Act 1: Groundskeeper: Chapter 16

When the elevator doors opened to me and Wren’s dorm, Wren was sitting on her bed, dressed in more casual clothes, wrapped in a blanket, while eating soup and looking at something on her tablet. When I walked in, she looked up at me, the spoon in her mouth, and waved at me. I walked over at sat down on the bed next to her as she turned her tablet off and set the soup bowl with the spoon on her bedside table.

“How are you doing?” I asked as she leaned on my shoulder.

“I’m doing… okay. I’m fine, I guess.” She said, not looking fine at all.

“Wren, I need to ask you something.”

Her face turned more serious as she sat up and looked up at me. “What about?”

“Your number, 0088, is the number of Snake Eye’s Blaine.” Her face turned from serious to sad as she looked down, averting her gaze. “And there's the fact that most of LTF seems to know you already.”

“That's because…” She had tears in her eyes as she spoke. “Blaine was a member of LTF… and I’m Blaine.” So much suddenly made sense. “A while ago, someone- I don’t know how- managed to break into HQ. It’s been kept a secret because if it got out that someone managed to break in, all hell would break loose. The person interrupted a joint training session between LTF and Gardner Wendolk’s Task Force, WTF. That’s why WTF hasn’t been around; they’ve been out there, looking for him. The interruption had some… effects. Everyone managed to get out of the simulation but me. It had some… effects on me. It changed me into a part of myself I’ve kept hidden forever. A scared little girl. That’s who I am, and who I’ve always wanted to. I don’t want to go back to how I was before. I don’t care if you hate me for that; this is who I am.” She let out a sigh and a shudder as she finished.

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I reached out and embraced her in a hug, pulling her close to me. “How could I hate my little sister for being who she is?”

I felt her then relax and fall into my arms, sobbing happy tears, tears of relief. We sat there just like that for who knows how long, five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, I held her until she stopped crying.

“Hey, Wren?” I asked as I looked down at her, she had positioned herself to be sitting in my lap, right under my head.

“Hmm?” She said, looking up at me. Damn, she was cute.

“Tomorrow, after our mission, I’m gonna go play some poker with some friends? Do you want to come with me?”

She pursed her lips and scrunched her brow as she seemed to be thinking deeply about it. “Can I just come and watch? I don’t want to play, but I do wanna be there.”

“Of course, you can just watch. Storm and Ody will be very excited to meet you.”

She tilted her head at me, confused at the two new names.

“Storm and Ody are like… my parents? I think. There’s not really a word for it. They took me under their wing when I first Spawned, and never really let me go after.” I said, rubbing the back of my head, slightly embarrassed.

She smiled. “I’m excited to meet them.”

Shit, my little sister was cute.