14. A New Dawn

He was in a house, in the flames that he knew all too well. He was tied to a chair again, but this time he wasn't a child. He was older, a teenager to be exact. His family was laid out in front of him, tied to chairs, gagged and bruised. The flames lashed and whipped at them, but their hollow screams were muffled by the cloth that had been forced into their rheums. His eyes were scorched from the heat, but even in his blurriest of vision, he saw a spectre walking towards his mother, who was slowly fading away. He pulled the gag right out of her mouth, and she let out a terrible wail. A scream that would terrify him for years to come. And his mother, through all the pain and anguish she endured, repeated the same words he had heard many, many times "Its alright sweetie, we will -"But her voice was muffled as the spectre walked towards him, bending down to look at him face to face. "The flames don't like you it seems." he said, cold as ice amidst the fiery blaze. "Don't worry, I'll scar you for life, just be sure to remember my face, I'm a hard man to find." Masked man said as he laughed like a maniac and the child looked on. "Name's Wrath."

He woke in a cold sweat again, but this time, he wasn't out on the shades of the RV or met with a starry sky. Instead, he was inside the RV, in Ben's bunk. He grimmaced as pain shot up his gut and he lied flat on his back, pushing his arms and legs as down as they could go to douse the pain, arching his spine upwards as he did so.

"Kyle you're awake." said Gwen from the table, as she got up and walked over to the bed.

"Hurts huh?" Ben tuned in.

"I've been through worse." he replied as he got up again, not showing any indication of pain this time around. He got off the bed and was about to walk over to Max when he saw the person who was on Gwen's bunk.

"What's she doing here?" he said as he stared dumbfounded at the mage who was laid on the bunk.

"Grandpa took her in, says that he'll figure something out once we reach Rockport." Ben said, as he too looked at the sleeping mage.

"We didn't cuff her by the way, but I'm considering taping her mouth once she's awake." Gwen followed, lost in thought.

"Wait why are we going to Rockport again?" Kyle asked, his mind piling up one question after the other. 'Rockport? Max let her in? Taping her mouth? What the -'

"We're going on a road trip Kyle." Gwen replied calmly.

"Why?"

"Vacation duh." Ben said, returning to the front seat.

"And Max thought it'd be great if you came along this time." Gwen said, smiling as she did.

"But no one mentioned letting a psycho sleep on my bunk" she followed blandly, inciting a small grin from Kyle.

"So what do we do with her again?" she asked for the second time.

"Lets ask Max." he said, as he walked towards the driver's seat.

"Hey Kyle, how's the wound."

"Max, what's with taking her in all of a sudden."

"And what should I have done Kyle, just leave her there?"

He didn't have an answer for that.

"I thought about what you said Kyle. If you're right about what you told me, then I'm pretty sure she won't accept our help at the first go. I want you to talk to her once she's up."

"Why me?"

"You've met her a few times right?" Max answered, setting the RV into cruise.

"You know her!" both Ben and Gwen screamed in chorus, while max almost jerked the wheel. 'Thank God there weren't any other vehicles' he silently prayed.

"Yeah." Kyle answered, trying to avoid their faces as he did so.

"O...K" Both of them said seperately before walking back to the table.

"Ok, I'll do the talking Max. But why?"

Max understood what the teen meant. So he gave his answer, placing the words that best suited his intention.

"She just lost the only path she knew Kyle. An apprentice without a master is much worse than an apprentice with one, even if it was one like Hex. If she doesn't have a path to follow, she would've created one herself. Given her past, I don't think its a path that we'd like to go down. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

x--x--x--x--x--x--x

She could feel that she was moving. There was a certain softness to what she was laid on, as if she was laid on a pile of feathers. The steady rumble of the bed and the shimmering rays of light that soothingly warmed her skin forced her eyes open.

She squinted at her surroundings, and they blurred around her the more she tried to figure them out. She could spot a black hooded figure, occupied, swiping at a small shiny object, from which two strings were latched on to its head. The figure was seated next to her bed, as if he had been watching over her in a sort of way. She tried to get up but grimmaced with pain as her abdomen recoiled, forcing her back to bed. When she tried to speak, she noticed that her mouth tasted of iron. 'The blood' she remembered, as her encounter with the Shadow came back to her mind. The blood that had pooled around him when he stabbed himself, his stiffled cries of pain, the forbidden blades, and the final blow. It all came back to her, bit by bit. 'So that must be...'

