Nya's POV

I was walking over to Aeria's room to talk to her when I heard someone silently following me from behind. I turned around to see it was Xia. I was about question her, but she answers before I could even open my mouth,

"The boys want me to make sure Aeria does not lash out in anger."

"Alright, but I'm gonna need to have a serious discussion with my brother about his trust issues later." Xia nods in agreement as we continue to Aeria's door. From just outside, we could hear her muttering to herself and when I knock on the door, we hear something rustling before she calls out,

"What?" I open the door to find her sitting cross-legged on her bed, clearly holding something behind her back.

"What do you two want?" Aeria asks sharply.

"We just wanted to talk." We come in and close the door gently behind us.

"About what?"

"Perhaps, firstly, about what you are attempting to hide behind your back?" Xia points out.

"It's nothing."

"Are ya sure?" I questioned Aeria as I walked over and sat down next to her with Xia following me.

"Seriously, have you people never heard of 'personal space'?" Aeria tried to scooch away, but accidentally dropped what she was hiding in the process.

In a flash, I quickly grabbed the object she dropped and opened my hand to find a little origami red panda.

"Awww! It's so cute! You made this?" I squealed and even Xia smiled at the sight of her favorite animal.

"Yes, alright? The tough girl makes origami when she's upset or unnerved, now you know my dark secret. Happy?" Aeria crosses her arms and looks away from us looking angrily moody.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, we all have our nervous habits." I try to assure her, but she doesn't seem too confident.

"May I ask how long you have been doing this? It seems like you have much experience in doing origami." Xia asks while pulling on the red panda's tail, making it do little running motions.

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"So that we can help you, it's pretty clear that you have some trust issues, especially with the guys and Ronin and this seems to help with that. So we just want to know, when did the mistrust start?"

Aeria hesitated a bit before finally caving,

"Growing up, I lived on the streets with my brother..."

"You have a brother?" I ask, already knowing she could be talking about Morro, but worried about how she'd react if she finds out what happened to him.

"Had. I don't know what happened to him, I haven't seen him in a long time." Aeria looks down at her fiddling hands in her lap while Xia and I look at each other concerned.

"We didn't always have a lot since my brother and I lived in the streets or away from town to keep from being sent away to an orphanage where they would've split us up," I winced at that point and Aeria noticed and cracked a small half-smile, "So to make him happy one day, when he was upset about some big kids who pushed me around and he defended me, but got a black eye in the process, I took an old newspaper and made him a pretty sloppy paper crane."

"I'll bet that made him feel really happy." I told her as I crossed my legs sitting right next to her as Xia sat in my lap.

"It did, you should've seen his face when I gave it to him. Too bad I never knew what happened to it or him." Aeria took up her black backpack and opened a small pouch on the side to reveal various origami flowers, animals, and knickknacks overflowing inside to where they spilled out onto the bed.

"Cool." I complimented a mini origami balloon made from blue and white swirled paper.

"These are beautiful." Xia pulled out a purple paper rose that was big enough to fit in her small hand.

"After I got separated from my brother, I just kept on doing this to feel.. connected with him."

"Separated?" I questioned pausing from making a bird flap its paper wings.

"Promise me you won't tell the guys." Aerua looks us dead in the eyes with her one exposed eye and we nod slowly.

"When I was a kid, we often stole food to survive, but one day I wasn't being careful and I was dropped down an old well by a store vendor who caught me stealing. Later that night..."

Flashback

Aeria's POV

"Goodnight, Morro..." As soon as the lantern was blown out, I tried to fall asleep, but felt a dryness in my throat and coughed out loud a couple of times before I sniffed and went to sleep.

In the morning

"Ari?" My eyes felt too heavy to open fully, yet I was awake and sweating so much my forehead was soaking a huge stain on my pillow. I felt my brother's hand against my small forehead and it felt so much colder than me.

