"Are you okay?" Greg asked Anni, she'd been silent since they left.
Rory was tied up in the boot of the car, so they were kind of alone.
"Yeh," she finally answered, obviously not okay.
Two people who were supposed to love her had basically said they didn't today and it stung, a lot. She knew Alwyn hadn't meant it like that, but it still hurt like a bitch.
"You know, he loves you, so much, he'd move mountains, heaven and earth to keep you safe? Right?" Greg was hoping she'd listen to him, he knew it wasn't his place to talk about this with her, but she'd asked him to come for a reason.
"I know," she was trying to hide how hurt she was, trying to focus on the anger she felt towards Rory, but all she could think of was the hurt she felt from what Alwyn had said.
"It's okay to hurt, I don't think you have any idea how much he loves you Anni, I remember about 12 years ago, Erik went after you, he knows you're unkillable, he knows you're indestructible, but he pushed you out of the way of a bullet, because he didn't want you to be hurt. That man would fight god himself to keep you safe," Greg pleaded with her, to forgive him, to know that he loves her beyond any reasonable measure.
"I know he does, doesn't mean it hurts any less when he said it. I know I'll always be the pathetic orphan who lost damn near everything. It would have hurt if Magnus said it, but nowhere near as much as Al saying it," she didn't know why it was different when Alwyn said it, she couldn't put her finger on it.
"It's different coming from him because he carried you out of that hospital, he was the one you came face to face with in the darkest of times, you and him, you've always had an odd bond, this strange force, pushing you together, I can see it with you and Magnus too, but the one between you and Alwyn is much stronger, Erik tried to break it several times but it truly was something not of this plain of existence," he said quietly, he was being truthful, he'd tried to investigate it over the years, how Alwyn always knew where she was, what she was feeling, it was almost unbelievable if he hadn't seen it for himself.
"I feel like I've lost a part of me, like somethings missing, it's painful," the tears started falling, she could feel it crumbling inside her, the bond they had was breaking.
"Oh god, I know what they did, they're trying to break me, from the inside, taking Charli away, Alwyn, then they'd have taken Dixi, and Mark and my niece, and then you," the upset was gone, the anger filled her body again, charging her powers back up to full whack.
Greg reached out towards her, he was shocked by the forcefield around her, "amazing, did you feel your powers 'turn on' there," he asked, making air quotes with his fingers.
"Yeh, I did? Like they're recharged? It was letting go of the sadness, and letting in the anger," Anni said, finally realising her powers were changed by her emotions.
"That's why they never worked right before, fuck, I'm so stupid," she yelled, facepalming herself for being so stupid.
"What?" He asked, panicking that she wouldn't be able to use them.
"I spent 17 years hiding my emotions, pushing them down, ignoring them, not feeling anger, sadness, happiness, love because I didn't want to, I didn't want to feel any of it, I was scared," she said, now realising that opening her emotions after meeting Charli finally helped her to use her powers to their full potential.
"When you met miss Charli, you finally had the range of emotions to use your powers, that's outstanding."
"Yeh, and now, I know exactly how to use them, it's my will to protect my family, Mark, Dixi, you, Charli, that powers them, anger fuels them, but not just blind rage, it's got to have a focus point, and right now, that's him," she said stopping the car, "let's go see what these can really do, shall we?"
