Another chapter from me! I hope you all like it! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! And those lurkers who didn't feel like reviewing… I know your there… twilight zone music plays I love that hit counter! Lol!

Chapter 12: Chosen

Sara awoke under a park bench. She vaguely remembered wandering there and collapsing into exhaustion. Her clothes were covered in mud and her hair was matted and dirty. Sara groaned as she pulled herself into a sitting position. Glancing at her watch, it was around nine, Monday morning.

"No school, isn't that just dandy," Sara thought. She sat up and began to walk towards her home. She luckily knew where she was and she was home in a few minutes. She thought about the aliens being there, but for whatever reason, Sara really didn't care any more. Alex was probably dead and they had probably killed Zoë too; why should she care? It wasn't like she was going to be alive much longer with those things after her.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, Sara quickly went in to her apartment locking the door and checking the entire place for signs of a break-in by the aliens but found none. She quickly took a shower, washing the dirt and grime out of her hair and putting on a fresh set of clothes. It felt nice to get all of that dirt and muck out of her hair and skin.

Sara's father still wasn't home and she was surprised not to find any signs of where he was; he had probably been held late at the meeting he was called to; that tended to happen often.

Sara collapsed on her bed, Fuzz jumping up and purring in her face, begging to be held and pet. Sara grabbed the kitten and began to sob heavily into his fur. As if he could sense her distress, Fuzz purred louder and snuggled up closer to Sara. After a few minutes of sobbing, Sara pulled her self together and gave Fuzz a kiss on his little head; he always made her feel better.

Sara, now that she could sit and think, considered her options. She could give the aliens back their rock and get killed; nope, definitely not the most appealing choice. She could try and kill them; no… she couldn't even bring herself to kill a spider on her desk, how could she kill a bunch of aliens, let alone ones that probably would kill her before she learned enough about the crystal to fend them all off at once? Maybe she should just get rid of the thing by throwing it in a lake or river; yeah, that would really get the aliens pissed off.

Sighing, Sara had never felt such hopelessness. She sat in thought for over an hour finally coming to her resolve. She would give those homicidal alien's their rock back and take her due, even if it meant death. She just wanted to get rid of this thing.

"Who knows," Sara thought, with a fleeting bit of hope, "maybe Illi'thus will get them to spare me." Unlikely, but still possible.

The only problem was how was she going to find the aliens? She had only seen them at night, but she didn't think she would be able to wait that long.

Sara was suddenly, struck with an idea. Maybe she would be able to find the aliens in Zoë's backyard, by the stream. She doubted they would be out in public by the construction site or in the streets.

Grabbing the crystal shard, Sara raced out of her home.

Sitting by the stream, Sara waited. She had been sitting there for the past few hours. She hadn't even seen a squirrel or deer or anything and was getting increasingly frustrated. She had put all her hopes on being able to find the aliens here but it seemed she guessed the wrong place.

Finally, after waiting yet another hour, Sara jumped up from her spot at the base of a tree and screamed, "Come on, you butt-ugly jerks! You want this thing so bad, so come and get it!" Sara did feel a little better after her outburst, but definitely did not expect a response.

"We have come," said a deep, guttural voice. Sara eyes opened in shock when a dozen of the aliens appeared out thin air. The one that spoken had to be the leader of them, being he was the biggest of them all; she quickly regretted calling them ugly. Sara spotted Illi'thus and Ven'tise behind the leader.

"Kill her," the leader alien commanded. One of the aliens raised some sort of gun and fired. Sara flinched, expecting the projectile it shot to kill her. Suddenly, as if it hit some invisible wall, the projectile ricocheted and lodged into a tree a few feet away.

The alien's looked at Sara in shock. Sara personally had no idea what happened. However the leader alien did. He growled at Sara and spoke, "She is using Sater Kreshebon. It is protecting her."

Sara breathed a sigh of relief; maybe she wasn't going to die.

The leader glared at her and said, "Give us Sater Kreshebon."

Sara snorted a laugh and said quite bluntly, "No."

The leader's glared increased and he spoke again, "Give us Sater Kreshebon or your fellows die extremely painful deaths."

Sara blinked, "Zoë and Alex are alive?"

"Yes," the leader answered, "for now." The threat held in the air and Sara almost gave the leader the Crystal Shard, but stopped.

"Wait, why should I give you this if you're just going to kill me and my friends anyway?"

Sara could tell the leader was getting annoyed, "Because their deaths can be short and painful or fast and swift."

"Well, if you kill them, you're never going to get this back." Sara pulled out the Crystal Shard and waved it teasingly at the aliens.

The alien leader growled a laugh, "Eventually the Sater Kreshebon's powers will drain your strength; and then we will kill you and take it."

