Conquered

Chapter 5 - Voice of reason

NOT EDITED

Chapter 5 - Voice of reason

Zane
"You're staring."

"Am I?"

"Yes."

"I want to be sure you're okay."

"And like I've said so many times before, I am fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Zane. Yes. Gosh, you're like a nagging boyfriend. I said I'm fine."

"Why did you do it? Besides the obvious."

"I don't know what the obvious is, but I did it because I was worried about you and because I was tired of being scared."

"And you wanted to get rid of someone you thought was your competition."

"Are you insinuating that I put my life in danger to get rid of a pesky child?"

"Didn't you?"

"I did not. I'll admit I asked for her help to get her in trouble because I didn't like the way she coveted what isn't hers, but that was after I had already made up my mind to face my demons, and especially because you were hurting."

"It's sweet you were worried about me, but whatever decision I made was to protect you."

"Good. Then we are equal. We both did what we did to protect each other."

"Okay, I'll let you off the hook this once."

"What's your relationship with her anyway?"

"I found Zara a few years ago in the fire colony. She was about ten then, although I'm not sure. She had no memory whatsoever. My guess is that they threw her out and wiped her memory when she became too much to handle. She didn't know her name, her age, or even if she had parents. Her powers were out of control. She would have killed anyone who dared approach her."

"But you did."

"I did. And because she had lost control of herself and her powers, and because she was so young, the only way to help her was to give her the resources to control them."

"By sharing your powers with her."

"If she was older I could have probably trained her to control it."

"But she was so young you couldn't."

"Right. So I brought her back with me and made her a part of my family."

"What will happen to her then?"

"When my powers are returned, she'll go back to the way she was before since there was no way to train her when she had them."

"She'll be too dangerous. Zane you can't."

"I can and I will. She gambled with your life, Aria. That's something I can't forgive."

"You don't have to forgive her, but she has no one now and if you turn your back on her you'll be abandoning her all over again, like the people from the fire colony."

"So what am I supposed to do? She needs to be punished."

"She's a child, and she looks up to you. I know you're disappointed, but ostracizing her won't make it better."

"So what do I do?"

"Well, the council has already been summoned so we can't stop that, but don't strip her of her title. You already made her a part of your family, therefore the general rule should not be applied to her."