Spectrum #7:To The Wolves (Part 1 of 2)

This chapter was so long I HAD TO WRITE TWO CHAPTERS FOR IT. What the shit...

Chapter 7: To The Wolves, Part 1

Maria continued to lead the group through the forest, carefully observing the map and constantly trying to reference her position with the map. She heard the rushing sounds of a river and quickly looked for a river on the map, finding one about miles from the school, and about a third of the way to the temple from their starting point.

She stepped through a clearing and saw the large river she just saw on the map, she tilted back to shout at Jonah and Lily. “River's here! It's bigger than I thought.” She claimed, Jonah walked from the clearing along with Lily, Jonah gently rubbing his cheek as it was covered with slightly red covered bumps. “If I knew it was mosquito season I would have brought some ointment or something...”

Lily giggled at that, her mouth stopped bleeding, but she had a red stain on the corner of her mouth. “Mosquitoes are attracted by smell, right? You must be sweating a bunch or something.” Lily jested, Jonah glared at her and stomped his foot. “Oh quiet, you! I don't smell!” he said, infuriated. But Maria just shrugged her shoulders and looked over the river. “Lily, Remember to not sleep anywhere near him.” Lily quickly saluted with a “Yes, Ma'am!” Jonah snapped back at Maria for saying that. “H-hey!”

Maria looked at the river and crouched down to place her hand in the water. The fast flow of water cover her hand and pushed firmly against it, she looked up and the water was flowing fast, though it wasn't shallow enough to cause white water. “It looks like this river might be tough to wade across.” She calmly observed before standing back up. Jonah walked up just behind her and looked over her shoulder, watching the water move by at the fast but steady pace. “Does that mean we should go around?” He asked, Maria shook her head and pulled her backpack out, shuffling through it's supplies.

“No, but it gives me an idea.” Maria began, wrapping a rope around her wrist and pulling it out. “Do either of you have any experience swimming?” Lily answered first, sounding a bit unsure. “N-not really...” Jonah replied just afterward. “Nothing that says I'm good at it.” He remarked, Maria shrugging her shoulders. “I'm only okay at swimming,” Maria replied, hefting the rope over her arm and onto her shoulder. “I was gonna ask if either of you knew how to tie a knot, but since it apparently doesn't matter who crosses, I'll assume I'm the only one for now.” She commented, beginning to wade into the water as it flowed to her ankles.

“I'll complain about that comment later, But how do you plan to get the rest of us across?” Jonah asked, with a hint of annoyance still in his voice. Maria just took a deep breath before turning back to look at both of them. “I'll swim across, tie this rope to a tree and throw it to you as you swim across, it should help you if it gets too hard.” She calmly stated, they both just nodded and without a warning Maria just quickly dashed into the water. Getting past her waist and nearly to her head as the flow of the current began to topple her off of her feet.

She felt her head dip below the water for a moment as she kicked forward and lifted her head to take a sharp gasp for air. She began to quickly kick her legs and cycle arms, pushing her forward through the strong stream. She was quickly being pushed downstream, but she was slowly approaching the other side. The water began to get even rougher, jostling her about and forcing her to roll a couple of times as she kept kicking forward. Eventually she was nearly a hundred feet downstream, but made it across, grabbing onto some nearby rocks and standing back up. Her coat and pants were wet, and she was nearly completely out of breath. She grabbed onto her knees and started to cough and inhale deeply as a voice shouted to her from a small distance away.

“Maria, you okay!?” Jonah shouted, she looked up at him, brushing the wet red hair from her eyes. He looked diminutive from just how far away he was. Maria was shocked that the river actually pulled her that far away. She just assumed she was a weaker swimmer than she thought. “Yeah, I'm good! Hold on a second!” She said, running along the waterline back to face them. Once she lined up, she gazed across the river and tried to guess how far apart she was to Lily and Jonah. She felt like the fifty feet of rope might just be long enough to throw across, but now wasn't the time for measurements. Maria spun around and tied the rope to the tree, making sure to use a tight knot so it didn't slip.

“Alright, guys. One at a time, run into the water and I'll toss the rope! Grab it and drag yourself across the rest of the way!” Maria shouted over the sound of the running water. Lily and Jonah nodded, looking at each other and discussing quietly. “Should I go first, or you go first?” Lily inquired quietly, Jonah chuckled and crossed his arms. “I'll let you go first, I don't know how well this will turn out, I wanna gauge my chances.” Lily sighed and walked forward to stand at the edge of the water, Maria nodded at her. “Take my backpack with you, alright?” Maria implored, Lily looked down and inspected Maria's open survival pack. She zipped it shut and placed it around one shoulder.

She dove into the water, backpack tightly gripped to her shoulder and side as the water was quickly getting past her waist. Maria lurched her arm back and tossed the rope as hard as she could upstream, the rope uncoiling as it splashed into the water. “It's in the water, Grab it!” Maria shouted, hoping Lily would hear her.

Lily flailed and came up for a quick breath of air. She looked to the right of her and couldn't see the rope, she leaned up to swim a couple more feet when suddenly, she felt something glance her leg. She took a gamble and plunged her hand deeper into the water, feeling the coiled rope texture sliding along her leg. She quickly grasped at it before lifting it to her arms and grabbing onto both. She slowly pulled herself along it before she realized that she was being dragged downstream fast enough to make the rope tense up and drag her to the waters edge. She quickly tried to stand up once she felt like the water was becoming more shallow, but stumbled and landing onto her hands and feet.

“The water is way faster than I thought...” She commented, looking up to Maria as she reached down to help Lily back onto her feet, taking the backpack and putting it back onto herself. “Yeah.. That shocked me.” Maria commented, before walking up to the rope tied to the tree. Slowly pulling and wrapping the rope back on her arm as she looked over for Jonah, who was standing in the same spot he was just before. “Jonah, go for it!” Maria shouted, Jonah hesitated for a brief moment before diving into the water.

The sudden surge of water surprised him, he flailed for a couple of seconds as the currently lifted him off his feet, He began to spin and kick his feet to get himself to tread. He gasped and finally got upright, but he was being quickly pulled downstream. Maria launched the rope into the river and hoped he could catch it. The rope splashed and slowly began to pull downstream. He gritted his teeth and tried to swim for it, but he realized that the rope was still attached to the tree, and he was being pulled away from it. He swam harder, trying to get closer to the rope but all that happened was he drifted further away. He gasped, running out of energy and began to tumble around the water. “H-help!” He shouted.

“Shit...” Maria muttered. Running to the rope tied to the tree and untying it with a brief struggle, She quickly grabbed the end of the rope and used her other arm to coil it over and over around her other shoulder. Finally finishing, she pointed downstream. “Lily, Chase him! I'll try and get the rope to him!” Lily nodded and began to run down the water line, watching out for rocks as she tried to catch up to Jonah, who nearly was one hundred feet away from just turning away to untie the knot.

The river was quite fast, Lily had to actually break out into a run to keep pace with it. Maria followed behind, running just past Lily and eventually catching up to Jonah, who was trying to paddle closer, but kept being pulled away by the fast current. “Catch!” Maria shouted, launching the rope just in front of him. But she realized the river was actually beginning to widen, even though that meant the water was shallower, it also meant he was farther away. It missed by just a few feet, she growled, keeping the run as she coiled the rope back up quickly around her arm.

Jonah coughed and sputtered as he tried to look back at the two girls chasing after him down the river. Maria launching another coil of rope down the river, making sure to grab onto the other end. “C'mon, grab it!” She shouted, and he reached out for it, but it slipped away from his hand and Maria was forced to pull back the rope. “Damn it!” Maria cursed, picking up the pace and beginning to run at her full tilt. Slowly making past Jonah, but Maria wanted even more distance. She wanted to be far away enough to jump in and swim after him. She made it almost one hundred and fifty feet ahead as she began to heavily pant from how exhausted the sprint just was. She ran back into the water but noticed there was another splash just close by.

“I got it!” A male voice said, swimming toward Jonah who was still panicking from being whisked away from moderately fast water. Maria stopped and watched the boy swim, he seemed to be pretty alright at it, his dark chestnut colored hair was familiar enough for Maria to recognize him. “Gabriel!?” He grabbed onto Jonah's collar and dragged him through the water, swimming back to shore as Maria launched the rope at him, he was able to quickly grab it and pull himself along with Jonah ashore on the other side of the river. Jonah was panting quietly, laying on the ground coughing up excess water as Gabriel stand back up, giving a friendly salute.

“How the hell did you find us?” Maria wondered aloud, Gabriel gave a giggle as Erika walked up along side him from leaning against a tree, her huge waraxe attached to her back, her ginger hair dripping wet from clearly crossing the river. “Oh, you must have been walking a little faster than us, We got to this river and had to cross. Gabriel was just about done as we heard you guys yelling.” Erika explained trying to wring her shoulder length hair from all the water. Gabriel nodded, walking up and patting the handle. “Getting Erika's gigantic axe across was really hard, but we did it.” He said, excitedly. Maria nodded and looked down at her, she was completely soaked in water along with everyone else.

Her suit jacket was drenched, and her dress shirt was uncomfortably transparent, even if she wore just a black tank top underneath of it. She sighed and pulled off her jacket, wringing it out of the water as she talked to them. “Do you guys have towels?” Maria asked, Gabriel just shook his head. “Nope, We'll have to air dry.” Maria groaned at that, opening her backpack and checking to see if everything in it was still intact, luckily, the backpack was pretty waterproof and nothing even got damp. She took the canteens attached to it, filling both of them with the clean, flowing river water before closing off both caps.

She sighed and put it back on her shoulder, undoing the tie around her neck and just letting it hang off to dry. She gestured everyone to follow her, which they did, Jonah still quietly panting as they walked. The breeze from the feeling of their wet clothes drying off made everyone get a chill, Maria's skin felt damp, numb and cold, Jonah started to shiver as they walked. Maria slung her jacket around her shoulders as they walked deeper into the forest.

Lily walked up to Jonah, gently rubbing a shoulder to see if she could help him warm up a little bit, he looked at her with a smile as she looked back up at him. “So, Jonah... Tell us about yourself.”

He appreciated the question, giving a light nod as he spoke aloud. “Well, Lily. I'm super distantly related to Claire The Unifyer. She helped the 5 kingdoms gather together to fight off the Astrians over five hundred years ago.” Lily nodded at that, jaw dropping a little bit. “Oh, that's super cool!” Jonah chuckled a bit at that, quickly replying. “Yeah, but that was 5 centuries ago, so it's a very distant relation.” He mentioned, She nodded some more, legitimately curious and listening to what he said like she was a lost puppy.