"If I have to die to save my cousin and friend, so be it," Sara growled back. The crystal grew inexplicably warm in her hand and Sara could have sworn it gave her a little shock, like a static electricity shock. But as soon as the reaction began, it stopped.

"You are willing to die for captured allies? You humans are more foolish than I imagined," the leader growled.

Sara tried some quick thinking, searching her mind for any plan she could use. Sara took the first one that popped into her head, "Let my friends go and I'll give this to you."

The alien leader laughed, "We can wait to take the crystal from your dead body once its powers drain you."

Sara laughed back and concentrated on making the crystal make her invisible. Once again she had the excessively cold sensation running throughout her body and Sara shivered. Luckily, her demonstration worked. The aliens couldn't see her and were panicking.

"How that you can see I can hide from you," Sara spoke, the aliens' eyes darting to her as she reappeared, "do you really want to risk how far I can get away from you while like this? You may never find me."

Sara almost gave a whoop for joy when she saw the alien leader's shoulders sag; she got them! "Fine, your comrades will be released, but not you. We cannot have a human so knowledgeable about the shard running about; you must be destroyed."

Sara gulped; it was her life in exchange for Zoë and Alex… what does a person say to that?

With a sigh, Sara said weakly, "Fine."

The aliens began to talk in their strange language, obliviously excited by Sara's acceptance of their leader's offer. After a few minutes, the chatter died down and the leader spoke.

"Good; now, give us Sater Kreshebon." Sara started to hand the Crystal Shard to the leader, but stopped.

"I want to see Zoë and Alex free before I give this to you."

The leader seemed ready to strangle her, but nodded its consent. With that, the aliens began to lead Sara back to their ship.

Sara and the other aliens waited outside of the alien star craft as two of the aliens went to retrieve Zoë and Alex.

The alien ship was huge. A black silver metal colored and a reddish orange glow and white smoke came from the entrance.

Sara's inspection was interrupted by the alien's reappearing with Alex and Zoë. Alex was calmly walking out of the ship and smiled brightly when he saw Sara. Zoë on the other hand, always the fighter, was struggling tooth and nail to get out of the alien's grasp.

"Sara!" Zoë shouted happily when she spotted her friend. With a growl, Zoë managed to turn enough to kick free of the alien and run to Sara. The alien seemed to limp back to the rest of the group and glared at Zoë murderously. Alex was released and he too ran to Sara's side.

"Now," the alien leader said, holding his hand out, "Sater Kreshebon." Sara nodded. She didn't tell Zoë and Alex that the aliens meant to free them and kill her; it was better that way.

"Here," Sara said, tossing the Crystal Shard to the alien leader who caught it. Gesturing to the others they readied their weapons and began to take aim.

Suddenly, the alien leader screamed in pain and dropped the Crystal Shard looking from it to Sara incredulously.

"What did you do? It burned me!" the leader snarled.

"I don't know…" Sara said.

Sara approached the Crystal Shard where it lay and picked it up. It didn't burn her. Sara remained completely clueless to what was going on. Sara handed it to Zoë who faced a similar fate as did the leader, claiming that the shard burned her.

Suddenly, one of the aliens started to laugh bitterly. "What are you laughing about!" the leader snarled at its comrade, Jeggred.

"Do you not remember the legend, Leader Draka?" the alien turned to Sara and spoke, "Tell us of what you did once you found Sater Kreshebon."

Sara quickly told them her tale, editing parts of it for Illi'thus and Ven'dise's sake. When she finished, Jeggred nodded knowingly.

"You tried to destroy Sater Kreshebon to protect others, knowing that it may have destroyed you in the process: courageous. You assisted what you believe to be your enemies in need: honorable. And you were to sacrifice your life for your fellows: a great act of spirit. Through each of those acts, you fulfilled the legend surrounding Sater Kreshebon: Any creature that commits acts of courage, honor, and spirit using Sater Kreshebon will cause it to bond to the creature for its life."

Turning to Draka, Jeggred spoke, "Sater Kreshebon is hers; we cannot take it."

"Hold on a minute," Zoë interrupted, "How was I able to use it before, but I can't now."

"Your friend hadn't preformed the three actions that bonded Sater Kreshebon to her yet. Anyone could have used it then," Jeggred replied simply.

If the situation was not so dire or shocking, Sara would have fell over laughing; all of that, and she has to keep the Crystal Shard! She couldn't believe it!

Sara almost felt pity for the aliens. They had tried so hard to get this thing, and now they had to leave empty handed.

Then the leader said, "Then she comes with us."

Sara gave the alien a blank look, "What?"

