Soo. This chapter isn't following an episode this time :) It'll be a Calli focussed chapter this time.
The night sky was clear as Calli expertly put one foot in front of the other as she balanced on the edge of the ship. Feeling the soft breeze play with her curls and her gaze directed at the stars, she loved standing out in the night and couldn't help it as she softly started to sing a Lullaby.
She hadn't been able to sleep very well since the talent show. Ever since that day she'd been getting the same dream over and over again, always ending at the same point and forcing her to wake up after.
It started with her in the middle of a thick and lush jungle, trees everywhere and somewhat of a path in the middle you would've missed if you weren't paying attention. After that, the dream would follow that said path, ending at a waterfall before diving into the pool beneath it.
The dream would end after, in the dark depths, showing two glowing eyes.
It wasn't a nightmare, per se but it was enough for her to not be able to fall asleep again.
Calliope twirled around with some grace in her movements, turning and putting down her left feet in front of the right and expertly walked back the same way.
"Can't sleep?" The red-head turned around to see Jay standing next to her. She nodded.
"As per usual." Was her only reply.
The Blue Ninja stretched. "Ever thought about taking Melatonin? Works miracles."
Calli snickered. "Tried. It's been 2 weeks and it didn't work."
"Well, then I don't know."
Silence fell between the two and after a while Jay jumped up. "I'm going back to bed. You should too, just try to sleep, we need all the hands we need."
The girl sighed but listened and climbed back in her hammock. Tangle slithering up the pole off one of the bunk beds and settled against her side.
As the girl absentmindedly scratched the snake's head she settled her eyes on the hammock above her and, despite what had happened those two weeks, she fell asleep the moment she closed her eyes.
She was standing at the edge of the water and recognized the waterfall from her other dreams. Calli looked around she was more in control then she should be in a normal dream. The redhead noted a path leading through the thick jungle. Curious as she was, she followed it.
The path became wider the longer she followed it, but it didn't look like it actually led somewhere. The redhead let out a huff, for some reason she felt like she was walking in circles.
After walking for what felt like an eternity there was a rustle in the bushes behind her. She saw a shimmer of colors trough the leaves, the sound was all around her now and when she turned around again she came eye to eye with a large snake. Its scales were a pale transparent white that seemed to be made out of crystals as they shimmered in every color of the rainbow, but what really threw her off were the eyes of the creature. They kept shifting from red to blue in such a way they looked purple.
Suddenly the creature leaned back and open his mouth. Before Calli could react, it launched itself at her left shoulder, burying its teeth in her skin.
Calli shot up with a loud scream. It felt like someone had been drawing a line over her skin with a metal rod that had been heated in fire. It started on the back of her left hand and then circled up her arm before circling down her body and finally ended at the small of her back.
The girl tossed herself out of the hammock and removed her shirt so nothing was touching the burning skin. She really didn't care if any of the boys would come in, which they did.
Nya was the first to enter, her bother and Jay following her closely and she knelt down next to her friend.
The redhead was panting and her left arm was shaking and there was a thick line of burned skin trailing over her arm and torso and underneath her bra.
By now Cole and Zane entered. The former crouching down on the right side, inspecting his friend. Nya carefully touched the red skin. Calli flinched away with her eyes closed and grabbed the first person she could.
'It's burning, Zane could you cool it down, Kai, Jay grab the first aid kit.' The black-haired girl started to order around. 'Cole, could you hold her down?' The black Ninja nodded grabbing her good shoulder and hand as the others ran out of the door.
"This will hurt at first. Just try to sit as still as possible."
It took them about an hour to get the pain to go down to a tolerable level, and if Calli had hurt Cole; he never showed it. Despite her actually drawing blood once as they started to cool the back of her neck. She'd apologized and whilst he told her many times he didn't mind, she still went to cut her nails directly.
Now the girl was wrapped in bandages and hunched over more books then the small table could handle. Calli flinched as she closed one of the books and threw it to the side with a bit too much effort.
She scoffed, absolutely done with those things happening to her. She wanted answers and she was determined to get them. She hated it when she didn't know something and her mood grew more agitated with every word she read.
"I was joking when I said I'd set Nya on you, but if you don't start talking now I really will." Calli's head snapped up to see the others looking at her with different looks, apart from Nya, who had an eyebrow raised at her brother.
"It's nothing really." She wasn't fooling anyone and she knew it. The girl ignored the whispers among them when it became clear she wasn't going to tell them anything.
"Calliope. What did I tell you." And there it was. Calli flinched both from the tone and the fact it led to her trapping her burning hand in-between the book she wanted to shove out of the way.
"Not to do everything on my own." She replied coolly, ignoring the stinging sensation. "But you have more important matters to attend to than me with paranoid delusions."
This seemed a good idea for the others to leave, lest they wanted to get involved in an argument that would most likely end way to personal for the matter it started with.
"Paranoid delusions? That's not only it. We all know you barely sleep."
This evoked a raised eyebrow as she looked up to the Black Ninja. "You know what I mean. And when you sleep we can all hear you have nightmares."
Calli whirled around, a dark look in her eyes and she opened her mouth to retaliate, to start an argument but it faded when she saw the worry he held in his eyes.
