It had started as a normal day in the Infirmary, they'd had their talk after midday rest, and had separated to tend to their individual duties, with no worries on the wind.

And then something shifted.

Ephraim noticed it first, looking up from the chart he was reading, and around the room to see what the cause for the disturbance was. He folded the file closed and stepped forward, searching out the source, something was different. Something had shifted around them and he couldn't quite place his finger on it.

He comes to the closest one he can, nudging Akriel's arm with his elbow, his brother falls silent and looks down at him at his interruption. "Yes, Eph?"

"Somethings off."

His brother turns more fully towards him. "Something's off?"

"Something's changed. I can feel it."

"Like, feel it, like empath feel it?"

The younger Virtue nods. "The atmosphere has shifted some. It's unsteady. On edge?"

"We'll look into it." Akriel nods, waving his dismissal to his class, and they dissipate away from them to follow their assigned healer for shadowing. He gestures for his younger brother to lead them, and Ephraim nods, leading them through the rows and rows of beds, shaking his head in confusion, he can feel it, it's strong in this particular area of the Infirmary. Most of their healers are immune to the feeling, the Healer teaches them all that particular skill, there is a number of empaths that reside within these walls, some taught and some natural. "Can you sense where it's coming from?"

He shakes his head. "It's around here. But I can't…There's not one focal point….It's..It's all over the place."

"You had the same condition when you first came into yours, could it be someone's empathy coming in?"

Ephraim shakes his head. "No, that's different, I know what that feels like. This..This is different."

"Different, how?"

"I've never felt something like this before."

He nods in understanding, tiling his chin downward. "Do you think it could start affecting others?"

"I do," Ephraim nods. "I think it could."

That's what he was afraid of. The trauma specialist nodded faintly, looking around them, searching for anything that stood out of place. Nothing caught his eye, and he sighed, shaking his head.

"There's too many people here. The source could be coming from anywhere."

"You know," his younger brother pokes him slightly. "I've always had a hard time reading that charge of yours."

That catches his attention, and Akriel turns quickly, he can't help but be a bit defensive of his girls. "Which one?"

"Orion."

His eyes narrow dangerously. "What about her?" He rolls his shoulders, turning to stand over his younger brother, Ephraim takes a cautious step back from him.

"Nothing bad." He holds his hands up placatingly. "I just can't read her emotions. She's…She's closed herself off from everyone. The only time she lets anyone in is when you're with her, she feels safe around you, she lets her guard down."

Akriel looks him off defensively. "You think she could be causing this change you feel?"

"We don't really know what she's capable of, she never really uses her grace, and keeps to herself when she's not by your side."

He hated to admit it, not wanting to think badly about his charge, but Orion was a mystery to them. They'd never personally seen her use her grace before, preferring to do things by hand, keeping to her own when working on the floor. He looked around for her, they had parted ways some time ago, and he hadn't seen her since. He sought her out, if only to prove to his brother that she wasn't causing this change in the Infirmary's atmosphere, affecting those the change was beginning to affect.

Akriel spotted her a few paces away, standing at the bedside of an angel, and for a moment he interpreted her stare as something of merely focusing on a wound that was being bound by bandages, until he stepped back a step for a better angle, and saw no movement in her hands.

She was frozen in place, staring down at the angel before her in the bed, his fingers curled around her arm, staring right back into her eyes. It was as if he was being entranced, an unblinking stare between them, as though there was a connection between them that none else could see.

"I hate to say it." The angel sitting before her flinched, his fingers twitching, and her gaze intensified. "But I think you might be right."

They slowly made their way through the crowd of healers walking about and working, watching carefully as the shorter angel slowly came to loom over the larger, he cowered away from her, and she followed his every movement with an intensity unseen before.

"I've never seen anything like this before, Akriel, this is…I don't know what this is."

"I have." There had only been one other who had the same intensity, the same ability, and her grace had been bound and she'd been cast from their Home, to live eternally in a life cycle on Earth while retaining all her memories of the Home that was lost to her. She had known of her abilities, and had used them on others, abusing them in the worst of ways. For Orion, it seemed to be a defense mechanism, something had startled her.

He had his brother wait for him, before he too stepped in, with a gentle gesture with his hand. He stepped closer, hands held up placatingly, calling out to her softly. "Orion? Orion can you hear me?" She made no gesture of acknowledgement, staring straight ahead, and the angel under her whimpered softly. He stepped in closer. "Rio?"

