Chapter 2

Kat entered the woods timidly. She'd heard a lot of stories about these woods, and none of them were good. The trees blotted out what little light came from the moon, only adding to the "forbidden" feeling. She pulled out her wand and shed a little glob of light on her path. It didn't help much, for it seemed like the trees were huge sponges that absorbed all light in their path. There was little noise in the woods, so her crunching footsteps echoed in her ears. The slightest sound she heard that didn't come from her made her jump. A fluttering sound made her involuntarily cry out as she jumped. She looked up to see it was only a huge owl delivering a rather large note heading towards the castle. Taking some calming breaths she forced herself to move on.

Her plan was to go in a straight line from where she entered the forest so that she wouldn't get lost. It was a good plan, had it not been for the thorn bushes in her way. The trees seemed to thin out in this area and looked as though they might lead to a clearing. This meant, though, having to stomp through a painful huddle of thorns. She blasted some of the bigger ones out of her way but found it easier to try and stomp through the rest. About halfway through the thorns got the upper hand and took a death grip on her robes. She could hardly pull out of them and couldn't seem to blast away enough to set herself free.

While struggling with the wrath of the thorns a soft, low growl came from her right. She stopped, dead still to listen. Her breathing was shallow and her heart felt as if it would beat out of her chest any time now. A rustling sound came from her left and she snapped her head over in the direction of the sound, but saw nothing. Another sound similar to it came from behind her. The rustling noises began to circle her. All from different directions ay once. There were more than one of them and they were stalking her. Holding her wand out in front of her she snapped it in the direction of the smallest sound. Couldn't run because she was trapped. Couldn't fight because she couldn't see them. She was blocked in with no way out and they, whoever her stalkers were, knew it.

Suddenly it hit her how it felt to be hunted. How it felt to be trapped and know that there was no way out. How it felt to not know when the strike would come or if she could do anything about it. How it felt to know that the attacker would hold it out until blind panic ran through it's victim enough that they wouldn't be able to fight back. How it felt to have the knowledge that the predator knew the perfect time to attack, and the prey never would. If she lived through this, she'd become a vegetarian.

Suddenly, the sounds stopped. There was dead silence around her, though Kat tried her best to hear something, anything. The only sound there was was that of her blood pumping deafeningly in her ears and the soft breeze that always blew through the trees. Kat looked around slowly, casting her wands puny light around her to try and see anything. Her breathing was heavy and she was bordering on the edge of pure panic. They knew that, they didn't waist it.

Something lunged at Kat. How her attackers managed to get through the thorns so well without getting hurt was beyond her, but that was the last thing on her mind at the moment. It was small but strong and Kat saw the distinct glint of razor sharp teeth come at her. Kat barely dodged in time before the thing could tear into her elbow, it instead got a mouth full of cloth. It held on strong and refused to let go. Her robe began to rip under the weight and it slowed her down. One from the other side of her leaped towards her and aimed for her side. Twisting her body sideways from the attacker and leaning back some, she managed to not receive a flesh wound from that one, but it also managed to grab a hold on her robes and held on just as tightly. A third one came for her throat. The only free hand Kat had was her wand hand. So turning it at an angle so that her wand would be broken, she threw a wild punch at the small mass of fur. She didn't know where she hit it at, but it had the desired effect to send it flying back into the thorns. The little thing was quick though and regained its balance in enough time to lung at her again along with one more attacker.

Full fledged fear and panic were overwhelming her now. With all this weight on her she could barely move. Dodging the attacks was becoming pointless, and she felt a sharp sting on her leg. Her wild attempts at fighting were more than useless. She jerked around violently trying to throw one off, only to feel sharp pain in the forearm. A thousand thoughts an instant were running through her mind at all the horrible things that could happen to her. More than once she saw herself being ripped to shreds, no one hearing the screams, no one knowing she was there, and being utterly helpless. Those thoughts ran through her like poison, filling her to the brink of raging fear.

Panic fear and desperation were all let out in one strong, bloodcurdling scream. But that wasn't the only thing let out of her so strongly. Power. Pure, raw, untamed power. It coursed through her and out of her, flowing through her veins, a force to be dealt with. It held with it the same sharp quality as her scream as it was unleashed unto the world around her. The power of her mind mixed with raw emotion spread through her until what could have been long as hours or short as seconds, it died down with her scream.