“Her son became a doctor, and took the Oath Of the Sworn Doctor to always treat a patient. His son became a doctor as well.. and onward through the generations all the way to me. My father is a Surgeon and my Mother a Dietitian, Hell, I think my uncle is also a Doctor. ” He clarified, Lily nodding again with a look of curiosity. “What kind of doctor?” She asked, Jonah laughed awkwardly and looked at the ground, quietly mumbling something. She leaned a little closer, not exactly hearing that. “Could you say that a little louder?” Jonah sighed and kicked a small rock aside as he was walking, “Fine, he was a Proctologist, okay?” Lily blinked a couple of times, and heard a Chuckle from Maria up ahead. “Your uncle is a butt doctor then?” Maria said mockingly, Jonah looked flustered, pointing at her as he complained.

“Hey, butt doctors are just as important as any other doctor!” He loudly exclaimed., and Maria just sarcastically chuckled. “...I meant Proctologist, that's supposed to be an official title! Don't try and defame it or anything!” Maria grinned at him. “Butt doctor.” She quickly quipped, Jonah just sighed and sunk his head in defeat, before looking back at Lily. “They wanted me to be a doctor as well, but I can't handle gore and I have a lingering feeling I'll leave some Forceps in a guys stomach or something if they put me on a surgery team one day...”

Lily chuckled at that, but then picked up her pace to walk next to Maria, She inspected her face and noticed that the stitches in her forehead were gone. “Hey, When did you get your stitches removed?” She asked, Maria shrugged her shoulders and rubbed the bumpy scars on her head. “I asked for them to be removed the day after I left the infirmary. So that'd be... about 4 days ago?” Maria answered, not entirely sure because she'd been passing in and out of consciousness from the nightmares she's been having.

“Hey, is it alright if I asked you something?” Lily wondered, Maria looked at her and folded away her map, tucking it under her arm. “Go ahead.” Maria responded. Lily took a deep breath and just got it over with. “Why did you do that to our room? Like.. the curtains were sliced up, the dresser got totaled and there were holes in the walls.” Maria was taken aback by that, but slowly just looked at the ground as they walked. “I don't think you'd understand. So it's none of your business, Lily.” Maria quietly dismissed her, the ghostly bird perching on her shoulder and quietly speaking just afterward. “Maybe you should apologize, Maria.” Maria scoffed a little at that comment, sliding her hands into the pockets of her pants.

“What does that mean?” Lily inquired, feeling slightly upset for Maria not telling her. “It means exactly what I said, Lily.” Maria interjected, crossing her arms and looking away. “You wouldn't get it, it's weird.” Lily frowned and shook her head. “Can you not brush me off, Maria? I need to know if you're okay.” She said, frustrated. Maria just glared at her in response. “I told you everything you need to know, Lily. It's complicated and I'm sorry it involved me screwing up the room... I couldn't tell you more unless you wanted to think I was insane.” She said, walking away from her before going back to checking her map, Lily just sighed, slowing back down to walk along with the other 3 members of her group.


The sun slowly turned a pale orangeish red as the dark forest canopy grew darker, the light underneath the trees began to fade into an almost night like darkness, the only light was the orange sunlight shooting between the gaps of the leaves. Maria stopped and turned to the rest of the group to make an announcement. “We're running out of daylight, but I have some good news.” She started, looking around for a nice clearing as she spoke. “We've made it just about 2/3rds of the way to the temple, another 6-7 hours of walking and we'll be there.” She said, Jonah sighed in relief and stretched as he gave out a yawn. “Oh thank goodness, My feet were getting blisters...” Jonah said, relieved from his yawn. Maria nodded, but continued to speak. “But we're losing sunlight and we don't have a light source, We're gonna search for a spot to camp for the night.” She said, folding up the map into her pocket as she looked around.

Maria turned away from them and issued a simple order. “Find an open enough spot for us to sleep.” They nodded and broke away from her, beginning to search the area for a place to rest. She began to walk underneath the trees and quietly began to pick up sticks and branches, carrying them under her arm. Along with that, she found some fuzzy remains of a dead tree which were very dry and bundled up, and she put that into her hand. She kept gathering sticks until she head the distant yell of Erika just a couple hundred of feet. “Found a clearing!” Maria looked up, noticing that the sound came from the left, so she began to head that way. “Everyone, Over here!” Erika shouted indiscriminately, trying to get everyone to head over to her directly.

Maria walked over the thick tree roots into a small clearing, the canopy opened up to reveal the slightly star filled twilight sky, several small clouds drifting overhead. Jonah arrived next. “Oh god, finally a place that isn't one hundred percent tree.” He said, taking a seat in a patch of grass and yawning. Lily and Gabriel arrived next together, sitting beside each other on the grass as Maria stood up. “Well.. I might as well ask if any of you know how to make a fire?” Maria inquired, with no reply. The silent became kind of awkward, Maria sighing and taking a seat. “Guess not.” Maria placed the bundle of sticks in a patch of flat dirt, grabbing a small log along with a stick. “Welp, I saw this on TV, it shouldn't be hard.” Maria said quietly to herself. The bird interjected, standing atop her head and peering down. “I'm not sure that's how you do it...” He commented, Maria just sighed, grabbing the stick and rubbing it between her hands on the piece of tinder resting atop the log. “Hush up already.” she said, under her breath as she tried to get enough friction to light a fire.

But even after 5 minutes of straight twirling her hands back and forth like an idiot, she didn't even see any smoke. On top of that, her arms were starting to get tired, she growled in frustration, grabbing the stick and throwing it aside, causing it to careen and smack into a nearby tree. “OH FUCK THIS!” She shouted, standing up between the other four. “Do any of you have any ideas to light a fire?” Erika raised her hand, Maria turning a shoulder to look at her, and in her hand was a small metal lighter.

“I forget I have this, sometimes.” She quietly commented, Maria scowled and walked up, taking the lighter out of her hands and inspecting it. “Is it full?” She nodded, “Yep, my dad gave it to me before I moved out so I'd think of him. He's kind of a smoker...” Erika commented with a chuckle. Maria just sighed, flicking open the cap and seeing inspecting the spark wheel, before shaking it a couple of times to confirm. “Great, now I feel stupid.” She bent down to the woodpile, flicking the spark wheel and causing the tip to set ablaze. She leaned down near the ember, but her hands began to shake. The hair on the back of her neck began to stand up and she quickly closed the lid. She sighed, standing up and tossing the lighter towards Jonah with a “Catch.”

Jonah was surprised, catching it just barely and looking at it. “Why can't you light it yourself?” He asked, Maria just walked over to take a seat next to Lily. “That doesn't matter.” She said, trying to brush him off. Jonah shook his head and bent down, lighting the fire quite easily. Sighing and taking a seat in front of the campfire. He glanced over to Maria, only to notice she was about ten feet farther back than when she was previously sitting. “What's with you, Maria? You're acting all weird..” He mentioned, Maria looking at the floor and mumbling to herself. “What was that? I didn't hear you.” Jonah said, leaning up to see if he could hear her. “I DON'T LIKE FIRE, OKAY?” She shouted across to him, Lily looking away with a soft sigh as everyone else just kinda looked at her.

“Fire doesn't bite, does it?” Gabriel added with a smile to try and reassure her a little. “You don't know fire like how I know fire.” She replied, leaning against a nearby tree before starting to explain. “Lily didn't bring her sleeping bag, so one of us will have to just not sleep in one.” Lily awkwardly chuckled as Maria brought that up. “Yeah... my fault! I kinda... acted irrationally.” She explained, Maria trying to act like a calm leader while huddling up in a fetal position, clearly displaying her commanding sense of leadership. “I'll keep watch, you four can sleep.” Jonah frowned a little bit at Maria opting for an all night watch duty. “That's a bit crazy to just stay up all night to keep guard, everyone needs sleep y'know.” Maria stood up and stretched her back just a bit, putting on her coat.

“I'll live.” She responded tersely. They just agreed and began to set up the sleeping bags, sitting onto them as they talked. Eventually after nearly half an hour, Maria managed to sit close enough to the fire to not require shouting at her as Jonah leaned forward with a grin. “Well... Since we're setting up to get to bed. Maybe we should share scary stories!” He said with the excitement of his dormant 12 year old personality, even if he was nearly 18. Lily smiled, raising her arms with enthusiasm with a big grin. “I've never done that before! This will be really cool.” She said with the stupid grin on her face, Maria shrugged her shoulders as Jonah scooted up to the fire. “I'll start.” He said, clearing his throat.

“There once was a cabin... deep in the forest.” He started, leaning up so his arms rested onto his knees as he gave quite the smug smirk. “Did it have plumbing?” Maria interjected, her voice a dull monotone. Jonah sighed, shaking his head and looking up at her. “Maria, that doesn't matter in this story.” Maria shrugged her shoulders. “It matters to me, if he doesn't have a well or something he'll just die of thirst.”Maria said, it was pretty clear she was just being a sarcastic jerk, not actually interested in the story or anything. Jonah looked bemused, before sighing and rubbing the back of his head. “I dunno, he lives next to a river or something.” He explained with a throwaway answer, but immediately Maria snapped back. “Does he even purify the water? Man, he'd have so much Cholera in his system..” Jonah gritted his teeth at that, clearly annoyed. “Maria, shut up and let me continue the story.” He implored, but Maria just shrugged again.

“Alright, good.” Jonah started, going back into his storytelling position. “He was at his home, when a phone began to ring. He went over and picked it up... and there was a voice. A raggedy, upset kind of voice. He said... 'Where are your children?' He wondered what he meant by that... First of all, how did he know he had children? Second... How did he know this number? Well, here's your answ-” Jonah was interrupted by Maria with another sarcastic quip. “How the hell did he get a phone connection in THE MIDDLE OF A FOREST?” Jonah just face palmed by Maria's attempts to pick apart or derail the story, he just sighed and stood up. “Okay, screw the story. Let's just go to bed already...” He said, nonplussed, Maria gave a chuckle and shook her head. Walking over to a nearby tree and slowly climbing up it.

“What are you doing, Maria?” He asked, Maria balancing on a low, thick branch and leaning against the trunk. “Being up here means I can keep night's watch better, also there will be less insects to mess with me.” She explained casually, but he just frowned. “it's because you're afraid of the campfire, isn't it?” Maria growled at that and looked away from him. “How bout shut up?” She said, trying to brush him off.

He just sighed and got into his sleeping back, and eventually everyone else began to as well. Things got quiet except for the whispers, the sun faded and the starry night sky began to shine, covering everything in faint moonlight except for the orange glow of the campfire. Even the whispers began to settle down as people actually fell asleep in their sleeping bags, even if they didn't have a tent. Maria pulled her weapon out of her bag and lightly rested it on her lap as she sat up on the tree, hovering just about ten feet off of the ground.

