The rain had begun to fall before dawn, and it continued to slide down the windows as if it refused to leave. The drops, regular and gentle, marked the rhythm of a house that never fully slept, even though everyone pretended otherwise.
In the playroom, surrounded by toys and colorful rugs, Iker lay on the floor. The body of a young man. The mind of a man.
And his heart… torn between the past and what he had just discovered.
In front of him were Axel and Dana.
The twins.
Two children who bore his last name but not his memories.
Two little ones with big eyes and even bigger silences.
Two lives that until recently hadn't been his own… and that now looked at him with a mixture of reserve and contained hope.
Axel, as always, was on the move. The wheels of a toy jeep glided along a makeshift track, while a plastic T. rex roared in his closed fist. Iker recognized that energy: a formless mix of curiosity and fury. It was exactly what he had been like at that age… before he learned to swallow everything he felt.
Dana, on the other hand, was building. Silently. Methodically. She was erecting a kind of fortress with blocks, figures, and recycled pieces.
A sanctuary.
A refuge.
Every wall she put up seemed to say: "No one will break me here."
Gabriel—inside Iker's body—didn't dare interrupt them. He just watched, memorizing the gestures, the sounds, the details.
He was learning to be a father in real time.
"Do you like the T. rex?" he finally asked, turning to Axel.
"Yes. It's the king. Everyone is afraid of it."
"And you like that?"
Axel thought for a second.
"Yes. But also… it makes me feel sorry for it. Because it's alone. It has no friends."
Iker felt something in his chest tighten. It wasn't an innocent comment. It was a disguised confession.
"And you? Which one do you like best?" he asked the boy.
"The triceratops," he replied, showing the figure. "It doesn't want to fight. But if it's bothered, it uses its horns."
Gabriel smiled. A smile that was new to that face.
"That's very brave," he told her. "Defending without wanting to attack first."
Axel nodded, as if he'd always known.
"And you, Dana?" he asked, turning to her. "What are you doing?"
"A house for the dinosaurs," she replied without looking at him.
"And why a house?"
"Because if they're loose, they'll hurt them. They're safe here. No one touches them without permission."
Gabriel leaned in slowly, approaching his daughter.
Until that moment, Dana hadn't looked at him directly.
But now they do.
And his eyes were deep, like those of a being much older than his body.
"Do you want to protect them?" he asked.
Dana nodded seriously.
"I want them to have a place where they aren't afraid."
That place.
That was Arkaia.
But she didn't know it yet.
Neither she... nor he.
"Can I ask you something?" Axel said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Sure," Iker replied.
"Why didn't you play with us before?"
The question fell like a silent bolt of lightning.
Dana also stopped constructing. She looked at him with the same expression. Not anger. Not pain.
Assessment.
Gabriel swallowed. His rehearsed answers, his scientific justifications, all crumbled.
"Because... I was lost," he said, without embellishment.
"And have you found yourself?" Dana asked.
"Not quite," he replied. "But finding you guys... it helps me."
Axel narrowed his eyes. He thought. And then, without a word, he handed him the triceratops.
"It's yours now. Take care of it."
Dana, without speaking, approached. She took a small stone she had placed in the center of her fortress and placed it in her father's palm.
"It's the rock of the heart," she said. "If it falls, everything breaks."
Gabriel couldn't help it. He felt a lump in his throat that wasn't sadness, or nostalgia, or guilt.
It was something new.
It was the desire to deserve what he had just been given.
A boy gave him defense.
A girl gave him heart.
And with that... something was born that not even the system could calculate.
That night, after the children went to sleep, Iker stayed in the playroom. The lights were off. The silence intact.
He turned on the system. The notification appeared like a mental whisper.
🧠 Emotional State: Stable
Family Unity: Authentic Connection in Progress.
Consolidated Human Values: Protection – Affection – Responsibility
✦ Warning: Before reviving extinct creatures, understand the living. The human ecosystem remains the most fragile.
✦ Symbolic Record Added: Heart Stone.
Gabriel caressed the stone in his pocket. It wasn't magical. It had no technology. It unlocked no genetic secrets.
And yet…
it was the most powerful artifact he had ever received.