Vendetta: Circle of Aero

Chapter 4 - The Fragile Line

Caleb is staring at the picture of his mother, tears forming in his eyes. He staggers backwards and bumps into the dresser, feeling a mixture of anger and sadness twisting together inside of himself. His teeth clench momentarily before yelling out and kicking the dresser as hard as he can, causing a picture frame to fall and smash onto the floor. Breathing heavily as he collapses to the floor, staring back up at the picture. 

Weiss comes rushing into the room, immediately noticing the glass all over the floor and him huddled on the floor in front of the dresser. She ignores the hologram to rush over to him, getting down beside him. 

Weiss: Caleb? What is it? What's wrong? 

He doesn't answer at first, still trying to process it all. Fighting back tears as memories flash through his head. His eyes slowly rise back up to look at the holographic picture of his mother. 

Caleb: She never died... 

Not able to hold it in anymore, tears start flowing down his cheeks. 

Caleb: She just left... 

Weiss looks back at the hologram, taking in the view of the photo of Paige Sieks, and her expression drops as her breath catches in her throat. 

 She looks back at Caleb, not knowing what to say.

Weiss: Caleb...

John and Winter then come walking into the room. 

Winter: Is everything okay in here...? 

Her voice trails off as the holographic picture of Paige Sieks catches her gaze. 

John stares at it as if he's in a trance, walking over to it. His lips tremble. His breath quickens. Tears start forming in his eyes. 

John: Is this...?

Caleb: The encrypted file?... Yeah. 

John: How... I-I thought she...

Caleb: So did I.

His fists clench, resting on his knees. 

Caleb: But I guess she just wanted to abandon us. 

John glances from him back to the picture of Paige.

John: She can't.... She wouldn't... How could she...

He can't find anymore words as his chest tightens and tears start rolling down his cheeks. Winter comes over to him with a sorrowful expression on her face, putting an arm around him. 

Ironwood and Mason come walking into the room. Letting out a sigh as his shoulders droop, Ironwood scans the room, before walking up to the holographic image of Paige Sieks. 

Mason glances at the image of Paige Sieks before looking over at Caleb. 

Ironwood: This changes everything.  

He glances down at the name "Jin" before looking back up at the image of her. 

Ironwood: All of this time... she was laying low. Working in the background with this group. She abandoned her family. We have to find out the reason why. 

Mason: With this discovery, there's no telling how many layers we'd have to go through. If this is possible... then anything is at this point. 

Caleb is heard taking a deep breath, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand as he stands up. He looks at the image of his mother again, an angry expression developing on his face.  

Caleb: I have to find her... And I'll stop at nothing to do it. 

Weiss: Then we'll be right there to help you. We just can't forget about the rest of that group while we're at it.