Bounce Back

Nia stood in front of the fireplace with everyone situated around her, shifting her weight from one foot to the other while considering a synopsis of her story. "I was born in Kpandu, Ghana, and grew up believing I would live the simple life of a farmer like my parents. They struggled to send me to school, trading their harvest for tuition and supplies at times. For my fifteenth birthday, they saved up to take me to Accra, the capital, where I was discovered by a talent agent at a bazaar. I modeled for a while until entering a pageant, Miss Teen Africa, where I placed second. I used the winnings to polish my appearance a little, then I won Miss Teen Africa the next year. It was like a dream come true– suddenly I received scholarships from universities all over the continent. But when I finished high school I was accepted to Oxford."

"That's quite an accomplishment," Ami remarked.

Nia nodded. "I thought so as well, but my first year there was very difficult. I was a simple farm girl from West Africa who had been accepted to one of the most elite universities in the world. Many people called me a charity case or thought I was involved with someone influential, but I remained focused on my studies." She lowered her gaze with a sigh. "As soon as I earned my Master's, Adrien Levesque recruited me for his asset management company. I did not realize they carried out heists and scams until after working with a wealthy client, whose art collection was 'damaged' in transport but had been sold off by Levesque. I was angry that my reputation had already suffered, but he offered me a substantial pay increase if I helped scam our clients. I turned out to be very good at it, and I sent my earnings back to my hometown. The younger team members looked up to me, admired how I rose from rags to riches in only a few years. We became like a family."

"And these are the people you've betrayed?" Nicholas asked with an edge to his tone.

"Enough was enough," Nia softly replied. "After we left London and came to America, I found out that Adrien had ties to extremist groups around the world, including warlords in Africa. He may have been robbing the rich but he was not distributing wealth to the poor." She lifted her head proudly. "I began setting up a paper trail to help Interpol and the like track him down. The rest of the team scattered when they found out I was being interrogated by the FBI, but I know exactly where they are hiding. Because most of them are minors their sentences will not be harsh, and when they reenter society I hope they will pursue legal applications for their talents. I hope they never fall in with someone like Adrien again."

"So what exactly have you been doing with your ill-gotten gains?" Joe inquired.

"I started a charity fund that my parents manage. The money is given to those wishing to enhance their communities by improving infrastructure or building schools, recreational centers, modern housing, and hospitals. I am also a sponsor of the same pageant that provided my stepping stone to success."

"That's pretty selfless…" he muttered, folding his arms. "I guess we can't really be mad at you."

Kaelan raised a hand. "Uh, I can. I still want to know how the hell you got in here when all the doors are locked."

Nia smirked. "There is a loose glass panel above your conservatory."

"Then how did you get on the roof?!" But she left without further word, and Kaelan sighed in defeat. He motioned for Nicholas and Joe to follow him to the conservatory so they could repair the ceiling, leaving Mamoru and the five girls to their own devices. During the brief silence he noticed something different about Ami and Mina.

"Where did you get those necklaces?" he asked. His gaze slowly slid to Usagi before either of them actually answered. Hadn't she said they'd been taken by the Seattle police as evidence?

"Usagi gave them to us!" Mina answered. Her pendant was a heart-shaped diamond and Ami's was a radiant emerald.

Mamoru gestured for Usagi to follow him, leading her into the dining room where their conversation wouldn't be overheard. "How did you get them back, Usako?"

"Nia brought them later that night all the police were here," she admitted. "I didn't know until I woke up and found them on the table. She said I can't let just anyone have them, so…" She shrugged, unsure how to explain her quest.

Mamoru placed the tip of his thumb between his teeth, a mannerism Usagi found really cute. Much to her surprise, he didn't berate her for subverting the authorities. "Have you been having weird dreams lately?" he asked. "No, that's the wrong word… vivid dreams since the night of the meteor shower?"

"Mamo-chan…" she started to say, but her tone confirmed it.

He leaned against the arched doorway and sighed, pushing a hand through his hair. "What's going on around here, Usako?"

"Something about guardians and awakening and answers in our dreams…" She also sighed. "Nia's involved, too. She told me that I'm supposed to give these amulets to guardians so they'll be protected from 'dark ones'. She said everything will become clear once we're all awake."

"So you, Nia, Michiru, Makoto, Rei, Ami, and Mina are all guardians," Mamoru stated. He didn't sound dubious, just matter-of-fact. "Guardians of what?"

