First Blood

First Blood
Iris POV

"Sister?" everyone said at the same time.
"That's impossible," Dad said. "You don't have a sister."
"The handwriting doesn't lie." I held up my phone so they could see the message again. "This is the same handwriting from all those letters I found in Elena's closet when I was thirteen."
Elena's face went pale. "You read those letters?"
"I read everything. The ones signed 'Your loving daughter, N.' The ones talking about missing home and waiting to come back."
"Iris, those letters weren't—"
"Weren't what? Weren't real? Weren't meant for me to find?" My voice was getting louder. "How many more siblings do I have that nobody told me about?"
Grandma started laughing again. That same crazy laugh that made my skin crawl.
"Oh, this is perfect. You really didn't tell them, did you, Elena?"
"Tell us what?" Ian demanded.
"That there weren't just two Kane babies twenty years ago. There were three."
The world tilted sideways.
"Triplets," I whispered.
"The third one was born early," Grandma said. "So small, so weak. The doctors said she wouldn't survive the night."
"But she did," Dad said quietly. "Didn't she?"
"She did. And I took her. Raised her myself while you fools were busy hiding the other two."
"You stole our sister?" Ian's voice was shaking with rage.
"I saved her. Trained her. Made her into something useful instead of something hidden."
"Made her into an assassin," Alex said.
"Made her into a weapon. The best weapon. Because unlike you two soft children, Natasha never knew love. Never knew weakness. She only knows how to win."
My heart was breaking. Somewhere out there was a sister I'd never met. A sister who'd been turned into a killer.
"Where is she now?" I asked.
"On her way to the cemetery, I assume. Waiting for you to make your choice."
"What choice?"
"Between saving your Irish cousins or meeting your sister. You can't do both. The cemetery is in the opposite direction of Kane Manor."
It was another impossible choice. More family members I had to pick between.
"We're not playing your game anymore," Dad said.
"Then people die. Simple as that."
Alex stepped closer to me. "We'll find another way."
"There is no other way," Grandma said. "There's only my way or death."
But as she said those words, something strange happened.
Ian grabbed my hand again. Our powers connected immediately.
And this time, we didn't need Grandma to tell us what to do.
We focused on every person around us. Dad, Elena, Marcus, Alex, even Grandma's guards.
We pushed one single thought into all their minds at once: Sleep.
One by one, they collapsed.
Dad fell to his knees, fighting it. "Iris, what are you doing?"
"Saving everyone. All of them."
"You can't do this alone."
"I'm not alone. I have Ian."
Elena hit the ground next, her eyes closing even as she tried to keep them open.
Alex was the last to fall. He looked at me with confusion and hurt.
"Iris, don't—"
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
He collapsed.
Within thirty seconds, everyone was unconscious except Grandma, Ian, and me.
"Impressive," Grandma said. "But you forgot one thing."
"What's that?"
"I'm immune to your gift. Just like Natasha."
"Are you?"
Ian and I focused harder. Pushed deeper.
Grandma stumbled. "What are you—"
"You said some people are immune. But you never said you were one of them."
We pushed harder. Grandma fell to one knee.
"Stop this!"
"You've been controlling our family for twenty years. Time for you to sleep too."
"You don't understand what you're doing!"
"We understand perfectly."
Grandma collapsed, unconscious like the others.
Ian and I stood there, breathing hard, staring at all the people we'd just knocked out.
"Did we really just do that?" Ian asked.
"We did."
"What now?"
"Now we go save our family. All of it."
We started running toward Ian's car, but halfway there, pain exploded in my head.
I fell to the ground, screaming.
"Iris!" Ian knelt beside me. "What's wrong?"
"My head. It feels like it's splitting open."
The pain was worse than anything I'd ever felt. Like someone was taking a hammer to my skull from the inside.
Through the agony, I heard a voice. Not out loud. Inside my mind.
Hello, sister.
"Natasha?" I gasped.
I've been waiting for you to discover your gift. Waiting for you to be strong enough to hear me.
"Get out of my head!"
I'm inside your head because we're connected. Triplets share more than just blood. We share thoughts when we're strong enough.
Ian was shaking my shoulders. "Iris, who are you talking to?"
"She's in my mind. Natasha is talking to me through our powers."
Come to the cemetery, Iris. Come meet me. Come learn the truth about what Grandma really wants from us.
"What truth?"
The truth about why she really separated us. About what happens when all three of us are together. About the real reason every criminal and law enforcement agency in the world wants to control the Kane triplets.
"Tell me now."
No. You need to see it for yourself. You need to understand what we are.
"What are we?"
We're the end of the world, sister. Or its salvation. Depends on whose side we choose.
The pain in my head suddenly stopped.
I stood up slowly, shaking.
"What did she say?" Ian asked.
"She says we need to meet her. That there's something about the three of us together that changes everything."
"It's obviously a trap."
"Maybe. But what if she's telling the truth?"
We looked back at the unconscious people behind us.
"How long will they stay asleep?" Ian asked.
"I don't know. An hour? Maybe less?"
"Then we need to move fast."
We got in the car and started driving toward the cemetery.
"Are you sure about this?" Ian asked.
"No. But I'm tired of other people making decisions for us. If Natasha has answers, I want to hear them."
The old cemetery was dark and empty when we arrived. Tombstones stretched out like broken teeth in the moonlight.