Her anger melted away into guilt and she shrunk down.
"They're not even nightmares, the only one that had been a nightmare had been the one from this morning…. Though I wonder if it was a nightmare…"
"Maybe a memory?"
"I don't think I would see the difference…I just wish I knew." she sighed. "What my life was like before the storm. If I had any life at all."
"What makes you say that?" He followed her gaze to the table and the list she had hidden there. As he walked towards to grab it, she made no move to stop him.
He gazed over her terrible writing before giving her a confused look. "When we found out Zane wasn't…. well… Human, I felt like… ya know…" She didn't finish.
"That you're not human too?" No matter how much he wanted to dispel the worries she had, he had to admit it was a thought that had crossed his mind and the mind of the others ever since Zane found out his heritage. "You realize that it doesn't matter to us, right? You're you, Human or not."
"I know, but… It just bugs me to not have the answers I want." She had her eyes adverted from his gaze. Calli fell silent for a moment. "I think I might be a type of Homunculus." She eventually spoke, carefully taking the list from his hands.
"Really?" She nodded. "That's pretty awesome."
The girl couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm and at her own relieve. "I guess I should talk to the others as well."
"Why don't you join us with our training first and then you tell them during dinner" He changed the subject, since she was still a bit on edge about the situation. "If you're up for it with your injuries."
The redhead finally looked at him and smiled. "Yeah, I could use a distraction."
Calli sat next to Nya outside, watching Zane and Jay spar using their powers. She was watching them with interest whilst listening to Nya ramble on about adjustments she had made to her EXO-suit. Cole and Kai were standing on the other side cheering for their friends.
After a while Nya noticed that her friend wasn't listening at all, instead had gone from watching the spar to watching the other duo on the other side… or rather, one of them
"So, what's between you and Cole? I know you have a crush on the guy but you've been acting differently since the competition."
Calli snapped out of it with burning cheeks. "We do?" She thought back to the kiss he gave her on the cheek and felt the temperature in her ears rise.
"So, something did happen! Tell me." Nya laughed. However, this threw off Jays concertation, resulting in him barely hitting away one of Zane's shuriken. throwing it off course and towards the girls.
"Girls!" Both of them snapped up at Kai's warning, Nya dove down and Calli threw her arms up in a petty attempt at a defense.
The hit never came.
"Ehm Call? You might want to look at this" the redhead opened her eyes at Nya's request and all the air left her lungs. In front them was a pale Amethyst shield. A weak one that flickered in and out of existence, but a shield nonetheless. Once the girl slowly lowered her arms the shield dispelled completely in sync with her motions.
"Wow, how did you do that?" Jay asked as the boys joined them.
The redhead looked to her hands. "I…I don't know…. Did I even do that?"
Before anyone could question it Cole spoke up. "I think this would be a good time to have that conversation."
Calli had been forced to sit down so she wouldn't turn into a pacing mess once again. She held the book in front of her as she tried to find the page about Homunculi.
"So, what's this all about, you've been out of it for days." Kai asked, as impatiently as ever.
Nya hushed him and walked towards her friend, curious as her brother was, and tried to see what the redhead was trying to find.
"found it…." Calli breathed. Now to start a conversation. "I know I've been weird lately, and I'm sorry. It's just ever since we found out Zane wasn't….well…"
"Human." The said Nindroid answered.
The girl nodded. "Yeah. That."
"Ever since then you've been thinking about yourself and suspect you're not human either?" All eyes fell on Jay and Calli couldn't help the corner of her mouth twitching up. She nodded and showed her book to the others.
"I've had my suspicions for a while now, but the situation with Zane brought it to the forefront of my mind. I think I might be a type of Homunculus."
Kai furrowed his brow in confusion. "A… what now?"
"A Homunculus." The redhead started her explanation a slight waver in her voice. "A Homunculus is a… creature…. For the lack of term, that's been made from inanimate material and been brought to life through the use of either magic or alchemy to give them a soul. They're known to be protectors and can be built to suit the needs of their creator." By now she was reading out of the book in front of her. "They look like regular humans but the things that gives them away is the color of their eyes. Because the soul is artificial, the eyes don't take the color of regular eyes. They also have better senses and have a weakness to impurities in metals."
"That checks most of the boxes." Cole stated.
The Red Ninja grinned. "So, we have a Nindroid and a Homunculus. Those snakes better watch out now."
Nya noted that Calli didn't share the sentiment. "Call? you know your part of this family no matter what."
"I know, it's just. A Homunculus is made to obey its creator, and since I don't know who it is…"
Jay put his arm around her shoulder. "That doesn't matter, You're with us."
Nya nodded in agreement. "Yeah, they have to go through us should they ever come for you."
The notion brought a small smile to her face. They were right.
Soooo the big reveal is out. Calli's a Homunculus :) I did take some creative liberties with the creature so I hope you enjoyed :)
Anyhow onto the reviews :)
MightyShipper: I think that's correct? English -whilst my better language- isn't my native language…. But i'm glad i made you smile :)
MiraculousFanGirl22: Haha keep breathing. I think you're reaction is a good thing? But yeah he knew exactly what he did :D Using confusion to give a girl a kiss on the cheek before bursting out the door xD
Anyhow I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter :)