Chapter 2

There he was again, that raven haired boy that had the most amazing indigo eyes. He was smiling at her from behind her closed eyelids, such a kind and sincere smile that made her world bloom with warmth and happiness. Mai could only watch him; he simply stood before her, his lips moving but no sound coming forth. It was odd, seeing as one of her most prominent abilities lay in her being able to Astral Project. The boy couldn't have been much older than herself, yet he had a mature face and frustrated look set onto his face now, a grim frown replacing the warm smile as he realized she could hear nothing that he was saying.

"Who are you?"

She thought sadly, her auburn swirling as the familiar feeling of falling caught up with her and she was forced into the waking world by Rin. The ebony haired beauty had irritated silver eyes and she was very clearly irked about something.

"Captain wants us to report to the observatory. It's 3 in the morning."

Mai groaned and flopped back into her bed. She was not a happy person when deprived of her sleep. Rin grabbed both of her wrists and hauled her into a sitting position.

"C'mon, we shan't keep the dictator waiting," Rin sighed, standing and slipping on her lace up combat boots. Mai grumbled to herself as she pulled her sleep mussed hair into a ponytail and pulled on the standard issue training clothes she always wore. A black, form fitting tanktop and black shorts that seemed scandalous to her. Rin wore them and she absolutely rocked them. Her form was envy worthy, mostly because of the intense physical training that she'd been subjected to for the last five years of her life. She was leanly muscular, but not in a masculine way.

Besides, Rin's butt just filled the shorts way better than Mai could ever hope for her's to fill.

As soon as Mai had pulled on her running shoes, black, as you might have guessed, they were out the door, sprinting down the halls because they knew that Captain hated to be kept waiting.

Mai had done some rigorous physical training classes here, but nothing compared to what Rin was subjected to as a Chaser. The sprint wasn't long, and Mai was proud of the fact that she'd managed to keep up with her roommate the entire way. Rin came to a stop, not a hair out of place as she pushed open the door to the ground level of the observatory. Mai walked in beside her, cinnamon eyes weary as she peered into the gloom of the room she'd been so well acquainted with these past few years.

Rin's silver eyes narrowed minutely as she registered that two figures stood, outlined by the dim amounts of light that the wall mounted lamps offered. Her muscles tensed, the idea of keeping Mai safe from the possible danger coming to the forefront of her mind. Her fingertips tingled with energy as she prepared herself. Had she not been wearing boots or the black gloves that she wore, you would be able to see her calves and forearms glowing a cool silvery blue.

Mai was careful to stand slightly behind and to the right of Rin. They'd made a pact during their first year together that Rin was to always be in front of Mai when assessing new dangers because she was more prepared to deal with a physical attack as well as being able to receive energy just like Mai.

The lights slowly came on, the lamps on the walls humming as they were powered up. The first that stood in front of the other was a tall male with ashy blonde hair, his brown eyes assessing Rin and then Mai. His stance was not one that told them he was going to attack, but you could never be sure.

Behind the ashy haired male, was another raven haired male. He was staring to his side, finding something unexpectedly interesting. When the lights came on, he finally turned his aristocratic face towards them.

Mai's breath caught in her throat.

It was him.

The raven haired, indigo eyed boy in her dreams.

Mai had to consciously force herself to remember to breathe again. There was something off about this man. His eyes weren't...warm. They were cold and calculating and filled with nothingness.

It was like looking into a void. There was no emotion, just...nothingness.

"Who are you?"

Rin's voice cut through the obvious tension, razor sharp and as frigid as a brewing snowstorm.

"We could ask you the same thing." The brooding, raven haired male spoke, his voice deep and as unemotional as his eyes. He stepped forward to stand beside the other male, the light reflecting off the gorgeous indigo of his eyes.

"I don't think you have the right to be asking questions." Rin replied, her arms crossed beneath her bosom. Mai knew that was only her way of masking the glow of her forearms when there was too much energy manifested into her skin. If she concentrated, she could see the faint, barely there blue that peeked out from beneath her gloves.

"That means you must be from this base." The ash haired male said. His voice was both smooth and husky, almost as though he'd just woken from a nap.

"And that must mean you're new around here, reinforcing the fact that you shouldn't be asking questions." Rin answered, her aura flaring minutely. Mai placed a placating hand to her partner's upper arm, using her powers to draw away some of the energy that Rin's Chaser abilities were manifesting.

"If I recall, I don't think we ever asked a question in the first place," The raven haired male spoke up again, his eyes zeroed in on Mai. She was too afraid to look away from his glare, so she stared back, hoping her innocent cinnamon eyes didn't make her look like a deer caught in headlights.

"Which is the way it should be," Rin snapped back, her perfectly arched brow twitching in aggravation. "Now, I need names to match to your faces."

There was a moment of silence, almost as though both pairs of people were willing the other to say something. Eventually, the ash blonde male began to speak.

"You may identify me as N. I am a highly experienced Giver." Rin's eyes nodded appreciatively, glad that they were beginning to see things her way. It was never well to try to fight her because she would win.

"Kazuya. Also a Giver." The raven haired man responded unemotionally.

"And yours?" The male named N, prompted.

"Rin. I am a highly experienced, perfectly receptive medium," Rin answered, cheekily turning around his words to reflect upon herself. N smirked to himself, assessing Rin with intelligent brown eyes. He liked her sassiness and confidence. A lot.

