We Belong To No One.

There had been only a handful of times in Clay's life he had been truly suprised. If someone would have told him a year ago that a fragile girl with a mouse face would be healing him in the middle of the woods, Clay would have thought they were crazy. And yet, here he was.   But with every good thing that had ever happened in his life, there had been something else to counteract it. Some were worse than others, this being more on the worse end.  When The Legion had injected Clayton with the radioactive poison all those years ago, it had felt like his whole face had swelled. Like his lungs were going to explode; like he was drowning. This feeling, the one he was experiencing now, was the same. It happened so fast that he wasn't sure what was happening and he panicked, his eyes wide as Deserae choked him with wind. Or more like, lack of wind. Anger, desperation, fear, helpless, and pure rage. His thoughts became so scrambled he couldn't think straight and by the time it was over, the only thought left was kill.  With a huff of rage Clayton turned, knocking all the trees over behind him with just his thoughts. His breath came in ragged puffs and his hands shook. Then as quickly as the feeling came, it dissolved. For a long moment Clay just stood, his back against the group. Finally, after what seemed like years but was only minutes Clay spoke. "Did they kill all your brain cells when they changed you?!" Clayton gritted out, turning to face Des and the others. "Is your head so warpped, are you so big headed, that you can't just accept when someone is trying to protect you? Trying to help you!" Taking a step towards the silverhaired girl Clay snarled. "I could have let you fight until you were too tired to keep going, I could have let you wear yourself down and The Legion take you back to that fucking hell or kill you. I could have let you fucking freeze to death when you wandered off into the wonderland that you created. I have tried nothing but to help. I don't believe I have once attempted to hurt you or anyone else in this group." Laughing, Clay ran his hands through his hair, pacing over to the water. "You think I have to speak to control things? When you were suffocating me just now, did you really think I couldn't have told you to stop breathing too? That I couldn't have willed your body into a deep sleep that you could never wake up from?" Leaning down Clay picked up a stone and tossed it, watching it hit a bigger rock further down the stream. "Don't you ever physically harm me again. Because I don't have to stick with any of you. I didn't grow up inside that place. I had a life before the fucking sector." Taking in a deep breath Clayton straightened back up and turned to look from face to face. "And I don't know about the rest of you. But I'm tired. And hungry. And if there is some city near by, I want to hurry up and get there."  Without waiting for an answer Clay began to walk again, heading the direction they had originally been going. He didn't care if anyone else followed or not, his eyes scanning as far ahead as he could see. He was over this. As much as the ideal of having friends appealed to him, he had been alone for too long. And he wasn't going to get caught again. The walls he had let fall the night before came back up thicker this time. Clay didn't take being purposely harmed lightly and his face still held anger

Once he and Bambi had made their way back to the church, Sawyer had to pause at the edge of the clearing to try and make sense of the utter chaos in front of them. The place was crawling with Legion soldiers, that much he had known before he went to find Bambi, but now Kai and Lyra were smack in the middle of the fighting. Again, not a surprise. Those two seemed to thrive off of the chaos. The most surprising sight was the fact that the church was now engulfed in flames, and Sawyer was pretty sure he knew who the culprit was by the shit-eating grin plastered on Kai’s face.

Sawyer glanced down at Bambi as she spoke, and he knew how she felt. He wasn’t a fighter, not like the others. Though he did admire the girl as she bent down and picked up a pistol, pointed it, and shot it at the nearest Legion soldier. Sawyer’s eyes widened a bit when he saw the guard drop to the ground — but by then Bambi had already looked away, which was probably for the best. He felt his chest squeeze when she whispered that she couldn’t do it. “Hey,” Sawyer caught her gaze. “You don’t have to. Just…stay out of sight and shoot anyone that tries to come near you, okay?” The boy reached down and squeezed her wrist, he was trying to be comforting but he wasn’t sure if he was helping or hurting.

After Bambi had ducked down and out of sight, Sawyer took a deep breath and jumped into the fight. He wasn’t really sure how much good he could do, considering his combat training back at Sector Four had been sorely lacking, but he figured with the powers he had least had the element of surprise on his side.

Though, the downside to just popping into the middle of a fight is that Sawyer didn’t exactly know what he was getting himself into either. As soon as he appeared in the middle of the courtyard, he got hit in the face with the end of a rifle. Pain exploded at his temple, but he managed to teleport away before the soldier had any idea as to what he’d hit. Sawyer reappeared at the edge of the forest, shaking off the pain, taking another breath, and charging in again. This time, he appeared behind a solider. He tapped the man on the soldier, cocked an arm back, and connected his fist with the man’s jaw as he turned around. Sawyer then transported to the other side of the man and pulled his face down hard over his knee. The man collapsed and Sawyer teleported away as his buddies began to point their weapons at him.

He carried on that way for most of the fight. Popping up on some unsuspecting soldier, letting loose a flurry of blows, and then popping away before they even knew what they were being attacked by. Though Sawyer was barely making a dent in the never-ending wave of soldiers, especially in comparison to Kai and Lyra at the other end of the courtyard. The two of them looked thoroughly terrifying from Sawyer’s point of view, all shadow and smoke and flame. The Legion soldiers must have even incredibly brave to continue approaching them despite seeing the havoc they were wreaking on their fellow companions. Then out of the corner of his eye, he caught two white-haired figures emerging from the woods and he didn’t know who to be more terrified of.

Clayton wasted no time in marching up to a group of soldiers and compelling them to turn on one another. The sight was so shocking that Sawyer had merely stood there, watching, until one of the soldiers swung at him and he managed to vanish before the blow connected with his body. How do you fight a foe that could reach inside your mind? If Sawyer had been on the other side of this fight, he surely would have been sent running after that. Then Deserae stepped up, and despite her inability to control her powers the night before, the girl began blasting soldiers with sudden powerful bursts of wind.

Despite the bodies that were now piling up in the courtyard, and despite the massive displays of power Sawyer and his friends exhibited, the soldiers kept coming. And coming. And coming.

Sawyer had been disappearing and reappearing so many times, he felt like he was running on empty. That, paired with the growing cloud of smoke and ash made it difficult to breathe, let alone see. Then a helicopter flew overhead and Sawyer knew there was no way they could take them all. The Legion might not have been able to match them in power, but they were able to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Then Clay spoke. And despite the cacophony of screams and gunfire, Sawyer heard him clear as day.

Leave.

The single word repeated over and over in Sawyer’s mind and he found himself using his powers to jump away from the fight instead of into it. He was in the forest, and then he was running. Once he realizes what he was doing his steps faltered. The decision to run had not been his own. But he couldn’t think about that now. He looked wildly around for the others, and only continued to run when he saw them following close behind. Though he caught a glimpse of the chaos happening behind them and he shuddered at the sight. Sawyer tried to keep his eyes and thoughts trained on what was in front of him.

Once the group had finally put enough distance between them and the church, Sawyer allowed himself to relax. He glanced back to see Clay running toward them as Bambi spoke, asking them all if that’s how they looked — so terrifying and abnormal. The others seemed to think they did, but weren’t the ones causing the real destruction. Sawyer knew they were different, that’s how they’d been created and raised. But they weren’t all made for destruction and they weren’t all scary, so he shook his head. “You’re not,” He offered quietly. “You put people back together. That’s the farthest thing from destruction I can think of,” Sawyer smiled at the girl, right up until Clay announced that he’d been shot.

The boy didn’t seem too concerned about the wound, but it was jarring to see one of them injured nonetheless. Sawyer looked over the others, trying to see if anyone else had been hurt as well. From what he could gather, the rest of them had gotten out of it relatively unscathed.

They walked for a while in relative silence, beside the quiet murmurings between Kai and Lyra at the front and an annoyed looking Des beside them. Sawyer walked beside Bambi, too exhausted to say anything, but he was glad the girl was alright. Bambi suggested they stop and rest beside a stream, and Sawyer couldn’t agree more. His entire body ached and his mind still felt muddled from the night of drinking they’d had. He was just about to sit down against a tree when Bambi’s voice rang out amongst them. Sawyer blinked in confusion, unsure at first, that the comment had come from her. He was used to her speaking so bluntly.

When Bambi requested that someone hold her waist and steady her while she healed Clay, Sawyer stepped forward without a second thought. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d been so eager, but he put his hands around her waist and waited. While he’d seen Bambi heal Des in the woods, he wasn’t sure why she needed someone to hold her steady now. Then as she placed her hands on the boy’s broken skin, he understood. She absorbed the wound, and the pain, from whoever she was healing. Her power had a personal consequence. Sawyer felt Bambi squirm and try to pull away but his grip remained steady. He’d promised her that he would hold her still, that he wouldn’t let her pull away, and no matter how much it hurt him to see her in pain — he was a man of his word.

He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to be comforting or how to make it all okay. “I’m here,” Was what he settled on. “I’m here.” If he had been forced to go through that pain, to live torn between the ability to heal someone if only he had to shoulder their pain, he’d want to know someone was there, that someone was with him. So he offered that to her, hoping that it would help. Watching her cry had been the hardest part. But eventually, she lifted her hands off the light-haired boy, and the skin underneath was smooth. Sawyer reluctantly let go of the girl’s waist and took a step back.

Barely a moment had passed from the time Bambi had finished healing Clay before Deserae had used her power to slam him against a tree. Sawyer grabbed Bambi’s wrist and pulled her back away from whatever fight those two were about to engage in. He understood why Deserae was angry, but Clay had done it out of their best interest. Had they stayed any longer, they could all be dead or worse, back inside Sector Four. “He was just trying to help,” Sawyer wasn’t sure why he’d spoken. He regretted it as soon as the words had left his lips because he sure as hell didn’t want Des to turn those winds on him. Or her surly attitude.

Kai and Lyra at least seemed to step up and threaten to break the two apart before Des set the boy back down. The tension between the group was tangible, and Sawyer wished that it wasn’t. He hated conflict, and seeing as they’d just narrowly escaped a whole lot of it, he wished they could at least be civil with one another. After all, this group was all they had. Sawyer was glad when Kai at least tried to ease the situation with a joke. “Please, you’d all miss me too much,” Sawyer joked back, his voice sounding a little less confident out loud than it had in his head.

White hair emerging from the tree-line caught her attention, and Lyra tried to keep herself focused on the fight in front of her — but as she watched Clay order two guards to shoot each other, her concentration was utterly lost. He could really do that? Get inside their minds and order people, human beings, to kill each other — to kill themselves? The thought sent a shiver down Lyra’s spine and that moment of distraction caused her shield of shadows to fall away.

She snapped back into focus when she felt a sharp hit to her ribs. The guard in front of her no longer had a gun in his hands and was throwing a flurry of punches and kicks instead. Lyra felt like the air had been knocked out of her, but she managed to throw up her arms to block the attacks, take a deep breath and regain her composure enough to send a tendril of shadow straight for the man’s throat. He fell to the ground clawing at his neck, struggling to breathe.

Glancing up, Lyra caught Kai looking over at her with a crooked smile on his face — she assumed it was from her comment on him setting the church on fire, but then his eyes slid to a place behind her. Lyra didn’t even have time to turn around to see the guards approaching before Kai had shot flames at them. She threw up her hands on instinct, trying to shield her eyes and face from the sudden light and heat but she’d been too close — her hand got caught in the path of the flame. She hissed at the pain and pulled her hand back against her chest, but couldn’t help looking over her shoulder at the group of men who had received the bulk of the blast. Kai was powerful too, there was no denying that, and if it hadn’t been for him they surely would have killed her just then.

“Owe you one,” She told him, still a little breathless from that encounter. Lyra shook out her hand as if that would cause the pain to go away, but with the adrenaline pumping through her body and the utter chaos happening around her, at least it was easy to ignore.

The rest of their group was starting to join the fight as well, except Lyra didn’t see Bambi — she silently hoped that the girl was alright. Clayton had continued making his way through the clearing, and if not for the unusual flush to his cheeks and the sweat beading down his face, Lyra would have thought he was merely taking a leisurely stroll. He had such a confidence about him, the way he walked, the way he spoke to the guards — it was like he wasn’t afraid. And Lyra had felt that way too for a brief moment. She had been confident that, as a group, they could handle whatever the Legion threw at them, but as guards continued to pour from the forest around them she was growing less sure.

Then Des appeared beside them too, and Lyra gave the girl a sideways smile as she watched her throw a guard against a tree, though that smile slipped away as the man began to choke and gasp for air like a fish out of water. Lyra tore her eyes away.

Even Sawyer was taking down his fair share of soldiers. He would pop up in front of one, throw a punch, and disappear before the soldier even knew what had happened. However, despite their valiant effort, they were quickly being outnumbered. In addition to that, the smoke and ash from the fire behind them was making it difficult to fight. Lyra’s eyes stung and her chest burned with every deep inhale, she didn’t know how much longer she could keep this up.

Clay slipped in beside her and Kai, and Lyra had never been happier to see him. The boy turned some of the guards they were fighting against one another, which gave her a moment to catch her breath. She only nodded at his observation on the number of guards, her throat felt too raw from the smoke to speak. Then Clay told them that he would hold them off, he told them to leave. Lyra didn’t make the conscious decision to start running, but that one word continued to ring out in her mind over and over again. Leave. Her feet were moving away from the church, the soldiers, the bodies before she’d even realized it. Then she felt Kai’s hand around her wrist, practically dragging her behind him and out of the clearing. She was glad he’d remembered to go back for their coats because their discarded clothing had been the furthest thing from her mind at that moment.

Lyra had only spared one glance back to see the carnage left in their wake. The walls of the church were beginning to crumble, bodies littered the ground, and Clay was in the middle of it all. Suddenly, nearly all of the remaining soldiers turned on one another and Lyra couldn't watch anymore.

The group had put a decent distance between them and the remnants of the church, all they could see now was a trail of smoke lazily drifting into the sky above the trees. Then Bambi spoke and Lyra couldn’t help but agree with the girl. He was terrifying. And the realization that he’d just used that same power on them only moments before when he’d told them to leave, dawned on her. It hadn’t been of their own free will — they’d been compelled to do it. If she hadn’t been so exhausted and thankful that they’d even gotten away in the first place, she’d be pissed. “They’re the ones that made us this way,” Lyra responded to the girl. “They should be scared.”

Then Des made a point to call Kai out for his work on the church, which only seemed to encourage him with the nickname she’d given. “Good god, you’ve only stroked his ego,” She joked as he said he quite liked the name because it made him sound like a superhero. “Are you going to go around and start fighting crime now?” She asked, amused. Though their joking was cut short when they heard someone approaching from behind them. Lyra tensed, darkness started to seep from her as she readied to attack only to see Clay running to rejoin the group. She dropped the shadows quickly, she was drained — and her hand was starting to throb with pain. But apparently she wasn’t the only one who had gotten hurt, Clay had come back to them bleeding pretty badly from a bullet wound in his arm. “Are you alright?” She asked him at just about the same time Des spoke too. Lyra pursed her lips at Deserae’s comment, the girl seemed more pissed than usual and she did not want to get in the middle of whatever was going on between them, so she picked up the pace.

The farther away they got from the battle, the more Lyra’s body realized it wasn’t in imminent danger, the more pain she was in. She’d never gotten a burn before, and this was a pain like nothing she had experienced before. Even though the fire had been put out, it still felt like her hand was aflame. She briefly glanced down at it and almost immediately wished she hadn’t. The skin on her hand was mostly angry and red, though some parts of it were raised and white — it was already beginning to blister. She felt Kai fall into step beside her and she forced herself to look up, letting her arm go limp at her side.

“I’m good,” Lyra lied. Besides the hand that was becoming increasingly harder to ignore, she was fairly certain that guard had bruised a rib too. Though she did, at least, have a high pain tolerance — she had Sector Four to thank for that. “You?” She asked, glancing over him quickly to scan for wounds. Thankfully, the boy beside her seemed unharmed and that let her relax a little. Lyra thanked him and grabbed the jacket, but didn’t pull it on. She was still sweaty and hot from the fight but also thought that putting it on would give away just how much pain she was in. Lyra didn’t want to seem weak, and more than that she didn’t want Kai to think that the burn had been his fault. He’d saved her from those guards, and he wouldn’t have had to if she’d just been paying attention. She resigned herself to ask Bambi to fix her up later, away from the group, at the next opportunity.

Lyra turned toward Kai as he started talking and couldn’t help but laugh at his question, which caused a flash of pain in her side and her breath to hitch a little. Lyra tried to play it off quickly. “I absolutely think you’re a show-off,” She nodded, a smile playing on her lips as she watched smoke puff from the tips of his fingers. “I mean, you did put on quite a show. Who are you trying to impress?” She teased. Apparently, she didn’t need wine to be bold.

Des’s voice broke her attention from Kai and Lyra knit her brows together when the girl looked to her as if she had any sway over what Kai did. Besides, asking Kai not to create fire was like asking him not to breathe. Their powers might have caused them a lot of trouble, but it was a part of them nonetheless. “You heard the woman,” Lyra chided, casting the boy a fake stern look, though her lips were twisting up into a smile. When Kai leaned in and whispered to her, she tensed a little. He was doing a very good job of keeping her mind off the throbbing in her hand. “A little, but I am right there with you.” She admitted, her voice low. “That could have been because she wasn’t around us for most of the night though.”

The group finally stopped near a stream, and as much as Lyra wanted to just lay down and relax, she knew they would have to keep moving. Plus, if she laid down, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make herself get up again. The sight of the cold water rushing along the creek bed almost made Lyra’s hand burn hotter. Just as she was about to break down and soak her hand, Bambi’s voice rang out and it sounded…demanding. Which was definitely not something Lyra had been expecting from the normally soft-spoken girl.

Upon Bambi’s request, Sawyer stepped forward and gripped the girl’s waist to keep her steady. Lyra hadn’t really placed any thought at what the girl’s power really was beyond the healing aspect. She’d seen her heal Des’s ear, but that hadn’t been more than a knick, and whatever the hell the girl had done the night before, Lyra had been too drunk and distracted to really think about. But the pieces were starting to fall into place. The girl could heal, but she felt that same pain when she did it. Watching Bambi cry and struggle against Sawyer’s grip was disturbing, but the boy was steadfast — Lyra didn’t think she would have been. She had taken a step toward them without realizing it, wanting it to stop, and apparently Kai had the same idea since he was soothing the girl — telling her that she could stop. Before they knew it though, Clay’s arm was healed. There wasn’t even a mark left on his skin when she was done, the traces of blood were the only evidence that it had happened at all.

Lyra glanced down at her hand again, heat seemed to radiate from it and pain was crawling it’s way up her arm, and she couldn’t take it any longer. She made her way to the edge of the stream and thrust her hand into the icy water. Her side protested from the movement at first, but once she touched the water her body relaxed. It still hurt, but the heat was being sapped from her hand and it soothed it enough to think straight. She’d seen the way that Bambi reacted when she healed Clay, and Lyra didn’t want to be a burden — nor did she want to force it on the girl, it was obviously traumatic.

So she elected to say nothing when Bambi asked if anyone else was hurt, just offered her a soft smile. It would suck for a little bit, but she’d deal with it. Lyra drank a few handfuls of water as she knelt by the water, trying not to attract too much attention to herself. “How are you feeling?” She asked the girl. Lyra couldn't imagine having the ability to heal someone but having to endure their pain as well — in all honestly, she wasn’t sure she’d be strong enough to do it at all.

Then, with barely any warning, Des had slammed Clay against a tree with a strong blast of wind. It also didn’t go unnoticed that Kai had stepped in front of Lyra as if he were protecting her from Deserae — which she found both endearing and incredibly annoying. Had she not proven that she could take care of herself back at the church?

They’d gone from fighting the Legion to fighting each other inside of ten minutes, though she couldn’t say she blamed Des for striking him. Clay had crossed a line. It was one thing to use his powers on those soldiers, but using it on them was not something they should just roll over and accept — even if it had been done in good faith. Des was ruthless, and Lyra was just glad she wasn’t on the receiving end of that lecture. But when Des seemed to get a little too riled up, Lyra stood from the stream, reluctant to pull her hand out of the water, and stood beside Kai. Shadows started to form around her again, though it was taking more energy than usual to make them look threatening at all. “Both of you need to cut it out. Now,” She snapped as Des finally let Clayton down.

Show off.

Lyra’s laugh echoed through his ears and Kai could not help but to turn his head, his dark hair now damp with sweat, and smile crookedly towards the girl as her tendrils of shadows wrapped around the enemy soldiers. He noticed more of them creeping up behind her and without question, Kai shot swirling streams of flame from his palms right towards them, igniting the Legion soldiers instantly. He gritted his teeth at the contact and rolled his shoulders once.

Tired. He was growing tired.

But the soldiers kept coming.

His eyes darted to sudden movement from across the yard and Kai smirked once as he saw Sawyer burst into the action -- his movements quick as he disappeared and reappeared faster than he could blink. In a way, Kai envied the boy. Sawyer's power was so convenient and whereas his power was focused on destruction, Sawyer’s honed in on survival. Kai’s ability was flashy and eye-catching, but he knew that Sawyer definitely had the upper hand.

Kai heard Clay’s voice sound out through the battle and he felt Deserae’s rushing winds carry soldiers and weapons out and away from the brawl. There was so much screaming and gunfire and the overwhelming yet familiar scent of smoke began to fill Kai’s lungs. A normal human would have coughed and fallen to their knees, however the smoke had no effect on Kai or his breathing. Another plus from being able to wield flame, he supposed. The church was the largest object Kai had ever used his power on and while watching the old and decaying wood crumble to the ground was jaw dropping, it was also terrifying.

Malakai, the positive and selfless boy, was destroying something that had once brought so many people peace and solidarity. He was no longer a bringer of light, but a bearer of darkness. Destruction.

He lowered his hands.

As Clay spoke nearby, ordering him and Lyra to leave, as well as Deserae, who seemed to be pulling all the air out from a man’s lungs, Kai obeyed. Whether that was the act of Clay’s ability overpowering him or his own fear of himself and what he had done, Kai ran, snatching Lyra’s wrist and dragging him with her, being sure to grab their discarded jackets as he sprinted away. He didn’t want to leave Clay by himself, though -- Kai had read enough stories that leaving one man behind was never the best option.

As the small group rushed away from the burning church, Kai slowed his pace as Bambi began to speak. Sweat now covered his entire body, despite the small patches of snow still littering the forest floor. “They’d be idiots if they weren’t scared,” he chuckled once, adrenaline still surging through him as he cocked a brow towards Bambi and Deserae and their angst-filled back and forth. Hearing Des call him ‘flamethrower’, Kai grinned in delight and arched his brows. “I like it -- sounds like a damned superhero.” But, his playful words were quickly drowned out by Clay returning to their small group. Kai’s eyes widened as he saw the boy bleeding profusely from his arm and he whistled softly at Des’s icy retort to Clay. The tension between the two was so thick he could practically see it in the air -- as if they were as clear as his own flames.

Thankful for the change of subject and the opportunity to leave the leftover remnants of their battle once and for all, Kai took his position by Lyra’s side and made his way through the melting snow -- newly visible twigs and leaves cracking with each footstep. “You good?” He asked her breathlessly, eyeing her up and down once, not out of desire, but to assess if the girl had any injuries like Clay’s. Seeing that she, for the most part, was unharmed, relief weighed in on his shoulders and Kai relaxed slightly and handed Lyra her jacket, then pulled his own over his shoulders.

Ignoring Deserae and her gritted teeth and clenched fists at her sides, Kai focused on Lyra, deciding not to press his luck with the raging storm that was Des when she was in a mood. It had only been twenty-four hours with the girl, but it didn’t take a genius to realize that the girl was unstable, and in more ways than one.

“So,” he started, looking at Lyra from under dark eyelashes. “You think I’m a show off?” The corner of his mouth turned upwards into a smirk and his fingers puffed out a small tendril of smoke in response. Despite the aches in his body and the tiredness he felt behind his eyes, Kai tried his best to show nothing of weakness as they trudged through the forest.

Des’s sharp warning next to him caused Kai to scoff in response and he shrugged her off and mocked her demanding words, noting her warning glare to Lyra, as if the shadow girl was the one in charge of keeping him in line.

Psh, he didn’t need a babysitter.

“Is it rude of me to say that I kind of liked her better when she was drunk?” He whispered to Lyra, leaning in closely. Noticing that the others had stopped nearby a partially frozen stream, Kai leaned himself up against the trunk of a tree, head pressing against the bark. As Bambi volunteered to heal Clay’s arm, Kai stilled and watched intently as the small girl snatched the boy’s wrist. He had never seen her so demanding and in control and he arched a brow at the sight. Gone was the softness and in its place was a determined warrior. He liked this side of her.

Thankful that Sawyer wrapped his hands on Bambi’s waist, Kai stiffened at the girl's cries of pain. He pressed himself up and off of the tree and started towards the crying girl, face full of concern. “Easy, Bambi. Take it easy. You can stop.” However, despite his soothing words, the girl kept going and within a matter of seconds, Kai noticed that Clay’s arm was healed. He was appreciative that Bambi stepped up, but seeing her tears stream down her dirt covered face wasn’t a sight he wanted to witness again.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but it seemed as if Deserae beat him to it. Growing frustrated with the girl’s harshness, Kai was about to cut her off until a blast of wind came from the girl's rigid body and Kai protectively and instinctively stepped in front of Lyra. His dark hair blew chaotically across his forehead, drying the sweat that had covered himself earlier and Kai stared frantically at the others as Des pushed Clay against a large tree with her powerful winds.

He had seen her put a Legion soldier in the same position only a short time before -- the soldier had suffocated and then slumped to the ground. No matter how frustrated Kai was at Clay for using his power against the other members of their group, he did not want to see the same happen to the boy. “Des…” Kai warned, one of his hands glowing, ready to ignite.

