The Amber Eyes
Because Vik had only minor injuries, he was released later that day. Despite his constant attempts to act like he was in pain, his parents refused to write a note to excuse him from school (probably because they were professional doctors). The rest of the school week was pretty much the same. Classes started up again on Friday and students were horrified to find the heap of work that had piled up over the last four days waiting for them in their classrooms. In a single day, Vik had taken 16 pop quizzes, 8 tests, and 11 mock exams. By the time the final bell rang, half the class was too tired to leave. If it had not been for the fact that Saria still didn't know the way home, Vik would have spent the night at his desk.
"So how'd you do on the science test?" He asked as they walked along the street, now wild with emancipated high school students.
"I failed." She said grimly. "I got a 72"
"Hey, that's twice as high as my score!" Vik remarked, sweatdropping. "And to think earlier this week I actually wanted to go back to school."
"I like it." Saria said, smiling.
Vik looked at her with an expression as if she had just shouted out 'I have Polio!' "You can't be serious!"
Saria shrugged, still smiling. "It wasn't so bad. You made it sound so much worse."
"That's because this week was different because of the clan wars and stuff. If you've been through 14 months made up of days like today, you'd treasure this moment right here." Vik gestured wildly at the scene around him. "The freedom around us, the carelessness; this is the weekend! It's the only thing that keeps us from going insane."
"It's lovely..." She said sarcastically. Vik made a face at her, which she promptly returned.
The two of them pulled away, laughing. "Whatever. You'll learn to appreciate soon enough." Vik added.
---
To make up for the sleep he had lost last weekend, Vik slept well into the afternoon, awakening only as the glaring sun reared its face towards Vik's western window. For a second, Vik contemplated rolling over onto his other side but decided that if he was going to move at all, then he might as well get up. Moaning, Vik hoisted his feet over the bed and onto the floor, pulling himself up in the process. The bubbling in his stomach reminded him he had not eaten anything in the past 15 hours so he worked his way out the door and down the stairs.
The smell of smoke greeted Vik as he opened the door of the kitchen. His mom was already in there, washing the dishes from lunch. "Oh, you're finally up." Said Mrs. Fellcrest when she realized her son had just walked in. "There are leftovers in the fridge if you want them."
"Whad da herk happened in hare?" Vik asked, holding his nose. Obviously, his mom had already gotten used to it.
"Oh, it's nothing." Replied his mom, twitching her nose a bit. "Saria tried to make breakfast."
"She did what?"
Mrs. Fellcrest smiled warmly. "Don't worry. Nobody was hurt. I just smelled smoke this morning and thought it was a fire."
"And you didn't wake me up?" Vik frowned playfully. "Had it been a real fire, I would have caught my death of flames."
Mrs. Fellcrest only smiled and patted Vik on the head, a gesture which (despite all of Vik's protesting) she thought her son would never get too old for. "Well I hope that teaches you a lesson."
Grumbling, Vik threw open the fridge and removed a plate of food wrapped in plastic. He was about to close the door, he noticed a small plate with a heap of brown lumps on it.
"What's this?" He asked, removing the plate and carelessly popping a lump into his mouth.
Mrs. Fellcrest glanced at Vik's direction and gave a small laugh. "They're Saria's omelets. I just couldn't bring myself to throw them away. She worked so hard on them it would have been...wait! Don't eat it!" Had she acted a second earlier, she would have spared her son from a horrible fate.
It felt like he had just bitten into a piece of charcoal, for the lump resembled it in both taste and texture. Foolishly, he chose to swallow it; an action he had immediately regretted. The burnt omelet stuck to the sides of his throat like he had just swallowed a cork. Gasping for air, he grabbed the nearest container he could find and chugged its contents. The dish soap lubricated the lump, allowing it to slide down its throat and leaving only a lemony fresh scent. The slippery feeling in Vik's throat was soon replaced with a burning sensation when he ran to the bathroom and started vomiting. "I tried to warn you..." Mumbled Mrs. Fellcrest as she held Vik's hair as he continued to hurl.
---
After several minutes and three teaspoons of stomach medicine, Vik was splayed out on his bed, breathing heavily. He was as hungry as ever now, but after downing five fluid ounces of soap he had completely lost his appetite. A small knock rang from his door and a green-haired head poked itself into his room. "How ya doin' son?" His father asked.
