Hey! Here's Chapter 2 edited! Some grammatical stuff fixed, some extra stuff added. I'm happy/happier with it. :) So, here's Chapter 2, and please enjoy!

Chapter 2: Tell Me of Your Dream

Thana screamed, thrashing around the bedcovers as she fought regaining consciousness, still fighting her dream. Hands shot out to control her. She fought against them too.

"Would you stop fighting me too, Thana?!" a voice shouted out heatedly. She barely heard though; her mind was a haze.

Slowly, Thana opened her eyes, and ceased her struggle. Panting heavily and sticky with sweat, she glanced around. Her heart was still pounding in her ears, but it was beginning to subside as she took in her surroundings. She was her family's sick room, lying in one of the hated white hospital beds. The walls, too, were bright white, and the air smelled so sterile Thana nearly gagged. She glared at the walls darkly, reminded once again of her dislike of it.

Thana grimaced inwardly. The sick room had been an aspect of her house, or rather, home, since her home was basically a mansion stuck out in the middle of the woods, away from the city. (She had to walk a few of miles to get to the bus stop for school, if Maria couldn't drive her over in the morning.) The house was pretty old, with a lot of old architecture that Thana preferred to ignore. Most of the rooms smelled musty from being closed all the time, and clean was a nice luxury in the house. Her parents weren't home all the time due to their work, but cleaning was still managed in the parts of the house that were lived in. Cobwebs always seemed to be welcome, though, despite their efforts, adding to the ancient feel of the home.

Everything seemed to be old, even the sickroom, which was added during either the Texas Revolution or the Civil War (sometime, she didn't know which or if it was even then) to serve as a military hospital. Thinking about the likeliness of laying on beds that people had died on (her parents tried to convince her that the beds and sheets wouldn't have lasted that long, but she didn't fully believe them, going on the fact that they still HAD the sickroom) always made her feel sick, which didn't help to speed her recovery and get her out of there. It just made her hate the room even more.

A figure was looming over her, hands holding Thana down by her shoulders. She looked up apprehensively, but relaxed when she saw it was Maria, her 16-year old sister. She began to smile in relief, but it was quickly replaced by a cringe. She didn't even want to look. There were several scratches on Maria's left cheek, and a few were deep. Two of them were deep enough that blood just seemed to ooze down in a small stream, while the rest allowed just a few droplets to form, albeit slowly.

"Sorry, Maria," Thana murmured, her eyes downcast in the knowledge that she had to have done it.

"You'd better be," her older sister replied darkly. Then, apparently satisfied that Thana was conscious now, Maria released Thana's shoulders. She plopped onto a chair that was next the bed, sighing heavily. There was silence for a moment between them, then Maria walked over to a medicine cabinet and, pulling some bandages, disinfectant, and a washcloth, began to clean her cuts.

Thana sat up. She still felt a dark cloud clutching at her heart, even though she wasn't held anymore by the caging bars of her nightmarish vision. She pulled her knees, along with the bed sheet, up to her chest, and wrapping her arms around them, laid her head on her knees. Her face burned with shame. She had never injured her sister before, not even unintentionally, and she felt miserable along with the darkness around her heart.

"Well?"

Maria was looking at Thana, having finally finished bandaging her incisions.

Thana was silent.

Maria sighed. She should've known that Thana would've been like that- brooding in silence and letting her sister play a guessing game at what she had seen until she was ready to talk… She sighed again, inwardly frustrated.

Deciding to try and help improve the mood (which also might increase Thana's chances of opening up), she turned and walked to the opposite side of the room. She opened the window to let some fresh air and sunlight in, the alarm beeping once as she proceeded. The warmth would do them both good, she decided, looking at the statue-like figure on the bed.

Sensing Thana wasn't going to open up any time soon, Maria decided to try again.

"Well?"

There was still no response.

Maria pushed some of her bangs back with her hand, rolling her eyes as she did so. She couldn't keep it up forever, could she?

"Well, what?"

Maria perked up. She spoke! Thana was still staring despondently at her knees, but at least there was some improvement.

"There's going to be lifetime scars and it's my entire fault, isn't it?" Thana murmured. "I'm really sorry, right? I-"

Maria gave a grateful sigh. "I'm fine," she said, giving a smile; and, walking back to where Thana's bed was, stopped in front of it. "Look."

