Knowledge vs Empathy

The Truth Will Set You Free... Was My Hope. Lux Silvers had a story that just seemed too believable and simple. Lux is anything but simple and an unbelievable person (in a good way). She also has been very guarded that no one get to know the real Lux Silvers. Logically this lead to just one conclusion about Lux's story, it wasn't true. Now this could mean many things. Many things that the more you get to know Lux, the more you could rule out.
 
Did Lux start the fire? No, Lux just won and had no reason to even be stressed and accidentally set a fire with her powers, even when faced with a jealous competitor. I've yet to see anything like this from Lux in similar situations with the Gazelle and even arguments with Jaxion. It's possible if she had lost her powers would manifest with the extra emotional stress that would bring.
 
Did Adrian start the fire? Yes, had every reason to do it intentionally or unintentionally.
 
Would Lux be affected by the fire? No, she has natural resistances to fire. Adrian may or may not have known this.
 
Who benefits most by Lux being burned? Adrian is also a changeling so definitely knows that if Lux was burned she could not be the super star she came to be. Adrian could then step in to become that super star.
 
What if Lux had lost and Adrian had won? Lux started the fire intentionally or unintentionally with the added stress of losing, Lux had every reason to intentionally or unintentionally start the fire, Lux had a natural resistance to fire to prevent herself from being burned, Lux would benefit the most if Adrian was burned. Lux is Adrian.
 
I ask just one question that helps solidify the evidence of my theory. "Was it an accident?". "Yes, maybe, I don't know. It might have came from me, I don't know." Not a confession mind you, but if you apply that response to the scenario I came up with, it wouldn't be what Lux would have said, but it does fit more with what Adrian would have said. I proposed my theory to the group and Lux seemed backed into a corner. Jaxion's next question "Are you Lux?" brought an emotional slip up from the 24 year old Lux. "I've been Lux silvers for 7 years damnit!" You could have heard an ant crawling on the floor across the hangar at that moment. Lux bolted to hide from all our surprised looks at that moment, going the only place there was to avert our gaze, the Driftwind.
 
I got caught up with trying to solve a puzzle I forgot to take into account how this would affect Lux. I tried explaining what I thought happened to everyone, that it was an accident caused by her powers manifesting at her loss to Lux Silvers, that it was more than likely an accident, that she maybe wanted it, but didn't mean to hurt Lux, that after the accident someone came to her with a proposition about being Lux Silvers, a position most people would not have refused.
 
I was hoping she trusted us enough to know we wouldn't judge her for past actions. That her current actions outweighed any mistakes of her past. Hopefully she comes to understand that, and that we will be here for her to show us who she really is.
 
I need to be better at showing Empathy. I am not just a number. I do feel bad for my part in unraveling the mysteries of Lux's past. I could have softened the blow, let it play out longer, let her realize on her own she needed to tell us, confronted her in private. It might have played out the same. Someone else might have picked it up and Jaxion would have definitely made things worse if he figured it out on his own.
 
I wish this was the last mystery I'd unravel today, but it wasn't. After Gidget figured out the strange intrusion we got came from Jaxion's bike, we dove into it and removed it's transceiver. In doing so I found that the tech inside the bike was over 150 years old. Which didn't make sense. I did some digging and kept coming across the phrase Ghost Protocol. Using Jaxion's credentials I found a folder I couldn't access with that name on the BRN servers. Silas suggested using our fake BRN credentials to see if any of them had access and apparently Zero left us a little bread crumb for us to find out about Jaxion's past.
 
Jaxion's fake credentials gave me access to Ghost Protocol and what we found was appalling in my opinion. Ghost Protocol is a special scientific experiment that takes good soldiers who have fallen and resurrects them and cryo freeze them to bring back and use when needed. They usually have extensive brainwashing to keep them from realizing this and/or have code words that activate conditioning that compels them to follow orders. In a sense, Jaxion is no different than what they wanted to do with me. Doing some quick math, I think I would have been a more cost effective version of Ghost Protocol had I not grown sentience. Had Jaxion delivered me to the BRN it would likely have meant his program would have been terminated, and possibly him as well...
 
I realized pretty quickly what this all meant. Jaxion himself is technically 180+ years old, his family that he knows is long deceased. I see the panic in his eyes and confirm his worst fears. Once again my curiosity and ability to fit all the pieces together has left someone an emotional wreck today. With Jaxion he will probably not put the blame at my feet, but to show that I am sorry this happened to him and hopefully raise his spirit a little I'll dive into his bike and give it a proper cleaning down to the smallest bolt. Lux will probably not forgive so easily. Perhaps in time she will.
 
For now I clean a bike and give them their space. Sometimes I want to feel like a number, but I'm learning that everyone sometimes would rather feel like a number than deal with reality. Everyone struggles at times, everyone has secrets they pray don't get exposed, and everyone has moments they want to disappear. Hopefully after today we all feel like more than just a number, to ourselves and to each other.