Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It belongs to LJS. The song in the first part is by Evanescence.

A/N: Okay, so I decided to keep going with this as the story develops. Here is the first scene of the reborn Old Powers. Earth... Air... They meet once again. :)

'You're not the only one...'

Lily yawned, pulling her coat closer around her as a gust of wind seemed to cut right through her clothes. It was a cold night in Las Vegas, and she had the great pleasure of walking home in it.

'When they all come crashing down, midflight,
You know you're not the only one.
When they're so alone they find a back door out of life.
You know you're not the only one.'

It had been a long night at work, and her legs were tired from constantly standing at the register. As she trailed sluggishly through the paths of the park across the street from her work, she could feel the painful knots in her lower back, and the tightness in her knees with every step. She wasn't one to stand on her feet for so long without consequences, but she continued on. The lure of a warm house and comforting bed was strong, and she just wanted to get home as quickly as she could.

'We're all grieving,
Lost and bleeding.'

Besides, she had school first thing tomorrow morning. It was exhausting to go to high school full time, and then work late nights, but somehow she managed to pull through. No matter how tired she was, she always kept going. There was no choice in the matter. She had to graduate, if only to make her family happy, and she had to work to take care of her mother.

'All our lives,
We've been waiting
For someone to call our leader.
All your lies,
I'm not believing.
Heaven shine a light down on me.'

There was a soft step behind her, but Lily paid it no heed as she could not hear much over the blasting of her headphones. Of which were connected to a beat-up CD player. Her ipod she'd broken a few months ago and still had yet to save enough money to have it fixed. Oh well. The CDs may skip once in a while, but she still had music to keep her company.

'So afraid to open your eyes, hypnotized.
You know you're not the only one
Never understood this life.
And you're right, I don't deserve
But you know I'm not the only one.'

Another yawn passed through her lips as she weaved around a tree, passing through a shadowed shortcut. Her home was just a few more blocks down. She was so close, and she could almost feel the soft fabric of her blankets passing over her as she could finally drop into her bed and rest. Just a few more blocks...

'We're all grieving,
Lost and bleeding.'

How could she have suspected that tonight would be one of the unlucky nights? For months she'd journeyed this same trek home, and never faced any problems. Why would she have worried? But alas, trouble always comes when you least expect it. As she passed through an especially dark part of the park, her headphones were ripped from her. Hands grappled at her shoulders before she could react to fight back, and then she was being shoved to the ground.

'All our lives,
We've been waiting
For someone to call our leader.
All your lies,
I'm not believing.
Heaven shine a light down on me.'

Her head slammed against the cool pavement of the pathway, stars flashing mercilessly before her eyes. Her CD player skidded out of her reach, the top popping open and cracking at the hinges. Shaking the sudden cloud over her mind away, shocked and pained at the impact, she stared up at her attacker in mute horror. Some thug, a big man with a crude face and a knife in his hands, towered over her. And that leer he gave her only sent a shiver racing down her spine. Ok, now she was scared.

'Don't look down,
Don't look into the eyes of the world beneath you.
Don't look down, you'll fall down,
You'll become their sacrifice.'

/She ain't too pretty... but she'll do... Easy target... Gonna get some tonight.../

It wasn't unnatural for her to hear another's thoughts. It was just one of her hidden abnormalities. But those thoughts were still ones that had her blood freezing in fear. Oh God. Oh God. I can't let this happen, she thought, a note of hysteria even in her own mind.

The man crouched over her, and she felt the cool metal blade sting against her throat. Oh God. Oh God. Please, no.

'Right or wrong.
Can't hold onto the fear that I'm lost without you.
If I can't feel, I'm not mine,
I'm not real.'

"Hey, little girl, you wanna play?" He laughed at her, digging the knife in deeper. She felt flesh give way with a sharp sting that ran the path of the blade, and then the soft warmth of blood.

But she didn't answer him. She screamed. A deafening shriek that tore across the seemingly empty park, her hands coming up to claw at the man. She couldn't let him do this. She wouldn't, not without a fight. But he was stronger, and there was no one around to save her. Oh god. Oh god. Someone... please...

Help.

'All our lives,
We've been waiting
For someone to call our leader.
All your lies,
I'm not believing,
Heaven shine a light down on me.'

