Alex's POV:

I sat forward on the bed. My shoulders were tense, and I had just taken an Asprin to help me deal with the shock and major head ache that was setting in. Jared had come into my room from his down the hall and was pacing anxiously.

"Hello?" a muffled voice came from behind the door. Jared got there first to open it. Serah was there, with a wagon behind her filled with stuff.

"What do we have?" I asked. I was eager to start on explosives... other wise my head might explode. The Mark felt like I was burning again.

"We have the film cases, matches, foil, glue, drill, wicks, the stump remover, duct tape, cotton balls, scissors, die, gasoline, gunpowder, and the fertilizer," Serah said. we smiled. "Oh, and a portable stove."

"Awesome. Maybe small explosives will take our minds off things," I said.

"And that is fortunate for us. We think we may be entering a time of war and any diffence is welcome," Serah smiled.

"This will ONLY be used for diffence, correct?" I asked cautiously.

"Of course," she replied.

"Then we will be happy to leave explosives with you," Jared said. I nodded.

"Alexandryne, Jared.... I will leave you to your work," Serah smiled. Again. "You are quite remarkable." then she left.

"OK Jare Bear," I used the name I called him when we were four.

"OK Rosey," he used the name he called me in return. I narrowed my eyes but laughed openly anyways.

"Alright. Smoke Bombs or real bombs?" I asked.

"Smoke bombs," he said.

"OK. If you get out the stump remover and sugar I'll get the stove and light it," I said. He nodded. I went into the wagon she had left in the room. I pulled out the portable stove, plugged it in, and turned it on. I took a large pot and put it on top. Jared poured some of the powdered stump remover into his hand, and put in 3 handfuls. Then he added 2 of sugar. I handed him a spoon and he began stirring the powders.

I got out the box of matches and began cutting of the heads. I took 4 or 5 of them and rolled them into little tin foil balls. When I had about 20 I put them all into a little film container, and filled the rest with glue. I let it dry when I started on the second set.

"So..." Jared said.

"So," I nodded some.

"Are we always doomed to be weird?" Jared asked, taking the carmalized sugar and Potassium off the heat. It looked like peanut butter. I pushed a piece of tin foil towards him and he threw it in a huge dollop down on the foil. he molded the tin foil around it into a cylinder and stuck a pen in the top, so it was sticking out.

"I guess. These.... THINGS on our forehead say so. I wonder what the House of Tulsa is like?" I mused as I sprinkled gun powder -- for extra boom -- in the 2nd one of my bombs. Jared's bomb was done drying so he pulled out the pen and wrapped duct tape around the outside. He put the wick into the hole and stuffed it up with cotton balls. My glue on the first one was done drying, so I put on the lid of the film container and took the drill to it. I drilled down down down.... all the way to the tin balls. I put in a wick.

"Probably like this -like, and filled with vamps."

"Yeah," I sighed. "I wonder what she meant by the whole 'they've been going through a bunch of weird stuff lately' thing."

"Maybe sleeping on it will make it better," Jared said, pouring gun powder, gasoline, and fertilizer into a pot with more of the caramelized Potassium. then he shaped that too into a cylinder.

"Yeah," I sighed. "Maybe that'll make this -" I waved at our Marks "make sense. And then we leave for Tulsa. It'll be odd to be so young."

"Probably. Just... lets finish these bombs and go to sleep," Jared yawned for punctuation. "We'll probably sleep until nearly sunset tomorrow. And then.... then we'll figure out what to do." I nodded and we fell silent as I finished the 4th little bomb while Jared finished the 2nd smoke bomb. Smoke ones take longer.

"So... I'll see you on the plane tomorrow with Dragon, I guess. Jeez, Jared, this is so weird."

"I know, Alex. I know. But you're a strong girl. If I'm sure of anything you can protect yourself better than anyone else. Nothing to fear. Good night," Jared smiled at me and I remembered why he was such a good friend. He left and I went to bed feeling like everything would be fine, and I would wake up from a perfect sleep to find the world in focus.

Too bad it never works quite like that.