A Dark glow came on Harry's face as he played with a dark coloured marble in his hand. The light from the makeshift light bulb on the roof of the truck lit up the right side of his face leaving half of his face dark. He was sitting on the edge of the truck with his eyes staring intensely at the marble in his hands.
It was none other than a mana bead which gave powers to evolved beings like it gave wind powers to Arya. It had been left by the terrifying monster that Jason fought before, it had landed close to his feet and he noticed it just when he was about tot leave with the others.
He knew that it might be a terrible idea for him to consume this bead, if he could simply evolve by eating such a bead then Jason would have given it to him long ago.
There was a risk to it, hell he might even die but right now he is nothing more than a burden to his friends and if there is even a slight bit of chance that he can get stronger to help them then he'll have to take the chance.
As for his parents, if he rescues them when he has no powers then he will just add to the burden on his friends. He wants to be strong enough that his parents can rely on him and feel safe in this messed up world.
"Are you okay?" Aiden's voice pierced right through his mind and brought him back to his senses. He had been so indulged in these dark thoughts that he failed to notice his surroundings.
"Yeah, I'm fine just thinking about stuff." Harry replied in a laid back voice so that this little girl would not worry about him.
"That stuff must be quite interesting for you to clench your fists like that, " Aiden commented with a slight raise of her brow.
"Oh…I" Harry noticed that his fists clenched so tight that his nails were almost on the verge of drawing blood from his palms. He was quite flustered, and he was immediately brought out of his dark zone by the sheer embracement.
"I also feel like a burden sometimes. Just good enough to cook and move things around." Aiden said with a far away look on her face in a voice did not match her cute childlike face.
"If I could do anything to help brother or fight alongside him so that he doesn't have to always lay down his life for us. I'd do it in a heartbeat. He is the only family I have and to see him get hurt again and again just feels like someone is slowly ripping my heart out." Aiden said in a voice mixed with anguish and helplessness.
Harry was astounded by such a display of emotions. He had never been close Aiden he had met her a lot of times with Jason when he went to her school to meet her. He knew what Aiden and Jason went through in life so he could guess that she had to mature faster than her age group to emotionally survive that phase in their lives.
"Even if there is a chance that you could die in the process?" Harry asked out of curiosity.
"What is life without your loved ones? If I have a chance to increase the chances of survival of my loved ones why wouldn't I risk my life for it." Aiden answered in a sincere voice.
"You and Jason both are the same. Both of you would do anything for your loved ones. " Harry replied with a light smile on his face, he always admired this trait in Jason and now he even admired Aiden.
*Click
The sound of the door opening came distracting them.
"What are you two up to so late in the night." Arya said as she came through.
"Nothing, just some bed time stories for this little girl, " Harry said while laughing as he rustled Aiden's hair as he got up.
"You know that you are only two years older than me right? " Aiden said with a huff.
"So what you're still a little girl, " Harry said with a cheeky smile on his face.
"Whatever, " Aiden said as she went to the washroom, clearing her mind of all the painful thoughts which were haunting her.
"So, how as the training? "Harry asked Arya as he knew that Arya, and Kim had planned to train their powers during their watch hours.
"Quite good actually, We are almost twice as strong by just one training session" Arya Said with an amazed look on her face.
"That's natural, as you had no proper way of utilizing your powers before, you will get a great boost in fighting capability after learning how to utilize them properly but the power upgrades will grow slower as your capabilities improve." Harry replied.
"Yeah, it seems like we'll have to learn other forms of fighting in combination with this to increase our capabilities further. But anyways I'm off to bed "Arya said as she went to her bed to regain her drained out strength for the upcoming day.
"Good night. I'll see what Kim is up to, it's my turn to keep watch next." Harry said as he walked out of the door while clutching the mana bead in his hand as a determined look came over his face.