Pain, sharp and throbbing, was all Kai could feel as she lay amongst the rubble of a ruined London City. Bright lights had erupted all across her vision as gunshots were exchanged, no doubt between two enemies. Her bones in her arm were fractured, numbness spreading through her body as she faded from the world. Around her the world, her world, her London, was ablaze. Screams pierced her ears as fresh gunshots were given, many valiant Brits being shot down and slaughtered. Suddenly, loud and heavy footsteps could be heard as the screaming of dying Britons echoed in Kai's head before lapsing into silence. Something was scrabbling about in the debris, shifting the metal beam that lay across the marred back of the fourteen-year-old and tossing it aside with unnatural strength. Subconsciously, Kai's hand numbly closed tighter around the blue trinket an American stranger had pressed into her hand before the chaos erupted.
"Keep it safe, don't let them find you. Stay low and outta sight." He had said, before disappearing through a blue-green portal that looked as if it had been torn though the fabric of space and time. The swirling patterns had entranced Kai before she could register that she, along with every other Londoner in the area, was in peril. An army of giant metal beings had swooped down on the city and one, presumably their leader, demanded to turn over 'the Eye of the Primes'... whatever that was.
The footsteps stopped where Kai's broken form lay, her white and red-streaked hair matted with ash, blood and dirt as her vision was fading. One of the metal beings was stood over her, looking down at her with interest as her fingers were slowly prised open to reveal the blue trinket that lay unharmed in her palm. Kai blinked slowly, the pain that was flooding her left arm peaking and then ebbing away as her lights went out. She wasn't even a Londoner, wasn't even a local. Just a kid who had run away from a care home in Devon. Just a kid who didn't belong anywhere. Just a kid who was going to die unless a miracle happened.
Kai could hear blurred speech, something along the lines of "What do you have in your hand?". But she didn't reply. She couldn't. Her lungs had been half crushed under that beam and her voice was as dry and cracked as sandpaper. Her hand closed again around the trinket as sleep fought to claim her, but it wasn't sleep. It was Death. He had come for her at last. With his chilling boney fingers and aura of the dead souls of previous victims choking Kai's throat as she struggled to stay awake and alive. She could feel Death's sharp claws entering her chest and clutching her heart, preparing to rip it out and add it to the chain of shrivelled hearts that hung around his neck like a trophy of another soul he had collected.
But before Death could come, Kai was vaguely aware of something being scooped underneath her, something cold, and her body being lifted up. She barely had the breath and strength to open her eyes, let alone speak; her body was in extremely poor condition, her lungs being punctured slowly by two ribs, her skull partially fractured and her forehead bleeding as tears of crimson blood trickled down her cheeks and stained her shirt. Again, the blurred and distorted speech started up. But was it even speech? It sounded almost rhythmic, with soft and sweet melodies of clicks and whistles that rose and fell in a fluent and beautiful way. It sounded nothing Earthen, not even Beethoven could match it's beauty.
Time slowed down as Kai could see beneath her eyelids a bright, white-green light engulf her and whatever was holding her. The light swirled and danced in front of her eyes even though she could not open them; it's elegance sang with the clicking and whistling of the so-called 'speech' that flooded Kai's ears as she passed away into Death's grip. Something about this made dying not so bad, Kai was thinking, it makes Death look inviting of all things. Then everything stopped. The melodies and light died away and Kai's nerves were met with a warm air around them, soft chatter that was Earth-English could be heard as metallic footsteps tred almost carefully around a concrete floor. Kai's albino eyes closed almost tight and almost in pain as she was laid down onto a bed of some form, strands of her long red and white hair caressing her cheeks and neck. It all felt surreal, as if Death had already claimed her or was teasing her away from humanity and Life and into his own icy and firey claws. Something was pressed very gently into her neck, no doubt a needle because of the sharp pricking sensation Kai felt there, and Kai slipped away into dreams aplenty.
And in her cold hand still lay the Eye of the Primes.