Usagi scoffed. "The galaxy? I have no clue. I don't know how to find them, either– Nia just told me to sense people with my soul." She groaned a little. "This is like an RPG without a tutorial. I don't know what to do!"

"Maybe I can help you." Mamoru half-smiled at her expression of relief and curiosity. "I know this doesn't seem logical, but I feel like all the people I've seen in my dreams exist in the real world right now. I feel kind of… connected to them, like there are strings leading right to them. I think I can follow the strings, Usako."

Joe hopped out of the Samurai and surveyed Bastyr University. Huge evergreens dwarfed the campus and muffled the surrounding metro, providing a serene environment for students to better connect with nature. He wished he had transferred to Bastyr after his first two years at UW, but it was unlike him to finish what he started; he had to see his horticulture degree through to completion. That didn't mean he couldn't augment it with knowledge from someplace else. He followed the most direct path to the herb garden which was divided into culinary and medicinal applications. Rei mostly worked with the latter but today they were packing an herb-infused lunch for their excursion into the Cascade foothills. Joe wanted to show her where his class' conservation efforts had been directed for the past four years and Rei wanted to get away from civilization for a while.

When Joe came upon the garden, it took him a moment to recognize Rei. Her hair was up in a high bun and she had opted for olive green and taupe instead of typical black. She turned, saw him, and smiled, a hint of color staining her porcelain cheeks. "I decided on something a little more heavy-duty than jeans and a sweatshirt," she explained.

He smiled back. "The wilderness does tend to punish impracticality. If you're ready to go, I'll just clip a sprig of rosemary… and this lemon thyme… Is that dill?"

Eventually, they got on the highway heading northeast into the mountains. Since Rei had never seen the interior of Joe's rig she was a little stunned by its contents. He seemed prepared to survive nuclear fallout; there were gallon jugs of water and a filtration system, MREs, a medical kit, a tent, blankets, a fire extinguisher, a solar-powered radio, and a set of utility knives. "My goodness, Josef. The only thing you're missing is a gun," she joked.

"I have one, actually," he replied, watching her eyes widen. "It's in the box on the roof. It's a thirty-aught-six rifle."

"Oh… What do you do with it?" Rei wondered how Ami and Mina would feel about this since they had just been threatened with a shotgun.

"It's a hunting rifle, but I've met my share of crazy people in the woods so it's also an intimidation factor. You know that saying– I'd rather have a firearm and not need to use it than need it and not have one."

She grinned. "You're such a boy scout. 'Be prepared' and all that."

"I did receive a few years of military and survival training when I was younger. I'll keep you alive in the apocalypse." Rei gave a small laugh at that, but now she fully believed he was committed to her safety. After passing several trailheads, Joe turned onto a logging road following the edge of a ravine. Rei looked out the window and felt her stomach sink; it was a long way to the ribbon of water at the bottom. "My professor thinks an arm of the Skykomish River carved out this little valley. We found remnants of a mining settlement but there was never much gold in these mountains. Mostly silver, lead, and copper deposits."

Rei felt better once they parked. She got out, stretched, and inhaled a breath of fresh air. It seemed like they were the only two people in the world right now since there wasn't another soul around for miles. She shrugged on her backpack and followed Joe into a small clearing. He informed her that his class had been coming to this area to keep an eye on things for four years, but it appeared not a single blade of grass had borne the weight of a human foot. "Why is this place so important?" she wondered.

Joe's eyes lit up. "There are a few species of rare flowers we discovered here, and it's my duty as an environmental horticulturist to protect, observe, and possibly propagate them. One is Swertia perennis, which we found down in the ravine. Another is Fritillaria camschatcensis, the chocolate lily, discovered near a bog to the south. And the last is in here."

Rei raised one of her thin eyebrows at the cave's dark maw. It wasn't pitch black; shafts of sunlight beamed into it, illuminating a long, narrow tunnel. It looked too precise to be natural. "What is that?"

"A lava tube," he answered. He plunged into the gloom and Rei hurried to catch up. She wasn't very fond of dark, enclosed spaces, so she followed closely behind him. After a few minutes of silence, Joe took hold of her hand. "You feel a little clammy."

"I like being able to feel the sun," she uttered.

"We won't stay long, then." He squeezed her fingers as reassurance but Rei hardly relaxed. Joe turned on a flashlight and she was only mildly relieved not to see any massive spiders dangling from the ceiling. There was, however, a fuzzy substance growing along the walls and floor, and a dull roar filled her ears.

