Chapter Two - Time for Some Schooling (Monday, August 29, 1994)

I’ve heard a lot of bad things about high school but can it be as bad as middle school? Of course I’m going to be stuck here for four years of my life so I had better get used to this place, right? The worst part of high school, from what I’ve heard, is during the freshman year. I get the feeling that I should try to find some senior friends, and fast. Last thing I want to do is to draw attention to myself.

My alarm goes off at 6am and I turn to reach for the snooze button but my clock has been moved to the other side of my room. I think it’s safe to say that my dad was the one who moved the clock. No matter where he places the clock, however, I always tend to try to sleep a tad bit longer if I can.

I groan as I place my feet onto the blue tile floor. The music continues to play as I walk towards my alarm, picking up a pair of blue jeans along the way. I turn off the alarm and slip the jeans on. I can hear my dad in the kitchen now, getting ready for his job. Part of me wants to go back to sleep, but with this being the first day of high school, I might as well wake up on time at least once.

I find a video game related t-shirt and finish getting ready for school before walking out of my room and into the kitchen. I make some frozen waffles before breakfast and I start to think about the new bus stop. The new bus stop that I get to deal with is at the middle school bus stop with all the rowdy kids. Having that many kids at one little gas station can’t be good and I am not looking forward to taking the bus at all.

I look up from my paper plate and ask my dad, “Can you drive me to work? I really don’t want to hang out with those kids at the bus stop.” It’s not like I’m being anti-social, I just don’t want to have to deal with teenagers acting like fools.

Thankfully dad agrees and he takes me too me to school, even though it’s an hour before the bell rings. At least this gives me the chance to take a look at where my classes are and how the school is set up. The school is bigger than my old middle school and has four separate buildings, one of which is two stories. There are several portables near the track for extra classes, a science building, a large auditorium, gym and a relatively small pool.

I take out my schedule from my backpack and take a look at it:

· First Hour: Algebra I

· Second Hour: P.E.

· Third Hour: Science I

· Fourth Hour: Photo

· Lunch

· Fifth Hour: English I

· Sixth Hour: World History I

· Seventh Hour: Drama

Looking at my schedule, I groan. Math isn’t my best subject and not something that I want to deal with at 8:30 in the morning.

I decide to get my locker in the third building, which is in the middle of all of my classes. As I close my newly acquired locker and apply the lock, I notice Kyle standing next to me.

“Alright, let me see it,” I say, sticking out my hand.

He places his schedule in my hand and I have a nice look at it, to make sure we don’t have all the same classes:

· First Hour: World History I AP

· Second Hour: English I AP

· Third Hour: Algebra I AP

· Fourth Hour: Photo

· Lunch

· Fifth Hour: Science I AP

· Sixth Hour: P.E.

· Seventh Hour: Drama

“Wow, I’m shocked, only two classes together? And how did you get advanced placement?”

“Why do you ask, jealous?” he grins.

I shrug, “Not really. Well, I’ll see you later.” I adjust my backpack and off to my first class of high school, not really caring about Kyle’s answer.

Thankfully the first day of school is filled with take home packets and a rundown on how the school year will go. Today should be easy.

Algebra seems it will be a huge pain and hopefully I can get past it with at least a passing grade.

After the bell, I head off to the gym for physical education. On the floor of the basketball court are two boxes one filled with blue shorts and the other is filled with orange shirts, to match our school colors.

“Hey Jen!” I hear someone call my name as I wait in line to get my gym clothes.

It’s Teresa, a friend of mine from middle school. Her dark brown curly hair bouncing as she walks over to me. Teresa is shorter than me at 5’4 while I’m 5’7.

“Funny how we get P.E. together again, huh?” she says.

“Yea, how about that,” I say, trying to figure out if I should tell her my new nickname that I’m going by now.

“So how was your summer? I didn’t hear from you at all. I thought maybe you had forgotten about me or something,” Teresa says, her hand on her hips.

“Nah, I was just busy,” I answer, as the line slowly moves forward.

“Meet anyone?” She’s always asking me this. I had one boyfriend in middle school and that didn’t turn out so well and I’m not even sure I can call him a boyfriend. Besides, with my busy schedule it’s not like I’ll have the time.

“Just visited some relative, stuff like that. Nothing unusual or exciting,” I answer.

Not much happened in P.E. besides standing in line to get my gym clothes and talking to Teresa. Science class was a bit of a bore as well.

Photography is up next, which is one of two classes that I share with Kyle.

This classroom isn’t like your normal classroom. The first part of the room has round tables surrounded by chairs and the teacher’s desk at the front. Towards the back is a curtain that prevents light from getting into the darkroom, which is the second part of this extra large classroom.

I take a seat next to Kyle at a table near the entrance to the dark room. I notice that there are a lot of older kids in this class. All of my classes up to this point, save for P.E., have been filled with fellow freshmen.

Kyle notices that I’m looking around the class and says, “Freshmen don’t normally get to take this class.”

“Then why are we here?”

“I heard that you like taking pictures so I managed to get you in,” he says.

“Ummm, thanks,” I’m shocked that Kyle was able to do that.

We then sit and listen to the middle aged man who will be our teacher for photography. He tells us about the three different chemicals that we will be working with this year and how they will stain our clothes if we are not careful. He then points out the seniors in the class who have taken this course for three years and told us to partner up during the first week. This might be my chance to find a senior friend.

Everything after lunch is pretty much the same as the classes in the morning. It seems that Photo and Drama will be my favorite classes this year.

I return to my locker at the end of the day to toss my newly acquired books inside. The first day of high school was pretty boring but I’m sure the first day of my ‘upped’ training won’t be.

“So where are we going to do this?” I ask, as we walk down the hallway of the third building.

“I still think it’s too dangerous to do anything magic related here,” Kyle starts. “I think we should find a place where we’re alone and teleport to Crystaltina.”

“How long do you think we can keep this whole magic deal a secret? Someone is bound to find out eventually, especially that we’re not alone.”

“Government is usually quick to make something up that the masses will believe. Hey,” Kyle points out the restrooms. “We might as well teleport in there.”

“Gross, I’m not teleporting from the bathroom. What about behind the science building?” I walk ahead and push open the double doors and we walk outside. In front of us is the science building that was built two years ago. We walk around to the back and thankfully no one is there. “See, I told you.” I take out a small potion from my backpack and I throw it against the wall of the building.

Kyle slips ahead of me and I follow behind him. As soon as I arrive on Crystaltina I see a leg coming straight for my face. I block and grab the leg, holding it, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Oh I’m sorry, did you think you would have time to rest before we start?” Kyle grins. He then uses his right leg muscles to allow himself to kick with his other leg, trying to connect with my chin. I drop his left leg to avoid getting hit.

Kyle then takes a bottle from his pocket and tosses it to me, “Drink it,” he says.

“Why, what is it?”

“Phoenix Potion. Just in case your training gets too rough, this potion will bring you back from the brink of death.”

“Whoa, no way,” I toss the bottle back.

“Why not, it’s to protect you.”

“I don’t care. It’s the same thing Ozma threaten to use. She said that she could kill me over and over again and Celestria could bring me back each time. That’s the potion form of it, isn’t it?”

“But we’re not Ozma and it’s for your own protection,” Kyle says, tossing it back.

I catch it and glare at him, “I don’t need it.” I slide my backpack off and toss the potion next to it. “Besides, I think you’re the one that’s going to need it more than me.”

Kyle and I are in the woods, just outside the castle ruins. We’ve trained here several times already and we both know the layout pretty well.

I stand there waiting for Kyle to make the first move. That doesn’t take long as he puts his hands together and starts to generate electricity. He shoots and I jump into the air, flipping backwards and landing back on my feet. I look up and Kyle is gone. I search the area, spinning in circles but he is nowhere in sight.

Suddenly, two fists hit my stomach and I’m airborne. Kyle, after firing off his electricity spell, took flight, circled around to gain momentum and then, flying Superman-style, slams into my stomacher with his fists, dragging me with him. I can feel branches hitting my back, ripping my shirt and causing scratches and cuts on my skin.

This isn’t fair, in my opinion. He can fly and I can’t do anything fancy save for the normal human stuff, liking running and jumping. Thankfully we have noticed that Kyle, Celestria, Tom and myself are able to withstand pain to a certain degree, as well as developed a tougher exterior which allows us to take more hits. Pain is pain and even a paper cut hurts but we can just tolerate it better. Celestria thinks it has something to do with our unusual DNA.

Note to self, wear beat up clothes when we train for now on. I’ve ruin a few of my clothes already but if Kyle plans to raise the difficulty level in our training sessions, I might as well wear clothes that I don’t care about.

I reach for his arms and push them down, causing Kyle to lose control of his flight and as I fall towards the ground, my foot lights up with fire and I kick Kyle in the face. I slam to the ground, and I quickly stand, trying to find out where Kyle landed.

I find a long branch and I pick it up. If he wants to try that flying trick again, he’s going to regret it.

As I turn my around, sure enough, Kyle tries for the same attack. I bring the long tree branch around and I smack him in the face.

He doesn’t stay down for long and comes at me with his fists. I panic and drop the stick, blocking with my arms instead. He backs up and says, “Why did you drop the branch?”

“Don’t know? You were coming at me with your fists,” I say, out of breath just as Kyle is.

“That didn’t stop you before.”

“You were flying.”

“So.”

“……”

“Just because I don’t have a weapon when I come at you, doesn’t mean you have to be without one. The villains won’t care,” Kyle tells me.

I light my fists on fire but Kyle puts up his right hand, “That’s enough for today.”

“Did I beat you up too hard?” I laugh.

“Not even close.”

I turn to start the walk back to my backpack when Kyle says, “Your back is pretty messed up.”

“So’s your face,” I laugh again, this time feeling more aches from my body.

We head back to get my backpack. Kyle insists that I take the potion with me and after a winless battle, I throw it into my bag. We then make our way to the underground catacombs under the castle so Celestria can heal our wounds.

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Chapter Three – Celestria (Tuesday, August 30, 1994)

“And he calls that ‘upped’ training?” I cry out, popping a green grape into my mouth.

“He might have been holding back, Anya,” Celestria tells me.

“Then why bother tell me that our training sessions will be tougher?”

“The both of you were beaten up pretty badly,” she comments. “Also, both of you have gotten better in combat.”

“It’s only been a few months, though. It’s not like these skills come naturally, right?”

“Do you really believe that?”

“Yes?” this came out more of a question than an answer.

Today is my afterschool study with Celestria. Of course it didn’t start that way and I’ve yet to study anything yet. As soon as I teleported in, I handed Celestria some grapes that I had left over from lunch.

We’re in a small library that holds around five hundred books, mostly back-ups and journals from the past. There are a few books on spells, potions and alchemy as well.

“You’re right, it’s only been a few months since Ozma, do you want to talk about it?” Celestria asks.

“You were there,” I say dryly. “What about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“What’s your story? We’ve been popping in and out of this place but we really don’t know much about each other.”

“You really want to know?” Celestria asks, with a puzzled expression.

“Duh, that’s why I asked.”

“Okay, I’m a bookworm, that’s about it.”

“Oh no,” I sit up in my chair. “I’m the anti-social one so that position is taken. Spill it.”

“If you insist,” Celestria sighs and adjusts herself in the wooden chair before beginning. “I was born in Georgia in ’74 and I’m the oldest of three kids. I was a nerd in school and I kept skipping grades, which caused a few of my peers to be angry with me. I was fourteen when Ozma’s men took me from my home. I didn’t know how they knew but they called me Celestria from the very start instead of Melina. They gave me books to read and study and if I refused they would go after my younger sisters who were eight and four at the time. Of course I did what they told me but then they started to bring me prisoners and threatened to kill them and have me revive them if they didn’t talk. Even in my early stages of remembering my past life and learning what I can do, they wanted me to use my magic. Sadly, even after I warned them, I wasn’t able to revive some of the people that they brought to me. Even when they brought you in, I was worried that my powers wouldn’t work.”

“Have you been back home since?” I ask.

“No and I know its better that I don’t. For all my family knows, I was kidnapped and never found. I’m afraid if Ozma finds out that I went back to my family, that she will do something bad to them. I haven’t even had proper grapes until today.”

“Don’t worry, once Ozma has been taken care of you can see your family again.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you think it was wrong of me to return home?” All of a sudden I feel guilty for living with my dad while Celestria lives underground to protect hers.

“Yes, but you’ve made your mind up. I think it’s even more risky that you’re living at home.”

“I’m fourteen going on fifteen, I don’t think I can convince my dad to get a place of my own just yet.” My guilt begins to lead to a worry feeling. “Is there any way you can cast a protection spell on my dad? Just in case?”

“I’ve been reading on spells that deal with protection and how to cast several layers but I’m not sure if I can do it, not just yet anyway. Miles’ protection spell is visible plus you can’t do anything while in the bubble, so that’s out. I will see what I can do.”

“Thanks,” I say, standing. “Well, I had better get home.”

“Wait, we haven’t started your studies yet!” Celestria protests.

“But it’s getting late, I need to get home. I have a lot of homework to do.”

“School just started-- what homework?”

“Not much but my drama class just gave of us a monologue that we need to remember and stage next week, so there’s that,” I wave. “So I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I doubt I can get Celestria distracted from lecturing me again but it was nice to listen to her today about something other than magic, history or potions.

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Chapter Four – Desperate (Friday, September 16, 1994)

The portal opens up over a small lake that is located within the woods. There’s a tall rock formation where water trickles down into the small lake that is deeper in the middle. The scene is beautiful but it’s hard to take it all in when I’m falling from the portal, heading straight down into the water.

I can feel the undertow playing at my legs as I try to swim to the surface. I can see Kyle flying above the water, dabbing his fingers into it. He wouldn’t try to use his electrical powers on the water, would he? What would happen to me if he did? My heart starts to beat faster at the thought and part of me can see small sparks coming from his fingers. Of course it could just be the sun reflecting off of the water. Running out of air I can feel a hard pull, like a force pulling me deeper into the lake and I panic.

Suddenly I see darkness and then I find myself at the edge of the lake, a sick feeling hitting me instantly.

Kyle flies down and kneels beside me, “What just happened?”

“I think I’m going to puke,” I say aloud before realizing it.

“Okay…try to breathe slowly.”

“How did I get out of the water?” I grab my stomach which feels like it’s in a vice.

“You just appeared out of thin air.”

“My head is killing me…”

“Let’s get you to Celestria,” Kyle says, trying to help me up from the ground.

“Spinning,” I say, falling back down. “I’ll stay here for a while.”

I place my head into my hands and close my eyes. Kyle isn’t sure what to say and I really don’t mind. The quiet is nice and right now, there are other things on my mind. What was that darkness and how did I get out of the water? Is this feeling of sick permanent or can Celestria fix this? It feels like I walked through a portal, like back on Zerron, but a million times worse.

I can feel my eyes water under my eye lids and all I can think about is if Celestria can use her healing magic to help me.

I slowly open my eyes and Celestria is sitting right in front of me.

“…”

“Anya?”

“I don’t feel good….”

Celestria lowers her book and stands to walk over to me.

Somehow I am now on the cold floor in a small reading room within the catacombs of the ruined castle.

“What happened?” a concerned Celestria asks.

I can feel my lunch trying to reach my throat as I manage to say, “Heal, please?”

“I can’t unless you tell me what’s going on. I don’t want to cast the wrong spell.”

“I feel sick,” finally coming to terms of what is going on, “I think I teleported here.”

“Okay, give me a moment,” Celestria places her hands together and there is a light blue glow. Within seconds my stomach clams down and I feel almost one hundred percent better. I then tell Celestria what had happened at the lake.

“Have you ever had a fear of drowning before?” she asks.

“I almost drowned in a wave pool when I was eight,” I recall.

“That might have what triggered it but it’s strange: I haven’t come across anything that indicated your past self could teleport.”

“So is this power here to stay?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Sweet,” I jump off of the floor, perhaps a bit too fast as my head starts to pound again. “Urg, what about the motion sickness?”

“I’m sure with practice it will go away. I just don’t know how you can practice something like this. Let me try to find some information on teleportation as a natural travel power.”

“Celestria!” we can both hear Kyle yelling.

Celestria walks over to the entry-way and sticks her head out. She can see a panic Kyle looking for her, “We’re over here.”

“We?” Kyle spins around to face Celestria’s voice and walks over.

“She teleported here.”

“What?”

“I was thinking about Celestria healing me and I was here,” I tell him, walking over.

“I’m going to check the library for anything about teleportation and in the meantime, take it easy,” Celestria says, walking out into the hallway and towards the library.

“You okay?” Kyle asks me after Celestria leaves.

“Yea, I’m fine. Celestria was able to help with the motion sickness but I can still feel a bit of it. Heh, I guess I have something else that I need to practice.”

“Why don’t you take the weekend off,” Kyle suggests.

“Why?”

“We’ve been pushing you pretty hard and,” trying to think of an excuse, “I don’t need to you to throw up while we’re sparring.”

“Oh, thanks.”

That night I didn’t eat much dinner and spent the rest of the night in my room with all of the lights on. I can’t seem to focus on anything but that darkness. It was brief before I reappeared again but I felt it within me, like an empty fear. What happens if I teleport and I can’t reappear again? What if I can’t control it?

I pace around in my room for what seem like hours before plopping on my bed; I hesitate before closing my eyes.

“I know why you teleport,” I can hear a voice, mocking me.

I sit up in bed and no one is there. I didn’t expect anyone to be there since the voice was more in my head than not.

I walk out of my bedroom and head outside to the small backyard. There is a large mango tree here that I enjoy climbing when I’m bored or when I need to think. My dad can’t go near this tree since he’s allergic and gets a rash on his skin if he touches any part of the tree. I’ve told him to get rid of it but he won’t.

I find my favorite branch and get myself comfortable. The only people that I really can talk to about this is Kyle, Celestria and to an extent, Tom. However if I tell them, they might suspect something and might make me stay on Crystaltina permanently. For now, I need to keep this to myself.

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Chapter Five – Tom (Tuesday, September 27, 1994)

Tom hammers the last nail for the newly finished tavern in the Dorter Trade City. For the past several months he has been helping the local city to rebuild their once beautiful port city.

Many of these people have found home on the planet of Crystaltina in hopes to find a better future and to bring life to a once deserted planet since around the 1300’s. Only a small handful of people were actually born here.

Tom wasn’t interested in going back to earth and feels more at home helping these citizens. Even a few of them have the gift of magic, making Tom feel a little less like an outcast.

He doesn’t want to seem rude to Celestria but reading up on history and magic isn’t Tom’s thing. He’s happy learning from the villagers via word of mouth. Some of the older villagers have extremely interesting tales to share that were passed along the years from generation to generation.

Many of those stories end with the city being partly or completely burned to the ground and then rescued and for Tom’s sake, he hopes that doesn’t happen again. If it does, however, he’ll be here to help.

Tom wipes the sweat from his forehead and looks up to see Celestria walking into town and towards him.

“This place looks better and different each week,” she says.

“Thanks. Next project is the library. Thought maybe you would like to help with that?” Tom asks, slightly out of breath from working all morning and into the early afternoon.

“How? I’m not handy with tools,” Celestria blushes slightly.

“I mean with the books. There’s several of the older villagers who are willing to write their history and stories but maybe we can help them and donate some of the books from the castle’s storage.”

“I can see what we have but I hope you understand that a lot of those books hold powerful magic, information and personal writings that we need to make sure they stay safe.”

“I know and they already understand,” Tom says, with a smile.

Tom’s hair has gotten longer over the months and is able to put it into a small ponytail which helps it to keep out of eyes while he’s working. He’s even allowed his facial hair to grown in, creating a small beard. This makes the sixteen year old older than he appears to be.

“How long until everything is finished?” Celestria asks.

“The library is the last thing but as more people settle here, we’re going to help build houses for them.” Tom smiles and then adds, “I love how they don’t depend on money here. It’s people helping each other out and trading. It’s really amazing when you step back and take it all in.”

“Do you think it will stay like that?” Celestria asks.

“I hope so, it’s a nice change. Oh and once we’re done with the library, we’re going to have a celebration. Hopefully you, Kyle and Anya will be here. Should be a lot of fun.”

“Sounds nice. I know Anya could use a change from all the training and school. And speaking of that, I need to head back for her studies for today,” Celestria says, getting ready to walk back.

“Hey,” Tom calls out.

“Yes?”

“Why did you come over here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Just wanted to see how things were going. You’re not around much so I didn’t want you thinking that we forgot about you.”

“Thanks. I understand with everything going on and hopefully this party will be good for everyone.”

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Chapter Six: Darkness (Saturday, October 1st, 1994)

It’s been two weeks since I first teleported. I haven’t done it since and I guess that’s because I am too scared to try it again. I hate being sick and the last time I threw up I was around twelve years old and two weeks ago was the closest I’ve been to doing so since that time. It’s not even being sick that bothers me the most, it’s the darkness. For less than a second I see and feel nothing but empty nothingness and darkness. It’s hard to describe how someone can feel darkness, but I can and it terrifies me. I don’t know what it is and I don’t know what will happen if I get trapped there.

Thankfully I haven’t heard the voice in my head since but even that bothers me. If I teleport again, will I hear it? Will it give me the answers that I’m looking for? Most importantly, who is it?

So far Celestria hasn’t found anything about teleportation in the library but she’s determined to find something, anything that can help. I know that I can’t wait on her finding something and that I need to get used to teleportation on my own.

I need to find out what this darkness is. I just can’t ignore the fact that I can teleport and personally, it should be much better than flying once I get it down. If I can do this right, imagine how fast I can move against my attackers.

Of course I need attackers and enemies to be able to really try it out. So far it’s been quiet, which I guess it’s a good thing. The waiting is the hardest part because we know Ozma is planning something. There’s no way that she’s going to just let me go.

I close my eyes. It’s not like I can teleport to a random place on Earth, right? What would happen if someone was there? Seeing someone appearing out of thin air would give any normal person a heart attack for sure. I would need to do this either on Crystaltina or a place on Earth where no one would be at.

My mind then starts to day dream and I begin to picture a small deserted island somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Hopefully no one is there when I arrive.

I slowly open my eyes to find myself on a small island no larger than one or two miles. My heart skips a beat and I smile to myself. This is both exciting and dangerous and I like it. The ocean breeze feels fantastic as it blows my brown hair around.

However if I’m going to try to teleport and face this darkness, I need to keep my eyes open. When I close my eyes, I don’t feel it as if they are open. It’s like I have to look into the darkness to be able to feel it. I fight back the feeling of being sick and force my eyes to stay open. I picture the lake on Crystaltina as my stomach turns and then suddenly I am falling from the sky towards the lake, I then teleport again, this time to the edge of the lake. I have zero urge to fall into that lake again.

I can teleport anywhere, at least I think I can but I need to know where I am going or who I am looking for. In that case, do I need to know where the person is in order to teleport to them?

Each time that I do teleport with my eyes open I can feel that darkness and at times it feels like someone is watching me. I get this deep feeling of dread and sadness in my chest and as soon as I appear, those feelings start to vanish but then I start to worry.

For now, I shouldn’t tell anyone that I am working on my teleportation. Maybe Celestria will find something that can help me better understand this.

I shrug away my thoughts and decide to break out into a run within the forest and every several feet. I teleport myself a few feet ahead of where I just was, teleporting in and out, trying to make myself move faster as I do so, despite feeling sick.

Getting a head of myself I suddenly slam my face into a tree, knocking myself to the ground. The blow creates a headache as my stomach insists on returning my breakfast.

Giving up on my morning exercise session for today, I teleport to my room within the catacombs. I grip the wall to hold myself up as I try to find Celestria.

It takes me awhile to find her and I swear we need a pager system to make finding each other easier. I know I can just teleport to her if I have an idea of where she is but I don’t want Celestria to know that I’m teleporting.

I find Celestria walking into the catacombs from the outside.

“What happened to you?” she cries out.

My nose is bleeding now and I look like a complete mess.

“I fell of out a tree,” I lie.

“I swear, between Tom fracturing his thumb, Kyle breaking his fingers and you falling out of a tree….” Celestria continues to complain as she walks down the hall and to her room.

“Ummm, heal?” I stand there puzzled.

Celestria walks into her room, still talking a loud.

I cover my mouth as I can feel my food from the morning coming up.

Celestria returns with a backpack and tosses it to me. I almost drop the thing. It’s a small pack, brown and worn.

“It’s waterproof and durable. Keep this on you when you feel like climbing a tree. Inside are several potions that will heal you when I’m not around.” She then waves her hand and I begin to feel better. “I thought you’re good at climbing trees?”

“Yea, well,” I swing the pack onto my shoulder, trying to think of something. “The tree was wet and my foot slipped.”

