For the first time, Aren could hear Athena clearly.

"When we walked into the trial, it started out fine, we faced Minotaurs there and we were winning." She paused when it got to this point, and Aren saw a tear form in her eyes, but he did nothing yet, beyond watching and listening to her.

"Then it all went bad, the Minotaurs managed to surround us, and we started taking damage, no, the guys did, because whatever came close to me was destroyed.

I asked to help, but they refused, saying they had depended on me far too much over the trials, they could face this. It seems our meeting with you showed them that they depended on me too much, but I never minded that." Her words cracked at that point.

"That's where it all went bad." She said. She grabbed the sheets on the bed hard, her tears falling down from her face onto her lap now. She started shaking slowly.

"A Minotaur used a magical attack that terraformed the surroundings, and the next moment I was nowhere near them. And by the time I found my way back to them, they were all on their final stand, fighting with everything that they had to not give up, but the Minotaurs were around them and they could no longer do much about it.

I tried to rush ahead, but was too late. I saw them die, I saw those creatures kill them, all of them, mutilated right before my eyes." Her tone grew deep and heavy as she spoke, the quiet voice vanishing, and all that remained was a voice soaked in pain, anger, and regret.

Her body trembled even more, her eyes began glowing as the tears ran down nonstop.

"They killed them, they killed Ron."

Her emotions flared, she lost all control, cracks immediately started forming inside the room walls and floor, running very deep and long into the castle.

Aren looked around and saw the cracks, it was the effect of her emotions going haywire. The cracks spread faster and dust started falling, the entire room was shaking heavily like there was an earthquake.

Aren looked at her. She was alone now. She felt alone. Her world was cold now, and empty, and he could see it in her eyes. She was scared of being alone, scared of her emotions.

In that moment something happened, a flash of memory hit Aren, and it was not a memory that he could remember.

It was him as a kid, out in the snow, the temperature below zero degrees. He was freezing, wearing only a lousy white medical gown of some sort, barefoot inside the snow, headed to the dead forest.

He got to the first tree and couldn't move anymore. He slid down the tree, sat there, and shook. Then a figure approached, their footsteps muffled by the snow.

"Hey," the figure spoke. "I'm sure you are cold and tired." The voice carried warmth.

"I'm sorry for what you have to go through, I wish I could change that, I really do." The figure said and then stretched out their hand, placing it on Aren's cheek.

He couldn't tell if this was a man or a woman, or what this person looked like at all.

"I'm sorry, one day, all this will stop." The figure said and then leaned in to hug Aren.

And in that moment, Aren felt a warmth he never remembered in his life.

The figure picked him up and then started walking into the snow, and in the distance was a large construct, like a building, yet only the dark outline showed.

He snapped back to reality, looking right at Athena. His body moved on its own, he wrapped his hands around her in a hug.

"I'm sorry for what you have to go through, I'm sure you feel alone. But Ron wouldn't want you to be alone, or think you are alone.

We might not know each other better, but you still have someone, you aren't alone."

Athena froze, her eyes wide open, but the red glow beginning to dim.

Her hands moved slowly, she wrapped them around Aren, and then leaned into his shoulder.

They stayed in that position for a while, before he finally let go, when he was certain that she was calm.

"I'm destruction and chaos." She said.

"That's not what you are, you are whatever you tell yourself you are, not what your ability makes you out to be.

I know it's hard having all these emotions and then having to bottle them up because of fear, but you aren't something to be feared, and your emotions aren't to be bottled." Aren said.

She looked at him for a few seconds and then nodded her head.

"Ron would want you to keep rising, so keep doing that, okay?"

"I'll do that." She said, her face becoming serious. Aren smiled at her, but inside he was busy facing his own issues.

"What was that memory? Where did that come from. I've never been to a snowy place like that before, that can't possibly be my memory.

Yet it felt so real, more real than many memories I have had till now. It felt like it was mine, really mine. Could I be losing my mind?"

As his mind was in shambles, he recalled what Karmela had told him, that the memories he had were covers, and that the true Nathan was buried.

"Could this be from my true memories? Then what was I doing in snow, where is that place? What's happening," the more he thought, the more confused he got, and soon, a splitting headache hit him.

He forced himself to stop thinking about it. Whatever it was, he would find out later. For now, he wanted to focus on the now.

Unknown to Aren, a part of his mind was opened in that moment, a small crack formed, and a darkness started seeping out of it into his mind and assimilating into the rest of him.

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