Disclaimer: There's a flashback for you and a flashback for you and another for you! (I'm the Oprah of flashbacks…)

It was one of Maria's good days. Her mom wasn't allowed to take her home just yet but that was okay. The nine year-old got through another asthma attack in one peace and that's all her mother really cared about.

On the good days, Maria and Anastasia could sit in the playroom with other child patients. On the good days, Maria could leave her oxygen mask in her room.

"So guess what, Bumbles?"

'Bumbles' was short for 'bumblebee', the nickname Anastasia gave her daughter years ago. There was a whole story to go with it, but that's a flashback for a different day.

Maria put the crayon in her hand on the table. "What is it?"

"You gotta guess, kid!" Maria shrugged in response and her mom sighed. "You know how I feel about the shrugging."

Maria's head stooped guiltily and she stayed quiet. She was never good at the guessing game. She used to try all the time but she stopped seeing the point in it if her mom would tell her the news eventually. Staying silent would force Anastasia to get to her point quicker.

"C'mon, you're no fun," Anastasia groaned.

"Then why do you hang out with me?"

"Because you're my kid and I love you," her mom raised a brow, "now stop being a smart aleck and guess."

"You managed to burn rice again?"

"That was…only twice. And it's good news."

"You sold lots of flowers and now we're rich?"

"Okay, sassy-pants, since you're not going to guess something reasonable—"

"I thought the burnt rice thing was pretty reasonable—"

"I'm just going to tell you. I talked with Miss Thompson today."

Miss Thompson was Maria's fourth grade teacher. Maria liked her not only because she came from North America and smelled like honey, but because she always wore these cool dragon earrings she made herself.

She had bet Maria that if she could get straight As on her report card, she would make Maria a pair of her own. She could pick the color of the scales and shape of the eyes, too.

Maria tried to think if she had done something wrong in the past weeks while at school and got nothing.

"Why?"

"She wanted to tell me how smart you are," grinned Anastasia.

Maria's thick eyebrows furrowed together. "That's not all, though."

"She said that you're really smart. Too smart to be in the fourth grade. She wanted to see if you'd like to bump up to the fifth instead. Maybe even the sixth if you put in the work."

Maria looked down at the table then. She was in the middle of making her dragon. He was only half colored—two legs and a wing still needed to be etched in black. Maria also wanted a yellow efficient enough to be his gold eyes.

The nine year-old picked up the crayon and colored.

"I know you've been saying how easy your homework is so I think it's a good opportunity to challenge yourself." Maria's mom takes a breath. "You don't seem too happy about it."

"It's not that I'm not happy…"

Maria knew her mom wouldn't like it but she shrugged again. It was like a default setting—when she didn't know how to say her feelings, it just happened and became a habit.

Anastasia moves to the chair next to her daughter and puts a hand over the crayon in Maria's palm.

"Tell me what's wrong. You can find the words."

Maria wouldn't meet her mother's eyes. "What's wrong with me?"

"What do you mean?" Maria could hear the defense hike up her mother's tone. "There's nothing wrong with you."

"Yes there is. Sometimes…a lot of times I can't breathe and it feels like I'm dying. Am I dying?"

"Look at me." Anastasia took both her hands around Maria's face. "There is nothing wrong with you. You are not dying. You have asthma and that's it."

"But why? Why do I have it? Why am I different from everyone else?"

"Different is good, sweetie. Different is unique."

Maria could feel herself choking up, the tears lining her eyelashes. "I don't want to be different. I want to be normal and I want to breathe."

"Then you'll be the most boringest, most normalest Maria in the whole world, if that's what you want."

Maria didn't respond until the tears receded. "Some of those aren't even words."

"Fine. You'll be normal and boring and a total dork. Happy?" Her mom nudges her in the arm. "Now what's this I hear about a bet, huh?"