I do plan on telling everyone about practicing to teleport, but I’m just not ready right now.

“Oh and I found a book, an old one, on teleportation. It’s in the bag for you to read,” Celestria adds.

“Wait, really? Did you read any of it?”

“All of it. It’s not that long and I was able to finish it in a few short hours. Not many people were able to teleport back then and it’s a rare power to have. One has to tap into the Void to do it.”

“The Void?” I ask.

“It’s the darkness between one life and the next. Also known as Limbo but the people who wrote the book know it as the Void. Those few who could teleport didn’t use it often since the darkness causes terrible feelings to a person and in some cases causes them to act differently. I don’t know how you’re able to teleport…” Celestria trails off.

“What is it, I ask?”

“Nothing, just thinking….”

“You keep trailing off. You never trail off unless you’re upset or worried,” I point out.

“I just think it might have something to do with your past life or more importantly the entity that inhabited your past self. Someone that powerful might have been able to teleport and some of that power bled over to you,” she blurts out.

“Yea…hopefully that’s the only thing that carried over,” I say, worried.

I think Celestria is starting think the worse and I have to wonder about that voice that I heard two weeks ago. My stomach turns and I start to feel bad, real bad. Not as far as being sick but bad in an emotional way. Could this entity be alive within me after all? How can I fight something that’s inside of me? I then start to have a growing urge to tell someone thinking that might make everything better but in reality I know I’m fooling myself.

Link

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Chapter Seven: Lunch (Monday, October 3, 1994

I stare at my math book and then at a blank piece of paper. I’m trying to work on my homework during lunch period but no matter when I try to do it, math is just too frustrating for me. Add in the fact that my mind keeps drifting off to the fact that I can now teleport. I remember not long ago being jealous that Kyle can fly and now I have my own travel power. I just need to make sure that I don’t start thinking of a random place and then suddenly appear there. I’m sure with time and practice I can control this power and not have to deal with being sick after each time of using it.

The air is warm as I sit outside between buildings three and four. There are a lot of kids here from my drama class and club that tend to hang out here at lunch and sometimes afterschool. I’ve been half tempted to hang out here myself afterschool, but knowing that I can’t bothers me at times. I haven’t made that many friends but I do get along with all of my fellow students. Having fellow peers share the same classes is very different from having friends that share the same classes. I learned in middle school to keep a distance from most people and this wasn’t learned from my encounters outside of Earth either. Elementary school was easy, no drama, no backstabbers but as people get older, that all changes. That’s why I’ve put off relationships and I only trust a few people. Honestly, I only trust two people but that’s mainly because of the situation.

Lost in my own thoughts, I don’t notice a shadow that is coving my math book. My eyes focus back to the book and the shadow and I quickly assume that it’s Kyle but as I look up, I release that I’m wrong. In front of me is a short young girl with short green hair and blue eyes. She is wearing a blue dress with flower print on it.

“Hi,” she says in a soft tone. “I’m Taryn.”

“Hi?” I’m not very social and usually people don’t just walk up to me to say hi.

“You’re Kyle’s friend, right?” Taryn asks, slightly blushing. I have to wonder what she’s wants from me and why is she looking at me like that?

“Yea?” I raise an eyebrow.

“Kyle and I have the same math class together. He mentioned that you need some help. I’m a tutor in math and computer science…” Taryn trails off as I suspect she has noticed my confused expression.

“Okay…”

“Ummm…he told me that the two of you are together a lot so he assumed that the last thing you would want is help in math from him,” Taryn says, sitting next to me on the concrete step. She looks over to my math book and adds, “So what are you having problems with?”

“Look, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I don’t need help,” I say, closing my math book and picking up my bag of grapes.

“He said that you would say that,” she giggles. “You two must be close.”

I almost choke on the grape that I had just popped into my mouth.

“Oh I’m sorry, I thought…”

“It’s okay,” I say, coughing. “Look, I just don’t have the time to have a tutor.”

“What about during lunch? I could help you with your homework each day and hopefully that will help you to get better at math.”

I look up to see Teresa walking past, winking she says, “Homecoming in a month,” before moving on.

I roll my eyes and I am very tempted to get up and leave. Why can’t I have a nice lunch alone for a change?

Before I can get the chance to move or say anything, Taryn says, “I can’t wait until Homecoming. I love fancy dresses and this will be my first dance. Are you going?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“Busy.”

“With?”

“Stuff,” I say, now at the point of crankiness. “You sure talk a lot, you know.”

“Funny thing is,” Taryn says shyly, “I don’t. Don’t tell Kyle but he noticed and told me about you and how I could help you in math and maybe other stuff. I’m the youngest freshman here and among other things, it makes people avoid me. I don’t think the green hair helps either.”

I laugh and then notice a hurt look on Taryn’s face, “Oh, sorry, that wasn’t, I mean you’re trying to make friends and I’m trying to avoid people. I just think that’s a little funny. You know, I’ve always wanted purple hair.”

Teresa walks back over and this time is followed by two guys. I assume this is what she meant by that wink when she walked pasted moments ago. One has pale skin, red hair and green eyes. If I didn’t know better, he could be Russell Anzak’s younger twin…or even a son perhaps. The other has dark skin and a shaved head. Both look like giants when standing next to Teresa.

“Seniors,” Teresa bursts out.

“Okay?” I say, unimpressed.

“That’s Robby,” she points to the red head. “And he’s Ty who still needs a date for Homecoming.”

“Not going,” I say, then I look to Taryn who might still need a date but she gives me the not-interested look.

“You can’t be serious, Jen,” Teresa says, a tad agitated.

“It’s okay, Teresa. You shouldn’t force anyone unless they’re ready,” Ty says with a Jamaican accent.

The bell rings, thankfully and Teresa and her two new friends walk off to class.

Taryn stands and says, “It was nice meeting you, Jen.”

“Call me Anya,” I say, without thinking. My thoughts are on Robby and the feeling that I have seen him before. Or maybe he just has that type of face. Or maybe it’s just because he looks like a younger Russell.

“Neat! So I’ll see you tomorrow so I can help you with math?”

“Fine,” I finally cave in and agree.

After school, I meet up with Kyle and as we head towards our usual teleportation spot I tell him about Taryn, “So you think I need a friend?”

“No, I just thought you needed help in math. Can’t have you failing a class,” he mocks.

“Right….” I trail off.

“What is it?”

“Ever get the feeling that something is off?”

“Yes…”

“I could have sworn I saw someone that I’ve seen before, but not here, but I’m not sure. I do know that he looks a lot like Anzak, but younger. I know it could just be me being paranoid, but…”

“I know what you mean and we just have to be ready for whatever happens,” Kyle reassures.

“What if it’s my fault?” I ask, as we reach the area behind the science building.

“What do you mean,” he slowly asks.

“What if me teleported set off some radar that Ozma has?”

“We know sooner or later we will be found so it doesn’t matter if it’s your fault or not.”

“What if we’re not ready? We got lucky last time,” I saying, doubting myself.

“We will be.”

link

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Chapter Eight: 1 Versus 3 (Tuesday, October 4, 1994)

I had a very hard time sleeping last night. I couldn’t get past the fact that Robby looks likes Russell and maybe Ozma and her lackeys have finally found me. If that’s the case, what are they waiting for? Are they here just to do recon?

I walk onto the grass of the forest near the castle ruins. I don’t see Kyle anywhere and it’s no longer a surprise to me. Sometimes he likes to go first through the portal to try to surprise me once we arrive on Crystaltina.

I hear something in the wind and it passes by my cheek and lands into the ground. I look over to notice an arrow sticking out and I turn to see who fired it. High in one of the trees I can see someone in a green cloak. Black hair can be seen if I look close enough and I get the feeling that my own healer has just attacked me.

I then hear leaves breaking under fast pacing footsteps I duck as a broadsword swings over my head, which is held by Kyle.

No one has taught me how to fight with weapons before, I don’t see how this is fair…oh wait, another lesson, I assume.

Kyle takes another swing at me and as I duck again, I point towards Celestria and a straight line of fire heads towards her. I then stand and back a few feet away from Kyle and await his attack before getting hit on my left side by in invisible force. The push is so great that I get knocked into several trees before finally coming to a stop.

Arrows shoot from above as I stand up and dodge them. I can see Kyle flying above me as I race towards Tom who is still in the clearing. The arrows follow me as I run towards Tom who is about to use sound against me. Kyle is now flying towards me from my rear and right before Tom attacks I teleport, forcing Tom to use his power against Kyle, which knocks him to the ground. I reappear in the trees on a branch above Celestria. I drop down and swing on the branch with my legs, upside down and facing Celestria’s back, I press my finger against her back.

I sense someone behind me so I teleport and fire off a fire spell up as I fall towards the ground. The fire spell fires up towards Kyle who fires back with an electricity spell. Both spells collide and meet in the middle. I teleport again, this time with my feet on the ground, palms now pointing upwards but I notice Tom getting closer so I pull my arm away from Kyle and towards Tom. He uses his power to try to push my attack back towards me. Celestria then jumps down from the trees and points her arrow towards me.

“You hesitated,” she says.

“I wasn’t going to shoot you from behind,” I answer.

“The enemy will take advantage to that.”

“You’re not the enemy.”

“You’re also holding back.” Kyle says from above. He pulls off his attack and files out of the way before my fire can hit him. He files down and stands next to Celestria. “Hey Tom, you can stop now.”

“Tell that to Anya,” he calls back.

“I’m not going to get hit by you again,” I call back.

“How about at the same time,” Celestria sighs.

We both pull back and I can feel my muscles like they are bruised and worn from the workout.

“And you thought you weren’t ready,” Kyle says, walking past me.

Tom joins Kyle as they make their way back to the castle ruins.

“How did you teleport like that? Did that book help?” Celestria asks, both puzzled and amazed.

“Actually, I only glanced at the book. I practiced a little a few days ago and today it just felt natural,” I pause as soon as I just realized something. “I don’t feel sick.”

“That’s great.”

I didn’t want to tell her about the darkness or that I can feel someone watching me each time that I teleport. I know that I should but it scares me and for the others to find it out…I just don’t want them to worry on yet another thing. I’m sure Kyle has already told Celestria and Tom about my suspicion of Robby. My instinct is telling me that things are about to take a turn for the worse.

link

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Chapter Nine: Get Ready (Saturday, October 22, 1994)

I’m in my room getting ready for the party at the trade city on Crystaltina. It’s still early in the morning but Tom made it clear that the party will be an all day and night event and getting there as soon as possible would be worth it. He also mentioned that we shouldn’t be wearing our normal clothes from Earth. Everyone in the city knows that we’re outsiders but as a sign of respect for tradition, the people of Dorter would like it if we all dressed similar. I look into my closet at home and laugh. It’s filled with jeans, shorts and t-shirts, nothing of which I can really wear at the celebration. Thankfully Celestria picked up some clothes for me that are not fancy but more of an adventure type of wear. I’m glad that she wasn’t trying to get me in a dress for tonight. The last time I was in a dress, I was around six years old.

I toss on a long sleeve white shirt that is longer in the back along with a brown sleeveless vest, brown shorts that match the vest and tall brown boots that have a black trim. The outfit isn’t that bad looking and if I would wear this on Earth I might be considered as a fan of steam punk.

I’ve told my dad that I have a play to rehearse this weekend for drama as a cover. Currently he is working overtime at his job but I wanted give him a cover just in case he came home early and I wasn’t home.

There’s a knock at the door. I’m not expecting anyone. I rush to the door to see who it is and I’m happy yet shocked as soon as I open the door. In front of me with his natural gray hair is Josh. He’s dressed in jeans and a white collared polo shirt.

“Should I even ask why you’re dressed like that?” he asks.

“I’m leaving for Crystaltina…why are you here?” I ask, puzzled.

“You didn’t think you guys could teleport and not get noticed? Hello, it’s the Universal Portal Corporation after all.”

“Are you serious? Ozma knows where we’re at?”

“Not yet and you’re lucky that she doesn’t. Z and I have been monitoring you guys for a few months now and we’re keeping track of what Ozma has been up to. Zar-Q has been staying at my place away from the UPC and I’ve been working there undercover. I was heading to Crystaltina but I wanted to stop by here first to show you how easy it is to track you.”

I allow Josh inside so we can teleport without notice to Crystaltina. His words hit home and it just shows how safe we are not. Before he can toss the potion to the tile floor I ask, “Do you think I should have stayed in Crystaltina instead of coming home?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I don’t want anything to happen to my dad,” I answer, feeling a little emotional.

“Ozma will target Earth again, even if you never came back here. She knows that this planet is your home,” Josh says. He pauses and places his hands on my shoulder. “If you want, I can ask Z to work his magic for you, giving your father a promotion in another state. We can set him up with a nice house and expenses but you won’t be able to see him for a while.”

I’m taken aback that Josh would help me out but I have to wonder, “But my dad won’t leave me here alone.”

“Hello,” Josh says with a smile, “I can change to look like anyone. We can set it up that you will be staying with a relative.”

“Okay, do it,” I say.

“Just write down your dad’s work information and I will need a photo of the relative that you will be staying with. I’ll give the information to Z and he should be able to have it all worked out in about a week or so.”

I head into my room and while grabbing a piece of paper and pen I say, “I have an uncle that lives nearby that’s pretty cool. I’m sure if I tell him that I want to stay in Florida to finish out high school, he’ll understand. I’ll also mention that I want to stay in the trailer that I grew up in for sentimental reasons. I’m sure he will be willing to help me out with that.” I return with the paper with my father’s information on it. “I’m really going to miss my dad.”

“I know how you feel. We’ve all had to make this choice,” Josh tells me. “My parents moved to Zerron for a better life and opportunity and that didn’t turn out too well. Thankfully they got away before Ozma could hurt them but they had to leave me behind. I’m not even sure where they are now but it’s better that way. Z has a way to wire them money every month to help them out, which I’m sure he will do for your dad.”

“Thank you,” I say, trying to hold back a tear or three. “Where is your family originally from?”

“A small town on Crystaltina called Truam.”

“Really? Do you think they’re still there?”

“I don’t want to know. Not until Ozma has been taken care of,” Josh says, who looks sad.

Trying to change the subject, “So there are other towns on Crystaltina? Tom has been helping the people of Dorter to rebuild their town.”

“Ah, the port city, good man. That will help things out with the other towns. And as much as I would love to continue this conversation, we need to get going.”

Meanwhile, within the catacombs of the old castle, Kyle and Celestria have been having a conversation of their own while Tom listens in.

“I just need to warn you that from what I’ve seen, things might start getting awkward for the two of you,” Celestria says, sitting down at a small wooden table.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Kyle stammers, crossing his arms.

“I’m older than both of you, I think I know what I’m talking about and I surely know that you know.”

“Wait, what?” Kyle forcefully laughs.

Tom chuckles at the short conversation between the two.

“Alright, be that way, but you’ll find out for yourself,” Celestria smugly says. “Just don’t come running back to me.”

Of course Kyle knows what Celestria is talking about and he had hoped that she wouldn’t find out. It must be her natural woman instinct that allows Celestria to know about these things. Kyle isn’t able to fool Celestria but he hopes to fool myself and so far he has. As mentioned before. I’ve only been in one relationship and that turned out to be bad, very bad. I have to wonder what kind of relationship our past self had with each other and does that bleed over to present day. What does Kyle remember of the past and why hasn’t he shared that with anyone?

I teleport to their location a half second before Josh arrives via potion. I spin around to face Josh as he appears, with a smile. It’s nice to see that I can teleport slightly faster than someone with a potion can. “Josh is back,” I say, spinning around again and sitting in the chair opposite Celestria.

“Hey guys, it’s been a while,” Josh says. “If you don’t mind, let me get to the point. “I showed up at Jen’s place…”

“…It’s Anya,” I interrupt.

“Nice, embracing your past, I assume. So I teleported to Anya’s place to show her how easy it is to track you guys. Zar-Q and I have been able to pin point everyone’s location for about two months now. We assume that Ozma isn’t too far behind from developing the same program that we are using. It allows us to track anyone with a magical ability and even shows their stats. That last part was my idea—thought it would be a cool feature to have. So anyway, Z has been working on several computer programs to help us out while staying at my apartment on Zerron and I have been working undercover at the UPC. In short, the vacation is over guys.”

The room stays quiet for several minutes. I knew Josh had something to say to the group, but I didn’t know how serious it was until I heard it. I guess that’s why Josh offered to keep my dad safe because he knows that our little world is about to turn upside down.

“Are you certain?” Celestria is the first to speak.

“Yep. I’m shocked that it’s taken them this long to figure out how to find you guys and how to unlock the portal codes to Crystaltina and Earth. I assume it’s because a lot of their staff has either been killed, mentally broken down or got out in time and fled the area.”

“What do you mean mentally broken?” Kyle asks who has been pacing back in forth in the room for several minutes.

“Ozma can control weak minds to do what she wants. In some cases it worked and others caused the person being controlled to either go nuts or become a vegetable. Since they are the largest corporation on Zerron, nothing and no one can stop them, not even Vane. There have even been talks about moving the magic school off of Zerron. These past few months have been very hard at the UPC. Once you guys left, Ozma flipped big time. Production on her robots has increased and those minds that weren’t broken or used to create programs and new technology, went to become mindless assassins and I don’t need to tell you who they are all programmed to go after,” Josh explains.

“And this starts to go down after Dorter is rebuilt,” Tom jokes.

“Yea, it seems that’s the town to get the most abuse, mainly because of their location. Other towns are lucky to be hundreds of miles away,” Josh remembers.

“Other towns?” Celestria asks.

“I was born here,” Josh shakes his head, “But we don’t have time for stories and I won’t ask you to postpone the celebration and honestly I’m grateful, but after tonight, you guys need to be more aware. Z and I have been thinking about moving our base of operation here so we can communicate better. Then we agreed that Z would be coming here. I need to stay at the UPC to gather more information for you guys.”

“Thanks for letting us know, Josh,” Celestria says. “You and Zar-Q are welcome to join us tonight.”

“Sorry, I can’t, I have to get to work in an hour, but thanks. Shame I didn’t bring good news, but we all knew that this day would come.”

Josh leaves and immediately the group starts to talk, starting with Kyle, “Do we trust him?”

“I do,” I quickly say.

“He and Z helped us to escape, I don’t think we have any reason to doubt him,” Tom replies. “Look, I know what he said is important but we have a party to get to and we should take this time to relax, it might be the last time for a while.”

I burst out laughing, “We look like a troupe from a local Renaissance faire…” That got me some awkward looks. “Sorry, sorry, I just…oh never mind, I’ll meet you guys there.”

I would be lying if I wasn’t worried about what Josh had to say. I knew this would happen eventually but I assumed it would be years later when there wasn’t high school and I didn’t have other things and people to worry about. Now here I am trying to pass math, having to relocate my dad and I’m heading off to a party? Ozma is off breaking and killing people because of me and we’re going to a party for a town that was rebuilt? It just doesn’t feel right to me. We should take the fight to Ozma and stop all of this waiting.

I teleport to the rooftop of the tavern and clench my fists as I think of what Ozma is doing and thinking about what we’re not doing.

“Can you feel that anger growing inside of you like fire?”

The voice. I had almost forgotten about it. Why return now? Please go away; I don’t need this on top of everything else.

I sit at the ledge of the rooftop and look down. Several people are dressed the same as I and most have a mug in their hand. That’s what I get for arriving at a tavern. There’s red, gold and black streamers strewn on the trees and buildings and Celtic-type music playing loudly. In the center of the town is a long table with a massive amount of food on it, for example, bore, fruit, pastry goods all of which are giving off a wonderful smell.

These people are truly happy living the way they are: away from technology and the modern world. They’ve heard stories about this town being burned to the ground yet they still rebuild. They know the dangers and they move on and grow stronger. I really hope nothing happens to their town or to them.

“They’re all going to die, you know.”

The voice from the darkness is filled with so much hate and anger. These thoughts are not my own, I know it. I’m part of the good guys.

“Keep telling yourself that.”

I stand up and my brown eyes widen. What is going on? I then notice Tom, Celestria and Kyle walking into town and they are greeted by an older gentleman that I can assume is in charge of this town. Right now, I rather be alone so I teleport to the pier.

“Aw, Tom, it’s great to see you,” the old man says as he walks up to the three.

“Matthew, these are my friends Kyle and Celestria,” Tom says.

“Pleasure to meet you finally. And the princess, will she be joining us?” Matthew asks.

“Princess?” Kyle asks, exchanging a glance with Celestria.

“My apologies, the reincarnated princess but even so, she is still the princess of Crystaltina after all.”

“She left before us and I’m sure she’s somewhere around here taking it all in,” Tom answers.

“Indeed, well I hope you stay around for the announcement at sunset, it’s going to be great,” Matthew smiles and walks back into the festivities at hand.

“Did I forget to mention that?” Tom grins and walks into the town.

The sun is bright, reflecting off the ocean as I sit on the pier. Suddenly a yellow and orange flower appears in front of the reflection. I look over to see a small girl with blonde hair, no older than eight years old.

I take the flower, “Thank you.”

“You’re the princess, aren’t you? Momma reads stories about you each night,” she says.

“Sara, leave the young princess alone.”

The young girl smiles and runs back to her mother. Now what was that all about?

“So this is where you’re hiding,” Kyle says, walking up to me.

“That girl just asked if I was the princess…”

“Tom forgot to mention that the citizens still believe that you’re their princess.”

“…..but I’m not.”

Kyle sits next to me, “I don’t think that matters. Just knowing that you’ve returned has created stories and hope for these people.”

“…….” I stare out into the ocean. This is starting to get too much.

“You okay?”

“Yes? I mean, I’m not…that was hundreds of years ago, I’m not her,” I say.

“The sun’s starting to go down,” Kyle slowly says.

“ So…?”

He shakes his head, stopping himself from saying what is on his mind and instead says, “There’s suppose to be an announcement…”

As if on cue, a man’s voice, Matthew’s, can be heard throughout the town. I have to assume that Tom is amplifying the voice with his powers.

“We all know that it is written that once the princess rises once more we will enter an age of prosperity and happiness. It is also said that much hardship will come before the dawn. We’ve rebuilt this town time and time again and this generation will be no different. We will rebuild and face the darkness with bravery and perseverance. Tom has helped us to rebuild Dorter and has asked for nothing in return. It is our turn to help them and rebuild Crystaltina Castle as it was in its glory days.”

“No way,” I stammer as both Kyle and I turn our heads in the direction of the voice.

It’s as if they know what’s to come. Just like Josh’s warning and my gut feeling. Everyone knows that darkness is coming yet they move on with their lives. It’s touching when I really think about it. I need to make it my duty that no one gets hurt. Everyone seems to have so much hope.

The sun is almost gone, casting a purple and pink reflection on the water and in the sky. I look back to the water and the sunset. Despite everything that is going on and that’s going to happen, looking at this view causes me to relax and feel peaceful. I pick up the flower that the little girl gave me and I spin the stem around with my fingers.

Part of me doesn’t want to see the sun set. I fear the darkness that is coming and the darkness within me.

link


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((This next chapter, part of it comes from something that I wrote as a side project for the HSH story forum. I didn't want it to go to waste and it fits well with what I am doing now.))

Chapter 10: Victoria (Friday, October 28, 1994)

I need a break. Sure the party at Dorter was a nice day of relaxation but I need a break from school and Crystaltina. I half expected something to go wrong the day after the party, but nothing did. It’s been almost a week and nothing has happened. I’m a bit grateful but half anxious as well. At least I have pressure from school to keep me going. However for today, I need a break and I’m taking it. Kyle feels that he has to follow me as well. I’m slightly timid from showing Kyle my private island but no matter what I say, he’s going to follow me anyway.

We’re near the baseball field before the start of class. I already planned this before I left my house this morning so instead of wearing normal jean or khaki shorts, I have on a pair of black swim shorts and a white t-shirt to cover up my blue and black bikini top.

“Up to you if you want to skip school today and follow me,” I say as I teleport away from the high school and to the tiny island that I first teleported to.

I appear at the edge of the beach and I place my feet into the water. It is warm and refreshing. I pull off my white t-shirt and toss it behind me, unaware that it falls on top of Kyle’s head who has just teleported in.

“So are you going to be going into the water with me?” I say, sarcastically, “Never know when a monster may attack while I’m in here.” I really have to joke about how we haven’t gotten attacked yet.

I place my other foot into the water. The calmness of the water is soothing but I haven’t heard anything from Kyle. I turn around and he’s looking straight at me. “You okay?” I ask, placing my hands on my hips.

“Huh, yea, why wouldn’t I be?” he stammers out.

“You’ve been quiet since we got here, I was just wondering.”

