Memorial Park
6 AM
The Cranal A'k'sl is awake before the sun rises; yawning, he stretches his arms up over his head and twists his body as several something's crack. He rises from the park bench on which he has spent the night and arches his back, causing several other something's to crack. He lastly rotates his head before setting out to find some breakfast. His first stop, however, is to a certain copse of trees about thirty feet from his makeshift bed. He pushes his way through the low hanging branches and begins to shift some evergreen boughs, uncovering the fresh corpse of a man that he killed the previous evening.

He uses his foot to turn the body over and begins to shift through the man's pockets, not searching long before finding the deceased's wallet. He opens it and haphazardly pulls out the little cash, totaling fifteen dollars, which is inside. He stuffs the cash in his own pocket before dropping to his knees and removing the dead man's shirt. This proves a relatively simple task, as the man's left arm and head, still partially hidden by a black ski mask, are lying several feet from the body itself. A'k'sl next closes his eyes and calls upon his magic, sending a wave of blue sparks shooting along his arm to his hand, which quickly begins to throb. A'k'sl lets a gasp escape his lips; transforming any part of the body is a painful process, and A'k'sl never gets used to it.

Moments later it was done; leaving his hand almost unrecognizable. Five long claws replace four fingers and one thumb. With grim satisfaction, A'k'sl goes to work; plunging his claws deep, he carves out a message on the man's very skin. He works slowly for two reasons, because he wants to make sure his message is legible and so he does not get any of the man's blood on his clothes. When he is finally finished, the man's chest is covered in viscous blood that is more black then red. Underneath it, however, is the Cranal's message, carved deep into the dead man's flesh.

It reads:
I am not your Guardian, Irma Lair,
but I need you to stay untouched

Satisfied with his work, A'k'sl grabs the man's jacket, which is lying under the body, and uses it to clean his hands. When he has scrubbed off as much blood as he can, he throws the jacket back on top of the corpse. As A'k'sl walks away, the blood on the man's chest slowly begins to soak into the material, where it mixes with the blood from the Cranal's initial attack last night, causing the jacket to appear brown instead of dark green.

Heatherfield General
11 AM

" – get out of my room, MOM!" shouted Will, pointed at the door. Across the room, Susan Vandom stood with her arms folded, a vein visible in her temple. Will had woken up barely an hour ago, and they were already fighting. Susan had tried not to be judgmental, she really had, but her parental nature had gotten the best of her and she had told Will that she had done the "stupidest, most unforgivable thing I can think of!"

As she opened the door, Susan turned to her daughter to try to reconcile.

"Will, I'm sorry. Listen, you know that you can –"

"- tell you anything? Why would you want to hear it? So you can throw it back in my face and tell me how stupid I am?" the redhead shouted. With that, Will threw herself back down onto her bed and turned her head away. She heard the door close and turned her head a little to see that her mom was still in the room. When Susan spoke, her voice was low and almost literally dripping with venom.

"Will, you know I love you…" 'here it comes' thought Will "…but this is one of the, if not the, most foolish things you have ever done. Don't think for a second that we're done talking about this."

Will watched as her mother turned for the last time and walked out of the room, slamming the door as she went. Will could feel the tears building up in the backs of her eyes; part of her wanted so badly to tell her mother everything about the Guardians, Kandrakar and even Nerissa; the other part wanting to crawl into a corner and hide from the world. Instead, she settled for snuggling down into the bed and letting the tears flow.

Unbeknown to Will, her mother was going through exactly the same thing out in the hall. Susan had buried herself in Dean's arms and pressed her face into his chest as she cried her eyes out. When she felt like she was able, she untangled herself from him and sat down, her eyes red and puffy from weeping. Dean knelt down beside her and held her hands in his. He listened as words began to pour out of his girlfriend's mouth; he had to strain to catch her words, as her voice was soft.

"I…I just don't know how to help her anymore, Dean. It's like there's part of her life that she won't tell me about, and I'm worried. I want to be there for her, but she acts like I don't understand what she's going through. I know this is how teenagers are supposed to act, but how can I help her?"

"Well, you can ease up on the whole worrying mom thing."

Susan shot him a questioning look, but Dean held up his hand.

"I've overheard enough teenage conversations by now to know that kids hate it when their parents try to interfere with their lives. For now, try being just being there and letting Will come to you."

Susan's eyes began to water up again.

"But what if she doesn't, Dean? What if she keeps pushing me further and further away? I don't want to have to bury my child."

-----

Lair household
12:30 PM

"Irma!" Tom shouted as he pounded on her door. "It's past noon! Are you ever coming out?"

Inside her room, Irma lay sideways on her bed, holding a pillow tightly and staring at the wall. She had her stereo volume up at max, hence her father's shouting. Try as she might, Irma could not get the events of the previous evening out of her mind. She had tried to sleep, but she just saw that…that man's hungry eyes whenever she closed her own. She had tried to sleep, but she imagined that every moving shadow belonged to him, that somehow he had found her.

