We finally arrived at the club which was called Vertigo. In the time that it took us to get here, my mood had changed drastically. I no longer had the mischievous grin on my face like I did when we left. And... I was hearing them again.

The voices.

See, another thing about me is that aside from my serious anger issues (which is also why I get into a lot of fights), I also have schizophrenia. Yeah, I know... Why the hell am I not in the nuthouse? Because I never really told anyone about it, not even Tony or Ahsoka.

So how do I know that I've got it, you ask? The internet, dummies! And also because I saw a therapist as a kid.

Although, none of it is as bad as I just made it sound. Usually, I'm good at concealing anger or controlling it. However, with my schizophrenia, it's weird. I'm not hearing voices coming from my head, rather from everyone else's heads.

I don't like the words "telepathy" or "psychic", because it sounds too comic-bookish and supernatural. Usually, whenever I hear the voices, it's accidental and it only happens when I start to get sudden migraines. In other words, I pick up on somebody's thoughts when I'm having a headache. And they sound like normal people thinking about normal things. Of course, that's never the whole ordeal in these types of situations.

You see, occasionally, I pick up on other voices, too. Most of the time, they're just whispers, but other times those voices seem to be constantly yelling at me. I don't exactly know why this happens, but all I know is that whenever it does, my mind feels... empty, I guess. Almost like my entire being is getting replaced by something else.

Anyhow, the point of me saying this is because I was hearing voices again. Only this time, I was getting out of the car, and standing across the parking lot was a woman with golden platinum hair and eyes that sparkled like sapphires even in the cover of night.

To say she was beautiful would be the understatement of the year. Her skin was pale with a slight rosy tint. She stood with the poise and grace of a queen. Her stare was emotionless, but behind it, I could feel the vibrancy seeping through. It was like she was not of this world, having this enthralling ethereal beauty.

There was something else.

Even though she was a few hundred yards away from where I stood, I swear I thought I heard her voice in my head. Except it wasn't a whisper or someone yelling. It was just a normal voice saying, "Trust no one." "What do you mean?" I said aloud.

"Andy?"

I turned away from the woman to acknowledge my friend who was looking at me weirdly. "What?" I snapped. Tony continued staring at me, worry creeping across his face. I relaxed, "Sorry, it's just my head. I think I'm starting to feel the effects of that scotch." Stark scoffed pitilessly. "Serves you right for drinking fourteen glasses of the stuff," he sassed. I chuckled weakly and looked back to where the woman was standing. Unfortunately, the woman was gone.

I frowned. "Come on, let's go inside," Stark said, heading for the entrance. I nodded and followed him in, looking back only once at the spot where the mystery woman stood. "Yeah," I said absently.

I turned and walked into the building.

9 days till the transfer

In the days since our little endeavor to the club and my encounter with the mysterious woman, Tony and I continued to do all the things on his to-do list... and my migraines had become increasingly worse. The voices in my head were chattering all the time now and my sleep was without dreams. The logical part of me wanted to go to a doctor to see if this was normal, but the crazy part of me already knew the answer to that. This was far from normal! So I decided to go talk to someone who dealt with abnormalities like mine.

After I got off work, I headed on over to the Junior Enrichment and Dedication Incorporation, or JEDI, facility to talk with my mentor, Quintus. I like to think of him as the modern-day Gandhi, because of that whole "peace on Earth" vibe he's got. Anywho, I was driving down the long, open road in my truck, smoking a cigarette like I do when I heard the radio start fritzing out. I rolled my eyes and changed the station, but all that could be heard was the stupid feedback.

I winced at the loud buzzing and just turned the radio off. I sighed with relief when the ringing in my ear dissipated and so I turned my attention back to the road. When I did, my eyes went wide in shock and horror. Standing in the middle of the road was the woman from last night. I slammed my foot on the breaks and stopped two inches from where she was. I put the truck into park and tried to regain control of my breathing, but when I looked up again she was gone.

Okay, that was... Odd?

I arrived at Institute after what seemed like forever, probably due to the crazy ride I had. As per was walking into the building, my wrist started itching badly. I stopped and unrolled my left sleeve revealing a red angry flare of the mark on my wrist. (AN: look at the top of the chapter, the drawing is the brand.) I frowned as I scratched it while continuing my trek into the building. However, it didn't ebb; it worsened. Finally, I gave up trying to scratch away the itch and decided to just quicken my pace to find Quintus while I walked into the building. That's when this guy walking out accidentally bumped into me heading for the door. "Hey, watch where you're going," he called out as he kept walking. I turned and scoffed at him. "You're the one who bumped into me, pal." He paused and slowly turned to face me and my ocean blue eyes met his forest green ones.