Kat fell to her knees gasping for breath. Every muscle in her body ached, her mind was exhausted, and she was suddenly very sleepy. The world spun around her, causing her to sway as the earth moved under her. Putting her hands on the ground in front of her, she tried to subdue the sudden wave of nausea that washed over her. As the ground slowly leveled out and the spinning world slowed, Kat tried to recollect her thoughts on what had just happened. Wasn't she being attacked? Hadn't death been chomping on her arm and leg not too long ago?

Her head flew up to look around her, but this only resulted in causing fresh waves of nausea come over her as her world swam and the edges of her vision blacked out. She closed her eyes and let everything still before opening them again to disoriented vision. Her eyes were tired and didn't want to focus well, especially in the dim light. Her wand was underneath her somewhere in the folds of her fabric from when she had fallen. Actually, she didn't remember dropping it at all. Ignoring that she slowly looked around her. Where was she? This didn't look like the same place she was at a minute ago.

There was an eight-foot clearing of smooth dirt around her in a perfect circle before ending in thorn bushes. A circle two feet in diameter around her was slightly lower than the rest. Kat looked around thoughrally confused, she was sitting in the middle of two circles for no apparent reason. Looking behind her she saw that the thorns there looked stomped on and cut through. The trees seemed to gradually thicken back into the same cramped woods as the Forbidden Forest. All evidence pointed to the fact that she was in the same spot she was before. This left a very good question: What just happened?

A thought started to form in her mind. If she could do wandless magic so well, that meant her spells ~with~ wands would be more powerful, right? It was possible that she just cast a really strong spell. But she didn't remember saying a word, not to mention the fact that at some point in time she had dropped her wand. It could have been because of the panic that she could cast such a powerful, destructive spell. Fear was a big factor in a lot of things.

The little voice in the back of her head that had been nagging at her for days could be quieted no longer. It made its opinion loud and clear. In one simple phrase that swam through her mind over and over again it voiced its argument: You're a mutant.

Then what did that mean for her? Sure, she had been told about such a thing, but she didn't know what it meant. Was she going to be hunted down for the rest of her life because she was capable of wandless magic? Kat looked around her again. Okay, strong wandless magic. There was surely more to this? When Kat had first gone to Hogwarts she had discreetly searched the library for anything on mutants, but found nothing. That had only gotten her more confused. Did this mean that everyone but her knew about mutants? She couldn't just ask anyone, the might lead to trouble. Or was she the only one other than the Ministry that knew of mutants? This was far too confusing.

Now though, she was completely in the dark. All she knew was that she could read people's minds, use wandless levitation spells, just now blasted a circle around her, and didn't know how to control any of it. The only thing she was sure about was that she could tell no one. That didn't help her in the slightest. What was she supposed to do? Let what was happening drive her insane until she was caught? Kat really didn't like that option. It was hopeless… Utterly hopeless…

No. She shouldn't think like that. She also couldn't let that happen to her. You don't hide it, you learn to control it, to master it. She could make it through this, and she would. Her angel in the woods didn't save her life for nothing. If anything, she owed it to him to survive this.

Filled with new determination, Kat forced herself shakily to her feet. Her muscles ached and protested and the world began to swim again as she stood. She staggered some but caught her balance and took a deep steadying breath. Kat was determined to learn something of what she could do without having to resort to reading Snape's mind everyday. A small stick lay just outside her circle. Start with simple things, after all, she had levitated things before.

Thinking back to yesterday morning, Kat tried to remember how she had done this. Saying the spell hadn't worked, just wanting it had. So, taking that in mind, Kat glared at the stick and concentrated. ~I want you to come here,~ She thought to the stick. Nothing happened. So, she tried a more demanding approach. ~Come here… Come here… Come now!~ Nothing happened. Annoyance started to come over her as she tried again. This time, she held out her hand and concentrated all the magic into making it come. Nothing happened. Sighing, she thought back again to yesterday morning. She didn't remember using her magic, just her mind. So, holding her hand out again, she focused her mind on bringing the stick to her.