The leader raised a brow and repeated, "You are to come with us."

"Into space?"

The leader nodded, "Yes."

"Um, what if I don't want to go?" Sara asked. "Go into space with a bunch of psychotic aliens? Not exactly the vacation I have always dreamed of," Sara thought.

"You will go," the alien Leader replied, "We were instructed to bring the Sater Kreshebon back to our home world or die trying."

Sara gulped, "So much for getting off free."

"Now, you are to come with us." The Leader gestured to two aliens who began to approach.

"Whoa! Hold on a second!" Zoë said jumping in front of Sara, "There's no way you're taking her into space alone!"

The leader sighed, agitated, "We are not going to kill her. The Sater Kreshebon will protect her so we cannot even harm her."

"That's not what I mean! She's not going alone 'cause I'm going with her!"

The aliens laughed, a clicking-chirping noise, "No you're not."

"Oh, Yes I am! Tell him Sara!"

Sara gave Zoë a look of horror. It was bad enough that she was being abducted by aliens, but Zoë coming with her? This had disaster written all over it, "What do you mean you're coming with me?" Pulling Zoë aside, Sara whispered urgently in her ear, "Are you crazy? You are not coming with me! I've been worried sick about you and the last thing I'm gonna let you do is come into space with a bunch of psycho aliens!"

"Look, I don't know what they may do to you. They may not know how to kill you, but they can toss you in a cell long enough so that you starve and then they'll take the crystal!"

Sara gave Zoë a scathing look, "And you being there will help me in what way?"

Zoë paused, "I'm not sure at the moment but either way you are not leaving this planet without me!"

"Um, Sara. You might want to hurry up your talk with Zoë. It looks like they're getting more impatient by the second," Alex warned, keeping an eye on the alien leader.

Sara sighed and turned to the alien leader, "Look, I don't want her to come, but I don't think anything I can do to make her stay here."

The leader smiled, "You may not but we can. Take your shielding off of her and we can drop her off where we found her. She'll never make it back here before we take off."

Sara considered; Zoë would absolutely freak if she did that, but at the moment it didn't seem like there were any other choices.

Sara was about to say yes when Zoë shouted, "I'll go to the feds if you leave me here!"

Sara spun, "How did you know about those guys?"

Zoë smiled evilly, "I've seen E.T. loads of times… I know wherever weird stuff happened, government dudes aren't far behind. They're probably swarming the area just waiting for a tip off of where you guys are…"

Sara glanced back at the aliens, surprised to find them looking somewhat nervous; the leader of the especially. The leader growled, "She is not coming. She hasn't been the most behaved of captives." Glancing at Alex, the leader seemed to think quickly, "He may come. He provided the least bit of violence and resistance."

Sara blinked and looked at Alex, "What do you think about all of this?"

Alex grinned and shrugged, "I always wanted to go into space."

Sara glanced back at Zoë who looked ready to kill, "Oh no! There's no way you're leaving me here and while taking him! That's not fair!"

"Life is never fair…" Alex muttered.

Unfortunately Zoë was not giving up, "I swear I'll go to the feds if you leave me here!"

Sara was on the verge of begging Zoë to give up and just go home when the leader barked, "Enough!" With an angry glare he turned on Zoë, "You may come. But at the moment I begin to expect that you plan to do something I don't like, I will have you jettisoned!"

Sara blinked and leaned over to Alex and questioned, "Jettisoned?"

"It means he'll dump her into space," he whispered back.

Sara paled, "Oh…" Glancing at Zoë, she asked, "Do you still want to go?"

Zoë smiled, "Yes."

Sara merely shook her head. "I suppose we're going." Suddenly, a thought struck her, "Wait! I have to tell my dad where I'm going! Or at least say I won't be back for a while."

"Centanu take you, I have had enough of this!" the leader roared in fury. "You are coming with us now."

"I'm telling you the truth. If I don't at least go to my dad he'll have those fed dude running all over the place. If I can at least tell him I'm safe, he won't freak."

Sara watched the alien leader struggle to contain his anger. She also noticed some of the other aliens holding back laughter; obviously they found their leader becoming this furious amusing.

Eventually he sighed and gave Sara a calculating look, "How am I to know that you will not seek the safety of your… government once I let you leave."

"Leader," Sara watched Illi'thus and Ven'tise approach the alien, heads bowed, "We have been to the residence of this human before. We can accompany her to insure she does not run off; we would know if she was leading us into a trap."

The leader nodded, "You two will accompany them." Turning to Sara he added, "You have two hours to be back here before we come after you ourselves."

Sara nodded her agreement and quickly left the clearing with Zoë, Alex, and the two aliens.

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