"I could be better." Vik replied, waving his hand to permit entrance. Carefully, Mr. Fellcrest entered the room, bearing a pitcher of water and two cans of fizzy cola.
"Here." His father said, popping open a can and handing it to Vik. "It'll help calm your stomach down."
Vik promptly sat up and accepted the soda. "So where'd Saria go. I just realized she wasn't here."
"Oh, she went out with a friend. I think her name was Elaine or something...she was a Viera."
"Elena?"
"Yeah that's her. She one of your friends from school."
"Not really..." Vik said awkwardly. So far, "his cousin" was the only person in the group other than Mosely who made an impression on the blue blooded Viera. Nobody could explain it. The two of them did not just get along, they already had a strong relationship. "She's just an acquaintance."
"That sure wasn't the case with Saria. She didn't even have to think over the invitation."
"I don't know what she sees in her."
His father gave him a worried look. "She seemed pretty nice when she came here. Her manners were very...proper, I should say."
Vik snorted. "Wow. I'm surprised that blue blood didn't talk like we're below her."
"Well, we put Saria's life in her hands." He said, collecting the empty tray and heading for the door. "We're just gonna have to hope that she's up to the task of fighting for her."
When the door shut behind him, Vik gazed around the room. Over the past week, he had gotten so used to the girl's presence that the room seemed empty now that she wasn't there. It reminded him of the night after his sister moved out, even though he had convinced himself that it was a a change of the better. Sighing, he flopped back down on his bed. What was he going to do now? He planned to hang out with his clan today, maybe do a few missions or challenge some seniors to an engagement. But Kili was with his dad, Mosely and Yolando both had baseball practice, and Elena and Saria were off somewhere. They were probably sipping tea or something fancy right now. His eyes wandered aimlessly around the room before falling on an old pilot jacket hanging on his closet's doorknob. "Oh yeah, I still have Captain Nicholas's stuff." He walked over to the jacket and picked it up. He had had his mom run it through the washing machine a few times to remove the oil stains. "I should return this to him. He told me to keep him informed on Saria anyways, I guess I could pay him a visit." And without a single thought more, he tied the jacket around his waist before rushing out the door.
---
Vik managed to catch the 2 PM train to Bagabu port. There were two advantages that came with traveling this way. The first was that it was faster than a bus and went nonstop from point A to point B, cutting the travel time by a little bit over an hour. The second was that it stopped right at the airport. When the train finally pulled into the platform, Vik quickly hopped off his car and stretched. With the amount of money he managed to worm out of his parents, he was only able to afford a ticket to a very hard and uncomfortable plastic seat so right now his back was killing him. After hearing a satisfying crack, he headed over to customer service. He was NOT looking forward to wandering around the labyrinth of glass containers and bleached hallways again, so he was hoping for directions or a map.
Sitting behind a plastic booth right in the middle of the greeting hall was a middle aged female moogle, carelessly filing away her fingernails. "Hi there." Vik said, approaching the desk, "I'm looking for Hanger 15."
For a second, Vik could have sworn he saw a glimmer of surprise in the moogle's eyes. "Sorry, kid. No such place." She droned, not looking up from her nails.
"That's impossible. I was just there a little over a week ago. It's the place where the monsters attacked."
The moogle shook her head slightly. "Nope. Doesn't ring a bell. It was probably at another airport."
Vik took a step back and started rubbing his temples. This entire ordeal was taking a huge toll on Vik. For the past week, his ignorant mind was exposed to massive amounts of information, all of which he either understood little or none. And now, the place where all of this started never existed, according to the moogle. Maybe he was going crazy. Yes, that would explain everything. The people known as Captain Nicholas and Saria never existed. There was no monster attack and no Nu Mous in black robes. Vik was so caught up with his thoughts, he didn't notice the moogle press a button under her desk. Within a few seconds, two uniformed guards burst through the front doors and grabbed Vik by the arms. Vik's mind immediately snapped back into reality when he realized he was being dragged away. "Wait..what are you doing? Where are you taking me?" He screamed, kicking his legs furiously.
---
As they dragged him along the white-washed halls, Vik did his best to memorize the path if he somehow managed to escape from the pair of muscular arms. "Let's see..that's left, right, left, left, straight, right, straight, through door number 9...wait no it was left, right, right...damn it!" The guard's pace began to slow down as the approached the end of the hallway. The loud swoosh of metallic doors was heard as they entered a room that resembled a laboratory. Test tubes and computers were set along long plastic tables. Papers bearing complicated equations littered the floor.