"Moss…" she remarked after brushing the stone with her free hand. "There's moisture down here?"

"That noise is an underground river," Joe explained. "We think the source is a glacier on one of the neighboring peaks." They emerged from the tunnel into a circular cavern perhaps ten feet high. Rei thrust her sweaty hands into the water.

"It's warm!" she exclaimed, looking to her guide for an answer.

"We haven't quite figured out why that is. It could be because it never reaches the outside atmosphere, or that there's a lot of vegetation in the riverbed. Certain plants, especially freshwater varieties, help keep water warm. It could also be that volcanic heat upriver is strong enough to reach this particular spot before dissipating downstream. But the river isn't exactly what I wanted to show you– have a look at this."

Rei followed the flashlight beam to an odd specimen growing from a mass of moss, tree roots, and detritus. There was a hole to the outside world directly above it but any sunlight, at least during this time of day, was blocked by thick evergreen boughs. The specimen was tiny with pink and white petals, a pale red stem, and no leaves. "That's a flower?"

"Not just any flower." Rei felt Joe's aura blooming in excitement. "This is Epipogium aphyllum, the ghost orchid, one of the rarest plants in the entire world." Her brow rose with interest. "It's been found in the Pyrenees and Himalayan mountains, Siberia, Crimea, northern Europe, and sporadically in the UK."

"So it only grows in cold climates," she reasoned.

"It doesn't have leaves, as you probably noticed, and it doesn't produce chlorophyll which is what most plants use to perform photosynthesis. It gets nutrients from this species of lichen or possibly decayed organic matter. Scientists don't actually know how it eats because it's too rare to study."

Rei scrutinized him. "You've really been researching this flower for four years and haven't told anyone important about it?"

Joe scoffed. "Who's important, the Department of Natural Resources? If people in the plant world heard about this, they'd flock here and ruin the whole micro-ecosystem. There'd be people poking around the lava tube and trying to map the river. This place is a UW environmental science class secret."

"And now my secret as well," Rei deduced. Joe nodded somberly. "All right, I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks. How about we eat lunch here?" She agreed to the suggestion despite her claustrophobia. Rei became entranced by the roar of the river as Joe sprinkled some herbs onto their sandwiches. "Bon appetit," he said, walking up behind her. She turned her head so quickly that her glasses flew off and clattered upon the stone floor. She and Joe reached for them at the same time, her fingertips landing on his swifter hand. "Let me get that…" he started to say, but the words were cut off when they locked eyes.

It wasn't that this was the first time he had actually seen them; Rei took off her glasses around Joe more than anyone else. What shocked him was the fact that her pupils were dilated to the point where there was almost no color left, but the influx of light should have made them constrict. Joe stared into the visage of a predator as his brain fired off commands for him to get away from this dangerous creature right now. Adrenaline surged through his veins, giving him the strength to run, but his body would not obey. He was paralyzed with fear.

Suddenly Rei blinked and looked away, freeing him from stasis as she hurriedly put her sunglasses back on. "Josef, I'm so sorry. Are you all right? Did I hurt you?"

He sat on the ground in a daze. "I'm not sure. What just happened?"

"It's my fault. You scared me, so I… I attacked you with my aura."

He stared at her in evident confusion. "Your aura? How does that work?"

"Well, I…" Rei had never told anyone about her odd abilities and wasn't quite sure how to explain them, but she owed it to him. "My aura flared and overcame yours. That's why you were stunned." She faced the river to hide her embarrassment as Joe slowly rose to his feet.

He dusted himself off, rearranged Rei's sandwich which he had clung to in terror, and proffered it. "So you can control and sense auras?"

She shrugged. "I don't sense them, I see them. Almost every person on the planet has one. They used to overwhelm me until I made these glasses. And I can't control anyone's aura, not even my own. 'Influence' is a better word."

"Then I guess your aura just scared the crap out of mine," he chuckled. "It must be really weak."

"It's not," Rei refuted, "it's quite bold, and an interesting color. Turquoise."

Joe looked intrigued by this information. "What do you do with a skill like that? Do you judge people based on the colors of their auras?"

His tone was teasing rather than accusatory. "Only a little. For instance, when I first saw Mina I knew she was energetic and outgoing because she had a yellow aura. I try not to make assumptions about people before I get to know them."