"Riri, you're burning up!" He exclaimed as I half opened my eyes to see him looking down at me with fear.

"I'm alri- *cough* *cough* *cough*" I turned my head away from him as I coughed until I had no breath left and started shivering when I finished hacking as a cold feeling filled me.

"I bet you got sick because of the well." My brother growled and tightened a fist until I put my small hand over it and he loosened it.

"I'll go find some medicine, just stay here OK?" My brother held my hand as I continued to shiver, but managed a weak nod as he dropped my hand and ran out of our hut as my shivering got worse.

Back to the Present

Nya's POV

"What happened after that?" I asked, not noticing that I was clutching Xia too tightly until she squirmed out of my grasp while I uttered a quick 'sorry'.

"I was taken to an orphanage a few villages away, one where I was picked on even more than on the streets so on day I escaped and ran into the forest, after that I don't remember… all I do remember afterward was waking up to be taken in by the Lynn's." Aeria clenched her hands together so hard her knuckles turned white as she bowed her head down, shaking uncontrollably.

"Hey hey, it's alright." I put my hand on her fists and Aeria looked up at us with a teary eye.

"I never even got to say goodbye to him. He could be dead for all I know and he never knew what happened to me after I was taken from him." Aeria's tough barrier crumbled as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

Xia placed a hand on Aeria's shoulder and her sobs started to subside as she calmed down slowly. I knew she was using her abilities to calm Aeria down since her hand was faintly glowing a light yellow.

"You may not know what happened after that, but somehow you made it to Ronin, and now to us. We're your friends now, you can trust us." I told her before Xia spoke up,

"And we will find a way to help you to get over your fear of betrayal, if you will open up to us first." Aeria looked at me and then to Xia, before wiping her eye and saying,

"Alright, I'll give it a try." We got off her bed and were about to make our way back to the training room when Aeria turned back to face us,

"Don't go getting any funny ideas that I'm enjoying my stay here though, I'm still leaving if you all can't help me, got it?"

"Whatever you say. Who knows, maybe we just might change your mind." I told her while smiling lightly, until she left the room and I sighed to Xia,

"And I thought we were finally getting through to her."

"It will take more than just one pep talk to fully convince her that we won't be like the people she's been betrayed by before." She reminded me and I sighed again, knowing she was right. We both followed Aeria back to the training room, where the guys were still at.

"You alright?" Lloyd asked Aeria and I smirked at him as he started blushing faintly.

"Yeah, and I'm ready to use the bow after all this time."

"Let me guess, it reminded you of Archer?" Ronin asked out of nowhere and Aeria glared at him before nodding and picking the bow up from the box.

"I just thought she couldn't use it that well." Kai stated as he and Jay walked in with some kabobs in hand just as Aeria was about to grab some arrows.

"'Can't use it that well'?" Aeria repeated back, slightly insulted, before taking Kai's kabob out of his hand.

"Hey!" She threw all the meat and veggies off of it as Kai protested. Then, she put the skewer on the string, pulled back, and fired at the target, landing right in the center of the bullseye.

"Ya call that not being able to use it well?" Aeria snickered.

"That was awesome! What else can you shoot down?" Jay exclaimed, but held his kabob stick tightly as soon as Aeria started eyeing it.

"Why don't we try combat with our elements, now that we know you've pretty much mastered every form of weapon?" Cole recommended and we all agreed, until my brother's stomach started to growl.

"That kabob was supposed to be in my stomach, not on the ground." He complained and, right on cue, everyone's stomachs started to rumble in hunger, even mine.

"Maybe we should take a break and eat some lunch first." Lloyd suggested and we all nodded in agreement, "Whose turn is it to cook?"

"I can go make something." Aeria told us and we looked at her in surprise.

"What? If I'm going to be staying here, I might as well pull my own weight around here." Aeria shrugged and made her way to the kitchen to start preparing lunch. As soon as she was out of earshot, I announced,

"Guys, we need to talk..."