Rui had shed his Jack Force routine and was taking a nice meditative walk in the park. He gloried in the winds that buffeted around him naturally, making the park cold and breezy, and whipping his white trench coat around him pleasantly. His gloved hands were in his pockets, and his white shoes made almost no sound on the pavement. If he could just make it through the park and back to his penthouse in peace, his night would be complete.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Rui felt himself cringe as he heard an ear piercing scream. His first instinct was to run and kill, but he held back, keeping his temper mild and walked casually toward the sounds of struggle. There appeared to be some random man attaching a young woman, and she was not terribly happy about it. The man held a knife to the girl's throat. Easily taken care of.

"Excuse me," Rui said mildly, "What are you doing?" he punctuated his lightly spoken question by sending the mans knife flying away from him, "I'm not sure she appreciates that."

The man glared up at him, only a spark of fear coming into his eyes at the disappearance of his knife, "Listen, pal, you go about your business, and I'll go about mine, and no one else gets hurt, alright? Alright."

Normally, it wouldn't have mattered to him. What was one more human getting violated? However, something about the guy bothered him, and he felt his temper rising.

"No, I don't think that is going to work for me," Rui responded, taking a step closer to the pair, holding out his hand and raising it, causing the man to raise off the ground, "I will not allow a lesser being such as yourself to talk to me in such a manner." he said, beginning to suck the oxygen out of this moron. When he felt the last of the man's life slip away, it started.

Rui fell to the ground, the man crumpling in a dead heap on the ground. Not. Enough. Air. Rui was on his hands and knees, but he felt his energy leaving him, and he'd soon wilted to the ground. He got just enough air not to pass out, but not enough to move. What had he done? Just for some little brat? He lay there, trying to regain his strength.

"Get out of here," he breathed at the girl, hoping she'd just leave.

But Lily didn't leave. That wasn't in her nature. He'd saved her... in a way that had left her reeling, both from the shock at seeing such power, but also for the familiarity of it all. It was just like... her dreams. Yes, that was it. The same face she saw in her dreams, and the same power. The same sense that she wasn't alone, or the only strange one in this town.

And that was why she was scrambling to her hands and knees and crawled to his side. "If you think I'm going to leave like this," she said quietly, but with stubborn determination, "Then you're crazy. You're hurt."

She didn't wait for him to push her away, even if she knew this was going to weaken her terribly. She didn't care.

"Hold still," she demanded unnecessarily. He wasn't moving at the moment, but she never could be sure.

Placing her hands on his shoulders, she squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated. She searched out that abnormal power in her, and then pushed out, trying to give him strength through her healing ability. And with it, she felt a bit of her strength leaving. It was tiring, but she owed it to him. She bit her lip as her hands shook with the effort, but she still pushed as much as she could.

After a moment, her eyes fluttered open, but the the shaking didn't subside. "Better?" she said, albeit a bit breathlessly.

Gods, there was that shocking familiarity again. It was both awe-inspiring and terrifying to see the face of a person you've only met in your dreams. But they were only dreams, right? She didn't believe in past lives. It was only her subconscious trying to come up with a way to explain her powers. But... then how could he be here? Oh, she was so confused.

Rui's eyes drifted open and he was terribly disappointed to find her still here. He hoped that she didn't think this meant that there was any special connection between them. Not friendship or otherwise.

"Don't misunderstand me," he said, getting slowly to his feet, "I just didn't like the way that he was talking to me. And your screaming was disturbing my thoughts." Rui was irritated by the whole situation. What had be been thinking? Risking himself like that.

She's familiar, you wanted to help her. There's nothing wrong with that, a small part of his brain thinks,

No, no. It was foolish. You shouldn't risk yourself for stupid girls like that a stronger part of his brain argues.

Rui was forever getting harassed by his own brain. He'd learned to live with it.

"Thank you for what you did, but it was foolish to do it," Rui said, brushing himself off. He didn't bother with her. If she was weak from helping him, it was her own fault. It would have been the same thing for him, but she interfered.

Lily kept her face nuetral, and nodded. She wasn't one to display her hurt outwardly. Though inside she was quite insulted and hurt by what he said. It was just how she was; easily hurt by words, especially since he was so familiar. But he'd never been so cruel in her dreams... Gods, was she stupid.

"I'll make sure not to do that, then," she said with a shrug.

Ignoring the weakness she was feeling, she pushed herself off the ground. She wouldn't let it get to her, at least not in front of someone, and it was with this determination that she sluggishly grabbed her broken CD player from the ground, as well as her backpack which had fallen.

She paused, her back to him, and then with a courage she didn't realize she could possess, took a chance by saying, "I've had dreams about you." She must have sounded like a lunatic, she realized with a blush, but she forged on. "But I don't remember such lack of manners."

Okay peeps, you know what to do now, right? Remember, reviews are like oxygen for us attention-starved writers!! :)