It wiggled a little and Kat's heart leaped. Focusing more intently on it Kat reached out as best she could with her mind to take hold of the stick. Suddenly it flew through the air and into her open hand. A huge smile broke out on Kat's face as she looked at the stick with wide-eyed amazement. She did it! Kat excitedly looked around for another stick and concentrated on calling it to her, then another, and another, and another. Soon there were enough sticks at her feet to build a fire. Kat decided to try something else. Singling out one stick, she lifted it into the air until it was in front of her face at arms length. Holding it there, she let it hover for a while, and then began to spin it. Slowly at first, then a little faster, then faster still, soon she had it going so fast it was a blur. It gradually slowed back down and went back to hovering right in front of her.

Kat yawned and the stick dropped back to the ground. Now that most of the excitement had worn off, Kat realized how exhausted she was. Before she would be capable of anything else, she would need some sleep. First though, she should clean up her little area. Smiling at this, she attempted one more little levitation trick. Concentrating on the pile at her feet, she spread her arms in effect and sent all the sticks flying back into the woods. They didn't all fly in unison, or in a straight line, or at the same height for that matter. It didn't surprise her though, she was tired, she was new at this, and that had been the most she'd tried to work with since she first discovered her powers.

Yawning again, Kat retrieved her still glowing wand and stomped her way back through her trail in the thorns and through the dead quiet of the trees. The dark started to press in on her more and more as her eyelids drooped. If she was going to sneak back in the castle she needed to be awake. Well, that wasn't quite happening. She didn't know exactly how she managed it, but she made it back to her room without getting caught. Once her head hit the pillow, she was out.



The next few weeks were slowly draining Kat. She'd have to rush through her homework and everything else she needed to do to be able to have time to sneak off in the woods at night. Any free time she had was spent taking naps, which only made her friends worry about her. They didn't mention it much but Kat could tell it was always on their minds by the looks on their faces. It didn't help any that she kept trying to doze off in class. That did have an up side though. Roughly every three days Kat would have attacks where her mind was overloaded with people's thoughts. To make sure no one saw anything out of the ordinary, she would put her head down and pretend like she was dozing off again.

These mental overloads weren't that bad when Snape was around because she could concentrate on him and could gain control more quickly. There were a lot of times though, that Snape wasn't around and her teachers began to worry about her. Madam Pomfrey had Kat sent to her office so many times she started mumbling about the teachers being hypochondriac for her. Kat was appreciative of the dreamless sleep potions though, considering she needed all the sleep she could get. Still, she felt sorry for being in the way of Madam Pomfrey all the time.

After one particularly long and painful overload, Kat though about reading one of her friend's minds so that she could concentrate on them for once since they were usually around her the most. But Kat was unsure of what she might accidentally do, and worse yet, it was her friend's mind she was invading. ~Well, that's rich~, she thought, ~You can know all about Snape's life but you're too afraid to see what your friends are truly thinking of you.~ Pushing that thought out of her mind, Kat settled on not reading their minds because the last time she did so, it ~caused~ an overload.

Being too afraid to work that part of her powers was only making things worse. Using all of her other powers hadn't helped develop that part of her. In fact, she didn't know if she had taped in to all of her powers. After all, there had to be something major that she was capable of that made her such a risk to the wizarding world, right? The Ministry wouldn't just kill mutants because they were different. Well, at least, Kat hoped not. No, there had to be another reason, all she had to do was figure out what.

Kat contemplated this during lunch, mainly to keep her mind awake for the rest of the day. Sara was chattering away happily as Christy gave her worried looks that Kat chose to ignore. Of coarse, she couldn't blame the look on Christy's face, since she was having trouble aiming the fork to her mouth. Five misses later Christy looked like she could hold back no longer and was about to say something. Thankfully, at that moment Owl Post arrived and all words were lost in Sara's happy chattering over mail from her parents.

It wasn't that it was her parents that got Sara so excited, it was because she always got news of her best friend through them. Sara was muggle born and none of her friends back at her old school became witches or wizards, so she barely saw much of any of them. Ripping open the letter Sara went on about how Samantha was in the running for cheerleader captain and "just ~dieing~ to know if she made it". Once the letter was open and she started reading, her face slowly fell. Sara's face went through disbelief, to horror, to pain, and finally settled on deep sorrow. When she stopped reading she slowly set the paper on the table and blinked back tears. The usual happy, perky Sara seemed to be gone as if she never were. Kat was sitting right next to Sara so she slowly put a hand on her arm and quietly and gently asked her what was wrong.