He found it hard to hear her words through the bustling winds, but eventually, Des had lowered Clay to the ground and Kai relaxed, glancing over to Sawyer and giving the boy a wary look. “I don’t blame you if you want to desert us,” he said, although he chuckled sarcastically and shook his head, trying to relieve the tension that wafted through the crew.

Deserae was about to haul ass back into the trees if she had to listen to more men and their cocky and arrogant ways to assert their dominance. With Kai’s shit-eating grin as he blasted flames towards the Legion soldiers and with Clay striding into the center of the brawl as if he were God, aggravated her like no other. Even Lyra was in tune with herself as she teased Kai from across the yard of the church -- smoke-like shadows snaking across the scene faster than Des’s eyes could keep up with. She saw a flash and Sawyer appeared across from her before ducking once, dodging a bullet, and then jumping through space once again to attack a soldier with fists flying.

The frustrations that came with watching the others caused another gust of wind to breeze past her and land right into a soldier, sending him up and into a tree as if he were nothing but a leaf. While Des had no control over that, she hadn’t even tried to summon the wind, she was thankful that her raging emotions were somewhat on her side, for once.

As quickly as the battle had begun, it began to slow. Clay’s sharp voice was heard over the whizzing of bullets and the taunts of the soldiers. She could hear him end their lives with just one word -- one order. It was as easy as breathing to him and she whipped her head to glance at the silver-haired boy, just in time to see a bullet land right in his arm.

Her eyes grew wide and before she knew it, wind had slammed into the soldier responsible for shooting Clay -- even though the blond really didn’t seem to notice. The soldier gasped as the wave of wind hurled him into a tree and held him there, feet lifted off the ground. He clawed at his throat and the man’s face became red as the sharp air stung his skin while the rushing wind choked him. One hand from Des was outstretched as she focused all of her anger onto that single soldier. She watched him then begin to sneak a hand towards his gun strapped to his chest, fingers moving to the trigger despite the wind barreling against him.

Des gritted her teeth and sent one last hurtle of wind, ramming him back against the tree with a loud crack! He slumped forward and a trickle of blood ran from his mouth -- coating the remaining snow below. He was dead.

Pain flooded her body and her vision blurred. Stumbling, Des caught herself on a tree trunk and breathed heavily. A coppery taste slid into her mouth and she raised a hand, feeling a small stream of blood pooling from her nose. Spitting in the snow, a light pink mixture of blood and saliva, Des gripped the bark on the tree and prepared to throw herself back into the chaos. She could do more. She needed to do more. Despite the pain, despite the exhaustion -- some part of her had to prove herself worthy. Whether to the others or herself, she did not know.

She was about to rush back into the battle until a commanding voice louder than the blazing bullets sounded off in the clearing. Clay’s voice -- with an order to leave.

Before she knew it, Des was sprinting away from the scene, ducking and dodging bullets while she did so. She tried to fight her racing feet, craning her neck back towards Clay and the soldiers dropping around him like flies. While her body told her to run -- her mind was urging her to stay. Glancing to her left, she saw Sawyer and Bambi, rushing with as much if not more haste as herself. Kai and Lyra were ahead.

A low rumble came from above and Deserae looked upwards only for a moment and noticed a large helicopter flying overhead. More bullets sounded and Des snapped her head back to Clay and screamed, “Clay dammit, you leave!” She weaved through the trees and slowed her pace slightly until she had caught up with the rest. As she saw Clay depart the church, long legs moving swiftly towards their group, she couldn’t help but to sigh slightly in relief.

Bambi’s frail voice from behind her only caught half of her attention. Deserae’s eyes were will on Clay as he slowed to a jog. “The way I see it, those monsters had it coming,” she hissed softly, turning towards Bambi for only a moment. “Better them than us. Seems to me that they're the only ones causing destruction around here. Well, besides for flamethrower.” She cocked her chin towards Kai, who only grinned proudly in response -- not offended at all by Des’s words. Damn him.

As Clay reached them and his gruff voice instantly complaining, Des rolled her eyes and eyed the bullet wound in his arm. It wasn’t terrible, but the sight was nonetheless unnerving. Hearing him groan about how he could have gotten shot, icy eyes bore into his and she had to restrain herself from shoving him. “Probably with a fucking gun.” Despite her aggravated tone, she did feel a sliver of sympathy for him and his injury and she was the one to scream his name for him to leave. Whether she would admit to herself or not, Des was worried.

Hearing that Clay blamed her completely for his bullet caused her eyes to narrow and her jaw to lock. Clouds covered the sun overhead, making the warm rays nothing but a mockery as a chilled breeze rippled through the forest. Passing him a cold look, Des muttered to herself and stalked towards the front of the pack, leading the way once again. She was thankful for the distance between her and Clay, even if that meant walking by Kai and Lyra and their incessant flirting.

Soon enough the burning church was nothing but a small puff of smoke behind them as they hid deeper into the forest and out of the clutches of the Legion once again. The bustling wind had subsided and was now only a slight purr within her chest. She still had no means of exactly how to summon her powers, but they seemed to erupt during fits of rage.

Thankfully, Deserae wasn’t exactly the kindest person. She may have more of a handle on her powers than she had originally thought.

“No more fires,” she snapped to Kai, who then looked as offended as all get out. She ignored the boy’s taunts and only gave Lyra a warning glance, as if to keep him in line, before she trotted forward.

As they came upon the small creak, ice still covering a majority of the swishing water, Des agreed with Bambi as she suggested they stop for a moment. She had almost forgotten that Clay was injured until the tiny girl stepped towards him. Watching her ignore his arrogant remarks and actually spitting some attitude back to him caused Des to cross her arms a quirk up an impressed brow. She was thankful that Sawyer stepped up to hold the girl’s waist -- Des certainly wasn’t jumping at the opportunity.

She stilled as the girl cried out and struggled against Sawyer’s grasp. It was the steadiest she had seen the boy. It seemed as if whatever injury Bambi healed, she felt their pain as well. Watching intently, Deserae showed no surprise as Clayton’s wound slowly began to close until it was nothing but a faint scar and already drying blood.

Des then remembered her nose and she rubbed some of the cacked blood away from her mouth.

“Is he healed?” She asked Bambi gruffly, eyes darting between Clay and her. Seeing a timid nod come from Bambi, Des then locked eyes with Clay and snarled, “Perfect.”

She unleashed her pent up rage on him -- those furious winds she had kept at bay throughout their journey away from the crumbling church now full blast, sending the boy against a large tree trunk. Her wind wailed, shooting her white hair forward in a fury as she slowly stepped towards Clay. Her icy glare didn’t waver, even as she looked him dead in the eyes.

Despite the chaotic winds surrounding them both, her words were calm as she spoke -- mere inches away from Clay and his suppressed body. “Since my threat didn’t seem to sink in the first time, I’ll try again.” She took one more step, their chests practically brushing together. While the boy was taller than her, Deserae puffed out her chest and squared her shoulders, her mouth in a tight line, making her seem as if she towered over him. “If you get inside my head again I will kill you. I don’t care what power you have, I don’t care how many soldiers you just destroyed. If you so much as even attempt to control me again, I will take every last damn breath of air from your lungs and crush it.” The winds began to slow and Clay’s feet made their way back into the snow.

Where she was afraid to stare at him yesterday, Des showed no fear as she bore into him now, ignoring the calmness she felt inside his irises only hours before. Ignoring the way her body felt once she saw that he was just as scared as she was. That was weakness -- every part of her last night screamed weakness.

She wouldn’t let it happen again, she would make damn sure of that.

Starting with him.

The moment Sawyer arrived, Bambi felt relieved. Not only because he had knocked the guard out cold, but because she had been worried about him. Worried about all of them. It was an unusual feeling for her and it was hard to understand. Bambi had always loved, but she had never actually cared for another human. Her mother maybe, long ago, before she had been given freely to The legion; to pyscopaths who tortured her every day for years. If she had in fact loved her mother, the feeling was long gone.

"I'm glad you're okay." She mumbled, shaking the thoughts of her family far away. As she began to follow Sawyer through the woods it was like being in war. It was pure chaos around them, the sounds of bullets and yells echoed from the trees. Every instinct inside of herself urged her to run from the madness. Yet, she didn't. In fact she was kind of embracing it, especially when she saw the church. "Holy shit." She blurted out, her doe eyes wide. The flames were bright and hot and even from the edge of the field she could feel the warmth kiss her skin. Her eyes darted from the blaze, spotting Kai and Lyra. 

"I wish I knew how to help." She mumbled to Sawyer, reaching down to take a pistol from a dead guard. She had never shot a gun and she wasn't sure if she knew how. Aiming it toward the back of the nearest Legion soldier she pulled the trigger and nearly dropped the metal in her hands. Her ears rang and she dunked to hide herself. She wasn't sure if she had actually even hit anyone but she knew she didn't want to try again. "I can't do this." She whispered to herself, beginning to edge away. She felt strange inside like someone was speaking to her. Telling her to keep down. Bambi scrunched her nose and peered out into the fight only to see Clayton and Des had now joined. 

Bambi wasn't sure how long she hid, cradling the gun she knew she'd probably never use again. Sawyer was fighting, everyone was fighting, and yet she couldn't move. It wasn't until she heard Clay's voice above the bloodbath that she stood. Her legs felt like they were on fire as she darted along the tree line to where the others were headed. Once she had gathered with them she could do nothing but stare at the blonde haired boy as he killed wave after wave of anyone in sight. She couldn't help but gawk, gasping at the more brutal deaths. The idea that he was capable of even thinking things so dark made her stomach twist in knots. 

"He's terrifying." She thought aloud, glancing from face to face. "Are we all that scary? Is that," she waved her hand towards Clay as he began to run towards them. "What people see when they look at us.. destruction and abnormality?" 

--

Clay was bleeding. Bambi noticed before the other had and her eyes scanned the wound ad he probed it. It was a painful one and she swallowed realizing she'd have to fix him. But not here, they needed to put distance from the once church. As Des led them North bambi stayed near the back. She wasn't sure how long they'd walked before they came to running water. It was a creak and some of the mornings ice still clung to the surface. "Let's stop for a bit." She suggested, her small feet finding their way to Clay.  Taking in a deep breath she faced his sunglassed face, ignoring his sly remarks. "Just give me your fucking arm." She muttered, yanking the bloody limb to her. Her hands slipped over the wet flesh until she was cupping both sides of the wound. "Can someone hold my waist  in case I try to pull away?" Bambi called over her shoulder, shivering as she felt someone clasp their arms around her. Closing her eyes she focused on the wound, groaning as she began to feel the ache and tear of her own flesh. She tried to remind herself it wasn't real, yet the hot tears came anyway. "I can't do this." She whispered over and over, but the hands behind her were firm and she didn't stop. Although it only took seconds, it felt like an eternity before she let go, the skin beneath her hands fresh and healed. Bambi sniffled and rubbed her own arm, Clayton's blood leaving a smear across her pale flesh. The pain was still there and she pushed away to kneel at the water, splashing a handful against her face. "Anyone else hurt?" She called, breaking a piece of ice off to suck on.

"This is not how I wanted to spend my morning." Clay muttered quietly, watching the silver haired girl stalking away towards everything he didn't want to be involved in. But still, he found his feet moving behind Des's, his thoughts still panicked. They could have ran. What others would have thought was cowardly, Clayton saw it as smart. Intelligent. You were supposed to run from trouble- not embrace it. He wanted to live and anything that involved The Legion wasn't living. Going back felt stupid and dangerous but he sure wasn't going to tell Des that. She didn't exactly seem like the listening type. 

With a sigh Clay tucked his sunglasses into his back pocket and tried to focus on the sounds ahead of them. Guns, yelling, screaming. The smell of crisp smoke drifted as they neared and it wasn't until he was practically into the open yard of the church that he saw what it was. The whole damn building was on fire; a roaring one at that and a small grin spread across his face. It was a beautiful sight, the old rotten wood blazing, the cross on the top now nothing more than a beacon of ash. Voices moved over him but Clay couldn't make out any of the words. His eyes scanned over Kai, who was staring at him, and then across Lyra, who seemed to have her powers completely under control. All around her soldiers seemed to fall victim to her shadows and Clay raised his eyebrows in amusement. 

"Well this is entertaining," Clay yelled across the field, purposely attracting several on lookers. "Too bad there's no popcorn." He yawned, stepping closer to the guards who now focused on him. There was three all dressed in gear now staring, all with guns aimed at his torso, and Clay raised his eyebrows before wiggling his finger at them. "I wouldn't do that," he began, yet again taking himself another step closer. "It would be a pity really, if you all began shooting each other instead." 

Clayton had two kind of commands. He could verbalize his wants or he could think them, but the latter took more energy. He hadn't forgotten how tired he had felt last night and he wouldn't allow himself to feel like that again if he could help it. Especially not now. A bullet whizzed by the blondes ear and he whipped his head to find the man responsible. "Break your own neck." He hissed, jerking his attention away. Gust of strong winds brushed at his face and hair and Clay watched for a moment as Des used her powers to slam people around. It made him unnerved and he hoped she never tried that on him. 

Across the clearing Clay spotted Bambi and Sawyer, huffing at the sight of the two of them. He had no idea what the girl was doing there and he held back the urge to force her to hid. If she wanted to get herself killed, whatever. Still, he found himself working extra hard to keep the attention away from the pair. 

Slipping up beside Kai and Lyra, Clayton began speaking to every guard with in earshot. He twisted tree roots up the legs of those who couldn't hear him and pushed full grown trees over onto the ones who seemed to come in a constant stream from the woods around them. "There's too many of them." He finally spoke, his pale skin unusually flushed and sweaty from the steady focus he was having to keep. "Leave. Kai, Lyra, leave. Tell the others to go. I'll hold them off." Waving his hands in a shoo motion, his eyes scanned the field. Bullet shells scattered the blood stained snow and overhead a noise like none he'd ever heard echoed the trees. His eyes darted to the sky and grew wide as he took in the large black helicopter. "Leave!" He shouted again, his feet moving towards the newest wave of Legion men as they seemed to fall with ease on to their feet from the massive chopper, bullets flying. He willed everything in to one thought, he tried to catch as many eyes as he could, his head full of images of them turning against one other. His mind flooded with knives and guns being pulled, with hands squeezing throats. His feet fluttered to a stop as he watched, his expression dark with horror and excitement, as his new army of toy soldiers began to move in rigid formation. The stench of copper filled the air and yet he couldn't tear his eyes away, even as his own fingers tingled with numbness. 

The helicopter seemed to weave away from the scene as if the driver had realized what was happening below. A few unsuspecting guards tumbled from the open door and Clay watched as they fell to the ground with a sickening thud. 

A voice called his name from somewhere behind him and Clay began to back away towards it. It wasn't until he tripped over a headstone that he turned and ran, his eyes landing on Des's as he caught up with her. That's when he noticed his arm, the tingling, the blood that danced across his skin. Clayton frowned and stared at the wound trying to comprehend it. He poked the pink tissue and groaned at the agony that flooded all the way up to his neck. "How the fuck did I get shot?" He finally asked, groaning again as he adjusted his arm so he was holding it above his heart. "I blame you completely." He muttered, staring again at the wound. It was a clean shot, going through the muscle of his forearm and out the other side. Other than the possibility of bleeding to death Clayton shrugged the injury away. No one ever really died of an arm shot, or at least he hoped not.

Sawyer did not anticipate waking up in the rafters of the church. He’d woken up expecting to see the makeshift campfire and the other experiments still huddled around it. Instead, he’d opened his eyes and found himself a good twenty feet off the ground. Sawyer figured that he must have jumped while he was asleep, or maybe he’d done it when he was drunk, either way, it was a miracle that he hadn’t fallen to his death during the night. But as he went to move Sawyer found himself falling anyway. He was able to clear his head enough to jump, disappearing midair, but still found himself to be about a foot off the floor, and falling flat on his back, the air getting knocked out of him in the process. He leaned his head against the cool floor of the church, catching his breath and trying not to be sick. The wine wasn’t sitting well with him this morning.

However, as soon as he closed his eyes again he heard a shot and the shattering of a window toward the front of the church. Sawyer immediately scrambled to his feet, looking around the campfire from the night before and seeing Kai and Lyra already awake and on their feet as well. Pure panic starting to spread across his body and when Lyra asked where the others were he realized that not only were Des and Clayton still gone, but Bambi had disappeared too. Another round of gunfire sounded and Sawyer ducked his head instinctually, peering out from behind a pew to see a group of armed soldiers. “It’s Legion,” He told the others, though that might have been stating the obvious.

Kai caught Sawyer’s gaze and gave him an order to go find the others, and the boy was grateful for it. He felt like his feet had been planted in place out of pure shock and terror, but as soon as Kai spoke the words it was like Sawyer’s body had given him permission to move again. He nodded once and focused on jumping in the opposite direction of where the bullets were coming — it wouldn't do anyone any good for him to jump in front of a gun. Between one breath and the next Sawyer found himself ankle-deep in snow and surrounded by trees. The sun had, thankfully, come out and the grueling winds of the night before were a thing of the past. If it hadn’t been for the gunfire and shouting of soldiers, this place would have felt peaceful.

A bone-chilling scream sounded through the woods, not in the direction of the soldiers in front of the church either. Sawyer didn’t even think before he started running toward it, jumping to a different part of the forest as he moved. Snow crunched under his feet yet again, and he slowed to a stop when he saw Bambi. She was seemingly frozen in fear as a Legion soldier stalked closer to her, then reached a hand out and touched her face. Unbridled rage coursed through him where the fear had been only a moment before. The way he spoke to her made Sawyer want to choke the life out of him with his bare hands, and that thought alone sent a shiver down his spine.

Sawyer watched as the man took a step back and pointed the gun at Bambi’s chest, and thankfully, the girl had gotten enough sense to run at the sight of that. Before he had made the conscious decision to intervene, Sawyer had already jumped and crossed the distance between himself at the soldier.

He had never been a fighter. He’d never had the stomach for it. That was one reason Sawyer had been such a disappointment to the guards and scientists at Sector Four — he finally understood the concept they’d spent years trying to beat into him. It was like he had unlocked a part of himself he’d kept buried his entire life, how to stay and fight rather than run and hide. Only then, he didn’t have anything to fight for.

The soldier pulled the trigger just as Sawyer pushed the gun in a different direction, causing the bullet to connect with a nearby tree, the wood splintering and flying everywhere. The man swung the weapon, the barrel of the gun digging into Sawyer’s chest but the boy vanished the moment the bullet left the chamber. He reappeared behind the man and tapped his shoulder before cocking his arm back and connecting his fist with the man’s face as he turned to see where Sawyer had gone. The man crumpled to the ground and Sawyer tried not to wince at the pain not radiating up to his elbow. He shook his hand out and swooped down to pull the gun from the guard's hands. He didn’t know how to shoot a gun, but it seemed easy enough — just point and squeeze.

“Bambi?” He called out, trying to keep his voice relative quiet as to not alert more guards to their presence. “It’s okay, he’s passed out now.” As if to accentuate his point, Sawyer nudged the guard with the tip of his boot and the man didn’t move. Sawyer let out a relieved exhale as he saw the girl emerge from the trees. “Are you hurt?” He asked surveying the girl from head-to-toe and only relaxing when he saw that she was not.

“There’s more of them at the church, we should help the others,” He offered, going to move back the way they’d come. He would have normally jumped ahead, but he wasn’t sure he could take Bambi with him and he didn’t want to leave her out here on her own again.

Once the pair had made it back to the church, the scene before them was utter chaos. Soldiers littered the yard, some still standing, though a good portion of them was either dead or unconscious — some of them badly burned and still smoking, Sawyer figured that was Kai’s doing. And the church was completely engulfed in flames. Before he could think any better of it, Sawyer leaped into the center of the action.

“Wait until you know me better and see if you still think it’s endearing,” Lyra was glad to joke. She’d seen the way he had reacted when she’d brought up the serum and the training, she’d seen him stiffen at the memories that it had no doubt brought to the surface.

The pain from the serum was her first real memory, and if she thought about it long enough she could still feel the stuff coursing through her veins like liquid fire. So, she tried not to. She envied the others who remembered their own families, or the world before Sector Four — she hadn’t been so lucky. Her childhood had been painful, buts she had survived it — barely.

When Lyra told Kai that she’d seen him around the sector, he grinned at her and she hated that her cheeks flushed when he did. She shook her head to hide the smile that spread across her lips. “Mmm, you were just as cocky then as you are now.” He had walked around the sector with a sort of freedom the other experiments never had — she never had. “I guess you’re not a total disappointment,” She teased. Kai was turning out to be far more interesting than she’d anticipated.

She rested her head in her hand and looked sideways at Kai as he spoke. The flames from the fire he’d started danced in his eyes and the light cast all sorts of interesting shadows on his face. It made his features seem sharper, more serious. Lyra had to restrain herself from reaching out to touch them — her lack of inhibition was starting to worry her. But she listened to his story as he’d listened to hers, intent and silent. She was surprised to hear that he was taken in as a baby too, and some part of her was relieved to know that she wouldn’t be the only one emerging into a world she knew nothing about. But she could see the pain in his features when he talked about the injections, and the early years — she could agree, those were the worst. Once the injections had stopped it had all become bearable, but there was the possibility that they had just become numb to the pain by then.

Lyra rolled her eyes and smiled gently when he teased about her lack of compliance with their training and the guards. Though she wondered if her life had been easier if she had just given in to what they wanted. If she’d just been the perfect experiment. But Kai’s life didn’t seem like it was any easier than hers had been, not in any ways that mattered.

Lyra had been given books too, though much later in her life when she had stopped acting feral and attacking every guard that came into her room. One guard had helped her learn to read, and she had been the only guard Lyra ever liked, but the woman left one day and never came back. Reading though had become her escape, and it seemed like it had been Kai’s as well. Then he told her that he’d picked out his name from a book too, from a character who liked the ocean. Lyra had a vague idea of what the ocean was, but she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around the vastness of it. Her chest tightened a little when he told her that he’d like to see it. That admission felt like he was telling her a secret, revealing a part of himself that not many people knew. “I think,” She started. “I’d like to see it someday too.” It seemed an overly ambitious dream, but she hadn’t dreamed about anything beyond the walls of Sector Four, maybe now was time to start.

It was a little odd, she had to admit, that Kai had such a fascination with the ocean. With something that every instinct in his body should be telling him to stay away from. Flame and water didn’t mix. “You know what they say, opposites attract.” Maybe she resonated with that a little too much.

Once Bambi had been safely deposited into Sawyer’s care, Lyra had finished the remainder of her bottle of wine and shed her new jacket. Everything felt warm and a little out of focus, though that spinning feeling she’d had earlier had dissipated — she guessed the scare with Bambi had sobered her up a little. She took a deep breath when Kai settled back in beside her. “Queen of Shadows has a nice ring to it,” Lyra joked. “But no, I don’t like surprises,” She told him seriously though playfully batting away his hand when it tugged on her hair. “I do everything in my power to avoid them.” That’s what her shadows were for, after all, to stay one step ahead of those around her. Lyra leaned her head against Kai’s shoulder again and her entire body felt heavy, and before she knew it she’d managed to fall asleep.

———————

The sound of gunfire and shattering glass was not good for a hangover. Lyra had to learn that lesson the hard way. That, and Kai knocking her off of him when he scrambled to his feet, left her head pounding. She winced against the noise and the movement and the light, and when she stood she felt shaky and possibly still a little drunk. Thankfully her adrenaline was beginning to take over as she scanned the church for the threat.

The Legion had found them.

There was no one else who would start shooting into a seemingly empty and abandoned church — she hoped, anyway. Lyra noticed that everyone in their group was missing besides herself, Kai, and Sawyer — who was looking a little worse for wear. “Where the hell is everybody else?” Panic was starting to rise up in her throat. She guessed Clay and Des hadn’t returned last night, maybe they’d gone off on their own, but Bambi? She hoped the girl was just staying out of sight.

When Kai said they had a bit of a problem she had to fight the urge to laugh. No shit they had a problem. “You don’t think they’re here for a friendly chat?” As soon as the words left her lips another shower of gunfire poured into the church and Kai grabbed at her hand, the two of them ducking behind a pew. His hand was, unsurprisingly, warm in hers and she had to fight to keep focused on the chaos unfurling before them rather than the feeling of his hand in hers. Kai shouted something at Sawyer and the boy had vanished by the time Lyra looked back.

The two of them continued through the church hand-in-hand, using the pews as protection from the bullets — wood and glass still flying everywhere. “How sweet of them to stop by. If I had known they were coming I would have baked a cake,” She joked. After another hail of bullets, Lyra there up a shield of shadow around them until they had managed to slip out the back doors of the church and into the excruciatingly bright sunlight. Lyra groaned and rubbed her temples.

“Please never let me drink that much wine again,” She pleaded. A hangover was not something she needed when going into a fight with more armed Legion soldiers, but she’d have to make do. And despite the fact that she physically felt like she’d been run over by a truck, her powers, at least, came to her more easily than they had the night before.

Lyra noticed that the sun was out now, and the snow that dusted the ground was beginning to melt — it looked like a completely different place than it had only hours ago during that storm. She threw her coat on top of Kai’s in the brush behind the church and raised an eyebrow at his question. “Always.” A smile tugging at the corner of her mouth as she moved into place at the other end of the church. Lyra hugged the wall and peered around it, trying to get an accurate count of guards — of exactly how outnumbered they were. She felt her shadows already curling around her, ready to strike.

She heard Kai’s voice again just before she was about to round the corner, telling her to show them how difficult she could be. Lyra shook her head and gave him a rude hand gesture but couldn’t help the grin on her face.

