Earth

Meanwhile, Kalin was staring at her father and grandmother, trying to gauge their reaction. Both seemed perlexed, and it took a while for them to process what she was saying. After a moment, Nini nodded before speaking. "I know that sometimes people can feel a strong connection to others, whether it is love or hate or what have you. Maybe what you're feeling towards this man is just a strong desire to help him. You are such a sweet, kind-hearted soul. I understand that you care for people and want to be kind, but if it puts you in danger Kalin, then you need to back away and let someone handle the situation." Kalin's grandmother smiled reasurringly and patted Kalin's hand.
Her father nodded. "I agree with your grandmother. Helping people is not a bad thing, but you have to listen to your instincts. As much as I love you Kale, you tend to be naive. You trust other people too easily. I don't mean to criticize you, I just want to make sure that you stay out of danger."

Kalin nodded, but inside she felt frustrated and helpless. There was no way to make them understand how she felt. It wasn't a mere desire, it was a need. An urgent, desperate need to protect something precious to her. It was as if the universe had sent Vayne to Kalin for some reason. She had no idea why, but she felt like there was a string tying her fate to Vayne's. If she lost Vayne, she feared it would feel as if something were missing in her life. Maybe she was crazy, maybe she was making up some fantastical story, but at this point it didn't matter. She needed to be with Vayne and help him in any way she could. Instead, she was stuck in a hospital bed with family members that would not, could not understand. And now getting out from under their watchful eyes would be even harder than it ever was before.

"Steve's probably still waiting outside." Alexyna nodded, as Nathan placed his sweat shirt over her shoulders. She took it and put it over her head so the she was wearing it, instead of having it just on her shoulders. She wanted to take the strange outfit off, but felt like here wasn't a good place to do so. When he took her hand, she glanced down at it. His hand was quite warm, more so then her cold one. She gave his hand a light squeeze, as he lead her out of the hospital and back to the frighting object she was in before.

As they got back to where the object was, the boy, Steven, was giving the two a strangely amused look. She blinked, wondering why, just as Nathan opened the door. Inside was a new girl, though was Nat saw her the look on his face said that he wasn't too pleased with her being here. When he got in to the objects, holding his hand out to help Alex, she hesitantly took it and got it. She was still holding onto his hand as she was sitting down. The other two human's presents made her feel a bit uncomfortable, as she then held Nat's arm close to her chest.

The girl leaned forward, putting her hand over Nathan's shoulder and holding it out to her, "Hi I'm Sarah, Nathan's friend," At first Alexyna stayed quiet, looking from the girl, Sarah, to her hand. She slightly tightened her loose grip on Nat's arm, before introducing herself. "Alexyna..." She said, her voice was very quiet. She didn't shake her hand, just stared at it.

"We're headed to the mall.. Alexyna needs some clothes.." Alex hear Nathan's voice, but it seemed distant to her. She felt tired, worn-out. Looking out the front window up at the sky, she rested her head on Nat's shoulder. She couldn't bare to glance at the bright yellow circle in the sky. Whatever it was, was making her feel like this, or at least that's what she thinks. She has never seen anything like it before. Where she's from, her world was dark, always filled with darkness, only lit by black candles of some sort. Her eye lids started to slowly close, until they close all the way, she drifted off into a light sleep.

Klarissa felt something finalize in her self. She just did something important, she knew, though the lasting effects for it will be yet to be decided. suddenly she saw a dark figure stand where Emily was once laying. Could it be? What was happening? Klarissa and her friends stared wide-eyed at the spectatcle before them as the figure who looked like Emily, but in different clothes pulled a sword out of nowhere and slew the beast. it disappeared into thin air and the crowd of spectators were left stunned at what had happened.

An aweful pain filled Klarissa's head again. "You have signed the contract, and have been bonded by your soul to the one known as Emily Origin. she could hear the voice as it filled her head, it felt as if her skull would explode, then it was gone. all that was left were those words ringing in her mind. She looked over at Emily again and saw her on her knees, a crowd of news cameras and reporters starting to break the ranks of the crowd and approach the girl.

Taylor saw what was happening and stepped up. "come on," she said, leading the other three to the girl. They helped her up and surrounded her in a protective circle and ushered her to the car as fast as she could go. "nothing to see here." Taylor was saying as they walked. "Just go about your business, everything is under control." she continued on, keeping the curious questioners away. In the car, she turned in the front seat and asked. "Okay, what was that all about." Katie, jumped in. "yeah, that manster attacking you, and you getting up and slaying it, that doesn't happen." nicole in a quiet voice added, "did it hurt you much, why was it after you?" Klarissa just sat there dazed.