"Don't we all?" He stuffed a handful of almonds into his mouth, speaking around them. "It doesn't seem fair that you have to dampen the rest of the world in order to not see everyone's auras. I wonder if there's a way to turn it off or something."

Rei smiled gently. "It's been nineteen years. I'm used to it by now."

Zach tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for one of his roommates to pick him up from the SeaTac Light Rail station in the International District. He practically jumped into Mamoru's Mercedes once it arrived, grateful to get out of the wind and rain. When he flipped down the visor to fix his hair, he was not expecting a magnified pair of dark brown eyes to be staring back. "Jesus!" Zach yelled, and Ami smirked as he twisted around to face her. "I didn't even see you there!"

"I'm a ninja," she said.

He crossed his arms and glared out the window. "I survived a week with my family only for you to nearly give me a heart attack. Thanks a lot."

Mamoru cleared his throat. "How was Thanksgiving? Was everyone happy to see you?"

"More or less," Zach shrugged. "My mom iced me out but that's nothing new. I went golfing with my dad and failed miserably because golf is stupid." Ami tittered at that. "My Aunt Vivi brought her new husband along. She's fifty and he's practically my age, so that was gross. Uncle Philippe wouldn't shut up about how great life in New York is, and two of my cousins decided to go vegan which pissed off my mom since they wouldn't eat her cooking." He sighed. "Just another episode of 'My Big Dysfunctional American Family'."

"How big is it?" Ami asked. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Your family."

"Philippe is my dad's only brother, unmarried, no kids. Everyone else is from my mom's side. She has two sisters and three brothers, and she's the youngest so it's important that she one-up them all at life. This time of year is for her to show off how great everything is, but I threw a wrench into that plan a long time ago." Once again Ami wondered what had happened that prompted Zach to basically run away from home.

"You don't have any siblings?" Mamoru asked. The blond boy shook his head. "That means we're all only-children. What an odd coincidence."

"Who's 'we'?" Zach returned.

"All of us, the ten of us. You, me, Kaelan, Usagi…"

Zach rubbed his chin. "Huh. That could be a found family show of some kind."

"You shouldn't be writing something else when you're still working on your play," Ami said.

"The writing's been done," he countered, "I'm just directing now. And we are so close to perfection. I need my Lir to get his act together."

She was curious. "What's wrong with Lir?"

Zach began gesticulating pointedly. "This kid Jackson is so great at everything except intimacy. He has to convince the audience of his love for Amalthea, but he tenses up during every romantic scene. The part where Amalthea saves him from the griffin is supposed to be this huge moment when they're finally reunited. The whole premise of the first book is that Amalthea regrets turning back into a unicorn because she loves Lir, so this one scene reveals that she never forgot about him, never stopped loving him even as a beast." He growled in frustration. "It's the most important scene in the whole play, and Jackson keeps fucking it up!"

Everyone fell silent for a moment. "I'm sorry I asked," Ami whispered. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"No, this is a good thing. You reminded me that I have a lot of work to do with that kid. I bet he thought he'd get to rest on his laurels during winter break– ha!" Zach whipped out his cell phone and left a rather courteous message for the freshman actor. When they got to the mansion, however, he muttered a constant stream of expletives at his luggage while hefting it up the stairs, letting everyone know what kind of mood he was in.

Zach was placated by the dinner Michiru, Usagi, and Makoto provided. It was comfort food of the Japanese variety, simple dishes that warmed everyone to the core. There was sake as well, and various sweets from Usagi's private stash including chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, pocky, melon chews, and fruit gummies. Zach had a difficult time opening his bottle of Ramune, but Ami intervened before his temper erupted again. "Why're being s'nice to me?" he slurred, having downed many shots of rice liquor.

"I don't want you to throw the bottle against the wall." His expression said that was indeed a viable outcome. Zach swung the Ramune back and forth, amused by the trapped marble as Ami settled beside him. "I want to know more about your family," she said.

"Why? They're borin'."

"Then tell me about you. What is Creole? Do they all speak French? What's the Garden District?" She wanted to know why he hated going home.

Zach released a long groan and righted himself as best he could. "It's called the Garden District 'cause there's a shit-ton o' plants in front o' every house. The whole neighborhood's groomed for terrorists… I mean tourists." He shook his head in an attempt to banish the alcoholic haze. "It's right next to the French Quarter so the mansions are all that style. There's lots o' fancy boutiques 'n restaurants, too."

