Several weeks had passed since the Christmas ball and I could see that both Chris and Piers were beginning to get anxious. Neither had been used to simply sitting around, no orders, nothing to do. Chris had begun to get back into working out, shedding the pounds he had gained over the Christmas holiday. Unfortunately Piers was still healing up from his injection of the C-virus and Chris would not let him work out extensively. So Piers had started running with me to at least get a little bit of exercise. The rest of his time was spent on the shooting range, letting out his pent up anger over being limited in his abilities.

"Sierra," Piers said walking up to me as I painted in my studio.

"Hey Piers," I replied, looking up from the canvas in front of me.

"Your painting is fantastic!" he exclaimed. He leaned in to get a closer look at the oil painting. It was a carnival-like take on Alice in Wonderland.

"Thank you!" I replied, smiling. I wiped a bead of sweat off my forehead and turned down the music. I loved to listen to Japanese music when I painted. Their songs all painted such interesting images in my mind, lending in part to my creativity.

"I have a favor to ask of you," Piers said, his eyes intensely focused on me, almost as if he was afraid I would turn him away.

"Shoot," I replied, arching my eyebrow.

"I want you to train me," Piers said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Train you?" I asked confused. "You know what Chris said about you training. He doesn't want you to put too much strain on yourself."

"That's why I want you to train me," he replied. "You know the limitations that I have."

"Piers, I am no good at physical training," I said setting down my paintbrush and wiping my hands on my apron.

"No! No, no, no, no!" Piers laughed. "I want you to train me using this stupid power!" A little electricity fizzled under his skin as he laughed. My eyes widened as I realized what he was asking of me. I knew how to channel power, but it had been a long time since I had ever actually used it as a weapon.

"Let me think about it," I replied in a shaky voice. Piers caught the hesitation in my voice and nodded, letting out a sigh. He turned and walked out of the room, his head hung. I stood and put my paints away, without saying a word. Thoughts were whirling through my mind, was it worth it? The last time I had tried to use the blackness within me I had ended up unconscious in the hospital. My gut was telling me that this was not a good idea, but I knew that he would not rest until I had agreed. He might leave me alone about it for today and maybe tomorrow, but he would come back. He needed to know his limits and he would not rest until he knew his own limits. Before I knew it, my mind was made up.

I walked through the halls to try to find Piers, but I was having some difficulties locating him. I did find Chris hanging out in the indoor "gym". He was working on strengthening the muscles he felt had lost some of their mass. Chris grunted in greeting so I simply rolled my eyes and walked away.

"What are you up to?" Chris asked, joining me in my search. He wiped his brow with a sweat towel before tossing it on to his shoulder.

"I am looking for Piers," I replied, slightly repulsed. Chris smirked at me, realizing that I was being squeamish. I stuck my tongue out at him, like I used to when we were kids. He laughed and simply ruffled my hair.

"I think he was heading this way," Chris said, as we headed out the back door.

Finally we found Piers. He was outside at the shooting range, his sniper rifle in hand. I noticed though that he was wearing his new sniper scarf that I had bought him for Christmas. He was focusing through the telescope when he heard us trudging across the frozen ground, the hard grass crunching beneath our feet. He fired the shot before turning to look at us.

"Hey Captain, hey Sierra," Piers said. Chris nodded with a sunny smile in response, but I didn't say anything in reply. I felt bad when I heard his tone of voice. He was still a little upset and hurt that I hadn't agreed to train him.

"I've made up my mind," I said to him once he had taken off the silencing headset.

"Will you train me?" Piers asked, looking up with a bright smile.

"Yeah," I replied with a heavy sigh. "I would rather train you then have you try it on your own and accidentally overexert yourself."

"Thank you!" Piers exclaimed. He set the rifle on the ground gently before pulling me into his arms, spinning me around. I laughed nervously as he put me down. Chris went and stood a little father back, towards the house. He was curious to see what would happen. He almost seemed a little skeptical to see what we were capable of.

"So what do I do?" Piers asked excitedly.

"Okay, so like I mentioned you do not control the energy inside of you. You are simply its guide," I said. "You must ground yourself; the Earth is your balance." I planted my feet firmly on the ground, about shoulder-width apart. My knees bent slightly to balance out my equilibrium. I breathed in deeply, guiding the inner energy with my hand. I let it flow down through my stomach and out of my body. This led the mist away from my heart, eliminating slightly the possibility of the virus infecting my heart again. The black, shadowy mist shot out of my palm, straight into an old pine tree. The tree twisted in on itself, shriveling into a blackened stick, the needles turned to ash and fell in a pile at the base of the stick.

"Holy shit," Chris exclaimed behind me. I turned and grinned lopsidedly at him. I let my hair fall over my face; I wished he had not seen what I had just done. I had only shown Piers because it was absolutely necessary for him.

