Sadness. only one review for the previous chapter. Well this one's much longer than the others thus far so if you wanted more detail, enjoy! Also, there is a characteristic of one of the OCs that makes them ramble on and on about something, and I noticed that it continues through all my stories of her. I swear, I'm trying to not make her a Mary Sue, but she might come off as one. Sorry. Enjoy the story!

3 – The Boy

The boy woke up from an exhausting sleep late that evening to the smell of food cooking. Good food. He slowly pushed himself up from the couch he was laying on, looking around curiously before making a sound. It was a small apartment, with fixtures that came with the place only. No books besides the ones from a high school and a few old library books, no photos on the walls but three sitting on a ready-made shelf, and only one pair of shoes by the door, tossed there haphazardly. The place was very Spartan, and he had a feeling he knew this way of life a little too well.

The clothes much too big for him seemed to tie themselves in knots around him while he was sleeping, and he felt an extra weight on his left wrist that wasn't there before. Curious, he fought against the sleeves until he revealed what was there now. To his utmost surprise, it was a bead bracelet, one made out of wood and sporting runes on its sides. It was elastic too and a pendant baring a symbol he never saw before dangled over his hand from it. The boy managed to fish out his other hand and he reached towards it curiously.

"Take it off and you really will regret it kid."

He jumped at the voice, jerking his eyes over to the source. The girl he ran into on the street was no longer wearing the uniform he knew but a set of long sleeved purple pajamas, sleeves rolled back for cooking, with a spatula in her hand. Looking at the edge of that, she was making some egg dish, but that wasn't important. What was important was the spike of fear he felt at the statement.

Calmly she went on. "That talisman is what's keeping the demon dogs who were after you off your scent. It also is keeping their boss from finding you through tracking or scry spells. Roughly it hides you from everyone who's searching for you who isn't seeing you in person or wasn't the person who put it on you.

"If you really want to stay out of those guys' hands, keep it on." She smiled kindly at him before pointing to the kitchen. "I'm making omelets, Japanese style, and toast for dinner. Want some?"

Slowly, the scared little boy nodded, staying where he was. She nodded and started back to the kitchen. "Gimme a minute and I'll bring them to the coffee table. Orange juice or milk?"

Quietly, "Milk."

"Okay… Do you want ketchup?" He nodded again and she sighed. "You know, I'm not going to hurt you for talking. You're free to be loud, and run around, and play, and use the bathroom. It's right over there by the way, along with a large shirt that will do for clothes until I get your sizes and visit the store. There's also a cord in there you can use to tie your underwear up over it so you can move freely. Or freer. It's hard to be free when nothing fits."

She shook her head and disappeared in the small kitchenette she was working from. "Omelet, toast, milk, and ketchup, coming up. Please clean yourself up, and keep the bracelet on."

Nodding quietly, the boy slowly slid off the couch, letting his bare tender feet smart slightly as they touched the ground. He hadn't noticed how much they hurt before, but he was completely focused on running away earlier and not falling flat on his face. Looking down, he managed to see his feet under the oversized pants and that they were wrapped up in some kind of pinkish, shiny bandage. This girl had taken care of him in his sleep, but didn't change his clothes. Weird girl, but it made her less scary because of this.

Carefully he made his way across the wood floor to a bathroom, and once he closed the large door, dropped his desperate hold on his pants. He stepped out of them and did his best to pull off his large shirt as well. His underpants fell in the meantime and he was really embarrassed to be in the nude, but there really wasn't much choice. He stifled some tears, trying to be strong when all he really wanted to do was hide and cry his heart out. But where would he go? The only thing he recognized in this big scary world was a uniform, and he was certain hundreds of girls wore one just like it. So instead, he decided to do his business, get dressed like the girl suggested, and eat something. He was starving anyway.

In almost no time at all, the boy was dressed in a smaller but still large shirt (it reached his knees instead of his ankles and he could see his hands), his underpants, and a rope around the outside to keep up them up. He was having problems tying it and started to cry. He really was useless. Before the waterworks went too far though, that girl knocked on the door, came in, and helped him tie a good knot in place, keeping his temporary clothes on.