Sara began to shake her head violently mumbling things about not being there and should have been there. Kat was thoughrally confused now. "Sara… Is everything…" she attempted but finally Sara made herself coherent, very loudly in fact.

"No! Everything's not okay! I'm surprised you even noticed!" she screamed in Kat's face.

Kat flinched. That had hurt, she knew she had been rather disconnected with everything that had been going on but she didn't know it had cut so deep in Sara. She felt awful. Sara seemed to loose all her anger after that and suddenly broke down into tears. Christy, who was on her other side, tried to say something but Sara cut her off. "Just leave me alone!" she choked out, and with that, ran out of the Great Hall as fast as she could.

Kat realized then that the entire hall had become dead quiet and was watching what had just happened. Really, she didn't care. Her friend needed comfort and she needed to apologize. As Kat started to get up to go after her, Christy grabbed her arm and pulled her back down. "Wait Kat, look." She said and held out the letter Sara had gotten.

Our Dear Sara,

We're sorry baby, but Samantha's blood level fell again. The doctors did all they could, but the blood supply was running low. She regained consciousness in the middle of it all and kept demanding to know where the ring was. While I was trying to calm her down she said she wanted us to find it and give it to you. You're Dad searched through the car wreckage again and found it. She told me to tell you this "Through distance and fights and growth and change, our friendship will always be the same." She smiled then, it's been a long time since I saw that on her face. But I guess you two's friendship can make it through the worst of times. The next shipment of blood didn't make it in time. She passed away peacefully in her sleep. We sent you the ring along with the letter. I'm so sorry baby. Just remember, she'll always be there in your heart.



Love,

Mom & Dad

Kat looked at the little parcel that was attached to the letter and opened it. Inside was a ring that was a perfect replica of the one Sara wore constantly on her left ring finger. Tears welled up in Kat's eyes as she looked at it. Poor Sara, if Kat hadn't been so obsessed with herself and paid attention more, she would have seen a change in Sara's personality. Sara hadn't mentioned this probably because she was more denying it to herself the whole time. With Sara so tore up about Samantha, she really needed all her friends there for her, not to worry about another one. Kat was disgusted with herself. She had to make it up to her.

Taking hold of Christy's arm she lead her out of the Great Hall in pursuit of Sara with Samantha's ring in her other hand. Kat caught a glimpse of Sara running towards Griffindor tower and quickly followed. Christy was having a hard time blinking back the tears that welled up in her own eyes, so she kept hold of Kat's wrist so that she wouldn't fall behind. The Fat Lady looked rather distressed when they made it up there, she kept muttering "poor dear, poor dear" as they ran past. It wasn't until after they were up the stairs and into their room and had finally stopped did Kat realize how much that run had taken out of her. By the looks of the gasping Christy beside her, it had taken its toll on her as well.

Sara was face down on her bed crying harder than anyone ever had in the orphanage; she probably hadn't even heard them come in. A pang of guilt surged through Kat again as she looked at her. Looking at Christy, Kat saw silent tears streaming down her cheeks. It must have been just as hard on her, she probably knew something had been wrong and needed Kat to be there to help her figure it out. But Kat wasn't there, just another thing to feel guilty about. Taking a deep breath, Kat walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down beside Sara. Sara jumped and looked up at her with wide, red, sorrowful eyes. Kat couldn't stand it, she had to say something.

"I-I'm really sorry Sara… I should have been here for you the entire time…" Kat was at a loss for words. She wracked her mind but couldn't think of anything.

Christy made her way slowly across the room and sat down on the bed next to Kat. Sara looked over at her and then back to Kat as fresh tears poured down her cheeks. She slowly pushed her self up into a sitting position, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She opened her mouth to say something, but an involuntary and painful choking gasp racked through her, which made her start to cry once more. Christy put a hand on her arm as Kat put a supporting arm around her. Sara collapsed into Kat and sobbed on her shoulder. Christy leaned forward and put her forehead on Sara's shoulder blade and let her tears flow free.

