Chapter 24: THEIR RELATIONSHIP

THEY WERE SISTERS.

Ram pushed all of his doubts and asked what their relationship was and when they answered it at the same time, Ram froze.

They were sisters.

The Elder sister who Aunt El said hated her just because of her relationship with Ram's parents, then her choice of raising him.

Here he thought he could use their relationship to make them work together, to help him learn his powers and keep him alive.

But now…

"You both are sisters?" Rama asked, as he stared at the sisters, who were glaring at each other.

Aunt El answered him first, her gaze still not leaving her sister's. "I wish it were not the case, but I couldn't control who my sister was. If I were to blame anyone, it should be my father. Why did he gave birth to her first? Why hadn't he used his powers to make me be the first one to be born?" she said.

Elder of Air glared at her. "There we go again. You know the Powers of Time doesn't work that way. Besides, why are you still thinking like that. I thought raising him would've knocked some sense into you," she said.

Aunt El snorted. "I am not like you, a Hitler who wanted to raise a kid like she were a puppet, with extreme punishments if the kid violated any of the rules," she said.

Elder of Light's eyes were on the verge of tears, but she held them in. It was obvious that Aunt El's words were painful to hear. "How could you think like that? I did everything I could to raise you and I was just a teenager back then. Have you forgotten how we lost our mother? How our father rarely used to spend time with us, leaving you with me? I didn't know how to handle myself, let alone raise a trouble some kid like you. Yet despite all that, you loved father more than me," she said.

"Father loved me, gave me the freedom that was necessary. And our father was busy saving the world, not drowning in sorry. He loved our mother, but even he knew that he couldn't do anything about it. The only mistake he ever made was thinking that you would be a good person to raise me," Aunt El said.

"You really think highly of him. I get it now. You are clod and heartless person just like our father. You don't care about feelings. Just about missions. That's why you rejected every one I introduced you to go on a date with. I believe you even look at him, your foster child, as a mission that you should accomplish," Elder of Air said.

Aunt El glared at her. "Don't you dare sprout that nonsense to me. I raised Ram like he were my own. I am not unlike you, who wouldn't even mention about my existence to your daughter, forbade even our father to speak about me. And look at that poor child, she depended so much on you that she was unable to judge a good person from bad and happily agreed to get engaged to that wastrel of a man, Chandra," she said.

"Don't slander Chandra. He is thousand times much better than your idiotic foster child, Ram, who used the first chance he got to kiss her. Unlike Chandra, he listened to my advice and didn't kiss my daughter. He promised me that he would do all of that only after their marriage. The most he did was to hug Sandhya and hold her hands. A gentleman upbringing. Unlike your foster-child, who act like a hooligan and molested my daughter," Elder of air said.

Ram wished he could fast forward their conversation. When did them discussing and listing disgusting features of each other turned to him?

But so far, Ram had only been able to reverse the flow of time, freeze it and slow it. He could forward the flow of time few minutes from now, or increase the flow of time for a couple of minutes.

But ram was shocked to realize that Aunt El has been raised by Elder of Air, her older sister, with much strict upbringing.

Maybe that's why she gave Ram sufficient freedom, yet at the same time guide him when he veered towards wrong path. He wanted to scream at the Elder of Air to stop sprouting nonsense about his aunt. But he thought she was more powerful than either of them and doing what he intended would only bring his doom quicker.

So he settled to observe their ongoing conversation.

"Chandra is a vile creature with ugly intentions. He was waiting for his time and he would harm my niece if you don't act upon him soon and break their engagement. He controlled himself too perfectly, behaved like such a perfect gentlemen, without any fault. And normal living beings were faulty by nature. This is the sign that you should have spotted. But you were too clouded by his acting. You were just too emotional. If you weren't you could've realized that no one could control their emotions if the one they loved stood in front of him. All he did was hug and hold hands just like you said. But he had been doing this for 5 years. 5 freaking years. Can you believe it? Look at Ram, he had a crush on Sandhya and he acted his emotions the moment he got a chance," Aunt El said.

"A hooligan who can't control himself," Elder of air said.

"No. Not like a hooligan. He displayed emotion and acted just like any normal teenager or living being would do. Chandra is damned suspicious. If you let go of your impression of him for a moment and observe him, you would also find out his true nature," Aunt El said.

"Stop blaming my son in law. He is a gem amongst all present. Let's focus on the problem at this moment. Him." Elder of Air said, pointing to Ram.

Ram swallowed.

Her previous fear of him was now replaced with anger. It's as if she were pouring all of her anger and frustrations she felt toward Aunt El, the rebellious younger sister that she raised and loved, but couldn't act on her because of her love, and directed it towards Ram.

"Ram is the best thing that happened in my life. I still didn't regret my choice of not marrying the one you chose or even my other suitors for that matter. If possible, I would remain single for the rest of my life to guide him towards the right path," Aunt El said.

Elder of Air scoffed.

Ram couldn't handle it anymore. "Aunt El. I know why your mo—. No, why your sister's choices didn't worked for you and why you hate each other. It's because of whom you love, which gender you prefer. You love women right?" Ram asked.

They both gasped, stared at Ram as if he were a monster. Ram ignored them. "Even if my memories were still locked, I could discern the way you acted. And don't start to say much nonsense about your sister. You love your sister, treat her as your mother, so much so that you raised me just like she did to you. But you gave me enough freedom that I develop myself and make decisions, yet at the same time steering me towards right direction if I were to veer towards wrong path. And I love you more than my mother. I often thought of you and still think of you as my mother. And I know that you also love your sister just like me and think of her as your mother. You still seek for her acceptance. I remember you telling me once that you wouldn't involve in a relationship unless your sister accepted it. That's why you didn't act on your urges right? I saw you many times crying, or showing your frustrations on the poor sandbags back at our old apartment gym. Why don't both of you make this easy for all of us and forgive each other?" he asked.

Aunt El stared at Ram with her mouth open, while Elder of Air was shaking.

"You still didn't let go of that bad habit of yours?" Elder of Air asked Aunt El.

Aunt El glared at her. "No. It's not a bad habit. I can't control whom or which gender I feel attracted to, just like I can't control the fact that I always treated you as my mother. That's why I raised Ram like you had be, with all the values and emotions that you instilled in me, unlike our emotionless father. But, I gave him the freedom that you hadn't given to me. Please…" she trailed off and Ram hadn't seen her so defeated, so vulnerable.

Elder of Air was silent for a long time. She just stared off in a distance. Not even an inch of movement can be seen from her. She was just thinking by herself, not even involving her assistant.

Finally, she moved and said, "Look, I can't accept the fact that you love women. Until you change that about yourself, I can't accept you. As for your foster-child, I will agree to help him. But remember that if he were to go near my daughter again, if he were to do anything funny to her again, I will make sure that he would be sent to lab to experiment on, to see how he was able to use all of these powers as well as the powers of the first elder."