Nathan looked back over as Alexyna placed her head on his shoulder. He couldn't help but smile a little. She looked tired though, and he didn't know if she was asleep or not. He was glad this wasn't making him blush as much as her holding his arm had. He didn't know if Steven noticed or not. Sarah must've, or she was just in a bad mood in general, because she'd been sending dirty looks to the helpless girl the whole ride after they'd been introduced. Even now Nathan could feel her eyes burning into the back of his head. He did feel a little bad for her, but it wasn't his fault.

Steven had the radio on softly, and he hummed along and tapped against the steering wheel. They rode into the mall parking lot and casually parked. Nathan gently poked Alexyna's side a few times, waking her up. "We're here." he said, to her. He reached across her and popped the door open, helping her get out. Steven got out as well, slamming the door behind him and walking around to the other side. Nathan pulled the passenger seat forward for Sarah to get out, which she did with a scowl. She seemed to glare at Alex from the corner of her eye. Nathan shut the door, and gestured to the mall. He walked beside Alexyna, and Sarah follwed close behind. Steven stood on the other side of Alex, his mind seeming to be somewhere else.

They walked inside, it had a dirty white tile floor, a fountain in the center, and only two floors. It was just a strip of stores on either side, not a very fancy shape. Nathan looked to Alexyna, "Here, why don't you see if you can find one you like.. Anything works." He said with a smile.

"It was you, wasn't it?", the man said, tilting his stance a bit. Emily turned from Klarissa to look at him, but was soon surrounded by Taylor and the other girls and was pushed away from the man as the media closed in. Emily was dragged along the ground by the tight circle until she finally was able to stand up. "Nothing to see here.", Taylor yelled above the approaching crowd, "Just go about your business, everything is under control." As Emily was pushed into the car with the other girls, someone got the car started and got it rolling as the door was shut. She could barely focus, her vision was a blur and her ears had started to ring a bit. The feeling was familiar now, this usually happened when she expended too much of her power. But surely she hadn't used that much? A simple Claymore was nothing compared to her limits. So why did she feel so tired? As she questioned herself, Katie spoke. "Okay, what was that all about. That monster attacking you, and you getting up and slaying it, that doesn't happen.", she said, and Nicole spoke in a voice almost too quiet for Emily to hear. "Did it hurt you much? Why was it after you?" Emily rubbed her head a bit, and looked to Klarissa, who sat silent. "No, I'm fine.", Emily stated reassuringly.

"Well... Where do I start..." Emily said, gathering her thoughts. How could she explain her situation to them, anyway? "I was created around... Two years ago your time? I didn't actually know that I was alive until much later, though." She started, then continued. "The world I lived in was all black and white, not even a hill in sight. I walked around aimlessly for about half a year until I found mountains. After that, I started finding all sorts of things that you'd never find here..." She wanted to summon up a really small example of her findings in her hands, but her abilities were still depleted. "I have the power to make things at my will. Back where I lived, I could just lift a finger and a tree would grow out of the ground where I pointed. Though here, it seems that it has limits. Anyway, around a month ago, this giant black cloud started to chase after me for some reason. The cloud destroys things, and if it can't break down what it wants to destroy, it'll send something out like that monster you saw.", Emily explained. "After that, it's all a blur. I can't remember much after the cloud started chasing me, but I do remember everything else." She looked to everyone else to see if they believed her. Emily felt that awkward feeling starting to come back again, and she leaned back in her seat a bit. Looking back to Klarissa, Emily smiled a bit. At least she was still okay.

The girls listened to Emily's stroy with varying amounts of belief. Katie and Taylor looked at each other in the front seat with a 'that story is pretty wild look.' Nicole nodded as if she believed. And Klarissa completely believed, it made sense, and whatever had just happpened back there told her that things weren't entirely human about the girl sitting next to her. She smiled back. Taylor turned around in the passenger seat again, "So you can just magic up whatever, like a wizard? Is that where at sword came from. Because that was kind of cool. Can you do it again to prove what you're saying?" Katie kept driving, she was almost to the nearest mall, the smaller one, with less stores, but she didn't really want to take the Emily to the one they normally frequent, in case they were all seen by someone they knew, as they were, after what had happened. She turned into the parking lot and set about finding a place to park.