The shadows around her thickened as Lyra stepped into them, slinking along the side of the church and coming up on two unsuspecting Legion soldiers who were attempting to sweep the perimeter. Two tendrils of shadow flung out from her, wrapping themselves around the torsos of both men and slamming the guards together until they crumpled to the ground, unmoving. Lyra’s upper lip twitched as she stepped over their bodies, she wasn’t sure she’d ever hated something so wholly as she hated these soldiers. Going back to Sector Four was not an option. She would rather die here than go back and be locked away and tortured for the rest of her life.

By the time she had made it to the front of the church, Kai was already there in the center of the battle. Lyra couldn’t help but notice the smile on his face and the cool confidence he exuded as he faced them. He looked like he was at home amongst the chaos.

A guard swung the butt of his rifle at her and Lyra ducked, swiping her foot out and knocking him off of his feet. A shadow ripped the gun out of his hands and placed it in hers where she used the end of it to knock the man unconscious. It’s not that she had never killed before, and it’s not that she would necessarily feel bad for doing it to these monsters, but her humanity felt like it was being stripped away with every life she extinguished — and she wouldn’t let them take another thing from her, not even in death.

An intense heat rose behind her and she swung her head to see the entirety of the church had caught fire as easy as kindling. Lyra glanced over at Kai and the smug grin that was plastered on his face. “Show off!” She shouted at him across the yard, turning her attention back to the guards pointing weapons at her chest. Lyra knew she should be more scared of them, and if she had been on her own she probably would have been, but she didn’t doubt that her the group could handle these soldiers.

Lyra peeled her eyes away from the soldiers in front of her and glanced over at the treelike where Des had emerged and where Clayton was close behind. “Took you both long enough,” She grumbled, turning her attention back to the fight.

She was like him.

Brought into this world of experiments, trainings, and no love. Surely, Kai blamed his own ability to create light wherever he went as enough of an excuse as to why he didn’t end up like Des or Sawyer -- distant and unsteady. Kai liked to think that he had a strong sense of will power and enough self-control to not let himself go off the deep end, as arrogant as that was. He embraced his old life at Sector Four, no matter how harsh and cruel it was. He had known nothing else. Hell, even busting out and breaking free from the building had felt a little bit wrong. His only home, the only parental figures he had ever known -- and he had just left them. But, it was still easier than he had thought it would be. Maybe that said enough.

He always knew that Sector Four was a dark place but, looking at Lyra, he saw that even the darkest of places can have a little light if you look close enough.

His throat tightened as she brought up the serums. That pain was something he would never be able to get over, no matter how hard he pretended to brush it off. They had all gone through it. Lyra seemed to brush it off as if she were talking about the weather, but he knew that those days, the days they were to receive injections. Not even screaming could drown out the pain.

Kai was slightly thankful for her lightheartedness and the twiddle of her fingers to let a small group of shadows emerge from her hand. He beamed at the little tendrils as he continued to listen intently. Despite her nonchalant aura and Lyra’s seemingly unbothered attitude about her life within Sector Fours control, Kai knew better than to believe her charade. Surely, he wouldn’t press her about it. Heaven knows they have both gone through shit that was hard to name. Kai knew very well what the Legion did to difficult experiments -- as Lyra described herself.

He shuddered and had to take a sip of wine.

“I call it endearing,” he smirked at her, playing along with her joke about being a smartass and stubbornness. Kai had noticed the girl’s perseverance right away, and it wasn’t news that she terrified the shit out of him.

As Lyra mentioned that she had indeed seen him patrolling around Sector Four, Kai arched a brow and the wine bottle paused midair before it reached his lips again. He glanced sidelong at her and a slow grin unfurled across his mouth. “You did now? Hopefully all good things. However, it is me we are talking about so you couldn’t have been too disappointed.” He chuckled breathlessly and took a final sip of wine, finishing the bottle and rolling it across the hardwood floor.

He knew the conversation would turn on him eventually and with a dramatic sigh Kai glanced at Lyra before turning his attention to the flickering flames before them. “Well,” he started, tilting his head slightly, “I, like you, grew up in Sector Four. No parents, no family. I was a baby when I was brought here. They liked to experiment on me -- see how young they could start injections.” He paused for a moment, his throat bobbing slightly. “The early years kind of blur together. I just remember a lot of pain -- crying a lot. Thankfully, the injections stopped when I was ten, that’s when they started to, I don’t know, give me things., let me do things others couldn't. I guess I was compliant enough, unlike some other experiments.” He shrugged and looked at Lyra with a teasing flicker in his eyes. “Books and journals, shit like that. I picked my name out, actually. Read it in a novel when I was young. The main character’s name was Malakai and he liked the ocean. I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I learned how to read…” He chewed on the inside of his cheek nervously and stared into the fire, which seemed to die down slightly due to his tired body. “I think I would like to see it someday -- the ocean, I mean.”

His mind drifted to the multiple pictures he had plastered along the concrete walls of his room in Sector Four. The different species of oceanic animals, the beaches around the world. How pathetic was it that a boy who wielded fire was so obsessed with the one thing he should hate? “Kind of a paradox, I know,” he said after a few long moments before passing Lyra a sleepy smile.

After they had gotten Bambi’s intoxicated state under control, Kai meandered back to Lyra and took his position against the pew once more. He noticed that she had shed her thick coat and had scooted closer towards him. Whether that was due to their deep conversation or the wine, he wasn’t certain, but he certainly wouldn’t object. He chuckled at Lyra’s words, “Queen of Shadows can’t handle a little surprise?” He tugged on a stray strand of her hair before tilting his head back and resting it against the wood. He hadn’t realized, but he had drifted off into a deep and peaceful slumber with darkness surrounding him -- in more ways than one.

---------------

Kai awoke to shattering windows and bullets pelting the church walls.

Jolting upwards, accidentally knocking Lyra off of his shoulder, Kai’s wide eyes scanned the church. Bambi was gone and so were Des and Clay still. His fire had dwindled into nothing but a steady stream of smoke. His head ached only slightly from the alcohol although he noticed that Lyra seemed to be having a rougher wake-up, probably no thanks to his outburst, either.

Quickly standing, Kai called out to the resting others. “Guys, we have a bit of a problem,” his voice echoed through the empty church as pools of sunlight streamed through the shattered windows and bullet holes in the walls. Ducking as more bullets sounded, he quickly snatched Lyra’s hand and met Sawyers's eyes. Wood splinted up ahead and he jumped at the sound. “Find the others!” He called to the boy from over the loud bangs!

Keeping low, Kai began to drag Lyra through the church, using the pews as protection until they could sneak out the back door. The attack seemed to be coming from the front of the church at the moment. Looking over his shoulder at Lyra, Kai smirked. He knew exactly who was firing at their safe haven. He could hear their gruff voices and orders being thrown out outside of the church. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think they missed us. In the mood for a little family reunion?” He chuckled as he lugged Lyra through the back end of the church and out of the door.

Warm sunlight hit them and Kai squinted at the sudden change of scenery. He was already warm to begin with, but the hot weather caused Kai to grimace and he quickly shucked off his leather jacket, tossing it into the brush to stay hidden while they took care of their little problem. “Wanna have some fun?” He said to Lyra, staying hidden behind the back wall of the church, only peering around ever so often to take a glance at the Legion centering in on them.

“You take the other side,” he jutted his chin to the opposite side of the church. They would come in from the sides and not the center of the building like the Legion had been expecting. While he surely should have been scared out of his wits -- as any smart person would have been if bullets were firing -- Kai was thriving. A devious grin showed on his tanned face as he passed Lyra a quick wink from the other end of the wall. “Show em’ how difficult you can really be.”

With a flick of his wrist, Kai’s hand engulfed in a roaring flame, as well as the other. He still kept that wicked smile as he hustled towards the fleet of Legion Soldiers attacking the church.

“Mornin’ boys!” Kai called as he shot both of his hands towards a group of soldiers. Heavy streams of fire burst through his palms and his incinerated the group before they had time to even shoot off a round towards the cocky boy. He gritted his teeth as his flames dwindled and ducked as another round headed right towards him. He darted quickly and efficiently as the soldiers fired -- thanking the endless amounts of training Sector Four had given him. He smirked at the thought of how they probably had never expected their own creations to turn against them.

With the church now behind him, Kai noticed some of the soldiers had entered the building and were ransacking the rooms -- undoubtedly searching for the rest of their precious experiments. Without hesitation, Kai turned his hands onto the church and streamed fire on the old and ancient walls. The snow had melted enough to where they caught fire almost instantaneously and he chuckled as the church lit up like a damned Christmas Tree.

Kai had never planned on using his powers for killing. However, he didn’t feel bad, considering the assholes were the ones who decided to shoot first. This was their own doing.

Movement in the treeline caught his attention and a familiar head of white hair came into view. Hands shooting off balls of flame towards more soldiers, Kai grinned crookedly towards Deserae in the trees. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” He yelled to her as the church fire roared behind him. More streams of fire shot out of his hands as he nodded towards an appearing Clay in the trees -- still with that damned smile on his face. "Please, take your time! I could do this all day." He shot a final large burst of fire through his hand at an oncoming soldier.

Kai had no doubt that the clear skies and sunlight were from Deserae -- whatever Clay had done or said, something changed within the icy girl. She had a little heat to her. Thank God.

It was some of the best sleep she had gotten in years. All-consuming, peaceful sleep where Deserae wasn’t sure if the loud voice rumbling next to her was part of some dream or if she was merely delirious. She hadn’t slept like this since before Sector Four and Deserae had all intention of soaking up every last minute of this small slice of heaven she may never get again.

And then, she came to her senses.

Eyes snapping open and body immediately stilling, Deserae took in the sound of Clay’s hissed words and the echos of gunfire surrounding them. She gasped and quickly took in her surroundings, trying to recollect herself on exactly how she ended up in a makeshift hut with a raging headache and a hasty silver-haired boy. Then, images of a large fire, bottles of red liquid, an abandoned cemetery flashed through her mind.

Her also slapping him.

As Clay rolled over her, Des narrowed her eyes at him, put off by the close proximity of them, but she soon followed Clayton off the bed -- her muscles screaming in protest and her stance slightly wavering for a moment. Yes, she would most definitely never be drinking again. The morning after was not worth it and the fact that she couldn’t remember whether she clung to Clay’s body heat throughout the night or not sent her heart racing.

Bullets continued to ricochet throughout the forest surrounding them and Des’s whole body became unnerved. Her eyes darted around the shelter as Clay began to undo their coverings, allowing the bright sun to slowly encase them. She blinked at the warmth and shielded her eyes for a moment. Snow still blanketed the area, but that sun would most definitely melt most of it throughout the day. Her power felt weak -- off. Deserae wasn’t exactly sure if she was the one who had summoned the sun or if mother nature herself had overpowered the wayward girl in the morning.

Seeing that Clay was trying to break down the shelter as quickly as possible, Des closed her eyes and tried to summon something -- anything -- to see if she could aid in any way. She was out here, in the environment she belonged in. Des was supposed to thrive in nature, so she better start acting like it. Even faking it could spark some inkling of control out of her power.

Through Clay’s curses and the vines breaking, Deserae thought of last night. How weak she felt. How useless she felt. While her head ached from the remnants of alcohol and while her body was sore from the constant internal battle and the escape from Sector Four, Des reigned in whatever she could. She thought of the others, surprisingly. She thought of the bullets aiming for them and the safe haven they had found last night.

She could hear the howling of wind surrounding them.

The gusts began to peel off the branches and the wines of the hut and as Clay stepped out of the shelter, only to be met with a mean breeze to blast him right in the face. Her eyes sparkled.

As more pieces began to peel away, Des followed Clay out of the shelter, the wind blowing her white hair across her face and she spoke for the first time this morning. “What direction are the bullets coming from?” She asked, however, her question seemed to be quickly discarded as Clay let out a curse and stumbled back inside the depleting hut to grab his sunglasses. Wind stinging her skin and causing her cheeks to redden, Des sighed and the gusts became a little more compliant, but not enough to where she could make out the home base for the attack. “Damnit,” she hissed to herself.

Hearing the crunching of snow behind her, realizing that Clay had returned, she snapped her head back to glance at him -- sunglasses now sitting on his face. “Now that your fashion emergency is handled can we ple-” Her words were cut off but a rustling of bushes in front of them. Deserae had just enough time to see a small rabbit come into the clearing before the creature stilled and plopped into the thick snow. Unmoving.

Eyes wide, Des passed Clay a look before the sound of more bullets growing closer caused her to jump in her skin. He killed an animal with a single thought -- what he could do to a human sent a harsh chill up her spine, despite the warm sun-filled morning.

Watching him begin to travel in the other direction, away from the bullets as a wise person should do, Des stayed put. Her eyes glanced back and forth from the direction of the gunfire to where Clay was swiftly heading. “You’re just going to leave them?” She asked, voice hoarse from sleep. More bullets ringing off made Des snap her head back to the clearing and before she could conjure up a second thought, she started to race towards them, leaving Clay and their small shelter behind her.

She wasn’t much -- Des knew that. She had no idea if her presence would help the others, or simply cause her to dig herself into her own grave. But, that feeling Des had when she woke up this morning was still prevalent in her mind. A sense of peace, a sense of belonging. She would never say the words out loud, but a part of her knew that the small group that she had come across was part of the reason for the sunshine this morning. She knew it.

So, Des ran. Pine trees scraping her cheeks, arms pumping furiously at her sides. Deserae ran until her chest felt as if it were going to combust into flames and the gunfire became more and more prevalent with each passing step. She once again didn’t know how she knew which direction to run in, maybe it was some sort of intuition. Maybe it was her power leading her.

Either way, she wasn’t prepared for what she saw as she stumbled out of the forest and coming upon the abandoned church -- which was now ablaze with bright orange flames.

And Kai right in the center of it.

Bullets whizzed past her ear and Deserae quickly took shelter behind a large tree. Breathing heavily, Des had barely heard another presence come up behind her and as Clay crouched down next to her, she cursed. “Shit,” she whispered, narrowing her eyes at him before her attention slipped back to the flames. She could also now see Lyra, fighting on the other side of the church. Tendrils of shadow and smoke floating out of her like tentacles and blocking bullets and wrapping around unlucky members of the Legion. The soldiers were slowly creeping towards the duo -- Bambi was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Sawyer.

“Decided not to run away?” Des said raggedly to Clay, glancing over at his sunglasses for a moment. “How noble.” Clenching and unclenching her fists, watching Kai shoot a stream of fire at an unlucky soldier, she gritted her teeth for a moment and cursed herself for what she was about to do.

She had no control over herself and her power -- but she would sure act like she did.

Rushing out from the trees and staking her claim on the edge of the forest, she narrowed her eyes and glanced at the soldiers hurtling towards her. As a reflex, she jutted her arms out in front of her, palms towards the Legion men. Anger and fear took over her body and she let out a rough grunt as she pressed all of those emotions through her palms and towards the men.

A gust of wind slammed into them, lifting them and throwing the men onto a large tree trunk. A loud crack sounded and their limp bodies tumbled to the ground.

Deserae smiled.

Clayton's eyes snapped open at the sound of gunfire. Gunfire and lots and lots of footsteps. "Get up!" He hissed, instantly shoving Des half off the log beneath them. Although the wood around the couple muffled the echoing sounds outside, Clayton could hear everything. He could hear The Legion. Without waiting for Des to sit up, Clayton slipped over her and landed on the ground, snow flurries flying upwards from his feet. His heart was racing and he instantly moved a branch to stare out at the whiteness. No people, no guns. The noise had been further away. The Church maybe? Had the others been captured? "We need to leave right now." He spoke over his shoulder to the bewildered Des. For a brief moment he considered she was probably hung over and he probably seemed half crazy but none of that mattered right now. They needed to run. 

Completely ignoring anything Des was saying or doing behind him Clay began unwinding the branches that covered their way out, his thoughts so sharp and harsh he was making the trees snap themselves into several pieces. It was loud and chaotic and several curses flowed freely out his mouth but he didn't stop. He was far too focused on freeing himself and escaping than trying to be quiet. The moment he had created a space wide enough to climb through he was out, a small gust of wind smacking him in the face. He wasn't sure if it had been mother nature or Des behind it.

The storm had long been gone above them and blinding sunlight streaked Clay's blue eyes instead. "God damn it." He growled, shoving his way back into the hut to retrieve his sunglasses. Once he had them on and was back out his eyes darted everywhere for motion. A rabbit streaked out from behind a bush and before he could stop himself he had pushed the glasses up, the words die flooding his mind. The heart of the animal instantly stopped and Clay grimaced as it toppled over. He looked away unable to face the dead thing now laying in the snow; he really wasn't meaning to hurt it, but he was scared. A stupid bunny had scared him.

The sound of gunfire rang out again and Clay's feet began to carry him swiftly the other direction. If the others had been discovered he fully believed Kai or Lyra could handle it without him. Even Sawyer was capable of moving himself out of the mess. Although he wasn't very hopeful for Bambi's escape, he knew the girl had to be sneaky. She had, after all, made it out of the Sector in the first place. He wasn't going towards the sounds. This was his one and only chance of freedom. "If we hurry," he called over his shoulder, "We can get away before they even know we were with them." 

Light was streaming in from somewhere far above and Bambi groaned, her palm sliding up to shield her eyes. Her head was pounding and she was sure it was going to explode. "Oh god I don't feel well." She whined, pushing herself up to a sitting position. It took her several seconds of blinking and staring around to remember where she was. Or to remember how drunk she had been the night before. Waves of embarrassment flooded through her face and she eyed the church for Sawyer. When she realized she didn't see him she sighed with relief, her eyes falling instead on the two sleeping forms of Lyra and Kai.

Bits and pieces shot through her mind, visions of her being giggly and touchy, imagines of her head leaned against Sawyer's shoulder. She scowled at the thoughts and frowned. How could she have acted so childish and flirtatious. She had never flirted a day in her life. "No more drinking, ever." She mumbled to herself, looking down at the dust that clung to her clothes. She scrunched her nose as she began to wipe the brown ash like substance from her arms and legs. Outside she could hear the sounds of birds calling to each other and a small smile tugged at her lips. It had been years since she'd heard those chirps. 

Her body protested and ached as she stood from the hard ground. She noted she had been sleeping on collapsed board boxes and she wondered if Sawyer had put her to bed. She certainly didn't remember falling asleep, that was for sure. In an attempt to be quite as possible Bambi began to tip toe to the front door, reaching down to pick up a discarded food can from last night on her way. She didn't want to wake the others yet and anyhow, she was desperately in need of some water and had to pee. Badly. The door creaked as she slid out of it and she left it cracked in case anyone else stirred from their slumber while she was gone. 

The air was crisp and chilly but Bambi was relieved when she saw the sun shining above her head instead of storm clouds. The snow was every bit of two feet but Bambi knew it would be melted within the next day or so. She wondered if the clear sky had anything to do with Des but she didn't allow herself to ponder on the idea. Instead she focused on walking to the line of trees that surrounded the church and finding a place to empty her bladder. 

Bambi felt twenty times better after and she found herself humming as she walked deeper into the woods. She knocked clumps of slushy snow from branches into the can and eyed her surroundings more. Now that it wasn't a blizzard she could see how beautiful the forest really was. Large mossy trees, the tips of green bushes pushing themselves up through the fluffy snow. Birds watched her curiously from the tree tops and Bambi stared back. She hadn't seen birds in years and she studied the different colors of their feathers. Some she recognized, like the red birds; other she didnt. There were various shades of blues, whites, reds and blacks. She was so captured by the pure beauty of it she didn't notice she was no longer alone. 

"Thinking about eating one?" An amused male voice echoed from behind her, the raw unfamiliar voice making Bambi jump. She nearly fell over as she hurled herself around to face the man who had some how snuck up on her from no where. He was wearing a thick flexible gray outfit and in his arm was a gun, his waist littered with other weapons and even a pair of heavy looking cuffs. Bambi didn't have to ask to know he was part of The Legion. She had seen his face before and a scream lodged itself in her dry throat. "To be honest I was surprised when I realized you had escaped. Such a uselessly little thing you've always been. Never brave." Chuckling the guard lowered his gun and began to circle Bambi, looking her over with hints of disgust across his face. She didn't move, frozen with the same fear she had felt yesterday. Her heart hammered against her chest and her body tensed as the man stepped closer. "I could let you go if I wanted. I have no orders to bring you back. Kill on sight is what I was told. Kill the failed experiment. Kill the killer." Laughing the man raised his empty hand, brushing his knuckles across her pale jaw line. Inside her stomach flipped and knotted and Bambi swore she was going to vomit. "Such a pretty face for such a fragile piece of shit." His breathe was hot and sour and he grinned as he stepped away. Bambi shivered and eyed the gun, her eyes wide as he pointed it at her chest. Bambi parted her lips to beg only to find her words nothing more than a choked blood curling scream. Her feet came to life beneath her jellied legs and she darted behind a tree just as the gun fired. They'd been caught. "The others." Bambi whispered to herself, darting to another tree. The guard was somewhere close behind her and the gun fired again, wood and bark splattering her hair. 

As Sawyer pulled on the shirt and oversized jacket he’d found, he heard Kai’s voice across the campfire and Sawyer gave a reserved grin but shook his head. “No such luck, I’ll keep an eye out though,” He retorted as he settled in closer to the fire. Sawyer didn’t like the wine that was being shared around the group, but Lyra kept opening bottles and he didn’t want to be the odd man out so he took a bottle for himself and started dutifully drinking along with the others, trying not to gag, when Des showed up with an armful of cans.

There was a pit in his stomach that Sawyer hadn’t even noticed was there until food was in sight. Sawyer reached for whatever was left after the others had taken their pick and they all ate in an awkward silence that even Sawyer couldn’t appreciate. He tried to look anywhere besides the exchange happening between Des and Clayton around the donation box as she threw a pair of sunglasses toward him. Sawyer couldn’t help but think that the act was meant wholly to offend Clay, but he couldn’t decide if Des was simply unafraid of the boy or if she was attempting to seem as though she wasn’t intimidated and was overcompensating with her brashness.

Sawyer looked around at their little group instead. He didn’t really know what to make of almost any of the others. They all seemed so sure of their powers, of themselves, and Sawyer was sure of neither of those things. Though that made him more curious than wary, which he knew was probably a bad trait to have when running for your life. But he’d spent his entire childhood in isolation after being taken from his family, and it was just nice to be around other people — even if they were potentially deadly government experiments. He realized that he wanted to trust them, he wanted to befriend them. Then he heard Des snap at him once again and then he wasn’t so sure about the friend thing anymore.

He didn’t have anything to say to her retorts. She was probably right after all. They were just a ragtag group of kids who had lived nearly their entire lives within the same four walls, how were they supposed to navigate a world they knew nothing about? Especially in one that could be as unforgiving as the snowstorm that still raged on outside. Sawyer didn’t know what to do so he kept drinking…and drinking. He drank until the wine didn’t taste bad anymore. Sawyer felt the all too familiar pull of his instincts to simply go away, to jump to another part of the church, to duck out of being berated for his naïvety.

Sure, he was hopeful that there was a possibility the world beyond Sector Four, beyond the Legion, was untouched and would be waiting for them — but he wasn’t stupid. He knew things were taking a turn for the worse in the world when he was a child before he’d even been taken. But a small part of him hoped that his family was still out there, and he had never thought hope was a trait to be looked down upon, not until now anyway.

Relief flooded him when Des shakily stood from the group and stalked off, then he felt immediately bad for thinking that way when she walked right out the front doors. He didn’t know what he’d said that had set her off, but just as he was about to go and apologize for it Clayton followed her out into the snow. He was grateful for the boy, and for the fact that he didn’t have to leave his place in front of the fire.

The tension in the group eased once Clayton and Des had left and Sawyer was glad for the background chatter of Lyra and Kai across the fire, and he smiled gently at Bambi as she scooted closer to him. He felt a kindred spirit with the girl. They were the only two in the group whose powers weren’t really meant to harm others, Bambi’s was quite the opposite, and she seemed nice enough — kind even, after the act of healing she’d demonstrated in the clearing.

“Do what?” He asked, confusion clouding his features. Though when she clarified he cleared his throat and took another long swig straight from the bottle. Sawyer lifted an eyebrow when Bambi brought up his clothes, wondering where in the world that topic was headed — he felt his cheeks flush when she brushed against his sleeve, and though he felt the urge to shift in his seat, he forced himself to sit still, especially when she lifted her gaze to his face. Sawyer swallowed hard and averted his eyes to the fire in front of them and rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s less teleporting,” He began to explain, turning to face her. “And more, moving the matter around me until I’m somewhere different? If that makes sense?” He wasn’t sure it did, the wine and the fact that Bambi was so close to him was making it hard to concentrate.

“So theoretically, if I were strong enough, or skilled enough, I could take someone with me or a group of people. I could probably send them somewhere without me, even,” He furrowed his brows at the thought and immediately got queasy thinking about the sheer amount of power it would take to pull something like that off. “In the Sector, they made me move other objects before I was able to even make the jumps myself,” Sawyer looked around the fire for something he could use to demonstrate, something small that wouldn’t take too much more out of him. He picked up an empty can of beans and held it in front of Bambi. One moment it was sitting on his palm, the next it was gone and they could hear a clattering across the church as the can fell to the ground. He shrugged nonchalantly as he settled back against a pew. “I’d much rather have your power though, it seems a lot more useful,” He said, offering her a smile.

When Bambi stood and almost lost her footing, Sawyer reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her before she could fall. “I would have caught you,” He responded, watching her plop down across the circle beside Kai and Lyra to find another bottle of wine. Then, as soon as he had looked away he heard her gasping for breath and he shot to his feet. Before he could even make it around the fire, Bambi had devolved into a fit of raucous laughter. He scratched his head in confusion, not sure what to make of the situation. “We’d all really like it if you didn’t die either,” His tone was light but he was worried, and he nodded to Kai and the boy passed Bambi off to him to watch. Sawyer lowered them both back to their spots across the fire. “Are you okay?” He asked gently.

