Author's notes:

See, this was pretty quick, wasn't it?

Thanks to my two reviewers! Oh, and I do have a hazy, but still defined, plot, Carmilla.

The two of us know The Park like…well, much better than our hands, or whatever that saying is. At any rate, we could have navigated The Park in our sleep, literally. It took us just three minutes to get out into a populated area, where anyone chasing us wouldn't be able to attack without having dozens of witnesses, but I swear it felt like hours. We probably weren't really in any intentional danger, but I couldn't stop thinking about what could happen if another stray bullet hit one of us. And anyway, who knows what someone psycho enough to brawl in public would do?

We stopped next to a bench, which we collapsed on. When our heart rates began to lower we looked at Kelly's arm. It was just grazed, so although she was bleeding and it could become infected, she didn't have a hole in her arm, which was a relief. I ended up just tying my sweatshirt around it.

Kelly was watching me, I quickly realized. I pretended not to notice, but it was pretty obvious she had a mental debate going full-swing inside her head. Finally, after no less than five minutes of both of us pretending to stare at a tree, but really watching each other out of the corner of our eyes, she spoke.

"Sam…There's something you should know. I twisted to look at her, but she was still staring fixedly at that tree, not looking at me. "I'm a mutant."

I swear the world stopped when she said that. It started again a second later, but it definitely had stopped. "Wh-what do you mean?" I stammered in disbelief. She had to be joking, but…Her voice wasn't sad, or even faintly remorseful. It was completely flat and emotionless, and her face was smooth. If this was a bad joke, she'd be as realistic as possible.

"I am a mutant," she repeated. "I'm going to leave now, but I thought I should tell you."

"You're leaving?" I asked, grasping on to the most believable thing. Kelly – a mutant? I didn't know what to do. All my life I've been anti-mutant, as has Kelly.

"Yes," she whispered. "Right now. I'm not sure where I'm going to go, but I can't keep doing this."

"This?"

"Hiding what I am."

"Won't you still have to hide?" I asked, somehow managing to have a semi-normal conversation at a time like this. "How will that help?"

"Maybe it won't. But if I do slip, I won't have to see people I care about reject me."

"I'll go with you." The words were out of my mouth before I even realized it, but I didn't regret them. I guess it's true that friendship can conquer anything. Or is that love? I doesn't matter; I do love her, as a friend.

She stopped staring at the tree and looked at me in disbelief. "What?"

"I'm going with you." My voice wavered slightly, but the tone was firm.

Kelly still looked as though she didn't believe me, but then she suddenly began to cry and hugged me. I was a bit surprised, to say the least, but I hugged her back. My eyes widened as I realized the flowers in her hair were expanding to full bloom, the colors becoming brighter as I watched. And…yes, the grass was getting greener and growing, as was every other living thing around us. Unnerved, my resolve weakened momentarily, but I shoved my doubts down. She had said she was a mutant, after all. And I wasn't leaving her, no matter what I thought of mutants in general.

"Are you sure?" Kelly abruptly asked, pulling away. "I won't blame you if you change your mind. I know you're anti-mutant."

I shrugged, trying to look braver than I felt. "I'll get over it. But you were anti-mutant before, so how do you feel now?"

Kelly closed her eyes and the flowers' colors turned a little less vivid. "I…I'm still anti-mutant," she whispered. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Before I could say something (though I don't know what I would have said), a woman stepped out in front of the bench we were sitting on. She would have looked in her thirties, but her face was hard and weathered, with several deep lines, making her look at least a decade older. Dark brown hair streaked with premature grey was cut very short, and she definitely wasn't the feminine type.

"I can help you with that," she said, looking at Kelly and ignoring me. We both stared at her blankly.

"Help me with what?" Kelly asked.

The woman smiled slightly, but it didn't get anywhere near her eyes. "May I sit?" She didn't wait for an answer before settling on the bench end closest to Kelly, as we were in the middle. She was incredibly graceful, something I wouldn't have guessed by looking at her, but not in a dancer-twirling-her-skirt way.

