"Am I supposed to know you?" Ness asked, looking at Shara with an expression of such confusion that Shara thought for a moment that he really didn't know who she was.
Leaning against Ness' chest, Shara tried to think of a reason why Ness would have no memory of her. Then she remembered that the Radam would always erase the memories of their soldiers, supposedly to make them more effective, but really to make them easier to control. Maybe he really doesn't remember me, Shara thought sadly.
Shara leaned her head against her brother's chest, numbly staring out at her surroundings. Shara wasn't really seeing them, though, she wasn't really seeing much of anything at the moment. She was lost in her memories of her family, wondering if things could have been different.
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Slade was confused, to say the least; the girl he had just rescued seemed very happy to see him. But she had called him by a name that he was sure wasn't his, and then when he had asked her what she had been talking about, she had gotten so sad, Slade had almost wanted to pretend that he was who she thought he had been.
Slade wondered just why this girl meant so much to him. Could she really be my sister? Slade wondered. It was a possibility, and this girl did look almost exactly like the one in the picture he had found back at that house, the one that had seemed to call to something – some feeling or memory – that was buried deep inside him. Too deep, maybe, for Slade to find by himself. But maybe if I had help… the thought was too revolutionary for Slade to hold on to for very long, but it left him with the idea that he should keep Shara around, if only for himself.
Well, if she's going to stay here, she might as well help our cause, Slade though, as he turned away from Shara and made his way out of the barn.
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Shara was pulled out of her thoughts when Ness – No, I guess he really isn't Ness anymore, Shara thought sadly – suddenly pushed away from her and turned to walk out of the door that Shara assumed they had just come in through. Just before anyone outside would have been able to see him, the boy who in another lifetime had been one of her older brothers faded slowly out of sight.
Shara had known, from her forced training inside the teknopod, about the invisibility powers that all Teknomen were given. Even though she had never seen them demonstrated practically before, Shara wasn't all that worried about the person who had once been her brother. He was strong enough to survive, so I guess he can take care of himself. Still… Shara sighed. Shara knew it was useless to wish that things had turned out differently, but sometimes she just couldn't help it.