“I have a feeling you think everything suits you,” Lyra joked as Kai slung the leather jacket over his shoulders. It wasn’t exactly practical, but it wasn’t like Kai needed the jacket for warmth anyways. “I hadn’t had it before either,” She responded to Bambi as she handed the bottle over to Kai. “I’m not super impressed,” She laughed, the taste still lingering in her mouth — but the warmth spreading down her throat and across her chest was almost worth it.

“I told you,” She laughed as Kai coughed from simply taking a swig of the stuff, but she opened another bottle anyway. Despite everyone’s seeming disgust toward the drink, it was the only thing they had, and she was curious to see how it affected her, even if it tasted like moldy fruit and gasoline. Lyra kept drinking as she sorted through the donation box and found a jacket she surprisingly liked. She pulled her arms through it and pulled it tightly around herself. “I think it suits me,” She said, mocking Kai’s earlier comment about his own jacket. Lyra took a seat by the fire again and leaned against a pew, stretching her legs out closer to the flames when Des came back to the group with an armful of food. Lyra let out a sigh of relief, just now realizing how hungry she actually was.

The food wasn’t much, just some cans of nonperishables and some kind of jerky. In truth, they’d been fed better in Sector Four, but to Lyra — that was the best meal she’d ever had. Because for the first time in her life she didn’t have to eat within the confines of the concrete walls of her cell. Sure, maybe it was freezing inside that church, but she had food, fire, wine, freedom. There was nothing more she could ask for. Lyra felt like she was on top of the world.

She mumbled thanks in Des’s direction, not wanting to seem ungrateful for what the girl was able to scrounge up, but also Des had a tendency to snap at anyone who addressed her and Lyra just wanted to enjoy the fire and the way the wine was starting to make her feel. So, she swiped a can of corn and a piece of jerky and settled back down by the fire with her bottle of wine — which was almost half empty now. Though it was easier to choke down its contents when she had food to get the taste out of her mouth.

Lyra watched carefully as Des pulled sunglasses from the donation box and threw them at Clayton. Honestly, she was glad the girl had the courage the say something — Lyra certainly wouldn’t have, but she also knew she would feel a lot better with Clay around if he had them on. She could appreciate that they all stood a better chance for surviving outside of the sector if they all stuck together, but she wasn’t entirely sure she trusted them all quite yet. Sector Four had been a hard place to grow up, and she wasn’t sure what the others would do or sacrifice to survive — she felt like she had a right to be wary.

Sawyer’s comment about what he thought the world would look like actually caught Lyra off guard. She’d been so caught up in the idea of just getting away from the Legion that she hadn’t really put much thought into what would be waiting for them when they did. If this church was any indication of what the rest of the world was like, Lyra didn’t think she should get her hopes up. But she would put up with abandoned churches, desolate cities, and whatever else they had in store for them if it meant never having to go back to Sector Four. She took another swig of the wine as Des went off on a rant about how they wouldn’t survive a month, and Lyra thought that was maybe a bit harsh. Sure, they might not make it until they were old and wrinkly, but a month seemed like she was sorely underestimating their abilities. The Legion had trained them to endure, after all.

Though she did feel bad for Sawyer, who looked like he was trying very hard not to make himself disappear and completely avoid the verbal assault Des was throwing his way. Lyra had to agree with Kai, the girl really needed to just drink and relax. She was so wound up all of the time no wonder she snapped at them all so often. But to their surprise, the girl stood up — though she was a bit wobbly on her feet — and walked away. It took Lyra a moment to realize the girl wasn’t simply relocating to another part of the church but going back outside. Had she gone insane?

She’d just gotten on to Sawyer about finding a place for them to crash for the night and then she leaves nearly as soon as they got there, Lyra’s fingers and toes hadn’t even fully thawed out yet. Lyra was even more surprised to see Clayton following after her. She probably should have been worried about what sort of destruction those two could cause together, but the wine was smoothing out the fear.

“Yeah, no joke,” She mumbled to Kai, taking another sip of wine. “I guess we should all just be thankful she didn’t get the fire powers, because we’d all be dead by now,” Lyra laughed, setting the bottle down on the ground beside them. She felt his shoulder press into hers and she knew she should be unsettled, or more cautious, but dammit he was so warm. And maybe it was the wine that made her a little more bold, or stupid, but she leaned into him too.

“My story?” She crooned, repeating his question, mulling over the answer in her head. The wine was making it increasingly harder to think, but she didn’t mind the feeling. Lyra rolled her eyes but smiled when he called her little shadow, it was almost endearing, she didn’t mind that either. Jesus, wine made her weak. “I don’t know, the same thing that happened to all of us I guess?” She held his gaze for a moment before breaking it and grabbing her own bottle of wine and taking another drink. “I’d been there since I was a baby, I don’t remember before — not like they do,” She gestured generally to the others in the group.

“Then came the serum and the training,” She rambled on, stating those two things nonchalantly like that hadn't been the most painful experiences of her entire life. “I could hear voices first before I could, you know,” Lyra wiggled her fingers in Kai’s direction, shadows lazily stretched out from her hand toward his face before dissipating again. She was exhausted. “I thought I had finally snapped until I learned to control it. Then I could see things through the shadows too, and I started using them to explore the Sector — getting into things that I shouldn’t have. The guards didn’t exactly like me, I was…difficult,” That had been the nicest word they’d called her. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m maybe a little stubborn and a bit of a smartass, call it a character flaw.” She joked trying to lighten the mood a bit since she’d turned the conversation slightly serious.

“I saw you around though,” She pressed the bottle to her lips to hide the smile that was beginning to twitch at the corners of her mouth. “Once or twice,” She mumbled before she took a long drink. Walking around like you owned the place, she didn’t say. It had been part of the reason she’d been slightly wary of him, to begin with. He’d been given more freedom than any of the other experiments had, and she wondered what he’d done to earn it.

“This conversation is feeling very one-sided,” Lyra turned to face him more directly. “What’s your story then?” She wasn’t used to talking about herself for so long. To be honest, she wasn’t used to talking this long about anything. But she didn’t want to stop.

She wasn’t sure how long they talked for, only that before she realized it, she had killed an entire bottle of wine on her own…and then half of another one. And at some point, they had gotten even more tangled up with one another and she was buzzing from the contact — or the wine, it was hard to tell. She’d kicked off her boots and stretched her toes towards the fire, and with Kai beside her, she’d even gotten warm enough to strip off her newfound jacket and drape it over her lap instead. Though she was growing more and more tired as the night dragged on. She’d only just rested her head on Kai’s shoulder, the church spinning around her slightly, when she felt him suddenly jump to his feet.

“What the —“ It had taken her half a moment for her brain to catch up to the scene she was witnessing. Bambi was on the ground, something clasped in between her hands, and gasping for breath. Her eyes are rolling back in her head and for a moment Lyra thought she was going to die. Then, as soon as the fit had started, Bambi had collapsed to the floor laughing her ass off. It had all happened so fast that Lyra hadn’t even had time to get to her feet. She was glad at least that Kai had been able to act faster than she had, and that he was helping her over to Sawyer for him to keep a closer eye on her.

Lyra leaned heavily against the pew behind her and dug the heels of her hands into her eyes, trying to stop the spinning sensation she was feeling and the rapid beat of her heart after witnessing that whole ordeal. “That scared the shit out of me,” She confessed to Kai once he’d returned.

She was leaving, that much was for certain.

To where? Des had no clue. Not back to Sector Four, not back to the clearing, not even back into the church.

Maybe it was the alcohol talking, maybe it was the harsh winds and chilling snow that pelted her form as soon as she stepped out of the church, but Deserae’s thoughts flooded her mind, drowning her in her self-doubt. She wasn’t safe, she wasn’t strong like the others -- no matter how tough she seemed to make herself out to be. Des was this cold and defenseless creature who craved the only thing she didn’t have: control. There was Kai, who was so in tune with himself and his power -- Lyra too. They both were confident, stable individuals who were able to go their entire life seeing the aftermath of Sector Four’s experiments and what those damned scientists had “gifted” them with. Even Bambi was able to reign in her ability -- healing Des after she had snapped at the small girl. Sawyer found them shelter, Clay protected them.

Deserae was only making things worse. The one thing Sector Four had granted her, and she couldn’t even regulate it. She didn’t even know of the full extent of her power -- only that it caused destruction.

Her mind still swimming from her own self-loathing or the wine, she couldn’t tell, but even through the fog of the alcohol, Deserae swore that she heard her name being called. Ha, she must have been more drunk than she had thought. First the wayward winds and now she was hearing voices. Maybe it was the dead talking as she stalked into a small cemetery. The corpses beckoning her to come and join them. At this rate, she just might.

However, unfortunately for her, the voice belonged to a face that she had not been expecting to see. Furrowing her brows as she turned and glanced at Clay trudging behind her, Des’s lips turned into a snarl as he took a place next to her side. “Leave,” she immediately uttered, the wine still making her tone less menacing than she would have liked. She knew for a fact that she would never be drinking again -- it only brought her less control, and there wasn’t much to begin with. As Clay downed the rest of the wine bottle before chucking it against a headstone, Des crinkled her nose and hugged her arms around her body.

She scoffed at his greeting and quickened her pace, attempting to leave the arrogant boy behind her in a cloud of snow. “I don’t know, you’re the one following me. Maybe you should ask yourself that question.” Des noticed that his glasses were shoved past his forehead, pushing back his white hair. She studied the boy for a moment. Her hair had turned white from the injections -- had the same happened to Clay? Had whatever injections they were given been similar? The thought of sharing any more similarities with the boy than their appearance caused her stomach to clench and her throat to tighten.

Their walk together was agonizing. Des constantly trying to get ahead of him, only resulting in Clay becoming more agitated and increasing his own speed. There was no getting rid of him, it seemed. She grumbled curses and shitty comebacks to him as they walked aimlessly. The cold had started to sober her up ever so slightly. Des could start to feel her fingertips again and the dryness of her lips as she trudged deeper and deeper into the trees. Deserae had no idea where she was going -- she hadn’t exactly had a decent plan once she stepped out of the church. Alcohol and her pent up frustrations took the lead and her feet followed. Part of her was somewhat thankful for the presence of someone from their entourage -- even if it was Clay -- and another part despised it.

She had been alone most of her life. Just because she had a taste of freedom, didn’t mean that had to change. Even if she may have wanted it to.

Once again, she was scared of herself.

As Clay’s strong hands took hold of her, stopping Des in her tracks, her eyes glanced into his and she froze. Whether that was from the fear of looking into his steady gaze and knowing very well what those eyes could make her do, or something else entirely. She panted as his arms held her. Her feet refused to move as she stared back at him.

Even though his eyes could destroy every part of her -- there was a hint of something soft within them. Something that seemed just as scared as she was.

The air around them stilled. No breeze. No wind. Just simple flurries hovering around their shadowed forms -- the bright moonlight illuminating the outline of Clay’s shoulders, his head, his hands on her.

She slapped him across the face.

“Don’t you ever,” she said through clenched teeth, shaking his grip off of her, “try and control me.” Des took a step away from him, eye boring into his with her hands clenched into fists at her sides. While she wasn’t exactly sure if Clay had used his ability on her, the feeling that shot into her body as he stared at her seemed to answer that question for her. Her body reacted to his touch and his gaze, which had to mean something.

Watching him step away, Des was prepared to be left alone once more in the wood. She sighed and closed her eyes, dipping her head forward slightly and tried to calm her swirling mind. It was only the sound of snapping branches that caused her head to spring up, catching a glimpse of Clay standing before a range of trees before melting them and curling them into a makeshift hut around them. Wood twisted, bent, and encircled the small bit of shelter and Des couldn’t hold in her gasp as she watched the trees shift above her, cutting off the moonlight. Darkness took over and her eyes had to adjust inside the small home, only to see Clay finish off a trunk and form it into a bed.

He made shelter for them. After she had just slapped him.

Running her tongue over her teeth in frustration, Des watched Clay take his position onto the wooden mattress. She didn’t move at first and merely examined the exhausted looking boy as he relaxed onto the wood. He really did look drained with his tightly shut eyes and ragged breathing. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she slowly made her way over to the bed and sat on the edge, not letting herself lay down just yet. For a while, the only sound heard was the rise and fall of Clay’s chest.

Clearing her throat, Des uttered softly, “Thank you.” She then gently laid down on the wood, being sure to keep a decent amount of distance between her and Clay. He didn’t look entirely well and she hoped that the darkness in the hut shielded him from noticing that she was staring at him. “You’re not going to die on me, are you? That'd be annoying.” She asked, her tone soft but still harsh. Rolling on her back, Des stared up into the chaotic puzzle of branches and vines and soft bits of snow that hung onto the wood. It was still freezing, and the chilled wood didn’t help, either. However, a small sense of peace rang throughout the small hut Clay had created. She felt just enough at ease to where Deserae was able to shut her eyes and drift off into sleep -- mind swimming from the remnants of the wine and for once not being terrified of the nightmares that could follow.

She hadn’t realized it, but it had stopped snowing.

“Well, right now, I am extremely comforted,” he joked to Sawyer, leaning against the side of a pew and sprawling his long legs out in front of him. Kai yawned once and rested his head against the seat. Yes, he was definitely drained. His muscles started to grow tense and sore and a small thrumming in his temples indicated that he needed to cool it with the flames or else he would surely overexert himself. The raging fire slightly dwindled to a steady and controlled flicker, but still warm enough to emit enough heat for the group.

Kai smirked at Lyra and her appreciation for his makeshift campfire as she sauntered back into view. He then became more alert at the sight of the multiple bottles within her arms and Kai cocked a curious brow as Lyra set the wine down onto the floor, bottles clacking together. He had never been drunk, but he has surely witnessed Henry intoxicated enough times to know that it must be a hell of a good experience. Slurred words, fits of giggles, and a relaxed state of mind -- something he was sure that they all could use at the moment. “I might become a believer after this bit of luck,” he laughed, watching Lyra attempt to uncork the bottle with a slight bit of difficulty.

While the shadow girl attempted to open the bottle, Kai’s attention drifted to Bambi and the large box she had plopped on the ground. He took note of the fuzzy sweater the girl had acquired, as well as the sneakers that now covered her feet. “Oh finally! I was afraid I was going to have to lug you around on my back eventually.” He playfully nudged the girl with his shoulder as she sat down before taking his turn to rummage through the donation box. There wasn’t much, granted he didn’t exactly need that much protection from the cold, but as his fingers connected with thick and slick leather, Kai beamed as he drug a leather jacket out from the bottom of the box. “Jackpot,” he said, draping the jacket over his shoulders, leaving his arms out of the sleeves. “I think it suits me.”

As Lyra shoved the freshly opened wine bottle in his hands, Kai laughed at her disgusted face, his dark hair falling into his eyes. “I’m sure it can’t be that bad,” he offered before he took a long sip of his own. Wincing as the liquid slid down his throat, Kai peeled the bottle away, coughed once, and shook his head. “No, you’re fucking right. It’s bad.” But, he took another sip anyway. His eyes flickered with the reflection of flames as he glanced back at Lyra and her decent find from the donation box. As Sawyer took his turn with the box, Kai nodded with a grin at the freshly dressed boy. “No collar with a bell I take it?”

Once Des had arrived with actual food, even if it was from a can and the selection was slim, Kai grabbed a few pieces of jerky and ate silently, observing the two white-haired experiments with interest as Des handed Clay sunglasses. Part of him was thankful for the find and the sheer bluntness of Deserae. Clay was dangerous, there was no denying that. However, he knew that if they were indeed going to survive, they needed to work together. Kai merely stared into the fire as Clay put the glasses on and was inexplicably thankful that Des had taken it upon herself to grab a bottle of wine of her own. Good, she needed it. Even if she snatched it out of his hands, resulting in a dramatic pout and a playful middle finger.

He was also thankful for Bambi’s comedic relief as she choked down some of the wine, trying to hide her pained looking face as she continued to drink. And drink. “Easy there, you’re a small little thing. I think you’re set,” he laughed until he was cut off by Des’s harsh voice retorting to Sawyer’s questions. Huffing with annoyance, Kai sat up and leaned his elbows against his knees, staring at Deserae from atop the dancing flames. “Cool it, snowflake. We’ll have a hell of a lot better chance at survival if we stick together. Get off your high horse and take a damn drink.”

As Des stood and not so gracefully made he way out of the church, Kai sighed, about ready to follow the drunken mess and apologize until Clay beat him to it, surprisingly, claiming he had to ‘pee’. He arched a single brow in confusion but kept his mouth shut and turned his attention to Lyra at his side. “I don’t think all the alcohol in the world could get her to chill out,” he chuckled and leaned his shoulder against her, the small bit of wine he had certainly taking its effect. This girl was dangerous, he was very well aware of that. Her darkness was something he had spent his entire life running from. And now? Now he was sharing a campfire, drinking horrid wine, and sharing some of his raging body heat with it.

Maybe the world was really ending.

“What’s your story, hm? Tell me. I’ve seen shapeshifters, invisible kids, hell, a girl back at Sector Four could even fly.” Kai recalled seeing the tiny blonde kid on one of his many meaningless joywalks through the lab. She was floating while cross-legged and reading as if she were sitting on a bench. “But, I have never seen anyone like you before. You, little shadow, are very interesting.” He took another sip of a random bottle he snagged as he held eye contact with Lyra. The warm glow from his fire illuminating her tanned skin, her dark hair, those light eyes that threw her shadowed aura off-kilter. She was terrifying, there was no doubt about that. And it intrigued the hell out of him.

After what felt like hours of chatting and laughing with the nightly girl, Kai found their bodies having grown closer together, his ankle draped over hers as their legs stretched out towards the fire. His arm wrapped around her knee. Surely, they were drunken messes and he knew that she was only near him for his space heater like tendencies, but still -- he felt warm, and not due to his power, either.

And then he saw Bambi gasping next to them, her eyes fluttering shut and ragged chokes coming out of her mouth. “Oh shit!” He hissed, clambering up and away from Lyra and shooting over to the small girl. However, nearly as soon as her staggering breathing started, it had ended. Leaving the girl staring up at the ceiling, looking drunk and as peaceful as ever and laughing. “What the hell, B?” Kai asked, scratching his head as he gazed down at the peculiar girl. “I thought you were dying or some shit,” he let out a breathy but nervous laugh, sitting back down onto the floor, his back to the fire. Hearing her whispered and slurred words, Kai passed a look to Lyra, brows furrowed with confusion. “Okay, angel. No more wine for you. No one is dying on my watch.” He ushered her up and off the floor with his hands and forced her to drape an arm over his shoulders before he lugged her wavering form over towards Sawyer. “You’re on Bambi Duty,” Kai smirked, gently setting the girl next to the dark-haired boy.

Bambi had never been happier to see food before. Although she hadn't spent very much time eating in Sector Four, and she was mostly a vegetarian, none of that stopped her from eagerly tearing into a piece of the dried meat Des had tossed to the group. It was tough and tasted strongly of salt and herbs but she didn't care, she needed protein. The walk they'd made earlier had weaken every fiber in her body and her legs ached. She was different from the rest of them in physical appearance and it had nothing to do with her petit frame. She had never spent a day with The Legion that require her to work out besides the occasional treadmill run. Now, munching down on years old jerky and looking around at her athletic companions, she wished they'd worked her to the bone. Instead she was breakable and weak and the thoughts alone made her blush in humiliation. The Sector had absolutely failed with her in every way. 

"I've never had wine." Bambi mumbled, taking the dark glass bottle as it passed it's way around to her. After seeing Sawyer's face, she wasn't sure she even wanted to taste it. Before she took a sip she watched Des claim a whole bottle to herself and Bambi found her eyebrows raise by the sheer bluntness of it. Had she had wine before? 

The first sip almost sent her gagging but her need to clench the thirst she felt made her swallow it down. She tried her best to hide her face from the rest of the group as she took another sip, her throat and stomach both cloaked in a sudden warmth; the first warmth she'd felt since Kai had kindly melted the snow beneath her feet. Even with the fire well into a beautiful blaze, the core of her soul had still felt iced over, but now? It felt better than it had in a long time. The liquid may have tasted like dirty over ripened strawberries but the effects were god like. As she drank she briefly wondered if the alcohol was blessed or ritualistic. She wondered about who made it, how it was made. Was the individual behind it deceased now along with most of the world? She shuttered at the thought and found herself scooting closer to Sawyer, the only person in the group she actually trusted. 

"I wish I could do it." She stated out loud as she repositioned herself next to him, her eyes quickly darting to his face and back towards the fire. She felt braver, relaxed, maybe even happy. She took another long drink from the bottle suprised at how easy she could swallow it now. Honestly she welcomed the taste because it was making her feel normal. As normal as a girl like her could ever feel. "I can tell you don't really like it, the teleporting, but it's amazing. I can't help but wonder about your clothes." Reaching out she touched the other's sleeve, no other thoughts in her head besides her search for knowledge. "If they can go with you when you do it, do you think you could take a person with you?" Glancing up from Sawyer's arm to his face she smiled before lowering her hand. 

Somewhere behind her she felt a rush of wind and she gave a startled yelp when Clayton snatched the bottle out her hand on his way to apparently pee. She pouted with the emptiness now in her grasp and she stood with a bit of a sway. It was like floating on velvet clouds. It was breath taking and wonderful and she laughed as she steadied herself. "Almost fell there." She mumbled to Swayer before walking cheerfully around the circle until she found another bottle. She plopped down next to Lyra and Kai half listening to whatever the two were talking about, her eyes focusing on a cricket infront of them. It had obviously been injured during the building of the fire, it's body obviously crushed from someone's shoe, her shoe maybe, and it's body wiggled and crawled in circles before going utterly still. The room was filled with laughter and conversation, but all Bambi could see was the dead bug. She had always been told that insects did not feel pain, but she knew it to be false. Everything felt death. No matter how small the living object, their pain was always as real as the pain she felt when helping. 

It was probably the alcohol giving her a boost of courage she needed as she picked up the cricket. She inspected it as best she could in the shadowy light casted by the fire. She faltered slightly and before she could change her mind she downed most of the bottle in her other hand before closing her fist around the cricket and closing her eyes. 

She gasped, or at least she thought she did, as she felt the panicked crushing fear of dying. It was not like going to sleep, it was like being thrown into the darkest cave to have ever existed and covered in miles of water. The air sucked from her lungs and she choked. It's not real she told herself, but it felt as if she was in fact dying. It wasn't as strong of a feeling as it normally would have been if she wasn't so drunk but it still made her sweaty. It was over as quickly as it had come. With a sigh of relief Bambi opened her hand and watched with disbelief and satisfaction as the cricket jumped somewhere out of her sight. She laughed, wildly and wholeheartedly, her hand coming to cover her mouth. She had did it. She had actually did it. God, she loved alcohol. 

With a sigh Bambi laid back and stared up at the ceiling, tracing the wooded post with her eyes. They held the whole roof from crashing down on them and she imagined how easily it would be to knock them down. To watch them fall around her. The weight of it made her close her eyes, the bottle slipping slightly out of her hand, the glass form leaning lazily against her side. "I never want to die." She whispered to herself, trying hard not to fall asleep.

Was it weird that Clay found comfort in the sunglasses? As soon as Des had tossed them his way, he slid his thumb over the smooth plastic, deciding he'd wear them regardless of the fact it made everyone else feel safer; he could tell it did by the quick glances and unease that surrounded the group. The truth that Clay refused to publicly acknowledge was it made him feel safer too. He was used to living in darkness. He was used to his powers being pressed down deep. The Sector had created a monster even they were afraid of. He had lived his whole life in the dimness. 

"Fine," he half groaned, his voice full of fake annoyance. "I'll wear them if it makes you all feel better. Like I'd want inside any of your fucked up heads anyways." Sliding the shades on over his crystal eyes he smirked and turned to look at Des. "No offence." He added, grabbing a bottle from Kai and taking a long drink. 

Clay had drank before. Sweet wine given to him on holiday celebrations by his father. The liquid had always felt warm and tingly in his throat and left him cloaked in the softness of clouds and love. This was nothing of comparison. It tasted like rot and burned on it's way down. Still, he drank as the bottle was passed to him. He quickly realized the sunglasses gave him a disadvantage over the rest of the freaks, he could stare and no one noticed. He watched Miss Shadows and how the alcohol seemed to lighten her mood, his gaze traveled over the smallest of the girls and he wondered how she was managing to put that much of a bottle away without falling dead of alcohol poisoning, and Sawyer next to her who seemed less nervous now than hours before. He watched Kia, who seemed to enjoy himself far too much, and he watched Des. 

Clay had noticed the moment she'd slipped away from the group, stumbling and cursing like she wasn't in a holy place. He wasn't going to lie, he had actually chuckled when she fell into a pew, but the humor of the scene dissolved as quickly as it had come to him. He eyed the door she was so obviously going to and he stood nonchalantly, stretching like a lazy cat. He felt buzzed and light headed but not completely drunk. "I've got to pee." He muttered into the laughing, conversing group, taking a half empty bottle from Bambi's pale hands on his way around the fire.