The bird once again stood on her shoulder. “I think you have nice friends, Maria.” He said, trying to sound chipper with his super calm, gentle voice. Maria sighed, looking at him and his softly glowing orange eyes, and see through body. “I don't really consider them my friends, I barely know them.” She contested, her voice quiet enough not to wake anyone up. He chirped some, surprised that Maria didn't want to try smacking him upside the head. “But you know Lily, isn't she your friend?” He asked, curiously. Maria looked at the floor and sighed. “I knew Lily, but I don't know her. She might want different people in her life and I wouldn't even know it.” He sighed some and looked around. “Well... That Jonah boy seems nice, when you aren't completely ruining his scary stories.” Maria gave a slight chuckle at that. “Well... I think he's okay. He's sort of a wuss though.” She commented, looking at the bird, she was too tired from walking nearly thirty miles in one day to actually be angry anymore.

“Why did you do that, anyway?” He asked, trying to groom at one of his wing feathers, even though he was intangible and it didn't actually matter, he seemed to realize that soon enough as well. “I'm just not a fan of scary stories.” She replied, the bird just responded with a flat “Oh.” She sighed and leaned back against the tree trunk. “It's gonna be a long 48 hours, sitting here waiting isn't going to make it go by any quicker.” She said, he looked at her and tilted his head some. “Well... You could always talk to me, if you want.” He said, hoping that was enough to convince her.

“I still haven't gotten past the fact you killed my parents.” Maria said, lifting her knee up just high enough to rest her arm on and rest her chin in her hand. “I mean it, Maria. It was just an accident, I couldn't control myself anymore.” He explained with a voice tinging of sorrow, she sighed and leaned back, looking up at the stars. “It's not that I'm calling you a liar... But you still were the culprit, my feelings stand.” She replied, crossing her arms and closing her eyes for a brief moment.

“I'm still sorry...” He said, leaning up a little bit to look at her. “Whatever, bird.” She said, reaching up and scratching her head a couple of times before yawning. “You can just call me Gale, instead of bird.” He started, hopping back down and perching on the branch in front of her. “So... Why didn't any of your family adopt you after you lost your home?” He inquired, giving another chirp as he slowly gazed down at everyone else sleeping. “No one wanted to bother, I guess. I knew my uncle could have adopted me but... He was weird and barely talked to me, he could barely stand seeing my dad in the same room as my sister.” She explained, looking up at him as he looked at the area curiously. “Did he tell you that?” He asked, but Maria just gently shook her head.

“No, but I could see it in his eyes and his sudden shift in attitude whenever dad was brought up. Dad hated him just as much, he always took away my TV when I told him I went to go see him... Anyway, he was too focused on raising his perfect little daughter then having to worry about a second one.” She clarified, trying to shuffle into a more comfortable position on the tree. The bird looked down with a sigh. “Oh... I see.”

Maria yawned, looking around for any threats while she talked. “So... What are you?” She asked casually, he looked up at her and tried his best to explain. “Actually, because my original body died, a lot of memories died along with it. I do know a little bit and will try my best to explain” He replied.

“The burns caused on your back by me contained ashes directly from my body. Ash in the body causes Ash poisoning usually, but you didn't have enough to die. When Spectrum tracked me down and killed me, I was still close enough to transfer a small portion of my soul to the remains left on your back. I'm very weak and can't interact with anything, but I still have my consciousness.” He clarified, Maria nodded and unzipped her blade to inspect it. Pulling her sword out as he talked. “Though, I was dormant, grabbing that blade awoke your magical abilities. I took a very small amount of it to manifest myself, It's why you got dizzy when you grabbed it the first time.” He continued, walking up and looking up at the tree, before flying atop to perch right on Maria's head.

“That still didn't explain just what you are.” Maria criticized, he nodded and began to talk once again. “All I know is that when I fell from the rift, I grew insane. Many of my brethren fly into a blind rage once they arrive here. But being held within your soul I'm so weak that I'm able to retain my old personality, even if I don't remember what was on the other side of that rift.” He chirped, flying back onto her shoulder. “That good enough?” He asked, Maria didn't reply. He looked at her and realized she just quickly fell asleep after several hours of sitting in a tree, so he decided to let her rest.

A couple hours passed, Maria not moving from being deeply tired and trying to get some rest, Gale panicked and whispered to her to wake up, even if it meant that she would have another nightmare as soon as he spoke. “Hey... Wake up! Somethings wrong...” He said, worried, Maria began to sweat and shake, before waking up with a shriek and careening her out of the tree along with the weapon on her lap and smashing right into the ground underneath. “Ow... Okay, I'm up.” She said, still tired. It was still night, but it was pretty clear that a couple hours have passed. “There are beasts nearby... I can sense them.” Gale said, glaring around the area, Maria dusted herself off and looked around.

Fear stuck her immediately as soon as she looked into the forest, there were pairs of red eyes surrounding the campsite, the flame slowly beginning to die as she locked eyes with them. She heard one of them quietly begin to growl. Maria leaned down to pull her sword from the bag, holding it in her right hand as she slowly walked over to try and wake the others. “Shit... this looks bad.” She said, before running down to shake Jonah's shoulder.

“Huh..whuh...?” Jonah said, in a haze, groggy and starting to rub his eyes. “Maria.. it's not even morning yet...” Maria grabbed him by the shoulder and quickly pulled him up to stand up with her, even if he stumbled just a bit from the sudden move. “We're under attack, wake the others.” Maria stated, Jonah suddenly snapped back to being fully awake when she said that. “R-really!?” Maria gave a quiet nod and pointed over to wake the others. Maria holding out her blade in preparation for the attack of whatever was hiding in the forest.

“We're in for a long night...” She said, not breaking her stare away from them in case that the fight began.

Spectrum: Chapter 6

Sadly "Female Protagonist Fight" isn't as fun sounding as "Catfight"

Chapter 6: Porcelain Facade

Lily climbed up the hill just behind the school, reaching the top and seeing her teammates standing around and conversing together as the morning sun shined it's brilliant glow. Jonah sat by himself, Robin was speaking to her little brother, Florence. Morgan was adjusting her blue bandanna around her forehead, wrapping it on her hair to keep her long hair from getting into her eyes. Maria was laying in the grass somewhat asleep, Sienna and Ashley were talking besides a couple of backpacks laying on the ground. Erika was quietly speaking to Gabriel, who was trying to make a whistle out of a blade of grass.

“I'm here, everyone.” Lily stated with a smile, surprised that she was the late one. Ashley grinned at her, adjusting her eye patch and lifting one of the backpacks on the ground and tossing it her way. “Glad you made it, take this.” Lily nodded and lifted up the backpack, it seemed study and made of a durable olive colored canvas. This was less of a school backpack and more of the rugged survivalist type.

“Everyone, line up!” She said, everyone slowly broke their attention away from what they were doing, walking in front of the two female instructors and standing shoulder to shoulder. Ashley and Sienna began to grab the other three bags and tossed them at the feet of the entire group. “These are essential for what's going to come up next.” Ashley said, her voice stern but informative. “I'll allow my co-instructor, Sienna Roth explain what's going to happen next.” She said, backing up one step and letting Sienna have the floor.

“Every member of this class has taken part in a couple of fights between each other to test and gauge your strengths and weaknesses.” Sienna started, pacing slowly back and fourth through the entire group of students. “But that isn't all that's required to be a functioning member of Spectrum Academy,” She continued, stopping and turning on her heel, placing her hands in front of her and looking up at the whole group. “The second half of what you need is actually two things. Adaptability and teamwork, these are essential in forming a proper team as communication and decision making are what wins fights on the battlefield, not just combat skill alone.” Seinna continued, peering from left to right with her sharp eyes.

Ashley nodded, stepping up as Sienna gestured to her, her voice was deeper and had a sense of commanding to it as she spoke. “Many people sign up for Spectrum in hopes to help, or get recognition or fame, some people even sign up because they hear we pay them. Those people aren't welcome here, we need warriors, we need fighters. We need people not afraid to put their lives on the line to defend the people of this world every single day they're capable of doing so. This test is designed to weed those with selfish ambitions and foolish goals out of our system.” She added, pointing to the floor and gesturing with her finger. “Open the bags at your feet.”

All of the students looked down at the bags, some of them reaching down to undo the buttons and pull it open. “In each of these bags are several things. Two sleeping bags, a map, two thermoses, A first aid kit, and two vitality trackers. The vitality trackers will go on each student's arm. It's a combination heart rate monitor and GPS device designed to let us know if you ever happen to become injured or in grave danger. It was also designed to keep track of your hunger, thirst and sickness levels thanks to very slight changes in your skin.” She explained, each of the students attaching it to their arm while the instructors spoke. Lily adjusted the straps on hers to make sure it was snug, but not overly tight. She unfolded the map to take a quick glance at it.

“Your mission is to take you and one partner of your choice through the Elmsworth Forest to the north to retrieve one of four trophies hidden in an underground temple at the base of Mt. Firewind we've called the Pradgarth Depths.” Maria quickly asked, putting on her own armband, before undoing her tie around her neck. “Like... Relics in the temple?” Sienna shook her head and raised her arm to point at her. “Nope, we put the trophies there specifically for you to take them.” Maria rolled her eyes and shrugged, putting her arm on her hip and leaning to one side. “Well that makes it more boring.” She quipped, but Ashley quickly corrected her. “Actually, it's quite treacherous. It's a 59 mile hike over forests full of wild animals, steep hills, rivers and a pretty dangerous temple that might possibly have creatures dwelling within it. With the rift wide open like it is, an attack can happen at any time and we need you on your toes.” Ashley lectured Maria, tapping her foot and shaking her head as Maria just shrugged her shoulders.

Sienna continued for Ashley as Lily zipped up her backpack, pulling it over one shoulder. “You have 72 hours to get to that temple and retrieve one of the trophies. If your vital tracker shows signs of you being injured or ill or if time runs out; You will be extracted quickly via Helicopter, you will not be promoted, and you will be placed in our basic training program unless your teammate succeeds.” Lily raised her hand to ask a question. “What's that?” She asked simply, Sienna began to pace the eight students, looking up and down at them. “It's pretty much standard basic training, but you will not be sent to any missions and you will have to forfeit your weapon until you are ready to take this test again, that time is a minimum of 6 months so do not take this lightly.”

She placed a hand on Lily's shoulder and smiles at her, Lily smiling back as she nodded and went back to pacing the group. “You can choose your own partner, if you find anyone else while in the forest, you're free to travel with them. But getting the trophy is a guaranteed pass for both you and your partner, even if one has been extracted.” Ashley stepped aside and began to walk over to a nearby chair as Sienna finished, as she began to talk in her place. “Once you're done finding your partner, we will send each of you out at random intervals, your countdown starts when YOU start, not when anyone else does. Keep that in mind as you find your partner.” She said, finally going quiet as the group began to talk to each other.

“So... We have to pick a partner of our choice...” Erika said to Lily, looking around as people began to group up already. Florence quickly ran to his older, yet somewhat shorter sister, but that was a given, Morgan just crossed her arms and waited as the people began to thin out. She looked over a shoulder and noticed Maria was quietly speaking to Jonah just behind Erika's shoulder. “Did you think of who you wanted to be with?” The ginger haired girl asked, her voice somewhat quiet from being so timid around a big group. Lily shook her head, her brow furrowing a little bit. “To be honest, I'll just pick whoever doesn't get picked. I feel like we'll most likely turn into one big group anyways.” Erika nodded and looked over to see Gabriel approaching them both. “Hey there, Missies!” Gabriel said with a bright smile on his face, pulling out a hairband and pulling his long chestnut red colored hair into a loose ponytail.

