Lillian mumbled to herself as she opened her eyes. She was in a basement. The smell of Chinese food above her told her that Hay Lin most likely took the girl to the restaurant. She sat up slowly, surveying the room. Boxes and crates dotted the room and it was obvious that this room was used for storage, but then why was there a bed here.
She raised her left hand to rub her still sore head. The jingle was what caught her attention. She found herself staring at a silver chain link bracelet. On the bracelet was a grey charm that was shaped like a swirl. As she looked at it she was caught in its simplicity. She though had no idea how it had gotten onto her body.
"It's the symbol for air." Hay Lin's voice broke Lillian's infatuation with the charm. The Asian girl had brought a tray of food down for the blonde haired girl. She then looked at Lillian before screaming at someone to get down there.
Moki descended the stairs at that point. He yawned slightly as he stopped at the bottom and leaned against the wall. Hay Lin went on to explain to Lillian that the boy was actually on their side, and that they had brought her here, and given her new clothes.
"They were your sisters, so I figured they'd be okay." Hay Lin shrugged as Lillian finally realized what she was wearing. Her face scrunched in despite at the clothing that accentuated her figure.
"I work hard to try not to look like a pretty girl." Lillian growled before Moki spoke.
"It was the best we could come up with. Get used to it until you get home." The boy walked slightly forward. He then looked at Lillian intently. "How did you use Drive though?"
"Drive?" Lillian questioned as she crossed her legs underneath herself. She looked at the two older teens for an explanation.
"It is the ability to change your innate abilities through magical means, though it took a source of energy that hasn't been seen for centuries to do." Moki crossed his arms as he explained. "You used it though to defeat the monster in the park."
"So that's what that was." Lillian whispered to herself. She then wondered if that strange golden orb was this mysterious power source.
"Yes, and apparently it's quite powerful." Hay Lin sighed as she looked at Moki.
"It is said that one warrior with drive was able to defeat an army and all thirteen of its generals." Moki said calmly. "It is possible that this is why the Society is so interested in you."
"What exactly is this Society?" Hay Lin placed her hands on her hips. Her grandma asked to be given this information in private, so the younger Lin had no idea what was discussed.
"The Society is a group of individuals with powers greater or equal to that of this Prince Phobos." Moki said which caused Hay Lin's eyes to widen in fear. "Their goal is to establish absolute order on all worlds, and end the chaos of the battling forces of light and darkness."
"What's so bad about that?" Lillian asked. "If there wasn't all this fighting going on then everything would be normal right."
"You couldn't be more wrong." Moki walked and stared out the window. "They believe that in order to stop the conflict. Both sides must be completely eradicated. Their goal is to destroy everything that ends order. Life-force, spiritual energy, spiral energy, evano, mako. All these energies have the capacity to change the odds in one sides favor. They all are driving forces behind evolution."
"That's where I come in then?" Lillian said to get a look that she was very astute for being so young.
"Yes, the power of Drive is a force that isn't true evolution but situational evolution. Someone with Drive can fling spells one minute, and be going toe to toe with the most skilled of swordsmen the next." Moki placed a hand on his chin. "It could be that they are trying to nurture your power so that they can use you to further their gains."
"I'm not going to be anyone's puppet." Lillian stood quickly. She knocked the tray of food off the bed but it never struck the floor. It just stopped there. Held in midair by some unforeseen force.
What was going on.
"Only the strongest beings or beings that I so choose may be unaffected by The Time card." A girl dressed in grey school girl attire spoke as she entered the room from a glowing light. Her eyes were a bright amber and her short brown hair was tied back into two small pigtails. She had a grey hooded cloak and held in her hand a baton like pink staff.
"Wh…who are you?" Lillian asked and the girl smiled. Hay Lin and Moki were also frozen in whatever was happening around Lillian.
"I am a member of the Society. That's all you need to know, and we said nothing about you being a puppet." The girl said as she walked toward Lillian. She pated her hand with the baton and cocked her head slightly.
"You want me to help you destroy things. That's just using people." Lillian said as she clenched her fists and glared at the girl. The girl snapped her fingers and a flash of white light erupted from behind Lillian.
"We want you to be the balancer. So that order will be achieved." The swordswoman that had save Lillian a week ago placed her hand on Lillian's shoulder. "And now that your powers are awakened." Lillian felt herself being pulled backward and thrown into a white light. "You don't need to be on this world anymore."
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White was all around her. She had to close her eyes just to keep it at a high level. The light felt good though, even if she was falling. Wait, she was falling. Why was she falling. That's right, that woman with the sword pushed her. She couldn't remember why though.