The snow outside crunched beneath his feet and Clay sipped on the wine as he surveyed the landscape around him. He knew Des couldn't have made it too far away, intoxicated and clumsy. He pulled the sunglasses up onto his head and looked for her feet print, finally spotting her trotting through what Clay could only describe as a very poorly built cemetery. "Des!" He called, jogging to catch up with her. His annoyance grew as his steps slowed next to her and the two began to aimlessly walk together. The glass bottle of wine was beyond chilly in his hand and he choked down as much as he could before throwing it against a gray stone. "Have you lost your fucking mind or do you even have one?" He half puffed half growled, trying to keep up with her pace. For someone so drunk she sure was making great time. Clay followed, not even sure of the direction they were heading. All he knew was if she was leading them back to Sector Four he'd personally make her choke herself to death. Still, the idea of Des abandoning him and the group, of maybe getting hurt or freezing herself to death, kept Clay with her. He felt somehow responsible for her life at the moment- solely because she was a drunken mess and he was only steps below her on the scale of intoxication. Maybe chugging a bottle of fifty year old wine hadn't been the best of his choices but than again, none of his choices had been good. He should have turned when he came into that clearing, turned away and went the other direction. 

Clay wasn't really sure of how long they had grumbled, insulted, and walked in bitter silence together before he realized he couldn't feel his fingers. Or his nose. He wasn't so sure if his own eyelashes hadn't started forming their own snowflakes by the time he came to a stop. He couldn't keep going. His mind felt as numb as his flesh and he reached out both arms to stop Des from going on without him. "Enough." Was all he managed, unsure if he was using control on her or not. He just wanted them to stop. He just wanted to sleep. He looked around them, every tree, every branch, every root. 

Clay had never built a fort before. He had never seen a tree house. He had, however, seen a movie once with in Sector Four with a guard. It was a long time ago and the memory was blurry, but he remembered that the little cartoon animals lived in a hollow made of roots and trees. That's what he was going to make. A make shift hobbit hole of sorts. It was agonizing and exhausting. One at a time he bent each tree to wrap around them in a circle with no door or escape. Over and over he swirled their branches to hide out the snow and damp that was the storm above them. He twisted them so tightly for a brief moment he wondered if they'd be able to breathe inside the five foot area. He decided he didn't care.

Inside he took a trunk of an oak, one that had been covered in a wet green moss and bent it down, morphin the wood into a bed wide enough for the both of them. "Lay down with me or die. I don't care." He whispered, half crumbling onto the stiff wood. Clay had never used his power like this before. The alcohol was making his head spin and he squeezed his eyes shut to keep from getting lost in the merry go round that was his vision. He had over did it and he wondered if it was possible to die from using your powers too much. 

There was no room for weakness right now, Des made sure of that as she pressed herself through the mass of trees, snow, and the bustling wind that encircled their small entourage. She was growing more and more frustrated with herself and her inability to control her own emotions -- just like the small and frail healer girl. However, Des did note that after her tears and minuscule meltdown, the girl’s demeanor seemed to have shifted into one that resembled her own. Or, well, what Deserae tried to pretend to be.

And then there was the fellow silver-haired one, who didn’t seem entirely bothered by her failed attempts to piss him off. Surely, he looked disgruntled, but that expression never seemed to entirely change even throughout their trek through the woods. His face seemed to be settled into a constant state of threatened annoyance. It made her stomach uneasy.

Even as Des noticed the rest of the group growing closer and closer to Kai and his heat, she still refused to leave her position at the head of the pack. Des was cold, and it was her own doing. Instead of yielding to her self and admitting defeat to her power, Des continued forth at the front -- trying to get a hold on the one thing she should be able to control: Herself. And she wanted to do so without the watchful eyes of the other experiments.

Upon entering the church, Des tried her best to push out the conversations the others were having. She didn’t care what their life was like before, she didn’t care what the church meant to them. All it was now was four walls and a roof -- not so different from their cells back in Sector Four. Stepping into the building brought a small tinge of fear, realizing that almost as soon as she was able to be in nature, in her home, she had to give it up. Even if it was for just one night, it didn’t stop the heavyweight that pressed down on her shoulders. A small part of her was also thankful that it seemed a few of the others were hesitant as well. “Nice job,” she said to Sawyer, giving him a singular nod of approval. That’s about as much Des would offer of her satisfaction with the boy, her own sense of wariness consuming her ability to conjure any other praise.

Just one night -- it was just one night here. Then they could be back out by sunrise. Five hours, at the most. She could do this. She had to do this.

While she didn’t want to admit it to herself, Deserae found Clay’s and Sawyer’s stories interesting. There was so much she didn’t know about the others and her selfishness hindered her ability to even ask about their lives beforehand -- or if they even had one. It was slightly relieving that some of the others knew what their life had entailed before Sector Four, not many did. She didn’t say anything, but her cold gaze softened as she turned back to face Clay, although she knew better than to meet his icy eyes.

Drifting away from the others to find some sort of food, Des eventually found a small supply cabinet in the back of the church. These people were stocking up for something that was for sure. But, considering the layer of grime and dust that sat on the food, it hadn’t been touched in years. Bags of food littered the shelves, although most of which expired years ago. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Deserae began shoving packages and boxes of cereal, snacks, and bread and tossing them onto the floor. Something, there had to be something viable in here.

And then her eyes rested on a few cans in the back corner of the shelves and Deserae almost whimpered in delight.

“Thank fucking God,” she muttered, not catching herself about the type of language she was using while inside the church. There were more important matters to deal with than her questionable vocabulary and manners, or lack thereof.

Snatching the cans and holding the slew of beans, corn, and mandarin oranges against her chest, Des made her way out of the closet, kicking a large bag of some sort of jerky with her boot. With another blow, the jerky slid across the wooden floor towards the others and the raging fire that sat in the middle of the church. She narrowed her eyes at the sight. Having a campfire inside the middle of a church surrounded by wood didn’t exactly seem like the greatest plan -- then again it was Kai, and the idiotic plan made more sense, considering it was coming from a numbskull like him.

Arms full, Des carefully set the cans on the ground alongside the large bag of jerky. “Dinner is served,” she sighed. She immediately went and popped open the bag, grabbing a few strips of jerky before snagging the can of oranges -- they were her favorite. Peeling back the lid, Des ate silently. Surely, it was a poor excuse for a meal and it wouldn’t fill her up. But, this was their new life. Their new free life. She would take canned food and nights in abandoned churches any day if it meant never returning to the hell that was Sector Four.

Eyeing the box of donations as she ate, Des watched as the others rifled through the items. Shiny and black plastic caught her eye underneath a yellow sweater and she leaned over to grab the object. Sunglasses. “How convenient,” she muttered, examining the glasses before glancing over towards Clay across from her. “Here’s a rule: you wear these. Always.” She tossed him the sunglasses and narrowed her gaze at the boy. “No offense,” she snapped, although her tone suggested that he should take complete offense. There was no mistaking that Deserae didn’t trust the boy. She had every reason not to after witnessing what he could do with just one simple glance. If Clay could defy the laws of mother nature and move trees as if they were a curtain, who knows what he could control a human to do.

She shuddered at the thought.

Being the last to look over the box, Des couldn’t be too picky with her options. There was a black cargo-like jacket that probably belonged to a child, but she snatched it anyways. It was a tighter fit, but it would do. One couldn’t be too picky when they were on the run.

While the others scooted closer to the fire and near Kai’s smirking form, Des stayed put, distancing herself from the group. Her back leaned up against the end of a pew as she ate silently. Hearing Lyra’s disgusted complaints about the wine, a small smirk curled up on Deserae’s lips and as the bottle was handed to her, she begrudgingly took a sip. And then another. And then another. It was God awful and tasted like dirt mixed with that shitty juice Sector Four gave them, but nonetheless, she drank the rest of the bottle to herself, ignoring Kai’s pouts and protests. There were plenty of bottles to go around and, after the day she had creating a life-threatening storm and finding herself stuck with a ragtag group of unstable freaks such as herself, she needed it.

Since she didn’t want to scoot close to the fire, Des had to grown warm another way.

Leaning her head against the wooden pew and closing her eyes momentarily, she listened to the soft hum of the others around the fire. The snaps and the pops of the flame on wood were somewhat relaxing and she found herself succumbing to exhaustion slowly.

And then the air hopper Sawyer spoke and it took all of Deserae’s self-control to not use any more expletives inside the church. “What, were you expecting a ‘Welcome Home’ entourage?” She could feel the alcohol coursing through her words and the snarky remark hadn’t come out as vicious as she had planned. Scoffing at herself, Des shook her head. “We will be lucky if we survive a month at best.” No thanks to her and her inability to harness in the blistering storm that raged outside of the church. “Out here or in there, we’ll die anyway.”

She was to blame for this. All of this. It was a heavy burden to carry, even for a ruthless tempest such as herself.

Shooting up from her seated position, Des quickly hobbled for a moment. Arms out slightly to steady her wavering form, she furrowed her brows at the spinning and off-kilter perspective. “What the…” she whispered to herself, trying to regain control over her steps. Her feet felt heavy and her eyes were even heavier.

Ah, yes. She was drunk.

“Fuck,” she hissed, taking another dragging step as she tried to sneak away from the group. However, her tactic was less than successful when she ran her knee into the corner of a pew, letting out an unearthly scrape against the floor and an even louder mess of curses coming from her lips.

When you grow up around ruthless guards, you learn a thing or two about colorful language.

Of course, she heard snickering and hushed giggles from behind her, she didn’t blame them. So, in return, a large gust of wind slammed against the church and Clay’s vines, causing a howl to sound outside. Right about now, due to her embarrassment, the snow sounded more pleasant than spending another minute making a fool out of herself. At least out there she would be somewhat in control, unlike now.

Sawyer kicked at the ground a little with the toe of his boot as Deserae called him out in front of the whole group, suggesting he use his powers to scout ahead and find some shelter — though her tone made his throat grow tight. He glanced around at the pathway ahead of them and the trees and vegetation on either side, the thought of randomly jumping around this area made his heart beat wildly in his chest.

Even if they weren’t in a snowstorm with very limited visibility, he would have had a hard time navigating where he started, where he had gone, and how to get back. Not to mention he didn’t exactly have a handle on his power in the first place. What if he were to jump three miles ahead and not be able to find his way back to them? What if he jumped there and had exhausted his powers too much to jump back? The various possibilities of how he would fail started swirling around his head until he took a deep breath and nodded. Everyone else seemed to at least be useful to the group if he couldn’t pull his weight they’d no doubt leave him behind at the first possible opportunity.

“Okay, I’ll try,” He muttered to them all before picking a random direction and pulling at the matter in front him until he was no longer surrounded by the other experiments until he was in a completely different part of the woods. He’d landed in a pile of snow that came to his knees and he trudged ahead a little trying to scope out the scene. There was nothing here. Sawyer knew he hadn’t gone very far since he could still hear the muffled voices of the group even over the wind — or Kai’s voice just carried. He jumped back in the direction he came, landing back in the middle of the group. “You and me both,” Sawyer responded to Kai as he took a deep breath and prepared to disappear again.

Each jump became harder and harder to make, and it felt like he’d been punched in the gut every time he landed someplace knew. When he wasn’t around the others he would put his hands on his knees and gasp for breath until he’d felt like he could function again, but tried to keep himself composed when he was jumping back towards the group. He was starting to feel like they were going to be shit out of luck until about his twelfth jump when he found himself standing outside of some dilapidated church.

He’d known it was a church because of the little wooden cross on the tip of the steeple that still stood strong despite the fact that the rest of the building looked ready to collapse. This church looked nothing like the one he and his family used to go to in the city. Their church had taken up an entire block and stood nearly as tall as the buildings surrounding it. The inside had been all gilded in gold and covered in religious paintings and tapestries. Still, the site of this building made his chest ache a little at the thought of his family and the normal things they used to do together, though now he struggled to even remember what his family members looked like. His memories of them were more like a sketchy and vague recollection of the way he felt about them — warm and comforting.

Sawyer didn’t bother going inside to scope the place out before he told the others about it. Mostly because the place was a little creepy and dark and wandering around inside by himself was the last thing he really wanted to do. But also, because he knew that it had four walls and would get them out of the snow, and that was enough.

He jumped back to the group, his precision at least had gotten slightly better after his dozen or so jumps, but it took him a moment to catch his breath before he could tell them what he’d found. “There’s a place — a church I think, that way,” He pointed north-east towards the direction he’d just jumped from. He hadn’t been going super far in his jumps, but it was still a bit of a trek until the group found themselves staring at the off-kilter double doors.

“Yeah, sorry, not exactly a ton of options,” Sawyer mumbled, shaking snow out of his hair. He didn’t blame them. The place looked creepy as hell, hence the reason he hadn’t gone in by himself earlier — so he stuck close to the group as the others climbed the steps and Des pushed open the double doors.

It definitely didn’t look like the church he used to go to.

The entire place was covered in a thick layer of dust; leaves and debris littered the ground. Sawyer watched as the girls all set off in different directions, Deserae muttering something about looking for food and the other two wandering off without another word. He nearly collapsed into a dusty pew, laying all the way down with his feet dangling off the edge. Sawyer was so exhausted from all of those jumps that he felt weak and sore all over. He should have taken his training more seriously.

Sawyer was pretty surprised to hear Clayton start talking about his childhood and about his parents with such ease. “Be careful what you wish for, I guess,” Sawyer muttered in response to Clay saying his family used to pray that he regained his eyesight. He was sure this particular circumstance hadn’t been what they had in mind. God works in mysterious ways, was something his family used to say. “I used to come to church too, with my family,” He told Clayton and Kai. “It was boring. Some guy just stood and talked for, like, hours. But I guess, I don’t know, people thought it was comforting or something,” He told them, sitting back up as Kai started a fire.

Bambi and Lyra returned, both carrying things they had managed to find in this dump. Bambi had a giant box filled with clothes and shoes and other things. Sawyer rummaged through after the others and managed to find a long-sleeve shirt and a black jacket that was a couple of sizes too big for him, but he was just glad to be out of some of his Legion gear. Lyra, however, had brought something far less practical — wine. Sawyer remembered that it was something his mother used to drink at dinner. Still, he took it once it had come around the circle to him and took a drink, not exactly impressed with the flavor. He laughed a little at Clay’s suggestion that they all eat bugs, he hoped the boy was joking.

“What do you guys think it’s gonna be like?” He asked apprehensively, scooting in a little closer to the fire. “Do you think it’ll be like this?” He gestured lamely to the crumbling church around them. “Or like it used to be?” Sawyer wasn’t sure which he’d rather have. A world that was desolate and falling apart, or a world that had kept on going despite everything they had been forced to go through.

Watching as Kai engulfed his entire hand in flames, Lyra had to admit that she was less intimidated by his power, and more considering huddling around that flame for warmth — especially in this weather. “Threatening wouldn’t be the word I use to describe you,” She shot back at him, with a toying grin of her own as she disappeared into her own more ominous, shadowy form to show him just how threatening she could be.

She couldn’t help but laugh a little at his statement about him being charming even without an audience. “Charming also wouldn’t be how I would describe you, but whatever you have to tell yourself, Kai.” A bit of a lie. He was charming, she could admit that to herself. But this kid had a big enough head that she didn’t need to feed into that self-assurance of his. Though seeing her shadow so thin near his flames effectively shut her up. The shadows had been a steadfast companion to Lyra her entire life; a comforting and constant presence. Seeing them spread so thin, seeing them look so fragile, gave her a sinking feeling in her gut. Light and darkness were polar opposites, not meant to mesh.

If Kai hadn’t been radiating heat, and if she hadn’t been so cold, she would’ve had half a mind to steer clear of him like she was steering clear of Clayton — but the storm was only getting worse, and he was like a damn space heater so she stuck relatively close. Lyra also felt a little more comfortable in the presence of Kai, Bambi, and Sawyer than she did with the two light-haired members of their group. She especially stuck to the back when Des snapped at her about Lyra’s question about the storm. “Just making sure you were aware,” Lyra muttered sarcastically as she listened in while the girl chewed out the scared looking kid.

Though something she said seemed to have lit a fire under his ass because he got a very determined look on his face and started disappearing and reappearing moments later. It took him about a dozen jumps before he finally told them that he found something. Lyra had to admit that she was impressed, that was definitely a convenient power.

When the group finally approached the church, something Sawyer had called it, Lyra was more skeptical than when he’d first told them about it. She supposed that it would at keep them out of this snowstorm, but it also looked like it was about one good gust of wind away from completely crumbling. Lyra would normally send in a shadow to scout the place out before she entered, but she was exhausted from the fight and from her little showcase for Kai earlier so she hung back while a couple of the others climbed the steps before her. She glanced over at Bambi and Kai who both looked equally spooked by the place. “Scared?” She taunted, though her tone was playful.

The place looked ramshackle from the outside but looked downright ominous on the inside. Rows and rows of wooden benches faced a dusty, but grandiose alter at the front of the giant room. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. Now she was the one who was freaked out. Lyra meandered around the large room as Clay used his power to patch up the holes with various vines and other living matter — it at least felt a lot warmer in here without the wind chill.

Listening to Clayton talk about religion and places like this before he was taken to the sector, about his eyesight, about the things he could do now that he had his vision — it made Lyra shudder. She let herself wonder briefly what all of their lives would have been like if they hadn’t been taken from their families and been mercilessly experimented on. It was something she used to think about a lot when she was lonely and scared, but it wasn’t exactly conducive to thriving in a place like Sector 4.

Lyra wandered further into the decrepit church, going in a different direction than Deserae had gone so they would be sure to search the entire place for supplies. She stepped into a backroom that was shrouded in darkness and stepped into it without a second thought, the dark was never something that she was afraid of. It was almost comforting really, to be surrounded by shadow without having to conjure them herself. Her eyesight adjusted quickly as she opened cupboards and drawers, mostly finding nothing but cobwebs and junk — but eventually, she found a couple of bottles of some beverage. She turned the bottle over, it was wine. She’d watched the guards drink themselves silly on more than one occasion in the sector, not on wine, but she assumed it was the same kind of stuff. She grabbed a couple of the other bottles and the corkscrew opener that was with them before returning back to the group.

“Oh thank god,” She muttered as she saw the fire that Kai had managed to get started while she had been looking around. Lyra set the bottles down in front of the others and stuck her hands out to warm them up, feeling suddenly even more exhausted in the warmth of the flames. “I think I would rather starve,” She told the boys when Clayton suggested they fry up some bugs to eat. “This isn’t food, but,” Lyra held up one of the wine bottles and got to work on figuring out how to get the cork out of the bottle. “I found wine in the back, something the guards at the sector drank to celebrate — and I figured this is about as good of a time to celebrate as any,” She told them with a shrug and a satisfying pop as the cork came free from the bottle. Lyra sniffed the bottle and took a small swig before recoiling in disgust.

“What the fuck, why did people used to drink this” The taste was bitter and rich, and like nothing she’d ever tasted before. She didn’t exactly like it, but the warmth of it down her throat and spreading across her chest wasn’t terrible. She took one more swig despite the initial taste before shoving it into Kai’s hands. “Try it,” She laughed and scooted closer to Bambi and the box labeled ‘donations’ she’d brought into the group. Lyra pawed through the clothes before pulling out a fleece-lined denim jacket and pulling it on. It smelled musty, but at least it was warm. “These are great, thanks.” She mumbled to the other girl, pulling the jacket even tighter around herself. “And hey, at least now you don’t have to walk barefoot in the snow,” She smiled, leaning in closer to the fire and rested her chin on her knees, thankful for the warmth and the chance to rest.

“The real threats you say?” Kai tried his best to suppress a toying grin, but alas he quickly failed. He casually lifted a hand as if he were inspecting his nails and flexed his fingers once before his hand was immediately engulfed in flame. Fire danced around the entirety of his fist and through the flickers his eyes darted back to Lyra, that smile still prevalent. “Am I not threatening?”

Kai had expected to see a look of astonishment or amusement on the shadow girl. However, what he wasn’t expecting was the darkness to come full force -- quickly covering her body right before his eyes. The flames still lingered on his hands, part of him didn’t trust himself to extinguish them quite yet. His mouth went dry at the sight of Lyra slinking inside the shadows and becoming nothing more than curling, pitch black smoke as they strode through Clayton’s path. Every primal instinct was telling him to run the other direction. That light and darkness were more or less mortal enemies.

But yet, he couldn’t look away.

Not even as the last of Lyra’s body dissipated and the mass of shows encircled him. He smirked, his body still facing forward, but his eyes following the smoke-like tendrils. As a breathy voice sounded in his ear, Kai let out a dark chuckle and cocked a brow. “Fortunately for you, I’m always this charming. With or without an audience. So, please,” his eyes traveled across the slinking shadows at his feet before meeting her gaze again, “be my guest.”

As the fire on his fist decreased, now only claiming his fingertips, Kai watched her shadows venture towards him and part of his body tensed. While her cloak of darkness was intriguing, he did not doubt that they could make him disappear, just like they had done with their owner. While Lyra controlled them, he couldn’t shake the feeling that they might have a mind of their own. As one shadow snuffed out a flame on his finger, Kai’s brows furrowed, though not at the sight of his diminished flame. No, he was concerned at the sight of her dark tendril, once thick and curling, now only a small strand. He hadn’t occurred to him that though they may be experiments and have a shared background -- their powers might not always complement each other.

He decided that speaking about what they had just witnessed should stay between them. So, he merely passed Lyra a nod and continued his way through the storm, the snow not affecting him nearly as bad as it was the others. Yes, he felt cold and the snowflakes and wind rushing past his eyes were bothersome, but he definitely didn’t have the disadvantage here. Not when poor Bambi behind him was shoeless.

After Des had snapped at Sawyer, Kai couldn’t help but the laugh every time Sawyer disappeared and then reappear moments later, back inside the group as if he had never left. “I will never get used to that.” Taking note from clapping his back earlier and seeing that Sawyer looked as if he were going to piss himself, Kai kept his hands to himself, but the warmth in his voice hopefully resonated enough for the boy.

Eventually, the group came upon the building Sawyer had scouted earlier and, stepping up to the desolate and haunting church, Kai let out a whistle. “And you want us to go in there?” He would admit it, he didn’t get a good feeling as he stared down those double doors, practically falling off their hinges. The area was covered in darkness and, considering who he was and that he thrived in the light, part of him was rightfully frightened. “I’m with her,” he said as Bambi also seemed equally as threatened by the church as he was.

Jaw locked; Kai was one of the last ones to enter the building. Hearing Clay surprisingly speak to the group left his eyebrows raised in curiosity and his steps slowed so he could listen to the boy’s story. He decided that church was peculiar. Being forced to believe in no one but yourself, he didn’t quite grasp the concept of church and religion in general. He was raised surrounded by science with no connection to anything deeper than laboratories and needles. While he was on edge stepping into the ramshackle of a building and the darkened corners and shadows left his skin in prickles, something inside this place comforted him. He didn’t know what, but upon entering he felt somewhat safe -- despite the hell they had just endured.

“Depends on how you use your vision, I guess,” Kai answered Clay after a beat. Both of his hands ignited into a gentle fire and he held them out from his sides slightly, offering as much light as he could without setting fire to the pews around them. Seeing the silver-haired boy begin to patch up the church, Kai followed him hesitantly, giving him enough light to see, but also keeping his distance. “So, you have to look at something for it to move.” He concluded after watching Clayton rebuild most of the interior. It was fascinating, watching insects scatter, leaves float away, even the shattered windows now covered with branches and vines -- all with just one glance. It was unnerving, but also fascinating.

Watching Deserae stalk off into the shadows so willingly, Kai shuddered. He wasn’t used to so much darkness, even with his illuminated hands.

Thankfully, Clay’s words about their choice of food were able to grant a signature smile from Kai once more and he began grabbing broken pieces of furniture, papers, anything he could find. “There is no way in hell I’m eating a bug, nor letting you guys roast them on my account. I’m sure Ice Queen can scrounge up something soon enough.” With the discarded items, he began throwing them into a pile until a small mountain of rubbish sat in the middle of the church. He had moved the pews to circle the pile and eventually, after blasting small balls of flame into the rubble, a roaring yet controlled fire sprouted. Surely, he would have to work diligently to make sure the fire never escaped from the pile, but for now, while they waited for dinner, it was the only solace he could bring to their group. But, he knew the fire couldn't last long -- he was already starting to feel drained after conjuring up flames throughout their travel. However, most of it was done just to try and be a show off and Kai was mentally kicking himself for that.

Bambi had already decided a few things. The first was simple, the storm was getting worse. The second most notable thing she had come to understand was the fact that no one seemed very eager to get along. If anything the tension in the air was becoming thicker than the snow falling around them. Although she was grateful for Kai and his pity and she did in fact stay glued behind him, she found even herself becoming more distant emotionally. There was no more tears. In fact Bambi felt rather numb and she wasn't so sure it was the freezing air that was causing it. Somewhere far away her thoughts danced around the first aid kit comment and a deep set fear creeped around her mind. Would they keep her around if they knew the truth? That she was rather useless? Out of the entire group she was the weakest link and it wasn't much comfort. Even Sawyer, whom had seemed so scared earlier, was already using his powers to help save them. He was poofing and reappearing so many times it made Bambi almost queasy. She was just about to open her mouth and suggest they build a makeshift fort out of tree branches when the good news came. Sawyer had found a church; what ever that was. She was excited about the idea of something unknown for all of ten minutes.  "Is it supposed to look this terrifying?" Bambi asked the moment the decaying building came into sight. Her steps slowed slightly but shedidn'tt dare stray too far from Kai's warmth or the group. The snow clung to the aged wood and the porch seemed to sag as they stomped across it.  To be fair it did look better on the inside than the out. It was very open and dusty but the floor inside seemed sturdy and the walls mostly held the storm out. For the first time since leaving the Sector her feet actually felt warm. Bambi glanced over sharply when she heard Clay speak and she arched her eyebrows at his words. She silently wondered how old he had been when the Legion had taken him but she didn't dare ask. "I don't think my parents believed in a God." She muttered, rubbing her hands and arms to smear the last of the snow from her skin. Thinking about her family was painful and Bambo quickly walked herself away from the conversation.  While the others seemed to find something to do, Bambi merely walked around, occasionally reaching out to touch a ruined painting or look into an empty room. Her feet felt like pin and needles and she found herself leaning against a wall for support more than once. In one of the rooms Bambi found what looked like a massive tub and she wondered what they could have possibly used that for. In another room she found books amd books that she didn't know how to read. Finally in what must have been a closet she found something she could use. A box filled with clothes and shoes, the the letters DONATIONS scribled across the top. "Oh my god." She exclaimed, yanking the box up to to carry back to the others. As soon as it hit the dirty floor she began carefully digging through the cloth, pulling herself out a pair of slightly worn tennis shoes and a long sleeve white sweater. The material was soft and fuzzy and Bambi yanked it on over her ripped shirt. It smelled musky and old but it didn't matter. It had been a long time since she had worn real clothes. The excitement was almost enough to make her forget about her grumbling stomach or dry throat.