“Hey there, Gabe.” Erika said with a smile, Gabriel waved happily at them both and stopped in front of the. “Hey Erika, hey Blondie.” Lily blinked a couple of times before speaking up. “My name is Lily, you know.” She said, clarifying.

“Oh, I forgot. My bad!” Gabriel apologized, bowing his head and rubbing the back of his head. “It's kind of a coin flip when I forget stuff like that.” Lily huffed quietly at that. “Obviously.” She said flatly, tilting her head and addressing him proper. “Well, did you want to ask us something?” Erika spoke up, looking at him.
Gabriel began to fiddle around with his whip, currently curled up on his belt and a bit tangled, clearly you don't want a tangled whip when you have to pull it out to use later or it'll be absolutely useless. It was almost like he picked an impractical weapon. “Well, I wanted to ask Erika if she wanted to be on my team.” Erika looked at him and smiled. “Sure thing, Gabriel!” Gabriel grinned at that, hugging her tightly and lifting her off the ground. “Awesome! We're gonna get this done in like 4 hours!” Erika chuckled, before dropping back down onto the ground.

“That's a bit... Overzealous.” Lily commented, Gabriel just stuck her tongue out at her for a bit. “Well, Gabe and I need to get ready, good luck in finding your partner, Lily!” Erika said, walking off as they both went to sit down on the grassy hill, either discussing strategy or comic books, she had no idea about which one from how far away they were. Maria seemed to finally pick Jonah as her partner, probably because she didn't want to speak about her going bonkers and messing up the room earlier today to anybody who she happened to live with.

She looked around and smiled at the three teams, before looking over to see Morgan leaning against a nearby pine tree, watching the pines sway in the gentle summer winds. Lily swallowed her pride, She didn't like Morgan, but she would tolerate it until they find Maria or someone else in the forest. It wasn't going to go too wrong, was it?

She began to approach Morgan, opening her mouth to speak, but Morgan quickly cut her off. “So, you did the same 'wait and see' strategy that I did, huh?” She asked, Lily nodded gently and crossed her arms, leaning away from her. “Y-yeah... I felt like we'll find other people quickly.” Morgan nodded at that, standing up and walking right past her, not even looking at her as she spoke. “Let's just hurry up and find other people when we go, okay? I want this to be brief.” Lily looked at the ground and sighed some. “Fine, I guess.” She replied, walking just behind Morgan and standing shoulder to shoulder as everyone else lined up.

“Alright!” Ashley said, standing up and clapping her hands together once. She strolled over to the front of everyone and rolled back the sleeve of her white jacket. “Welp, Looks like now is a good time to start, We've done enough talking.” She said, pointing to Morgan and Lily. “You two go first, the next pair go in 15 minutes.” They both nodded, but Morgan just started to walk down the hill almost at nearly the next moment. “Just follow me and keep quiet.” She said, bemoaned. arms behind her head as she gave a stretch. Lily just double checked her scimitar. Just to make sure it was still in there snugly, which it was.

They began to walk through the forest, it was oddly quiet between the two of them, nearly no words were spoken and all Lily heard was the cracking of small pine needles and branches underneath her feet. The trees slowly thickened as they headed into the forest, it didn't seem like there were any trails or pathways cut through anywhere, but there was a clearing she could walk through. Lily guessed that it could have been a deer herd all traveling the same routes.

The sky slowly got covered by the canopy of trees, as the forest grew more varied, the only light that would occasionally break through was enough to give shadows with the shape of leaves filling the rest of the residual light. There was occasionally an animal to look at, or a thicket they had to walk past. She assumed as they headed farther away from civilization the paths would get more and more rough and unsteady.

“So... How about that inheritance?” Morgan commented out of nowhere. Lily's suddenly turned her head to look at her, furrowing her brow once again.
“Excuse me, what?” Lily asked, perplexed by what she meant. “Your fathers inheritance details hit the news a year ago.” Lily shrugged some and turned away to keep walking. “I'm not sure that's anything important, Let's keep going.” She said, but Morgan gripped her shoulder firmly enough to convince her to stop. “For me, it is.” Morgan replied, slightly perturbed by Lily trying to brush her off. Lily sighed and turned to her as she still felt confused. “What do you mean?”

“Your father has a trillion Geld empire on his hands and a complete monopoly on the Ash weapons market, shutting down other sellers by calling their goods 'Illegal' for not being sponsored by the military and Spectrum like he is. His inheritance involves pretty much pumping all of his money into two things, the military force and YOU. You're getting 50% of that wealth when he dies the government isn't going to tax any of it because they're in his pocket and benefit from him.” Morgan clarified, both of them stopped walking and turned to face each other. “Where did you learn that?” Lily asked, feeling unsure about what Morgan might do next.

“We're talking about one of the biggest money transactions in history, Lily. It was covered by the news as soon as the details were leaked.” Morgan shook her head, pointing a finger at Lily as she spoke. “But that isn't what I care about. I care about WHO and WHERE it's going to.” Lily frowned at that, crossing her arms and looking at the ground. “You and your father have all this money, but all you do is fucking sit on it or use it to strengthen the military and Spectrum. People in destroyed neighborhoods could USE that money... But your family just sat on it and we had to wait until the SYNDICATE actually helped fund the rebuild.” Lily scoffed, a look of agitation forming on your face.

“YOU took money from the Syndicate!? They murder people and sell drugs! They steal from my fathers weapon shipments by pepper spraying the driver and then raiding the whole damn thing, they even kill the witnesses. People took money from them to help rebuild the houses?” Lily asserted, leaning forward to yell at the raven haired woman. Morgan glared down at her and laughed mockingly. “They still responded faster than you or your father did.” Lily gritted her teeth and shouted back at Morgan as she walked away. “I didn't know people were that desperate, I would have helped them if I did.”

Morgan stopped and began to laugh at that, looking back at her and shaking her head some, not believing this girl. “But you didn't. You sat there and pretended like you were blind to the whole damn thing. Intention isn't action, Kiddo.” She remarked, Lily looking even more frustrated. Lily raised her voice, barking back at her. “What do you mean by that!? I would have helped if I knew how.” Morgan growled, turning around and pointing firmly against her chest hard enough for it to sting. “You don't ever fucking help ANYBODY.” Morgan started, looking straight pissed off now. “You sit there and twiddle your thumbs and hope for the best, or completely ignore the problem altogether. You have the potential to actually help these people, yet you do NOTHING.” Morgan exclaimed, pointing at her chest again to make her feel uncomfortable, backing up one step as she talked.

“You're just a trust fund baby. You don't have to work for ANYTHING to get a good life, it just fell into your lap because your dad capitalized on a tragedy to make a profit.” Lily clenches her fists from that, but refused to say anything to that. “And all you do is procrastinate on it, you were probably raised by him so to be honest, as soon as he's croaked you're just going to be the exact same as he is.” Lily growled and began to walk away, deeper into the woods. “That's enough out of you, let's just find the damn temple.” She said, her voice trying to hide how irate she was.

“Hell, you already did that to Maria, didn't you?” Morgan asked, Lily's jaw dropped and she looked back at her.
“Don't involve Maria in this, please.” Lily quietly demanded, but Morgan shook her head and began to walk back up to her. “No, because Maria is a walking example of your ignorance.” Morgan started, her voice had a certain smugness to it. “Maria was your FRIEND. Her parents were killed and she got put in the hospital, and now she's crazy and smashed up our dorm just 4 days after sending HERSELF to the infirmary. Do you know what would have probably made her much more sane?” Morgan asked, Lily looked at the forest floor again as she talked. “IF HER FRIEND SHOWED UP TO SUPPORT HER!” Morgan proclaimed, Lily just bit her lower lip, not even looking at her.

“You couldn't even do that for her, you failure.” Morgan said scathingly, Lily began to cry just a bit as she talked, turning around and walking away. “Wow, you don't even have a response, you coward.” Lily stomped her foot, turning around and roaring at her. “SHUT UP!” Morgan quietly walked up and spat right in her face. Lily began to shake, before shouting and lunging toward her, smashing her elbow into Morgans face, sending her backwards and having them both smack into a nearby tree before spilling to the ground.

“Shut your damn mouth!” Lily said, punching Morgan, who was still quite shaken right in the face. “You know absolutely nothing about me!” She said, speaking between each punch. “I had NO FRIENDS except for Maria! I was ridiculed and insulted every single day! My father barely even fucking spoke to me! I was ALWAYS alone ever since mother took my sister with her!” She said, decking Morgan just repeatedly, blood starting to come from Morgan's nose and mouth. “I grew up pampered but in the end no one would have given a shit if I wasn't his daughter. My only friend growing up was Maria because everyone else would beat me up and insult me!” She explained, grabbing Morgan by the tie and smashing her head into Morgans, making her dizzy for a second.

“I didn't see Maria because I didn't want to see her die. She was in critical condition and was poisoned by Ash, I didn't want to see the only person in the world who actually gave a fuck about how I feel die miserable and in pain, okay!?” Lily yanked Morgan's tie, pulling her closer. “Or is that not okay for you!? Am I just a coward because I didn't want to see anyone suffering? I admit you had me on not donating to neighborhoods in need... but that was because I just didn't know how bad or desperate it got. I WOULD HAVE HELPED IF I KNEW!” She said, punching her in the face once again.

“IS THAT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU!? Or do you wanna keep insulting me!? I can take it! I've heard much worse from everyone for my entire life! Everyone makes assumptions about me like they know who I really am... but they don't even know me!” Morgan snarled and elbowed Lily in the face, making her stumble onto her back as she got up. Morgan grabbed the collar of her dress and lifted her to her feet, before slamming a knee into her stomach and forcing her to double over and slamming her elbow in the back of Lily's head, making her slam into the ground.

“What is going on!?” A voice shouted from a nearby clearing. Morgan looked over to see who said that, and saw that it was Robin, along with her little brother Florence. Morgan said nothing, Lily slowly standing back up, rubbing her face and looking at her hand to notice that her face was beginning to bleed. “Robin ran up to them both and grabbed onto Lily's shoulder to help stand her up, making her face Morgan. “Look, I might not understand what you were talking about, but if you two are fighting this needs to stop immediately, we're a team! We can't just keep fighting each other.” She contended, trying to diffuse the situation.

“You're not my mother, Robin.” Morgan murmured, rubbing the blood from her mouth on her forearm. Robin frowned at that, but let it pass. “Do they always do this?” Florence wondered. Robin shook her head and sighed. “I don't rightly know, I've never seen them fight before.” Morgan sighed and began to walk again.