"K-kyle...?"

"Just rest now, we'll talk once you're fully healed." he answered, his voice echoing through her head.

"She knows your name?" an auburn haired girl asked from a table nearby. 'Gwen' she remembered, a rage building up inside of her. 'Why was she here? Wait, where am I?' she thought looking around at the strange setting.

"Its alright, you're safe here. We're in the RV."

The surroundings were clearer now, and her eyes focussed slowly into the details. As she raised a hand to rub her eyes, an expected pain shot up her gut, but she held it down. She slid a stray strand of hair from her eyes as the black hooded teen came into full view. Kyle Hunter.

"Got a thing for black sweaters huh?" she asked in a raspy voice, coughing soon after. Soon she was trying to sit up.

"Don't push it blondie." he warned as he tried to help her sit.

"What am I doing here?" she asked, her voice restored.

"What you got any other place left to go to?" He snapped at her, making her flinch at his sudden change of tone.

'Wonderfully done Kyle, scared the living shit out of her. Dumbass' He thought to himself, a bit dissapointed at what he'd done.

"No" she said firmly, as if she didn't care even if she was kicked out that very instant.

"Well, in that case, Max decided that he's taking you in."

"Wha-"

"You can leave whenever you want, but as long as you're here, you live by our rules." he said firmly.

"Which is pretty much nothing." said Ben said from the table which earned him an elbow to his ribs followed by a "Doofus" from the auburn mage.

"Are you sure that's what everybody wants." she said to him as she stared blank at Gwen who was currently abusing her cousin with her martial arts training (which also she took up for grades). She didn't expect her arch enemy to be such a ... 'child'.

"Gwen? Yeah she's cool with it. The question is, do you want to stay or not." He phrased the same question again, abit more relaxed this time around.

"I need some time." the mage answered, as her hands went to her hip.

"Where's my bag - "

"Its in the cabinet." Kyle answered her even before she could complete her question.

"Next stop, Rockport central" Max boomed from the driver's seat, as the outlines of a city in the pasture land came into view.

x--x--x--x--x--x--x

The speed of the RV had dropped considerably as they entered the outskirts of the city. It took almost an hour more to reach central, and soon they found a parking lot to camp in for the night.

"First off, drop the chinese dress. Painting a red X on your back would be less obvious." said Gwen as she faced the other mage who was now looking at her clothes rather curiously.

Kyle too looked at her as the conversation went on, but averted his eyes as she saw him staring. He might as well have turned a little red on that account.

"Grandpa I'm going with shopping with Charmcaster."

"Oh, so you're saying that she's a wanted criminal and so she should change her clothes to make sure the police don't catch her" Ben chimed in.

"Isn't it obvious doofus."

"And you want to take her to a mall where there'll be tons of people and security?" Ben countered, leaving Gwen speechless for a moment. 'Ben - 1 , Gwen - 0!'.

"Well, that's been dealt with already," she said, as with a few words and a swift move of her hands, mana filled the air around the mage, and changed her entire form, to Kevin? 'One each!'

"So you wouldn't mind going shopping with Kevin?" Ben shot back with a certain pleasure in his voice. 'Ben - 2, Gwen - 1 !' "Shopping for girls clothes, which would certainly look like you're his girlfriend..." 'Gwen has blushed and Ben wins this round!' a sort of commentary going on in Kyle's mind coming to a rather satisfying end.

"It doesn't matter what it looks like!" she squealed as she pulled Charmcaster by her arm right out of the RV.

"Well they seem to be getting along." Max said as he walked towards the door, seeing the two girls barge out of the vehicle.

"I guess Charmcaster isn't that bad after all" Ben said as he gripped the handle on his way out.

"It's Hope." Kyle murmered.

"Huh?"

"Her name, its Hope." he replied as he went right by Ben, opening the door and walking into darkness again.

'Hope..' Ben thought, looking at the night sky.

'Interesting.'