“Hey listen,” Kyle calls out, tossing the shirt to the sand. “We might as well head back to school. We can always come back tomorrow.”

“No one is stopping you from heading back, you know,” I say, turning around. Goose bumps begin to appear on my tan skin as a strong gust of wind passes by. “Heh, might as well, right?” I decide to dive into the water, which turns out to be much deeper than one would think. Inches from the shore line, the water is a good fifteen feet deep.

“Awkward,” Kyle says, making his way to the water, thinking about his conversation with Celestria.

Kyle looks down into the water and knows that I should have resurfaced by now. I’m a very good swimmer but as far as holding my breath for a good amount of time, I’m not so good at. Kyle decides to throw off his shirt and dives into the water. Several feet below he spots a cave. Kyle swims towards it, hoping that maybe I saw the same cave and swam in that direction.

His head pops out from under the water and he takes a deep breath in. He scans the cave to see a few items here and there: a computer desk with a computer and some equipment next to it, as well as a bed, a table, a small refrigerator, and a few other items that are covered with a white sheet. He spots me and steps onto the rocky ground. I turn around briefly and notice that he’s taken off his shirt, which makes sense when one is diving into the ocean. His skin is only slightly tanned from the sun since he doesn’t take his shirt off outside that often. Working out and sparring so much has kept Kyle in shape as he sports a muscular physique that doesn’t show well when clothed.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kyle calls out, his voice echoing off of the walls.

“I found a cave, wanted to check it out. Sorry that I didn’t ask for your permissions, sir,” I roll her eyes and walk over to the computer, my bare feet slapping against the ground. “I wonder who lives here, and why? I assumed no one lived on a deserted island.”

“I’m serious, you need to be more careful,” Kyle says, his voice lowers. He’s still worried about what was said at the Dorter party and the news Josh had brought over. He really is taking things more seriously now.

“Yea, yea, I get it,” I answer, half paying attention to Kyle. I press a random key on the keyboard and the blank screen vanishes and is replaced by schematics.

“I don’t think we should be here. If this is someone’s home—-”

“It’s a blueprint of the school,” I cut Kyle off.

“What? You mean our high school?”

“Yea, it’s the entire place. And look,” I point at a list on the screen, to the right of the blueprint. It’s a list of several students who attend the high school, including our names. “This can’t be good, right?” I sit in the chair and begin looking around the computer. Still unfamiliar with a computer, I’m not having any luck finding any new information. “Okay, we need someone who’s good with computers…”

“Excuse me?!” A voice is heard behind us, a familiar one.

Kyle and I both look at each other before turning around. In front of us, with short brown hair is my clone. I stand from the chair.

“You can’t be serious,” she says, rolling her eyes. “The one place I try to hide and you just happen to show up.”

“Listen, we don’t have to fight,” Kyle says.

“We didn’t think anyone was here but now that we are, why do you have blueprints of our school?” I ask. It’s odd looking at me, even though she has shorter hair and looks to be a few inches shorter than me as well.

“You think I’m going to tell you two my plans?” she laughs. “If you haven’t noticed, you’re trapped.”

If this clone is a true copy of me, maybe that’s how I was able to locate her without even trying. I need to try to reason with her, “Why are you against us? We should be working together to stop Ozma.”

“So you found this place by accident?” the clone says, ignoring me.

“Yes.”

“This cave, that’s under the water in a large ocean and you were able to find it by accident?”

“Look, I wanted to go to the beach, away from tourists, so I came here. That’s the truth. I didn’t even know that you were on Earth.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” the clone pulls out a pair of sai that was attached to her back, hidden from our view. She throws one towards my chest with such force and precision.

Kyle pulls back his arm and fires off a bolt to knock the sai away. The shock instead brings him to his knees. With the confrontation, Kyle forgets that he’s still wet from ocean. Luckily, the bolt is still able to push the sai off course and it falls to the floor. However during this quick delay, the clone is already heading towards me with amazing speed. Before I can react, her hands are around my neck and I am pressed against the wall of the cave.

“This is just too easy,” the clone mocks, her back facing Kyle as he stands up. He’s about to rush over but I stop him. I need to try to reach my clone, reason with her. Maybe we can have her help us instead of being against us.

“Stay back,” I yell out.

“Pointless,” the clone says, her other hand reaching for the sai and pointing it to my neck.

“What are you planning?” I ask, ignoring the weapon.

“I don’t think you’re the one in the position to be asking the questions.”

Kyle takes another step forward, ignoring my request, but still taking his time to see where this might lead to.

“What’s your name?” I ask, starting simple.

“What?”

“It seems that you’re nothing like me so you’ve had to create yourself an identity. Or do you want us to call you The Clone?”

“Victoria, but that’s all you need to know.”

“Come with us. She created you but the way she treats you and everyone on Zerron isn’t right and she needs to be stopped.”

“I follow no one,” Victoria says, pressing the sai against my neck, causing blood to drip.

“Listen, I don’t know why you’re against me, and if that’s how it’s going to be, then fine. But if you’re not going to tell us, we’ll just have to figure it out on our own and end up stopping you. And if you come back again with some bullshit scheme, we will stop you again. And if you want to join us, then fine. But for now, I’m not going to be pushed around by some carbon copy.”

This angers Victoria and causes her grip on my neck to tighten, making it harder to breath. All the while, my finger has been pointed at Victoria. It’s hard for me to say anything now and since I can’t reason with Victoria I shoot off a close range fire spell that is strong enough to push Victoria back to the opposite wall, slamming her into it and she falls to the ground, passing out.

I drop to my knees as I try to breath. Kyle rushes over, “Are you alright?”

“Yea,” I say, before being helped to my feet. “We need that computer.”

“What about Victoria?” he asks.

“Leave her here,” I answer, walking over to the computer. I start to unplug the tower.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yea…hopefully we can learn something from her computer.” My head begins to throb as I stand.

Victoria starts to move and slowly gets up. She looks over to us with disgust and tosses down a smoke pellet and vanishes.

“I guess we don’t have a choice now,” Kyle says, wondering why I was willing to leave Victoria behind. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yea, but what about you, I mean, you shocked yourself,” I try not to laugh.

“We don’t have to mention that again, let’s just get to Crystaltina. Zar-Q should have all of his equipment in by tomorrow. Maybe he can check out this computer and find out why she has blueprints on our school.”

“Hey,” I say. “If Victoria isn’t working for Ozma, that means we still have to keep an eye out. We need to have Z do a search on Robby and Ty as well.” I stop speaking as soon as I notice Kyle shivering. “So you get yourself shocked and you’re going to get a cold.” I walk over and hold out both of my palms and ignite a fire to warm and dry off Kyle.

“You know if we teleport back I can get warmed up faster instead of standing in a cold cave,” he slowly says.

I hesitate before speaking, “You’re right….we should go…”

Kyle picks up the computer tower after throwing down the potion. He then steps through the portal. I stand and wait for a few seconds, trying to gather my composure. I hope Kyle didn’t think anything of it when I tried to warm him up. He did have a point in which we’re heading back to the catacombs so why did I find the need to try to help him here? It’s not like he was wounded, save for his pride and a simple cold can be rectified simply. As I am lost in my thoughts, the portal closes.

“Why are you dressed like that…shouldn’t you be in school?” Celestria asks.

Kyle sets down the tower on the table and tells Celestria, “Anya wanted to go to the beach instead and I couldn’t let her go off on her…wait, where is she?”

I appear seconds later, “Hey.” I then walk out of the room and head to my room on Crystaltina to change.

“What happened?” Celestria turns to face Kyle.

“What?” he asks, still feeling cold and in need of warm clothing.

“Get warm clothes on before you get a cold,” Celestria finally says.

link

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Chapter Eleven: Technical (Saturday, October 29, 1994)

The sun peaks through my vertical blinds and cover half of my face. I roll over to try to avoid the light and to stay asleep that much longer. It’s not a school day and I shouldn’t have to wake up early. However something is nagging at me, reminding me that today is an important day. I roll back over onto my back and I open my eyes, looking up to the ceiling. I look at my hand and I start to play with a small fireball between my fingertips. Sighing, I close my hand and sit up. Today’s the day that Zar-Q returns and he should have everything set up for my father.

Zar-Q I had met when I first went to Zerron. He is a native to the planet and has blue skin. He reminds me of something out of a sci-fi movie with his different pigment. At first, he was working for Ozma and ended up helping me and my friends out in the end. He was scared of her and probably still is. He’s seen his fellow employees broken and bent to Ozma’s will before he himself was able to escape from the Universal Portal Corporation.

He and Josh have been living together while Z works on programs to help our cause and Josh is working undercover at the UPC. I have no reason to doubt their intentions and I hope Celestria, Tom and Kyle agree with me. They didn’t have to help us and it doesn’t make any sense for them to help us escape only to inform Ozma of where we are.

I roll out of bed and grab a pair of jeans and a sleeveless grey shirt. I decide to teleport to Crystaltina first thing so I can ask Z if he’s done the task.

I find Zar-Q in a large room within the catacombs. Throughout the room are ten computer towers and one large computer screen that looks more like a screen from a movie theatre.

“Hey Z,” I say, half hoping that he wasn’t here yet. I want to protect my dad but having to move him to another state hurts.

“Anya, it’s been too long,” he says, walking up to me. “How have you been?”

“Alright, considering…look, I need to know, have you…”

“Josh told me what you wanted me to do and I know it will be hard for you but yea, it’s done. I sent out the files to his supervisor before I left Zerron this morning. The file is in the form of an email from home office with all the information that the supervisor will relay to your dad. He should get the news today.”

“Thank you,” I say. "You know who would love all of this tech stuff, Miles.”

I don’t want to talk about my dad right now. It bothers me that I have to do this and the last thing I want to do, is to talk about it.

"You should bring him along," Z recommends.

"You're right. It’s been a while since I've seen him. He's been going to private school for computers or something technical. I'll be right back," I say, teleporting to a park that is less than a mile away from Miles' home.

I knock on the door of Miles' home, which is a small two bedroom yellow and blue house. Miles and his mother are the only ones who live here. Miles' father was killed overseas about two years ago. He doesn't talk about him and I don't pry. I do know he was in the military and died with honors.

The door opens and a short blonde woman stands before me, dressed in scrubs.

"Jen, what a great surprise," she says.

"Hi Mrs. Winder," I say. She still keeps her husband's last name.

"I was in the area and since I haven't seen Miles in a few months, I was wondering if it would be okay to take him to the park."

"He's been so busy with school I'm sure he wouldn't mind a break."

I haven't been able to babysit Miles since I started high school and he understands fully. We had to tell his mother it was because I was starting high school and that I would be too busy.

"Miles," she calls over her shoulder. "Would you like to come in?"

"No thank you." It looks to me that Mrs. Winder had just gotten home from work not that long ago and would enjoy some much needed rest.

Miles appears and instantly has a smile on his face once he sees me. His mother tells him that I've offered to take him to the park for the day while she rests.

As we walk towards the park, I tell Miles the real reason, "Zar-Q is setting up his computer equipment at the castle ruins. Since it’s your sort of thing, we thought you might want to be there when he shows it off."

"Awesome," Miles says, his blue eyes shining with interest.

"Listen, I'm sorry that I haven't been around much," I tell him. "Between school, training--"

"I understand, you don't have to explain," Miles says and then adds, "Any cool stuff happened yet?"

Before I have the chance to open my mouth I notice a light blue shield around me. I turn around just in time to see a sai hit the shield and fall to the ground. Miles currently has his arms stretched out, protecting the both of us. I look over to see Victoria, with a second sai in her hand.

“Oh I cannot wait to kill you,” Victoria says. “Unfortunately, that’s not my mission right now.”

I can feel the anger coming from Victoria. I just don't understand why she's so angry at me to the point that she wants to kill me. Is it because what Ozma programmed in her DNA? I've offered her before the chance to join us but she denies, why?

"You don't have to take orders from anyone," I say.

"Don't start. I'll see you around," she says, throwing down a pellet and smoke appears around the area and she is gone.

"...did I mention I have a clone that wants to kill me?"

Miles drops down the shield and looks at me.

I look at him and the last thing I want is for him to get tangled into this mess, "You don't have to come with me."

"I'm a part of this and I know you're trying to keep me safe so I'll listen to what Zar-Q says and maybe I can help with the technical stuff. You know, until I'm older," he smiles.

We return to Zar-Q's base of operation. Tom, Kyle and Celestria are all present now. They greet Miles as I find a nice spot in the corner to sit. It’s great that Z is here, but as far as computers are concerned, it’s a foreign subject to me. Video games yes, computers, not so much.

Kyle walks over, knowing this, "Don't fall asleep, okay," he smiles.

"Victoria told me that she just can't wait to kill me," I say. It’s better to just tell him instead of keeping it to myself. I've been doing that enough recently.

"Wait, what?"

"Yep. She showed up in the park right before Miles and I came here. She said she's under orders to not kill me, so I guess that's one good thing going for us."

Kyle looks at me, trying to find the words to say.

"Don't worry, I'm ready," I say. "You should have seen Miles. He dropped that shield so quick. I just want to keep him away from all of this if possible or at least until he's older."

"So, if we're ready," Zar-Q says. "First off, I've been having issues on the tracking system. It seems it only tracks us. Somehow Ozma has blockers up protecting those who work for her. I'm not sure if I want to try to break those blockers since she can't get through our firewalls either. We're able to track anyone within a five mile area and we can monitor life signs as well. We can also keep an eye on any odd activity going on Earth, Crystaltina or Zerron. I also have designed miniature communication devices. I'm still working on the details but they should work for the most part.”

Zar-Q takes out what looks like a small telephone that flips over. It looks more like something out of Star Trek than something found in the real world. Last I checked cell phones are extremely large and bulky. I'm starting to see how other planets slowly influence Earth behind the scenes.

"Hopefully I can make things even simpler for you guys. Eventually I want to move away from the portable phone to a small device that can either be implanted or attached to the ear or temple without much notice. Oh and also, you can text on these phones as well, if you can't talk. Keep in mind texting might take a while to get used to. I'm trying to figure out how to add in a QWERTY keyboard but as of now, it would make the devices even larger. Everyone will have a number where they can be reached and 0 will direct you to me or whoever might be at this station at that time.”

I can feel myself starting to fall asleep. It's good that we're going to have a system but this feels more like a day in class.

I look over to see Miles extremely excited about the news, as well as Celestria. Tom looks a bit bored and Kyle still can't believe that I ran into Victoria.

She is my clone but she acts nothing like me. For one, I don’t go running around saying that I want to kill myself. Also, what was the point of showing up like that anyway? To prove that she knows where I’m at? To play mind games with me? This is going to get frustrating fast.

I lean over towards Kyle, "So how long do you think we can keep this a secret? We're lucky that no one saw us at the park."

"Don't know," he says.

"Just don't tell anyone. I don't need Celestria's lectures again. Besides, I'm sure she'll find out eventually," I pause. "I get the feeling tomorrow is going to be...interesting."

Link

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Chapter Twelve: Cold Day (Monday, October 31, 1994)

I wake up to find the temperature lower than usual. Florida doesn't get that cold and not in October, at least as far as I can remember.

I drag myself out of bed and quickly throw on jeans and socks. If I knew it would be this cold, I would have worn socks before I went to bed. All I need is to catch a cold.

Unfortunately, I lack sweaters. All I can find is a long sleeve Batman shirt, black in color. I walk out of my bedroom to find my dad at the table, eating breakfast.

He looks up at me and says, "I got a promotion at work."

Okay, here we go.

It hurts me to lie but this is for the best. I gulp and try to rid the large lump in my throat before saying, "That's great news!"

"They have to move me out of state. I know how much staying here means to you, especially after your mother left. I'm going to call your uncle to see if he can watch over you."

I'm shocked but I should have known that dad would know that I would want to stay here. Even though it’s not for the reason he thinks it is.

"Wow, ummm, thanks," I stammer. Since the trailer is paid off, what are you going to do with it?"

"I would like to sell it. Raven has a large house so you don't have to worry about being in his way, unless you want to come with me?"

Raven is my mother’s brother and my dad trusts him. As for his name, his parents were fans of Edgar Allen Poe. He even looks the part with his black hair and always wearing black. I haven’t seen him in about two years but from what I remember, he was a very nice thirty-something man.

As for going with my dad, I wish I could. I wish I could run away from all of this, but I know that’s impossible.

“I want to, but I’ve made so many friends here and school is going great. I can always visit you in the summer….I guess I could live with Raven and it could only be until I’m finished with high school. Maybe I could go to college up there,” I mange to say.

Dad and I talked about the arrangement with Raven and by the end of the week, I should be moved in. We didn’t talk much about anything else as he took me to school, save for the weather. Having the heater on in the car, felt strange.

I get to school a bit earlier than usual and shiver as I get out of the small blue car. It’s also Halloween and even though most parties happened over the weekend, I have to wonder if many of the students will be coming to school today. Halloween and the cold weather are great excuses to not come.

I make my way to the usual spot and toss my backpack down on the concrete bench. I look around and no one is around. Maybe the entire drama crew is skipping out today. I open my bag to take out my tape player and I stop. I look around and I can swear that I can hear someone crying. I walk towards the backdoor to the drama class room, which has a nice corner to hide in. I peek over to find Taryn, sitting on the floor with her knees up and her head buried in them.

I’m not great at this sort of thing.

“Are you okay?”

Taryn’s head slightly moves up and all I can see are her blue eyes, red from crying, “Yea, thanks. It’s just my dad, he’s… he doesn’t like it that I’m different.”

I really don’t know what to say, wish I did.

Taryn slowly stands and brushes leaves from her pink and purple dress, “I just want to move away from here. My parents don’t understand me, I hate warm weather and everyone here treats me like I’m a freak.” She walks past me without a glance and stops in the clearing.

“Hey, look at the freak with green hair!” I hear someone shout. Someone familiar. Oh you have to be kidding me.

Taryn looks over to the sound of the voice and screams, “Leave me alone!”

Taryn raises her arm and aims at the person. I rush over and poke my head out to see who it is and my guess was dead on.

I look back to Taryn and I can see a light blue shimmer coming from her finger tips. I look back to Victoria to whom is just standing there, laughing. I look back at Taryn, with tears in her eyes and her dress flowing in the wind; wind that brings an even colder feel to the area. It feels like the temperature has just dropped another ten degrees.

“Would you like to play?” Victoria mocks.

I can see Victoria reach for something in her pocket and instantly I teleport between the two. Bad timing on my part, as soon as a reappear, Taryn shoots off iceless from her fingers that sink into my back side. I cringe but do not budge. Taryn gasps to see what she has just done as I light up my fists with fire.

“Sister!” Victoria gleefully cries out.

“Wait, wha…what the hell are you doing here?”

“Just transferred in,” she pulls out a list. “I need to oust those magically inclined.”

“What for?” I ask. Does this mean there are more people out there like myself, Kyle and the rest of my crazy lot of friends? Why does she want to get those people noticed? More importantly, I need that list.

I teleport closer to Victoria and as soon as I try to grab the list from her hands, Victoria swiftly moves to the side and I fall over, right on my face. I can hear the icicles shatter into pieces and fall from my back.

“Sorry, you don’t get to look,” Victoria laughs and skips away.

Pissed off, I stand and wipe dirt from my face.

Taryn walks over, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

I turn around to face her; she doesn’t seem shocked at what she just did.

“Have you done that before?” I ask.

“Yes,” she slowly says. “When I get upset, it gets cold around me. That’s one of the reasons why my dad is the way he is.”

“They know?” I ask, shocked.

“Yea.”

I can feel the area starting to get warmer and it’s safe to assume the cold front was caused by Taryn. The fact that her parents know about her powers worries me. With Victoria hunting those magically inclined, that worries me even more.

I pace back and forth for several minutes as more and more students start to appear. I don’t even know if anyone saw anything. Since this is next to the drama classroom, we can just say it was all an act. But for right now, I could care less.

“Follow me,” I say finally, walking into the third building and into the ladies restroom, with Taryn right behind me.

“Are you like me?” she finally asks as I search the bathroom for other students. Seeing no one, I toss a potion towards the wall and a portal appears. “What is that?”

“It’s a portal to another planet; I can explain more once we pass through it. You might feel a little sick but it’ll pass,” I tell her.

I wait for Taryn to walk through before I follow. It’s not even 8am and already today has been tiring.

We arrive right outside the castle, where villagers from Dorter are working on rebuilding the castle.

“Wow,” Taryn gasps, looking around.

I look over and notice that Taryn doesn’t seem sick at all from walking through the portal. Is it just me then? Thankfully I’ve gotten used to teleporting.

Taryn follows me below into the catacombs where I finally find Celestria who looks stunned that I brought someone with me and that I’m not in school.

“Where’s Z?” I ask.

“Still sleeping, what’s going on?”Celestria asks.

“Victoria, aka my clone and a pain now goes to my school,” I start but Celestria interrupts.

“When did she start calling herself Victoria?”

Right, Kyle and I never really did tell her what happened that day.

“Doesn’t matter,” I brush off. “This is Taryn, Victoria apparently was after her and she has this list of others who can use magic. I think Ozma is using Victoria to gather these people but I don’t know why and she took off before I could get the list.”

“Hi,” Taryn shyly waves.

“Wasn’t Ozma using her robots before to try to find me? Maybe it wasn’t just me she was trying to find,” I suggest. “We need Z to try to locate those people before Victoria finds them. Maybe we can get Josh to find out who is on that list and I’ll try to get closer to V. It’s like she has some freakish ninja stealth power, it’s really annoying.”

Celestria nods and has a smirk on her face.

“What?” I say, noting her expression.

“Oh nothing.”

“…I’ll keep an eye on Taryn Earth side and once I find Kyle I’ll let him know what’s going on.”

“You could have call this in you know,” Celestria points out.

I had forgotten about that, “Yea, oops. Well, I thought I’d show Taryn Crystaltina before we head to class.”

I spin around to leave and I get the feeling Celestria is grinning behind my back. Taryn follows and says, “I’m sorry I shot you.”

I wave, dismissing it, “Don’t worry about it, I still haven’t gotten my teleportation down right, I should have been able to dodge it.” I turn around to face Taryn, “Look, I know this will be hard but don’t mention any of this to anyone besides myself and Kyle.”

“Won’t be hard, I didn’t want anyone finding out but my dad made me so mad one day that it sorta happened,” she shrugs.

“How long have you been able to do ice magic and please don’t shoot me again, I hate the cold,” I laugh.

“Three years and I’ll try not to.”

The weather ended up being 72 degrees for the rest of the day, which is cold by my standers but better than what it was that morning. It’s nice to have someone besides Kyle to talk to about what’s going. I have to wonder if it would be better to have Taryn to live on Crystaltina. She doesn’t speak well of her parents but I don’t want to pry into that.

As it stands, my clone is walking around my school saying that she’s my sister. I don’t want to outright attack her and demand the list mainly because that’s not what I do and I don’t want to start a commotion at school. My dad is leaving next weekend, I hear voices and feel darkness each time I teleport. This is not what I thought high school would be like.

link

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Chapter Thirteen: Goodbye and Hello (Saturday, November 4, 1994)

With homecoming tonight and my father leaving today, I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel like going out or seeing anyone. Last I heard Teresa was still planning on going with Robby and Ty was still dateless. My guess it’s Teresa doing in order to try to get me to go with him. Zar-Q is still unable to figure out who they really are and for right now, we treat them as normal students at my school.

I’m at the airport seeing my dad off with Raven Sandon, my uncle whom I’m going to live with until I’m old enough to get a place of my own. I should be worried about putting Raven’s life in danger and I am but my dad is my dad, I want to make sure he’s safe. Besides, Raven is ex-military so he is more capable of taking care of himself if need be.

Raven hasn’t changed much since I last saw him, tall, black hair and dark eyes with a clean shaven face and always wearing black and now he sports a long leather coat. It’s a bit odd since this is Florida after all.

I hug my father goodbye and walk back with Raven to his SUV. My stuff has already been moved into his house but I haven’t seen my new room yet.

“If you need to talk, I’m here,” he says.

“I’m good, thanks” I say with a long face. It’s going to take me a while to get used to my dad being away.

“Are you going to Homecoming tonight?”

“How did you know?’ I ask.

“Your father told me.”

“I don’t think so; I still need to unpack…”

“I’m sure going out with your friends will get you in a better mood,” Raven reassures as we reach his SUV.

“We’ll see,” I answer. I really don’t feel like fighting with my uncle over homecoming. The football game against our rival school was yesterday and I didn’t even attend that.