"And yours, little doe?" N turned towards Mai, catching a fiery blush at being called a doe. Her innocent looks had garnered a lot of comparisons to baby animals since she began training here.

"I'm Mai. Also a perfectly receptive medium," Mai answered, her voice seemed small in comparison to the three other obviously dominant voices.

"Mai? Shall I call you little dancer, then?" N called out, a smirk lighting up his admittedly handsome features. But this Kazuya figure had her attention. He was much more handsome in real life than her dreams could ever paint him to be.

"A-ah, that's not necessary," Mai said, laughing softly.

"Enough with the chit chat," Rin's voice cut through the air. Her ebony hair was fanned out around her in a halo of shadows. "Why are you here?"

"We were brought here from another base, I think that much can be inferred," Kazuya answered dryly, his indigo eyes never leaving Mai's.

"It was inferred. The underlying question is for what reason are you here for?" Rin clarified, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"And you think we know that answer, Chaser?" N snapped back, his energy roiling around him in tangible waves. She was a Chaser, a huntress, and her lack of control was grating on his last nerve.

"I guess you can sense my energy too, huh?" Rin sneered, her eyes narrowed as she pulled off the black gloves that hid her forearms. Twining around the tanned skin of her forearm were runes that curved delicately around and around, creating marks and symbols that glowed a brilliant silver-blue in the dimly lit observatory.

"Sense it? I can see it rolling from your arms and calves. They must be your main outlets," N retorted sharply, gritting his teeth slightly as he forced himself to calm down, using his mind to encase the tendrils of energy that had managed to escape his usual iron bound grip. It took a bit of effort on his part, but he enjoyed the challenge. After all, he had a feeling that was why they, Kazuya and himself, were here in the first place. A test. that is what this was.

And these two Receivers were part of some masterful plan that F.E.A.R had come up with.

"It would be best if you calmed yourself, Chaser. The Captain here isn't very happy with your initial response," Kazuya stated monotonously, indigo eyes cool and calculating as he surveyed the twining designs of the silvery-blue were fascinating; he'd seen nothing like them before; the runes or the girls.

Perfectly receptive mediums were very rare and usually required extensive amounts of training to accomplish even a fraction of that control and ability to retain, convert, and release a Giver's raw energy.

In his mind, A Giver was like raw ore, say diamonds, for example. You can't just mine the gem and stick it to an alloy of metal and call it a ring. It had to be polished and cut and shined to perfection, and that was the Receiver's job. They did the extensive amounts of work and gave the finished product back to the Giver, who was hopefully wielding some form of onyx weaponry in order to eradicate the apparition that they were facing off against.

That was, after all, F.E.A.R's, main mission.

It was the Forced Eradication of Apparitions with Reason.

The year was 4024. The end of the world as the original settlement of humans was destroyed by a plague in the year of 3896.

So much death had occurred. Fire, destruction, fear, and calamity wrecked the world until only a handful of people who'd been smart and hidden, barricaded in cellars that dated back to the first world war emerged victorious. These people were called The Founders.

They'd founded the first camp, where the first few reproduction cycles of the human race and occurred. It was recorded that there was a chemical in the air that affected certain fetus in the mother's womb and gave them gifts. Those born with these gifts were taken by the Founders to be trained.

The ratio of being gifted versus being normal was 1 in 2,090 births.

Most of the time, the gifts were hardly shown until the early, pre-teen years, where the Founders, who kept a close documentation of every child birthed through the passing years, would hastily snatch them up, bidding the parents farewell as they took their children, screaming and kicking, back to these training facilities.

They said it was for the best.

They said that these children were special. That they were a danger to society.

However, the four that stood in the observatory at that very moment were extraordinarily gifted. It was recorded that they'd begun showing traces of being gifted by toddler ages.

Of course, this was merely taken from the last interview their parents had alive with the Founders.

As Kazuya pondered his thoughts, there was a crackle of static overhead before the Captain's voice came on. Deep, and gravelly, accompanied with heavy breathing. Rin breathed in sharply through her nose and clamped down on her energy flow, effectively stopping the glowing within a few scant seconds. N turned his eyes skyward, towards where the crackling came loudest. And Mai simply closed her eyes, waiting on whatever wish the Captain wanted her to fulfill next.

"It's become clear that I've gathered you here for a reason. Two expert Givers and two perfectly receptive Mediums. I want you paired off. Your first assessment will be at first light tomorrow. Rin and N are a pair and Mai and Kazuya are a pair; you will be travelling to where the ruins of New Orleans stood. There is a building that we could use to possibly set up another base but we need it to be cleared. Receivers and Givers, pack whatever necessary weaponry you desire and report back here by first light. That is all."

There was sharp bang that echoed off of the dreary walls before there was silence in the room once more.

The air was punctured by a stifled giggle from Rin, her silver eyes narrowed dangerously. Kazuya and N both turned to look at the female. She smirked at them before slinging an arm across Mai's slender shoulders.

"It seems he finally found us our matches. You two."

~*~*~*~*~*~ Fin ~*~*~*~*~*~

So, so, so sorry for not updating guys. School just started and I was away from my beloved computer for pretty much the entire summer, I was at camp for the better part of 6 weeks and they didn't allow phones or computers, so I was pretty much dead on the inside by the time I came back. Anyways, what did you guys think of this? I think this could turn out pretty well, for the twists and turns, and of course, love stories I have got brewing up in my evil head. Anyways, Read and Review! It's much appreciated! :)