Jay's POV
The salt spray was the only thing that felt real. The rhythmic, thunderous crash of the waves against the shore drowned out the gravelly echo of that voice on the phone—the voice of a ghost that refused to stay buried.
I sat on the sand, my knees pulled to my chest, staring at the horizon where the grey sky met the churning blue of the ocean. My lungs felt tight, as if the water were already filling them.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw it: the flickering light of the warehouse, the cold steel in my hand, and the look in Aries' eyes as the blade pierced his skin.
I did that.
I wasn't just a victim. I was the violence. I was the reason my brother gasped for air every time he overexerted himself. I was the reason he carried a map of trauma on his torso. I felt like if anyone touched me, I would stain them.
Suddenly, the world went dark. Two large, warm palms pressed gently over my eyes.
I stiffened, my heart leaping into my throat, but the scent hit me—expensive peppermint and the familiar, grounding aura of home. I reached up, pulling the hands away, and spun around.
"Percy?"
He was standing there, wind-whipped and looking entirely too fashionable for a beach, his coat fluttering behind him. I didn't think; I just lunged. I wrapped my arms around his waist and sobbed into his chest, the dam finally breaking.
"Whoa, easy there, baby sistah," he murmured, his large hand cupping the back of my head, holding me steady against the gale.
"What are you doing here?" I choked out, my voice muffled by his shirt.
"Keifer called me," Percy said, his voice unusually soft. "He sounded like he was ready to burn the school down to find whoever made you cry. He told me everything, Jay."
I pulled back, looking at him with red, swollen eyes. "Percy, I remembered. I saw what I did to Aries. I'm a monster. I'm the reason he's hurt. I'm the darkness he's been trying to hide."
Percy's expression shifted. The playful glint vanished, replaced by a fierce, protective intensity. He grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him.
"Listen to me, Jay. You are wrong. You are so incredibly wrong," he said firmly. "You were a child trapped in a literal hellscape. You weren't a monster; you were a shield that broke under too much pressure. You are my baby sister—the girl who makes the best hot chocolate and the only person who can make Aries smile when he wants to be a grump."
He paused, a familiar, crooked smirk tugging at his lips as he tried to lighten the heavy air.
"And besides," he added, tossing his hair back with a dramatic flair, "how could a monster be related to someone as breathtakingly handsome as me? It's genetically impossible. Look at this jawline, Jay. It's a work of art. Perfection doesn't come from monsters."
I let out a weak, watery laugh, wiping my nose. "You're such an selfmaniac."
"I'm a realist," he winked, then his face turned serious again. "We should go back, Jay. Aries is losing his mind, and the others are waiting at the house."
I looked back at the ocean. The thought of walking into that house, of seeing the scar on Aries' chest, felt like a physical weight. I couldn't do it.
Not yet. I needed the truth from the source. I needed to know why the man on the phone thought an apology could fix a shattered soul.
"Percy," I said, my voice gaining a sudden, sharp clarity. "I want to go to New York."
Percy froze, his eyes widening in genuine shock. "New York? Jay, are you sure? Papa is... he's in a state. It's a mess over there.
"I'm sure," I said, standing up and brushing the sand from my skirt. "I want to spend time with Papa. I have questions that only he can answer. I need to know the whole story, not just the fragments my mind is throwing at me. I can't stay here feeling like a ticking time bomb."
Percy studied me for a long beat, searching my face for any sign of hesitation. Finding none, he sighed and pulled out his phone.
"Alright. If that's what you need, that's what we're doing."
He dialed a number. "Angelo? It's Percy. Jay is going with me.We're heading to London. Now. I'll explain everything on the way to the airport."
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Aries' POV
The house felt like a tomb.
I paced the living room floor, my phone gripped so tightly in my hand that the casing creaked. Keifer had called an hour ago. He told me Jay had gone to the beach to clear her head and that Percy had found her. He told me she needed space.
Space. The word felt like a slap.
I had spent years trying to bridge the space between us, trying to protect her from the very memories that had finally caught up to her. And now, because of a phone call from a man who should have stayed dead to us, she was spiraling.
The front door opened, and I lunged toward it. But it wasn't Jay.
It was the Section E crew—Keifer, Cin, David, Felix, and the others. They filed in, their faces grim. Keifer looked like he hadn't slept in a week, his jaw set in a hard line.
"Where is she?" I demanded.
"She's with Percy," Keifer said, his voice tight. "He's taking care of her, Aries."
Before I could snap back, Angelo walked into the room. He didn't look at any of us; he went straight to the large TV in the lounge and started connecting his phone.
"What are you doing?" I asked, a knot of dread forming in my stomach.
"She called," Angelo said simply. "She wants to talk to everyone."
The screen flickered to life. It wasn't a standard call; it was a video feed from the interior of a private jet.
Jay was sitting in one of the leather seats, her face pale but determined. Percy was visible in the background, looking out the window.
"Jay?" I breathed, stepping closer to the screen.
She looked at me, and her eyes immediately filled with tears. "Aries... I remembered. I remembered everything I did to you in that warehouse. The blade... the blood... I saw the scar in my mind, and I realized I'm the one who put it there."
Her voice broke into a sob. "I'm sorry. I am the worst sister in the world. I hurt the person who was trying to save me."
"No," I said, my voice cracking. I felt the sting of tears I hadn't let fall in years. "No, Jay, listen to me. You weren't the worst sister. You were a child being tortured. I never blamed you. I was stupid to let you think, even for a second, that it was your fault. It was him. It was always him."
I reached out, my fingers brushing the glass of the screen. "Where are you? Come home. Please, Jay, just come back so I can hold you."
She shook her head, a stray tear falling down her cheek. "I can't face you. Not right now. Every time I look at you, I see the blood on my hands. I need to fix this. I need to find the pieces of myself I left behind."
She took a deep breath, and for a second, she looked like the little girl I used to carry on my shoulders.
"But I will come back. I promise. I will come back... Kuya Ari."
The name hit me like a physical blow to the heart. She hadn't called me that since before the warehouse—since before the world turned grey. It was the name of the brother she loved, not the guardian she feared. My knees felt weak, and I had to lean against the back of the sofa.
"Come back," I whispered, my voice thick with emotion. "I'm waiting. I'll always be waiting."
Jay looked toward the source of the voice, then back at the camera. "Keifer?"
Keifer stepped forward, his eyes fixed on her. "I'm here, Jay."
On the screen, Percy called out. "Jay, we need to go. We're about to take off."
"I'll call you back soon," she promised, her gaze lingering on him for a heartbeat longer than anyone else. "I love you guys."
The screen went black.
The silence that followed was heavy. I looked around the room at the people who had become her family.
We were all broken in different ways, but she was the glue that held us together. And now, she was flying across the world to face the man who had broken us in the first place.
"She's going to New York" David noted, his voice low.
"She's going to get her answers," Cin added, wiping a tear from his eye.
I looked at my hands, the same hands that had failed to keep her safe all those years ago. "She called me Kuya Ari," I whispered to the empty air.
The war wasn't over. But for the first time, I felt like we might actually win. Because Jay wasn't running away from the darkness anymore—she was walking straight into it to turn on the lights.
A/n
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