"Can't it be possible that she's a Signer?" Rua asks while eyeing the notebook, turning it upside down and on its side. "Maybe it's a…uh…"

I glance over to Yusei, who's rolling down his sleeve; I think of when Akiza showed me her mark to help explain herself. "Are all your marks red?" They nod in unison. "Mine is gold."

"You don't know what you are, do you?" Crow asks.

"Not one bit."

"We'll just have to figure it out then," Akiza encourages with a smile. "Whatever your mark belongs to, we'll figure it out."

All that time spent worrying. Waiting and seeing. Pinching myself every time I thought about telling someone.

I hide the smile by lowering my head and letting my wild mane hang over my face.

"We know this is a lot to take in, but don't worry." Ruka lays a palm to my uninjured shoulder. "We'll help you."

I nod at her without taking my eyes from my hands.

"We should let you rest. You're probably still tired," says Yusei.

"Okay," I respond.

I sit with my hair over my face even after it's only me. Then I fall back on the sheets, as if I'm a balloon that's been popped and deflated.

—

I fell asleep somehow. It's not yet dinnertime but close to it.

I shut the door after leaving and walk downstairs. Martha's in the kitchen, standing over a cutting board. I knock on the side of the doorframe to catch her attention.

"You should be resting."

"I rest too much."

"Apparently not," she says under her breath.

I sigh. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Martha lays down the knife in her hand and turns to me completely. "Maria, it isn't just that you didn't tell me. You lied to me. Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I trust you," I defend. "I just thought it was better. I didn't want you to worry."

I didn't want anyone to worry.

"People will worry no matter what. That's what happens when they care about you. Whether this has something to do with your mark or not, it's serious." She spares a glance to my shoulder. "You could've gotten hurt a lot worse than that."

I nod.

"And just so you know, you are grounded. Here." She gives me a knife and I stand by her at the counter. "Get to peelin'."

"Uh. Since we're talking and all, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Why did you ask Akiza not to tell me?"

It has been a month since that day I fainted in the park. So much has occurred, ordinary and not, that it seems like everything until today never even happened. Or maybe that's just me wishing for this all to turn out that way.

"I watched every one of those kids face the Dark Signers. They fought, they won and they saved the entire city. But just because you fight doesn't guarantee you'll win."

Her hand tightens around the knife's handle. "I saw how that responsibility weighed them down and I could do nothing about it. Having Akiza tell me that you might have a mark just like theirs scared me, Maria. You're all just kids, sacrificing lives you've barely lived."

"But it's over now," I say, raising a hand to her shoulder. "The Dark Signers are gone."

Aren't they?

I push the book in my lap to the side. "What are you three doing here?"

Martha had set a few chairs in my holdup room and Akiza and the twins sit in them comfortably.

"We figured we'd come and check up on you," Rua says, ecstatic as usual.

I have to smile back at him. "Thank you. You'll be glad to know I'm feeling the exact same way as yesterday."

"You're not feeling any better?" asks Ruka.

"A bit. Sleeping helps," I answer, then touch the bandages over my collarbone. "Though this still hurts."

"What is that exactly?" says Akiza.

"It's called a Lich…licht…" Rua frowns in concentration and the rest of us laugh.

"Lichtenberg figure," I finish for him. "It's the mark left from electricity discharging in one place."

"So whatever happened to you in the forest caused that?" Akiza asks, eyes widening.

"I think so."

"You don't have any ideas on what did it?" Ruka questions.

"It definitely wasn't a taser." I chuckle at what Schmidt briefed me on earlier. "I just remember it hurting. Like someone was reaching into my chest."

The three shiver at the thought. Akiza's the first to recover and says, "Hopefully you won't be leaving before you're healed."

My forehead creases, not knowing what she means at all. "Where am I going?"

It's mostly Akiza and Ruka who share a glance, then Rua when he notices the conversation's pause.

"Home, right?"

It had completely went over my head. I used to think about how I would tell them or if the subject would come up at all. But with everything getting so crazy I had forgotten that there were still people who didn't know Mom died.

