A/N: Thanks for the support again everyone, I truly appreciate it. I hadn't planned on updating this fic so fast but inspiration struck and when it calls I can't refuse :)

All errors are mine.

Chapter 3

Confessions

Helia's lungs greedily heaved oxygen from his surroundings. His breaths were sharp and quick as he followed behind, holding his bleeding and bruised hand to his chest to try and keep it from hitting anything sharp or stray as he ran. It throbbed in agony the further he went and the fact that Icy hadn't seemed phased at all by the sudden appearance of the wizards who shattered his home to pieces had unnerved him.

"Stop!" He yelled, making the witch finally pause and turn to face him, her expression calm but eyes filled with a mixture of rage and urgency.

"We can't, we have to keep moving."

"We have been running…for…miles," he managed through ragged breaths. "P-please, can't we just…stop…for a minute?" The mysterious witch didn't seem to care about his predicament, she had told him that it was either he followed along or he died a painful and slow death. How could running through the forest at high speed to escape from that be something he wanted to stop? She had been running her whole life from various wizards and witches who all wanted her head. But Helia didn't seem to understand the gravity of her – their – situation.

She held her right palm his way and made it glow light blue and his eyes instantly widened. He stood back to his feet, his able hand held up in defence. "Look, I… I just need a break."

"You're slowing me down."

"I'm not as fast as you."

"If we don't keep moving then they will find the two of us and we will both be dead before the sun goes down, is that what you want?"

"No." He shook his head, suddenly unworried about his breathlessness and the overwhelming feeling that he'd pass out from so much exertion at once. His training at Red Fountain had kept him strong and healthy but his running abilities were never on par with that of his fellow specialists, and this witch seemed to be able to run for days on a single breath without a drop of sweat to show for her efforts. He had no idea what she must have been through in order to condition herself to be in such peak physical condition, and for her to continue regardless of the scratches and bruises she had still sustained earlier.

The adrenaline from his arms sudden entrapment in his home was beginning to fade and now he felt weak and tired. But looking at the outstretched palm before him was enough to make him shake his head and return to reality. She had tried to kill him once, he had narrowly escaped a second attempt at the hands of others, he wasn't sure if he would be lucky enough to have a third life, especially when he had made Flora pay for his mistakes.

"You need to keep up," Icy stated, lowering her hand, making him breathe a small sigh of relief. "Because if you don't, then I'm sorry, but I'll have to leave you behind for them to find."

"Who are they?" Icy turned around and was about to continue running when Helia summoned all the effort he could into his legs and he stopped her. "Please, just tell me what all this is about."

"I told you to try and trust me," she reminded harshly, pulling her forearm from his grasp and taking a few steps forwards. "So stop asking so many questions and just do as I do."

"No," he replied. "I don't even know you, I have no idea what kind of messed up world you live in!"

"Then why did you help me!" Icy snapped, raising her voice for the first time since they met. Helia's eyes blinked twice, his own mind searching for the answer. "You had a chance to turn your back and you didn't."

"You needed my help!"

"And now you need mine."

Helia opened his mouth to reply but the words wouldn't come. His teeth bit hard together as she lowered her voice to be more civil. "You said that you'd try to trust me because the consequences… they are worse than you could ever imagine." The specialist thought he saw water momentarily enter Icy's eyes but it disappeared just as quickly as it came, the mask of protection slipped back into place, hiding her true self from the world.

"If they catch you they will ask you about me, about where I am headed, who I am and how long you have known me for. They will interrogate you for information and if you don't have it then there is a small – and I mean small – chance they will let you free. But if you know too much about me… you'll never see the light of day again. So, as I see it, you have two options left."

He listened intently.

"Either you speed the hell up and stop asking questions and follow what I say and do, or I put you out of your misery now myself," her hand raised in his direction again, punctuating the threat, "and I leave you for them to find… your choice."

Her eyes were just as cold as they were blue. They didn't hold a sparkle of life or love, of friendship or recognition. They were cold, as if he was a target on her assassination hit list and she was about to make a fortune on his head. It was an icy, calculating stare, and one that he knew would not last forever. Clearing his throat he pushed his aching limbs to march past her, despite how much they protested for rest.

Her hand lowered itself before she turned and followed, the blue glow of her magic disappearing as the two silent accomplices marched through the woods, as far away from Helia's home as their feet could take them.

The sun began to set over the land, bathing the sky in a beautiful orange and purple hue as the stars twinkled softly in the distance. It was as if God had taken a paint brush and carefully designed every line, every cloud, every beautiful tree and bird in the sky to all work in harmony and celebrate their survival of another day. It had been long, and gruelling, and although Icy hadn't shown it on her face she too was hurting. Her feet were aching in her shoes and she was sure to have a blister or two there demanding her attention.