Lillian splashed head first into clear blue water. She popped her head from the water and coughed. She looked around for a while and noticed a piece of land in the distance. City lights shimmered out into the darkened night sky. Lillian didn't know where she was, but she knew that she at least needed to get out of the water.
Lillian pulled herself onto the shore and shook the water off as best as she could. The planet felt almost tropical in nature. It was very warm, but there were just far too many questions that needed to be answered, and now there was now no way of getting them answer. She looked around the beach and found very little signs that anyone, or anything was around.
"Did you see that light?" A voice screamed as a two teenage boys sprinted onto the beach. One of the boys in the group of three was ahead of the group. He had spiky blue hair and wore a blue jacket. His friend looked a bit taller than him, but his hair was bright red in comparison to the other boy's.
"What do you think it was?" The red head said as they looked out over the open water.
"Probably," The blue haired boy said before he finally noticed Lillian. "Hey you, did you see that thing?"
"Uh, no I uh," Lillian started to say as the red head approached her. He lifted up a pair of red sunglasses from his eyes and looked over the soaked girl. He looked as though he was trying to place why the girl was soaked.
"You must have been swimming and then that light spooked you huh." The boy dropped the glasses back to the bridge of his nose. "So what's your name kid?"
"First of all," Lillian crossed her arms. "I'm at least as old as you and two. The name's Lillian."
"Lillian, huh," the red head wrapped an arm around Lillian's shoulders.
"Yeah," Lillian twirled out of the boy's reach causing him to fall off balance. "So where exactly am I?"
"Where are you, what did you hit you head and forget or something." The boy said with a chuckle. "You're on the beach outside Hymenia City."
"Yes, of course." Lillian sighed calmly. She lowered her eyes to the ground. She then looked upward to see the lights of the city again. Lillian then asked herself if this was another world. If it was another world then maybe she should know. Everything was pretty confusing for the blonde, and at the moment she was soaked.
"We should probably get you inside." The blue haired one said calmly. "My name's Zaneel, and my overly enthusiastic friend here is Kamen."
"Okay, Zaneel and Kamen." Lillian began to explain. "You see, I don't really have a place around here…"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kamen said as he once again put his arm around her.
"It means that she has no place to go inside to." An eerie echo filled the three's ears as from the ground an strange humanoid creature pulled itself out of a shadowed mass. The thing was solid black and stared at the group with bright yellow eyes. "She's the heart of a whole world, but not this one. We will take her to the darkness."
"And are those friends of yours." Zaneel asked. His eyes were widened as more pulled themselves from the shadows. Soon there were at least thirty to forty of those strange beings marching slowly toward the group of three. "And what do they mean by heart of a world?"
"No, I've never seen anything like that before, and I guess they mean I'm important or something." Lillian lied about not knowing what they meant, but it was true that she hadn't seen anything like that before ever. Something about them made her feel uncomfortable. She felt tense, almost like when Moki's key was near her. Only this feeling was at least ten times worse. "But we should run from them. Now."
Lillian spun and sprinted as fast as she could away from the strange creatures. She heard Zaneel and Kamen behind her. She could also hear the droves of those things moving towards her. The only thing that she thought was to get away. She had to escape those things. She had to run from the fear they caused by her just looking at them.
"Why run when you can fight." The voice from that place with the stained glass called to Lillian. "Don't be afraid of the darkness."
"That's easy for you to say." Lillian whispered as she looked back to see that they weren't gaining any ground from the monsters.
"You can do it. You did it before." The voice said. Its words caused Lillian's face to harden and she spun on the sandy ground. It was right. Why should she run if she had the power to fight? She reached forward as the two boys stopped and looked at her from over their shoulders. A golden glow shimmered from the chain link bracelet.
"Air," Lillian spoke and like before in a flash of light her clothing and entire way of holding herself became completely different. With a gust of wind the blonde plowed through the creatures before leaping into the air and landing comfortably on a nearby cliff. The shadows all had turned their attention toward her. She opened the giant fans that this set of clothing came with and with a quick swipe the ensuing gale demolished the rest of the shadows as the ones barely struck sunk back into the darkness and didn't come back.
Lillian smiled as she changed back to normal. Only this time her clothing remained on her body. She stood triumphantly on the cliff before hearing cheers from the two boys. It was when the girl looked in their direction that she noticed the glimmer within the moonlight. Her gale had thrown a lot of sand off of a large red robot of some kind. It looked odd as it had a face for a torso and a face on its actual head. The boy's noticed too, and their expressions showed their wonderment at the discovery.