"Where is she?" Ian whispered.
"Right here," said a voice behind us.
We spun around.
A girl stood there who looked exactly like me. Same face, same eyes, same height. But everything else about her was different.
Where I looked soft, she looked hard. Where I looked scared, she looked confident. Where I looked human, she looked like something more dangerous.
"Hello, siblings," Natasha said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Welcome to the family reunion."
"Why did you bring us here?"
"To show you what happens when the Kane triplets are finally together."
She held out her hands to us. "Take my hands. Complete the circle."
"Why would we do that?"
"Because you want the truth. And the truth can only be revealed when all three of us connect."
Ian and I looked at each other. This felt wrong. Dangerous.
But we'd come this far.
We each took one of Natasha's hands, forming a triangle.
The moment our skin touched, the world exploded.
Not literally. But mentally.
Suddenly, I could see everything. Feel everything. Know everything.
I saw through Ian's eyes and Natasha's eyes at the same time.
I felt their thoughts, their memories, their fears.
And they felt mine.
We weren't three people anymore. We were one mind in three bodies.
"This," Natasha said inside our shared consciousness, "is what Grandma has been afraid of."
Images flooded through our connection. Memories that weren't mine.
I saw Natasha as a baby, being carried away by Grandma.
I saw her growing up in a cold facility, being trained to kill.
I saw her learning that she had siblings somewhere who were being protected while she was being used.
"She wanted to keep us apart because together, we're unstoppable," Natasha continued.
More images. This time of the future. Of possibilities.
I saw the three of us standing over a broken world, controlling everyone like puppets.
I saw us as heroes, using our gifts to stop wars and save lives.
I saw us dead, killed by people who feared what we could become.
"The future isn't written," Natasha said. "But together, we can write it however we want."
"Why are you showing us this?"
"Because I'm giving you a choice. The same choice Grandma never gave me."
"What choice?"
"Join me. Use our power together. Take control of the criminal underworld, the FBI, everything. Make the world better by force."
"Or?"
"Or walk away. Keep hiding. Keep pretending you're normal. And watch as other people with our gifts eventually find each other and do the same thing I'm proposing, but without your conscience to guide them."
It was the biggest choice I'd ever had to make.
Control the world or let it spin out of control.
"There's a third option," Ian said through our connection.
"What's that?"
"We use our gifts to protect people, not control them. We become defenders, not rulers."
Natasha laughed in our shared mind. "Noble. Stupid. But noble."
"Why is it stupid?"
"Because people don't want to be saved. They want to be controlled. They want someone else to make the hard choices so they don't have to."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it? Look at Grandma. Look at Mom. Look at Dad. All of them trying to control us 'for our own good.'"
She had a point. But that didn't make her solution right.
"I won't become a tyrant," I said firmly.
"Then you'll become a victim. There's no middle ground."
"Yes, there is. We just have to find it."
Natasha sighed in our shared consciousness. "I hoped you'd understand. But I see you're still too innocent. Too soft."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I'm taking the choice away from you."
Before I could react, Natasha did something with her mind.
She pushed.
Hard.
Ian and I flew backward, breaking our connection with her.
When we hit the ground, I realized something terrible.
Natasha had been inside our minds. And while she was there, she'd stolen something.
"What did you take?" I demanded.
She smiled that cold smile. "The location of everyone you love. Dad, Elena, Marcus, Alex. I know where they all are now."
"You can't—"
"I already did. And in exactly ten minutes, my people will arrive to collect them."
"Why would you do this?"
"Because if you won't join me willingly, I'll force you to join me. By holding everyone you love hostage until you agree."
She started walking away.
"Natasha, wait!"
She stopped and looked back at us.
"You're our sister. We're supposed to protect each other."
"Protection is a lie weak people tell themselves. Power is the only truth."
She disappeared into the shadows between the tombstones.
Ian and I scrambled to our feet and ran back to the car.
"We have ten minutes," Ian said.
"We'll never make it back in time."
"Then what do we do?"
I pulled out my phone to call Dad.
It was dead.
Ian's phone was dead too.
"She drained them," I realized. "While she was in our heads."
We were alone, with no way to warn anyone, and our family was about to be kidnapped.
Unless...
"Ian, take my hand."
"Why?"
"Because if we could knock people out from here, maybe we can wake them up from here too."
We grabbed hands and focused every bit of energy we had left on the people we'd left sleeping.
Wake up. Danger coming. Run.
I didn't know if it would work.
But as we pushed that message out with all our strength, I felt something I'd never felt before.
Someone pushing back.
Not fighting us. Helping us.
Amplifying our signal, making it stronger.
"Do you feel that?" Ian whispered.
"Someone else with our gift."
"But who?"
The answer came in a voice inside my head. A voice I recognized.
Hello, children. Did you really think you were the only gifted Kanes?
"Alex?" I whispered.
The voice laughed. Surprised? I've been hiding my gift for twenty years. Hiding it from my family. Hiding it from yours. But now it's time to stop hiding.
"You have our powers?"
Not your powers exactly. Something different. Something older. Because you see, Iris, there's one more secret nobody told you.
"What secret?"
I'm not just Alessandro Torrino. I'm Alessandro Kane-Torrino. Your parents' marriage wasn't their first attempt at joining families.
My world tilted again.
"You're saying..."
I'm saying I'm your half-brother. And together, the four of us just became the most dangerous family in America.