On the up side Helia hadn't said a word to her since her ultimatum, which worked in her favour. She liked the therapeutic thump of her shoes against the ground, the birds calling above in the trees and settling their little ones to bed for the evening, the owls that hooted for the arrival of the moon. "We can stop here," she declared and Helia practically collapsed onto the earth with a sigh. He lay on his back and stared at the sky, still not uttering a word as she removed a small knife from her belt and started working on finding them something to eat and drink for the evening.

It didn't take too long to find an old river cove and she directed Helia there to soak their aching feet in silence. Helia lowered his arm into the stream and bit his lip to stop himself from crying out. He muffled his cries with the collar of his shirt while Icy sat silently next to him like a statue.

When the moon had illuminated them in its glow, and the two were unable to sleep, Icy watched Helia fish out the photograph he had risked life and limb to collect. He stared at it for a moment before putting it away and she decided that her curiosity could not wait any longer.

"What happened to her?"

Helia's head turned to the left as Icy's turned to the right, their gazes meeting one another before he turned away. She didn't expect him to reply, but the question had to be asked. If he was so willing to kill himself for a photograph then the person contained within must have been someone special to him.

"To who?" he asked softly and Icy almost laughed at his inability to pretend nothing was amiss. She had seen the heartbreak written in many men's smiles throughout her own childhood and upbringing, his was no different.

"Your soul mate." Helia turned to look at Icy's eyes again, this time they contained warmth and concern, a different personality form the calculated and strategic one she had before.

He blinked a few times before parting his lips, wondering where to start. "She died."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"It's okay," he consoled, "her name was Flora, and to be honest it's the first time I've said it out loud."

"What happened?"

"It was valentine's day…" he began slowly, jaw rigid as he spoke and finally talked to someone else about what occurred the night that everything changed. "I had taken her out to dinner and we were returning to the home we shared when this black shadow passed over us from the trees. We both had no idea what it was but continued forwards when, it jumped out at us. Flora was a few steps ahead of me at the time and, all I remember seeing was this beast lunge our way…" He blinked back the beginnings of his tears. "The next thing I knew it ran away for no apparent reason and left her there, she was bleeding and I tried to stop it with my hands but it just kept on coming and coming and…she told me that it was okay… she told me that it was okay and I…I-I told her n-not to l-l-leave me. But she did and I've never forgiven myself for it."

"But what were you supposed to do?" Icy asked. "There was no way that you could have prevented it from happening."

"No, but I could have done something more. Run off to find help or yelled really, really loud to see if anyone would come, to do something more – be something more. She wouldn't be dead if I had just screamed… but I couldn't even do that." A single tear rolled from the corner of his eye, the reflection of the moonlight contained within sparkling in its trail.

"What would have been better?" Icy asked, making him look to her again. "You running off for help and leaving her to die alone, or you being there with her for the last moments of her life?"

"It wouldn't have been the last moments of her life if I did something more…she was my everything and now…" he took a deep breath, "now she's gone."

"Helia, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise," he replied, "you didn't cause this." Icy shuffled uncomfortably against the ground before releasing a sigh.

"Ask a question."

His eyes widened slightly and he lifted his head, eyebrows showing his confusion.

"Ask me a question, just one. I figure if you're okay with sharing something with me then I should do the same. So, one question."

Just one question seemed difficult to select from the thousands that had swarmed around his head like a hive full of bees. He had so many that he desperately wanted the answers to but decided that there was one above the others he truly wanted to know.

"Who are those people chasing you?"

"The Shard," she answered, propping herself up on her elbow. She knew the two words wouldn't be enough to appease his question so she sighed and added something more. "They are group of dark wizards and witches who have been hunting my family for generations."

"What do they want?" Helia asked, hoping that a second question could ease its way in without reprimand.

"Me… I hail from a long line of strong witches that are blessed with a gift and a curse." She held her hand his way and again he had a chance to look at the tattoo edged into her wrist. "It's used for time travel, but only lasts as long as it's black. Each time it's used it turns white and, when it is burnt out completely then it's useless."

"So you've already used this before?" Helia asked, inspecting one of the points.

"Yes, the further we travel, the further the tattoo whitens itself out and we lose the ability. But having it means that we are the target of The Shard. I am not entirely sure why they are after me, but do know that they murdered the rest of my family… and ever since they did, I've never stopped running."

Her story stopped abruptly and she turned away from Helia, making his eyes droop slightly with understanding. He had lost numerous people from his own life, most of them because of his arrogance and refusal for their help, but they had never been killed. Maybe those beautiful blue eyes held more pain and emotion then he ever thought they would, maybe she too had nightmares and bad dreams plague her every waking moment too.

Perhaps the two of them, weren't so different after all.

A/N: The next two chapters will be flashbacks for Helia and Icy. Let me know which you'd like to see first, the most voted response will be included in the next chapter. Thanks for reading and please review.