Broken

[Nox]

Nox smiled and drew a thin line of air laced with earth, the thread was visible in his hands. "Simple machines attached to the wire to trip the threads that make the concussive sound."
Nox laced everything with earth so Christian could see. "The idea is to trip this and this collapses."
Nox pushed his hands together and the sound was much smaller this time, though Christian covered his ears anyway. Nox grinned.

Christian walked back towards the house and took a seat at a table with an umbrella over by the pool. He started setting items and took the string from the umbrella and Nox sat down wondering what the man was up to. But it didn't take long to understand Christian was setting up a physical representation of what he'd seen. Strings and blocks and simple machines.

Cruz came out from the sliding glass doors and sat down with them as they worked through the problem. It felt oddly normal to Nox. The three of them sat and discussed simple machines, trip wires and Cruz even managed to put together the sound bomb weave. Nox was proud - Christian was even prouder. It really was like it was a father son relationship. It made Nox wonder how close Cruz and Dorian were. If Cruz and Christian were this close he doubted Dorian was around much. It was a sad thing to consider. Nox listened to their banter and their work together. He had almost forgotten what it was he was trying to do while he listened to them. It was family. Nox found it sad. His memories surged forward. Time with his father, time with his mother. The images of his sister. The things Sage showed him.

Nox sat back in the chair and fought with his feelings and his own self image. Nox never had this connection with his own father. They were close, he'd never known anything else. Now he saw the way he grew up, it wasn't normal. Even what Cruz had wasn't normal. Nox sighed and focused on what was in front of him. The problem at hand - he had a job to do - a family to protect.