Tatsuo couldn’t believe this. He could not fucking believe this. Nineteen years of not knowing, of hiding, of worrying about other people finding out what he was when he didn’t even know what he was, and all of a sudden some random stranger comes along and gives him the answer to a question he’s been asking himself since he was five?!

Bull. Shit.

“Like hell we’re aliens.” Tatsuo growled. “If you’d told me that those red-eyed white… things were aliens, then yeah, I’d buy it. What the hell were those things anyway?”

“Anmal.” High-Mother helpfully supplied.

“What?”

“That’s what they’re called.” High-Mother said. “The Anmal. They’re the reason that we came to Earth in the first place.” Seeing that she now had the boys complete attention, she continued. “Long ago, the Luminescents used to inhabit our own planet. Deinuse. We were a peaceful people, until the Anmal came. They wanted to enslave us, and use our abilities to expand their empire. War raged for thousands of years. Our race was on the brink of extinction when a plan was devised. Four ships would leave Deinuse in secret to seek other inhabitable planets. Of course, we couldn’t bare to leave our home planet to be ravaged and picked over for resources by the Anmal, so a sizable group of warriors stayed behind. As far as we know, they are still fighting to this day. The rest of us left to find new homes where the Anmal couldn’t find us. One ship went to Spird, another to Arcaph, Repdra, then the last one, came here, to Earth. Those of us who came to Earth were safe here for some time, but the Anmal found us. They know the location of Spird and Arcaph too, but thankfully Repdra remains safe. Since then we have been fighting a war we had thought we left behind when we fled our home.”

In the silence that ensued after this speech, surprisingly enough, Daichi was the one to chime in with “This doesn’t make sense.”

“I know this can be a lot to handle-”

“No, I mean this doesn’t make sense.” Daichi said. “If there’s been a war going on for who knows how long-”

“On Earth, it has been going on well before the era of Jesus Christ.” High-Mother interjected.

“Then we would have heard about it!” Daichi finished.

“Convenience.”

“What?” Daichi asked.

“It’s been kept a secret from all but those who need to know for the sake of convenience. Once, humans accepted us, some even worshipped us as gods, aided us in our fight against the Anmal. However, once paganism fell out of favor, and they began to refer to us as “witches” we decided it would be best if we kept to ourselves. No use in fighting two battles at once after all.”

“How?” Daichi demanded. “How could you possibly have kept this a secret for what? A thousand years? More?”

Normally, Tatsuo hated it when Daichi got all naggy like that. It was irritating; except when it was directed at someone else.

High-Mother shot him a deadpan look. “We have numerous magical abilities at our disposal. It wasn’t hard.”

Tatsuo fought to hold back a smirk as Daichi flushed. And there was nothing better than seeing his own attitude get served back to him.

Taking another assessing look at the group who had fallen silent again after that last exchange, High-Mother set down her cup of tea and said “It appears that you will need more time than I have at the moment to process all that you’ve learned; my students will escort you to your home, and then return tomorrow to guide you back to Sanctuary. Perhaps then we can discuss how it is you’ve managed to grow up knowing nothing of your heritage. Goodbye.”

With that, they were herded by the High-Mother’s guard out the door and back into the stone hallway.