Seeing Klarissa smile back was refreshing to Emily somehow, but perhaps this was another feeling to get used to. Warm and soft, like the seat she was sitting in. Looking around, she saw that Katie and Taylor were looking at each other, and Nicole was nodding her head. Nicole turned to face Emily and spoke. "So you can just magic up whatever, like a wizard? Is that where at sword came from. Because that was kind of cool. Can you do it again to prove what you're saying?", Nicole said, causing Emily to put on a perplexed look. "What's a wizard?" She asked, then continued, "Well, I can't just summon up things any time I want. It comes at the cost of various matters and energies within and around me, though it seems to be more costly here than it was back in Chaos...", she explained, "And sure, I can do it again... I think..." Emily said, looking around. There wasn't much to make a sword out of with the materials around her. Nothing was hard enough to form the blade, and she didn't want to damage the machine that was carrying everyone. She would have to form it from herself.

Emily closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind and focus. Reforming her own body was much more difficult than reforming the space around her. She had to carefully take her arm apart atom by atom just to form the blade, then rearrange her bone structure into an exo-skelliton shielding over her reformed arm, and THEN she had to pull specific minerals out of the rest of her body to strengthen the bone's durability as not to shatter it. Holding her right arm outwards, a blue green and purple glowing mist formed around her arm as her hand slowly was absorbed into the mist. What remained was the sharp thin edge of her bone as it slowly thickened up her arm until it was as thick as her elbow. Blood could be seen floating into the mist as her arm was morphed, but it faded into the mist along with her arm. She felt a bit dizzy when she finished her work, possibly from blood loss, but she held steady as the mist faded. Opening her eyes, she saw that the armblade was like a lance, and it shined a whitish silver with some red highlights from the blood that was absorbed into it. Emily realized immediately that it had taken an abnormal turn in material composition, but it hopefully wouldn't harm her. She looked around again, laying her "arm" onto her lap. "Well, there it is, flesh blood and bone. Didn't want to damage this machine we're all sitting in trying to make another sword... It might've poked through the window anyway." She said.

A stunned silence filled the car. Klarissa, Nicole, and Taylor watched with a mixture of horror and awe as Emily practically pulled a blade out of her arm. "Well, there it is, flesh blood and bone. Didn't want to damage this machine we're all sitting in trying to make another sword... It might've poked through the window anyway." The girl said nonchalantly, as if it was an everyday thing, and, Klarissa supposed, it probably was. Katie parked the car and turned around so she could see too. Her jaw dropped. "You- wow.." They were pretty speechless as they took in the weapon. Nicole picked it up and looked at it in the light. Taylor felt its edge. "Sweet." She said finally. "That's really cool." Klarissa unbuckled her seatbelt with the others. "Lets go on in now." She said, "You should probably put that away so others don't see." She said.

Nicole lifted Emily's arm into the light to look it over while Taylor felt the edge, and the soft touch tickled Emily a bit because of how sensitive her nerves were with the transformation. The edge of the blade was dulled on purpose, so nobody would accidentally get stabbed or something. The hardened blood was rough where it covered the smooth bone, and overall, everyone seemed surprised by the whole thing. "Lets go on in now. You should probably put that away so others don't see.", Klarissa said after taking off the black strip attached to the seat. Emily nodded, focusing again to change her arm back to what it once was. It took little effort to change it this time, as the blood returned to liquid form and was absorbed by her arm again. It took a few more seconds to reform her hand, and smiled after seeing her hand was still working. The first time she turned her arm into a weapon, she had reconnected her nerves wrong, and couldn't use her hand for days. Emily followed Klarissa out of the car, the last bits of her arm returning to normal form.

Alexyna slowly started to open her eyes when Nathan poked her side. "Huh?" She was a bit dazed by just waking up from her short nap. Slightly squinting her eyes, the brightness of the sun bothering her a bit, she looked to him then out the window. "Oh...Okay..." Her voice was quiet as she lifted her head from his shoulder. When he opened the door, she hopped down with his help. Alex didn't notice the glare she was getting from Sarah as she got out of the strange moving object. As Nathan began walking towards a tall building, she moved next to him, watching the building getting bigger as they get closer to it.

Alexyna widened her eyes some as the reached the inside of the building. "It's...It's so big!" She said, looking all around her. There were smaller buildings inside the large one, each one seemed different then the next. One of the small buildings caught her attention. It was a bit darker then the others having only a dim red glow coming from it and a strange low beat noise. "Nathan, let's go over there!" She smiled, taking his hand, and pulling him towards the place.