“Let's just go.” Morgan demanded, walking along the pathway they found, Florence slowly walking behind them both. Lily eventually began to follow, and things got quiet again except for when Florence would point out how beautiful the forest naturally was, with its natural earthy blues, greens and browns.

After an hour, Lily stopped to speak. “Wait, everyone.” Lily quietly inhaled and walked between the three other members of their small group, taking off the backpack and placing it on the ground. “What is it, Lily?” Florence asked her, wondering why she dropped the backpack. “Well... I quit.” Lily quickly stated. Robin frowned, walking up to her and rubbing her shoulder. “You don't need to quit, honey...” Lily sighed, gently turning away from Robin. “Lily reached down to grab her own canteen, but nothing else. “I know what I want, Robin. I give up.” She said, slowly walking the direction from whence she came. “You can keep the backpack, Morgan.” She said, slowly disappearing into the forest.

“What the hell was with her...?” Morgan said under her breath, gesturing for Florence and Robin to follow her.

Lily walked alone, she felt sad and dizzy, but just picked up the pace so she couldn't think about it. Looking straight at the floor the entire time but occasionally looking back up to see if she was heading the right way. She walked and walked quietly through the forest as she began to talk to herself. “Is delaying all I really do?” She shook her head and slowly walked over to a nearby tree, leaning against it and slowly sliding down into a sitting position as she hugged her skirt clad knees.

“I don't know anymore...” She sighed quietly, burying her head in her palms and stares at the ground quietly. She felt like she lost all of her energy along with her motivation, She just wanted to sit there until the sun set, she wanted to make sure everyone at least passed her so she could just quietly head back on her own. After about an hour of just sitting there, her fog was suddenly cut away with a voice.

“Lily?”A female voice said to her, Lily looked up and saw that Maria and Jonah were looking down at her. Maria walking forward and crouching down. “M-maria? How did you find me?” She asked, still feeling quite upset. Maria reached her hand out and Lily grasped onto it as she pulled her back up to look at the shorter redhead. Maria smirked some. “You're wearing a white dress, I could see you from like 1000 feet off from how badly you stand out.” She nodded and chuckled some. Jonah looked at her and walked up beside Maria. “Hey... she's bleeding, Maria.” Maria looked down and noticed that her forehead got cut open, along with some blood coming out of your mouth.

“What happened?” Maria asked, gently patting her on the shoulder to tell her to come walk with them. “Something happened... It's a long story.” She briefly explained, Maria nodded to that and she kept walking. “And what at you planning to do now?” Lily looked at the floor, rubbing her arm nervously as she explained. “I'm going to forfeit.” Maria frowned at that. “You shouldn't quit.” She stated bluntly. “At least not just yet.”

Lily shook her head some and wiped another tear from her eye. “What else am I supposed to do? Maybe I'm not cut out for doing all of this.” Maria stopped Lily, grabbing her on the shoulders and looking at her straight into her green eyes. “I'll listen to you and see how I can help.” Her voice was kind of soft and stoic sounding, but Lily quietly just stared at her face as it dawned upon her. Maybe Maria hasn't changed as much as she thought. She quickly hugged her tightly, instead, Maria not really hugging back but not pushing her away either. “Thanks... Maria.” Maria smiled and gave a reassuring nod “Don't worry about it.” Maria said, letting Lily keep hugging her. “Just follow me for now, alright?” She let go and nodded “Alright...” She said as they ventured deeper into the forest together with Jonah following just behind.

“So, what happened?” Maria asked simply. Lily sighed to herself, crossing her arms over her own chest as she looked at Maria and Jonah. “We got into a fight.” Maria sneered at that and shook her head. “What a bitch...” She commented, but Lily shook her head. “She had a point... But I couldn't take the constant insults. And I just launched at her and started to hit her.” Lily explained, Jonah looked surprised by that, walking a little faster to look at her face when he talked. “Wait, YOU hit HER?” He asked, she just nodded and sighed. “I'm not proud of it either, Jonah.” Maria unfolded the map as she spoke, checking their directions again.

“She was upset that me or my father never preformed any acts of charity... she has a point. I mostly didn't think people were as desperate as I thought... But my father has a different story altogether.” Jonah nodded as Maria began to check for any upcoming hazards on the map. “Ever since mom divorced him, he just buried his face so deep in his business the only person who actually spends any time with him is his advisers. I never hear more than a sentence from him... He didn't even care that I was joining Spectrum or anything.”

Jonah nodded and looked a little sad at that. “Yeah... Charity is nice and all but your dad doesn't even seem to want to have anyone around, I don't think anyone's going to get money from him while he's still breathing.” He stated, Lily shook her head and sighed. “I'm going to do my best to help people when I can... I don't want to come up with excuses.” Jonah sighed and looked at her. “Charity isn't supposed to be out of obligation, Lily. Charity is out of kindness for your fellow man, only donate if you feel like you want to help them, not because you feel like you just want to save face.”

Lily nodded gently. “That's what I'm going to try and do when I get the chance.” Jonah smiled at that as Maria cut into their conversation. “We're about 3 miles out from a pretty big river, We have to cross it or else we'll have to head 30 miles to walk around the lake it feeds into.” She stated as a matter of fact, Jonah spoke up to ask a question. “How wide is the river, do you think?” Maria shook her head some. “I don't really know, just wanted to give you guys a heads up” She said, folding up the map and placing it back into her backpack and taking a swig from her canteen while they continued to hike.

Spectrum 5: Delirium

In this very special episode: Maria eats a sandwich.

Chapter 5: Delirium

Maria woke up in her bedroom, groaning as she rubbed her eyes from the bright orange hue of the morning sun. She slid out of bed and quickly remade the covers so they would look somewhat neat. She took a moment, sitting on the edge of it and looking around a little bit. Her room was a very soft shade of blue. Her desk and dresser were both made of the same cherry wood, a small computer set up with her chair tucked underneath. Her dresser had pictures resting ontop of it showing her, her sister Sienna, their father Michael, and her mother Lorrie. Her mother, along with her and her siblings all had the same dark red shade of hair, while their father had more of a black color to his. She smiled some, walking up to the dresser, pulling back a drawer and grabbing some clothed to get changed.

She folded up her pajamas, setting them into a clothes hamper to put in the washing machine for later, and then walked over to a mirror. She was wearing her usual at home outfit, a long sleeved navy blue shirt and black jeans. Her hair was straight, long and red, going all the way down to her shoulders, a bang covering some of her face and leaving her lone blue eye peeking out along with a bit of her forehead.

She gently grabbed the frame of the mirror, gently leaning into it and staring at her face. She was called pretty fairly often, but she felt like that was a normal thing to say when people talk to a teenage girl. Self esteem seems to be so important for people her age, but she kind of didn't really care. She doesn't really like to act like a girl, or a boy. She just always liked to act like herself and never felt like she had to change for anybody, if they didn't like her, she would just move on.

She kept looking into the mirror, and she suddenly noticed for a brief moment, her uncovered eye began to flash red. She jerked back from the surprise, before looking out of morbid curiosity... They were back to just being blue. Blue like they've always been, blue like they always will be. She shook her head a couple of times, quickly dismissing that from her memory as she walked over to the light switch, turning her ceiling fan on, she always did this when she woke up. The air had a bad habit of getting stagnant on her, and the fan was probably her best solution.

She huffed her shoulders and looked up, smiling a bit as the fan slowly twirled overhead, the airflow to cause her hair slowly sway in the breeze. She looked down at the pictures on her desk, and quirked an eyebrow. She leaned in once again to inspect them, she noticed something was wrong. She grabbed onto one of the picture frames and inspected it. It was just her and Sienna standing together, her mom and her dad were both missing.

She tilted her head, pacing in circles around the room and staring at the wooden picture frame. She stood once again in front of the mirror, but then noticed something once again. Her hand felt hot... not warm, but nearly burning hot. She looked down, the picture had ignited, ashes of it flying into the air and fading into the ether. She dropped it and lurched back, letting out a shriek. But when she shrieked, she had no voice. It was nothing but silence, she gently held her hand to her chest, squeezing it tight to help soothe the pain. She accidentally glanced back at the mirror and realized that things have changed once again.

The image staring back into her in the mirror was different. She looked taller, her skin was sickly pale and she had dark rings under her eyes. Her hair was cut much shorter, and looked somewhat ragged. Her eyes were crimson, a shade of vivid red like pools full of blood. She rubbed her eyes, but the image stayed the same, glaring back at her unforgivably no matter how she moved, her reflection stayed still and just... peered.

She looked around her solemn reflection, her sky blue room had charred wall paper, broken glass, everything looked seared and destroyed around her. She cringed some as she noticed her reflection was beginning to burn away as well, her body slowly being turned into ashes in the breeze, flowing into the open window and turning into nothingness.

The morning sun began to fade, the sunlight turned an eerie brown color, getting nearly as dark as night as it struggled to pierce the clouds, the room slowly looked less and less welcome, she slowly walked back to her bed and noticed that the sheets were burning away. She gasped and turned around. Everything in her room was doing the same thing, burning into soot and ash. She felt a soreness in her back like being branded, the searing ache across her entire back and shoulders nearly crippled her, causing to fall onto her face before crawling to the door.

When the door swung open, she just realized where she was. This was the day her parents died and her life was changed forever. The hallway was full of smoke clogging the upper half of air, the kitchen was once again collapsed, But the door to her fathers room was missing. Fire was licking the sides of it, but it looked like she could walk through.

She tried to call out to her dad, to see if he was there, but once again her voice fell on only silence. She tried again, shouting her heart out and once again there was nothing. Her voice just didn't seem to exist. She closed her eyes, hoping none of this was real... but then she realized.

The air was clogged and ashy, the smoke she inhaled through her nose burned its way down and seared her lungs like she was inhaling powered glass. The heat of the flames were warm on her face, not a cozy warm, but an uncomfortable warm... It hurt to feel it. She opened her eyes to find herself in the exact same place, staring at the gaping flaming door frame in the shambles of her old house.

She inhaled and broke out into a run, dashing along the hallway and making a deft leap through the flames before landing on her shoulder, rolling back onto her feet. She turned around, and noticed that the flaming door that still showed her home was still there, but she was surrounded by darkness. Up above, below, to each side was darkness as far as the eye can see. Her footsteps echoed hundreds of times as she walked, but when she leaned down to slide her hand on the ground, it felt smooth like glass.

She looked around, rubbing her face to get rid of some of the soot, wondering if there was a single feature in this black void where her father and mothers room used to be. The frame of the doorway grew smaller and smaller with each step, almost like a portrait of destruction that slowly faded from view. She kept going, walking backwards to watch it grow smaller and smaller, until it slowly faded from existence as well, leaving nothing but black. The only thing she could see was her hands out in front of her.

She heard a faint whisper, so faint that she could barely hear it over the sound of her own heart beating, she looked up to see where it came from.. but the void stayed the same as it was, until she noticed a small orange speck in the distance. It wasn't the flaming door, that was the way she came from. This was in the completely opposite direction. She began to wander towards it, the pain in her back was surging, feeling like it was heating up. It was excruciating, but she forced herself to continue, slowly hobbling toward the light.