Clay felt satisfaction for all of five seconds. The cold wet blanket that seemed to hit him face on was enough to make him bitter and resentful and he refused to look at the girl as she repositioned herself as the led. He knew Des had hit him with the wind snowballs due to his comment and he could accept that; he expected that. It was the obvious fact she had no control over her own powers that made him angry towards her, especially since the storm was beginning to work very hard against them. Maybe deep down, somewhere he wasn't familiar with, he felt almost sorry towards her as they trampled through the snow. The thought he was capable of feelings like sorrow made Clay's hands ball themselves into tight fist by his sides and his jaw ache. Sympathy wasn't going to prevent him from being recaptured by the Legion. Des clearly wasn't going to either. She was strong, but her gift only affected Clay's powers. If he couldn't see he couldn't fight but none of that really mattered to him at the moment. If they didn't find a way out of this storm he wasn't going to make it anyways.

Clay had been cold before. Although, back then, he always found himself in front of a warm fire in his parents small home. His life before Sector Four had been one of comfort, even if he had been blind. This was far from comfort.

He didn't talk to anyone as the group carried on about shelter, but he did find himself edging closer to Kai. His body heat was enough to shake the frost from his fingers and his face. When Sawyer finally found a place for them to get out of the storm Clayton found his heart racing in excitement. He was tired, freezing, and hungry. 

The church was eerie. It was the first time he'd ever seen a building before that wasn't the Sector and the sight of it made his stomach fall. If this was all the world had to offer him, he was incredibly concerned. Even as he took the stairs inside and left the storm behind, the feeling didn't dissolve. "My parents used to bring me to a church. They'd get on their knees around me and they'd pray to God to heal my eyes. They'd beg him to save my life and bring me sight." With a laugh, Clay looked around at the benches and the alter. His eyes glanced from the stain glass windows to a white cross that had fallen to despair. He felt nothing here. "I wonder what they'd think if they knew that I wasn't blind anymore. If they knew everything my vision has caused me to do." Giving his head a little shake to clear it,  he moved further in and began to scout the building. Every time he'd run into a vine or spider he'd force the living object to leave. The broken windows he quickly patched with limbs from nearby trees and the hanging front door he cloaked with ivy. Once there was nothing left for him to do he sat down on a cracked bench and ran his hands through his dampen hair. Laying in front of his shoe was a book that was dull and tattered and Clayton found himself picking it up. The paper inside was fascinating, silky amd thin. It was unlike anything he'd ever looked at before and he had a fleeting thought that maybe it was the paper that had convinced his parents that God was real. Clay didn't know about anyone else in the group but he was sure it hadn't been some far away man that had convinced the Legion to fix his eyes. If there was a God, he would have never allowed a boy to kill a man. With a sigh Clay threw the bible down and folded his arms across his chest. "Look, if we don't find something to eat in this dump I'm going to herd us up some fucking bugs. Kai can roast them for the crunchy effect." 

The more Deserae stood with the other experiments, the more her stomach churned and distorted. Her body felt as if it were being pricked with a thousand needles from the incessant conversations and unease that filtered through the clearing. Des realized that she kept needing to shift her weight periodically to keep herself distracted and from caving in like the healer. Yes, Deserae wanted nothing more than to fold into her arms and scream until her throat was raw and her voice was hoarse. She wanted to sprint through the forest and not care about the minuscule cuts that made home on her high cheekbones. She was feeling everything -- and all she needed was nothing. She was used to nothing.

She didn't speak as Kai and the others mentioned an abandoned city that sat north of the clearing. However, hearing the more quiet and meek boy voice his concerns, Des couldn’t help but feel slightly on board with his stance. Yes, it could be a trap. All of this could be nothing but another sick experiment put on by the Legion. If she were able, Deserae would forget this newfound adventure party immediately without so much as a glance back. She didn't do friends, she didn't do large groups and conversation. Hell, part of her didn't even care what Sector Four had injected these other subjects with. Right now, Des needed to be completely and entirely selfish, or else there wouldn’t be much of her left. No matter if it made her look like the bad guy -- she never claimed to be a decent person to begin with.

Deserae had no idea how she knew which way was north, but instinctively she turned and rapidly made her way through the forest -- only sighing once as she heard the others make their way after her. Kai’s irritating and gaudy voice was a dead giveaway, but Des could also feel the white-haired boy’s heart-stopping gaze on the back of her head and that made her press further all the more hastily. However, to her dismay, it seemed as if her newfound opponent had other ideas and before she could object, he had made his way to the front of the pack and cut her off.

“Excuse you,” she muttered as he put out a hand, Des almost running right into it. She halted in place and narrowed her eyes at Clay. “Who died and made you king?” She knew she was being particularly unkind to the man who hasn’t even spoken to her, but she sensed that a few rude comments wouldn’t be enough to knock him off of his pedestal. He walked as if he owned wherever he stepped. It was quite annoying. Des was about to huff out a frustrated breath and walk around him until the forest shifted and the ground rumbled beneath her feet.

She stood as still like ice as trees, vines, brush, and anything else that thrived in the wood dispersed for them. A pathway sat ahead, right where the arrogant boy stood. She was shocked and unnerved. Fear and excitement and panic sprouted inside her chest and Des had no idea whether she should run back to the clearing and take life into her own hands or give it entirely to the white-haired man whose eyes made her skin crawl.

She had the others decide for her.

For once, Deserae followed suit with what the other experiments were doing and she continued to track them. Clay took the lead once more and she was about to give him the satisfaction of herding the group until he opened his damn mouth and complained about the storm.

Irritation rose in her chest and a harsh wind began to pick up speed, encircling the group. But, it was his condescending words that made Deserae really fall off the edge and another gust of air breezed by and happened to hit Clay, along with wet and dense snowflakes that were almost iced over. Des hadn’t expected those winds and flakes to form, but she couldn’t say she was upset at the act. She gritted her teeth and her hands fisted at her sides and stomped back towards the front of the group. Des took her place back in the lead, cutting off Clay as he had done to her earlier.

Little did he know, she couldn’t exactly control the ice storm, either.

Hearing the others agree with his statement and Des could practically feel their shivering forms, her body tensed and her footsteps grew quicker as they continued onto the fresh pathway. As Lyra’s voice echoed from the back, Deserae merely snapped, “It’s not just you.” Another voice rattled off after her’s, coming from the teleporting man. Rolling her eyes and giving herself a moment to collect herself before turning over her shoulder, Des also spoke to him with just as much, if not more dislike. “Then why don’t you make yourself useful and evaporate ahead and try and find us shelter?”

She was being harsh and rude, Des knew that. She could blame her poor social skills and her anger towards the white-haired boy. She could also blame the fact that she knew she had little to no control over her power and seeing it in full force out in nature made her heart race and what little self-confidence she had wilted. But, deep within her, Deserae knew that the true reason as to why she acted out the way she had. Part of her died that day she was brought to Sector Four. And, now being free from their control and out where she truly belonged, she just wanted that part to return.

Their journey had been a relatively quick one. It seemed that her snide remarks to Sawyer had kickstarted something inside him and, whenever he could, he jumped ahead of the path and tried to scout out some form of shelter while the storm continued to rage on and on around them. While Kai tried to converse with everyone from the middle of the group, she frankly ignored him for the most part and kept her cold gaze forward, internally trying to find the off switch to tone down the blistering winds and thick clumps of snow that encased them. While some of the members leaned more towards Kai and the heat he radiated, Des still kept to herself, battling the lead position with her newfound public enemy number one: the boy who looked so much like her and yet someone who she couldn’t despise more.

Eventually, Sawyer was able to spot an old and abandoned church that sat right in the middle of the forest. Vines and brush and trees shrouded the rickety wooden frame and Des couldn’t help but crinkle her nose at the sight. The wood was rotten and practically falling off the building, but it was shelter nonetheless. She had been to a makeshift church when she still was with her family. It was an antique place, much like this one, and the members were all of twelve people. It seemed to bring comfort to those who needed it, even though Deserae wasn’t one of them. “Hallelujah,” she grumbled, stepping up towards the double doors -- one of them nearly falling off its hinges.

She pushed the doors open and shadow immediately cloaked her. Des took another step before her intuition got to the best of her and she waited for the others to follow. For once, she was thankful for Kai as he did not hesitate to ignite one of his hands, illuminating the church in an orange glow. Rows of pews were positioned in front of them, leading up to a pedestal that had been turned onto its side. Stained glass windows that had shattered holes and cracks encircled the church. Glass crunched under her boots as Des continued further, only stopping once she reached the altar.

It was eerie and gave no sense of comfort for Deserae, but it would have to do for the night.

“I’ll look for something to eat,” she said, not turning to face the group as she stalked off and delved onto the alter before disappearing into the darkness.

Deserae’s clipped tone made Sawyer shift his eyes from her to the ground, his heart still thundering in his chest. He was going to apologize again because he knew just how frightening it was for someone to just appear in front of you when Kai spoke again saying that he had come close to incinerating Sawyer. The boy forced a small smile until he felt Kai’s hand clap his shoulder — and before he could stop himself he had disappeared again, this time reappearing only a few feet away. He wasn’t used to being touched and it had taken him by surprise. Despite the jump, Sawyer did appreciate the other boy’s attempt at humor, at trying to diffuse the tension — he didn’t remember the last time he had laughed and Kai did it with such ease.

His attention snapped to the two others who entered the clearing after he had appeared and carefully eyed Deserae again after she had snapped at the girl who was crying. Sawyer prepared himself to jump again as the girl quickly dried her tears and got up to face the silver-haired girl. He did not want to get caught in the cross-fires of whatever the hell was about to happen, but he continued to watch as the girl tentatively reached up and, much to everyone’s surprise, healed the girl’s ear. Sawyer’s eyes widened as he took it all in, and was glad, at least, to have someone else there whose powers didn’t seem so catastrophically destructive as the others’ did.

When the shadowy girl asked what they all should do now, and Sawyer suggested they high tail it as far as they could, he glanced over at Des who appeared to agree with him. She’d suggested they all stop standing around and talking and Sawyer nodded — they could talk whenever they got where they were going. Their little group was still way too close to Sector Four for comfort.

Sawyer eyed the group as Kai suggested the city, and he wondered if anyone else was thinking what he was. “What if it’s a trap?” He asked tentatively, his mouth going dry at the question. It seemed logical to him, especially if Kai had gotten this information from a guard. The last thing they needed was to arrive in some random city exhausted and freezing only to walk into an ambush. Though looking around at the group and the immense amounts of power thrumming through them all, he was also pretty sure that, together, they could handle that threat.

He hadn’t seen a city since he was a boy — since he and his family had fled theirs. Sawyer wondered now how far away he’d been taken if maybe this city was the one he’d left all those years ago. He remembered the hustle and the bustle, and he remembered the fear in his family’s faces when it had all started to take a turn for the worse. He shook the memory from his head.

The group decided on trying to find the city — they had nowhere else to go, and really no other options. So, Sawyer trekked through the snow behind the rest of the group as Deserae led the way until the light-haired boy plowed his way to the front. Lovely. This was going to be a pissing contest for who had the strongest power — even the harbinger of darkness was showing off her power to the fire boy. Sawyer knew he couldn’t keep up with the others in terms of their power, hell, he didn’t even know how to fully control it. And even then, all he could do was disappear and show up somewhere else. How was that helpful in a fight? All he could do was run away. But hey, he could do it pretty effectively at least. If he ever figured out how to get a handle on it.

Then he watched in awe at the white-haired boy moved the very forest around them. Not just parted it a little, not in the way the wind moved the branches, no — the trees and vegetation around them were basically slithering out of his way with nothing but, what Sawyer guessed, was a mental command. He didn’t even have the brain capacity at the moment to be as scared as the others looked, no he was surprised — and a little jealous. How was it that everyone but him had such a handle on their power, what was he missing?

Sawyer looked down the pathway the boy had made and saw that not only were the trees and things around them moved but a path had been made for at least a mile. “That’s insane,” He couldn’t help but say. As the group continued their trek, the weather starting to get worse. If Sawyer had to guess, the silver-haired girl at the front of the group was getting irritated by something and had lost her temper again, but he could barely hear any of them above the roar of the wind. Sawyer rubbed his arms, trying to warm them as much as he could but he was still shivering from the cold. “We have to get out of this or we’re gonna freeze to death before we even get to the city,” He chattered.

The tension in that clearing was tangible, especially with that girl crying. Though Lyra was surprised to see Kai melt the snow around the girl, try to warm her. He was arrogant, cocky — that much she could tell already from their brief encounter, but he seemed kind too. She hadn’t been expecting that. Lyra was less surprised when Deserae shot off a comment about the girl’s crying — and she was inclined to agree with her. Not that Lyra didn’t feel for the girl, she did. It was just that this was not the time nor place to break down, not when they were still at risk of being caught.

Lyra steeled herself, as she saw the crying girl get up and make a beeline for Deserae — expecting to witness a fight and being confused as hell when the girl merely lifted a hand to Des and healed her bleeding ear. She eyed the girl and smirked at Kai’s comment about the group acquiring a first aid kit. He was right, that was a useful little trick — one that would more than likely come in handy some point in the future. She made a mental note to get on that girl’s good side in case she ever needed someone to patch her up.

Lyra tried to relax a little as the group’s energy and wariness toward one another eased into something less…harsh. It was hard to trust people after Sector Four, but as far as she could tell they were on the same side. And the more of them there were, the better their chance for making it out of here.

She listened intently to Kai’s suggestion about the abandoned city but was immediately put off by his source for that information. On the one hand, there could be food, supplies, shelter; on the other, it could be a trap. It probably was a trap, but in her mind, the benefits outweighed the potential threats. “I say we head for the city,” She agreed.

The idea of a city was foreign to her. She knew what they were supposed to be, had seen pictures, and had heard about them going to hell when the world took a turn for the worse. But Sector Four had been all Lyra had ever known. Being confined to that compound her entire life, Lyra wasn’t sure she possessed the imagination necessary to even picture what a city would be like. The thought made her kind of giddy.

Lyra watched as Des set off towards what she could only assume was North, though how the girl was able to tell with all the snow in their eyes was beyond her, she fell into step behind her. Though she noticed as the light-haired man trudged up to the front of the group, making sure that he made a wide berth around Lyra. She didn’t complain as she was happy to keep her distance from his as well. She knew why the Legion had made him wear that blindfold, and suffice to say she would prefer to stay out of his way.

The sound of Kai’s voice behind her caused Lyra to turn and face him as they walked. “I was on the other side of the Sector,” She told him nonchalantly. “Where they keep the real threats,” Lyra smirked at him, suddenly aware that taunting a guy who could literally turn her to ash in nothing flat was probably not the best idea — but it sure was fun. She raised an eyebrow at his question about her shadows. “It’s rude to pry, you know,” She scolded, but she let the shadows spill from her once again casting an aura of curling darkness around her.

Lyra allowed herself to give in to the shadow, to blend with it until she was nothing more than smoke on the wind — a shadow herself. This was a trick she had learned early on when she thought she could hide from her training, she hadn’t had that much luck but it was a neat party trick nonetheless. The world always looked a little fuzzier when she was like this, a little tilted — like she was watching through a fishbowl. She slinked around him and breathed, “They can do a lot of things,” before stepping out of that shadow form again. “Like that, for example,” She smiled. “And I can see and hear things through them too, so be careful what you say when you think no one is listening,” Lyra told him with a wink.

She snorted at Kai’s introduction and at his particular phrasing of what his power was and rolled her eyes. A tendril of shadow came from her again, much slower and more controlled than she had been with the guards back at the sector, and snuffed the small flame on his finger like she was putting out a candle. Though she was a little unnerved to see how thin her shadow was as it approached that fire, and she knew that had it been more than a little flame, her shadow would have disappeared altogether. “Lyra,” She told him, but nearly as soon as her name had left her lips she felt a deep rumbling around them.

Showing off her powers to Kai had maybe not been the best move as it had left her considerably drained, but she tried to keep her shadows tight around her as she figured out what the hell was going on. Her entire body felt like it was on high-alert. Then Lyra looked ahead and saw the woods in front of them physically moving out of their way, out of Clayton’s way. Her mouth went dry and fear sat heavy in her stomach. She’d known he was powerful, but not this powerful. She glanced sideways at Kai as he said this would only lead the guards straight to them, and while she agreed, Lyra had the good sense to keep her mouth shut. She did not want to get on Clay’s bad side. So, she continued trudging ahead.

Though to make matters worse, the wind and the fall of the snow around them only seemed to be picking up. Lyra couldn’t think about the cold that was already starting to settle into her bones, and she wasn’t sure how much longer they could keep this up. “Is it just me or is this storm getting worse?” She asked, more towards Deserae than anyone else.

“Don’t apologize to me, I was about to incinerate your ass. Maybe we can get you a little collar with a bell or something -- to give us a damn warning next time.” A chuckle rose from Kai’s chest as he clapped Sawyer on the back, trying to calm the poor guy’s flying nerves. It didn’t take much to notice that the man was on edge. So, Kai did what he was exceptionally good at -- comic relief.

But, his decent mood was quickly tossed out as Bambi began to sob and while warming her, Kai’s eyes darted to Des, who seemed less than comforting as he was. He narrowed his eyes slightly at her but didn’t say anything. He had seen her cry before during his endless walks around Sector Four, but it wasn’t his place to tell her secrets to their new entourage -- no matter if she deserved it, or not. Kai resonated with Bambi and her tears. It hadn’t exactly been easy seeing the only father-like figure he had ever had pointing a gun at his chest. He had tears that sat deep within him and eventually he would let them out, but not tonight, not when time wasn’t on their side. Whereas Deserae seemed equipped to show none of the emotions she most definitely had, he had seen that himself, Kai showed every little thing on his face and he didn’t apologize for it.

Kai had almost not noticed Bambi standing up and out of the melted circle of snow he had formed around her weeping body. A flicker of intrigue sparked in his eyes as he watched the two girls stare each other down. Maybe Bambi did indeed have a little more drive in her than she first put off. As she healed Des, Kai smirked and shook his head before he let out an obnoxious whistle. “At least we have a first aid kit,” he teased. The act of kindness from the healer seemed to have depleted the swarm of tension that surrounded their group. While he still didn’t trust the white-haired boy and Des’s stone-cold exterior was surely going to drive him up a wall, he was at least thankful for the others. Even the terrifying woman that cloaked herself in night. She was someone that Malakai didn’t know if he should run far far away from or if he should let part of him wander into the dark side after being encased in light for his entire life.

Hearing the others converse about their next plan, Kai listened and offered a nod in agreement. “Henry always told me about an abandoned city north of Sector Four. I have no idea how far it is or where the hell north might be, but it’s worth a shot,” he shrugged. However, seeing Deserae snake her way into the forest and suddenly hidden by snow-capped trees, Kai decided that the daughter of Mother Nature herself might have a decent sense of direction. He quickly took his place behind the shadow girl and in front of Bambi, letting the silver-haired grumps lead the way. Those two were a pair that screamed death incarnate and while he might be an idiot at times, even he knew to give them plenty of space.

“So,” Kai leaned forward towards Lyra, talking softly. “I know mostly everyone here, why don’t I know you?” His eyes trailed across her form and seeing that her shadows had disappeared. “What do they do?” He questioned, curiosity getting to the best of him. Malakai had a bad habit of being unintentionally nosy due to his outgoing nature. “I’m Kai, by the way.” He gave her a twidle of his fingers as a soft wave, small flames sitting delicately at his fingertips. “And I’m hot.”

He was about to speak again when the ground below him physically shifted and he nearly jolted forward into the brunette girl. Bambi seemed to have had that same issue and as she collided with his back, he swiveled around to steady her, placing two large and calloused hands around her arms. “Easy, deary. We don’t need our medic taking a spill now, do we?” He flashed her a crooked grin and turned his attention back to the path ahead. “What the hell?” He whispered, eyeing Clayton at the head of the group. His rigid and demanding stance caused Kai to stiffen as well while he swallowed and gazed at the thick trees and branches moving out of their way, inviting them deeper in the forest.

The damn kid had moved them as if they were nothing but pieces of furniture. He moved them with his mind.

The carefree expression on his face fell and he stared at the back of Clay’s head. The power he held, the abilities that Sector Four had injected him with. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. If he could make a forest part its roots like the damn red sea, what else was he equipped with?

For once, Kai wasn’t sure he would like to find out.

“Sure, let’s create a path to lead the guards right towards us. Lovely idea!” He sighed, tossing his arms up in protest but following the group anyways. Hearing Clay’s voice echo from the lead, he rolled his eyes and called back up, “I’m right here, you know? It’s not like I can control the one element that is guaranteed to save our asses or anything…”

Malakai kept his place by Lyra and Bambi. Glancing down at his clean boots -- no snow seeming to stick to them as it had with the others. He noticed that Bambi’s feet were bare and he scoffed at the sight. “Hopefully we near the city soon so we can try and find you something a little more sustainable than those scrapes. I would give you you mine, but I think your feet would be swimming in them and would offer more bad than good. Just stick by me and follow my footsteps.”

Bambi wanted to stop crying. She really did. Even as other people made their appearances into into the clearing she couldn't muster up the strength to look up. She felt a mixture of feelings, so many she had held in while waiting for her death sentence at Sector Four. It wasn't tears of despair that made her nose runny and her hair stick to her cheeks in a soggy mess. It was the upliftng realization that she had made it out and chances were no one was actually looking for her. Why would the Legion come collecting someone like her? Someome deemed so useless they were planning an execution. She was so lost in the bliss of it all that at first she didn't even notice the warmth.

It was like standing next to a fire, not that Bambi had actually experienced one of those in the last decade. She couldn't help but stiffin slightly as she glanced between her hands and watched the snow disappear around her. For a fleeting second she wondered if she was going to melt with it, only to miss its waves once they were gone. She knew who had done it and she secretly peaked at Kai when he wasn't looking. He had a big heart. 

Standing next to him stood a dark haired guy who looked almost as freaked out as she was and she found herself feeling much better about her blunt show of emotions. At least she wasn't the only one who didn't have the expression of brutality plastard all over herself. Of course there was a lot of small talk and humor floating amongst the group but there was no doubt about the tension either. Most of it radiating from the very strange girl she'd seen when she had first entered the clearing. Bambi was half listening when she heard her remark. 

She was instantly embarrassed and ashamed. How dare her, Bambi thought, her tears instantly drying themselves up to nothing. Her fucking dare her. Did she think she was better than everyone because she had a face of stone? With a sobering realization that no one here probably knew her powers Bambi wiped her hair back out her face and unfolded herself from the ground. She could feel everyone's eyes burning themselves into her figure and face as she walked and Bambi tried to hide how uncomfortable that made her. She tried to hide all that made her weak, even if it was just for this moment. This moment was important. She needed everyone to know she was important too. 

Taking slow easy breathes Bambi stopped infront of the girl and evaluated her mangled ear. It was just a little rip, nothing that would hurt too much. Reaching out as if trying to touch a wild rabbit Bambi pressed her hand against the wound. It was an instant sharp sting that was over as quickly as it had started and although it made her want to wince she made absolutely sure she didn't.

Small cuts were easier. She could do small cuts. 

The girl only nodded and Bambi cast her eyes back to the group stepping back to stand with Kai. Even feet apart he was like a radiator and she needed the extra temperature rise. She was already beginning to shiver. If she had known she was going to need the extra pounds for something like this she would have cleared her plates more often. 

It didn't take long for them to start moving further away from Sector Four and the gaurds that were no doubt already gearing up to come find them. Having no shoes made walking tedious for her, the wrappings offering no real support from the snow, but she kept pace with Kai using the slushy snow that followed behind him to her advantage. 

She barely noticed when she was passed by another or when everyone had stopped walking, and she found herself accidentally bumping into Kai's back. "I'm sorry!" She squeaked, peering around his side to see what was up. There were too many bodies to give her a proper view but it sure didn't take her long to figure it out. Beneath her the dirt seemed to vibrate and she gave a yelp in surpise when a green vine squirmed over her toes. It was such an odd sight happening all around her that she had to blink several times to process it all. The forest it seemed, had shifted, and as much as she could tell from the back of the line, it had shifted for at least a half mile. 

None of the cold and strange stares he was getting meant anything to Clay. Looking from face to face, he understood only one thing, that he would leave anyone of them behind if they were to risk him being captured and hauled back to the hell hole he'd just left. Speaking of leaving people behind, Clay glanced back towards the pitiful sight of the weeping girl. His ears pricked up when he heard the Silver Haired Ice Queen snap at her, a smile tugging on the corner of his lips. At least he wasn't the only one who realized what a weak link she was. He had already noted that the fire boy, Kai, had tried to offer the weakling comfort and Clay silently ridiculed him for it.