"There. No harm done." Looking into his eyes, she smiled gently, like a big sister or a mother. "Tomorrow I'll get you clothes that fit properly and then we can go out in public, maybe find someone who knows you and can help out."

He stared up at her, blinking away his tears. "You… you'll let me leave?"

"I'll let you run around outside in the sun and make your own choices, yeah." Her calm manner became a little sterner as she stood back to her full height. "But I really don't think it's a good idea for you to leave until after we fix this problem. You're a kid right now, and kids are easy to kidnap and hurt or control. Even with the talisman protecting you from your enemy's spells, if they see you, you're toast. And then there's the regular psychos."

Shaking her head, she reached for his hand. "Come on. Dinner's getting cold, and I'll answer any questions you have, provided I have the answer to them."

Scared, the kid took her hand anyway and was led out of the bathroom to the first room where food waited for him on the coffee table. The smell was so good, his stomach growled. Blushing, he looked up to the lady, wondering what she was planning next. Was she going to fatten him up and eat him later? Who even was she? As soon as they were at the couches, she let go of his hand and let him kneel in front of one of the plates, the one that had a cup of milk with it. A ketchup bottle sat in the middle of the table for them to use as they wanted. His feet smarted the entire time, but not near as much as when he tried to kneel.

Sighing, "Please get back on the couch. I need to take another look at your feet."

Embarrassed and scared, the boy forced himself back onto the couch, his feet dangling over the edge. She knelt down between him and the table, picking up his plate, a small fork, and the ketchup, and placed them next to him on the couch. "Eat something while I check them okay? No need to starve a child."

This got him to smile briefly, but he still was nervous around her. Obediently he started eating the omelet, adding ketchup after one bite, and watched her raise one foot up and unwrap it. The bandage seemed to disappear in a flash of light, startling him. What happened?!

"Hmmm…" She smirked to herself, rubbing his foot gently before putting it down and checking the other one. That wrap disappeared as well. She looked over this food critically as well, ignoring the fact he stopped eating. What happened to the bandages?! Her smirk almost became a grin. "I knew you weren't normal. No one with that much power and spells cast on him could be a normal kid."

"Wh… What are you…" Trembling, he tried to ask her what she was doing, but couldn't get the words out right. She looked up to his eyes, her own having changed again to a golden hew, watching him for a second. Realization struck her somehow and she put his other foot down.

"Oh. I see. That explains it." Scared out of his wits, he tried to sink into the couch to hide, but that seemed to be exactly what she wanted. She placed a hand over his heart, eyes now focused on his chest. "Hold still a moment. This one's easy."

Firmly closing his eyes, the boy only thought of how short his life was, and it wasn't a good one either. And he just had to run into the witch with the gingerbread house! Something seemed to tug at his heart for a moment, making it pump faster in fear. Was she going to claw it out of him? But instead of nails grabbing into his chest, her hand slowly left it. He heard her mutter something in some weird language, the thing tugging on his heart getting fighter and sharper. Pure terror took over his body for a moment, keeping him frozen there, then…

snap

That's all there was. A small snap. The tugging was gone.

"That should do it." With a sigh of relief, the girl backed away from him and he started opening his eyes, confused. Why wasn't he dead? He looked straight at her and her smiling face, almost laughing at him. "How do you feel?"

He was silent for a few seconds, just blinking at her. Her eyes were brown again, and gentle and warm. What just happened? "Uhhh… confused?"

"Not scared or terrified anymore?" She seemed to be edging him on, and it was working. Confused and now a little angry, he couldn't help but to respond.

"Just confused. I was scared though. I thought you were going to eat me." There was a bit of anger in his voice, mostly because he was confused. What did she do to him? One second he was terrified he was going to be eaten and the next he was very, very confused. "What did you do?"