I look out the window as we drive past the terminals at the airport. I can see family members and friends saying goodbye to each other with hugs and kisses. My dad was my only real family since my mom left when I was seven. Yes, Raven is family but it’s not the same. As far as friends, the only reason why I know Kyle, Celestria, Tom, Z, Josh and Taryn is because we all have something unusual in common. When I really think about it, my pool of friends before this madness was pretty much only Miles and that was through babysitting. My oldest friend is an eight year old computer wiz. This is just what I don’t need right now, to feel sorry for myself, especially at a time like this.

Once back at the two story house, I make my way upstairs to inspect my new room. It’s at the end of the hallway and in fact out of the way and it is massive! I’m used to living in a small bedroom in an old trailer but this is something new. The room is furnished with a big screen TV, several gaming systems, a large bookcase filled with fantasy novels, a miniature refrigerator, and a queen size bed.

“Wow,” I say aloud.

Sure, I have a castle but this room is amazing. I crack a smile yet I still feel down. I plop onto the bed and I almost sink into it. A bed this soft should not be allowed to exist.

I close my eyes and I can feel myself falling to sleep.

Water drips down from a ledge, missing me by a few inches. Thankfully, it’s all over, yet the weather is bleak and lifeless. I’m not sure why I took this path home, or why I am alone in the first place. I guess after everything, I just need some space and some time away. I really haven’t had a chance to gather my thoughts about what has happened to me during this past year. I remember it was just yesterday when I was at lunch with my friends, talking about nothing.

Kicking a small rock, I look up to the cloudy sky and sigh. I then pause, feeling a presence nearby. I turn my head slightly to the right. I can see a figure; actually, it’s more of a shadow, dim and grey.

“Do you believe in reincarnation,” she finally speaks.

“Excuse me?” I say.

I can almost make out a physical form as it walks in front of me. She, It, stops for a minute, before she walks again, circling me. Is this the voice that has been speaking within my mind? Is this the future or just a simple dream running away with itself?

“You’ve read the reports, the lore, you’ve even experienced a bit of it, but do you believe in it?”

“Look, I don’t know what you want from me, but it’s over. You shouldn’t even be here,” I follow her with my eyes.

“You didn’t answer my question,” laughing a little, she goes on. “It doesn’t matter what you believe in.” She stops right behind me. I tense up, if I try to attack now, she’ll see right through it. “By the way, you might want to thank the person who gave you that relic.”

I slowly pull the relic out from my jacket pocket, I look at it before turning around, but before I can say a word the entity begins to glow brightly and I can feel a sharp searing pain. I cannot pinpoint where it’s coming from, and before I know it, I fall to my knees. My chest begins to burn, my vision is blocked by bright yellow and red lights, and that’s the last thing I remember before hitting the wet concrete.

I jolt awake in my bed, dripping in sweat, my vision blurry and my heart beating fast. What the hell was that? A dream? A vision? Someone’s mind game? I blink rapidly trying to adjust my vision. I look over at the clock on the bed stand and two hours have passed by, making it 1pm. It felt so real and extremely eerie at the same time. My head is swirling with several different thoughts of what just happened.

There’s a knock at my door and it slowly opens, it’s Teresa.

“You’re uncle let me in,” she says. “Wow, you look awful.”

“Heh, thanks,” I mutter.

“Come on, we need to get you ready,” she grins.

“I’m not going,” I plop back onto the bed, placing my arm over my forehand, feeling the heat emitting from it.

“Yes you are, it will make you feel better.”

I groan and turn over. I don’t feel like debating this but Teresa won’t stop until she gets her way. I turn over to face Teresa, “I don’t have a dress.”

“Go soak in the tub for an hour and I’ll be back,” she makes her way to the door. “Robby is waiting in his car outside and I can get him to take me to the mall to get you a dress. Just clean up before I get back, okay?”

Teresa leaves and I gradually get out of bed. It’s just homecoming, not prom, even though both dances I am equally uninterested in. I walk across the room and open the door to my bathroom, which is also impressive as it is fitted with a Roman tub with a shower head so I can choose between a shower and a bath. There’s a large vanity across from the tub.

Yawning, I start the bath with exceptionally hot water. As I get comfortable in the tub, I fear closing my eyes. Before it was only a voice but now I’m having vivid dreams as well? Even with the hot water I can feel myself shaking. I need more time to deal with this.

Thirty minutes pass by and I finally exit the tub. The bath did feel pleasant, but mentally, I am a wreck. I wrap myself in a white robe as I dry off my hair with a blue towel.

Fifteen minutes later and Teresa is back in my room, dress in hand. It is covered in a protective plastic cover and she places it on my bed. She grabs the blue towel and a hairdryer and starts working on my hair.

“We’re not having that ponytail that you always like, not for tonight. How about a high bun, that way the dress can show off your back.”

“My what?” I say. “What kind of dress did you get me?”

“Oh don’t worry, you’ll like it, it’s purple.”

It takes two hours before Teresa is happy with how I look. The dance and festivities isn’t scheduled to start until 5pm but Teresa has assured me that getting there an hour early is fine.

Once we arrive at the venue, which is a small convention hall, several students are already on the dance floor, having a good time. Teresa, wearing a short dark blue dress locates a table for the four of us. I haven’t officially said that I was going with Ty and thankfully he understands. Ty is wearing a white suit while Robby a red one, to match his hair, I assume. As for me, Teresa did do well in picking a dress for me. It’s sleeveless and shows off my shoulders and upper back and it stops right where my feet begin. The purple shimmers as if someone threw glitter all over it.

“I’m not waiting for this place to get crowed, I’ll see you guy on the dance floor,” Teresa says, grabbing Robby by the hand and dragging him out to dance.

“How did she manage to get you to go?” Ty asks in his Jamaican accent.

“Teresa can be very persuasive,” I tell him, looking around at the other students. I wonder who else will show up tonight. “So, what’s your story?”

If Z can’t find anything on these guys, maybe I can. However I doubt they’ll reveal anything of importance.

“I was born in Jamaica and lived there until I was eleven and I’ve been here since,” he tells me.

“You?”

“Born and raised.”

“Really, that’s rare.”

“Yea, people keep telling me that,” I shrug. “Were you dragged here as well?”

“To tell you the truth, I rather be playing soccer right now,” Ty says. “I can tell you don’t like being here.”

“Yea…it’s just not my thing.”

“What about soccer?”

“Nope, baseball,” I answer.

“But it’s so boring!” Ty exclaims.

“My dad took me to my first baseball game when I was thirteen, I’ve been hooked ever since,” I reminisce.

I groan at all the songs from last year being played over the speakers but the small talk with Ty is nice. It’s a shame that my suspension of him and Robby still remains. I look over to the dance floor to see Teresa and Robby dancing and having fun. I then notice Kyle and Taryn walking through the doors. Taryn walks over to a small group of girls from her afterschool math tutor group, I assume to admire each others’ dresses. Taryn is wearing a light pink dress and has a flower in her hair. Kyle has on black dress pants and a grey vest on top of a white dress shirt. Then I realize that they don’t know that I’m here.

Teresa runs over to the table and asks, out of breath from dancing, “Are you guys going to dance or sit there all night?”

“You know I don’t dance,” I say, still looking over at Kyle.

“We’re just talking and having a good time here,” Ty tells her.

“Strange,” she says, making her way back to Robby.

I roll my eyes and turn to Ty, “I hate to do this, but I’m going to head home, it’s been a long day.”

“Do you need a ride?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine, thanks,” I stand and start to make my way to the exit, making sure to avoid both Kyle and Taryn.

No such luck as I get closer to the exit and I hear a familiar voice, “Oh my, I love your dress!”

At least it’s not Victoria or anyone else who might try to attack during homecoming, now that would be cliché.

“Thanks,” I say

“I didn’t think you were going to come, what happened?” Taryn asks.

“Teresa, she kind of forced me to come,” I shrug. “I think I’m going to head out though. Have fun,” I say before quickly walking outside.

The air is much cooler than last week but at least I know it isn’t Taryn’s doing. There are a few students hanging outside and in the parking lot. I might have to walk around to find a spot to teleport. I turn the corner in hopes to find a place to be alone and instead I bump into Kyle.

“You actually came?” he asks, shocked.

“Yep, and now I’m leaving,” I say, trying to walk past but unable to, avoiding his eyes.

“So soon?”

“I’ve had a hard day,” I start. “Actually no, I’ve had a hard month. I have a clone that mocks me and wants to kill me, Ozma is taking her sweet time unless her plan is already underway and we don’t know it, I had to say goodbye to my dad this morning because I fear something might happen to him if he stays here, I keep hearing this dark voice in my head and every time I teleport I can feel emptiness and don’t get me started on the dream I had this afternoon.” Before I realize it, I accidently blurt out the parts that I’ve been keeping from everyone. “Forget that last part.”

“What voice?” Kyle asks, concerned.

“It’s nothing,” I finally manage to push my way through and into an alley way that leads to the back of the building. I can feel myself cracking inside and of all times, why did it have to be at homecoming and in a dress? I must look really foolish.

I sigh and I know that Kyle won’t let this go, not after that outburst. I spin around, “Not here.”

I teleport back to my bedroom, wanting nothing more to get out of that dress, I toss it onto my bed and throw on a pair of jean shorts and a white t-shirt from an open suitcase on the floor. For all I know, the clothes might be dirty, I just don’t care.

I return to the alley, with Kyle leaning on the wall, “You need to tell me where you’re going first before you run off an teleport away and I liked the dress, you didn’t have to change.”

“…do you want to know or not?”

“That’s not an option, you need to tell me,” he crosses his arms. “So where to?”

“Your place,” I vanish and then open the door to the refrigerator that is now in front of me. I pull out a carton of orange juice and pour myself a glass.

“Wait, why my place?” Kyle asks as soon as walks through the portal.

“You can’t tell anyone,” I plea, ignoring his question.

“You’ve been saying that a lot recently,” he notes, sitting on his tan sofa, turning his body around to face me.

“Yea, I know…I just don’t want the others to worry. Z is busy with this computer issues, Miles is too young to understand, Taryn is newer to this than we are and she still doesn’t know everything that’s going on, Celestria will just lecture me and make me read a book, Josh isn’t even around and Tom is helping out Dorter so you’re the only one that’s left,” I ramble.

“And that’s your only reason?”

“Ummm, yea, it is…so where do you want me to start?” I take a drink of orange juice, feeling tremendously uncomfortable.

“The voice,” Kyle says.

“…just out of the blue I started to hear this voice in my head, very dark and depressing. It’s like its part of me but separate…it’s really hard to say. I think it has something to do with my teleportation. I’ve talked to Celestria a little about this and she thinks it’s connected to The Void, the place between life and death and the next life. Every time I teleport I can feel it,” I take another drink, my hand shaking even more now. “It’s like the darkness wants to consume me.”

“Why don’t you stop teleporting until we figure out what’s going on?”

“Thing is, we have so much listed as ‘we’ll figure it out later’ that what if we find out and it’s too late? Part of me believes that I can find out on my own,” I take another drink and I can feel my legs getting weak. I decide to walk over to a small couch. “The other part enjoys it and I’m not talking about the teleportation part but the feeling of the darkness. It’s like something is feeding off of it.” There’s a lump in my throat as I personally try to convince myself that the path I am taking is the right one. “I think I’m at the verge of figuring it all out where I can teleport without having to feel the presence of The Void. Then add in Victoria and my dad leaving…”

“…why didn’t you mention this before?”

“I didn’t want to add to everything that’s already going on,” I blush out of embarrassment.

Kyle walks over to the smaller couch and sits next to me, “You can trust us.”

“It’s not about trust; I just didn’t want to bother anyone. I mean, Z and Josh knew about my dad, heck, they set it all up for me, but it didn’t feel real until this morning. And the stupid dance, I didn’t even want to go. Listen; just keep this between us, at least for right now.”

I feel both drained and scared right now. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone about this and alas it sort of just happened on its own. I close my eyes, but even the darkness under my eye lids bothers me. I can’t stay awake 24/7 but I can’t be afraid of sleeping either. I quickly open my eyes to find Kyle gone.

“Do you want to stay here tonight?” he asks from the other room. He then walks out seconds later with a pillow and covers in tow. He tosses them onto the larger sofa.

I stand, “Is that okay?” I ask as I make my way towards the larger sofa.

“Nope.”

“…”

“I mean no to the sofa, you need a good night’s sleep and even though the sofa is comfortable, I think you’ll be more relaxed on the bed.”

“But I don’t want—-“

Kyle pushes me in the direction of the bedroom, not giving me much of a choice. I hate being a bother to anyone but he’s right and the last thing I want to be is alone right now. I leave the bedroom light on as I try to relax in the bed. Maybe I’m just lonely, being an only child tends to have its drawbacks every once in a while.

“Or maybe you know that you can’t control what’s coming.”

My eyes widen as I hear that voice again, deeper and closer now. I swear I should just go head first into The Void and drag her or it out. How am I supposed to stop something that’s in my head?

I step onto the wooden floor and make my way into the living room where Kyle is already asleep, with a blanket clinched in my hand and partly being dragged on the floor. It’s not like it will do any good, but right now, I don’t want to sleep alone in the darkness.

Link

____________________

Chapter Fourteen – Light Reading (Wednesday, November 9, 1994)

Celestria was nice enough to grant me an off day from my studies. Midterms are coming up and I guess she knows that I need the extra time to study for my tests. P.E., drama, photo and history will be easy for me to pass, but math, science and maybe English might be a bit tricky for me. Even with Taryn’s help in math, it might not be enough.

Of course instead of studying I go back to the one place that I need a break from, Crystaltina. I feel like reading and its better when Celestria isn’t forcing me to read. I’ve only been in the library a few times before this on my own.

The smell of old books fills my nostrils as pass my fingers along their spines which are covered in dust, before picking up a random book. I then spot another book which looks like more of a story book than a history book. My thoughts return to the young child who gave me a flower at the pier at the Dorter celebration. She told me that there were stories written about my last incarnation, some of which are read to the children before bed. I decide to grab the second book as well and toss both into my backpack.

I take the books with me outside and walk towards the forest. The wind brings a slight chill but nothing compared to the cold found on Earth during December or what Taryn is capable of producing. There are several fallen trees due to my practice matches with Kyle.

I head towards my favorite tree in the woods, the one that is lofty and very inviting. Finding my usual branch, I get comfortable and open the first book that I took from the library and I begin to read.

“Long ago, an entity was born on another plane of existence. They called her the Hymn of Saturn who had the power to destroy worlds and time itself. Thankfully she was able to be controlled by the Gods who saw her more of a threat than a gift. However Saturn became bored and wanted more out of life. She believed that they deserved the right to take human form and to experience what the humans are allowed to experience. This was forbidden magic since in order to take human form; a human soul must leave the body, in other words, the person must die before being taken over.

In hopes to calm down the entity, the Gods partnered her with a friend, a companion. They did in fact become friends but in the corners of Saturn’s mind, she knew he was a distraction to keep her busy.

Lucky for her, the Gods started to ague and war with each other and that eventually led to the Celestial War. With everyone distracted, Saturn had her chance to slip away.

Saturn’s friend didn’t notice until later that Saturn was missing and quickly found her path and followed. It wasn’t until they reached a planet that he finally found Saturn. Startled, she drove towards the planet. Both entities were never seen nor heard of ever again. Legends say that both took human form and lived out their lives together.”

This sounds awfully familiar to what I dreamt about when Ozma was torturing me. Could this Saturn entity be the one that entered my last incarnation’s body? Could she be the voice that I keep hearing? The book did say that the soul needs to move on before an entity could take over so it can’t be true. Two souls cannot occupy the same body, right? The human body wouldn’t be able to control that kind of pressure.

I look off into the distance and I start to feel drowsy. This is why I can’t study for long with my school work; I always get tired when reading. Thankfully I’ve been able to fall asleep since that night at Kyle’s but it’s only been for a few hours at a time. Kyle was a bit upset when he woke up on Sunday and saw me sleeping on the smaller sofa, my feet hanging off the sides. He was so adamant about me sleeping in a bed instead of a couch that night.

My eyes open wide as I realize that Dryden might be Kyle’s name from the past. Kyle still won’t tell anyone about his last incarnation but then again, I don’t think anyone has really asked him.

I decide to take out the storybook from my bag, replacing it with the other. I’m not sure who wrote this as the cover is so worn that I can’t read what is written on it. There are several pages missing from the storybook and I try to make the best of it.

"Okay," Celestria, who is training to be a powerful cleric, says to a now seven year old Anya, "Hey, are you listening to me, your young highness?"

Anya is currently looking out of the window of the castle, out into the forest and lost in a daydream.

"Miss Anya, this is a very important study, you do realize this, don't you?" Celestria tries again, but seeing the only way to get Anya out of her own personal spell, is to throw something at her. Celestria tosses a piece of chalk and hits Anya on the side of her head.

"Ow…what was that for teacher?" Anya cries out, rubbing the area that now holds a nice little red mark.

"I will not have a student who fails to pay attention during an important lesson, understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Now, what is the proper concentration time to produce a simple fire spell?" Celestria asks, while writing a formula on the board.

"Why can't I just go to Vane?"

"Why can't you answer the question?"

Anya snaps her finger, and above her thumb, appears a tiny flame. "Three-point-five seconds, now why can't I go to Vane? I'm sure I would have better luck there. Sorry, but I can't see you as my teacher, not really."

"Excuse me"

Anya stammers, "Err, I mean I've known you since forever and now you're my teacher? It feels a bit strange, that’s all. I mean, you're not that much older than me and here you are, trying to teach me things that are common nature."

"Standard rules states that all new students of Vane must have some sort of knowledge in the art of magic and must be at the age of ten. As I recall, you fall short by three years. And simply having common sense does not cut it with the board," Celestria mentions.

"But my father is King, shouldn't that go for something?"

Celestria sighs and shakes her head, "You can't keep using that excuse all the time, Miss Anya."

Now frustrated, Anya slams her hands on to her desk and then storms out of room, but not before saying this to the fourteen year old cleric in training, "I don't want you as a teacher, I just want a friend to talk to. I'm tired of being so overprotected!”

Anya makes her way outside and towards the coast that lies behind the castle while Celestria heads to the King's throne room to discuss matters about Anya. "She's so high strung about going to Vane, that her mind is clouded. Do you think she could handle their teachings at such an early age?" Celestria asks.



"She will come around and she will learn the art of patience," he replies.

"But why must she be so sheltered. I understand that she is the heir, but do you feel that this…" But Celestria is cut off, something that is uncommon with the King.

“Fine."

"Your majesty?"

"She will do as I command and will head to Vane.”

"But sir, you…."

"…leave me be," he scowls.

Anya makes her way to the ocean's shore and steps into the warm water. Then, a chill passes through the air and takes hold of Anya's brown hair. She turns around and looks up to the castle. She knows that something is wrong and runs back home.

Celestria makes her way out of the chamber and closes the door behind it. Appearing in the shadows, behind the King's chair is a short figure, with a pale completion and dark black hair. "You did well, my Lord, she will cause no trouble while she is away."

"Do you think I was too hard on Celestria?" questions Stahn.

"Not at all," Ozma, the queen answers.

King Stahn is loved by all throughout the land but his wife on the other hand is feared. Many townsfolk question their relationship and some believe that dark magic is involved.

Anya comes rushing into the castle and slides on the marble floor and right into Celestria. "Whoa, what's the hurry?" Celestria asks, still a bit shaken from her conversation with the King.

"I felt…I felt something and I knew I had to come over," Anya manages to get out.

"I just spoke with the King and he wants you to go to Vane."

"He does? But I thought I had to wait?" Anya says, forgetting about her sudden wave of fear.

"It seems he's changed his mind," Celestria says dryly.

"Is everything okay?" Anya asks, looking up at Celestria with a puzzled look in her brown eyes.

"Of course everything is okay," Ozma says behind Anya.

Anya turns, and is instantly frightened. She steps back and ends up in Celestria's arms. There’s a strange vibe coming off of her mother.

Anya tries to back up even more, but doing so now, makes Celestria take a step back. Celestria is unsure why Anya is acting like this. "We'll take our leave now." Celestria takes Anya by the hand, and almost walking backwards, they make their way upstairs and to Anya's quarters.



At dinner, the four are sitting at a very long wooden table within the dining hall. The room is quiet until dessert rolls around. "Dad, why the change of mind all of a sudden, I mean, weren't you the one who wanted me to stay here and learn some magic spells before going to Vane?" Anya asks, pushing her plate aside.

"I think that you are ready," he answers.

"I'm seven; I'm the only one here who thinks I am ready. The rest of you guys have been holding me back, telling me over and over again to wait."

"Now come dear, you underestimate yourself," her mother says.



"Did you actually finish Dr. Strem's report for elemental class yet?" Celestria asks, sitting at a small desk in the Library of Vane.

"Of course I did, now let's head outside, it's a nice day," Anya says, trying to pull Celestria's arm away from her pen and paper.

"You always want to go out, why not study for a bit?"

"Because I already did that, come on Cel, you need to live a little," Anya winks. "You can't spend all of your time behind the books."

"Didn't you want to talk to the combat arts teacher anyway?" Celestria tries to weasel her way out of spending time away from her studies.

"Yea, but he's at lunch right now, but fine, I'll go outside all by myself and I'll tell you how great it was when I come back," Anya says, sticking her tongue out at the almost full-fledged cleric.

The sun is bright and high above the planet of Crystaltina and with the birds singing, it’s just one of those days that you would hate to miss out on. To get back to the main land, you have to take a teleporter, since Vane is one large mass of land floating in the sky, with a school on it. And then you have to take a ride over to the Dorter Trade City, which is the closest city to Vane. Also known as DTC, it is the trade city at the docks, where all sorts of life comes and goes to do their trades and other sorts of business. Anya enters the city to the left, as she always does, and just walks around, mainly to hear what news is going on within the kingdom. No one knows that she is the heir, so it is safe for this ten-year old to walk freely around the port city.

While not paying attention, Anya bumps into someone who is walking in the other direction. "Ow, hey, watch out!" Anya cries out, almost meeting the ground with her rear.

"Sorry, I was just watching the sky," the boy says.

"It’s not like it's going anywhere, you know," Anya jokes. "I'm Anya."

"Nice to meet you," he bows.

"Is that really necessary?" Anya asks, placing her arms on her hips.

"Not really, just wanted to see your reaction to it," he jokes back.

"And you are…?"

"Heh, the name's Dryden."

"Never seen you around here before, did you just get in?" Anya asks.

"Yea, Steve and I just moved here about a week ago."

"Who's Steve? Your brother?"

"No, my wannabe father, that's who he is."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to…”

"…..don't worry about it. Once I get old enough, I'm leaving this place to become an adventurer or maybe something with elementals," Dryden says with pride.

"Wow! That sounds so amazing. Do you plan to go on your own?" Anya asks.

"What other way is there?"

"I don't know, maybe having your own group of followers, or something. Don't you think you'll get lonely?"

"Me, nah, I can handle it on my own you know, I'm going to be famous, people will know me for my amazing quests."

"Uh-huh, whatever you say, mister adventurer but what I want is to be a part of something, like a traveling band of heroes," she laughs.

"Dryden, get over here and finish your chores, you ungrateful excuse for a son," Dryden's father shouts from a far.

"Ouch, I guess that's your cue to leave, huh?" Anya says.

"Yep, it was nice meeting you, maybe we can talk again sometime," Dryden says, waving while walking towards his home.

"Yea, hey, I'm a student at Vane if you want to stop by," she calls out, and then more to herself, "hope to see you again."



The two friends split off to go to their classes; Celestria to her alchemy class and Anya to her physical attack magic class.

"Okay class, today we will be heading into the woods for some sparring and we will be going over some techniques that were talked about throughout the year. We will be going over a few new things as well. After the first hour of regulated class time, if you must leave, please inform me before doing so. For our newer students, please pair up with one of the senior students.

"So I guess I'm stuck with you then, huh?" someone from behind Anya says.

Getting out of her seat to leave, Anya turns around to see Dryden standing there.

"Are you following me or something?"

"Nah, you're not my type."

"Right…so what are you doing here then?" Anya asks as they walk out of the class and head for the teleportation link-up center. It’s a high tech area where students and teachers of Vane can travel around the planet in an instant.

"Just trying to learn a few new skills." Dryden answers.

"I thought you're father wasn't going to let you come to Vane? What changed his mind?" Anya steps into the portal and ends up in lush forest miles from the school. She takes in a deep breath and the smell of pine makes her sneeze.

"Well, he doesn't know. Promise me you won't tell him," Dryden says.

"No worries." Anya says, with her back facing Dryden she quickly sends her arm and fist towards his face. He blocks it and holds her arm for a second.

"Anya!" the teacher yells.

"Sorry, just messing with the new meat," Anya says, "Umm, you can let go now."