Martha knows. The kids know. The guys, and even Nayla know.

I try chuckling it away, just like I do whenever things like this happen. Humor can be a very strong shield when you need it to be. "I'm sorry to disappoint but I'm here to stay."

"What about your family? You've got to miss them," Ruka explains.

I push the day I spent the night in the twins' flat to the back of my mind. "I do, but my mom's dead."

Right after saying it I realize that this is the first time I've ever said it. Martha didn't need to hear it, and when the kids asked on one of my first days I simply told them, "I'm like you all. I have a Martha," and they understood. Nayla knew through her mystical ways (which I have yet to ask about). Other than that, I've only mentioned it in my head. As a reminder.

"And your dad?" Rua asks slowly.

My doctors called it 'selective remembering'. It wasn't that I didn't know my father, but that my brain decided it wasn't worth the effort to remember him. I know I've seen him before but, if I try recalling his face, he gets all blurry. My mind favored blocking him out more than filling him in. Mom cut him out of conversation, out of any pictures of us as a trio instead of a duo, and out of our lives completely.

I never asked if it was for my sake or her own.

I shrug it off. "He's gone."

"We're…we're sorry. We didn't know."

I especially hate what I'm about to say. "Happens all the time."

It's bold, but seems necessary. They need to be convinced my other parts are right. That I'm only a magnet for anomalies and nothing else.

"Still," Ruka utters, eyes downcast, "we're sorry."

"How's the WRGP coming along?"

Obviously, I want the topic off the table and, though stirred by my revelation, Akiza and the twins don't fight me on it.

"The guys still haven't figured out how to improve the engine." Rua shakes his head. "It keeps blowing up or spitting cards or just about everything except what it's supposed to do."

I laugh, "I hope they can figure it out. Doesn't the tournament start soon?"

"The tournament itself doesn't start for a few months or so, but the gala is next week," Akiza tells.

"You're gonna come right?" Rua asks. "You have to! You'll be apart of the team."

"I don't know. Parties aren't really my thing—"

Rua jumps from his chair and lands in my lap, his hands clasped tight and a pout on his lips. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaase?"

We laugh and I give in: "Okay. I'll talk to Martha and if she says yes, I'll come. Happy?"

—

"You don't remember at all?" Carly says, eyes gleaming behind her glasses.

How many times in the past two days has someone asked that?

I chuckle and say, "Not really."

"Why are you laughing? This is serious!"

"I know, I know. But as of right now, I'm fine." She gives a straight-faced glance to my shoulder. "Other than that."

Carly rolls her eyes. "Wait. So you have no clue what you are?"

"Yeah. And we need to figure it out."

Carly's eyebrows raise. "We? Didn't you just say you told everyone? Won't they help?"

"I'm sorry. I just figured you wanted to." My shoulders slump unconsciously.

"That's not what I meant! Of course I want to help!" Carly glances off to the side. "I was just asking why you're choosing me."

"Signer or not, no one knows what I am. You're the first person I told and you haven't done me wrong so far."

"What's our first move then?"

I grab the moleskine from beside my pillow and flip to the second page. "I need to show you this."

She reads over the words a few times and stares at me. "Be prepared for what?"

"I don't know. But that bad feeling I mentioned before? It's getting worse."

Basically a spill over chapter of stuff that didn't fit into last chapter. Which means last chapter could've been 17 pages O.0

I realized how long it's been since I gave some in-depth background on Maria (compared to the tidbits of how she was back in Izushi). I never really imagined what Anastasia's personality would be like but I wanted it to be very different from Maria's. And also a little bit like Martha, cause let's face it, Martha's the real star of the show.

And also whaT ABOUT MARIA'S DAD? WHOA.

Feel free to ask questions about stuff. I always read over things to make sure I'm not confusing you guys. I'll try to answer as best as I can without giving things away ^.^

TTFN