After a while Kat remembered the ring and slowly pushed it into Sara's hand. Knowing exactly what it was, Sara held a death grip on it and was washed over with a new wave of sorrow. She hugged Kat as tight as she could, hoping for some kind of support. Soon, the three of them were rocking side to side in a gentle, calming rhythm. Sara cried herself to sleep on Kat's shoulder and soon Christy laid down on the bed as well and felt asleep. Kat was also emotionally exhausted but felt too guilty to try and sleep. She leaned back against the bedpost and closed her eyes, not managing to stop a fresh stream of tears. She should have been there… She should have been there…

With that final thought, she drifted to sleep as well.



Classes came and went as the three slept on, as did dinner. Knowing that they had been through quite an emotional time and not wanting them to be disturbed, McGonnagall got them excused from their last classes. House elves were sent up quietly to deliver dinner for when they woke. What should have been was a snack, for when the three finally did awake they weren't very hungry. It was around eight o' clock as the three sluggishly ate and performed their pre-bed rituals such as brushing their teeth and changing into pajamas. They were all still tired and emotionally drained, so right after they went back to sleep.

The rest of the week was a blur. Kat didn't leave to go training in the woods at any time, she and Christy were trying their best to comfort Sara. Sara had taken it pretty hard really. She refused to talk unless she had to and a smile wasn't seen on her face since before the letter arrived. The rest of the student body, save the Slytherins, had heard about what happened one way or another and took sympathy on her. Nothing seemed to cheer her up though. Grades began to slip and homework was done on autopilot. It seemed by the look on her face that her whole life was one big rut now, nothing was right, and she would never be happy again. Even in her sleep she couldn't get a break from it. Nightmares would come every night that seemed even worse than Kat's. Everyone woke on the first night when it had been particularly bad as she screamed out "I should have been there! Let me go! Please! Let me go!" Everyone that heard it, which was practically the entirety of the girl Gryffindors, had been extremely freaked out and had called in McGonnagall. This only made Sara seem more detached afterwards, but at least she was no longer screaming, but down to mumbling.

Kat felt for her. It was one thing to have to leave your best friend behind and barely ever see them, it was quite another to lose them forever. Every night when Sara would dream, Kat would wake up and hear it. Usually it was her that did all the nighttime screaming so she wasn't used to it. Everyone else slept on as if it were just another night, this only made Kat feel worse about dreaming like she did so often at night. Still, nothing could compare to the sadness they heard from Sara. Kat began to feel guilty for complaining of her dreams some nights when it was obvious Sara was going through so much more. It was so hard to listen to her berating herself for something she couldn't prevent and then pleading with whatever was in her dreams to let her go so she could do something. It brought tears to Kat's eyes every time.

It had been about a week now that this had gone on, it was Wednesday night as Kat was once again woken by the mumbles that were only just beginning. Kat didn't think she could handle much more of this. She wanted to help Sara, stop her pain, let her be rid of the nightmares that plagued her. But how could she do that for her? Even now, Kat hardly felt much of a help to Sara, all she could do was put a hand on her shoulder as she stood by and watched. If you're such a good friend you should ~do~ something, right? But what could she do?

Then a thought occurred to her, what if she could go into her mind to see the dreams for herself? Then maybe she could have an idea of what to do or how to help or something. It was worth a shot, right? No, she didn't have control of her powers yet, she didn't know what she could do. ~You'll never know if you don't try,~ said the little voice in the back of her head. So out of necessity, friendship, desperation, and probably some sleepiness, Kat decided it was worth a try. So getting up out of her bed, she slowly walked over to Sara's bed.

Pulling back the shadow covered drapes, Sara's face came into view. It was tear stained already and had a look of desperation and sadness upon it. Now, to get inside her mind without everything going haywire Kat needed a focus point. Usually her focus point was Snape and he was only used to pull her out of some tough spots. Maybe if she could focus her power through something so that it could be more controlled while she was still learning all this stuff. Of coarse! Why hadn't she thought of it before? It was simple; all she had to do was use her hand as a focus. Simple… hopefully.

Taking a deep breath Kat slowly brought a trembling hand high above Sara's forehead. Kat closed her eyes and began to concentrate, sending her power through her hand, focusing on controlling what energy came out. It wasn't all that hard to accomplish actually. As Kat concentrated on her hand she brought it slowly down towards Sara's head, waiting for her powers to reach out to her. Right before Kat's hand touched Sara's head, it kicked in. It was like falling forever and flying, being pushed and being pulled, going to someplace familiar and different - all at the same time, and all in an instant.

