Whatever Maren had ordered her to do left her mind when the sounds of blasts erupting took over every one of her senses. At every corner of the street was something happening- arson, vandalism, fights- it was obvious that the protests had escalated to a new high.

The ground rocked but just as everyone began running, the explosions eclipsed their futile attempts and their world- including hers- turned black.

The last thing Alara remembered was a boy, who somehow impossibly looked both familiar and unfamiliar, screaming her name.

Wait, why is there smoke everywhere...?

Who is he? He looks so familiar...

Something, someone, was shaking her vigorously, making her feel like punching the life out of that person. A piercing sound was invading her ears, giving her a blistering headache.

OW. Stop shaking at my throbbing arm, if you do that again, it WILL SWELL and oww...

Open your eyes, Alara, you've got to defend your poor arm... come on, lift those double-eyelids!

One, two.

She regretted doing that as brightness invaded her eyes and she blinked furiously.

"You're alive, you're alive!"

Gathering all her strength, she sat up and focused on her attacker. Instead of punching, she was stunned to tears when she saw him. She knew that face anywhere in an instant.

Her little brother. Renald.

Ren.

Renegade tears flowed freely down the curve of her cheeks as she embraced her brother tightly. Her main focus was now on the boy in her arms.

When she tasted the saltiness of her tears, she gingerly pulled him apart and assessed her brother. "Ren," her voice croaked as she stroked his cheek, which was sallow and rough. Hugging him close to her, she smelt the heady scent of smoke. Worried, she pulled apart and cupped his face. "Are you injured anywhere? Are you hurt by the blasts?"

"No, I'm not, Lara, I'm not. I just want to hug you again and never let you go."

Lara. It's been so long since I last heard that.

His voice was octaves lower than before and her heart ached as she realised that she would never hear the high-pitched version of Ren's voice again. She had once loathed that annoying pitch, and yet now she missed it.

But she was beyond grateful that he was alive. Somehow, her brother had made his way to her and found her.

I just hope that he didn't have to go through Hell to do so.

Against all odds, he was here, reunited with his sister.

With my family.

"This is my brother, Renald Berrera. Renald. Ren." He blushed, embarrassed when she tried out variations of his name.

It had been so long since he was addressed as Renald or Ren that a feeling of strangeness was evoked in him. Though he was cognizant of the fact that 'Renald' was his real name, he was so used to being called 'Vequam' that he felt weird detached from his real name. The irrational urge to shout "My name is Vequam!" irked him like an itch that he could not scratch but he tried his best to suppress the urge for he knew how hurt she would be if he did that.

As he stifled a sigh, a tall man made his way towards them.

"Hello, I'm Maren." the man greeted him by closing his fists with one hand. What an odd way to greet... wait, is he going to punch me? Renald responded with the only way he knew- he spat on the floor and stood up, his stance a defensive one. No one is ever going to hurt me again. Never.

He knew he had done the wrong thing when he saw consternation passing the man's steel-blue eyes and his sister's perturbed expression. Unsure how to diffuse the tense atmosphere in the room, he wondered if he should apologise when Maren exclaimed, "You sure are stronger than Alara! I bet you'll beat her in a fight."

His sister played along, joking, "No way! I'll win for sure."

Feeling unsure, he responded with a light chuckle. "You are..."

"Me? I'm Maren... Alara's friend."

Alara tossed and turned in her bed, unable to fall asleep.

Even at 3AM, the cogs of her mind were actively working with no intention of stopping. Memories of the events of Operation Endgame flashed in her mind, and her stomach lurched when she recalled Keyla's attempted murder of her.

She had been fortunate that her wounds to her arm and leg were only superficial ones. If Keyla had made deep cuts or put in extra force when she slashed her, she would have become a vegetable. Her nerve endings would have been cut and there was no way she could recover from such serious damage.

Why did she want to kill me? There was determination in her eyes but hesitation in her actions. What did she really want? Why did she think that killing me was the only way to achieve her goals?

Sighing, Alara got up and made her way to Renald's room, where he was currently sleeping like the dead. She stroked his hair, smiling at just the sight of her sleeping brother.

Cradling his small frame, she planted a kiss on his cheek and sighed contentedly. Her brother was back. My brother really is here, right here in the flesh. He is not just a mere figment of my imagination. This is not a dream. He's here. He really is.

A tear rolled down her cheek when the reality struck true to her. For so long, she had only seen her brother in her dreams.

Now, this was reality.

A knock at the door jolted her out from her reverie. Alara jerked her head and saw Maren with his arms crossed observing her with a hawk's eye. "Alara. We need to talk."