Dryden slightly blushes as he lets go of Anya's arm and they head towards the rest of the class.

"Okay, I hope everyone has found a partner by now. Today we'll be going over simple physical spells and how to defend against them. Later on we'll work on duel tech attacks. This might be a bit tricky for all of you, because in order to perform perfect duel tech, both people involved must share a bond, be it personal or common and it requires a lot concentration. You also have to remember to mix the right elements. You cannot mix ice and fire and expect something good to come from it. But be creative with it." The students then go off in pairs to separate locations.

"So, show me what you got," Anya says, leaning against a tree.

"What about you? You should have more experience since you've been here longer," Dryden cracks his knuckles.

"You would think that, huh? But before we start, you do know that this is physical magic, right? You can't just shoot a fire spell at me; the spell has to be a part of you, an extension. Here, let me show you," Anya stands straight and then makes a run towards a tree. As soon as her leg lifts up to kick the tree, her lower leg and foot lights up brightly.

"Fire elements, huh?"

"Yea, but I've been trying to work on this earth spell, but I keep coming up short." Anya says, walking back, the tree falling over behind her.

"What type of spell?"

"It’s where I slam my fist into the ground and it generates a bomb underground that travels towards its target from under the soil, but all I can get is a few rocks to stir up," she shrugs her shoulders.

"Maybe I can help with that. Teacher was talking about duel techs; maybe that type of spell can only work when two people are involved."

"Could be, but didn't you hear teacher saying about a bond between the two? I mean, we've only talked here and there and the rest of the time you're working on your father's farm."

"We could try, I mean, what harm could that do?"

"Alright, but if you get hurt...." Anya trails off.

"Okay, slam your fists into the ground and at that moment I'll summon a bolt of lightning and we'll see what happens."

"But we’re supposed to be working on physical spell attacks right now."

"Oh come on, it'll be cool to see either way."

"You know, you're right. I don't know why I'm protesting this, I'm sounding like Celestria. Heh, okay, let’s try this."

Anya slams her fist into the ground as Dryden sends a bolt inches from her. The attack backfires and sends Anya flying a few feet backwards. Dryden rushes over to make sure Anya is alright but she isn't in sight. She then jumps down from a tree branch and they begin to spar.

Three hours later, Anya is drying her face off near the hot springs that are behind the castle. "There you are! Class got out two hours ago, where have you been?" Celestria walks up to Anya.

"In class."

"Really? That doesn't sound like you."

"It was field study today and I was showing a new kid the ropes," Anya replies, covering her face with the towel while leaning back in the chair.

"And this new kid just so happens to be..."



"Another round of rum for my dear friends!!" Anya raises a glass. "Two more weeks and we graduate to upper level students! The madness never ends!”

"Hey, you wanted to go to Vane, you remember that." Celestria laughs.

"How was I supposed to know that lower level takes six years to pass and then there's more? What happened to fast education? Getting people on the field faster, you know?"

"No wars. So they can train people for a longer amount of time."

"When was the last time this place saw war anyway?"

"Don't remember, actually. The records don't go that far back. We’ve been attacked and there have been riots but no war"

"Do you think there are more worlds out there?" Anya stammers.

"Heh," the barkeep chimes in. "Do you know how many times that question is asked once someone has enough rum in 'em?"

"And?" Anya says, leaning over the table top.

"And what?" the bartender gruffly says.

"You're going to have to excuse my friend," Celestria says, grabbing Anya by her hand. "Come on; let’s get you some air."

"What did I say," she slurs out. "He must know the answer if he gets that question all the...."

The windows of the tavern shatter as balls of fire rain inside of the establishment. The fire grows at an alarming rate; customers are gagging on the smoke.

"Everyone get outside!!" the barkeep screams as the ale bursts into flames behind him. The front door begins to burn, blocking the only way out.

"Cel, can you do anything?" Anya yells over the roar of screams and fire.

"I--I can't there's too much smoke, I-can't concentrate," she stammers, looking for a way out.

Anya rushes to the door and jumps into the fire, breaking the door down in the process and absorbing the flames that are blocking the exit. This clears a path for the patrons to run out. For many, it was an action too late. Celestria is one of the last people to run out, coughing, she leans on her knees for support as she looks around for Anya. She spots a group of people in a circle and she rushes over. Fearing the worse, she pushes the people aside and to her shock, Anya is sitting on the ground, perfectly okay.

"You okay, Cel?"

"Yes--I'm sorry."

"For what?" Anya stands, this wasn't your---ow! My head!!" Anya places her hand on her forehead and takes a step back.

"Anya!!"

"Man, I'm going to have a hangover tomorrow."

Celestria pushes Anya, "That is not funny!"

"Sorry," Anya sighs and looks back at the fire which has taken a few lives and the wooden building itself. "Excuse me; did anyone see who did this?" Anya yells out to the crowd of onlookers.

No answer.

"Oh come on, in the highest trade city on this side of Crystaltina and no one saw a thing? Don't be afraid, we need to fight this!"

"Mam'am," a man from the tavern speaks up.

"Yes? Did you see something?"

"You jumped into a fire and you are not hurt."

"Ummm...well you see..."

"She was sent from the Gods!"

Anya slaps her forehead in frustration, "Ow. Look, no I'm not. I'm a student of Vane. I assure you, I am as normal as the rest of you. Now, anyone, please tell--"

"She was sent by the Demons!!!"

"Oh geez, come on people, you can't actually believe..."

"We had better get out of here Anya," Celestria takes Anya's hand and they begin to walk out of the city. "They are going to follow us, we can't go home right now," she whispers to the young princess.

"You can't be serious. Don't they know about the magic school?"

"Many still don't believe it’s natural to use magic, at least not to help people. We need to lose them and hide somewhere."

"Oh, like that's going to be easy," Anya turns around to see a medium sized mob following them.

"This isn't going to be pretty in a few minutes, Cel..."

"...just keep walking."

"A run might do us some good, you---"

A bolt of lightning hits the ground between the two friends and the mob. Dryden appears and walks towards them. "She saved some of you today and this is how you thank them?!"

"She's a Demon!"

"Follow us and you're all toast. This is your only warning," a dark cloud begins to form over the towns people.

"Do you think that's necessary?" Celestria asks.

"Run, I'll keep them off of your backs."

"Come on," Celestria takes a firm grip on Anya's hand as she begins to run.

"Hey wait, he might need our help--" Anya tries to say as she looks back.

Giving the two a head start, Dryden summons a series of bolts to hit the ground in front of the people before taking off as well.

After about an hour, Dryden finally catches up with the two, "Come on, to the ruins, we should be safe there for a while."

"Can we wait a few minutes, Celestria needs a break."

"No, I'm fine, we need to keep going. Are they still following us?"

Dryden stops and turns around, "I don't know. I think I scared them a bit, so I doubt they're close by, but who knows. We need to hide for a while to be on the safe side.”

“Thank you for saving us,” Celestria replies.



Both my past self and Celestria are mentioned in these writings, as well as Ozma and I’m pretty sure that Kyle was Dryden in his last incarnation. It’s just too obvious with what I am reading. I need to sit down and ask Kyle straight out and hopefully he’ll tell me the truth.

link

____________________

Chapter Fifteen – Not As Planned (Friday, January 20, 1995)

I’m fifteen now and with everything that has been going on in my life, I feel much older than that. I didn’t do much for my birthday since it was during Christmas break, just some cake with friends. I’ve also been busy with midterms, the holidays and everything in between that I haven’t had the chance to talk to Kyle about what I had read back in November. I know I should just let it go, but my curiosity is getting the best of me, as always. I showed the books to Celestria who thought the same thing I did about Dryden and Kyle but doesn’t remember much from her own past life, save that she was a high cleric.

The construction on the castle is almost complete and we’ve been told to keep our sparring matches far, far away, which we’ve done today. This is so we don’t cause any damages to the castle and we might have to keep our distance from here on out. Joe and the other villagers from Dorter have put so much time and effort to get the castle back to the way it was.

I scream out in pain as Kyle’s sword presses into my skin right below my right shoulder.

“I wonder if I can add a rune to my sword,” he says. “There’s a mage in town that specializes in magical runes.”

I stumble back as his sword pulls out of my skin, blooding staining my white shirt. “You stab me and all of a sudden you think about runes?”

“Funny how that works, huh?”

“Listen, I have a deal for you,” I say, slightly out of breath and changing the subject.

We’ve been sparring for close to twenty minutes now, with Kyle clearly winning this match.

“Go on…”

“If I pin you down, you have to answer a question.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yep”

“You’re bleeding and I’ve had the edge since we started.”

“So why are you worried?” I grin, despite the pain and soreness that I am feeling.

Kyle shrugs, “Alright, if you want to play like that, we’ll play.”

He shoves his sword into the ground and raises his hands to the sky. I can hear a rumble as lightning bolts begin to rain from the sky. I teleport in and out to avoid them as only a couple come into contact with my skin as I slide into the dirt and knock Kyle to the ground, causing the spell to be broken. I quickly stand and reach for his sword, but Kyle kicks my arm away and jumps up from the ground. His palm lights up with pure energy and I do the same with fire and with our palms facing each other, our spells collided in the middle, a bit dangerous being in close range of each other.

“I can stand here all day,” he mocks.

Even with my teleportation, Kyle has always been slightly faster than I and frankly, it’s starting to bother me. Teleportation is supposed to be faster than flight. I know he’s been working on his technique, that’s the only answer and reason that I can come up with. I know eventually I’ll be faster than him but for right now I need to be smarter. What would he think I would do next? I can feel my right knee about to give out as my leg shakes. I notice his eyes looking down at my knee briefly and I realize that my opportunity to strike is now. My left hand lights up as I pull my arm back, making it seem that I might try for a double fire spell, but instead, I spin around, close my right palm and as if throwing a baseball, I hurl a fire spell from my left hand towards Kyle, who dodges to the side to avoid the attack as I rushed towards his sword, grab the hilt and with my last bit of energy I swing the sword to strike and as Kyle tries to dodge again, he slips on a root that’s sticking up from the ground which causes his leg to give out under him and he falls to the ground, and at my momentum and speed I fall on top oh him.

I shake my head as it pounds straight into my ears and eyes as I sit up, still on top of Kyle.

“See, told you I could…” I stop to notice that Kyle hasn’t said a word. I look down to see his eyes closed and he’s not moving. “Ummm, are you okay?”

We’ve had some intense battles before but none that caused any blackouts.

I quickly reach back and pull out a healing potion. Kyle might just be knocked out but I don’t want it to be something worse and the longer I wait, the harder it will be to heal him.

I open his mouth with my left hand and pour the potion with my right hand, pulling the cork out with my teeth. I then use my left hand to hold his head up, hoping that we won’t chock on the liquid.

I toss the empty bottle to the side and wait for Kyle to wake up. It shouldn’t take long before he’s back to normal as the potions are fast acting.

I then realize that my fingers on my left hand are sticky and it can only be Kyle’s blood. This injury might be worse than I originally thought.

With my right hand, I push aside the rock that his head had hit once he fell. We’re supposed to have thicker skin but if we can get knocked out by large rocks, what chance do we have if someone pulls a gun out?

I then rest Kyle’s head on the grass to inspect my hand, which is caked in blood. I then look back down at Kyle, who still hasn’t woken up yet. Should I have used a phoenix potion and not a healing one? What if he doesn’t wake up?

I lean closer to his face to see if he’s still breathing and before I can react his lips are against mine. It’s a few seconds before I back away, standing, I say, “What was that about?”

Kyle sits up and rubs the back of his head, “What was what? I was trying to get up and your face was in front of mine.”

“I was checking to make sure you were breathing,” I cross my arms.

“Ever heard of a pulse?” he mocks.

“Just so that I’m clear, there is nothing between us,” I stammer. “I don’t even know who you really are.”

Kyle sits up and says, “So ask. That’s what you were hinting at and since you did pin me down…”

“Wait, what?”

“Oh so now you’re going to chicken out?”

Am I hearing this right? Kyle is willing to tell me more about him? I have to wonder why the change all of a sudden. Unless this is some sort of trick.

“Fine,” I say, sitting down crossed legged on the ground. “What’s your story?”

“That’s a bit of a broad question, don’t you think?” Kyle sits up and I can tell he’s trying to find a place to start. “I was born in Florida and you already know that Ozma killed my parents because she was hunting me for the information that I know. I was on the run and hiding out until I ran into you and Miles.”

“Yea, but how did you know? What made you come to my middle school? You could have just kept yourself hidden,” I ask, hoping that he’s not going to hold me to one question.

He sighs, “I’ve had this crystal, rune, whatever you want to call it, ever since I was a baby. It was given to me by a friend of the family but I never saw the man again. I’ve kept it with me ever since and it’s only glowed twice since I’ve had it. Once was back in kindergarten and the second time was when I was at a park in March of last year.”

“Wait, are you saying that the school that you were picked on was my elementary school?” I ask, shocked.

“Yes.”

“I never noticed…”

“No one did, don’t worry about it,” he says, looking off.

“But the park…”

“My apartment is ten minutes away from it and I wanted to go for a walk. I had no real reason to go there and it was just random but when I was walking on the path you were walking in the opposite direction.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Yep, you had your headphones on and walked right passed me. By then I had the crystal crafted into a necklace and I noticed it was glowing, again.”

“But you don’t wear…”

Kyle then pulls out a necklace that is attached to a black chain. The rune itself is the body of a phoenix, with its winds stretched out and then curved to the top of the rune. In the middle is a purple crystal. I can feel my face blush as it appears that I don’t pay attention to the people around me. Unless he was keeping it hidden, how did I not notice that he was wearing a necklace? Then again, why would I notice?

I walk over to inspect the rune, holding it my hands while sitting up on my knees. “So you spied on me?” I slowly ask, sitting back down but not before noticing that Kyle has very nice and deep brown eyes.

“I knew it wasn’t a coincidence that the crystal glowed again so I found out which school you went to and decided to get myself in so I could figure out why the crystal glowed again. I started to figure out that Ozma wasn’t after me but after the crystal which she could use to find you.”

This means that the reason why Ozma had Kyle’s parents killed was because of a crystal that could be used to find me. My heart sinks as I realize that I’m the reason why they’re dead and maybe Kyle didn’t want me to know more was because of what had happened.

“That’s pretty much it. I was a kid who lost his parents and was on the run ever since. Only difference is that there’s magic involved,” he stands. “Oh and I like video games, football and walks on the beach.”

I didn’t want to press anything else and I now regret even asking him the silly question. Maybe he would have just told me when he was ready. “Wow, I’m sorry,” is all I can think of.

“Not your fault and you need to remember that, it was Ozma’s,” he tells me.

I stand, still unconvinced and I turn around and notice my bag on the ground, several feet from my current location. Kyle walks past and turns around to say, “So does this mean we just had our first date?” Kyle takes note that I’m just standing there, looking at me bag. “Are you okay?”

“My bag is over there.”

“Yea, so…”

“Wait, first date? “

“Maybe you had it in your back pocket,” he suggests.

He picks up my bag and tosses it to me, “Since you know me a bit more now…”

“Wait, what?” Did he really think that, I swear, Kyle can be very hard headed at times. I did say that there’s nothing between us, right?

He just looks at me and smiles. I can’t tell if he’s serious or not and that drives me a bit nuts. “Are you ready?”

Unsure about what Kyle is talking about, I say, “Not yet, I’m just going to stick around here for a while.”

He shrugs, takes out a portion and is shortly gone. Why can’t one thing happen on one day and not a multitude of things at once? I sigh and attempt to take in what happened today. This might be one of those nights that I need to get out. My bag wasn’t on my back so where did the potion come from?

After about two hours of trying to figure out what went down, I decide to visit the pub in Dorter. As I walk in, I immediately notice Tom at the bar top at the back of the pub.

“Hey there,” I say, sitting on a stool next to Tom.

“Heya Anya, great news, the castle should be done in a week. I know Celestria is tired of all the hammering,” he laughs.

The bartender slides over a mug filled with orange juice and I take a long drink, “I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear that.” I turn to see Tom facing out into the pub, his gaze on a blond waitress that I remember seeing back at the celebration last year. “Have you talked to her yet?”

“Just short conversations here and there, what about you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You and Kyle.”

“I’m not the relationship type. Besides, there’s just so much going on,” I answer. “I asked him about his past today, didn’t get the answers that I thought I would.”

“What does it matter, Anya? I wouldn’t worry too much on what happened in a past life and focus more on this one.”

The doors open and enter Kyle and Celestria who take a table to the left of the pub.

“I might go Earth side if the construction isn’t done by Monday,” Celestria says to Kyle.

“I still can’t believe you can hear it in the catacombs. Isn’t most of it done anyway? Why do you still stay down there?” Kyle asks.

“It’s louder in the main part of the castle.”

I spin on my chair to face their table and say, “Don’t worry, Tom says it should be finished soon.”

“He’s been saying soon for weeks now,” Celestria moans.

“It’s a castle,” Tom replies. “It takes a little longer to put together than a pub. Do you want it to fall apart?”

The front doors open and a group of shady men enter. I can hear the bartender mutter something under his breath. Tom rolls his eyes and says, “Not these guys again.”

“You know them?” I ask.

“Just a bunch of thugs from another town that arrived by ship a week ago. They’ve been causing trouble since they got here.” Tom stands and walks towards the small group of five. “I thought I told you to leave.”

“Shut up, kid,” one says, clearly drunk.

I jump from my stool and light up my fists as Kyle does the same from his seat, electricity emitting from his body. We stand side by side, facing the group, with Tom a few feet in front of us.

“Heh, you can’t hide behind your magic forever,” the man says, waving his comrades out.

“You see,” Tom says, turning around. “You two have cool visuals to go with your magic and thanks. From what I heard, their ship manifesto mentioned that they should be leaving tomorrow. Just your average drunks who can’t hold their own.”

“Sounds like he’s not a fan of magic,” I say, looking back at the door.

“Some people don’t believe in it, especially those not from this area. I guess that’s why we keep to ourselves here. Even those with magical abilities don’t let on that they do,” Tom tells me as we join Celestria at the table.

“Thanks for helping us out, Tom,” Stacie says, walking over to our table and placing four drinks on it, her blond curls bouncing as she does so.

“Don’t mention it,” he says.

For the rest of the night the four of us sit and just talk. It was a nice change and a chance to just talk about random things and events that are going on in our lives.

link

____________________

Chapter Sixteen – Is This Vengeance (Saturday, January 21, 1995)

“I just don’t see the point,” I say, rolling over in my bed to look up at the ceiling. Forget the whole past life excuse, that’s really not my reason, I just don’t want a relationship.”

“For someone who doesn’t, you sure talk a lot about it. Do you like him?” Taryn asks who is sitting at the edge of my bed.

“That’s not the point,” I say.

“Its not?”

I sit up and lean my back against the bed board and say, “I might be the only teenager at my school who doesn’t want a relationship or sex or anything that seems normal and I have Teresa who keeps bothering me about it.”

“I’m sorry if—”

“Don’t worry, you’re not. You know, it was only five seconds…” I say, making Taryn look at me questionably.

The phone that I’ve been carrying in my bag that Zar-Q gave everyone begins to ring. I jump since this is the first time that it’s ever gone off and I am grateful that it did. I hop off the bed and dig for the phone in my bag. It’s bulky and I really hope that Z makes that smaller model he’s been talking about. I already have enough items in this small bag and this phone doesn’t help with the load.

“Hello?” I ask.

“Hey, Anya, good news, I got a red flag on that kid from your school,” Zar-Q tells me.

“Really, who?”

“Rob and I think you’re right about him being Russell’s son. That’s one of the reasons why it took me so long to get any information on him.”

“Really,” I smile at Taryn. “Oh hey, Teresa was supposed to be going to the movies with him tonight, we’ll check it out.” I hang up the phone and say to Taryn, “Want to go to the movies with me?”

“Won’t Kyle be jealous?” she laughs.

“Oh don’t you start,” I grab my backpack and we both head downstairs. I shout out to my uncle, “We’re going to the movies.”

“Do you want a ride?” Raven asks, walking from his chair in the living room.

“No thanks, we’re good,” I tell him.

“Don’t forget that I’m here if you need anything,” he tells me.

Since my dad left, Raven and I haven’t been that close but he’s been trying. I just don’t want to risk something happening to my uncle so my defense mechanism is keeping him at a distance.

“I know, thanks,” I say, walking outside.

“I love this weather!” Taryn exclaims.

“Why?” I shiver and regret not putting on a sweater. The jeans will have to do.

The movie theatre is attached to a mall that is about ten minutes away. Once we get there, the place is packed with mostly teenagers and twenty-somethings. It’s going to be near impossible to find Teresa and Robby in this mess.

“What do we do now?” Taryn looks at me for answers.

“No idea,” say, defeated. “I think they were going to see a comedy but…I’m sorry, Taryn, I guess I didn’t think this through. Z can only tell us if he’s in an area but with this many people, we might as well head back.”

“Does she have a phone?”

“Nah, a pager but I can never figure those things out, unless….” I take my phone out of my bad and ring Z. “Hey, if I give you my friend’s pager number, could you message her that we’re outside waiting? You can, that’s great, thanks.”

After giving Zar-Q Teresa’s number, Taryn and I sit against the wall of the movie theatre and wait.

“Thanks, by the way for helping me in math, not sure if I told you that,” I say.

“You’re welcome, just part of my job.”

“Do you want to be a teacher when you get older?”

“I’ve thought about it but with you-know-what I don’t think it’s possible,” Taryn says with a sigh. “What about you?”

“I never really thought about it. I’ve always wanted to travel…I guess being able to teleport has made that easier for me.”

As the time passes, I have to wonder if Teresa got the page. It’s starting to feel a little awkward not being able to come up with things to say. Thankfully Teresa and Robby walk out of the movie theatre. We stand and greet them.

“You’re late,” she says, hands on her hips.

“Must have gotten the time wrong,” I lie.

“Ty is meeting up at Robby’s place if you want to come with. Going to have some drinks and there’s this action movie that Robby wants me to see,” Teresa says as we walk down the street.

“No car?” I ask.

“It’s in the shop,” Robby finally speaks.

“What about your parents?”

“Out of town.”

“Come on Jen, relax,” Teresa says, nudging me.

I wasn’t planning on going to Robby’s house and neither did Taryn. I know that she doesn’t get along well with Teresa so she must feel out of place right now. I’m not even sure why I still hang out with Teresa. We’ve been friends since middle school but she’s always been the girl that has to be in the spotlight and date any cute guy that she meets. For me, Robby isn’t that attractive. It could be my suspicion of him or that his hair is too curly and short, unlike…

“Why didn’t Ty come to the movies?” I ask, disrupting my own thoughts.

“He was going to, but something came up at his job, which doesn’t matter since you showed up late anyway with your friend,” Teresa says.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable, I tell her, “Yep, but if you two want to be alone, we can take off.”

“Don’t mind Teresa, besides there’s something I want to show you guys,” Robby cuts in.

It only takes us twenty minutes to finally reach Robby’s house, which is a small two bedroom, one story home.

“Drinks are in the fridge, I’ll be right back,” Robby says, walking into what I assume is his bedroom.

Teresa walks into the kitchen and takes out a wine cooler, “You two want one?”

“No thanks,” I say, looking over at Taryn who is sitting on the sofa, looking through a magazine that was placed on the coffee table. It’s about cars so I doubt she’s interested, just trying to look busy.

“Okay,” Robby says, walking out of the room and looking straight at me. “Just got off the phone and despite what I was told, I’m going to show you something. I wasn’t expecting company tonight besides your friend here.” My eyes narrow as I watch Robby walk into the kitchen. He takes out a bottle and downs the liquid inside of it. “I have to say, this planet is very boring, feels like punishment being here.”

Taryn looks up slightly and I am kicking myself for bringing her along. She’s only used her powers a handful of times and if we get out of this, I need to start training her. I think we might be ahead of ourselves here.

“Robby, what are you talking about?” Teresa questions, placing her untouched bottle on top of the yellow countertop.

“The funny thing is this isn’t natural.” Robby walks to the end of the kitchen and places his hand on the wall, his head lowered. “My father did this to me and he expects me to follow his rules.”

I take a few steps back, getting closer to Taryn; I pull out a teleportation potion. If this goes bad fast, I don’t want her here. Teresa will be harder to get out since she is so close to Robby. I don’t know what he can do or how fast he can move. I toss the potion to Taryn and it lands on her lap. She looks down at it but doesn’t use it. Instead Taryn takes a hold of the potion and tucks it away.