The guards finally stopped in the far corner of the room, where they strapped Vik down onto a metal bench and propped him up. He had seen enough Sci-fi movies to know what was coming next. This was where they were going to attempt to hypnotize him so that he'd forget what he'd seen. And if that didn't work, they would cut open is head and mess with is brain. As the door across the room opened, Vik forced his eyes shut, and braced himself for whatever they were going to try.
"Open your eyes, boy." Said a rough voice.
"Stay out of my head!" Vik shouted back, even though the voice sounded as if it were only a few feet away. "I'm not going to tell you anything." Vik didn't see it, but something told him that the voice had given a signal to one of the guards, who subsequentially punched him in the face.
"Open your eyes!" The voice said again. Only this time, it was much stricter. Slowly, Vik cracked open his eyelids. The voice belonged to a wiry haired Nu Mou with sunken blue eyes. A pair of thick goggles sat above two white, bushy eyebrows. He was wearing a white lab coat, so it was safe to assume he was a scientist. "Good. Now, how do you know about Hanger 15?"
Vik knew it was in his best interest to lie. Anyone in this situation would have done so. "I don't know anything, I swear!" He responded.
"Wrong answer." The Nu Mou mumbled, nodding at the guard. Undoubted, it was the signal to punch him again.
"Stop right there!" shouted a new voice. The Nu Mou turned around and Vik squinted to make out the distant figure. Nicholas Acheron stormed over to the group, a large string of curses flowing from his mouth. He waved his hands to dismiss the guards before helping Vik out of the bed.
"What are you doing?" growled the Nu Mou, "He's seen too much already! We can't just let him walk out of here just because he's a kid."
"That's not why I'm doing this." The captain said, sighing. He walked up to the Nu Mou and started whispering fiercely in his ear. Upon hearing the first few words, the Nu Mou's expression began to lighten.
"Why didn't you tell me you were Vik Fellcrest!" The Nu Mou said as soon as the captain had finished. He dashed up to Vik and grasped his hands, shaking them ferociously. "I am so sorry, sir. I do hope I haven't caused you any permanent harm."
Vik awkwardly pulled away from the handshake and took a few steps away from the Nu Mou. "Don't worry. I'm just a little shaken up." Vik said, rubbing the bruise on his face.
"What are you doing here, Vik?" Asked the captain.
He untied the brown pilots jacket from his waist. "I just wanted to give this back." He said, handing the jacket to Nicholas. "Now would you mind telling me what all this is about. Like why the customer service lady called the guards when I asked about Hanger 15."
"I'll admit, we did over react a little." The Nu Mou paused to let out a small chuckle. "We're a secret government organization that wishes to remain unknown to the general populace. You were the one who made the mistake of shouting out our name in a public place."
"And what would you have done to me if Captain Acheron didn't show up?"
The Nu Mou laughed again, this time nervously. "You see that machine over there." He said, pointing to his left. In the far corner was a body suits with several medal studs sewn into it. "It's an electro-shock torture suit. You can probably guess how it works."
Vik had a pretty good idea, but he didn't want to think about it. "So did you ever kill anybody."
"Not yet..." The scientist said, smiling. "I just remembered, we haven't been introduced yet. I am Dr. Olivander Nicros, head scientist of the Hanger 15 research division." He gave Vik a low bow, completely oblivious to the boy's embarrassment. He stood back up a few seconds later and walked over to a wooden desk. "Now that we got that out of the way, how about some tea?"
---
Vik stared down at the thick green solution in his mug. The three of them were now seated on top of plastic crates around an oak coffee table in a corner of the lab the doctor had designated 'the sitting room'. "Cream?" Dr. Nicros asked, offering Vik a pitcher of bluish liquid.
"From what animal?" Vik thought as he accepted the pitcher. He gave his cup a quick swig and handed it to Nicholas, who did the same. Cautiously, Vik took a small sip and found that the tea, if you could call it tea, was extremely bitter yet refreshing. It felt like someone had lit a furnace inside his stomach and warmth was spreading throughout his body. "What is this?"
"Ground Rockbeast shell and Antlion milk." The Nu Mou said, enjoying Vik and Nicholas's shocked expressions.
