Gold Sparks

Chapter Twenty-One

"Auden, Auden wake up," a soft voice awoke me as I felt a gentle hand on my arm, "Auden, please, wake up."

Slowly my eyes opened and the sight of grey eyes welcomed me and cause my eyes to widen in joy for the first time in ages.

"Ace!" I threw my arms around him and hugged him tight. His arms wrapping around me too. "I'm so sorry for dragging you into this, I didn't know that you could get hurt. I'm so-"

He cut me short when he pulled me back to look at me, "What are you talking about Auden?"

I stared through blurry eyes at him in disbelief, "I'm the reason you are here. They have you here to make me do things. They are using you as motivation."

He put his hands on either side of my face in comfort, "Auden, they didn't take me because of you."

I shook my head, "No, you're wrong, I'm the one that got you dragged here. I'm the one that they want."

A smirk went onto his face, "Auden, don't flatter yourself too much."

"What?"

Ace came closer, "Auden, I need you to trust me."

Again, confusion coated my expression, "Ace, we've gone through this."

He came even closer, his dark hair brushing my cheek as he went to whisper in my ear, "I'm not Ace."

Quickly I pushed him back, "What do you mean?" I was frozen, this wasn't Ace? Who then? How?

The boy came close and held me, "I'm going to get you out of here."

I didn't push him away and instead just looked into his eyes, "How can I trust you, if I don't know who you are?"

He rubbed a hand overtop of his face, his eyes closing. When they opened, they shone a light purple.

His eyes changed back once he saw my jaw drop, understanding that he knew that I knew who he was now, "Why are you helping me?"

"All that happened, all the pain that Ian inflicted onto 'Ace,' that was real. Just on me instead, Ace isn't even here."

I shook my head violently, a stutter in my voice, "How could your own sister do that to you? I thought you were close to Ian, so how can he just have you suffer?"

Seth looked down sighed, "Xena, she doesn't realize that what she is doing is terrible. She's- she's brainwashed in a sense."

Confusion coated my face, "Brainwashed?"

He nodded and leaned against the cement wall, making sure his eyes were facing just me, "We've lived with Ian all of our lives. He took us in when we were kids. Xena and I were the first of the Coren he had found. Since Xena's power was more violent, it was triggered more easily than mine, plus it didn't help with the fact that she already naturally angry, so it was hard to hide the fact that we were different. Our parents, got scared of what we were, not sure how it even happened, so they kicked us off the street, for fear that Xena may kill them. They didn't know I had powers too, so I was still allowed in the house. But, she was my sister, my twin, and I couldn't have her fend for herself. So, we took off together, two nine year olds alone on the streets."

I placed a soft hand on his shoulder, "How'd Ian find you?"

His body shook as he took a breath. It was hard listening to his story, especially as all of Seth's words were coming out of Ace's mouth. "One day, our hunger got the best of us. We went to a small farmer's market and tried to swipe some items. Of course we were nine around with time, we didn't really know the art of stealing at that age. As expected we were caught, and the owner of the cart wasn't very happy. He grabbed Xena by the arm and threw her onto the floor and screamed at her. Next thing you know, we both are getting carried away by Ian and the man was on the floor, blood seeping out of his ears," he hiccuped and took another long, slow breath, "He explained that no one understood us but him; that we were in the right. That we were greater than others who didn't have powers. Later he heard of the word Coren, and that was when he realized there were more people out there like us. That was when he decided to start an army."