"Jeff kept your secret Kayo, and I will too. But you're going to have to tell them eventually"
The wise words which escaped the lips of Grandma Tracy, all those months ago, ran through Kayo's mind like a marathon as she clambered into Thunderbird S. Watching Banino waltz away Scott-free with a devilish smirk written across his face.
This secret, the one she had kept from the ones she loved, the one which was devouring her soul every minute of every day. It was over. If she kept it as little as a day longer she really would be picking up the pieces. Of herself.
Kayo took off into the sunrise, the subject of her secret still violently playing on her mind. She retrieved the cellular device she had salvaged from the grasp of Banino; opening it to see the photo of herself and the hood. No that wasn't them. That was a girl who was long gone, an innocent girl without a care in the world, a girl who liked Kung fu because it was a fun challenge; not a way of defending herself from danger.
That was twelve year old Tanusha Kyrano and her uncle.
This young woman, the woman flying the black stealth craft through the sunrise, was eighteen year old Kayo Kyrano. Six years was all it took for that girl to be nothing but a memory.
Of course there were days when that girl did manage to seep through to the surface. Days when the woman wasn't in the field, as stereotypical as this may be, the girl shone through on they days the woman spent with a boy so dear to her heart. A boy who took her through the stars. A boy who, despite his job, was still innocent like the girl before her. It was this boy whom beckoned the girl inside the woman to join him.
I silent tear slid down Kayo's cheek. How did she let this happen?
Suddenly, she remembered the mission. Scott was going to need feedback... Kayo turned her comms on.
"Scott, bad news, Banino got away" she lied on impulse. Lying had come natural to her in recent years, it was part of who Kayo was. All of that had to end. Today.
The words being thrown at her by Scott and Lady Penelope went by in a blur. Right now her mind couldn't process another thing. She had to tell the truth, she had to tell the men she had come to know as brothers her secret. Before the learnt it from the mouth of another. She had to be the one to do it.
It was now or never.
"Scott, once everyone is together, there is something I need to tell you all. Something I should have said long ago" she announced bravely. She didn't acknowledge a reply, she just remained on her flight path.
Taking one last look at the picture of her former self, she turned off the device. This moment was just another ending to another version of miss Kyrano. She now had to take a new path, for better or worse. A path that wasn't constructed of secrets and lies.