The area around the wall where Robby’s hand is starts to vanish, disintegrating into nothing. He turns around and smiles, “They told us to only observe but I never liked listening to my father. Especially since they told us that you will go to them.” Laughing he adds, “I’ve never tried my powers on another human before. Objects seem to vanish when I touch them but what would happen if I touched you and released my power.” He begins to walk to the exit of the kitchen but instead stops at the edge of it. “I don’t care either way what happens or what’s going on.” I can see that Teresa is both worried and confused on what’s happening here. I have to get to her. My right eye twitches as Robby takes a step back, “But I do love watching chaos unfold and the things I’ve heard about you.” Robby places his hand on Teresa’s shoulder and before I can scream out my friend since I was twelve vanishes in front of my eyes.”

I can feel myself shake as a deep, dark feeling begins to rise within me and the voice says, “Release the anger that you feel and let go.”

My heart rate drops as I look down at the ground and I tell Taryn, “Get out.”

She clutches the potion and hesitates, “I can’t leave you here.”

Robby grins and takes a step towards me.

“Taryn, now!” I scream as a grin appears on my face. I look up to face Robby, my eyes a deep purple. I then realize that I’m watching what is taking place from a corner in my mind; I am no longer in control of my body.

I can hear the door slam behind me and without a phone, Taryn has no way to contact anyone, save for the potion that is in her hands.

“So they’ve been talking about me,” words that are not my own escape my lips in a tone that is more seductive than my own. “Let me introduce myself properly, my name is Saturn. Shame that you won’t be able to tell your daddy about me but I’m sure they’ll be able to figure out.”

“Give me back my body!” I scream.

Saturn reaches back and pulls out a large staff with blades on either side and twirls it around to the front. I can feel what she is doing but she needs my body to do it. The potion that healed Kyle and the one I pulled out for Taryn was from the same place that Saturn just pulled out that weapon: the Void. Somehow there’s a rip, a small connection to this realm and to the Void hovering behind me. Is this how she’s been able to stay connected with me?

“Stop thinking and enjoy the show,” Saturn says to herself or to myself rather.

Are we that connected that we can feel and know what we are both thinking? Is she using my rage against Robby as energy to keep her at the forefront? I look out to see Robby, still smiling.

Saturn then rushes towards Robby, twirling the large weapon in her right hand. Robby tries to dodge but Saturn is too fast and cuts into his side and he screams out in pain, “I don’t show mercy for the weak.” Saturn then spins around and thrusts the blade into his stomach, causing blood to pour out onto the kitchen cupboards and onto my clothes.

“Not like this,” I cry out, feeling both anger and regret.

Saturn pulls out the blade from Robby’s insides and then places the weapon back into the Void from which it came. There has to be a way to gain control, something that can drag her back into my mind. Two people already dead, there doesn’t need to be any more bloodshed. However the scary part of it all is that deep down into my soul, I enjoy this. I can feel the fire of rage burning and it feels fantastic.

“You see, this is why you need me,” Saturn says aloud. She turns around and heads for the front door.

“No.” Taryn might still be outside, waiting; I can’t risk her life or any of my other friends. I can’t control what Saturn does and I can’t imagine what she is capable of.

“Changed your mind that fast, have we? I know you like what you’re feeling.”

“Give. Me. Control.” My arms stretch out on both sides and there is an explosion, taking the house up in flames.

Taryn, out of breath, rushes through the catacombs, screaming, “Anyone, I need help!”

“I’m not the computer guy, you might as well call..” Kyle stops midsentence with his conversation with Zar-Q once he hears Taryn’s cries. He rushes out into the hallway and sees Taryn, dripping in sweat, her blue eyes showing fear. “What’s going on?”

“We…he was…Robby just—“

Kyle looks over at Zar-Q who says, “They were going to the movies to meet up with Rob. I told Anya that I believe he’s Russell’s son. With the computers frozen I can’t—“

“Robby’s house—“ Taryn gets out.

Kyle takes out a potion and throws against the wall without hesitation. He holds onto Taryn’s arms and looks into her eyes to say, “Remember where you were and the magic will do the rest.”

Taryn nods and looks at the portal. Taking a deep breath and holding back the urge to run in the opposite direction, she steps into the portal, followed by Kyle.

They arrive in front of a house, which is currently on fire and surrounded by firefighters.

“Where’s Anya?” Taryn asks in a small voice, scanning the area. “Do you have a phone? Can’t you call her?”

Kyle curses, “I left it back at the castle.” He looks at Taryn, “What happened?”

“I don’t…this fire wasn’t here,” Taryn takes a deep breath, “Robby made Anya’s friend vanish and that’s when she told me to leave so I ran out to get help. I’m sorry—I just stood outside, looking at the house, I didn’t know what to do, I don’t know how long I stood out there.”

“Come on, let’s head back, there’s nothing we can do now.”

They teleport back to the castle where Kyle takes Taryn to Celestria in hopes that she can calm Taryn down.

“I’m going back to try to find her,” Kyle says.

“What about the tracking system?” Celestria asks.

“Zar-Q is having issues with it,” Kyle replies, annoyed.

A door slamming causes everyone to pause. Zar-Q is busy working on the computers and Tom is staying in a room at the pub, making sure the thugs from yesterday don’t return.

“Make sure Taryn is alright, I’ll check it out,” Kyle says, leaving the room.

He walks down the hallway to the door that leads to my room. He takes in a deep breath before opening it. “Are you alright?” Kyle rushes to the bed.

“No.”

Kyle sits on the bed.

“I just want to be alone right now,” I mutter.

I managed to drive Saturn back into my mind and although faint I can still feel her. I need to keep those that I know far away from me. What would have happened if Taryn stayed in that house? Would a third person have died tonight?

I lay my head down on my pillow and face away from Kyle, tears streaming from my eyes. I need to create walls in my mind and heart in order to keep everyone safe.

link

____________________

Chapter Seventeen – Aftermath (Sunday, January 22, 1995)

“She killed my son, I’m bringing her in now,” Russell yells out, sitting on a large red chair in Ozma’s office.

Pacing back and forth, Victoria laughs before saying, “That’s the first time you ever mentioned Robby as your son.”

“It’s a matter of principle and why are you here anyway?”

“Because I’m on your side, why are we waiting?” Victoria asks, looking at Ozma who is sitting at her long wooden desk.

“We wait,” Ozma replies. “I have my reasons and if your foolish son got himself killed then it’s his own fault. I told everyone to not engage her until I gave the word but we might be ahead of schedule so it’s not a total failure.”

Victoria shrugs, “So we piss the princess off and we get results, good plan.”

—-

A female news report with short black hair stands in front of the ruined house where Robby once lived. She is surrounded by other reporters from various news stations, all covering the same story, “Last night this home was engulfed in flames. Causes are still unknown as authorities are trying to reach the residents. One body has been found within the debris.”

The screen switches over to the newsroom where they are reporting on the disappearance of Teresa and are asking anyone for information on her last location. It shouldn’t take them long to tie her and Robby together.

—-

Tom walks into Zar-Q’s computer area, dripping in sweat and his brown hair in a ponytail, “Are you ready to move your stuff upstairs?”

“Hey Tommy, I’m ready when you are. I haven’t been able to get these computers back online since yesterday so I haven’t bothered to turn them back on.”

“Do you guys need any help?” Kyle asks in the doorway.

“Sure,” Tom answers. “We’re going to use a portal to get everything upstairs.”

—-

“Are you feeling better?” Celestria asks Taryn, slowly opening the door.

“Yes, thank you, I’m just a bit shaken,” Taryn stretches and steps away from the bed. “How is Anya doing?”

“I’m not sure. Kyle went to see her late last night but she didn’t say much,” Celestria sadly replies. “There’s a change of clothes in the closet for you.”

—-

I slowly open my eyes, not wanting to move. What if I just stayed in this tiny room for the rest of my life? I feel terrible and the last thing I want to do is face anyone, especially anyone from here. I sit up in my bed and look down at my clothes, which have spots of blood still on them. I fight back the tears as I teleport to my bedroom on Earth. I toss off my clothes as I make my way into the bathroom and into the tub. I turn the dial as far as it can go, giving me the hottest water as possible.

“All you have to do is allow me to take control and I can make you feel so much better.”

“Leave me alone.”

“Don’t deny what you felt last night, you enjoyed it”

“You didn’t have to kill him.”

“Of course I did, it was fun. It’s been a long time since I had a chance to take control.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

“Trust me; you won’t be able to fight me forever. Eventually I’ll take over.”

“Heh, good luck with that.”

—-

“Any word on Anya,” Tom asks.

“No,” Kyle answers, lifting up a computer tower to take through the portal. “I just don’t know what to say to her. Taryn’s even shaken up about it and she wasn’t there at the explosion.”

“Give her time and she’ll come around,” Tom says with a smile.

“Hey guys!” A familiar voice breaks the uneasiness of the conversation.

“Miles, thank goodness you’re here,” Zar-Q says, walking over. “Do you think you can help me set up the computers as we bring them in?”

Miles being thirteen years younger than Zar-Q yet he just might be what the team needs as far as getting the computers officially up and running.

—-

I eventually step out of the tub and for several minutes I stare at myself in the mirror. Who am I going to end up being once everything is all said and done? In my past life Saturn was able to gain full control and it wasn’t until her host body killed herself before my past self could be free. It seems now that even death didn’t fix the problem.

I walk into my bedroom and pick up the clothes with Robby’s blood on them. Fearing that the police might stop by here at some point, I toss the clothes into a small waste basket along with a small fire ball. I put on a pair of jeans and a black baby doll shirt as the flames burn away a terrible night.

I then hear a knock at the door. Canceling the fire spell, I walk over to my door, opening it to find my uncle.

“Is everything alright? You didn’t come home last night; I was worried especially when I heard the news about your friend being missing.”

Of course, he’s either watching TV or reading a book; it was only a matter of time before he knew. Lying I answer, “We saw her at the movies but she was with her boyfriend. That was…the last time I saw her.”

Teresa and I had pretty much nothing in common but she was still my friend. Part of me wished that she had just vanished and she ended up in a better place but I know better than that.

“I’m sorry I hope they find her safe,” he says. “Do you want any lunch?”

“No thanks, I think I’m just going to take a walk,” I say, walking past.

“Jen, take this,” Raven hands me a phone, one that is much smaller than Zar-Q’s model. “If you need me, just call. I promised your father that I would look after you. I didn’t know looking after a teenager would be so difficult.”

“Heh, yea, sorry about that,” I shrug, taking the phone. If he only knew.

“Be safe.”

—-

“Are you sure you guys don’t need any more help?” Taryn asks.

Tom and Kyle have both been working nonstop to get everything out of the catacombs and into the castle while Zar-Q and Miles tend to the computer system.

“I thought using portals would make the move easier,” Tom grunts.

“Imagine how they got all this stuff down here in the first place,” Kyle jokes and then to answer Taryn’s question, “We’re good but could you get us some water?”

“Sure thing,”Taryn gladly says, running out to get some water.

“Hey Cel, know any healing magic that could help us out?” Kyle wonders.

“I’m not using my magic just because you two can’t handle a simple move,” she laughs.

“So cruel,” Kyle adds, picking up a box of books.

—-

“What’s the Void?” I ask. I’ve read about it but I want to know more from the one entity that’s been there.

“Do you ever stop asking questions?”

“Tell me.”

Talking to myself in public on Earth might be a bit strange so I decide to return to Crystaltina and take a walk in the woods.

“No. Find out for yourself.”

“I don’t understand if we’re so connected, why can’t I get the answers that I want? Why do I even have to ask?”

“That’s because you already know.”

“I didn’t know that I could pull out items out of my ass.”

“No, I guess not. There’s a small part of the Void attached to you, a personal Void, if you will. You can toss items into it and pull them out when need be. It’s one of the reasons why you can teleport so well. There’s no official record on a teleporter because most cannot handle the requirements. Thanks to me, you can.”

I look up to find myself close to the castle which is now fully rebuilt. The grey marble and stone looks strong and the tip of the highest tower seems to go way up into the clouds. Wow did Tom and the villagers of Dorter pull this off, I will never know.

“Wow.”

“Don’t get attached, I’ll destroy it. Again.”

I close my eyes and teleport into the castle. Since I haven’t been here yet I’m not sure where I will end up within the castle. Opening my eyes, I look around. The halls are covered in random places with banners of yellow, black and red. I assume I need to earn a crest to go with those colors.

A lot of the rooms are empty but hopefully in time, that will all change. I can’t let Saturn destroy all of this.

“What’s your problem?”

“Can’t I get a little rest?”

“Why are you so bent on destroying everything?” I press my hand against the wall.

“Spoilers.”

Sighing, I decide to give up on questioning the crazy spirit within me and continue to look around. I know I shouldn’t be talking to her but I need to know what’s going on, even though she isn’t that helpful.

“Hey, I’m going to change real quick, I don’t think my shirt can get any more soaked than it already is.”

I stop in the middle of the hallway as Kyle walks out of one of the rooms, shirtless.

“Hey,” he says, confused to see me there.

“I was just looking around,” I utter.

“How are you feeling?”

“Oh you can’t be serious.”

“Pretty bad.”

“You are serious! Oh this is too funny.”

“If you want, you can help us move. Might take your mind off of what’s been going on,” Kyle tells me, walking past.

“Shut up!” I say, annoyed.

“We need to talk,” Saturn says.

“Shit! How the—‘’

“Okay,” Kyle cautiously replies.

“You need to relax,” Saturn tells me. “Did you think that rage was the only emotion that I feed on?”

This cannot be happening again. I knew I shouldn’t have come back here. I need to find a way to block her, to block everyone and my own feelings.

Saturn takes Kyle’s hand and they walk into one of the vacant rooms. The room is tiny, no larger than a broom closet. She closes the door and pushes Kyle against the wall with her body, my body. I need to find a way to gain control.

Then Saturn kisses him, deep. I didn’t even kiss my ex-boyfriend like that when we were together. Regardless, this isn’t fair, it’s not me. I use my hands that are against the wall to push my body away, saying, “It’s not me.” I stand there, looking at Kyle and then realizing that it is me. When did Saturn retract back into my mind?

“What are you talking about?” he slowly says.

“Well I wasn’t expecting that.”

My head beings to throb, “What the hell just happened?”

“I’m sorry,” Saturn says, looking at Kyle. “Anya is going through an identity crisis.” She reaches back into the Void and pulls out a small dagger.

“Saturn.”

“You remembered, how nice.” She then thrusts the dagger into Kyle’s side.

My hands begin to light up, a bright blue this time. I need to control myself and help Kyle but causing this room to light up isn’t the way. I force back the spell.

Kyle slides to the floor, holding his side.

“Come on, we’ve sparred worse than this.”

I bend down and take out a potion and hand it to Kyle.

“How are you doing that? You shouldn’t be able to switch that fast”

“Drink.” I tell him

“Please, you think a stab wound would bring me down?”

“No, but you’re the one that dropped to the floor.”

“I wasn’t going to fight you,” Kyle tells me.

“Please, like I can’t handle you. Would you drink the potion already?”

Kyle finally drinks the potion, “I didn’t need it.”

I stand, “What now?” I help Kyle up from the floor.

“I know you told me about a voice in your head but when did it start taking control?”

I look down to the ground, “Yesterday. I—she killed Robby.” Kyle then places his hands on my arms but I push him away. “I need to stay away from you guys. I can’t risk something like this from happening again. What if she killed you? And yesterday, I could have killed Taryn.” I turn around, unable to look at Kyle anymore. “Oh and then there’s a small piece of the Void behind me where I can pull objects out of.” I can feel warm tears starting to swell up. “How are we supposed to stop her?”

“You can’t.”

“I don’t know,” Kyle slowly says. He tries to reach for me again.

I spin around, “Don’t. Until we find a way to at least suppress her, I need to keep my distance.” I turn back around and teleport away. I don’t care where I end up; I just need to be alone.

After changing into a clean shirt, Kyle returns to the group to tell them what’s going on and what needs to happen. Sighing, he finally says, “We need to talk, all of us.”

“What’s going on?” Celestria asks, puzzled.

“I’ll explain once everyone is here, even Josh.”

“This sounds serious, what happened?” Tom wonders, putting a box filled with books on the floor.

Thirty minutes later, Kyle, Celestria, Taryn, Tom, Zar-Q, Miles, and Josh are all in a fairly large room with nice sized wooden round table in the middle. It was Tom’s suggestion to make a meeting room similar to that of The Knights of The Round.

“Not to be pushy, but I’ve got like twenty minutes before I have to get back,” Josh replies. “Working undercover like this feels like I’m working two jobs.”

Before Kyle can speak, Celestria says, “Is this about who I think it is and are you sure?”

Kyle sighs and nods. He didn’t want to admit what is going on with me, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have a choice. “In our past life, Anya was taken over by a powerful entity from another plane of existence. We’ve recently learned that this same entity lives within Anya of today.” It feels safer for Kyle to say ‘we’ instead of ‘I’. There would be too many questions, he assumes. “We’re not sure if the entity is intertwined with Anya’s soul or not but that’s the least of our problems right now. The issue is if Anya feels a strong negative emotion, she becomes dormant and the entity called Saturn takes over. Taryn has already seen what Saturn will do but we’re unclear of her intentions. In the past life, she only wanted chaos. What we need to do is to find a way to pull Saturn out of Anya. We also need to make sure that she stays calm and away from darker emotions.”

“Makes sense that Ozma would target you guys,” Josh says, standing. “I’ll see if the mages at New Vane have any information on how to ward off sprits and entities. I’ll also see if Ozma has discover any methods of extraction but I’ll bet her means will be more extreme. If this entity is as powerful as you’ve implied, then I’m pretty sure that’s what Ozma is after.”

“What we all need to remember,” Celestria speaks up, “is that Anya will need our support and we can’t treat her any differently than before but we need to be careful and watchful.”

Taryn, who looks sadden by then announcement says, “Did I trigger this?”

“No, this was bound to happen sooner or later so don’t think that you’re to blame,” Kyle answers.

“Ummm,” Miles quietly says. “I’ve known Jen my whole life and if something is bothering her, she’ll hide away.”

“I need to get back,” Josh nods to Zar-Q and he tosses a bottle to Josh. “I’ll find out what I can.”

Josh heads back to Zerron via a portal that will take him to another planet before making his way to the Portal Corporation. Josh makes sure that he never takes a direct route to and from Crystaltina.

Kyle replies to Miles with, “We just need to make sure that Anya knows that she doesn’t have to face this alone.”

“And don’t piss her off,” Tom adds. “Seriously though, I’ll ask the local mages about spirit extraction as well. I’m sure that I can also get a few stories from the regulars at the pub that might help us out.”

“Actually, you don’t want to piss her off,” Kyle cautiously says. “Well, that’s about it. I just wanted everyone here to know what’s going on so we’re all on the same page.”

After everyone went on their way or back to moving the stuff from the catacombs to the main castle, Celestria pulls Kyle to the side to have a quick chat with him.

“Why now?” Celestria asks.

“Anya told me about a voice that she kept hearing in her head. I think with the death of her friend, something triggered allowing Saturn to have to ability to take over her body.”

“Do you think we can stop her this time around?”

Kyle takes a moment before answering, “With what we know I think we can find a way to save her.”

link

____________________

Chapter Eighteen – Tranquility (Monday, January 23, 1995)

“You seem distant, is everything alright?”

I look up from my bowl of cereal to look at my uncle. Why I am bothering with school anymore is beyond me. I don’t even know why I came back here to my uncle’s house. “Yea, I’m fine,” I mutter.

“They haven’t found your friend yet, have they?”

His words burn since there is no way that the police will find any trace of Teresa. Should I even say something to her parents? What could I say? Oh, by the way, your daughter was blasted out of existence by a crazed guy with super powers.

“You don’t have to go to school if you don’t want to,” Raven suggests.

“I’m fine.”

After a wordless drive in the car, dressed in blue jeans and a black shirt, I make my way to my locker to unfortunately start my school day. I had the chance to stay home and I declined it. I shouldn’t be here. Heck, I shouldn’t even be on this planet anymore.

As a close and lock my locker, I see Ty from the corner of my eye, standing next to me. With my hand still on my locker and looking straight at it, I wait for him to speak first.

“You killed my friend,” Ty says.

“He killed mine.”

“And taking his life justifies that?”

I look over at him, glaring, unable to think of anything to say. He was right after all. Finally I ask him, “Whose side are you on?”

“My own but I do know that you must be contained.”

I turn to face Ty, unknowing and uncaring of what he is capable of. I’ve never had any issues with Ty but being nice to me could have been an act all along. I don’t know who to trust any more.

He then smiles and closes his eyes. Suddenly I can feel a wave of pure happiness and tranquility within. I look around and the twenty students that are in the same hallway as I am, they seem to look happy and content as well.

I giggle aloud and look back at Ty, “What did you do?”

“It’s a tranquil status effect. Unfortunately it is not permanent but it’s a solution to keeping the demon at bay.”

Laughing I reply, “Are you going to follow me around and zap me every time it wears off?”

“If I have to.”

Normally that would annoy me; however I can’t seem to produce any negative reaction. “Ha, good luck with that.”

“I can’t allow yo-” Ty is cut off as the double doors open and Kyle and Taryn walk into the hallway.

I skip over and say, “He’s one of us. Well, not sure if he’s on our side but he has powers. He zapped me with some sort of happy spell.”

Taryn and Kyle exchange awkward glances before looking over at Ty. I lean on the lockers, with a giant smile on my face. It’s nice to see other students walking past in such a great mood as well, even if it is artificial. I wonder if I would be thinking the same thing if I wasn’t under this spell. I shrug it off.

“What did you do to her?” Kyle questions, walking over to Ty.

Taryn walks up to me and I say, “You have the brightest green hair! Like, ever!” I poke the top of her head. “And you’re so short!”

“Who is this person?” Taryn calls out over her shoulder.

“I simply cast a tranquility spell,” Ty answers; raising his hands to signal that he doesn’t mean any harm.

Kyle looks around and notices that others are affected as well, “And you just had to cast it on everyone in the hallway?”

“It’s a range spell, had no choice. These students will be alright in a day or so.”

“You’re not casting this spell on Anya ever again.”

“We can’t have that demon set free in this world. If this spell can suppress it, then I have no choice,” Ty replies.

“Neat, I get to be like this for a whole day?” I gasp and giggle aloud.

“It’s not fair to Anya to have her act like this,” pleas Taryn. “You can’t possibly think this is the solution.”

“Do you want to tell the parents that she killed their son or daughter because it wasn’t fair to her? Ever since I was eleven I was told the tales of that demon and what she can do,” Ty says. “You’re lucky that the order to kill the host hasn’t been made yet.”

I look from side to side and then I perform a standing back flip, “Oh my god, did you see that?”

The bell rings.

“We will find another way,” Kyle says coldly. “Just stay away from her and we will handle this.”

I skip towards my math class as I hear Taryn behind me, “She can’t go to class like that!”

I spin around on my heel and say with a smile, “Oh course I can! It’s not like I’m not in control or anything.” I pause and there is an awkward silence after that sentence. I shrug it off and I spin back around and wave, “I’ll see you in photo.”

I bump into Jacob in PE, who was in the hallway when Ty casted the spell. Just like me, he’s in a terrific mood. Even walking around the track isn’t getting us down. I even handled math class with a smile, paying more attention than I think I have all year.

“Hey,” he says. “Can you believe this great weather?”

“I know right, I’m happy that we’re outside,” I answer, taking in a deep breath of air. My high school isn’t too far from the beach and I can smell a hint of the ocean.

“You know, I haven’t been this happy in years, I don’t know what’s come over me. I want to be mad and upset but I just can’t. Is there something wrong with me?” Jacob laughs. “I don’t even know why I’m laughing.”

It seems that he wants to be hysterical about what is happening to him emotionally, but he just can’t. I’ve pretty much embraced it and I’ll deal with Ty later but I haven’t really thought about the other students and neither did Ty.

“I feel the same way, maybe it’s just something in the air,” I tell him.

“I think it’s a government conspiracy.”

“I don’t…”

“I don’t know if I can take this. I know these are not my feelings but I can’t stop myself from being happy.”

“Listen,” I say “Meet me at lunch back here. I have a friend that might be able to help both of us.”

Laughing, the blond replies, “We don’t even talk that much and you want to help me?”

“Yup, just meet me back here at lunch.”

In photography, I can feel Kyle’s eyes on me even in the light red glow of the darkroom, “I’m fine, silly.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“Stop being so negative, it’s not like I don’t know what’s going on,” I tell him. “Maybe this is for the best, for everyone.”

“It’s not that simple,” Kyle says, moving closer to me so the other students can’t hear, “You don’t really think that she can be suppressed by a status effect spell?”

I shrug, “She feeds on negative feelings and desires, right, well this spell negates those, which means she doesn’t have any fuel.”

