Dad… What?

That didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t escape that easily. That was impossible.

I felt myself begin to hyperventilate. Any semblance of control I had was gone in an instant, and I soon felt tears form in my eyes. I couldn’t force them away, I couldn’t control myself. What happened to him? Was he stable? Was he dying? 

Hey. Kid. Listen to me.

The worst part was that I didn’t even feel scared for him. The thought of him dying almost made me feel happy. What kind of monster was I? He’d raised me by himself for years, only expecting a little bit of hard work in return, and I repaid that by wanting to celebrate his accident. 

Kid. 

I needed to leave. To actually see him. I had to… I had to go back to my old self, no matter what. He couldn’t know about my time as Natasha, or about what had happened with Nat. He had too much on his plate to need to worry about what happened. The shock could have been enough to kill him outright.

Stop. Now. You’re breaking down again, Natasha. 

“How? Why should I?” I barely managed to provide any sort of response to Nat softly trying to soothe me. Why was she even part of me? She had so many better options to choose from, what made her stick with me?

Why? Because you’re making a scene in front of these people. You, the random girl named Natasha, not Arthur. I can’t take over right now, otherwise I would. If you’re that afraid of them judging you for being who you are, then you’ll need to lie. If this is a priority, then you’ll need to cry for your father later. Nat’s words slowly got through to me, causing my panic attack to temporarily fade, replaced by the immediate fear of being outed. 

“But I can’t! I’m a terrible liar!” What could I even tell them? That I knew my own dad, but not in the way they expected? That sounded like my best bet. Hopefully that didn’t lead to more questions.

Come up with something. And be careful, I feel something else in the air here. Nat barely gave me time to process her vague proclamation before going silent again. What was with her? Couldn’t she give more help than that? We both needed things to be kept a secret, right?

Someone’s hand touching my back knocked me out of my thoughts long before I was prepared. I still felt the stinging of tears on my face, still felt my body shaking from sobs, still had sniffles left to let out.  Strangely, though, I felt fine. It was like all of my negative emotions suddenly muted themselves, leaving me feeling nothing but a comforting warmth in my core.

I found Aria nervously looking in my direction, and turned to see Alys with her hand on me as she hummed some sort of tune. It was so calming that I felt myself nearly falling asleep just listening to her sing. My anxieties felt incomprehensibly far away, it was like the entire universe was calmly telling me that everything was going to be alright.

After a time, I didn’t know how long, I heard Aria speak up. She sounded nervous, like any word she used could be a mine set to explode. “Y’alright, Nat?” 

I nodded slowly. My expression was neutral as I offered a response, and the lie came surprisingly easily. “Yeah. Arthur’s dad is my uncle. I just imagined how hurt he must have been and just couldn’t control myself. I’m sorry.” Thankfully only a small portion of my comment was deception, which coupled with my complete lack of worry to make the lie go off without a hitch. Hopefully I never had to repeat it.

Aria looked confused for a moment, but she slowly seemed to come to accept my answer. In an instant it seemed like she became a different person, like my best friend was back. I wanted to feel relieved, but even that emotion felt dull. “Thank goodness. I was afraid you were Nadia when I first saw you.” 

“You dislike Nadia?” That was odd. Aria rarely mentioned my family around me, but I thought she loved Nadia. We both looked up to her when we were kids, at least. She was like the stereotypical perfect older sister. I didn’t know Aria took her leaving with our mom so harshly.

“Uh, yeah? His entire family is kind of shitty, no offense. Anyway, that’s a talk for private time, later.” Aria left without another word, leaving me alone with Alys, whose hand was still slowly moving back and forth across my back while she hummed.

It took another moment before her relaxing actions finally stopped, and everything hit me at once. Holy shit, I lied! And Aria hates my family? Why had she not mentioned that before? And was my dad okay? I still needed to figure out how to get to him. And turn back. 

Why did that last thought still make me want to vomit?

“Hey, newbie, don’t break down again, you just recovered from one. Come on, blowing stuff up in the gym usually helps relieve extra stress.” It felt incredibly off-putting to hear a celebrity and personal hero like Alys speak to me like that, but her words were more than enough to get me to push away my feelings. 

I stood up in silence and followed behind her as she guided me to the training room, and once again I was thrown off by her recorded height being different from how tall she actually was. She was supposed to be as tall as my dad, but I came up to his nose and barely came up to her chin. Did the Magical Warriors have a thing about telling their true heights, or was whoever making their posters not measuring them?

The sound of explosions caught my ears well before we arrived, and I hesitated before the door to the training room as Alys turned the handle. What if I did something wrong and revealed myself? What if they already knew and this was just an elaborate way to trap me? What if I hurt someone?

Alys managed to snap me out of my thoughts again, this time by literally snapping in front of my face. “Do you do this often, newbie? If you do, I need you to tell me now. It might not seem important, but in a fight that could mean the difference between life and death.” Her tone gave the impression of a stern gym teacher, but I thought I could detect a hint of concern in her voice. Why did she care that much?

Oh. Right. Losing myself within my thoughts could endanger the others. It wasn’t like there was another reason for her to care about me.

I shook my head in denial before I spoke up. “I don’t, I promise. It’s new. I’ve had… A lot on my mind.” I so terribly wished I had Nat back in my head to help, but she was still silent. I was getting tired of calling her Nat, too, and what her true name was dwelled on my mind. 

Alys slowly nodded as I provided my short explanation, but her expression gave me no insight into what she was thinking. Even worse was the lack of a response from her. As soon as she received an answer, she just turned and threw open the door. I followed close behind, I didn’t want her to get onto me again.