Vik forced down the scalding liquid, trying his best to ignore the heat, taste, and the images he was getting after finding out about the ingredients. "What? I thought all monsters were extinct!" Vik coughed, fanning his tongue.
"They are." Olivander said, adding more cream to his mug. "That's one of the great advantages of working in a Monster Holding Facility. It really helps me satisfy my...unique tastes."
Captain Nicholas promptly set down his mug, trying to subdue the sick feeling in his stomach by immediately changing the subject. "So, how is the alternative doing, Vik?"
"Her name's Saria." Vik said sharply, surprised with the tone of his voice. "And she's doing perfectly fine. She hasn't exploded at all this week, if that's what you want to hear."
"Oooh. Getting protective of her already, are we?" Dr. Olivander commented, smiling devilishly. "But I really can't blame you. She's really something, this Saria as you call her. Why, if I were human and several decades younger..."
"I am not!" Vik protested loudly. "I just don't want you to call her 'alternative' anymore. You're talking about her like she's some kind of object. But she's not! She's an actual person!"
Both of the adults seemed rather amused by Vik's reaction, though they did their best to hide it. "You're right, Vik." The captain said finally, "It does sound like we are branding her 'object' but we had nothing else to call her. But rest assured, she is anything but human."
Vik could feel his face heating up. "She thinks for herself, she can feel sadness and anger, she can even eat and speak with manners and knows not to do both at the same time. How can she be anything but human?"
"All that may be true," Dr. Nicros said calmly, "And she can be scientifically classified as human as far as we know. But she is far from normal. I believe you know what I'm talking about."
Vik did his best to avoid the ancient Nu Mou's eyes. He was talking about the incident in the hanger during his last visit. "What was that anyways." He asked, "All I saw was a bunch of light. And when it cleared up, the monsters were dead and Amphion was gone."
Dr. Olivander pressed his fingers together and leaned back against the wall. "That's part of what it was. It was a combination of light and gravity, manipulated in a way no known magic could have accomplished."
"I believe it's time you told us exactly what happened, Vik." The captain gave Vik a stern look, receiving a sigh of defeat from the brown-haired boy.
"If you insist..." Vik began to recollect the day's events, trying to go into as much detail as possible as the two adults listened intently. He purposely skipped the part where he accidentally knocked out Captain Acheron and continued to the part where he was thrown against the glass case. "So I picked up the gun and pulled the trigger. I was aiming for the Nu Mou but..."
"You missed and hit the girl." Interrupted the doctor, "And when you did, you woke her up and in turn, awakened her magic."
"Exactly." Vik said, nodding his head slightly. "The Nu Mou and the Ice Wyrm must have gotten the full blast. There was not a trace of them left behind."
"There's only one thing that doesn't make sense." Nicholas put in. From his pocket, he drew a blue pistol, the same pistol Vik had fired at Saria. "How did you fire this gun? It was designed for moogles and is much too small for human hands."
"What are you talking about?" Vik asked as he picked up the gun and aimed it at a spot on the wall. "It's not hard or anything..." He looked over at the two adults and noticed they had similar expressions of awe. "What?"
"You...you're...actually holding it!" The doctor said breathlessly.
"Oh, this is nothing. I could wear claws too." The two adults only continued to gape at him. Frowning, Vik laid the pistol back down on the coffee table. After what seemed like hours, Dr. Olivander finally spoke up.
"May I see your hand, Vik?" He asked. Awkwardly, Vik stuck his right palm forward. The Nu Mou took a few quick measurements and quickly punched the data into a calculator.
"I don't believe it..." He said after checking over his results for the seventh time, "You're an Omnivari."
Both Vik and Nicholas's mouths fell open, though one from surprise and the other from confusion. "I'm a what?" Vik asked, examining his hand as if there was something on it he had never seen before.
"An Omnivari." The Captain repeated, "A race of beings thought to have gone extinct thousands of years ago."
"That doesn't explain anything," Vik snapped, forgetting everything about manners and courtesy, "What does that have to do with me and why I can hold another specie's weapon?"
"Calm down, boy!" Dr. Nicros waited until Vik quiet before continuing the explanation. "Omnivari are not actually a race or species. It's more of a hidden genetic trait present only in a select few. Among this handful of people, only three or four of them will actually have the Omnivari properties."
"And that is...?"