That snapped her from the trance, her mind was ringing, and her eyes burned as she blinked them rapidly. There was only one person who called her that, who called her 'Rio', and she shook her head to clear the jumbled mess that had overcome it. The angel under her whimpered and curled into himself, and she looked down to him in confusion, eyes widening in surprise at the sight of him. Everything had faded away, her mind had gone completely blank, when she saw him.

"Rio, can you hear me?"

Orion knew that voice, knew the only one that called her that, and she turned her head slowly to look at him. She gave a slight nod.

Akriel was standing there, Ephraim was behind him, looking between her and the patient on the bed. "Rio, what happened?"

"I….He….He was there." She turned to look back down at the whimpering angel, locking gazes with him once more, for a brief moment, he flinched and whimpered and squeezed his eyes shut. "He touched me. He was there. Ion was there. He touched me. He was the face I saw. He was there, Akriel, he was the one I saw when…When.."

"You sick son of a bitch!"

Both Virtues turned in sync, at the blur of a figure running across the Infirmary floor towards them, Ion recognized the voice and who it belonged to and his eyes flew open to watch as she drew nearer and nearer. Gzel had come out of nowhere, from some place in the Infirmary, never wandering far from where Akriel was, and ran towards them with a fury unseen. She dodged around healers and patients, ducking and jumping and spinning, locked onto the one in the bed.

Ion had only managed to raise his hands when her fist made impact, with all the strength she could muster, and his jaw shifted and cracked.

Gzel saw it from across the room and had been making her way over upon the sight of him, when he touched Orion, when he spoke to Orion. A fury had filled Gzel in a burning way she hadn't felt since moving in with Akriel, he helped talk her down from those moments, they weren't as often as they used to be. But seeing him with Orion made her blood boil. Gzel was for Orion. Orion was for Gzel. They defended each other, the stood up for each other, they were sisters. Gzel was the unstable one, but Orion was truly the more volatile one, she knew that.

She held her fists up, ready to strike again. "You don't touch her! You don't touch Orion!"

Behind her, Orion was on the verge of a panic attack, her chest slowly starting to heave, her hands shaking as they came up to clutch at her head. "I didn't…I didn't mean to!...I didn't!...I'm not bad…I'm not her….He touched me….He touched me first….I didn't…"

Akriel jumped forward when Gzel's fist swung back again, catching her wrist in a tight grip before it had a chance to fly forward for another blow. "No, no, Gzel. We don't attack people here."

She spun on him. "He touched her! He touched Orion, Akriel! He touched her!"

He nodded. "So I've heard. Go stand with Ephraim." She looked as though she wanted to protest, even looking over her shoulder at the one in question, but he pulled her back around gently. "Go." Gzel huffed, trudging forward, stepped passed him, she turned and made a gesture at Ion as she moved to stand with the Virtue empath.

Akriel ignored Ion, he was more concerned about his panicking charge, and turned to face her cautiously. "Rio? Rio, I'm here. Can you hear me?" Her eyes flit up to his, wide and fearful, as her chest heaved for a solid breath. She gave a quick nod, and he returned the gesture, holding out his hands for her. "Good. Good, Rio, can you take my hands?" She nodded again, reaching out with small shaking hands for his, and her fingers curled around his. "Good, Rio, you're doing so good. I'm going to pull you in, okay?"

Orion nodded, stepping forward when he pulled her into an embrace, warm and secure, as his arms encircled around her form. He pulled her close to him, so his heart beat thumped softy under her ear, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as it inhaled and exhaled. "Can you match my breathing, Rio?" She nodded, trying her best, and her chest slowly stopped heaving. "Good girl, good job Rio, you're okay." He stroked his hand down the back of her head. "I've got you. You're alright, Rio. You're okay." His voice rumbled against her ear. "Just calm down, that's it Rio, calm down."

"He…He touched me Akriel…..He was…..He was the face….."

"He was the last one you saw."

She nodded against his chest, and he looked up to his brother, having talked Gzel down from her rage. Ephraim met his gaze and nodded at his unasked question, turning to get one of his own healers to tend to Ion instead, and Akriel looked down to his charge. "We're going to go upstairs, okay Rio, we're going to go upstairs and we're just going to talk. Okay?"

Orion nods, letting him escort her through the Infirmary, keeping her tucked safely against his side as they cross the threshold. Gzel follows behind them, glaring at anyone who looks in their direction for too long, knowing that her sister will want her there for the conversation.

If she was the unstable one, what did that make Orion?