"Let me review what I know about you, just from sitting over there while you two talked." She gestured vaguely to a spot a couple feet away. "Please correct me if I get anything wrong. You are a mutant. Your power has to do with the flowers in your hair, which are…not natural at all, but a part of you. And you are anti-mutant despite your mutation."

We were both outright gaping at her. Kelly had scooted back against me as the woman spoke, so we were both now on the other end of the bench. I wasn't sure what we should do, but Kelly whispered, "Yes."

Boring holes into my friend with her eyes, the woman began to change our lives. "My name is Captain Banori. I am a leader of one of the ten squads of an organization called SEM, which stands for Saving Earth from Mutants. As for you…Technically, you are a mutant, so you cannot be human. But you are as human as mutants can be, and I would like to give you a place on my squad."

Our jaws dropped even further, if that was possible. I don't know what Kelly was thinking, but I couldn't believe the nerve of this woman. The way she pronounced Kelly "almost human" was the most infuriating thing I'd ever heard. My world was being turned upside-down, and I didn't know what I thought of most mutants, but Kelly was as much human as anyone.

"But-but I'm a mutant!" Kelly stammered. "You should be…attacking me, or something!"

"It is worth letting one mutant live if she would help us against others. And if you joined my squad, we would protect you. You'll never be equal to a human, you know that, so you won't be treated equally. But you could help humans fight other mutants."

I knew before Kelly opened her mouth that she would agree. Banori's argument was exactly what Kelly believed in, and I partially believed in, after all. At least…Something about mutants fighting each other seemed wrong. I mean, on the news you hear things about groups of mutants, and some of them fight, but none are actually…well, betraying their race, fighting for humans against mutants. Minorities band together with a common goal: To be considered equal, and occasionally above equal, but both those are similar. They may disagree about how to reach that goal, and one group might even be after one goal, and another the other, but they always band together. But if this was what Kelly wanted, I wasn't going to try to stop her.

"Okay," Kelly whispered. "Yes. Yes, I'll help you."

"Good," Banori replied. "You will address me as Captain Banori. You will follow anyone's orders, but higher ranking officer's orders overwrite common soldiers', of course. You will stay with my squad and assist with our operations." Banori – I just couldn't think of her as Captain Banori – stood. "Come."

She suddenly looked at me for the first time. "Do you trust her not to say anything about this?" she asked, still addressing Kelly.

Kelly gasped. "Oh, but she's coming with me! I mean…" She faltered under Banori's steady gaze. "She has to, please. She's my best friend."

Banori hesitated a moment. "You're not a mutant?" she asked me. "I shook my head. "Very well. But she will not be part of the squad, so as a non-SEM human, she won't be treated much better than a SEM mutant – in other words, you." She was talking to Kelly again.

Kelly looked at me questioningly. I shrugged. "Okay, I guess." I still wasn't sure I agree with this, but I was staying with her, period. I guess it's odd, really: I've always been pretty anti-mutant, though not as much a fanatic as Kelly was, and still seems, to be, but now I'm will to do anything to stay with and help my mutant friend. But besides the fact that Kelly and are I are extremely good friends, I don't think I'm really as anti-mutant as I've always thought myself as. I mean, I was anti-mutant, but now that Kelly's a mutant my views are changing. I wonder if I'll eventually be pro-mutant. Now that's a scary thought.

But I was missing what was going on. "Come," ordered Banori again. "And the same rules apply to you," she added, looking at me again. I nodded, maybe a bit shortly. Sheesh, she thought we were desperate indeed if we would follow her little "you're not equal" rules and still want to stay with her. Sad thing was, it would appear she was correct.

Not equal…My view hadn't changed; I was still sure that Kelly was equal to me and any other human. So are mutants generally human, capable of feelings and compassion, or is Kelly the exception? I have no idea. I can't believe I'm thinking this, but I'd actually like to meet more mutants, just to see what they're like.

Kelly and I followed Banori – I really should try to think of her as Captain Banori now, I suppose – back the way we had ridden in panic. As we walked she interrogated us about all aspects of our lives, and by the time we entered a small clearing, she knew more about Kelly's past month than I had.