Snapping her eyes open with a gasp that echoed around her, Kat tried to make sense of where she was. She was floating in darkness, nothing but black and the echo of desperate cries, Sara's cries. Kat looked down and saw a tiny spot of light, straining her eyes she could almost make out tiny objects. Then with a blink she was in the little spot of light and could see the scene perfectly. Her head snapped around, looking at the strange distortions this place had on the outer areas. Looking down again made her feet hit the ground with a soft thud, but the impact shook her body to the bone. The world seemed to tilt violently and Kat tried to regain her balance. She threw her arms out, in case she fell, as she staggered forward some. At the last minute the world seemed to right itself and it felt like the shift under her feat had never happened. Taking some calming breaths Kat looked around once again.

There was a small hospital bed to her left. The occupant in it was a girl Kat had never seen before. She had light brown hair that could have been pretty once but was soiled and matted with blood. She looked painfully skinny and there were deep, purple circles under her eyes. The once white sheets around her were old and had blood spots all over them. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her breathing came in deep, heavy rasps of breath. Just the sound of it made your chest tighten at what she must be going through. There were others standing around her cast in shadow and standing back a few feet from the bed, just looking at it's occupant with stoic expressions. One was wearing a doctor's outfit and the other two looked as if they might be Sara's parents.

The person in the bed had to be Samantha, if this was what was in Sara's dreams every night, Kat could see how painful it must be to watch. How the others could just stand around and not do anything, couldn't they at least try to comfort her, ease her pain in the slightest? Kat curled her hands into fists as anger began to eat at her, why didn't they ~do~ something? Samantha's chest labored trying to get oxygen through the closed up throat. It was with a large shuddering breath that the breath finally broke through into her lungs. Afterwards it caused a small, painful, piteous whimper escape her throat. Kat was about to storm over there and do something after that happened when she heard a sound to her right. It sounded like the clinking of metal…

Whipping her head around to the right caused wind to rush wildly in her ears and her vision blur. When everything settled again Kat gasped at what she saw. Sara was chained by her wrists to a large stonewall. She pulled with all her might against them but the chains held tight. Sara paced back and forth, the length of the wall as far as the chains would allow. She was a caged animal, very distressed and extremely high-strung. After pacing a while she crouched by the corner and curled up against the wall, rocking back and forth. She muttered and whimpered little incoherencies before finally bolting to her feet to scream out "Do something!" It echoed around loudly in the little scene, making Kat cover her ears but it went unheard by the rest of the people.

Sara ran towards the bed again, just to be hindered by the chains as the struggled against them. A loud, low groaning, creaking noise came from in front of Kat. Learning her lesson last time, Kat slowly looked in front of her. Humongous blue crystals were rising out of the floor as Sara struggled against the chains. Once Sara finally stop pulling against the chains and began to pace once again the crystals stopped growing. Even if Sara could break out of the chains, by the time she had done so the crystals would block her way. Kat felt so sorry for her, not being able to do anything, everyone else not bothering to. It must be so horrible to watch every night.

Kat could have slapped herself then. She came here to help and all she was doing was standing around listening to Sara scream out to everyone else. Kat tried to walk over to Sara but her feet seemed rooted to the spot. She looked down and found that every time she tried to move her feet would sink more and more into the floor. She quickly stopped her struggling. Putting herself into a predicament wasn't going to help Sara any. Determined to do something to help, Kat raised her hand and pointed it at one of the cuffs holding Sara's hands. Focusing all the power she could into them, she attempted to break them apart. Kat started to shake with the effort and very slowly began to sink again, but she didn't stop. Finally with a loud clank it broke off. Sara stopped and stared at her wrist stunned, not knowing what just happened.

As Sara finally realized Kat was there she knew it was from her this sudden help was coming. She also knew that she was paying the price for it as she watched Kat slowly sink into the ground. Kat could hardly notice anything, for she was already concentrating on the second wrist. By the time she was in the floor to her knees it broke. Sara didn't waste anytime, as soon as it was off she bolted for the bed. The crystals had other ideas. When Sara had begun to run, they started to grow once again. About halfway through the forest of distorting blue the crystals began to swallow Sara. Kat began to panic, as one arm still stretched out through the mass of crystals was the only thing left to see of Sara.