The light began to slowly grow and fill her peripheral vision, getting brighter and brighter, the muffled whispers still unintelligible in her ear. She broke out into a run, she was straining to continue but pushed on anyway with perseverance, not caring about the pain anymore as the light grew. The soft orange glow heating up her face more and most as she ran.

Once she got close enough, she realized that what she was looking at in the black void was a phoenix. It screeched and began to fill the black sky with fire. Slowly covering all she could see with a fire so bright that she had to turn her head away. “It is almost over...” A calm, male but somewhat feminine voice echoed overhead.

It screeched again. “Close your eyes for one moment, and the pain will end.” It declared, Maria gasped as her heart began to race, falling onto her back and staring up at it with a panicked look on her face, her red eyes sharply glaring up at it. She couldn't mistake what she was looking at. She gulped and stood up, ready to scream at it, but once again her voice was mute. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and well up, making her eyes sting from the mixture of the tears and heat. She silently shouted again, pointing a hand at it.

“Only more moment until the hurting stops...” It said, and Maria's hand ignited into flame. She felt every moment of it as pain surged into her hand and up her body, her entire body slowly igniting and bursting into fire. Heat nearly melting her flesh as she panicked, spinning around and tripping once again when she tried to break out into a run. Her body slowly whittling away to ash in the stagnant air as she ran, it consuming her more and more, shouting quietly once last time before fading into nothing.

Maria quickly gasped for air, shouting a blood curdling scream into the air as she awoke, quickly rolling to one side to try and dash away before falling out of the top bunk of the bed. She fell briefly, her body smashing into the hardwood floor with a dull thud. She scratched at the ground, throwing away her blankets and standing up. Currently clad in her black pajama pants and a loose shirt. She looked around the room and realized she was back in her dorm. She raised her hands and slowly placed them on her throat, she was afraid to talk, but forced herself through it with a gulp.

“I...I-I-....G-Gah..” She coughed loudly, collapsing back onto her knees and planting her hands into the floor. She felt so weak, sick and afraid. “What the hell was that...?” She quietly asked herself, feeling her hands and legs shaking as she stood back up, stumbling over and leaning against the wall to recollect herself.

“The dream hurt you, didn't it?” The male voice spoke to her, it's feminine voice slightly echoing, but it didn't really seem like it was in the same room, from the way it reverberated. She looked up, her eyes looking around the room and seeing nothing. “W-who said that..?” She said, nervously as her eyes darted around the room, running over to her dresser and searching around hastily. “It was I, Right here.” A small red phoenix floated down and perched itself on the dresser. It looked translucent and glowing, its large eyes glowing a blank orange color. It looked as small as a parakeet, except.. well it was a phoenix.

It stepped a little closer, chirped and looked up at her. Maria's fear turned into focused anger, her eyes glaring and piercing right through the little bird. “Is this a joke?” She said, her voice showing a calm dismay. The small phoenix tilted his head at that. “What's a joke?” He wondered, Maria leaned down, narrowing her eyes. “You. What the hell are you?” The phoenix looked down at the ground, sighing some, his voice sounding like it was transcending sound and entering the center of her head.

“I've been... with you for a while now, but this was the first time we spoke. Unfortunately... As soon as you give it some thought, you'll know who I really am.” He said, his voice showing some signs of sorrow.

Maria lifted a brow, before quickly clawing so hard into the dresser that her fingernails dug into it. “No way...” She exclaimed, not believing it. He nodded his head some, chirping again. “You're the one who did it...” She growled some, tears rolling down her cheeks once again as she glared daggers at him. “Yes, I ended up killing your parents. It honestly was a huge mistake, it was like I couldn't control myself...” He calmly stated, backing up a step.

Maria suddenly broke into a loud shout. “WHY? WHY DID YOU DO IT!?” She shouted, her hands trembling some as she pressed into the table, the muscles in her arms and shoulders tensing a bit as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, she felt like she was going to boil over with fury. “I can't explain, I don't really know why anymore... Ever since they destroyed my body, I can only remember what you know in your head, since I was connected with you. I'm very sorry, Maria.” He continued, trying to gauge her reaction.

“The real reason is lost in history, unfortunately. But now we're together, we should make the best o-” Maria cut him off, grabbing the whole dressed and pushing it onto it's side with a heavy smash. The clothes fell out of it onto the floor below, the phoenix unaffected as it seemed to just flap and slowly float. “That... isn't good enough of an answer.” Maria hissed at him. Her breathing was heavy, and her fists were clenched so tight her nails were cutting into her skin.

“But it's the only answer we have, I'm so sorry for everything that's happened to you because of me.” He tried to diffuse her by just being honest, but she just reached out to try and swing at him, her hand passed right through his body like it didn't exist. She growled again, storming to her closet and grabbing her weapon bag. Undoing the zipper and quickly putting her pole arm together.

“SHUT UP.” Maria roared at the phoenix, pointing her spear tip at him. “Please, Mari-” He got cut off when Maria quickly swung her glaive at him, he quickly flapped up and it missed, slicing a diagonal cut through the blue window blinds and ruining them. She stabbed again, smashing the end of the blade into a wall before cutting toward him, him quickly flying away once again.

“NOTHING YOU SAY WILL EVER FIX THIS.” She shouted, dashing at another wall and smashing the mirror and pictures off of the wall, he landed on another dresser and she just smashed her glaive into it as well. She threw the other dresser into the ground, before turning around and seeing him on a recliner chair that was brought in, she ran at it and began to stab at it a couple more times, shouting manically at him. The spear shots just went through him like they didn't exist.

“This isn't going to work, and you know it, You're just making a mess.” He scolded quietly. Maria shouted again, stabbing through the couch this time. “JUST DIE ALREADY!” she shouted louder, before suddenly the door pulled open.

Robin stared at Maria, toteing a spear in her hands, all the furniture was either knocked over or destroyed, holes were put in the walls, nothing wasn't knocked over and Maria was just glaring at an empty couch with these searing red eyes of hate she's never saw before. Her jaw dropped in shock, the bag of food she went to get Maria since it's been a couple of days since she fell asleep, the food dropping onto the floor quietly. “What happened?” She quietly asked, slightly fearful as to what Maria might respond with.

Maria just shouted at her, her voice panicking with the shaking of her hands like she couldn't handle her own rage. “H-he's right there! He killed them! He killed my family!” She shrieked, pointing at the chair she was stabbing, Robin looking where she pointed and there was nothing but a destroyed chair.

“There's nothing there, Maria.” Robin replied with confusion, but instantly Maria just screamed at her, running up and grabbing the collar of her shirt. “You're lying to me! You see it, don't you!?” She shouted the questions at her, still trembling from being sent into an absolute fury. “She's right, Maria” The bird said, flying up to perch on the livid girls shoulder. “No one can see or hear me except you, its because of the burns I gave you.”

She began to break down, sputtering and panting under her breath while more tears began to surge down her face. She pushed Robin back and dashed down the hall. “Leave me alone!” She shouted, heading downstairs and running outside. She dashed to the closest trashcan and collapsed to her legs, she lifted her head up as something welled in her stomach, before violently vomiting into the trashcan once or twice, dropping to the sidewalk beside it as the bird slowly floated down to land beside her. “You can't keep doing that, the sudden change in emotions is too much for your body to handle.” He said, showing some concern.

“Shut up..” Maria barked between her panting breaths, she felt sick and didn't feel like standing back up. A male voice suddenly shouted at her just across the courtyard, Maria glanced up and noticed it was the member of her sister team, Jonah Delaney. He ran over beside her and looked down at the lone girl. “I saw you blow chunks in that trash can, are you sick or something?” He said, reaching down to grab her by the arm, hoping to lift her up. She was pulled back onto her feet, but quickly stumbled once again and fell back onto her butt.

“Yep, Sick.” He commented with a light chuckle. “You know, I used to get sick all the time during car rides when I was a little younger.” He rubbed his shoulder some, giving a reassuring smile to Maria. Maria cocked her head to one side, raising a brow. “Jonah, is this about anything that matters?”

“Well...” Jonah trailed on, standing her up and walking with her along the courtyard. Her panic slowly faded but it seemed like she was just annoyed or frustrated. “I wanted to tell your dorm that Sienna and Ashley decided to start the exam today.” Maria rolled her eyes and sighed at that. “This is totally the best day for it, I guess.” She said sarcastically, yawning and walking with him along the sidewalk.

“I can tell that's sarcasm. So... can you tell me why you were throwing up?” She looked at the ground underneath her, sighing as she tried to think of an excuse. “I got kind of sick, haven't been holding anything down.” The phoenix appeared and landed on Maria's shoulder, but since she didn't feel it, she couldn't notice. “Please don't lie to people.” Maria quietly thought 'Like anyone would believe me if I told them the truth.' to herself, looking up at him, her hands were still shaking, he looked down and grabbed her hand, stopping her and lifting it up.

“You're shivering, also... your hands feel really cold. Have you held down any food or water the past few days?” He wondered, Maria wriggled her hands, yanking them away from him with a nonplussed look on her face. “No, and don't grab my hands again without asking.” she reprimanded him, shaking her head and walking ahead of him. “S-sorry, Maria!” She kept walking off, not turning around as he quietly stood awkwardly in the middle of the sidewalk. “Get some food! You'll feel better.” He said, somewhat shouting.


Maria barked back. “Fine! Whatever!” She said, turning a corner and heading to the cafeteria by herself. The cafeteria was pretty big, but it kind of reminded her of a much larger version of her own school. There was a place to buy food, a place to sit and eat, and vending machines lining each side. She sighed and pulled out her wallet, pulling it open and inspecting it to realize that she STILL had no money. Lunch didn't seem like it was going to be an option.


She looked around the lunchroom, hundreds of teens and adults dressed in the school uniform were eating, chatting, having a good time. Some were bullying or making fun of others, and some just quietly ate lunch by their selves. More to the sides of the room, the benches emptied out to near nothing, Maria walked over to an empty bench to sit alone, slouching forward and laying her chin into her hand as she closed her eyes.

“If you're still tired, you should sleep” The bird softly spoke. Maria mumbled quietly in response. “I can rest my eyes wherever I want, you're the one who gave me the nightmares.” The bird gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, I kind of did that wrong... sorry.” She lifted one eye, him walking around slowly on the lunch table in front of her. She closed her eye once again and gave a yawn. “So do I have to talk so you can hear me? Or do you read my thoughts too.” She said, he chirped and responded. “Hey, something out of you that isn't telling me to shut up, awesome.” He said jokingly before answering some, flying up and perching on her head. “The scars on your back had my magic, I'm part of your body, not your mind. So you have to actually talk for me to hear anything.” Maria replied to that almost instantly.