Thana lifted her head slowly, and looked at her sister. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of the size of the gauze bandage. "I'm sorry, Maria!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry! I-"

Maria gave a small laugh. "I already told you. I'm fine, alright? I've already forgiven you, but I can take it back if you want me to," she said, her voice increasing slightly to rise over Thana's continued apologies.

Thana fell silent. "No," she whispered. "Thank you. I am sorry, though." She looked back down at her knees.

Maria walked over to the side of the hospital bed. "Well," she said, sitting down in the chair again, "before we begin a long conversation during which I will eventually pry out of your tight little lips the contents of your new dream, would you like to know how you fared?"

"How I-" Thana began, then stopped. "Oh. Did I fail this time? Please don't say I failed!"

Maria sighed. "That's a slightly difficult evaluation, but since we had just bumped it up to a medium level of difficulty, I'll try to go a little easier than normal for you. But first of all, what kind of running was that?! I told you to run like Death itself was chasing you with a scythe! That didn't look like run-for-you-life fleeing to me!"

"I was trying, Maria! Honestly!" Thana protested, her eyes bright in earnest. "I almost did it, too! But there's a difference between telling myself that over and over and having it actually-"

"Okay, point taken," Maria interrupted with a wave of her hand. "But that still doesn't excuse the fact that you gave me your position numerous times during which I could've caught you easily and the fact which you weren't alert enough to avoid me for another 4 minutes of the allotted time. The last four minutes out of 2 hours? Come on, Thana. You got too excited over almost completing it for the first time and got cocky."

"It was just four more minutes?!" Thana banged the mattress with her fist, muttering a small curse under her breath. Maria looked over at her with a "Did I just hear what I thought I heard?" countenance, so Thana hurriedly continued before any comments could be made against her. "How easy is four minutes, huh? Why do we do these dumb exercises anyway?" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, muttering something else against the exercises.

"Because these are survival exercises that our family instated," Maria reminded quietly, "and they just might save your life someday, when you are old enough to know the reason why."

"Oh, come off it, Maria! I'm 11 years old, for crying out loud, and nearly 12! How much longer am I supposed to wait to know?!"

"When you turn 12 and show signs that you are ready to learn, then you shall learn," Maria said. "Until then-"

Thana's eyes lit up like a flashlight. "Really?" she interrupted. "Just 12? A few more weeks?"

"12, and you show signs that you are ready to learn," Maria reiterated. "And until then, you have to suffer with these exercises that will only get harder once you reach 12, but I expect you will be a little more appreciative then. I'll forgive your criticism for now, however."

"Okay," Thana said, itching to know more but knowing she was going to get any more out of Maria. "Anyway, did I pass or fail?"

"Well…." Maria let it hang in the air. "Considering that it was your first time, but also considering that you only had another 4 more minutes out of 2 hours, I'll pass you at a 70, but first thing tonight you're going right out there and-"

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Thana shouted, hugging Maria tight. Maria held her in return, muttering something about "like Felix".

When Thana finally let go of Maria, she looked up, asking, "But what did you mean by, me constantly giving away my position?"

Maria chuckled to herself. "I'll give you a chance to ponder on that yourself. You have 5 minutes to consider it, while I, if I have permission to, look in your bag and see, out of interest, what you decided to take?"

"Go ahead," Thana muttered absently, already focused on figuring out what went wrong.

Maria reached down and pulled Thana's backpack out from the side of the bed.

"Let's see…" she murmured, interested to see what her little sister had taken with her. She opened up the flap. Laptop…? charger…? sketchpad…? drawing stuff…? wallet with ID and pictures… pen drive…? necessities… snacks… money… radio… compass… couple of books…? roadmap… mp3…? batteries...? GBDS with Golden Sun and manual...???

"Okay…" Maria said finally. "Most of this stuff I can see some sense as to why you think they're important, but what's with the Game Boy DS, Golden Suns, manual, and mp3? And some of this other stuff in here? Won't that be mostly dead weight?"

"Never know what might come up. Besides, in a Slyph backpack, you don't feel a thing," Thana said absentmindedly. "And who knows what might happen?"

"Yes, who knows what." Maria looked down at the stuff, still confused over some of the stuff that Thana chose for the exercise. She was about to ask about a spare change of clothing, but Thana's mind had already left the room.