"So you have to keep up a certain appearance?"

"Yeah. It's a lotta work but my mom likes doin' it for the prestige." Zach squared his shoulders a little more. "Creoles are people descended from the original French and Spanish immigrants who settled in Louisiana. Not everyone who identifies as Creole speaks their dialect of French 'cause it's dyin' out fast. My family's just really snobby and likes to speak modern French. My grandparents hardly use English just 'cause they don't wanna."

"I see…" Ami thought it would be most prudent if she could simply go to New Orleans and experience the culture firsthand, but she likely wouldn't get the opportunity until finishing school. And that might have been going a little too far just to figure out what made Zach tick. "You said your mother is a psychologist, right? What does your father do?"

"He's a lawyer, pretty good one I guess. My folks assumed I'd graduate high school and go to Harvard like him, then come back to join his firm. I really threw 'em for a loop by stickin' with theater." He chuckled smugly, sipping the Ramune.

Ami wondered if what she was doing could be considered following in her mother's footsteps, even though Mizuno Saeko was a neurosurgeon and not a geneticist. She just wanted to make her mother proud and form one more positive bond. They had been forced to rely on one another when her father decided to shirk his parental responsibilities by "following his heart" or whatever nonsense he'd spouted upon walking out the door. Ami knew he was a traditional artist residing in the mountains but she hadn't sought him out in over a decade. He could be dead for all she knew.

Zach's phone chimed, pulling Ami from her reminiscence. Most of her inebriated friends were watching Wheel of Fortune on the large TV, making inappropriate guesses as to the word or phrase. Zach hummed at the text he received. "Looks like everyone'll be at the theater for practice tomorrow. You can swing by to meet the cast if ya want."

Ami was curious about his interpretation of Peter Beagle's work. "I'll do that," she agreed, and his countenance brightened. "I can bring you another Ramune."

"These things ain't half bad." He clinked his bottle against the one in Ami's hand, then regarded her quizzically. "Y'know, I kinda like this friend thing."

She flashed a charming smile. "I do, too. You haven't antagonized me at all since the star party."

"You came with Mamoru to pick me up," Zach pointed out.

"So I did." Ami wasn't about to tell him that she had been along for the ride because she wanted to buy a few things at Uwajimaya.

A commercial interrupted Wheel of Fortune. Joe slapped his palm over Nicholas' loud mouth and shushed everyone else, intently watching the TV while cars zoomed along dirt roads. When it was over he simply stared with his mouth agape. "They do rallycross here?"

Michiru nodded. "The Cascade Rally is a stage of the North Fire Rally. I believe this is the second year it's been held here– it was previously in Namu, British Columbia. Drivers come from all around the Pacific to compete."

"That is so awesome!" Joe yelled. "Where is it? When is it?"

"The commercial was just on, baka!" Makoto chided. "It's this weekend in Sultan."

He practically vibrated with excitement. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this last year? I love rallycross!"

"Calm down before you piss on something," Kaelan said, rolling his eyes. "It's just sanctioned speeding, big deal." This earned a glare from Joe and they began arguing about what was truly awesome in the world of motorsport.

Usagi gave her roommate a mystified look. "How do you know about this, Michiru-chan?"

"I do have other interests besides music," she answered, tossing her hair.

"How can you go wrong with hot guys in fast cars?" Mina added, earning giggles. "We should go check it out!"

Everyone but Ami, Zach, and Mamoru agreed to spectate the rally. "I have to keep up my PhD research," Mamoru explained.

"I want to study for finals," Ami added.

"And I don't have time to waste if I want this play to be ready by January. Half my cast'll be goin' home for winter break."

Mina pouted. "You guys are totally lame, choosing to do school stuff instead of appreciating nature and cars." She shook her head in disappointment as Ami gave her a light push.

Zach waved it off. "I'm a southern boy, I don't belong in the mountains, anyway. I'm gonna park my ass in front o' the fireplace and laugh as y'all spend the day gettin' frostbite." He faced Ami with a hopeful glimmer in his eye. "That reminds me, wanna help with my English homework?"

"I can try. They say two heads are better than one."

Mina and Nicholas shared a look. Since when was Ami voluntarily agreeing to help Zach? She'd made it more than clear that she disliked him, and Zach had only been after one thing from her since the beginning. It was almost impossible to think their dynamic had shifted so profoundly in just two months… but they weren't the only ones with new emotions coming to light.