“Hey, bird?” She asked, the bird looked down at her. “Yes?” He asked, Maria slumped into her hand even lower, her arm the only thing holding her hand up. “Shut up.” The bird sighed, curling up and resting in her hair as Maria began to drift off for a short nap in her seat. Her eyes grew heavy as a gentle voice spoke up and broke her drowsiness.

“May I sit here?” She asked, Maria opened her eyes and sat back up. The girl was wearing a dark red school uniform with a white blouse underneath of it, a blue bow tied around her neck. Her skin was fair, her hair was the whitest hair Maria had ever seen, longer than her shoulders and having several blue ribbons tying around certain strands to pull them into a small braid. Her eyes were a vivid pink color and looked nothing like anything she's seen before.

Her features seemed pretty standard, her skin was pretty smooth and well kept along with her hair, her head had a more oval shape to Maria's, but they were the same height. Maria could guess she was a little older since she just didn't have that look to her. “Go ahead.” Maria said flatly, the girl smiled and sat down on the other side of the bench with a smile. “Thank you, miss. Do you sit here often?” Maria looked up, shaking her head and watching her as she pulled out a sandwich from the bag. “No, I don't” Maria answered, still somewhat drowsy, but still able to hold a conversation.

“Do you?” Maria asked, and the white haired girl nodded some. “Yeah, this is where I always eat lunch, people don't really enjoy eating with me.” Maria shrugged a bit, leaning back and scratching though her hair with one hand. “Any reason why?” She asked, with a hint of curiosity. The girl looked to the floor, shaking her head gently. “I was born here, and raised here. My parents were immigrants. People don't really enjoy my kind being here after the war 20 years ago, even if I call this my one and only home.” She answered, this caused Maria to raise a brow, rubbing her own cheek with her hand and crossing her arms on the table. “Weird, The crossing restriction only got lifted 10 years ago.”

The girl nodded, the crossing restriction was placed after the war ended to not raise political tensions, pretty much locking anyone from going to another continent to avoid any misunderstandings or reasons for the war to break out again. The law was lifted after a decision, but people barely cross the waters anymore. “We moved here just before that, in hopes of finding a new life.” Maria nodded at her response, blinking a couple of times. “And how did that go?” Maria wondered, scratching her shoulder. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, it must've been a soft spot for her, Maria quietly thought to herself from her reaction.

“Father abandoned us, and mother died giving birth to me. I was raised by an orphanage instead.” Maria nodded a little bit, her being from Astra explained her odd coloring, since the Astrian natives tended to have white hair and red or pink eyes. “Thus why my name is Cassandra, and not something like Revesia, like my mother was.” She leaned back and sighed, crossing her arms. “Nothing about me, what about you? Where are your parents.” Maria looked at a wall when she asked that, before looking back at her. “They died three years ago when a monster attacked our home.” Cassandra's face turned somber, reaching up and gently rubbing onto her shoulder. “I'm really sorry, Miss.” Maria grabbed her hand, gently pulling it off of her and looking up at her with a sharp gaze.

“Don't feel sorry for me, it's in the past.” Cassandra pulled her hand away from Maria with a nod, leaning back against and continuing to eat her food. “To be honest, I'm surprised.” Cassandra observed, giving a friendly smile to her. “You're the first person in my school besides my instructor who wants to talk to me. Everyone else just slings insults at me.. sometimes they even beat me up.” Maria frowned at that and sighed. “I don't judge people until I know them.” Maria quietly answered.

Cassandra nodded with a smile. “That's a good trait to have, you know... Means you're easy to be friends with.” Maria chuckled at that, patting the table firmly to make a thud. “Hell no, I'm not likable. I'm a fucking jerk with emotional problems.” Maria replied. “If you think I'm a nice person, you're sorely mistaken.” Maria warned, but Cassandra shook her head. “Yet you gave me more of a chance than other students, that has to add up to something.” Maria glared up at her with her deep red eyes and sighed. “...Why do you not have any food? This is the cafeteria you know..” Cassandra broke the brief silence with her question.

“I have no money.” Maria said, somewhat annoyed by that fact still. Cassandra quietly pondered before reaching in and placing a second sandwich in front of her. “You can have mind, hope you're not allergic to ham or anything.” She looked down, unwrapping the plastic, her hands still gently shivering as she lifted it up. “Thanks, I guess.” Maria replied, biting into it. It was okay for a sandwich, it was kind of hard to screw up a sandwich unless you replaced the mayonnaise with toothpaste or something equally stupid.

She quickly finished the sandwich, cleaning up any leftover crumbs and quickly getting out of her chair, turning around and getting ready to quietly leave. “Oh, are you in a hurry?” Maria put her hands in the pockets of her pajamas, turning around to look back at her. “Yeah, I have my entrance exams soon.” Cassandra nodded. “Those are pretty hard when you're new; By the way, can I ask you two things?”

Maria shrugged her shoulders. “Go ahead.” She said, stretching her arms a bit.

“What's your name?” Cassandra asked.

“Maria.” Maria replied, looking back at her with a hand resting on her hip. “What was the other thing?”
“Will you... eat lunch with me again when you come back?” Cassandra asked of her, Maria looked confused and cocked her brow, her head tilting some as she looked back. “Why?” Cassandra blushed a bit and looked at the floor. “Well... I just like having someone to talk to.” Maria gave a light chuckle and turned around, walking away as she replied. “I'll try, but no promises.” She answered back, Cassandra looked around a little bit before tucking her arms closer, giving a very quiet sounding “Yay,”. As the doors swung shut to the lunch room.

The bird reappeared on Maria's shoulder. “Hey, I think that was the most I've ever seen you socialize! Good job, sweety.” Maria stopped, and glared at him. “Two things, bird. Never call me sweetie again unless you want me to rip your throat out... And I still hate you for everything you've caused me.”

The bird sighed, looking down from feeling suddenly depressed. “I know, just... trying to lighten up the mood.” He commented, fading back into the ether.

“Whatever you call it, bird.” She said, walking back to the front of the dorm and seeing Jonah sitting on one of the stairs of the staircase that led up to the dormitory. Jonah looked up, running over to her and standing in front of her.

“You finished?” He asked, she just nodded. His face looked a bit upset Maria noticed, crossing her arms and tilting her head. “What is it?” She inquired, he rubbed the back of his head and chuckled awkwardly. “Uhhh... Robin told me what happened, Are you feeling okay?” Maria growled in frustration and began to walk away, Jonah breaking into a brisk jog to follow her. “I'm not going to talk about it.” She stated flatly, a scowl on her face. “That's fine too...” He said, trailing off with a hint of concern still in his voice.

“Take me to where the exam is happening” Maria demanded, her voice still monotone. He quickly put on a smile, jogging faster. “Got it! Just follow me.” He said, jogging fast enough to get ahead of Maria, then walking together where the exam was going to begin.

SPECTRUM: 4

Somehow updated more than once a week.

Chapter 4: Reason

Morgan took the money she got and quickly pocketed it. Maria insulted her on her way out but honestly she was thick skinned enough to know that wasn't even close to the worst thing she's ever heard. She had the rest of her day free to do whatever she pleased, so first she headed back to her dorm to put up her huge sword somewhere safe. She crossed Maria who was busy leaning up against a wall and staring at the sky, so she didn't even bother to talk to her on the way in.

She opened the door to the closet in her side of the dorm, slipping the blade into a big carrying case and zipping it up before leaning it against a wall. When she opened the door, there stood the somewhat shorter angry teenage redhead everybody 'loved' Maria. “What is it?” Morgan asked her, leaning against the door frame. “Nothing... Just.. Nothing.” She said, turning her shoulder and grazing past her quickly.

Morgan shook her head and slowly went over to grab one of her own bags she used to unpack a couple of days ago. Maria climbed onto the upper part of her bunk bed, the carrying case for her weapon in hand, Morgan said nothing to her and gently closed the door behind her. 'She's really inconsistent...' She thought to herself. Maria always seems to flip back and fourth between quiet, sarcastic, loud and sad at pretty much random times. She's never really gotten to talk to her before, but she's not even sure it would be anything pleasant, it's probably more likely to be an argument.

It's not like she hated Maria or anything, Maria had a lot of bad shit happen to her. You can't really get out of that and end up as the same person you were before. But even then, if she's going to have the same room as Maria does, she'd rather have Maria actually be pleasant to be around and not just... whatever the hell she currently is.

Morgan headed out the front door of the dorm, walking along the courtyard and into the parking lot placed just to the side of the front gate. She pulled a key from her pocket to pop the seat open to her dark red colored motor scooter, pulling out a helmet and pulling her black hair out of the way of her eyes while she put it on her head. She replaced the seat, and turned on the ignition, getting on it and twisting the gas handle a couple of times to warm it up. She slipped the bag onto her shoulder and slowly pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.

The shadow hours began while she was driving. The sun would drift behind the rift around noon and last a couple of hours, making it look like a mixture of a sunset and an eclipse, luckily it wasn't really too dark and she could drive without turning on the lights. She finally got to her first destination, a small corner market she could get supplies from. She turned off the engine and climbed off, with the bag over her shoulder and resting under one arm, the pushed the door open with one hand, hearing a little bell ringing that was attached to the door swinging.

“Welcome!” An elderly man said at the front desk, Morgan walked up and nodded her head. “Do you mind if I use this big bag for what I'm going to buy?” The old man nodded, adjusting the cap on his balding white haired head. “Oh it's fine, Missy. Just remember to pay for it.” She turned away and began walking the small aisles. “Of course I will.”

She walked into the canned goods section, looking over the price tags and grabbing what she could, stuffing them into her big shoulder bag.

She wouldn't stop filling it until it was much heavier than before, stacked to the brim with cans of soup, pasta, fruit, vegetables and sauce. She carried the entire thing to the front, placing it in front of the elderly man with a soft thump from the weight of it. “Do you have something I could take on the go?” The old man nodded. “You could probably get one of those milkshakes from the refrigerated section. “Go ring that up, then. I'll get one of those milkshakes for myself.” He nodded, pulling out cans and slowly scanning each one.

“What do ya need all these cans for? You doin' a picnic or something?” Morgan shook her head, grabbing a milkshake and placing it beside him for him to scan after he was finished. “I had some left over money, so I wanted to give it to some people who need it more than I do.” He nodded, scanning the last and charging her the money. She slipped him the 100 Geld note and he gave her back a couple of coins in change, she pulled them over her shoulder and waved to the old man as she left. “Have a good day, lil' lady.” He shouted to her as she closed the door.

The scooter started back up, chugging a bit from the extra weight, but once it got going, everything was mostly back to normal. Getting to her next destination was quite the long drive, and those bags would probably start hurting her shoulder after a while but honestly she didn't mind it much.

The city was quite a nice place to live in, it was one of the bigger cities in all of Rosewall. It received a lot of attention recently for being one of the biggest economical powerhouses after Ash was introduced along with Spectrum being built. But that brought good attention along with the bad. People began to sell Ash weapons in unofficial channels, knowing that most people had no right to use it unless they had an academy license to do so.