As soon as his eyes were on me, the tingling itch on my wrist intensified and I had to resist the urge to scratch it.

"Excuse me?" he said snapping me out of my revelry. "Hey, man you were telling me to watch it, but you're the one who bumped into me. I just don't see how that's fair," I replied. "Oh, so what? You want an apology?" the other guy griped. "Well, I'd like one, but you seem like too much of a dick to apologize so I don't expect one," I shot back. He turned to completely face me, arching his brow as he did in what I imagine was supposed to be a threatening manner. Unfortunately, it didn't work on me.

"What'd you say?"

"You heard me," I sassed.

He laughed dryly and made his way towards me until we were two feet away from each other, "And, uh, who might you be?" "Nunya," I answered. He frowned, "Nunya?" "Nunya business," I retorted. He seemed to be growing increasingly impatient with me, as evident from his quickened breathing and clenched jaw and I was enjoying every minute of it. "Look, kid-"

"Kid? We're, like, the same age, man," I cut him off. "The fact that you've got maybe an inch of height on me doesn't mean jack." "Alright, look, I've had a pretty bad day and I don't need to be hashing it out with clumsy dick that ran into me," he snarled. "And again, I'll say, you bumped into me. I don't really care about whether you're having a shitty day or not. I could care less. All I'm asking for is an apology, 'cause trust me, no matter how bad you think your day has been, mine has been way, way worse," I said darkly. "So how 'bout you just grow a pair and say, "sorry?"

"Or what?" he questioned threateningly. "You know what?" I sighed. "What?" He sneered. We stood there for a while glaring at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that we had drawn the attention of a small crowd. "You're not worth it," I smiled smugly and walked away. "Yeah, that's right. Go on and run, you little bitch!" he called after me.

"At least I'm not the one acting like a jerk!" I said without looking back. "Nah, you're just the one who's running his punk-ass back to Mommy," the Jerk jeered cruelly. I stopped dead in my tracks, anger boiling through my blood. I had only gotten maybe four or five yards away, but that wasn't far enough to keep me from turning back to attack him. Every bone in my body was telling me to leave or walk away despite the comment he made about my mother. I didn't care though as I stormed back over to him and balled up my fist preparing for a fight. The guy glanced down at my clenched fist and flitted his eyes back up to mine.

"Do it," he said.

"What?" my eyes narrowed.

"Hit me, I dare you!"

Well, if he insisted, then I would oblige him. I threw the first punch, quick as lightning and I wasn't satisfied until I heard the oh-so-familiar crack of knuckles against cheekbone. The boy stumbled back, but quickly regained his footing and attacked.

To say I was impressed would be an understatement. Usually, when I hit someone that hard in the face they're already semi-conscious. We both continued fighting, blocking and parrying each other's attacks. I'd say that in total we each got about ten or 15 good licks in before he tackled me to the ground. I felt the hard impact of the punch when his fist collided with my face effectively fracturing my nose and causing blood to spurt out.

Sadly, that only served to piss me off and suddenly now he was pinned to the ground as I clasped my right hand around his throat choking him, and pummeled him with the left hand. At some point, he kicked me off and we were on our feet attacking once again. Before things could escalate even further, Quintus showed up and broke us up.

"And what have we here?" he asked us rhetorically. "He started it!" we both yelled in unison. "I don't give a damn who started it. I'm ending it!" Quintus bellowed. I calmed down and so did the asshole. The old Jedi turned his attention towards me. "Andrew, you promised me you were done with fighting," Jinn said disappointedly.

I lowered my head in shame. "Andrew. That's your name? Huh," said the jackass. "And Dean what have I told you about your attitude?" Quintus shot back.

Dean? His name is Dean? Why does that sound familiar? I swear I've heard that name before, I just can't remember.

Anyhow, Dean opened and closed his mouth a few times before choosing to remain silent. I guess he's not as dumb as he looks. "Serves you right, jerk," I said to myself. Although, judging from the glare that I got from Dean, he heard me.

"Bitch!" he countered.

"Hey, knock it off!" Quin glowered. Then, he returned his focus to me and said, "Someone is waiting for you in my office." I looked at him with widened eyes. "You should go get cleaned up and greet them. You two have a lot to discuss."