Upon entering the 'store' there were a lot of dark clothing's inside. The noise coming from within, made Alex cover her ears because it was a bit too loud. But after a while, she got use to it, and lowered her hands from her ears. She rather enjoyed walking around in this store, it was nice and dark. It reminded her much of how her Realm was. She looked through the racks of clothing and grabbed what she liked. Though she is from another world, she know how to pick out clothes that looked good, even if she doesn't necessarily know that they are. "Hey, Nathan." She called him over. "What are these?" She asked, holding up a slightly thin pair of panties.

Nathan walked beside Alex, who seemed to edge closer to him as they went inside. She made a comment about how large the mall was, though he couldn't relate because he'd grown up going there. The four continued in and Alexyna looked around, probably amazed and a bit confused. Quickly she found a store he was very familiar with, a darker almost gothic place.

It was dark, the normal heavy metal music blasted a bit into the place, and everyone in it seemed to mull around with very serious expressions and jagged colorful hair. Well maybe that was a stereotype, but the customers in the store now didn't support another theory. Steven was quickly distracted by a cute petite looking girl with bright pink hair. It was teased up and she had a bow in it, and she stood near the accessories. Sarah realized that being around Nathan and the new girl would probably just make her jealous and annoyed so she walked a safe distance away, but still in hearing range.

Nathan stood towards the middle of the store, while Alex made her way around picking up clothes she liked. He found himself glancing around the store, seeing what they offered this week. His attention was then taken again, when she called for him. "Hey, Nathan. What are these?" she asked. He turned his head and had a blink once when he saw what she was holding. Very skimpy looking panties, he quickly blushed a bit, and his hand flew to the back of his neck. "Oh.. Uh those are.." he started and stuttered a bit. Considering she wasn't wearing anything right now, she would need them, but he was a normally shy boy, and was slightly embarrassed, not knowing what to say to the girl.

Sarah saw this as a great opportunity. She quickly stepped in, moving next to Alex. "Oh! Sweetie, where we're from, you wear them under your pants." She started, taking the panties from Alex. "But no one wears these," she said, throwing them back on the rack. "Here." she said with a smile, and handed her a few thongs.

Nathan's eyes widened, and he sucked in a breath of air. Slightly shocked, he almost died when Sarah said, "Wouldn't she look cute in these?" holding one of them in front of Alex. He quickly spun around, looking the opposite way, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah sure.." He decided he'd let Sarah handle that part from there, while he tried to get his mind off Alex wearing one of those. Sarah found matching bras that looked Alex's size, and gave them to her as well. "You can ask Nathan to help you put these on later." she said with a laugh.

Alexyna blinked at Nathan's facial expression when she asked him what "panties" were. His cheeks looked red too. Was he feeling ill? She wondered. But when Sarah took the panties from her and put the back on the rack, then handed her an even thinner pair of panties, she blinked some more. Seeing Nathan quickly turn around, she wondered if they made him feel a bit awkward to see. Sarah gave her some "bras" too, as she took her that Nathan will help put them on later. "Okay, I'll remember to ask him when we get back to his house..." She said in a slight annoyed tone. For some reason, Sarah irritated her.

Making a mental note to ask Nathan what these (the bras) were, Alex looked at the thongs. "These don't look very comfortable..." She muttered quietly, tossing them off to the side, keeping the bras with her. She glanced at the store some more it see if anything sparked her interest.

Alex headed to the guy's section of the store and walked around. She found small pairs of what looked to be shorts made from cotton and silk. She took a few that were plain colors like blue and black. They looked much more comfortable than the other panties, but they seemed to be much different. Though she didn't care and continued to look at other pieces of clothing. Once she felt like she was done, she went back over to Nathan. "Now what?" She asked him and blinked. "What do I do with these?" She questioned, her head tilted slightly off to the side.

Gray clouds began rolling in, sounds of low thunder could be heard from far away. The portal that Alexyna came through was still open, way up in the sky. A black figure came through the portal, appearing where Alexyna had fallen. A tall slim man in a long black trench coat appeared in the ally. With him were two black dogs. Walking out of the ally, he whispered to the dogs, "Find her..." The dogs began barking and lead the man to the mall. The clouds were now over all of the city, the color darkened. It seemed that a storm was coming.

Nathan had turned his attention away from Alex and Sarah, mostly because Sarah was being a jealous freak as always. She seemed to purposefully embarrass others when she was obviously not getting her way. She was probably jealous that this new girl was living with Nathan, and that she was a little prettier than her.

