PRONUNCIATION NOTE: Natalia's mother's name, Jelena, is pronounced YUH-lay-nah

Chapter 2

"The Martyr, the Victim"

"I don't understand why I can't do this alone." Natalia mumbled, picking at the shingles at Chloe's roof. It had been a few days since the news had been broken about her being Mai. Of course, she had already known a little bit about them from what she got from the Internet, but she had no idea who or what the Order and the Uniter were. Then once she heard about what really happened to her family, she lost it. She started yelling so much that Alek had to put his hand over her mouth to make her stop.

"It's called supervising. I'm very experienced, you know." Alek gave her a cheeky grin, putting his arm around her shoulders. She shoved him away, walking to another part of the rooftop. She didn't know why she had to have shared Uniter duty with him instead of Jasmine. Actually, she would have been much more fond of a situation in which she was watching Chloe alone. Besides, according to what was said, she was a natural fighter. During training, she kicked Alek's pretty-boy ass. He told her that he let her win, but she didn't buy it.

"Are you always this over-confident?" She put her hands on her hips, turning around to face him. "Like, honestly. You're one of the most arrogant people that I've ever met." If being up front with him about this was going get to the source of the problem, then so be it. She was growing tired of him. He had a lot of friends, so she had to assume that he didn't get them all just by being an ass.

He crossed his arms over his chest, trying to riddle out what he was going to say. He knew that he was arrogant, but he always assumed that people overlooked it. After all, that was how he managed to skate by so easily. People thought he was some sort of a god. He thought that he had a right to be thought of like that. After all, he technically was part-god. "That's a load of crap! Besides, at least I judge people on more than what I know about them at first!" That was one of the first things that he noticed about her. The only Alek she knew was the arrogant one who flirted nonstop, and that was the Alek she treated him like. There were a lot of sides to him. Most of them were some that he sometimes felt uncomfortable with, but they were still a part of him, nevertheless.

"I judge people on a lot more than-" Her attention was caught by the sound of a fire engine's siren. In the distance, she could see the structure of a house burning away a few neighborhoods away from where they were. Suddenly, her breath got caught in her mouth, and Alek could hear her heartbeat become extremely irregular. Her palms started sweating, and she couldn't wipe them off because they were shaking so much. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. Alek could see the reflection of the flames in her pupils, and he tried to calm her down.

"Hey, look at me. Look at me." He tried to pull her shoulders so that she was facing him, but it was like her feet were nailed to the rooftop. Her eyed were glued upon the bright flames, and she couldn't pull them away.

"MAMA!" Natalia could hear loud bangs outside, and she was starting to smell smoke. She was by the window, and her mother pulled her away. There were screams. So many screams. Her whole family was crying out for help, but those cries would never be answered. They were being hunted like game.

Her mother had a look of fear frozen upon her face. It wasn't going to be long before their door was to be shot down. Jelena knew that this was going to happen someday, but she didn't think that it would happen like this. "I'm so sorry, my baby. I'm so, so sorry." She took her gold necklace from around her neck, and she slipped her wedding ring onto it. The bangs got louder, and to Natalia, she was used to hearing bangs. They were bombs. But not this time. This time, they were bullets."MARKO!" She screamed for her husband. He came to his wife and daughter with the same look of fear on his face. He too, took his gold wedding band off. He slid it onto his wife's necklace, and they both clasped it around their daughter's neck. The necklace was not only beyond value for her family, it was beyond value for the country of Serbia. It was the only known relic of St. Sava.

"Oh, my daughter. My sweet, sweet Natalia." Her father held her face in his hands. How would she fare without them? How would she find out about what she truly was? He promised himself that she was going to have a better life. She was going to be happy.

"Marko! They are coming!" Jelena was looking out the window. She saw the members of the Order, going into houses. After that, there were gunshots and screams. Then only flames. Her life was dissolving right before her eyes.

He nodded, standing up next to her. They knew what they had to do. It was the only way to keep her safe. "Natalia, go into the cellar. Don't come out until all the noise is gone. Do you understand?" Her mother said softly, brushing locks of her daughter's hair out of her face.

"But I want to stay with you and Papa. Please, Mama, please. I'm scared." The fear in her eyes was mirrored by that of her mother and father's. She looked beyond them, and out the window. There were only bright, orange flames dancing. The house that was on fire belonged to her grandparents. From that day on, Natalia had severe pyrophobia. She couldn't go near fire. If she saw it, she was unable to look away. She became frozen like a statue.

"I know you're scared. But you are strong, just like your Papa." Her father picked her up because she was starting to cry. "There, there little one. You have to promise to go to the cellar." He slid a piece of wrapped candy out from his pocket and gave it to her. It was her favorite.

"I promise." She mumbled, crinkling the red cellophane wrapper. She didn't know what was happening. How could she have? She thought that everyone was playing games, and that they only wanted her to go into the cellar because they were playing hide and seek.

"Good girl." He chuckled. Marko Ristić was a proud father. He was relatively young, only 23. But he was part of the Serbian Mai pride. He would be willing to give up his life for his family's protection. To have his daughter live on was a great success to him, even if he died in the process of this happening. She was the pride's only hope of carrying on the prestigious fighting genes that they were held in such high esteem for.

"I love you, Natalia." Her mother kissed the top of her head. Jelena Ristić was 18 when she became pregnant with Natalia. She was the only survivor of an attack on her village in the mountains. When she met Marko, things had just fallen into place for her. Everything was supposed to have been perfect. It wasn't supposed to end like this.

"I love you too, Mama."

"I love you, Natalia."

"I love you too, Papa." Her father set her down, and she ran to the cellar like she was told. Marko and Jelena braced themselves as the Order drew closer to their doorstep. He looked into her eyes, and he grabbed onto her hand tightly. He refused to let go until he breathed his last breath.

And that was the last time Natalia Ristić saw her parents.

"Natalia!" Alek was shaking her shoulders. He moved her face so that she was looking at him, and he breathed a sigh of relief once her heartbeat slowed down to a normal pace. "Are you all right?" He looked into her eyes earnestly; all traces of fear were gone as soon as her eyes had been cut away from the burning building.

"I'm fine." She mumbled, pushing him away. She moved her hand to her necklace, like she always did when she thought about her parents. It was the only thing that she had left of them, other than a few pictures that had been found in the cellar along with her. The only way that she could remember what they were like was through her nightmares about the last time she saw them. It was the only memory she had of them. All of her happy ones were gone.

"You wanna tell me what that was all about?" He asked, taking a step closer to her. Alek knew that she wasn't fine at all.

She looked at the ground for a long time, then took in a deep breath. "...It's a long story." Her fear of fire was something that she didn't really open up to people about, but for some reason, she knew that she could trust Alek with the story. After all, his parents had died too. It was something that they had in common, and she felt like he would be able to understand more than anybody else.

"I've got time."

Review, review, review you guys! I want to know what you're all thinking!

BTW, if you're wondering who St. Sava is, he's one of the most important figures in Serbian history. The relic that Nat was given is so valuable because the Ottomans burned all of St. Sava's relics (meaning they burned his entire body), so it's kind of unlikely that a relic of his would exist in real life. But this is a fanfiction, so it doesn't matter haha

I also found out that a TON of Serbian-Americans live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I think that I pretty much lucked out there.