran toward you, toward where he knew you were. Toward you, his mother, because after all, no one knows better the heart that gave birth to him. Leon, surprised and confused, ran after him. He soon caught up with you, and when he saw you there, his breath stopped for a moment. The boy was pressed against you, holding on with all his might as if he was afraid of losing you. Leon stared at them, his throat dry, until the words finally escaped him in an incredulous whisper

"What...what does this mean? Why does he... call you Mom? Who are you?"