The sight of fear on the features so similar to his own reflected back at him in the magicked brightness tugged at a string of his heart that he had thought had been hardened long ago. There was a fundamental empathy hardwired into him for his twin, no matter what had happened between them, he knew his destiny was intrinsically linked with hers. It had been hard to reject her before, to run away, but it was what he had needed to do. He knew some day his abandonment would catch up with him. He had assumed it would be when he was old and grey and regretting the loss of an old life, not only mere years later when he hadn't even fully shaken off the memories of the regiment and suffocating structure of life at the Agency.

"Cayron..." Hemlock repeated in a hushed tone. So it was important. Much more important than he could have prepared for. "We had defeated that evil... it was the last time we used our power together. How is this possible, how could he have come back?" Hemlock was shaken, mentally pulled back to that terrible moment, when they pushed themselves to their absolute limit, giving everything they had to unlock the only power they had against the evil force of Cayron. After that, they were completely drained for months, forcing Hazel and Hemlock to leave all their duties to Lucifer. Erica assigned junior agents to serve as their bodyguards until they were well enough to defend themselves again. It was a hellish ordeal, and it nearly killed the both of them. Hemlock didn't know if he could go through that again, if it would even work again.

"Hazel, I don't know. It's been so long, do you think... we even still have access to the power? My magic is so different now, and I'm sure yours has adapted as well. If I can help-- and that's a big 'if'; I'm not saying that I can-- we would have to practice. And that would mean we have to be near each other for extended periods of time. You know I ran away for a reason, Hazel. Can two people unite their magic who can't even unite our basic natures?"