The exercise, which was meant to train a person on their "get-up-and-go" skills, involves a person discovering they have 5,10, or 15 (depending on difficulty level, here listed from hardest, medium, and easiest levels) minutes in which to grab anything of necessity and escape the house within the allotted time. (If they don't make it, it means they were captured by the enemy they were trying to escape and have to start over.) Then, they have to hold out for either 3, 2, or 1 hour (listed from hardest to easiest level again) without getting 'captured' by the enemy, who was usually played by a family member. It didn't matter where the escapee went or how they did it, they just had to make sure they weren't caught. Thana, unfortunately, got caught, and would now have to keep trying until she could do the full allotted time without getting caught.

Maybe it was dead weight that was another reason she got caught, even if was a Sylph backpack…

"Hey, Thana?" Maria piped up.

"Hm?"

"I, er, notice you didn't pack any spare clothes," Maria said. "Any particular reason why…?"

"I did," Thana replied. "You just didn't look well enough. Remember my bag's modeled after Alexa's bag? Besides, I put on my 'trick' clothes, so I really don't need a spare set for anything besides a clean pair. My disguise angle's covered. Surprised you didn't notice right away."

"Oh yeah…" Maria realized as she checked the spare compartment at the bottom. She had taken some spare clothes after all, huh…

"Alright! I got it!"

"You figured it out?" Maria asked. "In the words of Train Heartnet, 'Color me impressed'!"

"Yes, I have figured out that… I can't figure out what I did wrong!!" She looked up at Maria pleadingly. "Please, tell me what I did wrong!!"

Maria covered her face with her hand in mock shame. "So you haven't figured out what you did wrong?"

"Err… no."

Maria looked up, and pointed at Thana's wrist with a sigh. "Your watch, sonso conejo. Every time you had to check your watch, in order to get light on your watch to see, you also caused light to be reflected off of it. All I had to do was wait until it was almost time for the exercise to be over, because as it neared the end, I knew you would checking it more in anticipation, and it wouldn't take that much effort to find you."

"You mean, you found me because I kept checking my watch?!" Thana was dumbfounded.

"Yep, that was the big secret. And, for the next time, if you really want to know what time it is, double back by the bank or somewhere where they have the time announced, because you have to stop letting that habit be used against you. And, as a matter of fact," Maria began, pointing at Thana's light-colored clothing, with the exception of her jean shorts and black vest, "you need to wear darker clothing, because even the moonlight, without the help of streetlights, you stuck out like a sore thumb. And those white shoes, man, dirty them of something, because you're practically glowing in the night, sis."

"Aww, man!" Thana pulled herself into a ball, moaning. "And I thought I had outsmarted you really good…!"

"Heh, almost, kiddo," she replied. "However, you're going to have to raise the bar a little bit if you hope to pass the medium level with flying colors."

Thana just moaned again. Her hopes had been shot.

"Hey, don't get too down, kiddo!" Maria said hurriedly. "You'll get another chance tonight, and besides, you passed, didn't you?"

"I guess," Thana said, looking up again.

"Good, I'm glad that you're not too disappointed." Maria smiled, and Thana smiled back, then was about to lie back down on the bed when Maria spoke up.

"Now, on to other matters."

"Like what?" Thana asked.

"You had another dream, didn't you?" Start the guessing game, because here's where Thana locks up tighter than a clam.

Thana turned her head, nodding slightly. Yep, definitely tighter than a clam.

"Was it the same as last time?"

She shook her head.

"This one was different, then?"

Thana nodded, hiding her face between her knees in the bed sheet.

"Was it different from that the nightmare with the hooded figures? The woman or the man again? Premonition? Or was it just another bad dream?" Maria asked, leaning over onto the bed rail and tipped the chair on its front pair of legs. This might take a while, so she "might as well be comfortable".

Thana gave a quiet moan from within the sheet.

"How bad was it?" she asked, inferring the meaning of the moan sympathetically.

Thana mumbled something unidentifiable, and then fell silent.

"Was there anything to do with those hooded figures?" Maria asked, deciding to try and decode her sister's present form of communication. "Two of which you said…who was it? I think you said were like Saturos and Menardi? I told you and will say it again: don't go to sleep thinking about Golden Sun…"

"But it wasn't them…" Thana interrupted, then went silent again.

