After the loss of their Thunder Mage, most of the heroes were really heartbroken as he was generally one of the most open members of the group. There was something else on Shade's mind though, figuring out what Anthony meant by 'never have to go through that again'. The Vallite often left the room before Shade could open her mouth to ask. Common word was that she should just give up and leave him be, but Shade wanted to do something. She cared about everyone in the Order of Heroes, and this case was no different. Little did she know, she'd get her chance.

While doing her normal rounds before heading to bed, Shade had something to deliver to the boy. When she had went into town earlier in the day to take her mind off of the mage's death, Lukas had mentioned that they had passed by some candies that the smaller boy mentioned to Reinhardt were some of his favorites. As she approached the door, she could hear sobbing, presumably his...

"Anthony?" Shade cooed.

"Go away." The boy replied from the other side of the door. "I don't need anyone right now..."

"Well, I wanted to drop something off." She replied as she opened the door slightly. "Lukas told me how these were your favorites so I wanted to try and cheer you up." She pulled the bag of candy from her pocket as she said that.

"Shade, I'm not you. I can't be cheered up with food." A fuller image of what kind of mood he was in was finally in full view. His eyes were red and puffy, snot dripping from his nose, his face was all red and he still looked pretty unsteady, even with Reinhardt's scarf around his neck, and the poor kid was curled into a ball on his bed, knees up to his chest and arms wrapped around his legs.

"Well there is something I did want to ask you..." Shade said as she put the candy on the nightstand and sat next to him on the bed. "What did you mean by 'going through that again'...?"

"If you really want to know... I'll relent... See Valla wasn't the greatest of places when Anankos was crazy... He was super strict and would punish people for the smallest of mistakes. When I told you he turned me into a faceless, that was one of his lesser punishments... When I escaped with me and some others, they were killed off one by one as we moved on... By the time I got to where Ariel found me, everyone was dead. My friend Vethale who was like my older brother sacrificed himself in order for me to get there... It was a cruel world... There was a motto we all went by. It was kill or be killed. So when I was summoned here, I finally felt safe and like I could love people again and try to form a family... And when I was in Valla, they had an expansive library beyond your wildest dreams... I read all of these legends about these heroes in order to escape cruel, cruel reality, and when I did learn that I'd be fighting alongside these guys, it was like my fantasies coming to life. I knew Reinhardt died in his timeline, so when he was the first one to greet me, I felt such wonderous things that I wish I can feel again... He became my older brother in how kind he was... And when this all happened... It was history repeating it'self..." His voice started to crack with tears as they poured down his face before he buried his face in his knees. "I failed again... I can't protect anyone I love can I? I tried to kill my best friend who I had a crush on, my other friends died protecting me, and now Reinhardt's dead because I couldn't take out a foe that Berkut could defeat with ease..."

"Don't doubt yourself... Berkut has had a lot more experience in combat and he had New Moon charged up... We're still trying to find you someone with Luna or Sol or something like that. For a kid who's gone through hell and back and with the amount of combat training you have has to be strong." Shade said as she wrapped one arm around him.

"Me? Strong?" He looked up a bit.

"Of course! I mean you've never hesitated to take enemy Ninos and Cecilias head on for Rein, despite you knowing that they have weapon triangle advantage over you. You've taken on so many mage attacks for Lukas so that he could be healed by Lucius... Your kind of everyone's blessing."

"A blessing?"

"Yeah! If you didn't take those attacks we'd probably be farther back than we are now."

"Thank you Shade for letting me confess... It felt good for me to get that off my shoulders." And at that moment, Shade thought she could see Reinhardt do bunny ears behind the brunet for a split second.