He was just about to suggest they abandoned her when she did something very unexpected. She stood, her face drained dry of all of its emotions, and began to move her way through the clearing, finally stopping a foot from Des. Her hand reached out and Clayton was astonished at what took place in front of him. It was just a gentle touch, but it healed the other's bleeding ear in the matter of seconds. Maybe she was valuable after all.

It was clear that the others were just as anxious as he was to get further from Section Four. The sound of them beginning to trudge through the snow covered woods, trying to weave between the trees while stepping and dodging thorns made him chuckle softly. "This is going to take too long." He muttered, so quietly he didn't know if anyone ahead of him heard. Slowly he slipped towards the front of the group, making sure he gave Shadow Girl plenty of distance. Clay didn't trust her much, her energy was strong and rather dark, and he still believed he had seen her shadows before. In his room.

Once at the front Clayton put an arm out to signal for everyone to stop. He needed to focus and the commotion of so many walking bodies destructing his sight wasn't going to help. He took his time, slowly focusing his stare across every plant and tree as far as he could see. It was the largest task he'd ever attempted and it was a silent debate inside his own head if he would be able to do it.

Clay wasn't sure why he felt the need to show dominance over the others. A piece of him believed he just wanted to show off to the silver haired girl Des, to give her a reason to eat her cold glare from earlier. To show her she wasn't the only strong one among them. With one final look through the forest Clayton's thoughts became a yell inside of him.

Move.

For a moment he thought he'd caused an earthquake. The ground beneath his feet seemed to shiver and shake as the life forms in front of him shot apart, roots causing the snow ahead of them to shift. Trees hissed with protest and limbs seemed to snap and twist in their efforts to slither out of his sight and way. Several vines tangled their way across his feet and down through the group in an effort to scramble anywhere else but where they had been. It only took several seconds for a pathway wide enough that a semi truck could have driven down it to appear and Clayton smiled. He wasn't going to lie, he did have a slight migraine now, but he refused to show it. Without a glance behind him he began to walk casually down the newfound road calling out to the others over his shoulder. "If we hurry, maybe we won't freeze to death. It's not like one of us can control this mess of an ice storm or anything."

As Kai entered the clearing, Deserae only offered the outgoing boy a quick narrow of her eyes and a slight clench of her fists. It was her first few moments of freedom, and it had already been interrupted by someone from Sector Four. Even though he was a fellow experiment, he was a cocky one at that and Deserae didn’t trust him. Especially since he had seemed to make a few friends with the guards while he was held captive.

Thankfully, her warning gaze seemed to be enough to shut him up. It also helped that another figure stepped through the trees to take his attention off of Des and onto another woman who seemed almost as menacing as the shadows that rippled off of her. Tendrils of smoke and darkness hugged her taller form and she watched the woman with awestruck eyes. While she didn’t comment on her power, Des knew that whoever this woman was, her presence alone would have sent cowards running. But, it took a little more than whisps of black and daunting eyes to scare Des away. She continued to study the woman closely, her eyes not being even slightly subtle as she assessed the damage the girl could potentially cause. Hearing Kai open his mouth again, and this time with an awful attempt at flirting, Des rolled her eyes before crossing her arms over her chest. A huff of cold air escaped her nostrils, sending out a cloud of fog that made Deserae resemble an infuriated ice dragon.

However, despite her precautions, she determined that she somewhat liked the night girl. She had a sharp tongue. Hearing her shoot down Malakai was extremely satisfying. So satisfying that a small smirk almost appeared across her lips. Almost. “Unfortunately for you, the feeling isn’t reciprocated.” Des deadpanned, eyes now locked back onto the confident male.

As Kai opened his mouth again, Des’s eyes shot over towards the brunette woman and exchanged a fellow look of “here we go again”. But, almost as soon as he started, another body landed right next to Kai -- as if he had come out of thin air. Deserae’s eyes widened and she stepped back quickly. A large whoosh of a breeze ran through the clearing, ruffling her silver hair and causing small piles of snow to fly off from the trees. The boy looked terrified and even out of breath and Des’s winds subsided automatically. The act was confusing and she glanced up at the sky as if it would all of the answers. She had never been able to see or feel the effects of her power and it seemed as if every emotion she felt had manifested into nature itself. Nothing was private. Nothing was in her control.

She hated it.

Gritting her teeth, Deserae shook out any sense of fear she had and snarled at the new boy. They scared him? “Funny, I was going to say the same shit about you.” What was his power? Teleportation? Whatever it was, he seemed to be almost as scared of himself as he seemed to be of the others inside the clearing.

As their party grew by two and more escaped experiments entered the clearing, Des had grown even more on edge and the air around the group seemed to still as they all assessed each other. The tension between them was thick and heavy and she could almost feel the weight start to push on her shoulders. Her jaw locked and her eyes didn’t blink as more potential threats grew closer and closer.

Des couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose and roll her eyes again at the sight of the crying girl that crumpled into herself almost immediately after entering the open space. While she was a broken girl, she had never affiliated much with public tears. The only times a guard has seen her cry was when she was unconscious and having those God awful nightmares. The other few times was when she was small and had first entered Sector Four. She had stopped feeling sorry for herself years ago. The only emotion that seemed relevant now was anger. Cold-blooded, unforgiving, relentless anger.

“Crying isn’t going to solve anything,” Deserae snapped to the weeping girl as Kai warmed her small and frail figure by melting the snow that surrounded her. Deserae scoffed at the act until the girl glanced up at her and slowly stood. She neared closer and closer towards Des until she was only a foot or so between them. As the girl reached out a hesitant hand towards her, Des stiffened and she shot a look of pure ice at Bambi. But, the glare slowly subsided into nothing but confusion as Bambi’s hand pressed itself against her bleeding ear. A warm and soothing sensation washed over Deserae and as the soft hand pulled back, Des reached up to the previously injured ear, only to find nothing. Not even a scar. Just a thin leftover trail of blood remained.

The girl had healed her. Even after Des had insulted her.

Only offering Bambi a quick nod of thanks, Deserae’s attention finally shifted to the newest man that had made his way into the clearing. The swagger in his walk, those cold and piercing light eyes that paired with his equally as light hair. Whereas Des’s stare was pure ice, his own held the strength and power of a glacier. She felt something twinge in her stomach as she faced him, but the storm bringer didn’t let it show.

She immediately hated him.

Before she could bare her teeth at the white-haired man, Des noticed the shadows curling back in around the stealthy looking girl and as she questioned what they should do next, she only let out a small shrug. As the more timid boy spoke again, she also couldn’t help but agree with him. “So maybe we should get a move on and quit chatting.” Her voice was clipped and she shot the group a look before turning on one heel and headed further away from Sector Four. The guards would no doubt surely be on there tail soon enough, and she most certainly didn’t want to be around when they caught up.

It had been years since Sawyer had seen that many people in one place. He hadn’t known that there were even this many people in Sector Four, to begin with, but as soon as the power had gone out and the doors had unlocked, the hallways had filled with bodies. The mere sight of it made his chest tighten but he flung into the crowd and allowed himself to be swept along as they all sprinted for what he could only guess was the exit.

The flashing red lights and the high pitched ring of the alarm only heightened the sense of panic thrumming through his body. The guards with guns closing in on them didn’t help with the panic either. But still, the thought that he would get to see the sun again, that he wouldn’t be locked in that little concrete room for the rest of his life, was enough motivation to keep him pushing farther forward into the crowd.

Sawyer flinched at the sound of the first gunshot as it rang out down the hallway. He saw a body go limp and fall to the floor, he tried not to focus on it as the crowd kept going, tried not to look when the body passed under his feet. He swallowed hard. How easily that could have been him.

A flicker of hope, of joy, flashed through him when he saw the bit of white snow through the doors and felt the bitter cold from the snowstorm outside brush his skin. But the sight of the guards posting up at the door, aiming and prepared to fire as the crowd came barreling towards them. Sawyer felt like a head of cattle being caged and led to the slaughter. Sawyer felt his heart fluttering in his chest as the sound of even more gunfire filled his ears. He didn’t want to die this way. He didn’t want to die this close to freedom.

So he pushed ahead.

Not ahead of the crowd, but into something bigger. It was like pushing through water while Sawyer braced himself and blinked as he took a step forward. When he had closed his eyes he had been twenty feet from the guards as they shot them down, and when he opened them he was looking at the tree-line form the other side of the door — snow under his feet. Real snow. He heard someone take a step behind him and he spun around to see one of the guards was facing him now.

“Oh shit,” Sawyer muttered under his breath. He stepped again, though this time he hadn’t really specified a direction but had more attempted to jump out of the way of the guard and he had accidentally gone a little farther than he had intended. It felt like he was pushing through a wet blanket as he shaped and bent the matter around him. One moment staring down the barrel of a gun, and the next face to face with a boy that looks like he’s going to catch on fire. "Oh, shit."

Sawyer scrambled out of the way, unsure at first where he had gone or who he had run into, but he eased at the sight of them. Other experiments, some he vaguely knew, some he didn’t. He put his hands on his knees and took a deep breath — traveling always made him feel like he’d had the wind knocked out of him. “You guys scared the shit out of me,” He breathed, feeling watched and slightly embarrassed. This was a great first impression. “Sorry,” He muttered under his breath, standing up and taking a look at his new surroundings.

The clearing was small and the ground was already blanketed in snow. Trees around them whipped in the wind, but damn — trees. It was something Sawyer wasn’t sure he’d ever see again. They seemed to be far enough from Sector Four that he could barely hear the gunfire anymore. That was probably the farther he’d ever jumped. He turned back to Kai who had made a comment about Sawyer’s powers and he nodded nervously. “Yup,” He muttered apprehensively, unsure of what to do with his hands now that all eyes were on him. Though that awkwardness was short-lived as two new figures burst through the clearing. Sawyer was ready to jump again until he saw that they were like them, not guards.

The girl started to cry and Sawyer looked at the others gathered there to gauge their reaction. He felt bad for the girl, and he understood where she was coming from. This entire situation had been fast and terrifying and…liberating. A lot of things just changed for them in the blink of an eye. Then the boy spoke and it made Sawyer look down at what he was wearing. His lips pulled up a touch in a smile at the jokes, at the already easing tension. Though Sawyer realized their clothes weren’t going to get them far in this weather — not unless the girl with the silver hair could make this all go away with the wave of her hand. Though he wasn’t sure he wanted to ask her. She currently looked like a snake ready to strike at the first sudden movement.

His eyes flicked over to where shadows and darkness were rippling around the frame of a girl, and then suddenly disappeared as the girl addressed the group. Watching as it happened was disorienting, to say the least. He looked around the group again. “Get as far from this place as we possibly can?” He proposed. They were far enough away to be safe for now, but if they didn’t get moving again soon they would be in trouble.

Lyra had been sitting on her bed, letting her shadows slink around the sector when she knew something was up. The guards seemed restless, and it probably had to do with the hell-storm that was raging outside. She’d heard bits and pieces of the guard’s conversations about the girl with the silver hair, about how she was more than likely the cause. Lyra had heard about her before, snippets here and there — things the guards would say when they didn’t know the shadows were listening. But it wasn’t until the alarms started sounding and a red emergency light began to flash that Lyra snapped back into her body and scrambled to her feet.

Wide open. Her door was wide open.

She stuck her head out and looked both ways to witness the utter chaos that had descended upon the place. Guards and experiments alike were flooding the hallways and a cacophony of gunfire, screaming, and the screeching of that damned alarm filled her ears. Lyra couldn’t help but feel the shadows seeping from her frame in response to the confusion and panic she was feeling.

It only took her a moment more before her brain had quite caught up to the events that were unfolding around her. The power had been cut. The experiments released. This was her chance to escape. The only one that had presented itself in her entire life — and she would be damned if she was going to waste it.

Lyra jumped into the stream of moving bodies, all radiating immense power, and all making like hell for the exit. She was pushed and shoved and almost trampled over until she pushed that growing feeling of power outward — she could see the shadow curling around her like smoke, practically obscuring her from sight even to those right beside her. Everyone kept their distance after that.

She had made it through the first door with relative ease. Even with her veil of shadow, the group around her was offering her plenty of cover from the guards who were firing at will into the crowd. Lyra took a deep breath and focused the dark energy around her to harden, to shield her from the onslaught of bullets. Just as she had raised the shields she felt one ping off of her and she thanked the universe she’d been practicing that particular move for weeks now. She locked eyes with the guard who’d fired that shot and she felt a surge of gratification when she saw a flicker of fear cross his face.

A tendril of shadow shot out from her, striking the guard smack in the middle of the forehead and causing him to crumple to the ground. She had been aiming to knock the gun out of his hand, but hey, that worked too. Lyra pushed forward, the crowd around her thinning as they moved closer and closer to the doors, to the bright light that was now pouring into the hallway. The sharp sting of cold, winter air hit her nostrils and Lyra could have cried — it was a feeling she’d never experienced before. And it only fueled her determination to make it out of this compound alive.

A line of guards with guns stood between her and the outside — between her and freedom. She shot out two tendrils of shadows at the same time that the other experiments around her began to fight back as well. Lyra hit two guards, but she felt those attacks take a substantial amount of energy and power. But it had given her a gap, given her enough room to slip through the crowd and out into the white landscape beyond.

Another guard stepped out in front of her, aiming his gun at her chest, just as her foot was about to sink into the snow, and without hesitation, she side-stepped, pushed his gun away and landed a blow directly to his throat leaving the man staggering and gasping for breath. Lyra ducked under his arm and ran like hell for the trees.

She struggled to keep her shield up, she could feel it slipping as she felt another bullet deflect off of her side — though she felt this one impact her like a punch to the ribs. That would bruise. Lyra didn’t let herself think about the pain until she had cleared the treeline. The snow crunched under her feet, and the tree branches snagged at her clothes but Lyra couldn’t help but smile. Concrete and metal were all she’d ever known and here she was, outside in the snow.

She burst through some trees and into a clearing but stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the figures that were already there. Her shields snapped back into place, though she struggled more than she cared to admit. Exhaustion was starting to settle in now that she was away from the guards and the gunfire. The shadows curled around her again as she assessed the threat, only to discover they were experiments — like her.

The boy, at least, she knew. Lyra had never met him, never even been in the same part of Sector Four as him before, but she’d seen his face through the shadows. He walked through the sector with much more freedom than the rest of them had ever gotten. Her eyes slid over to the girl who looked about as apprehensive as Lyra felt. So this was the silver-haired girl the guards had been talking about? She’s the one who caused all of this. Lyra opened her mouth to say something — to thank the girl, but Kai’s voice stopped her. Lyra snorted at what she guessed was his attempt at flirting, and looked him up and down. “Don’t worry, hothead. Luck can change.”

As Kai was beginning to speak again a figure suddenly appeared out of thin air right next to him causing Lyra to take several steps back and brace herself for another fight. But the boy that was standing in front of her was another one of them, and he looked extremely uncomfortable as he scrambled away from Kai. “Jesus fuck,” She exclaimed, feeling her heart thundering in her chest at the boy’s sudden appearance.

Then two more figures appeared in the clearing and Lyra wasn’t sure how many more surprises she could take today before her heart gave out. She eyed the small girl as she dropped to her knees and began to sob, a sentiment Lyra identified with but wouldn’t have been so quick to let slip in front of a group of strangers she didn’t know or trust yet. Then her eyes slid to the boy. He was from her side of the sector, though she’d never seen him without that blindfold on and the sight of him now slightly unnerved her. She looked down at herself and at the others at his mention of their clothes. “Well one of us is gonna have to change,” She joked.

Lyra finally gave herself a moment to take a breath and dispel the shadows around her. “Anyone have any idea what the hell we do now?”

“Great job, snowflake!” Kai called to the white-haired girl that stood in the middle of traffic. He hadn’t meant to ram into her frail form, but Des practically jumped out of nowhere and he had been too distracted by firing off small balls of flame towards the guards to notice her. His fingers were smoking and he clenched his fists to ready himself for another blast if deemed necessary. While the icy girl never seemed to show any sort of emotion on her face besides utter rage, Kai had sworn he’d seen a flicker off something else danced across those light eyes before he sank deeper into the mass of experiments. Something that almost looked like hope.

Kai had grown accustomed to the storms that seemed to rage on in the night due to Deserae. The rumbling thunder and singing winds didn’t bother him, the sound was actually quite comforting: Hearing nature when you were unable to see it. Surely, he was granted permission to walk outside now and then. Being a hell of a good actor worked in his favor while being trapped inside the concrete walls of Sector Four. He did what he was told, most of the time. He cracked jokes and held conversations with the guards and other scientists. He knew most of their names and had even formed a close bond with one of the guards, Henry. The man seemed to be in his late forties and had been posted outside of Kai’s room ever since he had come to Sector Four. Malakai had grown up seeing the man’s stern yet kind eyes outside of his glass door and the guard had grown to be somewhat of a friend to the boy. And, considering his options, he wouldn’t be picky with the people that had decided to speak to him. The extroverted and outgoing soul yearned for any human interaction, even if it was with someone he was supposed to despise.

Henry was slightly different than the other guards. While he was harsh and strict, the man also joked and played along with Kai’s antics. He had snuck him sweets with his meals and often let Kai wander the halls, with himself chaperoning of course. Henry told Kai stories of the world before it had gone to hell. How there were things called movie theaters with giant screens and a snack called popcorn that frankly sounded quite disgusting to him. Henry explained the different seasons to Kai and the holiday’s that some religions would celebrate during specific times of the year. He explained the concept of money and cars and even told Kai about these wonderful and extraordinary buildings that housed thousands and thousands of books that people could borrow and read. Kai made it a promise to himself that if he were ever able to bust himself out of this prison, the library and the ocean would be the first two places he would run off too.

Smirking as he raced through the group, weapons ready at his sides, Kai saw the growing exit out of the building. Deserae’s storm had knocked out the power to the facility and now the door was no longer locked shut, but it hung freely open as more and more experiments rolled out into freedom. As soon as his door to his room had burst open, Kai did not hesitate to walk out and make his way down the halls. It was only when the raging alarms started that he knew something was wrong and he quickly made his way to the middle of the building along with most of the others. He stopped by familiar rooms, encouraging others to come out and play. Like that timid Bambi girl, for instance. The poor thing looked as if she were about to either burst into tears or faint and he decided that a little encouragement was necessary. After giving the girl a few quick smiles and winks as he told her, “You’re missing all the fun.” Kai continued in his journey of escaping. Leaving the girl in his wake as he sprinted towards the guards that stood in his way.

Henry was one of them.

Kai’s smirk slowly fell as he neared the familiar father figure and a growing flame appeared in his palms. Fire flicked through his fingers of his clenched fists and he slowed his pace ever so slightly as he faced Henry -- whose gun was pointed right at Kai’s heaving chest. They made eye contact and Kai knew that, despite whatever bond they had formed over his twenty years a slave to the Legion, he would not hesitate to shoot the boy.

So, Malakai wouldn’t hesitate either.

Before he could second guess himself, Kai raised his hands and a stream of fire rushed out of his palms. He gritted his teeth at the rage that rippled through him as twin flames headed right towards Henry’s form. The guard just managed to throw himself out of the fire’s path and Kai ceased the flames and took off sprinting once again. His boots hit a layer of thick snow and the boy laughed as he pressed himself out of Sector Four. Bullets breezed past him and Kai peered over his shoulder just for a moment, only to see Henry kneeling on the ground -- part of his uniform melted away from his fire.

They made eye contact again and Henry merely nodded at the boy before he raised his weapon and aimed in the opposite direction where Kai was fleeing.

He didn’t know what that meant, but Malakai didn’t have time to question anything right now. Not when freedom was now his. This moment was for him and him only, he wouldn’t spend his first minutes outside of Sector Four thinking about it.

Kai let another laugh escape him as his body burst through the trees. The snowflakes were nothing but small droplets as they landed on his abnormally warm skin. Sweat began to appear on his body, causing his dark hair to stick to his forehead and the nape of his neck. His flames had dissipated to only a soft stream of smoke curling around his fists.

Kai had been running so fast he had almost missed the opening within the trees, a large clearing covered in piles of snow peeked out from the branches and he quickly jogged towards it. Stepping out of the shelter the trees provided, clumps of snow landing in his hair before it instantly melted, Kai eyed the light-haired girl from earlier and grinned. “Fancy seeing you again.” He chuckled before stepping closer. However, a quick glare from Des told him that if he took another, his own personal flurry cloud would end up right above his head. Before he was able to open his mouth again, another body ran into the clearing. A woman with chocolate hair cloaked in night that physically radiated off of her. Whisps of darkness and shadow danced around her distressed form and Kai couldn’t help but arch a brow. He hadn’t seen her before, for Kai would surely remember those haunting eyes and stealthy demeanor. Some parts of Sector Four Kai wasn’t allowed to visit -- areas that held experiments that were either failed or too dangerous for someone like him to witness. He knew she was one of them instantly. And he grinned.

He knew he should be cautious, but cautious wasn’t exactly in his vocabulary. “I am stranded in the middle of the forest with not one, but two women. How did I get so lucky?” He positioned himself in the middle of the space, giving him plenty of distance between the others. “You know I-” His voice was suddenly cut off by a large frame appearing right next to him and Kai let out a hissed, “Shit!” His hands immediately lit up in flames at his sides. As he quickly backed away from the other male, who looked slightly embarrassed, Kai determined the man wasn’t a threat at the moment and the fire slowly dwindled until nothing but smoke remained. Panting heavily and eyes darting all over the new body, Kai recognized the face, but he wasn’t familiar with the boy’s ability until now. “So, that’s what you can do.” He mumbled to himself, eyeing Sawyer before his attention shifted to two new forms entering the clearing.

The shy and frail-looking girl named Bambi that had appeared had burst into tears almost as soon as she had stepped into the clearing and Kai slowly inched towards her out of instinct. For once, Kai didn’t know what to say. While he had witnessed plenty of tears and sobs from passing by room doors, a barrier always separated him from the ones in pain. Now that someone was so close and in such duress, he had no idea how to act. So, he did what he could and lifted his hands. A light and shimmering heat wave poured out of his palms that faced towards the girl, he aimed it at her feet and the snow around her. Quickly, the snow had melted away, leaving the barefoot girl sitting in nothing but dead grass and fallen leaves that were once hidden under the snow.

While his hands were outstretched, his eyes shifted to the newcomer male. His hair was almost as white as Deserae’s and his pale eyes nearly matched the color as well. Kai stiffened in place as he assessed the man. He was another one that Kai was never allowed to see and power pooled off of him in waves that made his throat clench. He didn’t lower his hands as the man spoke, eyeing their uniforms and commenting on them. He glanced down at his black, fitted, and long-sleeved shirt. The material was made out of some kevlar-type fabric, but it had been formed to not melt away under Malakai’s fire. It had also been created to try and keep his body temperature somewhat regulated, but not even clothing could fix his unnaturally excessive body heat. It didn’t bother him, for the most part. He had become resistant to heat.

“Thank you,” he started, a hint of playfulness in his voice as he now held out his hands towards the light-haired man. “Although, I think red is more my color.”

Clayton knew something was wrong long before the rest of the building. Before the guards or even the scientist. He could hear, somewhere far above him, the sound of a storm. It happened often in the middle of the night and by this point Clayton had determined it was caused by someone here, in Sector Four. Of course, he knew the world itself wasn’t in good shape, but the steady number of storms they experienced between midnight and six in the morning made no logical sense. Tonight, was the worse he’d ever listened in on. He could hear the wind whistling and somewhat faintly the sound of trees crushing. With a defeated sigh he sat up in his bed and ran a hand through his hair. He had given up on any hope to sleep. “This is some bullshit.” He mumbled to himself, shifting through his room to put a CD in his radio.

Although he couldn’t see due to the metal blind fold that clasped around his head, he knew his room like he knew his own body. He almost never tripped or bumped into his furniture. As Clayton waited for his music to begin playing, he began to pick up other noises. The sound of a pulse somewhere in the upper corner of his room. And then moments after, what could only be describe as someone rattling his eardrum with a screw driver, came the alarm.

The noise dropped him to his knees with a scream that made his throat raw. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t move. It took several minutes for him to realize his blind fold had fallen off. The small chip that held the clasp shut had lost connection to its server. In front of him his door was wide open and the color red glowed around him. Although the noise was still driving him wild Clayton couldn't help but give a manic laugh before getting to his feet and bolting out the door into the chaotic hoard. This was the moment he had spent day dreaming about since he had arrived at Sector Four.

----

Clayton was one of the last out. He had stayed behind to fight the guards with guns, trying his best to injury anyone he came into contact with. His adrenaline was pumping and his muscles felt warm from the sudden rush of running and fighting. Outside the glare of the white snow made spots cloud his vision and he could feel the warm trickle of blood coming from a gash on his forehead but he didn’t care. Somewhere behind him a guard was screaming for him to stop and Clayton hurled around to look at the man. Shoot your foot, he thought while glaring into very shocked eyes of his new puppet, laughing as he watched the man obey. The shot rang in his ears and Clayton felt nothing other than satisfaction. These people had never been kind to him or to anyone else. They had treated him like a dog and turned him into a monster; he had no room for them inside his heart.

Leaving the man bleeding and yelling in pain Clayton slipped into the woods and ran. Move, he commanded to every tree, thorn bush, and shrub that stood in his way. Without hesitation the plants shifted, the trees groaning with loud pops and creaks. Clayton made himself an easy, straight passageway. The only thing that was getting in his path was the soft snow that showered his face like a halo. He kept having to blink the flakes out of his eyes.

During those early training days where he had experienced different seasons, Clayton had learned he hated winter. He hated snow. It often got in his way and distracted him from what he wanted to do. He hated anything that affected his sight.