“What are you two talking about?” asks Dawn, a strawberry blond junior with black rum glasses.

“Just this RPG game I picked up the other day,” I lie.

“Really? I didn’t know you played,” she bursts out.

“Oh, you have no idea,” I grab her arm and we make our way to her station, giving me the chance to get away from Kyle.

Kyle shakes his head in defeat.

As lunch begins, I try my hardest to find Ty. There has to be a way for him to undo this. Unfortunately, most of the seniors leave campus for lunch and part of me thinks that Ty has done the same. I then start to feel a pair of eyes on me. Grinning, I turn to see the guy that I am looking for. I grab his hand as I try to pull him towards the track. “You need to help this sophomore out, I think he’s going to crack because of what you did to him,” I say as we make our way through the outside hallways.

“I can’t undo it. The spell wears off after 24 hours, give or take,” Ty says.

“You have to do something, this kid is freaking out,” I laugh. I don’t want to laugh, but I can’t help it. It does feel great not hearing Saturn’s voice and feeling much better than I did this morning. “Listen, maybe you can use that spell on me when other people are not around? That way other people won’t be effected by it.”

“You’re willing?”

“I don’t want—what the heck is he doing up there?”

Before reaching the gym and track, we have to past the cafeteria. There are several benches outside for those who don’t like to eat inside. On the top of the off white building, is Jacob.

“You see, this is what I meant. You can’t use your powers on normal humans. Is this what Ozma teaches you guys over there?” Giggly, I turn around to leave.

“Wait, shouldn’t we do something?”

“Already being taken care of,” I spin back around. “I just hope Jacob will be alright after this. Maybe you should think before using your powers on someone. I might be high on happy spell, but at least I still have common sense.” I look up to see Kyle talking with Jacob and I assume that once he saw Jacob on the roof, Kyle flew from the back of the cafeteria to the top. I can only wonder what he’s telling Jacob but whatever it is, I hope it helps him. I turn back around as men in blue police uniforms show up. They begin to usher the onlookers away from the area as they try to reason with Jacob.

“But…” I can tell that Ty is concerned for Jacob and the repercussions of casting the range spell at school.

“Kyle will clean up your mess, don’t worry.”

Classes after lunch were a bit awkward as the majority of the students kept talking about Jacob and Kyle. Drama, the last class of the day and one of two that I share with Kyle is nothing but dull as the majority of the class sits around on the stage. We’re supposed to be going over our monologues for the end of the week but everyone wants to talk to Kyle.

“You’re so brave to go up there like that,” Mary sighs, while twirling her blond curls.

“It’s not a big deal,” Kyle says.

I walk out of the light and sound booth, which is in the back of the auditorium to see the majority of the class on the stage, surrounding Kyle. I sit at the top of the row which is at an angle since our seats are stadium style. I just wish movie theatres would take a hint and make their seats this way. Tim, who is the main tech for all of our shows, walks out of the booth. He’s been showing me how to work the lights since I asked him about it a few weeks ago. Since I’ve been in this class, I’ve mostly worked backstage.

“What do you think happened?” Tim asks.

“No idea,” I say, stretching out my legs and reaching for my toes.

“Jacob lost his brother a few months ago; I’m not surprised that he finally cracked.”

“That’s awful,” I say, holding back a smile. That explains why Jacob was questioning is state of happiness.

“Yea,” he says, returning back into the booth. He then flicks the brights on the stage and the students all scream up at him.

I decide to lie down sideways, tucking my legs in, I roll down towards the stage. I stop at the first row of seats and giggle a loud. I then stand and reach for my bag, grabbing a book of monologues from it. I tuck the book under my arm, with my backpack over my right shoulder; I skip towards the backstage area. With everyone adoring Kyle, there isn’t anyone lurking backstage which gives me the chance to teleport to Crystaltina.

I end up right in front of Celestria, of all the luck, who says, “School isn’t over yet.”

“Kyle saved a student from the roof because Ty casted a happy spell in the hallway on me to suppress Saturn,” I laugh. “It’s a range spell so it affected some of the students as well. I told him that he needs to be more reasonable next time.”

“But—”

“So everyone is surrounding Kyle in class and nothing is going on, I came here. I didn’t even have a destination in mind, so I guess that’s why I ended up in front of you. I’m going to have Ty cast that spell on me every day until you guys find a better way. Don’t tell Kyle or Taryn, they don’t agree.” I suddenly cover my mouth, realizing that Celestria would most likely disagree as well. “Don’t give me that look.” I touch the tip of Celestria’s nose with my finger and laugh. “It’s the only solution we got, right?”

“And how do you feel about this?” she crosses her arms.

“Absolutely terrific!”

“Is that you talking or the spell?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it does.”

“If it means no one gets hurt, yes. I’ve read the books, Saturn won’t just go away and we need to stop her,” I say, as I start to get a headache. “I’m not going to let her control me like some puppet. She’s enjoying torturing me and that pisses me off.” I stop as my head bangs like a loud drum in my head. A wave of nausea hits and I reach for the wall for support.

“You need to be scanned,” Celestria says.

“Huh?”

“Zar-Q got one of his projects running,” she says, waving her hand in front of me. “Better?”

“A little, thanks,” I say, grateful for the spell. “No lecture about having a spell casted on me daily, then?” I add, rubbing the back of my neck.”

“Just follow me,” Celestria says, walking down the hallway towards Zar-Q’s lair. I mean I don’t know what else to call it. His area is like a mad scientists dream from twenty years into Earth’s future and maybe then some.

“Wow, this place is amazing!”

There are computers everywhere and main one in the middle with an over sized screen.

“Well, I won’t be touching anything in this place. Did you get everything working?” I ask.

“Don’t,” Celestria shakes her head. “He has so many projects and programs running, I’, surprised that he gets one thing done at this rate.”

“Have faith, I know what I’m doing,” Zar-Q grins, turning around in his chair.

“Can you scan Anya, please?”

“Of course! I need to get everyone’s data and vitals for the database,” Zar-Q happily stands, with a small device in his blue hands, he walks up to me.

A small wave of fear passes over me, what’s Zar-Q up…wait, fear? I think Ty’s spell wore off when I was feeling sick to my stomach. That side effect sucks.

“Okay, stand still,” he says, as a green light flickers on and scans my body. “All done, he walks back to the main computer and plugs the device into it. “Miles wanted this set up like a video game so it would be easier for everyone to understand. I don’t quite understand that logic but went with it anyone since it’s pretty neat. Take a look at the screen.”

I look up to see an RPG-like status card, “Are you serious?”

“Cool, huh?”

Celestria rolls her eyes.

“Heck yea!” I exclaim.

The computer screen reads:

· Name: Anya Paige Crystaltina (second incarnation)

· Age: 15 (Dec 22)

· Class: Fighter

· Element: Fire, void magic (time/space)

· Weakness: Cold, status effects (poison, mind control, slow, others unknown)

· Level: 3

· HP: 254

· MP: 145

“The last part was strongly Miles’ idea, but it’s pretty much means your vitals,” Zar-Q informs me.

“Neat.”

“Wait…,” I pause.

“Do you need a second to figure it out?” Celestria asks.

“Huh, am I missing something?”

“Wait for it…”

“Why am I only level three?”

Celestria face palms and laughs a little, “Your weakness. You can’t have Ty use that spell on you.”

“What spell?” Zar-Q asks.

“It’s some sort or tranquility spell that makes Anya happy and content even if she really isn’t.”

“Well, it was a good idea,” I mutter. “So! What about you guys?”

“I haven’t had a chance to scan anyone but the three of us but I’m glad that it’s working. It should auto update at key points.”

I tap my foot and wait for Z to show me his and Celestria’s results, “Well?”

“The database will be available for anyone of us to view but a password will be required. This is just for security reasons so I know who is looking at what,” Zar-Q says. “I’m sure that we’re all on the same team, but this is just a precaution.”

“So…?”

Zar-Q grins and puts up the stats for himself and Celestria:

· Name: Zarnel Quentin Trell (first incarnation)

· Age: 20 (Feb 15)

· Class: Tech

· Element: None

· Weakness: Unknown

· Level: 4

· HP: 142

· MP: N/A

“Wait, how are you a higher level than me?” I ask.

“I’m older?”

“You have no idea, do you?” I laugh.

“Still working on the code,” he shrugs.

· Name: Celestria Ferris (second incarnation)

· Age: 21 (July 15)

· Class: Healer

· Element: Light

· Weakness: Unknown

· Level: 4

· HP: 100

· MP: 153

“Neat. Well, I better head on out,” I say, turning to leave by Zar-Q stops me.

“Here,” he tosses me the scanner. “I have two of them. This way we can get everyone added faster.”

Celestria follows me out of the room. As we walk down the hallway she tells me that I don’t need to do this on my own and that I have friends that are more than willing to help me out. I knew I would get a lecture today, but I didn’t think it would be about this. I assumed it would be about Ty and even though it might be a weakness of mine, I still want him to use that spell on me. Alone or not, I know there will be moments where I won’t be able to control Saturn. This is a temporary solution, I know but at least it’s something.

link

____________________

Chapter Nineteen – Just An Unfair Battle (Tuesday, January 24, 1995)

The alarm clock rings, causing Ty to open his eyes. He turns over to turn off the buzzing sound and then crawls out of bed. He stretches and makes his way to the bathroom, only wearing blue boxers, to get ready for school.

His orders are clear, watch what I do and report any odd activity to Ozma. He isn’t supposed to engage, attack or help. Despite the warnings, ever since he was a child, he knew the story of the demon that will destroy everything, leaving only darkness and he knows that he must do something to contain it. He wasn’t supposed to use his powers yesterday but he did anyway. It’s unclear if any other of Ozma’s operatives saw him or not but as of right now, he’s in the clear.

Everyone who works for Ozma has every right to fear her. Granted, she is just one woman, but she has the power to control one’s mind, even to break it. Add in the genius mind of Doctor Russell Anzak and you have a powerhouse.

These thoughts tend to run through Ty’s mind often, especially while in the shower and today these thoughts are no different. After getting dressed, he makes his way downstairs to make himself breakfast. At least Ozma and company gave him a nice place to stay at while on his mission. It’s a two story townhome that is small and cozy. The only thing that is missing is a view of the beach.

Ty spent his childhood in Jamaica with his parents and two sisters before the robots came for him. When Ozma spoke of a power entity he knew it had something to do with the stories his mother read to him as a child. He knew that they were more than stories but a warning to those who were willing to look past mere words.

As Ty steps into the kitchen, I greet him with, “Ready to be zapped by that spell of yours.”

“How did you get in here?”

“I can teleport. It’s what I do,” I shrug. “Oh and you’re out of orange juice.”I then reach behind me to take hold of the scanner that Zar-Q gave me yesterday. I point it at Ty and let the tech do its thing.

· Name: Ty Williams (first incarnation)

· Age: 20 (Aug 25)

· Class: Shaman

· Element: none

· Weakness: Dark magic

· Level: 6

· HP: 175

· MP: 155

“Hmmm, we really need to add alignment to the list; it would make it easier to figure out who’s good and who isn’t.”

“What is that?”

“Shows your stats but it’s only in beta right now. So, how about that spell so I can get going?” I persist. Without hesitation, Ty casts the tranquil spell on me and instantly I feel fantastic. “Great! I’ll see you at school.” I then teleport back to my room so Raven can take me to school without even knowing that I was gone for twenty minutes.

I make way to the living room where I see Taryn sitting down, waiting for me, “I told your uncle that you didn’t need a ride this morning, I hope that’s okay.”

“Sure,” I grin. I wasn’t expecting this. “Oh, hey, Z gave me this scanner and told me to zap everyone that I come across so he can add us to the database.”

· Name: Taryn Reed (first incarnation)

· Age: 13 (March 5)

· Class: Fighter

· Element: Ice

· Weakness: Fire

· Level: 1

· HP: 168

· MP: 95

“What does it say?” she asks.

I toss the scanner over so Taryn can read the small text that shows up on the miniature green screen “You can check it out on Z’s computer too. The text is way too small to read on that thing. So, did Celestria send you to check up on me?” I laugh. “I’m fine, you know, I got the lecture yesterday.”

Taryn hands me the scanner after standing, “No, I wanted to see how you were doing after…”

“I’m fine, really,” I smile. Very hard for me to hide that I had Ty cast that spell on me mere minutes ago.

“Okay,” she says, taking a potion out and gently tossing it onto the wall. She makes her way through the portal and my gut tells me that something is off. Taryn isn’t wearing a dress. Taryn always wears a dress. Instead, she’s wearing khaki pants and a flowered pink top. Why isn’t she wearing a dress? I shrug it off as if it’s nothing and skip towards the open portal. It’s so nice of Taryn to stop by to check up on me and head to school together. We really haven’t hung out since we’ve first met save for my math lessons and a few trips to the movies. For the most part, Taryn and Kyle have been training together since Kyle has proclaimed himself the trainer of the group.

I walk through the portal as I normally do (unless I am teleporting without a potion) and before I can check my surroundings or utter a word, a blast of cold air warps around me, causing me to lose my breath. Unable to speak, I search the area and soon release that I’m not at school. I can see Taryn, several feet in front of me, ice circling around her body.

“I’m sorry, but this wasn’t my idea,” she finally speaks. “Celestria and Kyle didn’t believe you when you said that you wouldn’t go back to Ty. They knew you wouldn’t meet him at school so you would have to go early. They told me this would be a lesson for you.”

The air around me starts to warm up and allows me to speak, “Are you freaking serious? How is this…and you agreed…?”

“I’m sorry.”

Celestria said that Taryn and I couldn’t fight each other because of our elements. Even though Taryn is a weaker fighter than I am, my weakness is cold. Celestria mentioned that if we ever did fight each other, the person who shoots off the first spell will have the advantage. Well, we’ll just see about that.

Laughing, I can feel the ice loosen around my arms and pushing against it, I break free, causing shards of ice to scatter in all directions.

Taryn immediately summons the ice that has been spinning around her body towards me, such an open and obvious attack; I have to wonder if Kyle is really teaching Taryn anything. If you want to attack someone, you need to be faster and unpredictable. How can Celestria and Kyle think that I can’t fight while under the influence of Ty’s spell? The only thing it does is makes me happy and content and then a nasty headache once it wears off.

The ice turns into icicles as they get closer to me. Taryn’s first spell wears off and I’m finally able to speak again. “I don’t see how this is a fair fight. I’m clearly faster than you and you’re weak to fire. All I have to do is teleport to a safer location and shoot a fire ball at your head. But oh my God you are too cute to attack! Maybe for Halloween this year you could dress up as an Elf. I’m just saying,” shrugging, I laugh at the thought.

I then feel a sharp pain in my chest; then on my right side, just under my armpit, another on my left and finally in the middle of my back. I look down to see a medium sized icicle sticking out off my chest, sides and back. The pain of my skin being torn open by an ice spell is great. I start to feel cold throughout my body as my head begins to throb. I know that I need to attack Taryn to stop her from attacking me, but I just can’t. My thoughts are conflicting at the moment and the only thing my mind wants to do is to find a simple and polite solution to the situation. When I try to counter that thought, my head bangs in pain. Combined that pain with the icicles piercing my body, it’s enough to make me fall to my knees. I need to focus and as I try to do so, another blast of cold hits me in the forehead, thanks to a snowball spell, I assume. I don’t have the energy nor will to look up at Taryn. All I know is that I need to get out of this situation. Why won’t my mind allow me to defend myself? Ty’s spell: it makes me content in any situation. Even though I’m being attack, my body and mind is content with this? This isn’t helpful at all and now I’m doing monologue to myself again. The icicles push deeper into my skin as my thoughts trail off again. My hands sink into the ground as I deal with the pain, wanting so much to cast myself on fire to warm my body. I look at my hands, sinking deeper into the ground and my mind wanders yet again, this time to the book that I read not long ago about my past life. She was able to produce an earth spell, could I do the same? I dig my hands deeper into the ground as Taryn now continuously throws ice and snow spells at my body.

“Do you think I should tell Taryn to stop?” Celestria asks Kyle from a safe distance.

Kyle hesitates before answering. It’s clear that he would like to call off Taryn, but doesn’t. “Not yet, Anya needs to learn that Ty’s spell isn’t the answer.”

Within the dirt, I start to see a glow. Despite my mind not wanting to do anything, I push the spell, underground and towards Taryn, in hopes to knock her off her feet. Taryn notices something heading towards her and panics. She then produces a large icicle, at least three feet long, and throws it towards me like a javelin. Taryn is unable to dodge the spell in time as the Earth under her feet opens up as fire shoots up, engulfing her. Celestria quickly stands and begins casting healing spells on Taryn.

Earlier that morning, Celestria gave Taryn a bottle to drink that would protect her from fire based spells but to be safe, Celestria is now casting several healing spells on her.

“We should have asked Miles to help us,” Celestria says.

“You doubt your healing ability?” Kyle asks, shocked.

“Not at all but I would like to have the extra protection for Taryn.”

Thankful that my attack reached Taryn, I sigh with relief, however forgetting about the giant icicle heading right towards me. Before I have the chance to stand or to even look up, the icicle slams into the top of my right shoulder. I scream out in pain as I fall on my back, forgetting about the icicle back there. It shatters into several pieces, into my skin. I feel weak and my body refuses to move. I’m unsure if this is the spell or the fact that my body feels extremely cold right now. However I feel content here as I close my eyes.

I slowly reopen my eyes, thinking that it’s only been a few minutes. I try to stand, but can’t. I can’t even move my head as everything feels like lead.

Taryn is the first to stand. She is a little shaken but otherwise alright thanks to Celestria's heals.

"I think that's it. I don’t think we should push Taryn any further," Celestria says, who begins making her way towards the ice magic user.

"I hope you're right," Kyle remarks, more to himself than to Celestria. He hovers off of the ground and files over to my location.

Here I am, still on the ground trying to figure out why I can’t move. The only things that i can do are blink and breathe and even breathing seems to be hard to accomplish right now. I try to at least sit up but there is a sharp pain pressing its way into my brain and then nothing.

My mind searches for something, anything within the darkness. However this darkness is different than before. I don’t feel empty nor do I feel the presence of Saturn. I should be grateful but I’m not, I’m worried. My best assumption is that Ty's spell has worn off but that takes at least eight hours for me to wear off. How long has it been?

I slowly open my eyes and they can see a grey ceiling made out of stone. I try to move my body but it refuses as my head and eyes throb.

I then see Kyle, who is upside down, looking down at me. "Your body has locked up in an almost petrified state. I hope you understand why you can't have Ty use that spell on you. What if it wasn't Taryn who attacked you?"

Great, now I get to have a lecture from Kyle. I bet this was all his idea. I would reply back, if I could speak that is.

"Is she awake?" I can hear Celestria say.

"Yea," Kyle says over his shoulder. "She's still petrified though. Any idea how to dispel it?"

"All I can do is heal her, which isn’t what she needs right now. Hopefully it will wear off soon."

Are they serious? They don’t know how to fix this? With those fancy computers and magic, they can’t figure it out? Or is this another ploy for them to make me realize that using Ty's magic is wrong?

"Have you learned your lesson, at least?" he asks. I can tell that he's genuinely worried.

Lesson learned: use Ty's spell, get ambushed equals not good. However there has to be a way to get out of said situation. Even if I’m not under Ty's tranquil spell, what happens when an enemy uses a spell that I am weak against and there is no one around to help me? I can't simply reach back and summon a potion if I can't move. Wait, what if I can use fire to heal myself? I close my eyes and scan my memories and mind of any indication that this could be possible.

"I think she passed out again," I can hear Kyle say.

My left pinky finger twitches as I can feel something deep within trying to push itself forward. I can feel a warm flame building in my chest. I try to push it outward in order to heal myself. Suddenly my eyes open and I lift my left arm up. My eyes move to see it in flames.

"And why is her arm on fire?" Celestria asks who walked over while my eyes were closed.

I focus on the flames that have engulfed my arm and I try to move them to cover my entire body.

I can feel a warm energy building within my chest, then instantly my entire body is engulfed in red and green flames. I focus, trying to not light the couch on fire as well.

With my left hand I grab a hold of Kyle's shirt and I pull him close to my face and say, "Next time, you face me instead of using Taryn." I release Kyle's shirt as the flames slowly fade away.

"Next time you should listen to us," I can hear Kyle mutter as he walks towards the door.

Rolling my eyes and taking a deep breath in, I teleport to the doorway.

"Not in here," Celestria says.

My arms and fists light up with fire.

"I'm not healing the both of you."

Kyle pulls back his arm and as soon as he shoots a ball of electricity I fire off two fire balls from my fists. Unfortunately the fire balls connect to a shield and not Kyle. I look to my right to see Miles, who has used his bubble shield on me. As for Kyle's attack, it gets absorbed by the bubble.

"I'm happy that you're finally awake. Are you feeling better?" Miles asks who makes his way towards me.

"Better thanks. How long have I been out?" I ask.

"Twelve hours," Kyle says without emotion.

"Miles," I turn to face him. "You can let me out of this bubble, I’m fine."

"Outside," Celestria repeats.

Kyle slips pass me and makes his way down the hallway.

"I think I need to get started on that virtual training room," Miles slowly says, still unsure if he should drop the shield.

Kyle stops walking and turns around, "It’s okay Miles, we don’t need the shield up."

"Am I not here?" Celestria sighs, defeated.

Miles walks into the room and wonders what he’s just walked into. Without notice, the shield on me drops.

I pat Miles on the top of his head, “Don’t worry, everything is okay.” I then walk out into the hallway, feeling Celestria’s eyes on my back as I leave the room.

The instant I step into the hallway I am hit with a ball of electricity. I sigh deeply and shrug it off. “Really?”

“Yep.”

“Why didn’t you come at me before instead of using Taryn?” I take a few steps towards Kyle before stopping.

“Wanted to use your weakness against you. Since you didn’t want to listen to us, we didn’t have much of a choice.” His fists light up once again. If it’s a fight he wants, then so be it.

My entire body lights up with a blue and white fire and for a second time, I fire off two fire balls from each of my fists towards Kyle. This time around the spell moves quicker and connects with its target. I then fire off two more fire spells which causes Kyle to lose his footing and he goes crashing through the wall of the castle.

I just know that Celestria is cursing up a storm right now.

I break into a run, jumping over the debris that is now on the ground. However, with all the smoke from my own spell and the destroyed wall, it is hard to see. A closeline to my gut surprises me as my fire shield drops. I turn around to see a fist infused with lightening coming right for my face. I duck and uppercut with a fire infused fist of my own.

Kyle falls on his back and I’m half certain we’re finished with our little fight but I should know better.

A bolt of lightning strikes from above, connecting with my right shoulder. Then another. The sky seems to be raining lightning down on me. I teleport in and out to avoid the strikes but some do make their mark.

"I'm done," Kyle says, standing.

"Huh?"

He starts to walk back towards the newly made hole and adds, "You're supposed to be the leader, and we need you to be ready for anything."

I slowly take out the scanner and with his back towards me; it’s the best time to see Kyle's information.

As I scan him, I think on what he just told me. All this time i thought he and Celestria were the leaders, since they seem to know more than me.

I look down at the scanner and I’m shocked, to say the least.

· Name: Kyle Roberts (unknown incarnation)

· Birthday: 15 (July 15)

· Class: Fighter Mage

· Element: Electricity, power (energy)

· Weakness: unknown

· Level: 12

· HP: 614

· MP: 384

Has he been holding back the entire time? Kyle did tell me that he's been running from Ozma since he was young. If he's more powerful than any of us, why am I supposed to be the leader? And how isn’t the scanner not picking up on other stuff about him? I know this device is still in beta but it still strikes me as odd.

“Wait,” I call out, before I can stop myself.

He stops but doesn’t turn around.

“I get your point, no more happy spell from Ty but why me? You’ve seen firsthand that I can switch over to Saturn. I don’t think that qualifies me as the leader. Plus you and Cel know a heck of a lot more than I do.”

“Because you’re stronger than you were in the past and you have people who care about you that can help you along the way. There’s always a way out.”

“I’m sorry.”

This makes Kyle finally turn around.

I look to the right and then to the ground, “I’ve been an idiot lately. I’m an only child whose only friend was a babysitting charge. I don’t do well around others, especially when they’re trying to help me. I wanted to try to fix this problem on my own, for all of you.” I can feel my cheeks going red. I hate having to admit that I’m wrong. “If I plan on doing something stupid, I’ll let you guys know first.”

link

____________________

Chapter Twenty: Mind Tricks (Monday, April 3, 1995)

Almost three months and I have been Saturn free. I don’t know if it was because of Ty’s spell with the combination of Taryn’s ice attacks and frankly, I don’t care. I’ve actually been having a good time and getting out more.


