Chapter Text
+1
This was a terrible idea.
Aaron had been saying this to Sasha for the entire week near constantly, but Sasha was not having it. They couldn’t keep this hidden forever, it was unfair to the others in the system to be forced to pretend to be Aaron all the time, and it wasn’t fair to the people around them to be lying to all of them.
They were sat in Betsy office, finally. Aaron’s worries were very clear, as were Nico’s but Sasha was confident on this, if nothing else.
“So, Andrew,” Betsy started them off. “Aaron has something he’d like to share with you, and he wanted to do it in a calm controlled environment. You remember the rules?”
Both of them nodded and Betsy gestured to Sasha. He hadn’t told her either, so this would be fun.
There was always the possibility she would say he was lying, or an attention seeker, or-
Sasha cut off Aaron spiel and turned to look at their brother. “Have you ever encountered dissociative identity disorder?”
“A mental condition, characterised by the presence of two or more different personality states or alters existing within one individual.”
Sasha did his best not to roll his eyes at the dictionary definition and nodded in acknowledgment. “Yeah, basically.”
“Are you Aaron or are you an alter?”
He’d forgotten how frustratingly intelligent Andrew could be when he felt like it. “My name is Sasha. I’m an alter, protector specifically.”
“How many are you?”
“Six including Aaron, that we know of.”
“When did you find out?”
“Andrew,” Betsy’s voice was gentle but there was a warning behind it and Andrew relented but Sasha waved her off, questions might make this easier.
“I have always known. Aaron, the host, found out when someone locked him in a bathroom and let him come off multiple types of drugs completely cold turkey and is very lucky, he didn’t sustain lasting damage from it, beyond a few hyper specific phobias.”
Andrew didn’t look particularly reproached by that, but Sasha knew by now he didn’t tend to show any real emotion, especially around Aaron. He looked like he was considering the answers so far and wanted to ask more and Sasha just sighed, “ask your questions.”
They got into Andrew’s car half an hour later in absolute silence. Andrew didn’t move to turn on the ignition and Sasha didn’t prompt him.
“Who did Neil meet on the roof?”
Oh of course.
During the session Andrew had asked very surface level questions about the system, and then they’d accidentally segwayed into something completely random.
“That was Riley. They’re our primary trauma holder, something triggered Aaron, he wouldn’t have known what or why, and Riley took over. They’re usually better equipped to handle it, but it was a poor situation.”
“How old are they?”
“The twins are age sliders; they move between about three and ten.”
Andrew looked concerned and Sasha sighed, “I know what you’re worried about. Riley, for whatever reason is incredibly trusting but they are not stupid. They understand you perhaps more than any other.”
He’d known Andrew would understand what that meant, and was proven right when Andrew turned the car on and pulled out the car park without another word.