Citizens didn't like how they were so restricted on using these weapons to protect themselves. They had people to protect them, but they always had to rely on someone else they didn't even know for their safety. So people actually protested it at first, saying that they wanted to be able to protect their own homes and families without having the Academy have to travel there and possibly fail.

People have come to accept it more recently, but some people use the ash weapons to hurt more than protect. This caused a massive rift in the community and a lot of violence broke out over it. Even a war between Rosewall and Astra, a country to the north over how important the weapons were going to be. Morgan knew Lily's father was pretty much the main driving force behind that choice, refusing to license anything that wasn't directly sponsored by him pretty much caused a monopoly on the whole market.

Her thoughts continued to wander, looking at the construction workers slowly repairing a building with their huge construction tools, the monster attacks have been causing less collateral damage in Riverside, but she wished that was the news in the rest of Rosewall as well. The damage and death has been nice and steady on the outside, these academies were still being built and they've only been starting to get marginal success recently.

She pulled around a corner and parked her scooter once again, hiding her helmet and tucking the keys back into her pocket when she turned it off. She kicked the stand and walked along the sidewalk, before coming before a rather large building amid the suburban homes. It looked like a re purposed church, the walls were slate and made of stones, held together by mortar. The windows formerly used to be stained glass, but were replaced with oddly arched windows instead.

She walked up the staircase, it was stone and lined with more stone on each side to lean onto, she got up to the wooden door, hefted the bag back up to her shoulder and gave it a couple of heavy knocks. There was a silence, but the door slowly creaked open with a sound that only a couple hundred year old church could only make.

A woman stood in front of Morgan, she was in her 40's, her hair was a silver shade of gray and pulled into a low ponytail. Her skin was tanned, and besides a wrinkle or two on her lips and forehead she still seemed healthy for her age, She smiled at Morgan, stepping aside. “Welcome back, Morgan.” She nodded her head, stepping inside and looking around.

“Wow, this place never seems to change.” She commented softly. The older woman nodded, giving a slight chuckle. “Yep, Greyhill Orphanage has been pretty much the same for decades now. Same old stone and mortal walls, same hard wood floor as it's always been.” The older woman said, looking at the bag over Morgan's shoulder as she hefted it onto the table. “What did you bring?” Morgan opened the back, grabbing some of the cans and pulling them out, holding them in her hands. “This place is still non-profit, right?” The woman nodded. “Well, since I came across a bit of money recently, I wanted to make a donation of food to you guys.”

The woman smiled and ran over, gently patting on Morgan's shoulder, Morgan kind of had a couple of inches up on her since she was pretty tall compared to the older woman. “Oh thank you, sweety. I know most people who live here usually want to get out when they become an adult, but I'm really happy you seem to enjoy actually coming back.”

Morgan nodded, taking the bag again and shrugging her shoulders. “I've lived here most of my life along with my brother Nick. I felt like I should thank you guys for taking care of us when no one else would and donating seems like the best way I could” The woman nodded some, leaning onto a table. “Well there is another way you could help, Why don't you just volunteer here?” Morgan shook her head with a sigh, grabbing some of the cans and taking them to a nearby food cabinet. “I'm sorry, Annette. I'm with Spectrum now, They don't let people work on the side or anything. All I can do is these short visits and not much more.”

She nodded some and grabbed some cans as well, putting them up along with her, but letting Morgan get the higher shelves thanks to being a good 5-6 inches taller. “Yeah... But that academy is dangerous. You're risking your life to help people when you could just help here instead.” Morgan shook her head, finishing the cans Annette couldn't reach, walking over and leaning against a nearby wall. “Nowhere is safe, Annette. One of the people on my team had nearly her entire family killed off while they were at home. I'd rather just... face the problem people are suffering from head on instead of just repairing and providing relief in their wake.” Morgan explained, her voice much calmer than whenever she spent time with her team.

Annette closed the cabinets, turning to face Morgan as she walked toward her, placing her hand onto Morgan's shoulder. “I know, Morgan. You always wanted to look your problems in the eye. But still... I helped raise you with my grandmother, before she died. I just don't want to see people I took care of getting hurt.. That goes for you, your brother and anyone else who ever walks through these doors when they need help.”

Morgan smiled with a sigh. “Honestly, I'm still glad this place is still up and running.” Morgan said with a smile. Annette nodded, releasing her shoulder and crossing her arms as she kept talking to Morgan. “We barely scrape by usually, it's pretty consistent even if we can only just barely make the expenses every month.” Morgan frowned at that.

“Only barely? Was it like that when I was here, too?” She said, concerned a little bit, but Annette gave a soft nod to that. “Same as it ever was.” Annette replied, grabbing an apple from a fruit basket sitting on a nearby table, taking a bite into it. Morgan sighed and sunk her head. “Look, I want to help. I'll give you half of my paychecks from Spectrum to help you pay the bills” Annette looked a little apprehensive and walked up to her, raising her hand slightly.

“I couldn't do that to you, Morgan. I don't want to take money from you to help this place running, that's your livelihood I'm cutting into.” Annette said with concern, Morgan shook her head and replied. “There was something I learned from living here for 12 years of my life. We take what we get for granted. What people usually need is not what they want, because the truth is, all they need is food, water, a place to rest and stay warm, and clean clothes on their backs. Spectrum has all of that, free of charge. Anything else I get isn't really a requirement. I'm offering this to you out of kindness, not out of spite.”

Annette nodded again. “If you want to do that, then I can't stop you.” Morgan smiled again, and Annette Turned away to check behind a door. She saw some toddlers play with their toy blocks before closing the door quietly and looking back at the young raven haired adult. “Have you seen Nick recently?” She wondered, Morgan shrugged her shoulders at the question. “He apparently met some friends who got him a job, but he hasn't been answering my phone calls. It's been nearly 4 months now, and I still heard nothing.” Annette sighed and shook her head. “Well try and find him, tell him I sent my greetings.”

Morgan lifted her head to nod, before noticing a door pop open, and a child's head poke out. The look on his face suddenly got excited, the dark brown haired kid running up and hugging around Morgan's waist tight, his cheek pressing against her stomach. “Morg!” He shouted, She chuckled and rubbed his head a couple of times to mess up his hair. “Hey Johnny.” She said with a smile. “You got taller in the past couple of months, didn't you?” He nodded a couple of times. “I'm 9 now!” He said with excitement, he let go of the hug and looked up at her, she bent down and grinned. “Well a happy birthday to you, then. I got you guys a bunch of food, but I'm sorry I couldn't get you a gift or anything.” He nods a bit. “It's okay!” He said with enthusiasm.

Morgan stood back up. “Well don't you worry, I'll get you something when I come back next week, alright?” He nodded again when she said that, and she grinned a bit. “You know, I'm sorry to cut this short, Annette.” She started. “But I can't be away for too long before people start wondering where I left, so I'm going to head on back.” She smiled and walked up to give Morgan her own hug. “Take care of yourself, sweetie.” Annete said, Morgan quietly hugged back. “Of course I will.” She said, pulling out of the hug and turning back around to head outside the door.

She went down the stairs as the door closed behind her, she got back onto her scooter and rode quietly all the way back to the academy. She headed back inside the main dorm and headed up the stairs to their room once again. Robin was standing in front of it and gave a soft bow of her head. “Just a heads up, Morgan.” She said calmly. “Maria seems to be falling in and out of consciousness from her head injury. I suggest you stay quiet and try not to wake her up.” Morgan shrugged at that and gave a friendly chuckle. “She's a big girl, she can handle being woken up from nap time.”

Morgan blinked some, before adding to that previous statement. “Well big in the age sense, she's pretty short.” Robin stepped out of the way of the door to let Morgan in, but she stayed still and looked up at her.

“I have a question for you, Robin.” Morgan stated, folding her arms and leaning against the door frame. “Yes, Morgan?” She replied, reaching up to adjust the bun in her hair to be a little cleaner looking. “Don't take this the wrong way, but why did you join?” Morgan asked her, a look of curiosity on her face. Robins lips pursed and moved more to one side, tilting her head and pondering some. “You might need to rephrase that, what do you mean?”

“Well... you're 22. I'm not calling you old or anything, but wouldn't you have figured out what you wanted to do with your life a couple of years before that? You're a freshman but you have nearly 4 years on me and 2 years on our instructor.” Morgan observed casually, Robin's face plastered with a somewhat unsure look on her face, placing one of her hands onto her hip and looking up at her. “To be honest, originally this wasn't what I wanted to do. But... My brother wanted to do this. I joined so I could keep a close eye on him.” Robin revealed, blinking a couple of times as they stood only a couple of feet apart, looking up at the much taller black haired girl.

Morgan frowned a bit, she didn't expect that kind of answer from Robin. “Florence is pretty young, but didn't you trust his decisions at all? I'm pretty sure if he really wanted to do this then he would have been prepared for it.” Robin sighed, walking over to a nearby water fountain across the hall and taking a sip from it before turning back around to reply. “He's still not an adult, it's my responsibility to make sure nothing happens to him, since I'm really the only one here he knows.”

Morgan shook her head, pinching between her brow with a look of irritation. “I think you're only just coddling him, how is he supposed to learn anything if you can't even let him do anything on his own?” Robin scoffed some at that, lifting her chin and lidding her eyes some. “I'll teach him anything this academy doesn't, I don't see what the problem is.” Morgan tilted an eyebrow at that.

“That isn't what I mean, haven't you heard the proverb? 'Learning is hearing, knowing is watching, understanding is doing'? He's not going to understand any of this unless he does it himself.” Robin placed her hand onto Morgan's shoulder, her face cracking the veneer of calmness and looking just a bit upset. “I just want my only brother to not get killed, please don't tell me how to raise my own family. They aren't your problem.” Robin protested, her voice raised slightly from getting called out by Morgan.

Morgan lifted her hand, pushing Robin's off of her shoulder and furrowing her brow a little bit. “Suit yourself if you want to think that way. But for you, Robin? You need to come here for your own reason, not someone else's. If you don't come up with your own, you're just going to end up regretting everything you've done.” Morgan turned away, slowly walking down the hall as she spoke. “Spectrum is no place for regret, I hope you keep that in mind next time.”

Robin sighed, opening the door and heading back to her dorm room to check on Maria. She was out of her school uniform and in a pair of night clothes, a simple black pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She was on her back, breathing deeply while she was out cold. Robin walked in and held the back of her hand to Maria's forehead. It was clammy and hot, as if she almost had a fever. Robin sighed some. “I should probably get her some food.” She exited out the door and began to walk back down the hall.

“My own reason...” She muttered to herself. 'What's the problem with not having a specific motivation for joining into a good cause?' She thought to herself, heading down the staircase slowly. 'Isn't me being on the front lines enough of a reason for me to be here? People are scared and they need every person they can to fight back against those monsters...”