I’ve been writing to my dad but I find myself unable to write much. I’ve also been getting along with my uncle more and I’m trying to be less standoffish with him. After all, he did take me in when my dad got that promotion.

Miles and Zar-Q have been working on the computer system at the castle and have found around thirty people with the extra DNA thread that enables magic. Z has told us that there could be thousands living on Earth alone, if not more.

As a side project, Miles has been working on a virtual training room for us, calling it the VTR. I blame video games for the name and comic books for the inspiration. Of course blowing holes into the castle is another motivation to get this room finished. He’s using computer code to generate a virtual space where we can train in an environment that looks and feels real, but isn’t. Z told Miles that he can get enhancement nodes to augment the reality of the training room. Miles hopes to have it working before Christmas.

With everything being nice and peaceful on Earth and Crystaltina, the same cannot be said for Zerron. For years, New Vane and the Universal Portal Company have been at odds. The tension between the magic school and portal company started to escalated the day that the portals randomly opened on Earth.

On this day, Josh, who needs a break from his undercover work, is on Crystaltina to tell us the latest news. We were supposed to meet everyone at the Pub today, but so far it has only been Josh and I.

After Josh tells me about the issues that the UPC is having with New Vane, I get an idea. Not only could I offer them to return to Crystaltina but perhaps they can help me with Saturn. At best, they could give us some insight on how to deal with such a powerful entity.

I take a sip from my mug as I stare off into the distance. Could this plan actually work, I wonder. "Can you get me into Vane?"

"And why would I do that?"

I look back to Josh, saying, "Because the mages there might be able to help me."

"You do remember that Ozma is after you and once you step foot on Zerron, she will know. Not to mention she might find out where you guys are hiding out."

"Not if I teleport to random places before reaching Zerron and just maybe there's a way that Z can mask me from Ozma."

Josh shakes his head, "No way. Zerron is the most advanced planet that I know of and there is no way that you can just appear there without being noticed."

"Listen to me, you will get caught and I can't have any part in this without blowing my own cover."

"Is Vane shielded?" I ask, smiling.

"Of course it is. They have mages around the clock keeping their defenses up. They're paranoid that the UPC will eventually try to unlock some of their oldest secrets and spells, so they keep their area tightly secure."

"But..."

"But? The only but I see is: but this is a failed mission. There is no way you can get into New Vane without Ozma not knowing. Frankly, I’m surprised that she hasn’t gone after you yet. You do know she has spies on you.”

“Tell me about it. Do you know how much of a pain it is to avoid them before teleporting here? It’s bad enough that my own clone is going to my school as my cousin. When she looks at me, it feels awkward and not in the good kind of awkward either.”

“How’s your training going along?” he asks.

“Pretty good.” I then remember that Josh not only can change into anyone he comes into contact with, but he can also control silver fire. “It would be nice to have someone who can use fire as well to teach me a few things. And you shouldn’t be trying to change the subject,” I joke, looking around for the others. “We did say three, right?”

“By whose time standards?”

“Look mister planet hopper, I’m going by eastern time. Let me get situated first before you start throwing all these crazy time zones at me, okay?”

He crosses his arms and laughs, “So we’re supposed to go by your standards, is that right?”

“We can get into Vane,” I try to get back onto the previous subject.

“No we can’t.” he laughs.

“I just—I don’t want to repeat myself, where is everyone?”

“Sorry, I’m late!” Taryn comes rushing into the Pub. “I had to help this sophomore at school.”

“Spring Break, Taryn, ever heard of it?”

“Can’t, he’s about to fail his class….”

“Oh, sorry, so anyway this is Josh, Josh, Taryn. He helped us escape Zerron,” I pause.

“What is it?” Taryn asks.

It was almost a year ago today that all of this happened. What would have happened if those portals never opened up on Earth. Would Ozma still be looking for me? Clearly I wouldn’t be sitting in a pub on another planet talking with people who have magical properties.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Stacie, the blond who works in the Pub and who’s dating Tom, walks up to our table. “Hey, I just got in and Tom wanted me to tell you that he’s running late. Something about calibrations with Miles and Zar-Q.”

“You know, if I would have said this was an emergency, they would have shown up on time. Excuse me for a minute.” I then disappear from my seat.

“What do you do?” Josh asks.

“Ice.”

Josh then shuffles his chair over, “You can stay over there.”

“I’m sorry…?”

“I can morph and shoot silver fire. Still not sure how those two are connected yet…”

“So you’re like Anya?”

“Sort of. Her main power is fire, while mine is only secondary.”

The two continue to talk as I walk the halls of the castle. I can’t find anyone in sight so I decide to check the main computer room.

Nothing.

“Are you serious?” I mutter.

Ten minutes of searching and I’ve pretty much given up. What puzzles me is that I can’t teleport to their location. It’s worked in the past when I ended up in front of Celestria, so why not now?

Then I hear it: a loud, thunderous roar that rings throughout the entire castle. I make a right and then a left, hopefully bringing me to the sound. Nothing stands in front of me; however I can feel a warm breath on the back of my neck. I slowly turn around to see a Hydra, standing at least ten feet tall. It's heads almost touching the top of the ceiling.

"Crap."

I teleport behind the four headed beast, reaching back, I pull out my double sided staff and slash its neck. As I land back onto the floor, the head falls, blood pouring out of its neck. I quickly look up, hoping for the best. Sadly, my deepest thought was correct as two more heads grow in its place.

"Double crap."

For the life of me, I cannot remember how to defeat a Hydra. It’s not like I’ve faced one before but there are stories of them and how heroes defeated them long ago. I wonder if the people who wrote those stories actually faced a Hydra. A lot of what is considered as fantasy is actually real or has happened before.

As one of its heads comes down for a bite, I teleport at least eight feet in the air right behind it, this time placing my weapon on my back, I attack it with several fire balls at all six heads.

Wait, doesn’t a Hydra start off with one head? Or was it two?

As soon as my feet touch the ground, I dig my hands into the floor and push them down until I can feel the planet.

Did someone else already fight this thing? Is that why I found it with four heads? Where is everyone?

Trying to hope for the best, I focus my energy on sending fire through the ground and up under the monster.

I then teleport behind it once again, bringing it into a state of confusion, as I attack it from the back and bottom.

I need to stop the heads from growing back somehow, but as my mind races to find an answer, none come as the Hydra’s six pairs of eyes stair straight at me. What if I cut its heart out? Certainly it would die without a beating heart, right?

I need to be fast. From what I remember, Hydras are poisonous if they bite you or claw at you, their poison can enter your blood.

I turn around and break into a run, trying to make enough space between myself and the Hydra in order to pull off what must be done. Feeling that the gap is large enough, I quickly turn around and I head straight for the Hydra. In order to avoid its attacks, I teleport in and out, making sure my timing is spot on.

I reach behind me and grab my weapon, holding it tightly, I close my eyes and run at top speed right before teleporting right under its belly and then inside of the beat, allowing me to cut its heart directly. This causes my blade to rip a hole in its back, allow for me to exit. I teleport again, behind the Hydra, and as I land on the ground, I can hear a loud thud.

I take in deep breaths as blood and guts drip from my body and hair. I smell atrocious, to the point that I’m about to gag. I turn around slowly to make sure the beast is in fact dead.

“What the---“ I utter as I notice the Hydra is gone. There is no blood on the ground; however I’m still drenched in it. Then I see Miles running from the left corridor.

“Je—Anya, did you…are you okay?!” Miles asks, then looking down the hallway, “I think the Hydra is gone!”

“Do you know how much work we put into making this castle and you guys keep trying to bring it down?”

“That’s what I keep telling them, but they fail to listen me.”

“I’m sorry, really, I am. I thought we had training room coded correctly.”

“Gone? I thought it never appeared.”

My double sided sword falls to the ground as I see Tom, Celestria, Zar-Q and Kyle walk around the corner. They stop as soon as they spot me.

“It was fake?!” I yell out.

"It was, in the sense. It can hurt or kill you but it is only a program compiled of code. Regrettably it went wrong and I am so sorry for that. I'll have it working properly in no time," Z grins nervously.

I turn to leave, saying over my shoulder, "I smell and you guys are late. I'll meet you in thirty at the pub." My weapon vanishes, back into the Void from where it came, no doubt. I then turn around to look at the group, saying, "You guys suck."

After a nice warm shower, I meet the group back at the pub. Miles is sitting across from me and he won't stop staring at me. Finally he says, "You killed a Hydra!"

"Uh, yep," I say awkwardly. I can still smell the monster on my skin. Fake or not, that thing was nasty.

"Listen," Josh says, his grey eyes looking at me, "I'm used to taking risks so whatever your plan is, I'm in."

"Plan?" I hear Celestria and Kyle both say.

"So," I start, "Josh goes to New Vane as a mage. Since there's dispel protocols, he'll be found out instantly. But all he has to do is tell them that I want to speak to them about our little situation. We can also offer them a place here, if they want."

"That's actually a good idea," Josh states. “I’m sorry I wasn’t with you at the start.”

"You want to go to the planet that is hunting you?" Tom asks, a bit confused.

"Vane doesn't want her, its only Ozma and the UPC," Josh explains. "They're tired of Ozma and any blow to her would benefit Vane."

"How can they help?" Taryn asks.

"They are the most powerful mages and sages on record," Celestria speaks up. "No one gets through their gates without permission. Some wait a lifetime to get in. They only teach the best and wealthy. And you two think you can just walk in? And without Ozma knowing?"

"Yep," I answer. "Once Josh is in, he will tell them to drop their defensives for a split second. In that time I can teleport in. It will be way too quick for Ozma to notice.”

"I'm coming with you," Kyle speaks up.

"That's not going to happen," Josh answers. "The more people that teleport to Zerron, the more suspicion we'll generate. Don’t worry, Anya will protect me while we’re there.”

I let out a small laugh before asking, “So when do you want to do this?”

“Now would be good.”

“Don’t you think the two of you are rushing into this?” Celestria worries.

“Nope,” we both answer.

“We can’t sit around and wait,” I say. “The sooner we try this, the better. And if it doesn’t work, we’ll find another way.”

“If this doesn’t work, how will you guys get out of Vane? It’s not as simple as teleporting in and out,” Kyle says.

Josh and I both exchange glances. There is a huge risk here but if we don’t take it, who knows what could have been. Trying to convince everyone at the table is pretty much an impossible task. Celestria is worried but is willing, Kyle is a bit paranoid on it not working, Tom’s been nodding his head the entire time while stealing glances to Stacie, Miles can’t get over the fact that I beat a Hydra and Taryn, well, I can’t figure out what she’s thinking about all of this.

I smirk as Josh says, “Leader says we do it, so we do it. Wish us luck!” With that, Josh stands and throws down a bottle that opens up a portal. Without waiting for anyone to protest, he’s gone. This leaves me with the awkward silence.

Taryn finally speaks, “Josh was telling me that he’s been in worse situations while undercover at the Portal Corporation. I’m sure this will all work out.”

“See, someone has some confidence in this mission,” I says, a bit exasperated. “Now if you excuse me, I need to get back to castle so I can concentrate.” And with that, I teleport myself to a nice quiet room within the castle walls where I should be able to focus on Josh’s location.

“I think they can do it,” Miles says. “She did kill a Hyrdra.”

Celestria shakes her head and looks at Kyle, “We should head back to the castle and prepare for the worse.”

I sit down and as I try to focus, something in the back of my mind keeps nagging at me. I curse aloud as I make my way to the entrance of the castle. I might as well have the others around me in case something does go wrong. This mission needs to go correctly from the get go or we’re out of luck. I walk outside and place myself down on the grass under a tree. The location is visible from the road so the others should be able to see me as they make their way up to the castle’s doors.

Josh watches as a group of mages make their way towards the gates of New Vane. Each person is covered by a dark robes with hoods as they walk in a single line.

Josh's heart starts to race. This is something he is used to doing. For years he's been pretending to be other people. Even as Ozma tried to break him, Josh made sure to never lose himself. With the help of Zar-Q, Josh maintained his sanity while he was a prisoner there.

Why is Josh now questioning himself now? Of course this is New Vane, where magic and those who can control it are at their strongest. He knows that as soon as he walks through their doors, he will be discovered.

Josh watches as the mages walk pass and finds the optimal time to sneak in. He changes his appearance as he focuses on one of the mages near the front of the line. He then slips to the back of the line, unnoticed, for now.

As he walks closer and closer to the entrance, Josh wonders if this was such a great idea. As the line of mages make their way into the structure, for a split second all Josh wants to do is turn away. However as soon as he enters New Vane and his cover is blown his confidence soars.

"Wait," he calls out, as the mages surround him. "I bring a request from the reincarnated princess of Crystaltina. She wishes to meet with the High Mages. She needs your help and would like to help New Vane in return," Josh says, trying to convince the mages in the lobby.

Straight ahead of him is a tall podium with one mage sitting at the top, his blue eyes seeming to go past Josh's surface. "Why did she send you?"

"Ozma wants her and the entity within. If she teleported to Zerron, she would be captured within seconds. She can be protected here. All you need to do is lower your defenses for a fraction of a second so she can teleport in."

"He speaks the truth," a female mage that was a part of the line speaks out. I've read his thoughts and most recent memories and he isn't trying to trick us."

"The Portal Corporation can track teleportation, they will know."

"Indeed, but she is a natural teleporter and will be shielded behind your spells and defenses."

"Natural teleportation no longer exists."

"You might want to upgrade your records then," Josh grins.

There is a long pause as all the mages look at Josh. He wasn't sure what they're thinking or if they're casting spells on him but he does know that this has to work."

"The entity is Saturn," the girl speaks. Silence again. Then finally, "I'm sending her an image of the lobby so the girl knows where to teleport to."

Kyle paces back and forth in front of me, "Anything?"

"Not yet and can you please stand still," I ask, eyes still closed. "I've never been there before...I need to try to picture the inside lobby instead of the outside."

As soon as my mind wants to day dream, I start to see something. The floor is made out of the shiniest marble of red, black and several shades of brown. There are tall dark brown pillars that reach the ceiling. In the back of this lobby is a large podium. It feels like someone is telling me where to go.

I then can feel myself being pulled within the Void towards New Vane. I know that I’m teleporting myself but someone is showing me the way so I don’t get lost. As I open my eyes, I can see several mages and Josh. I sigh with relief.

“The boy may leave,” a voice echoes behind me.

“Boy?” Josh says under his breath.

“Thank you,” I tell him, as they usher Josh out of the building.

Being alone with a bunch of powerful mages has me on edge but I know this need to be done. If they can’t help me, who can?

I turn around and walk towards the podium.

Before I can even speak, the man says, “You are here to rid yourself of the entity known as Saturn, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Why should we help you with this?”

Oh, I don’t know, maybe because a powerful being wants to kill for unknown reasons and is bent on destruction? However I wouldn’t dare say that aloud. Instead I say, “I offer a place for Vane on Crystaltina. We’ve heard that you and the UPC don’t actually get along, so we offer a peaceful place to house your school.”

Why should they listen to a fifteen year old girl? Maybe this wasn't such a fantastic idea. If they really wanted to, they could move at any time. I mean, who would want to stop several hundred mages from moving to a new location?

"Our concern is with the entity. Has she surfaced before?"

Better keep this simple, "Yes."

"Follow me," the mage says. He steps down from the podium and begins to walk down a long corridor. I quickly follow, unsure if I should say anything at all.

After what seems like an eternity, the mage finally speaks. It’s hard to pinpoint his age with his dark hood covering him. "I cannot tell you how long you will be here for or if you will live. This process has only been used a few times and no one has survived it."

"Okay," is all I can manage to say. I guess I should have said goodbye to the gang before I came here. I wasn't really thinking about my chances of survival when I was at the pub.

We end up in a small room and sitting on the ground are six mages in a circle. In the middle is a small pool of water, the brightest of blue.

"You must sit on top of the water and concentrate. Only you can push the entity back to its rightful plain of existence. You will fight yourself and Saturn. We are here to amplify your energy. If you fail, we must destroy you. If Saturn kills you within the mind, you will die. The only way that you will live, is if you can defeat it and yourself.”

"Right, so no pressure, got it," I stammer. "And thank you."

"We are not doing this for you but for the sake of everything. We have read and written scrolls about the return of Saturn, the destroyer of worlds and time itself. She must not fully return. It was wise of you to seek us out this early on."

I can feel a large lump forming in my throat. I know that Saturn is powerful and that Ozma wants that power, but I had no idea that even the most powerful mages are afraid of her.

“Please remove your shoes and sit on the water,” the mage says.

I do as he says. As I walk up to the water, I notice that it’s not just a puddle but a very deep miniature pool. I need to have faith that I won’t fall right in when I sit on top of it.

I can’t feel the wetness from the water; however I do feel a nice calming sensation coming over me as I sit. Sadly, the peaceful sensation does not last long. My eyes open to darkness and I have a sense of dread and terror deep within my chest. I feel like I’m dreaming but I know if I die here, I won’t wake up.

“I’m not the type for introductions, so if you don’t mind, I would like to get this over with quickly.”

I turn towards the voice and see nothing. I can feel death closer to me than ever before. More so than the time that I almost drowned when I was little or when Ozma was torturing me. This feeling is different and one that I cannot shake.

I scan the area for Saturn but all I can see is the darkness. I can’t even see my own hands. Am I really here physically or do I have to picture what I’m seeing, like in a dream? This is my mind, therefore my world and right now it is being invaded. This needs to be rectified.

I close my eyes, ignoring the feeling of death and I bypass the darkness. Taking a deep breath in, not caring if its air that I am breathing or just my mind creating an illusion of air, I picture myself. I open my eyes and just like a painting, my location develops around me. Green grass appears under my feet, followed by a bright blue sky. The sky takes hold of my hair as I turn around to see a tall figure standing a few feet away.

“Oh I don’t think so,” she says, standing tall (mostly legs) with dark purple hair reach far past her waist.

The peaceful surroundings vanish and the dark returns again. However I can still see myself and the person in front of me. Surrounding us now are four tall pillars, with colorful orbs flying around them; one red, one blue, one yellow and one green.

“Let’s see who can destroy the other one first, shall we?”

“What do you want?” I ask.

“What everyone wants: freedom.”

“Can’t you just leave?”

“If you’ve come here for a story, I’m sorry to disappoint. Now stand still, I don’t have time for games.” Saturn raises her arm and utters, “Dark immaculate”.

A wave of darkness surrounds Saturn and then swiftly the wave rushes towards me. I try to block it with a wall of fire, but my spell is useless. The darkness is darker than ever before (which I didn’t think could be possible) and my heart tells me to quit. That I should give up now and submit to Saturn. This must be her section of my mind, the area where she is strong and in control. My eyes are open yet I cannot see. I turn to my right as I fall to my knees, unwilling to do anything. As I fall to the ground, my hand scraps across rock; the pillar. I can see a flicker of blue light. These orbs have to mean something. If Saturn is in my mind, then I should be in hers. I should know what these pillars mean, right? My mind fights with my heart to continue, to not give up.

“You do know that we’re connected. If you fight harder, I will fight harder. Just let the darkness take over and this will all end. You’ll be happy in here. You can create whatever little fantasy you wish and live forever in your mind.”

The thought does sound pleasant. To be able to live in a world that I create, free from all this fighting, running from Ozma, school. I could create my own magical world. One. That. I. Could…wait. Fighting? Running? School? And…and what am I missing? Magic? Fighting is power, Running, endurance. School is clearly mental and magic could be the mana points that we need to produce spells. That has to be it! Red for power, blue for endurance, green for magic and yellow for mental, willpower. Somehow, I just know. Like a blanket has been lifted over what must be done. I can’t be worried if this destroys me as well, I need to do this. I have to protect everyone from Saturn.

I pull myself up and light my fists on fire. I scan the darkness for the green orb.

“Do you think that would work? Are you willing to destroy yourself just to get rid of me?”

“You know this will work.”

I find the blue orb and immediately shoot off fire to destroy the pillar. I can do this without magic and I don’t need Saturn to use that spell on me again. I can still feel its effects on me and it bothers me greatly. I dash towards the blue pillar, to ensure that I destroy it. Saturn follows me with her eyes, which makes me stop, my fist inches from the rock.

“Go on, do it.”

“Wait, why aren’t you stopping me?” I wonder, my fist in flames, ready to knock it over.

”Why should I? It’s pointless. You won’t make it to the other three and I like to give false hope right before I decimate you.”

“Or this could be a trap,” I slowly say.

“That’s up to you to decide, isn’t it?”

Mind games, it seems, Saturn enjoys significantly. For me, it’s just annoying to no end. I decide to smash the pillar anyway. If this isn’t what I’m supposed to do, then I will have to figure something else out without the use of magic.

The pillar falls over and the orb shatters as it hits the ground. I look over to Saturn, who now is holding an overgrown sickle”

“A little too predictable, don’t you think?” I mock her weapon of choice.

“It gets the job done.” Then Saturn adds, “You like to talk a lot, don’t you.”

I reach back, hoping that the Void isn’t part of my magical ability, and reach for my double bladed staff. With a sigh of relief, I grip the center of the staff as it emerges from the Void. I twirl it around to the front. Saturn, who doesn’t like to waste any time, lunges towards me, weapon in tow. I need my endurance and willpower to keep going, so I spot the red orb pillar. As Saturn gets closer, I run away from her and towards the red orb. She follows, releasing her sickle which finds my left shoulder. I fall over, dropping my weapon feet from the next pillar. I curse out in pain as I can feel the blade deep within my skin. Before I can stand, Saturn kicks me in my jaw.

“Maybe that will shut you up for a while. Why can’t you understand that I am giving you the chance to live forever in your mind? All you have to do is allow me to take control.”

“Sorry,” I spit out some blood onto the black floor. “Can’t do that.”

I reach for her lower leg and pull it from under her, knocking Saturn to the ground with me.

I then grab my staff and stand to start my work on the red pillar. This will cause my power and energy to drop to zero but what choice do I have? I need to think quickly on how I’m going to get rid of the other two. I thrust my weapon into the pillar, knocking it over before Saturn can get back to her feet. Instantly I feel weak and I’m sure Saturn does as well.

“Now what? You have no power to take down the last two.”

“And you don’t have the power to stop me anymore,” I wince from the pain coming from my shoulder.

“I don’t need to be trapped here with you for eternity,” Saturn complains.

“At least we can make our own world, right?” I laugh and then I realize something. I control this place.

Saturn gives me a dirty look and grips her sickle, “I don’t need that much power to take care of you.”

I run over to the yellow pillar, and stop a few feet from it. I’m going to have to focus hard if I want this to work. I try to calm my breathing from the quick run and I close my eyes. I know I’m dropping my guard but if I can just try to focus for a few seconds, maybe this could work.

I picture myself at the edge of a cliff, the sea in front of me and far below. There is nothing in front of me and I am at peace. I breathe out deeply as I look off into the horizon. I smile but that ends quickly as I feel hands on my back. Saturn then pushes me off the edge.

As I fall towards the sea below, I can see the yellow pillar falling, like me. Glad that it worked, I now only have seconds to figure out how to get out of this before my mental state suffers and before I hit the water.

I grin as I remember that the Void is still attached to me and me to it. This means that I can still teleport and what a perfect way to get rid of the final pillar than crashing on top of it.

As soon as the yellow pillar crashes into the ocean, destroying it, I teleport myself back into Saturn’s world and right above the blue pillar.

I fall hard on top of it, breaking it into pieces due to the force of my fall from the cliff. I know I’ve broken bones and I’m surprised that I’m still alive. I force myself up but my body doesn’t want to move. I don’t know where Saturn is but I can’t feel her anymore not like I was able to do before. Is that it then? Did breaking myself down break her down as well? I try again to stand but only make it half way. I look around the area and I can’t see Saturn anywhere.

“Not. That. Easily.”

The voice comes from behind me. I manage to turn around to see Saturn struggling to stand above me, a small dagger in her right hand. I feel hopeless and finished. If breaking down the pillars weren’t the answer, what is?

Then a wave of bright light hits Saturn from behind, making her drop the knife. Another beam from the left and then the right strike her. Saturn yells out in pain as it seems the light is attacking her both from outside and within. This has to be the mages. Breaking down the pillars must have brought down all the defenses.

I am then hit with a searing pain and I fall into a fetal position. I feel like my mind and body are being pulled apart in separate directions. My heart beats faster than it has never done before as I begin to lose my grasp on my own reality.

I shut my eyes, waiting for it to be over when I abruptly open my eyes.

“It is done.”

My vision is blurry but unless my mind is tricking me, I am awake and with the mages.

“Summon her companion; there is nothing left for us to do.”

My eye lids grow heavy and once again, I can feel myself slipping away.

Link

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