Could a person die in their dreams, could she kill them? Worse yet, could confining Sara there send her into a coma?

"NO!"

Kat barely heard herself scream out the words that echoed with a force around her. Concentrating all her power through both her hands she sent it at the crystals full blast. They shimmered and vibrated, slowly beginning to shiver more until they were shaking violently. Kat was strained to her limit and made a small sound of strain deep in her throat as she sent out the last of the power she could to break the crystals. They shattered with a force, flying everywhere as Kat finally stopped, exhausted. The crystal bits stopped in mid, shimmering, whistling, flight and slowly dissolved into the air, shedding light on everything. Sara collapsed on the ground as the rest on the people in the scene dissolved away as well. Samantha's bed began to glow a heavenly white. The blood stains were gone, her breathing eased, every inch of her seemed to be restored back to a lovely young woman simply slumbering peacefully in a bed of white, just for her.

Since she was now up to her waist in floor, Kat had to put her hands on the ground in front of her to keep her balance. She looked anxiously at Sara, silently wishing for her to get up, to be okay. A small twitch came from Sara causing Kat to hold her breath. Ever so slowly, Sara pushed herself to her hands and knees before she dared looked up. Upon seeing Samantha in the bed and a clear path in front of her, Sara called out her name and ran over beside her. She took a hold of one of Samantha's hands with both of hers as tears streamed down her face.

"Samantha?" it was barely more than a whisper, "Samantha, it's okay, I'm here now." She took a deep breath that came out sharply as she tried to stifle a sob, "I'm so sorry. I should have been there before, I should have been there…" Sara closed her eyes tightly and tried to contain her sadness and tears flowed unchecked from her eyes.

At this, Samantha's eyes fluttered open. Startling green eyes looked up into Sara's face as she smiled faintly. "It's okay." Her whisper, though soft, could be heard around the room. The voice she spoke with seemed angelic and made Sara open her eyes to look at her friend. "I know you couldn't make it. I know you wanted to. It's okay, I understand."

"Oh, Samantha." Sara managed to choke out between her gasps of breath as she tried to hold back her sobs, " I didn't want you to leave. They could have done something, I could have done something, but I wasn't there-"

Samantha squeezed Sara's hands with her own when Sara could speak no longer, "They did all they could, and you know there was nothing you could have done. I didn't want to lose you either, that's why I wanted you to have the ring. Did you get it?" Sara nodded weakly and Samantha's smile grew wider. "Good, you know that's where we both stay, our hearts and our friendship reside in those rings. 'Through distance and fights and growth and change'" she said.

Steadying her voice with all the strength she could muster, Sara finished the phrase, "'Our friendship will always be the same.'"

Samantha smiled with such great warmth that Sara had to smile back, "Don't forget me?"

Sara shook her head violently, "I could never. You'll always be in my heart."

"Good, because you'll always be a part of me."

With this Samantha closed her eyes again as she lay her head back to its former position on the pillow. She looked for all the world like and angel at rest. Sara smiled down on her with a look that showed how much love she had in her heart. Then a white light slowly took over the scene, blotting out individual figures. Kat closed her eyes and let that comfort envelop her as she slowly felt that floating sensation come over her once again. After a while, or just a little moment, Kat felt that she had accomplished what she came here for and allowed her mind to leave Sara's.

Eyes flying open along with a gasp, Kat was jerked back to reality. Blinking once to get her bearings, twice to get everything back in focus. Kat looked down to find a peacefully slumbering Sara with a faint smile on her lips. So she wouldn't wake her, Kat slowly lifted her still trembling hand away from Sara. Staring blankly at her red, white speckled hand, Kat waiting for her sluggish mind to work again. She had never felt so tired before in her life. Taking in a deep breath and letting it all back out in a deep sigh Kat looked back down at Sara. But it was well worth it to see that happy face back upon her best friend's face.

Forcing her aching muscles off the bed, Kat made her way back to her own. If she wasn't so tired her mind might have been racing. There were a thousand things to think about after all that happened. Her body wouldn't allow this though, she needed rest. Resigned, Kat let her head sink into the pillow as a content smile played across her lips. Sleep came fast and peaceful.