"It's simple really." The Nu Mou took a long sip from his mug before setting it back on the table. "It means you have the combined traits of all five races. Humans, Moogles, Bangaa, Viera, and Nu Mou. You can use their weapons and wear their clothes, but not with as easily as the equipment's proper race can."
It took a while for Vik to absorb the new information. He always knew he was different. One main reason was the fact that he could never give proper handshakes. His hand never fit anyone's perfectly. As the information swirled around in his head, another memory resurfaced. "Does this mean I can learn say...a Bangaa's abilities as well?" Vik asked, recalling the incident earlier that week.
The doctor chuckled lightly. "Of course not!" He responded, "The Omnivari traits are physical enhancements. Though strength plays a big role in the case of abilities, they are all mental skills and can only be learned by the proper race."
"But I used Chakra!" Vik dissented. "Here I'll show you." He grabbed his mug of scalding hot tea and smashed it against his left arm, succeeding in getting both men to jump out of their seats.
"What the hell are you doing, boy?" Olivander shouted, "Are you mad?"
"Maybe a little," Vik admitted as the purple liquid began to enter the newly opened gash created by shards of porcelain. "But I can fix it right up. Watch." Vik clapped his hands together and concentrated. In his mind, he pictured a ray of green aura encircle his wound. Sure enough, white sparks began to shoot out from the cut as the skin began to recreate itself. Remnants of Rockbeast tea was squeezed out through his pores, which he wiped away as soon as the healing was completed. "See, nothing to it!"
The two
men were so surprised that they fell right back onto their crates.
"That's incredible..." The captain uttered, "How in the world
did you do that?"
"It's not like the only thing I can do. I
can use Earth Render too, but I don't think you'd like it very much
if I used it indoors." Vik gave them a little smile, but quickly
dropped it when it failed to faze their expressions. "It's not that
hard, you know. All I gotta do is picture the green aura with my mind
and..."
"Wait," Interrupted Olivander. "Say that last part again."
"All I gotta do is picture the green aura wit my mind." Vik repeated, watching with a puzzled expression as the Doctor got more and more bewildered. "What, did I say something wrong?"
"Pull down your eyelid, boy." He growled. Without hesitation, Vik put two fingers over his right eye and forced it open, giving the doctor a clear view of his iris. As he lowered his gaze to Vik's eye level, he suddenly became pale. "I don't believe it..." He mouthed, "Your eyes...they're...AMBER!"
Vik released his eyelids, allowing him to raise a brow. "Yeah. So what?"
"So what?" The doctor screamed, growing paler by the second, "So what? Do you have any idea what this means?" It was a pointless question to ask, for Vik's impression of ignorance was more than obvious. As soon as Dr. Nicros saw Vik's clueless expression, shock soon turned to aggrivation. "Do you even know how abilities work?"
Vik shook his head shamefully. Sighing, Olivander looked over to Nicholas, who spoke up in an instant. "As you may already know, the presence of magic is constantly around us. There are times when streams of spiritual energy are more abundant than air. In order to capture these streams, special weapons were forged to 'teach' units different abilities. When you come in contact with a weapon, you immediately begin absorbing the magic. When you have enough to last, it means you've 'mastered' it. Abilities are performed by manipulating this earthly flow of magic into a desired shape and form. The user first flows a bit of the magic into the target to designate a course before releasing the full blast. For example, 'Rush' is performed by flowing magic into one's fists and releasing it all in a single punch, generating enough force to knock the person back."
"However, magic cannot move on its own," Continued the Nu Mou, "They respond only to brain waves emitted by certain Races and Animals. You said earlier that you saw streams of green light, am I correct." Vik nodded, not knowing how to do anything else. "Though magic has no mind, they respond only to a select few. You can tell what magic can be controlled by simply looking at their color. Moogle magic is blue, Bangaas: green, Vieras: Purple, Humans: Yellow, and Nu Mous control red colored magic."
"And what does this have to do with eye color?" Vik asked.
"Nothing at all, for your eyes are not the main concern." Dr. Olivander replied. "The presence of amber colored eyes is a sign of an advanced brain frequency. Normally when an ability is performed, the magic disappears seconds after execution. In your case however, the magic recognizes your brain waves as the same as its user and instead, sticks to you. In addition to this, the amber eyes also enable you to see the flow of magic, as you may already figured out. Normally, seeing streams of magic is the only thing you should be able to do. But since you are an Omnivari, you are able to control any of these leftover energies as easily as your own abilities."
