Exactly three years ago on this day, Lexa's brother was murdered by his Pieces in an an event that I am not allowed to disclose to my trainer due to the possibility of said brother temporarily possessing her.

What a fucking fantastic opening sentence.

But I don't want to talk about that first.

No. First, let me tell you what happened when we stumbled out of that gym.

Briar was waiting for us, and the first thing he did was to stride up to Lexa and grab her by her shoulders.

"Are you alright? You're not hurt?" he asked, patting her hair and back and arms, looking for a wound he couldn't see, fearing the worst.

"I'm alright," she said, coughing the steam out of her lungs.

"Are you sure? Burns need to be treated, even the little ones. Third-degree burns are the worst. Here." Briar cupped his hands for a moment and then spread them. A burst of sweet, clear air hit her face. She stopped coughing. "What else. Anything else? Cuts? Bruises?" She shook her head. "Are you sure? You're alright?

"I'm find, Dad, really-" she broke off, hand covering her mouth and I felt her nails dig into my arm. "I'm sorry. I'm tired-"

But Briar snatched her up in a hug, squeezing her tightly enough to bend her backward.

"Oh, Baby Girl," he murmured in a soft voice I've never heard him use, "Don't you ever be sorry for something like that." She clutched onto him, hand leaving my arm, and hugged him back.

"Dad, we killed someone," her voice shook, "We killed someone. We killed someone."

"It's okay. It's okay. You had no other choice. It's going to be okay." He pulled back, still holding onto her shoulders, and looked down at me. "You alright?"

"Uh, yeah," was my eloquent response. "Yeah. I'm good."

"Good. When Skye came running to me, I thought - well, it doesn't matter now," he turned to Skyra, "I knew you would keep them safe."

"Praise Torrent this time," she said, stretching her wings in a wide arch, "he kept us all safe. And Lexa for her morse code battle strategy. I need the sky for awhile. I'll be back." Without another word, she rocketed into the sky, disappearing in the late afternoon sun.

"Uh, is she alright?" I asked, looking at the blank swath of blue.

"She's fine," Lexa said. "She'll be back. Briar's her lifeline." I lifted her and her legs and arms wrapped around me.

"We did good," I said rubbing my nose with hers, "Good thing we took all that time to learn the code."

"Yeah," she said quietly, nuzzling into my shoulder.

In hindsight, it was good that Skyra had left. It made the coming situation a hell of a lot less violent than it could have been.

Because on our way back to the hotel, guess who we ran into?

"Brendan?" She pulled herself higher on my shoulder. I turned my head where she was looking and followed her gaze to the white-haired boy, walking alone down the path.

Do you know what he said?

"Oh, Christ," and sprinted away from us, heading towards the forest.

"Catch him, Briar," she said, and wriggled out of my arms.

Very few Pieces can outrun a Breloom.

No human can.

When we did catch him, he struggled in Briar's arm and I could see immediately that something was wrong. His hair was matted and his usually healthy skin had a sick green undertone. The worst part was the terrified expression stretched on his haggard face. But when Lexa stretched out her hand and touched him gently on the wrist, all the fight seemed to leave him.

"You can't," he sobbed, limp against Briar, great, heaving breaths shaking his body.

"I can't what, Brendan?" Lexa said, keeping her voice soft. She inched back his sleeves to find fresh cuts staining the cloth already rusty-brown with blood. "Brendan, you promised."

"You can't." But at the same time he reached his arms forward and pulled her close to him. Briar let go and stepped back, trading glances with me. "You can't. I love you. I love you. I love you."

Lexa didn't say anything, but let herself be held and rocked.

"Brendan, it's going to be alright. What's wrong? Did something happen?" she finally said. His only response was his mouth on hers.

But before I could smack him into the next dimension, Briar gripped my wrist with enough force to make me wince. I looked up at him and saw that his eyes were wide. On my wrist, with a single slender finger, he tapped out in the code I thought only Lexa and I had learned: "Not alone."

And I could sense it then, three Pieces shifting through the trees, watching us.

"Outnumbered," Briar tapped out, and stroked my wrist calmly, thinking.

I felt something jolt in my chest and looked back at Lexa to see her kissing back, and they clutched at each other like the drowned clutch to land, like soldiers clutch to hope.

"It's alright," she whispered. "I missed you. It's going to be alright."

Fear. Loneliness. Emotions. Emotions. Emotions. Emotions.

Chest tight. Emotions. Emotions.

He's back. Emotions. Emotions.

Someone loves me again. He's back. Emotions. Emotions. Emotions.

Nails on my arm brought me out of the sinkhole.

"Calm," Briar tapped out. "Look at me. Only look at me." So I did, and concentrated on the way his eyes had flecks of a darker green. "Good. Only emotions. Calm. Good boy. Aspen. Bagel. Fire. Bad situation."

"Die here?" I tapped back, but he squeezed my hand fiercely.

"No. Skyra coming. Wait."

We didn't need to wait for Skyra, because suddenly, Brendan pulled away.

"I'm sorry," he said, still crying. "I love you."

"It's alright. You're back so it's alright now. We can-"

"Goodbye."

Something faster than Briar blurred out of the forest, scooped Brendan up, and disappeared. Briar made one move to stop it, but stopped, conscious that the other two Pieces were moving away.

"Brendan?"

The sound of her voice broke my heart.

Three years later, on this day, Lexa's brother is not here to see how fucking blank her face looks.

It started after Brendan left us. By the time we got to the hotel, she looked like a Piece that had been captured in a PAL. She would follow simple commands but beyond that, nothing.

Nothing at all.

Skye took one look at her and wouldn't leave Lexa's side.

"She'll be a-okay," the Swablu said, face buried in Lexa's stomach. "She just needs a little bit. She's on a journey right now, but she'll find her way."

"It sounds like shock," Steven says, his voice worried. I called him a while ago at Briar's request. "PTSD has this kind of outcome sometimes, and, well, it is today. The day."

"Then why aren't you broken like this?" Aiden asks over my shoulder. "You were dating him, right?"

"People grieve in different ways. Destructively and non-destructively. I tend to drop diamonds in fire and watch them disintegrate."

"Or jump out of buildings so that Bastion has to catch him," I hear Stavros say.

"Or that," Steven admits. "But that was once."

"That was six times, old man."

"Keep her inside," Steven continues, "Give her anything she wants. Within reason, of course. Call me when she snaps out of it or if anything else happens. I'm going to go find Brendan."

He hangs up.

Aiden and I look at each other.

None of us leave the hotel room for that entire day.