Thana turned her head a little, trying to gather her thoughts, and stared out the open window to a vibrant bird in a nearby tree. It was preening its feathers and singing cheerful notes as it worked. Thana watched it, and listened to the outside sounds, breathing in some of the fresh air that was finally entering the room with a feeling of serenity. Several more birds landed on other branches. She heard the whisper of the wind as it blew through the trees, rustling the leaves playfully and making the flowers and the tall grass dance to its rhythm. The sunlight shone brightly through the window, reflecting around the room and warming her soul, giving her strength. She felt a feeling of gratitude as the shadows of her vision were finally departing from the recesses of her mind, allowing her spirits to lift as she watched nature at work.

"It just felt so… real," she finally murmured, watching the birds as the feeling of peace continued to steal over her.

"Some dreams do," her sister replied.

"But this one felt more that," Thana continued. "Yes, there were people, but there were more this time, much more. One did have blue hair, but he was human. The woman did have hair similar, but different, to Menardi's, if you need an example, but it wasn't her, although I could've sworn she might've been a Proxian…" Her voice trailed off.

"Well, obviously you didn't go into convulsions just because you saw two people," Maria said. "And you did mention there were more. Did something occur because of them?"

Thana gave a nod. "It was like I could feel everything that was occurring," she murmured slowly. "I could move and think, like in any other of my dreams, and yet… it almost felt like it wasn't me that was fully dreaming it."

Maria looked at Thana, confused. "It was you, yet it wasn't you? What do you mean?"

"Well," Thana said quietly, thinking of a proper wording. "It was just… I could feel all the emotions: all the anger, the fear, the hatred, the pain. I was in tune to everything. That's why it felt almost like it wasn't me that was dreaming it, but rather someone else sharing it with me, and filling in all the details so I could understand what was happening, to some degree."

"Well, haven't heard of anything like that before. At any rate, it's interesting," Maria said, taking a mental note, and then spoke up before Thana would say anything more. "But you never answered my question. What happened? What was so scary?"

Thana squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to block out the images that had sprung up in her mind to haunt her once again. "They killed her, that woman I mentioned," she finally whispered in a quiet voice, as if it was destroying her just to say it, "in a long, tortuous process, that which I felt every moment of, and the heart-wrenching despair and anguish of the other as he was forced to endure it all-" Her voice cracked and wasn't able to continue on, instead burying her head between her knees again as she tried to shield herself from the images replaying themselves in her mind. She let out a soft, scream-like moan as she held her held with her hands.

Maria reached over and placed her arms around Thana, rocking her gently as her sister began to shake with uncontrollable sobs. "Shh, it's going to be fine," she murmured, trying to comfort Thana. Glancing out the window to the empty tree, she sighed. Death and torture were the worst types of things for Thana to emotionally deal with. Poor thing… she still hadn't completely recovered, whether physically or mentally, from what she had experienced as a younger child. Something like this just brought back memories of her past, which were very painful for her, as much as she had tried to forget it. No one should've had to have gone through that, or anything else of that sort for that matter….

Suddenly, Maria stiffened as she felt a chill run down her spine. She felt Thana respond to her sudden motionlessness questioningly. Maria tried to sort out what her instincts were trying to tell her. Usually, it was what she was hearing, but now, it was what she wasn't hearing that bothered her, she finally concluded. Maria looked outside the window again, hesitantly.

The bird was gone from the window, as were all the others, and the wind had stopped its rhythmic call. Everything had gone silent and still, like soldiers standing at attention, and everything was watching, waiting…

Maria waited with abated breath-

A giant explosion shook through the house, knocking Maria to the floor and nearly pitching Thana headfirst off the bed as the explosive did its job. Maria, shaking, reached for the metal bar on Thana's bed to pull herself back up, and felt her blood run cold. Smoke and voices were carrying up the hall, and the sound of entering footsteps echoed through the house. However, throughout the entire clash, one harsh, guttural shout rose above the others:

"Find the Adepts and bring them to me! We cannot fail the Master, so do not them let them escape!"

If it were possible, Maria surely felt herself go as pale as the smoke that was sweeping into the room.

A/N: So, better this time around? Does it flow better? Hope so, and I hope you enjoyed it! Please R&R!!

Long live summer vacation!! Oh yeah!!!