"So...I can use any ability there is? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"
"Yes, but there are a few restrictions." The Doctor replied grimly, "First, you can only learn an ability if you are either targeted or the weapon that teaches it to you is at hand. Watching someone perform it is not enough. Second, the magic will not stay with you permanently. You will eventually use up all the leftover aura. You cannot master another race's ability; you are only human and cannot absorb the magic of enchanted equipment."
When the doctor finally finished his explanation, Vik let out a relaxing breath. For some reason, it felt like a huge burden was lifted off his shoulders. Things suddenly got a whole lot less confusing, but one more question was still bugging him. "Who else has these traits?"
"Well, there are about 200 people in this world with Omnivari traits and about 12 of them here in Ivalice right now. Having amber eyes is slightly more rare. Gaol had them, Llednar Twem had them, and so did about two or three other people." He chuckled likely when Vik's mouth fell open again upon hearing the names. "You should be proud, Vik. The Amber Eyes have quite some bit of history behind them."
"And they can come in quite handy in engagement." Nicholas put in, "I expect you'd be getting plenty of join requests."
"No. I'm not going to get a single one." Vik said, smiling. "I'm the leader of a clan. I'll be doing the recruiting."
"Really now?" Nicholas remarked with a small hint of hilarity, "Oh right, I heard about the clan wars program. They say their trying to teach you kids some values but it's really because of the..you know.." Vik nodded. He was obviously referring to the outbreak. "So how's the clan life treating you? Been on any good missions lately?"
"It's been alright so far." Vik answered, "We've been in two engagements already, we won the first but lost the second. As for missions, we haven't been on any yet. The seniors got first picks and they took all the good ones."
"That's too bad..." An look of excitement suddenly flashed across the captain's face. "I know! Why don't you work for the government? And in turn, work for me!"
Vik raised an eyebrow at the suggestion. The idea seemed far-fetched, even to him. "The government? I don't know..."
"Com'n, boy. This is a golden opportunity." Dr. Nicros added, "Not only will you have access to unlimited resources, but we also get special mission request that aren't even available in pubs. And, since we are a government, we'll never stop having problems meaning you'll never run out of missions to do. It pays pretty well, too."
"He's right, Vik." The captain agreed, "Summer is almost here and your school won't be around to dish out requests and rumors. And you're not nearly old enough to enter a pub without an adult with you. So what do you say?"
"Well...you do have a point. Alright, I'll consider it. But I'm going to have to ask my clan first."
"Wonderful!" Nicholas shouted, grasping both of Vik's hands and shaking them so hard Vik's entire body got pulled forward. "Of course, you'll have to go down to the capital and register your clan officially. But as soon as you do, you can start working for us straight away!"
"Great. I'll be looking forward to it." Vik muttered, glancing at his watch. His eyes dilated when he saw that the short hand was nearly at the 7. "My god, I lost all track of time. The last train leaves in 15 minutes!" He shot up onto his feet and gave the doctor a quick bow. "Thank you for the tea, Dr. Nicros. I'll be sure to visit again sometime soon." And before the adults had a chance to say their farewells, Vik was out the door.
---
"Do you think that was wise, Captain Nicholas?" Dr. Nicros said after several minutes of silence.
"What are you talking about?" The captain returned in an annoyed tone.
"Recruiting that boy into our ranks." The Nu Mou said, reaching for his tea. "Getting the government involved with this only means trouble."
"I only wanted to get in on some of the action." Nicholas laughed, "That boy is destined for great things. I just know it. The times ahead are paved with adventure and I simply could not resist."
"Well that's rather selfish of you." The Nu Mou replied, smiling secretly behind his mug. "But I agree, the kid is something special. I still can't believe he has both, the Omnivari traits and the Amber Eyes. The only other person in history who had both was..." The smile from his face suddenly disappeared, replaced only by a thin line. "Do you think he...Vik could be..."
"It is possible." Nicholas admitted, "But this could all be just a coincidence. But there's one thing I'm sure of." The captain's eyes fell on Vik's mug, laying in a dozen pieces on the oak coffee table. "Vik's a dead ringer for him in his younger days."
A/N: I had a lot of difficulty writing this chapter. The "RENT" soundtrack is killing my brain cells. Seriously, my sister won't stop playing it and it's driving me insane. It's making me type even slower than usual. I can't even here myself think anymore. God! Make it stop!