With a growing frustration Clayton finally came to a stop and turned back the way he’d come, moving the trees back to hide him deep and safe in the forest. His heart pounded hard against his chest and his breath came in rapid puffs. After several silent moments, the guards long lost, Clayton began to walk through the woods. Somewhere close by he could hear the sound of heavy breathes and the foot steps of others. Ahead of him he could see what he thought might be a thicket and he worked his way through it in hopes it could hide him better. With an effortless push he squeezed in, only to find he had taken himself into a blinding white clearing filled with others. Clayton quickly shielded his eyes from the brightness with his hand. He wasn't used to seeing much and he found his eyes made his head pound. Through the gaps of his long slender fingers Clayton could see he was surrounded by people his age for the first time in over a decade and all of them were dressed the same way he was. “Nice clothes." He mumbled, slowly removing his hand from his face. He took them all in, glancing quickly from person to person. One girl was literally sobbing into her hands and Clayton crinkled his nose at the sight of it. Who had feelings anymore? Who cried anymore? To his left stood a girl who seemed to be cloaked in darkness although it wasn't that dark out and Clayton found her shimmering shadows to be slightly familiar. As if he'd seen the same ones slithering around his room in the past. In front of him stood two guys, one of which seemed to be the only person not standing in snow. The snow under his feet was nothing more than slush. To the right of him stood a very interesting sight, a girl with silver hair and a bleeding ear, and Clayton found himself instantly alerted by the stare on her face. She was looking at them all like she was ready to attack.

Bambi couldn’t breathe. The freezing cold air squeezed at her lungs and her legs felt numb from running. She had no idea where she was going and frozen branches of snow and ice slapped her face, smearing hot tears across her cheeks. It all happened so quickly she could barely put two and two together. One moment she’d been asleep, her dreams filled with green fields and peaceful memories of running with her brother and sister. The next, utter chaos. Sector Four had turned dark, loud, and filled with gun fire. It had been such a shock that Bambi did nothing but stand in her door way and watch stupefied as the guards and the patients collided. It was like nothing she’d ever imagined, probably something the world outside had never seen either. Mutant and scientist going in hand to hand combat. Her feet had glued themselves to her floor at the sight. If it hadn’t of been for another, the only real familiar face she had known since she was a small child, she would probably still be back there being tortured till she bled out in hopes her blood would heal the survivors. There was no doubt about it in her mind. The thoughts alone made her stomach queasy and Bambi fell to her knees vomiting up everything she’d ate from the day before.

A hot sweat had gathered on the back of her neck by the time she was finished. Somewhere far behind her the voices and screams of the guards had fallen into silence. She was safe, for now anyways. A cracked sob forced its way out of her rib cage and Bambi stood up, wrapping her arms around her small frame. She blinked several times and looked at the world around her, taking it all in. Wasn’t this the moment she had been waiting on for years? The trees were large and thick, the forest overgrown and forgotten. The snow that had been steadily falling only minutes ago seemed to lessen and Bambi brushed the snowflakes from her shoulders. Although she wasn’t cold due to the material of her clothes, her feet felt like ice cubes. She had forgotten to put her shoes on before she’d fallen into the crowd of running escapees. The careless action made her curse herself under her breath. How could she have been so stupid? She could heal but she certainly couldn’t heal herself. If she got frost bite and was unable to walk, she was surely to die.

Without hesitation Bambi fingered one of the newly formed holes that now scattered along her sleeves, courtesy of several thorny vines she’d trampled through. She gave a hard yank and the sudden wave of cool air made the hair stand up on her arm but she ignored it the best she could. She used the tight stretchy fabric to wrap her feet and it was this exact thing she was doing when she first heard it. The crunches and sounds of footsteps. Several footsteps.

Giving the wraps a quick tie Bambi hurried after the noise. She was scared of what she' find when she reached it but the rushing thoughts of isolation was far worse. The running steps of many others seemed to echo around her and ahead of her she could see a small gap in the woods. She ran, half slipping in the snow, finally stumbling straight into a rather large clearing. She held a bewildered expression as she looked around the other faces who were already there. She was surrounded by a small group of people, none of which were guards, and none that looked the least bit familiar besides the boy whom had helped her earlier, whose name she knew to be Kai. With a huge sigh of relief Bambi leaned back against a fallen tree and began crying into her freezing hands. She had made it out of Sector Four. She was free, and for the first time in so long, she wasn’t alone. She knew she wasn’t safe but she was outside and that was enough for her to feel the tiniest pings of happiness and somewhere very deep, hope.

Everything happened so fast.

She didn’t mean to do it.

One moment, she was curled into a ball on her cell floor. The cold concrete stinging her burning skin and a thin layer of sweat covered her entire form. And then next, everything went black.

Des remembered screaming, her throat becoming hoarse and her lungs feeling as if they were going to collapse inside of her. She was having a horrible nightmare. Black gloved hands taking her from warm and familiar arms. Her mother’s wailing in the background as the van door slammed shut in Deserae’s tear-streaked face.

It took Des a minute to realize that she had indeed awoken from her sleep and that the darkness that encased the entirety of Sector Four wasn’t from her closed eyelids. She blinked back the shadows a few times before standing, her stance slightly wavering as a red light flashed overhead. Footsteps thundered past her door and she could hear the gruff orders from the guards shouting through the halls. A piercing alarm began to erupt throughout the building and Des winced at the sound, her hands shooting up to her ears to try and muffle the harsh noise. More footsteps and more orders rang out and it was only then that Deserae realized her door was now open. Wide open.

Squinting through the darkness, Des noticed forms that did not belong to the heavily armed guards. People of various shapes and sizes were now rushing through the halls and headed right towards the only exit that existed in the building. She hadn’t realized that she had taken a few steps outside of her cell until a large and thick force slammed into her right side. Snapping her head, Des turned to see an unfortunately familiar face. The fire wielder Kai was running through the halls, his hands smoking slightly, as if ready to aim and fire. Deserae only knew his face because he was one of the lucky ones that the guards let out every once in a while. She had tried to grow accustomed to his sly grins and playful winks he passed whenever he strolled by her cell, but Deserae wasn’t exactly the friendliest of people. So she paid no attention to him, for the most part.

“Great job, snowflake!” Kai called, to her over his shoulder, that same cunning grin plastered on his face as he dodged through the swarm of escapees.

Des furrowed her brows once as if feigning confusion. However, deep down she knew exactly what she had done. While Des was unable to see the storm she had caused on the outside of the facility, she could indeed feel the chaotic force that rippled through her bones. It sparked something inside of her so dangerous and lethal, yet so intoxicating at the same time. And she couldn’t stop it.

And she didn’t feel guilty.

Shots began to sing from behind the stampeding group of experiments and Des quickly joined in with the throng. Her slim and thin form weaved through the group and her cold gaze sat on the one thing that separated her from a lifetime of serving demons and becoming one of her own. She chose the latter.

Gritting her teeth and ducking her head as another bullet whizzed past, grazing her ear just slightly, Deserae pumped her arms at her sides and used every last bit of strength she had into throwing herself towards that damn exit. A small trickle of blood dripped down her ear from the bullet and the liquid only granted her more desire to escape. She could already feel the frigid air of winter rolling outside, snow cascading down as if it were a waterfall and the white substance coated anything it could grace. Her breath started to become a fog as more bullets were fired and she knew she was close. So, so close. Something she had craved for years was right within her grasp, as she needed to do was want it bad enough.

Up ahead she could see sparks of power blasting through the exit, no doubt shooting away guards that blocked their path. Something electric whisked through her veins and stung her fingertips, but Des knew that her power would do her no good unless she was out where she belonged. In mother nature herself.

She could now see the faces of the guards that stood in her way and Des almost growled at the sight of them. Hands clenched into fists at her sides, she kept sprinting through the mass until her foot came in contact with a guard's chest before he could fire off a killing shot. The man stumbled backward and Deserae then swiveled her leg under him, knocking the man to his knees before she drove her own knee right into his nose. A loud crack echoed through the facility and Des didn't look back as she shoved the unconscious man aside and stormed through the gateway to heaven.

That first breath of fresh air was one she will never forget.

Des had to press back tears as the feeling of home washed over her. She wanted to scream, to cry, to laugh. She was free. Snow plummeted down over her and the dozens of other escaped experiments that poured out of the broken facility. Flakes stuck to her eyelashes as she continued to press on, the shelter of trees quickly encasing her body and hiding her from the bullets that flew through the air. How badly she wanted to sit and take in everything that was stolen from her, but she couldn’t. Not yet.

Tree branches scraped her face, causing small red cuts to appear across her cheeks, but Deserae kept pressing on. Cold air bit at her body and the screams from other soldiers soon became nothing but a soft buzz as she flew through the forest. The skin-tight suit the Legion had forced her to wear, forced all of them to wear, had done its job of preserving her body heat. However, she knew that surviving in this frigid climate would be slim, even with the weather on her side. She could increase the temperature to some degree, but she couldn’t defy the laws of nature. She didn’t want to. But, the snowflakes started to lighten as a heavyweight released off of her shoulders and Des slowed her pace just for a moment as she neared a clearing in the trees.

Panting slightly, she stopped in the middle of the snow-covered clearing, her boots making a soft crunch as she slowed her pace. Her eyes drifted to the trees covered with a white blanket, the silence that the snow provided, and the shelter it held. She had almost forgotten what it looked like -- tiny individual crystals that banded together. Des reached out a hesitant to touch one of the covered branches, but a sudden shift behind her cause Deserae to snap her head at the sound. She swore she heard a crack of thunder in the distance.

More bodies entered the clearing and Des immediately stiffened. Thankfully, none were part of the guard. But, one couldn’t be too careful, especially since she wasn’t familiar with any of the powers these others possessed, besides the hot head Kai that also entered with a smirk on his face. All Des offered the small group was a narrow of her eyes and a shift of her weight in greeting.

She didn’t trust any of them.

twenty • matter manipulation • heterosexual

Sawyer lived in a big city with his family when the world started going to hell. They fled, trying to get out into the country where they thought it would be safer. On the way, Legion came and claimed they had a safe haven — but they would take the children first and come back for the others. So his parents put him on a bus and told him they’d be back together soon. He’d been six.

Once they’d gotten to Sector Four they had strapped him down and began the procedures. Even through wave after wave of agonizing pain, he never stopped calling for his family. For years, he still held a shred of hope that they would be coming for him.

According to the scientists in Sector Four, Sawyer’s abilities manifested rather late for a subject who had been injected earlier in their life. He’d been tested for years before he showed any sign of power manifestation, and even then it had taken a rather intense testing session for him to be able to do anything. He’d been awake for what felt like days and was being beaten black and blue — they’d said if he just did something they’d let him go back to his room, let him sleep and eat and rest. But he didn’t know how. Sawyer just closed his eyes and wished to be anywhere else, and when he opened them he wasn’t in the room with the scientists anymore. He was out in the hallway. And had just appeared there, much to the surprise of the guards. After that, he’d asked to go back to his room — but they’d just strapped him back in and tried to make him do it again.

Sawyer learned through years of training that his power was connected to matter. His teleportation came from moving the matter around him which allowed him to step from one place to a completely new one. He can also move other objects around as well, mostly small things like paper, cards, marbles — but the scientists think he has the capability to move other people in the same way.

Though he still has a hard time transporting when he wants to, and an even harder time deciding where he wants to go. Usually, he can blink and end up a few rooms over, but one time he ended up in the yard of Sector Four. It was the first time in years that he’d seen the sun, and he’d been punished severely for it.

Sawyer is a little socially awkward. Being stuck in a concrete room the majority of your life will do that to a person. Though he is very loyal to those he comes to know well, as he just desperately wants to find a family for himself. He would follow his friends to the end of the Earth if it meant he didn’t have to be alone again.

Sawyer stands a little over six feet and is on the lankier side. He had been trained in combat in Sector Four but he had never really excelled at it, or enjoyed it — but that doesn’t stop him from jumping into a fight if it means helping a friend. He has dark hair and honey-brown eyes.

twenty-one • controls shadows • heterosexual

Lyra was brought to Sector Four before she could walk and barely remembers anything from her life before Legion. She has a vague recollection of her mother singing her to sleep, but she’s not sure if that’s real or if she imagined it. The idea of a family, while compelling for her, was entirely foreign as she was raised by Legion.

Her first real memory was when she was injected with some blank, inky substance — that pain isn’t something someone is likely to ever forget. It made her veins turn black, and she felt like she was burning from the inside out. She vomited that same black substance for days, shivering, and alone in her cell. Legion had continued those treatments for years, and the experience was never any less painful despite the number of times she went through it.

When her powers first began to manifest, Lyra thought she had finally snapped and gone crazy. She first started hearing voices. Then she discovered she could see things happening around the sector despite being locked in her cell. Though, once she had begun her training she realized that it was the shadows that she controlled.

She could use shadows to see and hear things far away from her, could manipulate them, and in some circumstances could use them as a physical barrier around herself, or use them to strike out at an enemy. Though the latter two were things that she had only ever done under extreme duress. When Lyra gets upset, or emotional, darkness and shadows start to radiate from her skin. This frustrates her immensely because she can almost never hide how she’s feeling from those around her.

The shadows act as Lyra’s spies. She sends them away and they return to her, whispering the things they heard or showing her the things they’ve seen. When she was first learning how to use them, she would send shadows out around the sector and gather information. She first used it to learn her name, and where she had come from. She’d only ever been referred to as a number, an experiment — but she’d had a name, a family, before all of this and she wanted to know who she had been, who she could have been.

After she’d learned what she could about herself, she started trying to learn about the facility around her. It was mostly an exercise, a way to practice what she was capable of — but she was also curious about what else Sector Four had hidden behind closed doors.

Despite being raised in such a strict environment, Lyra has always had a smart mouth. She’d been punished and scolded for it her entire life, but it was something they never seemed to break her of. She also is a bit cocky when it comes to her abilities, even if she doesn’t always have a handle on them. Lyra is fiercely competitive and will always push herself past her own limits just to prove that she can. Despite being able to manipulate darkness itself, she has the surprising ability to make light of a bleak situation — usually through humor. Though when someone gets on Lyra’s bad side she truly embodies the nature of her powers and becomes a force to be reckoned with.

Lyra stands fairly tall at around 5’ 6” and is lean from her combat training. Though in later years she has focused more on her ability to use her opponent’s strength against them, causing her to be quite nimble. She has dark brown hair that looks almost black, and light green eyes.

Age: 21

Powers: Can control anything that is alive

Number 413, formerly known as Clayton Jones, had been born blind. For the first eleven years of his life he was hidden away by his parents in a small farming community in a state that had once been called Iowa. Although they showered him with love and affection they knew the unkind truths of his condition. That if anything were to happen to them, he would be left defenseless and alone. That being blind in a world like theirs offered nothing but an early death sentence. It was for this reason that when the Legion came into town searching for children, they offered Clayton to them. The Legion offered hope, reassurance, and most importantly safety for their son. They promised nothing but great things. Clayton didn't understand what was happening when he first arrived at Sector Four. The place smelled crisp and chemically, a stench that stung his nose and made him wheeze. The scientist didn't even wait a day before they began to experiment on him, the first being immediate surgery on his eyes.

The procedure had been painful. Clayton doesn't remember much from those first few days, only that his eyes burned as if they had been exposed to a blazing fire. Every few hours someone would come in and rinse his face with a liquid that only made the pain intensify and leave him thrashing against his bed. It took one week for his vision to slowly but surely begin to work. Within a month of being at the Sector Clayton could see fully and sharply, as if he'd never been blind at all. Within a year he was showing signs of a growing power. He was able to control anything that was alive. Plants, animals, and humans. All he had to do was look at it and what ever he thought, happened. Humans were more complicated- Clayton had to make and hold direct eye contact for results. When he was nearly thirteen Clayton made eye contact with a member of the Legion through a reflection from a spilled glass of water on the floor, resulting in the scientist stabbing himself with a syringe of pale oozing liquid meant for Clayton. The scientist died and Clayton was from then on forced to wear a blindfold when he was or wasn't interacting with others. For one hour a day he is allowed to remove it for training purposes only. Over the years it has caused his eyes to appear a very light shade of blue, much different from his original stormy eyes. 

Considered one of the deadliest experiments inside Sector Four Clayton has received much greater care than most. His room is filled with music tapes, a radio, a Television, and DVDs. This is mostly to keep him from ease dropping due to his above average hearing, a result of being blind for so long. He has never been allowed access to other patients although he knows they exist. Occasionally he is able to hear them through the air vents in his room or from beneath the cracks on his door. 

Clayton has sandy blonde hair and a lean muscular build. He stands right under 6'2 and weighs around 170 pounds. He doesn't know what he looks like anymore because of his strict rules that forbid mirrors, glass, and any reflective material. He has been known to be rather a smart ass towards others, incredibly self-centered, and a bit unstable with his temper. Due to the fact Clayton spent half of his life around others, he has decent social skills, although he rarely gets a chance to use any of it.

Age: 22

Powers: Can heal any wound- even fatal ones

Bambi has been a part of sector Four since she was seven years old. Back then she was just a scared, small, little girl who hated seeing anything suffer. She wasn’t good at hunting, she wasn’t good with sickness, she wasn’t good with death. She just wanted to save everything. What could only have been described as a burden for her struggling family was a blessing for the Legion. They had been looking for children like her; her weakness for love. When the van came and took her away it was with promises of shelter, safety, warmth, and food. All she found was a blank room, a metal bed, and a group of adults who looked anything but remorseful as they injected her with what Bambi could only describe as liquid pain. Gold, slimy, and alive, sloshing and climbing up the edges of its glass tubes.

It had been agony. Between being constantly jabbed with needles and having injured animals released into your room it was enough to crack anyone a part. Bambi developed the ability to heal with what the scientist around her described as a minor side effect. She absorbed all the pain. It was unbearable. Slowly her mental state crumbled right along with any expectations the Legion or Sector Four could have ever had for her. When she failed her last test by allowing another patient die her file was closed. Permanently.

Standing around 5 feet tall, Bambi weighs around a hundred pounds. Her build is very petite and elegant, often giving the effect that she is as fragile as glass. Due to her powers Bambi has built a safety wall between her and everyone around her. She refuses to allow anyone in. Nothing scares her worse than the thought of watching someone she loves die because of her inabilities. It makes her feel less than, especially since she knows that so many other experiments in Sector Four

are successful.

For a pass time Bambi often sings and plays a piano. One of the only items she had been allowed to have. Now that she is no longer training, she spends 24 hours a day inside her room, waiting for the day someone shows up to end it all. Bambi isn’t stupid. She knows what happens to those who are deemed useless, she would just rather actually die than kiss death a thousand times.

twenty-one | can control and produce fire | heterosexual

Kai grew up feeling like he ran Sector Four. Having been a little over an infant when he was taken from his family, the guards and scientists were the only parental figures he had ever known. Despite the harsh and cold-hearted conditions of Sector Four, he still managed to become a selfless, arrogant, and a mostly warm-hearted man.

Since he was mostly well behaved in Sector Four and he managed to charm his way onto the good sides of the guards, Kai was given more free-range than the normal captive. He was allowed to wander the halls, with an escort of course. He was even allowed books, once he was able to settle the flames that appeared on his fingertips. Malakai was injected with the experimental serum when he was very young -- another sort of experiment within Sector Four, if you will. How young can they start with injections? He was given small doses in more frequent increments. The treatments finally stopped when he was ten and Kai had been doing nothing but training ever since.

Being forced into the Legion’s trap so young, Kai was never given a real name -- only a number. The scientists and guards never told him what his given name was before they had taken him away. So, upon further research with the different books he was granted, he had settled on the name Malakai for himself. Simply because he had read it in a random novel and he liked that the character enjoyed the ocean, just like he did. Even though he had never even stepped foot outside of Sector Four, Kai often envisioned the rolling waves and soft sands of a beach. Learning about the many different types of fish and creatures that used to inhabit the seas interested him greatly and Kai would stay up for hours into the night learning more and more about the dangerous ocean. While he knew he would never see the spectacle with his own eyes, Kai had torn out pages from books of pictures of the waves and fish and plastered them around his space.

Despite being generally a friendly guy, Kai does have quite an unruly temper. He liked to blame his hot blood for creating him to be a hot head as well. He has slightly mastered controlling himself more recently, but the task is still difficult -- especially when he grows frustrated and upset. Malakai will often wear his emotions right on his face and is genuinely a very honest person. Sometimes almost a little too honest. He doesn’t try to hide who he is and he is very confident with himself and his abilities. He had always focused very hard and pushed himself during his training, which now resulted in him being a very strong weapon.

Kai can form and manipulate fire with his hands. On a very rare occasion, another part of his body will erupt in flames, but that has only happened during extremely stressful and intensive trainings. He can form balls of flame or stream it right out from his palms. His power can range from lighting a candle to burning down a whole building if he were so inclined to. Since his ability comes from within and not from nature itself, his power is only as strong as he is. If Malakai becomes lethargic and exhausted, so will his flames and they will eventually die out and need to recharge with rest. Kai can burn himself out and using all of his power too much could indeed kill him. Since he can wield fire itself, his body temperature also runs higher than normal and is often called a space heater by the guards.

Kai likes to be the life of the party and will crack jokes whenever he can. He has a charm about him and he likes to try and use his looks to his advantage at times. He is rarely ever malicious and, despite his unruly temper, will always try and do whatever he can to help someone in need. But, if you get on his bad side, he is known to hold a grudge and can turn off his carefree and playful attitude without so much as a blink.

He stands at a height of around 6ft and has a muscular build due to his constant training exercises and tasks. Kai has a large and white smile that he likes to use to his advantage and his eyes are a light blue. He has brown hair that falls into his eyes way too often and his skin is a golden tan.

twenty | controls storms and weather | heterosexual

Des spent most of her life within the walls of Sector Four. Her home was three concrete walls and a large glass, bulletproof door where guards and scientists sneered at her as if she were some sort of zoo animal. Her daily routine was staring at the crack’s within the concrete and counting each step that passed by her cell. Deserae never spoke much, unless agitated or forced against her will. The guards were never kind to someone like her -- someone so defiant and stubborn.

She remembered parts of her life however, most of her life before being captured by the Legion was a blur and the memories seemed to fade the more she stared at the walls surrounding her. She remembered that she adored apple pie and the sound of old and decaying branches by her window. She remembered that she spent her birthday’s playing card games and listening to the static radio inside her living room. Despite the world covered in death and destruction, Deserae loved nothing more than exploring it. Her mother always protested but for a year she spent her free time exploring their property with her father. Hunting, scavenging, checking the electric fences of their land to make sure they were always working. Her life consisted of nature and survival and learning how to live in a world that seemed to work against them. She heard stories of their society crumbling apart -- that despite no more war, fellow human beings were anything but friendly. That’s why when Legion officials strode up to their doorstep and demanded they take Deserae from her family, her mother and father put up a fight like hell. Des was five when she was stolen from her family. “A great honor,” they called it as they took her scrambling body from her mother’s arms.

Despite forgetting most of herself and her past life, Deserae never forgot the screams that wailed through her mother’s lips as they shoved her small body into a large military-style van. If she knew that was the last time she would ever see her family again, Des would have looked back.

They hadn’t even let her sleep one night in Sector Four before they started their torture.

Deserae was immediately injected with some sort of thick and silver substance. She had vomited and thrashed the entire time until she went completely unconscious for three days. When she awoke, her body had felt as if it had been trampled on and the pain was unimaginable. Des screamed for hours, but no one came. She pleaded for freedom until her throat went raw and her lungs all but gave out on her. Since that first day, she had refused to talk to any of them.

She hadn’t been aware that she had any special abilities until she was thirteen years old. During a training task where they had stuck cords and wires to her head, causing her to see scenarios of her greatest nightmares, Deserae had unknowingly started a raging tornado outside of the facility. The scientists had to quickly peel off the wires from her forehead and only through low murmurs did Des finally understand the power that possessed. The one thing she was never allowed to see again. Nature -- weather to be specific.

While Deserae cannot change the seasons and she cannot change the temperature, she can control clouds to an extent. Deserae can hold off an oncoming storm or even expedite the process. The weather can change with her mood if she isn’t in control of herself and, if she isn’t careful, can hurt someone in the process. Tornadoes, thunderstorms, lightning -- all of those aspects of weather are now at her fingertips. And she has no idea how to use it.

Des trained heavily in combat while inside Sector Four considering she wasn’t exactly compliant with running more tests about her abilities. It was a miracle they hadn’t killed her already. However, her power was rare and she had never heard of anyone else with her weapon. She knew that some part of the Legion had expected her to give in eventually and obey their orders. The fact that she still hadn’t was the only thing keeping Deserae going.

Since she had been left in solitude for most of her life, Des isn’t exactly the greatest with social skills and comes across as very standoffish and harsh. She doesn’t smile often and her eyes are set in a constant icy glare. Despite the very hectic and unorganized state of her emotions, she keeps her face in a calm and strong manner. Des has been unable to find her true self and her identity because of Sector Four. She used to be a very carefree and easy-going girl, but that part of her died when she was stolen to be nothing but a lab rat. A small part of her hopes to find that girl again.

Deserae has a lithe and slim build. She is thinner than most girls her age because of her refusal to eat the meals Sector Four feeds them. Des will only eat once she physically cannot handle the pains inside her stomach anymore and even then, she will leave half of her plate untouched. Her cheeks are slightly hallowed and her light grey eyes are filled with nothing but an unsteady sense of rage. She stands at an average height of five feet and four inches. Her hair is an unnatural silver, however, it used to be a chocolate brown. Her hair had slowly begun to turn light the more of the silver substance they injected her with. Only a small sliver of her dark hair remains tucked behind her neck, mostly hidden.