“You killed him,” Seira said weakly, feeling as if she might vomit _again._

“I did what I had to do,” Ten said harshly. She pulled Seira after her. “Come on. Are you going to throw up?”

“I—”

“Don’t do it off the roof. You never know who it’ll land on.”

Seira swallowed. “I’m fine.”

“Good.” Ten glanced back, and something in Seira’s face must have convinced her of the lie. She sighed. “We can stop up here.” She hopped nimbly up to a higher roof. When Seira didn’t follow, she reached down and offered her hand. Seira took it. 

She stood on the roof, taking several shuddering breaths. “You killed him,” she repeated.

“It had to happen.” Ten met her eyes and sighed. “You don’t get it. Your corner of the world is too pretty for you to get it.”

Seira shuddered. “You’re a murderer.”

“Yeah. Well.” Ten was avoiding her gaze. “Sometimes that’s what we have to be.”

Seira shook her head, looking at her sister with a new understanding. “No,” she said, nearly a shriek. “No, we don’t!”

“Listen,” Ten snarled. “You got to choose. I didn’t. So you can stop whining—”

“It isn’t whining! He was a _person, _and you killed him, and who knows how many others!”

“I never had a choice—“

“And I never wanted one!” Seira glared at the other girl, eyes glittering with tears.

“Right,” Ten said, laughing darkly. “Right, you’d give up your palaces and your schools and your _family _for _my _life.”

“I would!” Seira gritted her teeth, hating the voice in the back of her mind that whispered her mother’s words to her. _Speak logically. Come back when you aren’t angry. _**_Shut up! _**“I would give it all, Ten, because look what it made you!”

“I never wanted this!” Ten gestured at her raggedy clothes, the scar curled from her ear down to her collarbone, the purple hair that had never been forced into a bun. “I never wanted to become _this.”_

“But you did.” Seira looked away from her, down to the dark streets below. “You’re more than I will ever be, and you never even had to want it.”

“You don’t know anything about what I want,” Ten started, but Seira cut her off with a high, wild laugh.

“And you don’t know anything about want!” Abruptly, Seira swung at her, and Ten caught her hand. Seira aimed her elbow towards Ten’s stomach, but her sister shoved her back easily.

“What are you doing?” Seira didn’t answer. She panted for breath, kicking low at Ten’s knee. Ten danced back, eying her warily. Each of her movements was lithe and precise.

“Do you see it?” Seira seethed. “Do you see it now?”

“See what? You’re making no sense, Sei.”

“You’re broken,” Seira spat. “But _look what you’re worth.”_

Ten blinked, shaking her head in incredulity. “_That’s _what this is about? Please. You don’t even know what it means to be broken.”

“Of course I—”

“No.” Ten’s tone darkened, twisted into something frightening. Something that would not conceive the idea of being controlled. “No, you don’t. You haven’t been there. While you were trying on dresses, I was stealing food to survive. Not to be comfortable. To _survive. _I looked death in the face every day, and I had to choose _every day _to keep living.” Ten shook her head.

 “You can’t ever understand. You can’t know what it is to watch everyone you’ve loved die and be told it’s your fault. You’ve never sat in a cell and watched your world crumble while you could do _nothing _to stop it. You’ve never torn at your hair or punched a wall until your fists bled.” Ten stopped, chest heaving. Seira’s face displayed something between triumph and horror. She could feel her heart pounding, could feel bile rising in her throat. 

She forced it down. “You do see, then.” 

“Just say what you mean,” Ten snapped tiredly. 

“You know those things. You _understand _them. You can fight. You can survive. You have a power I never will because you _never had to choose!”_ The tears wanted to fall. Seira refused to let them. 

“Me?” Ten scoffed, a piece of loose hair so dark a purple it was nearly black falling over her eye. “Please. People like me can’t change anything. We just have to wait for people like _you _to clean up the mess that we are. You’re everything I could’ve been if I didn’t get stuck in this dump.”

“You aren’t listening,” Seira said. The fight had drained out of her. “I can’t _do _anything. I had too many options. I had everything. So I’ve become nothing. _You’re _everything _I _could’ve been if-if I were here.”

Ten sat down next to her. “You think you’re redundant.”

Seira shrugged. “The world doesn’t need another person like me. It could stand to have a few more like you.”

Ten was quiet for a long moment. “There’s a lot you don’t see, you know. About what’s inside. I’d give anything to be as-as carefree as you.”

“Carefree?” Seira laughed. But when she looked over at Ten, her sister was frowning. 

“Have you ever taken a life, Seira?”

Seira stiffened. “What you did today…”

_“Have you ever taken a life, Seira?”_

“No,” Seira whispered, suddenly feeling very small.

“It changes you,” Ten said. “Everyone says that, but you don’t realize it until you’ve actually done it. And then you do it again, and again, and again.” She met Seira’s eyes, her own dark and haunted. “You know it’s bad once you stop counting.”

Ten laughed. “Maybe the way rich people break is different. Maybe you turn into heroes. Maybe, in your world, it’s beautiful.

