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Powder lurches awake, a hoarse scream tearing from her throat. It was just a dream, it must have been a dream. Not a dream, a nightmare, she thinks.
She sits up in her bed, looking around the room. She’s in her room, and she’s alone. A cold shiver goes through her whole body. It was just a dream, she repeats to herself, but a small, dreadful, hollow feeling is starting to work its way into her stomach.
It doesn’t have the chance to turn into anything more than that when her door slams open and a person rushes in. It takes Powder only a second to recognize the person in her doorway, and then she’s on her feet, flying across the room and into the arms of the girl standing there.
"Whoa, what’s wrong, Pow-Pow," says the girl, wrapping her arms around Powder.
Relief bubbles up inside Powder and tears gather into her eyes, falling across the other girl's back. "Vi", she murmurs, her voice breaking after that one syllable.
"Hey, you’re okay, I’m right here with you,” Vi tells her, pulling her sister closer to her. “What happened, I heard you screaming all the way from my room."
Powder tries to explain, but the words won’t come, only tears, pouring down her cheeks, making her breathing difficult. Vi takes one look at her face and simply pulls her back into the hug, holding the younger girl as she cries.
It takes a long time until Powder is finally able to collect herself. Vi leads them to Powder's bed and they sit down, Powder burrowing herself into her sister’s side, not being able to stand to be apart from her.
"I had a dream," she says quietly. Vi stares at her, expression soft, and waits for her to go on. “But it didn’t feel like a dream. It felt real. So much was the same, Ekko was there, and Vander, and Mylo, and Claggor. But you-“ Powder's voice breaks. “You weren't there. Vi, you were dead."
Vi's expression flickers, but she schools it back quickly, once again wrapping her arms around her sister. "It’s okay, it was just a dream. I’m right here, Pow-Pow, I'm right here."
"It was horrible, Vi," Powder says. "Everything was good, the Lanes were peaceful, the streets were clean, but you, without you there I-“
Vi pulls her younger sister to her chest, letting her feel her heartbeat. "Listen, Pow-Pow, listen, I’m alive, I’m right here with you, and I’m not going anywhere."
Powder sniffles, drying her face into Vi's shirt which makes the older girl grimace, but she stays quiet. “I don’t want a life without you in it, Vi, no matter how nice it might be."
"Aw, well thanks for that. I’ll remember that when you’re a famous inventor and I want to mooch off of your success," Vi tries to joke, expecting to get even a small giggle from her sister.
But Powder only looks at her with eyes filled with as much seriousness as her young face is capable of. Vi swallows any levity she might have continued with.
"I’m sorry," Vi says. "But I hope you know l love you, and that I will always be here for you."
Powder burrows back into her chest. "Vi, can you sleep with me tonight, please? I know you said I'm too old for that but-" Her voice cuts off, face buried into her sister's shoulder.
Vi looks down at her sister, a lump in her throat. "Yeah, of course I will." She shimmies across the bed, until they can both lie on it next to one another, like they did when they were younger.
Slowly sleep takes over both sisters, wrapped next to each other. The last thought Powder has before falling asleep is, “Not in this universe, no way.”