After a few moments passed, Alexyna returned to him, with much more modest underwear, and some clothes, Nathan smiled at her when she spoke.
"Now what? What do I do with these?" she asked.
She had an innocent look to her, slightly confused but still willing to learn. Her soft brown has were the kind of pretty that didn't make a big deal about themselves.. But he couldn't seem to stop staring into them.
After a moment he snapped out of it. "Here, follow me, we have to pay for them now."
He lead her over to the counter, where a woman stood by the cash register. He took the clothes from Alex, and placed them on the counter. After paying, he took the bags and turned back to his friends. Steven was looking at various posters, but then turned his attention back to Nathan. Sarah stood by his side, looking annoyed with her arms crossed. Nathan rolled his eyes, and gestured Alexyna to follow him.

The started to leave the mall, and exited through the door to the back side of the mall. In the distance, Nathan could hear dogs barking.

Alexyna nodded, following Nathan and the others out of the mall. As they were heading to Steven's car, there was a distance howling of some sort coming in the direction of the park. The girl froze stiff, staring towards the park. To normal humans the howling was nothing irregular, but to her is was more of a high pitch screeching sound of pain and suffering. She covered her ears, cringing, as it was to loud for her, yet even then she could still hear it clearly. She picked up voices within the howling, but couldn't make out the words.

How did they find me!? Alex wondered, just as the screeching stopped. Something inside her snapped; rage, anger, and most of all fear boiled up in her. She closed both of her hands in tight fists, biting down hard against her own teeth. "They're not taking me...." She very quietly muttered before running off to where the howling came from.

The man was slightly annoyed. The two dogs had stopped barking and howling. They just sat on the grass at the park, right next to the mall. There wasn't anyone really there. The park seemed empty. Which the man thought would make it less of a hassle to catch his prey. He was here for one reason only. Capturing Alexyna. He did not want humans to interfere with his hunt. If they did, they're as good as dead.

Nathan was casually walking beside Alexyna Steven and Sarah, a bit lost in his own thoughts. He hadn't noticed the dogs howling, or Alex's change in pace or any actions the girl made. The walk was silent, and he could feel Sarah's eyes on him every few seconds. Sometimes he wished she'd just give it up. Other times he felt bad for her though. Steven was as careless as always, sauntering over to his car. It wasn't until Alex muttered something that was almost inaudible that Nathan snapped out of his daze. By the time he looked slightly behind him where the new girl had been, she was already taking off towards the direction of the park. Confused, he start to take off after her.

Steven and Sarah looked at each other, and quickly ran towards his car. They got in and began to follow Nathan, who was about 40 feet away from Alex. They slowed down and got him in the car, and began following the girl as well. By the time they got to the park, she was already in the grass. Steven had to find a place to park, and Nathan sat there antsy.. and a bit nervous. He didn't understand what was going on, but he was worried. Why had she run off?

The three got out, and rushed into the park. They agreed to split up and look for the girl.

Alexyna glanced behind her as she was running. Nathan and the others were in Steven's car following her. She ran faster, stopping once she reached grass. The three weren't behind her anymore, which was a good thing, they didn't need to get involved. There was going to be a fight, one that she didn't want humans to get tangled into. Little did she know that they'd gotten out of the car to search for her.

The sound of barking stopped and Alex looked around, spotting a man in a long black cloak with two dogs. She was sensing something dark coming from him. "That must be him..." She uttered, taking a step forward. Suddenly the ground beneath her started glowing purple, then the purple glow created a large circle around her and the man. Though, Nathan just so happened to enter the circle right before it linked together.

"Ah, there you are Princess. You know, you are not a very easy person to find, Alexyna." The man spoke calmly, walking towards Alexyna. Once the purple glowing on the ground connected, it shot up making a very tall wall of purple and black light around them. He snapped his fingers and a black ring disbanded from the top of the wall, getting larger as it went further away. It caused every human outside the circle to freeze in place as time stood still.

"Who are you!" Alex demanded, her voice harsh and bitter. She knew what he wanted, her going back to the Shadow Realm. There was much more to her story than what she told Nathan. "I'm not going back!" She yelled, clenching her fists tightly. She bared her teeth, almost growling, like some wolf would if it felt threatened.

"Who I am is not important." The dogs had disappeared when the circle completed, they were only there for one purpose, to lure Alex in. "It seems you have not the power here to stop me." He let out a menacing laugh, getting closer to her. "Your only choice is to go back."

Alexyna couldn't hold herself back any longer and charged at the man. "Do not try and fight me girl. The state you are in right now, there is no way you can beat me, let alone touch me." He flicked the air, sending a powerful wave hurdling towards her.

The wave hit Alex right in the stomach, sending her flying back. She screamed as she smacked into the black and purple wall. Falling to the ground, she tried to stand. Her wounds from before reopened, making it painful and hard to move.