Grinning, she picked at one of his feet to take another look at it. "I broke the terror spell you were under." He blinked. What? "It's one of my specialties really. Breaking spells and curses. It was hard to tell what it did to you while you were asleep, and I assumed your fear before was the normal kind traumatized kids have. I mean, you'd have to be very scared and determined not to die and run like that barefoot for so long. Your feet were nearly ripped to shreds earlier.

"Now they're just sore and raw. See?" She lifted his foot up and in a way he could see the bottom of it. There were marks still on his feet, but new skin covered the soles and they weren't bleeding. He took his foot in his hand and started looking at it in awe. Then he picked up his other foot and saw it was the same. His feet were healing! Fast!

"How did you-"

"This wasn't me."

Blinking, he looked up at her. Huh? Smiling, she waved her fingers around off to the side, almost weaving something. A long, thin, shiny pink wrap appeared out of thin air, gradually growing as she weaved it into being. Her eyes stayed brown during the entire thing. "My healing abilities are limited to normal medical and herbal knowledge and making these. They accelerate healing by two, but with how I found your feet at first, even with my skills, it should have taken three weeks before you would be able to walk without pain. When I checked your feet before making dinner, there weren't any new bloodstains so I thought I'd check them again when you were awake. I mean, you didn't scream out in pain and beg for help in the bathroom a minute ago."

She nudged her head back to the room in question while rewrapping his feet, securely and comfortably. He didn't stop her, just stared at her and what she implied. Smirking, she looked him in the eye. "You're a quick healer kiddo. I wonder if your abilities go beyond yourself and that's why those guys wanted you back so badly. They certainly did everything they could to make you dependent on them."

"What are you talking about?" Genuine fear and confusion overtook his face. What did his girl want from him? What did she mean by self-healing and healing others? Was she implying he had powers? "Who even are you?!"

Stopping what she was doing, the lady looked him in the eye, just blinking at him. She reminded him of a stunned cat for that moment before she hung her head down. "Alex wasn't kidding. My people skills suck.

"Okay, let me try and start this over again." Looking up at him, she tried to give a normal smile. Instead she gave one saying she was a little disappointed in herself. "My name is Marian Gli… Glenn. I'm not from around here. I tell people I'm just from the United States, but in truth I'm from another universe." That made him stiffen completely, and start debating how to get out of there. Crazy person or alien invader? She went on completely ignoring the look on his face. "I could explain multiverse theory, but that's way over your head at the moment. Think of it as, if a writer could write two versions of the same story, but took a different twist at one point, then they made an entirely new universe. Mine is similar to yours, and I am from what you call the US, just a little different. You have things I don't, and I have things you don't. Languages seem to be the same though and I can use my magic here easily, so they really aren't that different.

"I came here because of a personal problem and am hiding out until my friends settle everything." Sighing heavily, she knelt back on her feet and crossed her arms in frustration. "I was trying to just lay low, get a vacation out of this, and maybe learn something new, but apparently I'm a magnet for trouble. Even when I'm doing my best to stay out of everyone's way, I can't just let someone hurt a terrified kid. I'm not really a threat to anyone here and I have no interest in local politics, so really, I'm an uninterested third party. You really don't have anything to fear from me."

"But…" He looked over her critically. "You're a stranger. A strange girl I've never met before and you've been really weird." He didn't know why, but her explanation only settled him down a little. And she seemed just as pleased to hear his objections.

"Normally it'd be a good idea to be wary of strangers," she agreed. "And odd behavior is another reason to keep your distance. But, considering you have a lot of spells cast on you, mostly memory blocking ones, and that big one…" She eyed up and down him for a moment. "Well… The only way you're going to get out of this predicament is to trust a complete stranger. You're just incredibly lucky I was the one you ran into. Most people would have either died there confronting those dogs or turned you over to the police, if they didn't return you to them or kidnapped you for their own wants."

"What are you talking about?" Dogs? Spells? Police? What did any of this mean? He was so confused.