And so Irma lay on her bed, letting the music wash over her and drown out all of her thoughts. In truth, she knew that she would have a hard time leaving her room, let alone that house, today. She knew that she would never feel the same walking down the street anymore; nor would she feel the same around members of the opposite sex. She was absolutely dreading going to school on Monday, where she would be forced to share close proximity with whole hordes of them. And perhaps the worst feeling of all was that she knew that she wouldn't be the same Irma that her friends had fallen in love with.

Irma was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice that her mother had entered her room until she felt a light touch on her shoulder. Irma screamed and attempted to move as far away from…from him as possible, which resulted in her falling off the end of her bed. On the floor, she scrambled on her hands and knees to the corner of the room, where she huddled up against the wall; she pulled her knees up to her stomach and tried to look as small as possible. Slowly she peaked out from behind her hands to see her mother holding out her hand. Irma took it and allowed her mother to pull her into a hug and pull her towards her bed. Anna let go of her daughter and motioned for her to sit down, which Irma did.

Anna sat down next to Irma and began to rub her back, something that she always used to do when her daughter was feeling down. Of course, Anna knew that nothing that had ever happened to her daughter even came close to the magnitude of this. Irma reached up and grabbed her mother's hand. She turned her head towards Anna, her blue eyes shining with tears.

"Mom, can I show you something?"

Anna nodded. "Of course, honey."

Irma gave her a pleading look. "And, would you keep this a secret…even from Dad?"

Anna nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Irma slowly began to lower her bathrobe, exposing bruising on both her arms, which were a horrible shade of black. Anna let out a gasp of horror before pulling her daughter's bathrobe back up to cover the bruises. She gently cupped her daughter's chin, turning Irma's head to face her.

'Irma, was that where he…?"

Irma nodded, tears falling from her cerulean eyes. Anna pulled Irma to her, hugging the crying girl tightly. Irma gently pushed her mother off her herself.

"Mom…there's more…but I need you to promise that you won't tell Dad."

Anna looked puzzled. "Sure, but why?"

"Promise me." Irma pleaded, the look in her eyes adding a silent prayer of its own. Anna nodded; Irma wiped her eyes and began to talk.

"Last night…that man…he…he did things to me…" Irma sniffed and wiped her eyes again

Anna's eyes grew wide. "What kind of things?" she asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Irma spoke, her voice quavering…

"He…he did things…with his finger…"

That was all she needed to say; Anna realized with a shock what she meant, and her heart when out to her daughter. Pulling her close, she held Irma as the brunette began to sob, her whole body shaking.

"Oh my god…oh my god…" Anna kept repeating to herself. Irma began to speak again, her voice wavering.

"What…what did I do? Why did he choose m…me?"

Anna pulled out of the hug and held her daughter at arm's length. Her voice was soft but firm.

"Listen to me, Irma Lair. You did NOTHING wrong. This not your fault; do you understand me?"

Irma nodded, too chocked up to speak. Anna placed her hands on her daughter's cheeks.

"That man is never going to hurt you again, I promise you."

-----

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
A'k'sl stood on the front porch of the Lair home, lowering his hand to his side. He heard footsteps approaching before a large man with a crew cut and a belly that hung a little over his belt opened it.

"Can I help you?"

'Show time' A'k'sl thought. Out loud he said "Tell you daughter I had fun last night" and shot Tom Lair a grin that sent shivers running down the police sergeant's spine. It was his statement, however, that shocked Tom the most.

"Excuse me?" the sergeant asked in a soft, dangerous voice. The man across from him leaned in and spoke in a voice that was almost a hiss. "I haven't felt that alive in a long time. Say thank you to your daughter for me."

With a roar, Tom reached out and grabbed the man's collar, pulling him in close.

"If I find out you've so much as touched my daughter…"

'And now the fun begins' A'k'sl grabbed the bigger man by the front of his T-shirt and lifted him off the ground. "You humans are all the same." He growled before tossing Sergeant Lair to the ground. When Tom regained his feet, the Cranal was nowhere to be seen. As fast as he could, Tom ran back inside and called the station. He explained the situation, requested two black and whites to come to his house and hung up.

He walked to the stairs, slowly ascended and then went down the hall to Irma's room. The door was partially open, and he heard voices emanating from inside. He pushed the door open to see Anna with her hands on either side of Irma's face.

"That man is never going to hurt you again, I promise you."

Tom cleared his throat. Both women jumped before turning to look at him.

"Irma, did…did that man follow you home last night?"

Irma felt her breath catch in her throat. She began to hyperventilate, trying to take a breath of air to fill her suddenly empty lungs. She finally managed it, which caused a small coughing fit.

"Is he here?" she asked, her voice high pitched and shaky.

Tom nodded. "A man came by and mentioned you." As he said this, he saw the fear in his daughter's eyes. He walked over and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Irma, I am going to protect you. No one will ever hurt you as long as I'm alive."

Irma looked into her father's eyes and considered what he had told me.

