Winter's Burn

• XXIV •

Aeron opened her eyes to the sun peeking through the leaves of a tree, high in the sky. She quickly stood, her head buzzing as she tried to find William and senka. How could she have left them alone like that?

"Hey," Will's hands grabbed her upper arms gently, shushing her as he pushed her to a sitting position. She was still weak, even if she wouldn't admit it. After her frantic eyes calmed as she realized the two of them were alright, her right hand clutched her side, still sore from the wound.

William took her wrist. "Don't irritate it." He chastised. "Senka healed as much as she could, but she needs to recover her energy before the rest. Please try not to hurt yourself."

Aeron rolled her eyes. "I'm fine." She dismissed his hands as she stood again, ignoring the headrush and pain in her side. "I'm not a child."

"No, but right now you're injured." He agreed with her, but he was worried she was going to hurt herself further. They needed to change the subject. "We have to leave."

Aeron agreed, starting to walk back down the side of the road, William and senka following behind her.

After lots of walking (and arguing), they made it to another abandoned building, this time a small, isolated cabin. Aeron got the fireplace lit and sat down on the couch across the one-room house.

She was exhausted. She would never admit it, but that much walking left her tired and weaker than she already was.

William joined her on the couch, sitting to her right as Senka sat to her left, once more beginning to heal her wound.

They sat in silence, the occasional pained intake of breath from Aeron breaking it every few seconds. She never vocalised her pain, but William could tell it was more than she was letting on.

"Thank you" Her voice was barely a whisper, but her thanks were sincere as Senka finished healing the wound, now appearing as a scar along her side. Aeron dropped her shirt as she leaned back into the old couch.

"Could you give us a minute?" Will asked Senka.

"Yeah." She stood and walked out of the room.

They looked at each other for a bit, neither one sure where to start. He had so many questions. What she did to the man in the road scared him, how did she stop him from moving? Why didn't he fight back? Who was he?

"Will, I-"

Aeron was interrupted with a gentle "Aeron" from Will, who had finally mustered up the courage to ask. "What did you do back there? How did you-" He struggled to find the words.

Aeron sighed. "You don't know the half of it."

"Then tell me. I'm here. You're not alone anymore."

She looked at her hands, a gesture of insecurity will had yet to have seen in the ginger. "I'm not proud of what I am, where I came from, how- I..happened."

William put his hand on top of hers, a small comforting gesture, urging her to continue.

"That man, the one that shot me. His name is Ivan."

William furrowed his brows, struggling to see why that was relevant but not wanting to interrupt.

"He's my father."

Will's eyebrows shot up in surprise, though he tried not to show it.

"And yours."

William couldn't contain himself after that. "What? No. My dad's overseas. Working. He-"

Aeron let out a humorless laugh. "Overseas, and yet you've never heard from him, your mother made no effort to reach out, shut you down whenever you asked about him, hell you don't even know what he looks like."

She was right. He didnt even have a reason to believe his father was real until now. "So we're... siblings?"

"Half. Our mothers...are different." She paused after mothers, looking distant before snapping back.

Will noticed. After a beat of silence, he asked, "Aeron. Who is your mom?"

She smiled and closed her eyes, looking like she was about to cry at the thought of her own mother.

"She was the best person I ever knew," Aeron began as Will scooted closer, placing an arm around her. Aeron generally didn't like being touched, but this was nice. Familiar. "She was a test subject, part of some kind of study Ivan conducted in the beginning of the comp. He said it was to 'unlock the true potential of the brain.' My mom volunteered, with about 20 others. They did something to them that changed their DNA, caused the synapses in their brain to fire differently. It made them able to..push people. They could tell them what to do, what to think. You could put yourself into someone's mind and control their actions." She paused. "My mom was the only one that survived it. The rest failed one way or another, some went crazy, some flat out died because their bodies couldn't take it. Ivan wanted to know what made her able to survive, if it was something in her DNA. He wanted more of her, so he... She got pregnant, and she had me."

Aeron began to break, she had never said this out loud. She never had anyone to talk to, and here she was, spilling her guts to her little brother.

Aeron rested her head on his shoulder, his presence comforting her before she continued. "I was raised there. My mom is probably the only reason my life was semi-normal growing up. She taught me to read and write, she was the only person there that made me understand what kindness was. What a family was supposed to look like. They couldn't have that.  She died when I was 9. They said it was an accident, but every time I asked what happened they changed the story. I'm not sure I want to know."

Tears fell from William's eyes as he held her. Usually she was so stoic, so put together. But now, she felt so small, fragile, broken. Like a beautiful doll someone dropped, cracking its porcelain mask.

"After that they stopped pretending to care. It was training, day after day, nonstop unless they were 'testing' me. They wanted me to be a weapon. That's when my abilities manifested. They're similar to hers, as far as I know. I can convince people of things, control them, but I got hurt whenever I tried to use them on anyone. They gave me these pills that slowed down my cognition, made me compliant. Ivan told me about you. He threatened you to get me to obey. I didn't want to see you hurt, I didn't want anyone to go through what I went through. But they got you anyway...Will I'm so sorry." Her voice broke as she curled into him. She wanted to protect him from anything that could ever hurt, and she failed him.

William put his hand on her head, wrapping his arm tighter around her.

"When you arrived I was under their control, but something about seeing you made me want to fight back. I..I couldn't let you guys go through that, but I had to play along. They took me off those pills for a few days, had to get them out of my system before they could do another experiment they were planning. That's when I came to your room. I had a moment of clarity and I wasn't about to waste it. I was able to immobilize everyone for a few minutes, get them all into a room so we could leave, but I couldn't hold it. To use my powers...it hurts. If I use them too much, or too long, it's like someone bashing my skull with a hammer. I'm sorry I couldn't keep them back longer. We were so close. If I could've just-"

"No," Will interrupted, "No 'if's. You saved our asses, we couldn't have gotten out of there without your help. You did everything you could, and that's what got us out." He was not about to let his sister feel worthless. She was strong, insanely so, and she needed to know that. "You're amazing, Aeron. You've helped me, helped us, more than we could ever repay you for. It's a fucking honor to be related to you."

She looked up and gave him a weak smile. "Thank you."

"Thank you for telling me this, I know it took a lot of strength. Get some rest, you should be healed by morning."

"You're not supposed to take care of me, thats my job," She glared jokingly.

"Well, I am. Deal with it."

She let out a small laugh before she closed her eyes and fell into an exhausted sleep. William slowly placed her head down from his shoulder and wrapped her in a blanket before going to find Senka.