"So like this?" Piers asked. He copied my stance and the motions I had made with my hands, shooting electricity out of his arm. It wasn't much, but did fry the tree next to the once I had desecrated.

"You forgot to breathe in, that's where your power will come from," I replied. He nodded and tried once more, still not much happened.

"Here, watch my movements once more," I said. I went into my stance once more and passed the energy through my body, shooting the mist out of my palm once more. Another tree fell victim to the blackness that I lived with. I was beginning to feel faint, but I ignored the warning signals, and I motioned for Piers to try again. Piers copied my stance once more, breathed in, and guided his energy out of his body. This time a steady stream of powerful electricity exploded against the next tree, shattering it into splinters, which flew across the range. Chris had to duck, running closer to us so he wouldn't be impaled by the large shrapnel.

"There you go!" I said, with a smile. "Do that again."

"Damn Sierra," Chris laughed, punching my arm. I grinned at him and took my stance beside Piers. Together we shot the different strains of the C-virus at the target. The white electricity intertwined with the blackness and they swirled together, gaining speed as they flew towards the target. It exploded as well, though not as impressively as the tree.

"Did you see that Captain?!" Piers asked, turning to look at Chris. Chris' however wore an expression of true shock. In all his time working with bioterrorism he had seen nothing like it, it was a weapon that could be turned against Simmons if the right precautions were taken.

I prepared to shoot another stream off, but something was wrong. The energy inside me, which had been benign for so many years, was beginning to stir. I simply gritted my teeth and started to guide the energy, but I couldn't. Pain was ripping through my body. I could feel the blackness boiling inside me. It flowed through my limbs, bringing a whole new meaning to the word exhausting. I sank to my knees, clutching my heart which was searing as if a white hot rod was spearing it through the center. I looked up to see Piers and Chris saying something to me, but I couldn't hear them at all. Their responses were almost comical, except for the severity of the situation. Blackness was beginning to creep around the edges of my vision and it was getting harder for me to see. I doubled over as a strange tingling sensation sent a thrill throughout my veins. I felt my body start to convulse and Chris' rough hands on my temples. He was kneeling behind me, holding my head in his lap. The last thing I remember seeing was his face. His hazel eyes stared down into my icy blue ones with concern and worry. I could see him mouthing something, looking up at Piers who was kneeling on the ground beside me.

Chris watched helplessly as Sierra's eyes rolled back into the back of her head. Her body was convulsing violently on the ground in front of him. He held her head to try and keep her from harming it. He had never known her to have seizures, or anyone else in their family. A feeling in his gut told him this had been brought on by the training.

Piers, worn out as well, but he was terrified of what was going to happen to Sierra. He had grown to love her as much as a brother would love his own sister. She had opened her home to him and had been a most gracious host, helping him with things that only she could. Guilt tore at him, scratching his soul and torturing his mind. He felt this predicament was completely his fault, he had pressured into training him to use the virus.

"Captain-" Piers began looking up at Chris, his eyes sorrowful.

"Not now soldier," Chris snapped, focusing his attention back on his baby sister. Something was wrong; five minutes had passed since her seizure had begun. He had never heard of one lasting so long without permanent damage to the person.

"Sierra, come on," Chris whispered to her, stroking the side of her face.

Piers looked sadly at the pair of siblings before him. Chris couldn't lose her. The poor man had already lost two of his squads before; losing his sister would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Dammit Sierra!" Chris shouted, his voice cracking with emotion. "You can pull through this!" A tear slipped from his eye and glistened in the sunlight before sliding down his cheek.

Sierra stopped convulsing, lying perfectly still on the cold ground. Chris' heart leapt, but almost immediately sank when he realized he could not see the rise and fall of her chest. His worst fears were beginning to surface and all he wanted to do was scream.

Piers noticed it at almost the exact time that Chris did and he crawled over to Sierra's limp body. He set his hands over her heart, which made Chris growl, but Piers shot him a sharp look silencing the older man. Piers breathed in deeply, calming his nerves before guiding some of his energy and his electricity into Sierra. He felt her heart respond, only slightly, but it stopped when he pulled his energy back. He tried again, but he only got the same response from her. He tried one last time, afraid to overload her body with electricity. He knew that if he tried this one time too many he could hurt her chances of recovering, rather than helping her. Unfortunately he got the same response as before.

Piers raised his eyes to meet Chris'. Every hope Chris had every felt disappeared. Emptiness was the only thing he could feel. He didn't even notice that he was outright crying, his tears landing in Sierra's hair. Piers couldn't form words to express his sorrow to his captain. Together they just sat there and mourned the loss of Sierra.