“But somehow, I don’t think it is. It’s an ugly thing, Sei. Hearts don’t crack and heal nice and easy like bones. They splinter. They shatter. They get infected. And maybe you can fix it, but it’s never going back to how it was. Pieces get lost, and what’s left is a mess, held together by glue and string and sheet will. It never stops hurting, not really.” Ten wasn’t looking at Seira anymore but out into the darkness. In the city proper, it would be filled with light. Here, there were only scattered fires, not quite enough to chase off the chill.

“It’s the things you don’t see that really get you. The things they won’t tell you in any of their fairytales. It’s the days and nights and days and nights that pass in a blur as you try to remember how to move on. It’s the friends you didn’t realize you needed until they’re dead. It’s know that you are, and always will be, broken beyond repair.”

“I…” Seira’s throat stuck. She cleared it, trying again. “I’m sorry.”

Ten snorted, her mouth curving into a wry grin. “Sorry doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t change how many years of my life are gone, and it doesn’t change what you did.”

“I know,” Seira murmured miserably. “I didn’t—I didn’t know it was you.”

Ten shrugged. “You were doing your job.”

“And it ruined your life!”

“Can’t ruin what’s worth nothing.” Seira winced, and Ten set a hand on her knee. “Don’t beat yourself up about it. That won’t help anyone. I got out, didn’t I?” Again, her mouth twisted into that same gentle smirk. “I take care of myself.”

Seira nodded. She watched the city for a long, long moment. From above, it looked like everything she’d imagined. But she’d walked those streets, now. She’d heard the screams and seen the bloodstains. Ten was right. This place was as ugly as a shattered heart. 

One of the fires flared up, and Seira shivered. “Do you have the nightmares?” She asked quietly.

Ten stirred. “I—used to.”

“I still have them,” Seira said. _You don’t have to be the strongest, _her mother’s voice chided. _You’re exactly what you need to be, right where you’re at. _**_You aren’t helping. _**“They’re not as bad anymore. I used to wake up screaming.”

“Me too,” Ten said. To Seira, it looked as if she were leaving out a part of the story. A part of it that would remind Seira just how much less she was than the sister who’d once been a perfect mirror of herself. She ignored the thought.

“I thought I could feel my skin blistering. I heard them screaming. Our—our parents. They were dying. They begged me to save them, but I was being pulled out, and I couldn’t bring myself to go back in. They were still inside. You were too. I thought you were dead. For all those years.”

Ten met her eyes. “I saw them take you. I was so glad you’d survived. That helped, on the worst days. To know that you were out there, living the life I never could.”

Seira let out a long, quiet sigh. “What do I do now, Ten?”

“I suppose,” Ten said quietly, “that you have a choice to make.”

Every muscle in Seira’s body seemed to tense at once. “I don’t want—”

“I know! I know. But there’s always a choice, whether you like it or not.” She smiled sadly. “You talk about my path as if it’s been straight and easy to follow. I still make choices, sister, just different ones. I choose to be alive. I choose not to listen to the laughter in my head. Even in prison, even when they try to take away every option you have. I always have a choice, Seira, and so I will _never _be powerless again. Choice is power, not punishment.” She paused. Cocked her head. Brushed away loose strands of hair. “So I guess it’s up to you. What do you want?”

Seira shook her head in awe. “How did you get to be so wise?” **_Why not me? Why am I always behind everyone, even my own twin sister? _**_Learn from everyone you can, dar—_**_shut up shut up shut up! _**Ten raised an eyebrow, and Seira pursed her lips. “I want to be skilled. To be worth something.” _You don’t need talent to matter. I’ll love you no matter what._

“That’s a start,” Ten said. “Use that. Build it into a fire and burn.” Seira nodded, but suddenly Ten wasn’t looking at her anymore. She was glancing behind them, towards the city proper. Before Seira even realized she’d moved, the scarred girl was on her feet. “We have to get you back. _Now.”_

“Why?” Seira stood up, eyes wide and alert. “What’s happening?”

“Shields,” Ten replied. “A lot of them. And they still think I, ah, kidnapped you.”

_“What?”_

“It’s a long story. Come on.” Ten leaned back, falling into the air over the side of the building. Seira’s breath caught in her throat. Then Ten’s head popped back up. “Right,” she said. “There’s, um, a ladder on the other side, if you want it.”

Flushing, Seira crossed the building and began climbing down onto a lower roof. By the time she was down, Ten was already there. They crossed carefully. More than once, Ten pointed to the street below, where Seira could hear Shields marching. The return was quicker than Seira expected; before she knew it, they were in the foliage of a tree just outside her family’s estate. 

Ten grabbed her arm. “Hey,” she said. “Live for me, okay? Fall in love. Have a family. Relish each moment.”

Seira snorted. “While you’re out there fighting? Please.” She felt a warm smirk fall into place. A mirror of Ten’s, only one without scars running through it like cracks in once perfect glass. “I think it’s about time someone cleaned up your messes.”

Ten laughed. “I’ll be waiting. Be safe.”

Before Seira had a chance to answer, Ten was gone. Disappeared into the night. Seira shrugged and made her way awkwardly down the tree. Choice was power, she reminded herself. Choice was power.