"Now?"

"This is urgent. Besides, you have to leave Ren to himself. Give him some privacy- this must be so overwhelming for him too. He needs time to himself."

Sensing the sincerity and honesty in Maren's tone, Alara nodded her head meekly and followed him.

Tension had never been more fraught in the air, and she had an idea of what he wanted to ask.

Of why this meeting was so urgent and important to him.

Why did Keyla want to kill you?

What are you going to do now that Renald is back?

Are you leaving the Ascendancy Agency now?

But what he didn't know was that there was no way she could answer these questions, especially the first one. Keyla's attempt at rendering her arm was thankfully thwarted by the lack of strength used to slash her. Had the cuts been deeper, her arm would never feel or function properly again.

The stitches and the scar on her arm broke her heart. Once upon a time, she had believed that Keyla was one of the purest souls beside Rielle to ever grace the Ascendancy Agency. She had had faith that Keyla would never harm her and always stick by her like a sister would, and yet Keyla's parting gift was a scar on her arm that would never fade.

Did Keyla hate me? Had I ever given her reason to loathe me so? Is my life just a string of betrayals after another? Was everything about our friendship fake?

"I know what you want to ask."

"Good."

"About Keyla- Maren, I have no idea why-"

"It's not about her."

"What?" Looking up at Maren with confusion in her eyes, Alara got up from her armchair and leaned her head against a bookshelf. "Then what is this about?"

"Your brother. Renald."

The moment those three words escaped his lips, Alara's chocolate brown eyes turned so dark that they almost resembled an ebony colour.

"My brother? Renny? Why?"

"We need to address the elephant in the room, Alara." He knew that she was cognizant of what he truly meant and was not surprised to see her trying so hard to accept it.

To accept the notion that her brother was emotionally scarred, scarred for life even. To accept the fact that her brother was psychologically manipulated and messed with during his time as a captive.

"What elephant in the room, Maren? My brother is perfectly fine." Alara retorted defensively, her eyes shooting daggers at him.

"You and I both know that this is so far from the truth. Alara, he has been hurt severely by his captor." He hated that he was the one who had to force her to accept the truth; to open her eyes so soon when she was just reunited with her brother. But the earlier she saw what he saw, the earlier they could get the help Renald desperately needed.

Denying it, he knew, never helped.

"Alara. You can lie to yourself, but your eyes cannot." His brutally honest advice was met with a tight slap across his cheek.

Yet it was Alara's tears that stung more than the slap he had received from her.

"You bastard. Go back to the hellhole you crawled out from! You bastard! How dare you accuse my brother of being... hurt. Of being mentally damaged. You just have to ruin everything I have, right? I can't even hold this little precious bit of peace in my life close to my heart?" Before she turned on her heel and stormed out of the library, she viciously spat at him. "Go to Hell, Maren Santos. Go to Hell."

He had not meant to eavesdrop originally. But it was hard when his hearing was Maren and Alara were practically arguing at the top of their voices.

He couldn't help but wonder if he was mentally scarred too, for the moments of Tania's last dying moments was something that was embedded into his mind. He wanted to be rid of it, to forget.

He wanted to be from the traumatic memory.

But it wouldn't leave him no matter how hard he tried to shake it off. If I had done something, if only I had been faster, quicker...

The sound of muffled sobs pulled him out from his thoughts, and he was shocked when he realised that it was he who was sobbing. Hastily rubbing his tears away, he headed to the opposite direction of the library when his friend stopped him.

"Are you okay?"

Three simple words from his long-time friend was all that it took for the dam to break.

"No. I'm not okay."

Maren enveloped him into a tight, comforting hug, patting his head and whispering words that he could not hear. All he did was grip Maren's shirt tightly as a means for him to remain in the present and not the past.

___

"Tania died. Just like that."

After recounting the events of what he experienced, Maren hugged him again briefly. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to stand with you."

"Don't be." Elioenai responded softly. "You saved Alara's life."

Maren sighed and lay on the sofa, looking visibly fatigued all of a sudden. "To do that, I had to kill Keyla. My friend. I don't know if I did the right thing."

"I know Alara called you a bastard. You know she didn't mean it, do you?"

Maren huffed at that. "She did. She did, trust me. In that heat of the moment, I was nothing but a bastard stripping her happiness away from her."

"You were too direct." Elioenai maintained eye contact with his old friend, and Maren broke it first.

"You know why, Eli."

"I do. But you were a tad too straightforward. These aren't easy things to digest, Maren. I know you mean well, and she does too. But what she needs is time- everyone deals with different things at their own pace. Time is what she needs."