The three arrived at Avery’s door. As they expected, she was not in her room, so they went to the secondary room. They saw her training.

The little girl kicked and punched as if her life depended on it.

When she was tired, she would sit and meditate, then start again. They stood there for fifteen minutes.

Ashton didn’t look sleepy anymore. He was watching his little sister with stars in his eyes. Though he wasn’t much of a fighter, he still admired his sister for being able to fight.

Kain and Amelia watched the little girl move, dodge, and turn. They saw the instructor telling her where she went wrong and what was wrong with her technique.

Kain had to admit that this virtual teacher was good. He would mind learning from it too. He watched the little girl and wondered how she still had so much baby fat.

Had it been him, his muscles would have muscles.

He stared at the virtual teacher and made a decision. He didn’t need that much muscle, but he was eager to develop his fighting style. What he learned was from the apocalypse, so it was still haphazard.

Supervised training would be good for him. It would be good for all of them.

The station didn’t have a specialized training ground right now, but he could ask Avery to borrow her for family training.

Parents should know not to take a child’s things just because they gave it to them. Any normal person should ask.

At least, that’s what Kain told himself.

When she finished training, Ashton’s clapping rang out in the room.

The sweat-covered Avery turned, stunned when she saw the three people watching her.

Ashton seeing her wasn’t a problem. He had seen her training multiple times. The disbelief on her face came from her parents seeing her.

She had never really shown her strength to her parents. Even before becoming an Awakened, her strength was higher than that of others. Now, she was really strong.

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She remembered the people in the lab telling her that she should be gentle. A girl who likes to fight won’t be loved.

But she couldn’t stop liking the feeling of fighting.

Amelia walked over and scooped her up before she could shed a tear. But the warm embrace did nothing to stop the tears from spilling over.

"Don’t cry," Amelia cooed. She bounced the little one in her arms.

She didn’t sob dramatically like Ashton; her tears fell down her cheeks like delicate beads. She sniffled push her face into the crook of Amelia’s neck.

"Sister cried too," Ashton whispered. "I’m not a crybaby."

After consoling her for a while, they asked why she was crying.

"Girls are supposed to be delicate. Fighting isn’t allowed."

Kain laughed and looked at Amelia, "Hear that, Amy, girls are supposed to be delicate."

Amelia gritted her teeth; the fire blazed in her eyes. Kain knew that had she not been holding Avery, she would have come over and beaten him.

"Don’t think about it," Kain said, backing away. "Domestic abuse solves nothing."

Amelia ignored him. "Ava, who told you girls are supposed to be gentle?"

"Doctor Ugly. Every time before a bath, he would tell me that I should be a gentle little girl."

An unnamed heat surged in Kain’s heart. "I’ll kill him," he said through gritted teeth.

Amelia tightened her grip on Avery. She cleared her throat. "Does Doctor Ugly bathe you often?"

"No. He isn’t the one who bathes me. A lady would bathe me. He would be on the other side of the glass. He would watch."

"Scum, he’s scum. He’s a scum-sucking son of a bitch. If he’s alive, I’ll kill him. If he’s dead, I’ll find his grave, light him on fire, and grind his bones to ash. If he has kids, they die too."

"Calm down," Amelia replied. She didn’t feel good about this either. But she needed to ask. "Did he watch your brothers, too?"

"Doctor Ugly watched everyone. When we eat, sleep, and bathe. We think he isn’t human. Even Doctor Red said so."

Amelia thought about what Avery said. It doesn’t sound like a perverted interest. Maybe the man really does think of them as test subjects. He doesn’t think they are human, so they don’t need the dignity of being treated as human.

Whatever the reason, she didn’t feel good about it.

"Let’s forget about Doctor Ugly for a while. Avery, you don’t need to pretend to be anything other than you. Do you think Mom is gentle all the time?"

Avery nodded. "You’re always gentle with me, my brothers, and dad."

Kain still felt like he had swallowed something sour, but he knew they couldn’t talk about it. He kept it in the back of his mind for later. In case he ever ran into Doctor Ugly.

He put on a smile, pushing away the fire in his heart.

"That’s because you haven’t seen your Mom get angry. Let me tell you. When she’s angry, she becomes super strong. If she hits you once, you lose your front teeth and fall over."

"Dad, did Mom hit you?" Ashton asked.

Kain put on a sad face, "She had. You don’t know Ash; your mom isn’t the nice lady you think she is."

Without knowing it, Amelia had put Avery down and walked over to Kain. With one quick shot to his stomach, she punched him. Quickly taking Ashton from his arms, she watched Kain double over.

"You dare say it again. We’re trying to console our daughter, not for you to act crazy."

The pain shot through him, and he felt numb. He looked up at Amelia, at the smug look in her eyes, and the pain gave way to something else.

He felt the front of his pants tighten. ’Not now. Are you a pervert? Damn.’ He had to talk himself down.

"Avery, don’t mind your father. He thinks he’s too smart for his own good." She smooths the little girl’s hair. "Remember, you don’t have to be gentle for people to like you. Also, don’t you remember you were beating someone when I first saw you? I didn’t care then, why would I care now?"

She looked at her mother with shining eyes. Her cheeks turned red when she heard the last part.

Avery had completely forgotten how she had met her parents. It seems Doctor Ugly was wrong. She didn’t need to be gentle. She could be tough like her mom.

If Amelia could hear Avery’s thoughts and hear her calling her tough, she would throw the whole child away.

"Come on, we need to go find your big brother. Our family needs to talk."

The four walked out of the training area, heading towards Dominic’s room. They hadn’t walked far when they saw Dominic standing outside Avery’s bedroom.