Marian sighed, choosing her words carefully. "I'm sure you've noticed, but my eyes change color. When they do, I can see power. I can see the spells that are on you. When you can see something, and see their effects, you can usually do something about it. My family has a special skill, where curses just roll off of us; we used to steal cursed items to save people's lives then find ways to break those curses. I take that skill a little further and can see spells, then break them. It takes a power and a will stronger than the caster to do that, and knowing the right counter curse sometimes, and I happen to have all those qualifications in your case.

"And your case is: complete cognitive memory blocking, partial impersonal memory blocking, power suppression, and being turned into a child." She looked him in the eye, giving finality to her statement. "You also had a tracking spell and a terror spell on you, but I broke them; one while I was bringing you here and the other just now."

"That's a lie!" Defensive, the boy almost lunged at her, stopping short at the edge of the couch. He couldn't really be-

"You were practically swimming in those clothes that are meant for a grown adult, your feet healed quickly but I have a feeling they would have healed faster under other circumstances, and you have yet to tell me your name." She inclined her head towards the bathroom again, making a few more points. "You clearly know how to use a toilet and change clothes, but making knots is a bit beyond your current abilities. Course we can blame that on your fingers being much smaller now compared to your true form."

"But I'm not-"

"Then tell me your name."

It was a very simple statement, but it was one he couldn't answer. In all truth, he didn't have a name. No one called him anything in that dark place. He still didn't even know what he looked like! The bathroom mirror was high up for him to reach and there weren't any others in the place so far.

This little boy didn't have a name.

He didn't have anything.

Tears sprung up in his eyes and he started to bawl. He knew big boys didn't cry, but that was all he could do. He couldn't remember his name, his age, where he lived, what he liked to eat, what his favorite color was, what he looked like… he didn't even know who his parents were. Ice cold shards seemed to stab him from all angles, returning a misery he knew was familiar, but had nothing to compare it to. All he could do was curl up in a ball and cry his heart out.

He stayed like that, alone and crying, for a very long moment before a weight shifted him on the couch, sitting beside him, then wrapped its arms around him. Marian gently brought him into her lap, holding him close and rocking him in a warm embrace. "I'm sorry. Everyone back home tells me I'm insensitive and I've never been confronted with this kind of problem before. My nieces and nephews are pretty much all normal and out of the fighting. I have no idea what to do here."

"I… I don't know…" he sobbed in her arms, now clutching her. He really had nothing and was terrified all over again. The sorrow sprung from the unknown threw him into confusion and fear, but mostly loneliness. Who was he? Where did he come from? Was anyone good looking for him? "I don't know anything!"

"Shhh… It's going to be alright." That mothering tone was in her voice, comforting him bas best she could. She started to rock him in her arms, soothing as many fears as she could. "It's going to be alright. I'm not going to leave you alone until I've broken the spells. I'll get your memories back. I promise."

'I promise.'

He could hear the words in his head for a moment, coming out of his mouth, but the voice was a lot deeper, older. In his mind he could see who he said it to, but the image was fuzzy. That uniform Marian was wearing, but on a different girl, a smaller girl. A very beautiful one with long blond hair kept up in two weird pigtails.

"Usako…"

A/N: People were right. I just wanted more people to guess. Yeah, please talk to me. I feel so lonely. Marian for the most part is trying to stay out of everything, but she somehow gets dragged into situations all the time. She's not trying to be a hero, just trying to do what's right when it's in front of her. Her curse breaking and power seeing abilities are standard for her, and I kinda made magic in many terms like strings and ribbons so they can be easily broken. Mare will explain spells a lot in the future, and she rambles on about magical theory. in my personal works, she and her siblings do that a lot, but mostly just her. It's a personality quirk of hers.

And I know you know who the kid is now, but in case you don't know, no spoilers! The only name he can remember is Usako, but that's not his name and he knows it. Mare reminds him of Usagi to a point, but mostly like an aunt or big sister. This story isn't going to be heavy on the romance Anywho, I'm about to pass out. laters, and DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!