With Fear or Without

32- Friendly Fire

Charlie sat with Cleo on the ground until Andy found them, still huddled together. Cleo's eyes were red and puffy, the remnants to tears leaving streaks along her cheeks as she looked up at Andy.

"I hope you don't mind," Andy said. "I kind of... well, I told them everything."

Cleo swallowed and nodded weakly. It was probably for the best. They couldn't have hid it forever.

"When I see her again," Andy grumbled, hard anger making her voice stern and clenched, "I have some words for that... traitor." She spat out the last word, sounding so sure that the next time they saw Rowana would not be as friends. Cleo was beginning to understand how she had felt like that all along.

Charlie wasn't as convinced. "I don't know you guys, we still don't know the whole story."

"We know she tried to stop us from coming here, from helping Cassian," Cleo whispered. 

"Well, yeah, but..." 

"You seriously think she's still our friend? After months of lying to us?" Andy demanded. Her emotions seemed to make her pale eyes darken. "How can you be so stupidly naïve?"

Charlie stared back as if Andy had just slapped them. They clenched their jaw and turned their stare to the ground.

"Maybe I choose to have more hope than you," Charlie whispered. They stood and stormed off without looking back. That seemed to be happening a lot today.

Cleo and Andy stared off after Charlie in silence. Ready to scold her, Cleo snapped her head back to Andy. The next image made her reprimand dissolve on the tip of her tongue.

Andy's hair was faintly smoking. Dark fog curled off the edges of her blonde locks. Her gray blue eyes really did darken, matching the sky above them.

Cleo made a strained noise as she held her breath and sat frozen.

At the sound of Cleo's whimper, Andy turned to her. Once their eyes met, everything returned to normal. The mist was gone and her eyes returned to their normal color. Her eyebrows were upturned in worry and her shoulders slumped with guilt. But everything was normal. Normal enough for Cleo to entertain the possibility that her eyes were playing tricks on her.

She didn't have much time to think about it before Andy turned away from her, her face contorting in pain and she let out a strained groan.

"Andy?" Cleo scrambled to her feet and steadied her friend's shoulder. "What's going on?"

Andy sucked in a sharp breath, her shallow breathing slowly normalizing. "I don't... understand. Charlie..." She straightened and looked desperately at Cleo. "Why did I say that?"

"You were angry. We all were."

Andy shook her head adamantly. "No. No, that's not... I didn't..." She swayed before placing her weight firmly onto her own feet. She wiped a hand over her face and through her hair.

"Any, what's going on?" Cleo asked again.

"I'm just... tired." Andy gave Cleo a half-hearted grin. "I'm fine. Just... let's get out of here, okay?"

Cleo looked back forth at Andy's eyes, trying to understand what was going on. She wasn't sure if she fully believed her friend, but standing here certainly wasn't helping.

"Okay."