'No one will ever hurt me? I wish that were true.'

-----

Will was lying in her bed, staring out the window and thinking about everything that had happened when she heard her door open. Thinking it was her mother, she didn't react, hoping Susan would just give up and leave. But when her visitor spoke, it wasn't her mother.

"I know you're awake, Will"

Will instantly recognized the voice and rolled over to greet Hay Lin. The Asian girl smiled at her friend and practically threw herself into Will's arms.

"You know you mother is outside, don't you?"

Will let go of Hay Lin; when she answered, her voice had lost its happy ring.

"Yeah, I know."

"Well, aren't you going to talk to her?

Will rolled over to face the window again.

"We tried talking, Hay Hay, but that didn't go over so well?"

"Is she mad at you?"

"Yeah, that would be my first guess."

"Did you two fight?"

Will spun around to face her friend. "Are you absolutely sure that you haven't traded powers with Taranee for a day?"

Hay Lin grinned. "I just know you, I guess. How are you feeling?"

Will grimaced. "Like the whole continent of Africa did a little dance inside my head."

"Sounds like everyone's been having a bad couple of days."

"Why? Did something happen to you?"

Hay Lin shook her head. "No, Irma."

Will sat up in bed. "What happened?"

"Well, we only heard about it because Taranee's mom is a judge. Sergeant Lair called her this morning."

"Irma's dad? Why?"

"Well…"

Will listened as Hay Lin summarized everything that Taranee's mom had told her about Irma's ordeal. While she was listening, Will's face gradually changed expression from cheerful optimism to glowering disgust.

"…and then the guy shows up at Irma's house; how messed is that? Will?"

Will quickly tried to hide her look of anguish. "Huh?"

"Are you alright?"'

Will sighed. "No, Hay Lin, I'm not."

"What's up?"

Will smacked herself in the face. "I'm such an idiot." She said, more to herself then to Hay Lin. "I could have protected her…"

"Will, it's not your faul-"

"YES it is, Hay Lin! I could have stopped that creep from even touching her. We could have blasted that creep and avoided the whole thing."

"Will, no one knew what was going to-"

"Of course no one knew! No one ever knows; but I should have been there for her."

"Listen, Will, beating yourself up over it isn't going to help."

"That's twice I've let her down, Hay Lin; once on Metaworld and once here on Earth. I don't know why you guys look up to me, I really don't?"

"Is that why you got drunk? Because you couldn't deal with the fact that two of your Guardians got hurt doing their job?" As soon as she said it, Hay Lin covered her mouth, knowing that too much had already slipped out.

"Exactly!" Will shouted "MY Guardians. As in MY responsibility."

"Will, we all know that-"

"Don't you ever get tired of being the team optimist?"

"What?"

"I mean you have this bubbly, happy attitude about everything, and it's getting on my nerves."

Hay Lin looked at her shoes.

"Well…I…"

"I bet you don't even know how many people can't stand to be around you because of your attitude."

Hay Lin gasped, tears beginning to fill her eyes. At once, Will knew she had gone too far.

"Hay Lin, I-"

"No." sobbed Hay Lin "It's out in the open now. I can tell…that you've…wanted to say that for the longest time. Well, if that's really the way you feel, I guess I'll leave."

With that, Hay Lin threw a neatly wrapped present on Will's bed and ran out of the room. Will stared at the present before collapsing down onto her bed.

Oh my god I'm a monster.

A/N – Alright, there is chapter 4. And once again, it is two in the morning. Anyway, I hope you guys like it. One more thing to do before I go to sleep…some review responses…because I can.

P.S. don't you guys hate stories that do like twenty of these things at the beginning of the story? It's like going to a movie that plays the whole credits at the beginning of the movie.

To MaJorReader619, Guardian's Light, XV-Dragon, mysticmoon1331, C-Hop-2005, DREAMCOLE, and KoalaSnow – I'm glad you like the story, but please expand on that a little. Nothing makes a writer happier than a nice long review. Take notes from babywhale512's reviews. Of course, feel free to leave reviews saying you like the upcoming chapters, but I still would like some decent length ones.

babywhale512 – I'm glad you like my story, since you where pretty much the inspiring light behind it. As for that bit in chapter one, I have edited it because I agree with you about Taranee's reaction. Thank you for taking an interest in my OC. In my first draft of chapter two, about 1000 words were dedicated to the Cranal history, but I think I like the idea of the reader leaning about the species as he relays information to various characters. As for Will's drunk scene, I have indeed done my research…by which I mean being drunk. As I hope you can deduce from the next chapter, I'm trying to give my OC a "grey area" kind of thing, as in not totally good for bad. Keep the reviews coming, I can't get enough

XV-Dragon – you get two because your second review was at the minimum length I like my reviews. Please keep them that length, as it helps me as a writer deduce what you like and dislike, and try to expand on or stay away from a certain style

NIkly – Again, thank you for telling which part(s) you liked. Keep your reviews coming and, hopefully, long

Remember, take review hints from babywhale512

Good night.