21

Lion-O stretched his arms up high and smiled as he felt the sun warming his fur. He looked around the area, and looked at the glittering water of the nearby river. They had decided to make a quick stop before continuing onward to look for the next stone. He walked over to the river bank, kneeling down and splashing his face with the cool water. It was a very refreshing feeling. He heard laughter and looked to see WilyKat and Kit headed for the river, jumping into the knee-high water. It was a warm day, so no one really objected to the twins' playful behavior. Even if they had, the twins still would have jumped in the river to play.

Leanne walked out next, Cheetara and Tygra just behind her, their hands entwined. Panthro stepped out to survey any damage the tank had sustained in their small trip. And, according to Panthro, 'damage' was a small scratch on the underside of the tank's metal exterior, which could take plenty of scratches. Leanne went down to the water, a few feet away from Lion-O and lifted up her hands, watching as the water moved with it. She smiled and moved the water into a container, adding on to the water that she had stored from various stops in their journey. She looked up, happening to meet Lion-O's gaze, and quickly looked away, shifting uncomfortably on her feet. Lion-O looked away, focusing back on the water and put his container for water in the river, letting it fill up.

When it was full, he got up and took a look around them. The area they were in was heavily forested, a place that could easily hide them from their enemies. His eyes happened to look over at Leanne again, who had made herself comfortable with Cheetara, chatting with her about something while Tygra was getting some water for himself and his new girl. Lion-O had to admit, he was a bit jealous of his brother. He could trust Cheetara, and Lion-O wasn't entirely sure if he could still trust Leanne. He missed the moments he had with her, those subtle little moments when they would just sit together, holding hands. He wished he had never seen any of it. He wished he had never seen Leanne and Tygra kissing. If he hadn't, they might still have those little moments.

He shook his head of the depressing thoughts and went back to the Thunder Tank, planning on going to the Book of Omens to find where the next stone was. When he walked in he saw that, other than a sleeping Snarf, he was all alone inside. As he headed to the front of the tank to get the coordinates for the Book, his mind once again turned to Leanne. He began to think about what he knew about her, and he realized he didn't know that much about her. He knew about parts of her past, like the reason she had that cross-shaped scar on her back, and he knew she didn't get along well with her mother, but not much otherwise. What was her world like? And the people in it? She had only told him about various pieces of technology from her world, she didn't tell him much else. Then again, the technology was all he wanted to know about at the time.

He reached out for the book, and was suddenly zapped by it. He didn't make any noise other than collapsing back into the passenger's seat of the tank. Long, light blue tendrils came from the book, and reached out for Lion-O, pulling out a manifestation of his soul, and bringing it into the book.

Lion-O was sucked in, and he looked around, recognizing his surroundings from when he first accessed the Book of Omens. Large oceans and streams of computer data surrounded him, one particular clump of it broke off from the stream and came over to him, changing its form into that of Jaga.

"You have more questions." Jaga stated.

"Yeah, I do." Lion-O said, "I want to know more about Leanne. And not just her, but her home, her life, her world. I want to know more about it."

"There is more to it than that." Jaga said, Lion-O was silent, because he was stunned by Jaga's great insight to know that, but also because he was hesitant to say it.

"…Leanne is very important to me." Lion-O said, "I want to know how she went through her whole life not knowing who she was, or who her family was." Jaga nodded.

"The answers you seek lie in the Book." He said, "But to truly understand it, you must watch as her life plays before you."

"You're not going to make me re-live it?" Lion-O asked in surprise. Jaga shook his head.

"No, for there is no form in Leanne's world that would be compatible for your soul to manifest in." Jaga raised his staff and brought it down, small sparks coming from it, and waves of data suddenly turned into a tunnel that sucked Lion-O in. At first he couldn't see anything other than the data, and then there was a blinding light. Lion-O shielded his eyes from it, and when he opened them, he saw that he was standing in a very strange environment. The roads were paved with stone, nothing near like the cobblestone that was used to pave his streets. This material was smoother, and more spread out, like someone had turned rocks to paste and painted them along the streets. In front of him was a large, rectangular building that had many large windows. A sign at the top read 'George Washington High School' in big, silver letters. Lion-O heard a bell ringing, and the front doors of the building were pushed open by scores of young humans. His eyes widened at the sight of the sheer number of them. All of them wore a style of clothing he had never seen, but they were all moving so fast from him that he couldn't see what they were.

Then he heard it. That laughter. That unmistakable laughter, the one he had known since she had arrived. He looked and saw Leanne, her dark hair resting on either side of her face. She was walking with three others, two boys and a girl. They all carried large bags on their backs, and were all dressed in different styles of clothing. The tallest one of them was a boy with long auburn hair that went down to the nape of his neck, his lower lip was pierced with a stud and the color he seemed to like the most was black, or a dark blue. He had a bit of stubble on his chin, and, as a result of his height, he was quite gangly, and a little sickly looking. The other boy, about Leanne's height, wore an odd woolen hat on his head, which Lion-O found strange because the weather around him was perfectly fine and warm. His pants were very baggy and loose, and on his shirt was a picture of a yellow smiley face with a bloody hole in its head. Lion-O figured it was a symbol for something he didn't understand. Finally, the third girl was the tiniest of all of them, just a couple inches shorter than Leanne. She wore a bright green tank top and cargo capris. Her ears had large gages in them, as well as three piercings in the cartilage of each. Her hair was long, and a multitude of different colors that were layered on top of one another. The top was a bright, bleached blonde, underneath that was a fiery auburn red, beneath that was a deep black, and beneath that, a vibrant purple shade.

"So, Lee, you comin' to run with us later?" The one wearing a hat asked.

"Yeah, totally." Leanne said, "I just got to do my homework first." She hefted the bag on her shoulder when she said this.

The multi-colored hair girl let out a groan, "I hate homework! It's so, like …ugh! You know?"

"Yes, Tracy, we all know of your hatred for homework." The tall one said, sounding like he was getting tired of hearing it from her.

"No. Like, y'all don't even know. Y'all are a year behind me, you don't get it." Tracy said with a pout, "Like, Mr. Tanners gives out a effin' truckload of history homework. And Mrs. Beasley? Like, don't even get me started on her." She glared at the bag on her back while the others rolled their eyes. "My backpack weighs, like, two tons, I swear to God."

"Yeah, I'm not looking forward to senior-grade homework." Leanne said, "But at least we're juniors, and we don't have to deal with that crap yet." She looked up at the tallest one, "And you won't have to deal with it for two."

"Yeah, you're one lucky bastard, David." The hat boy said. David gave them all a smug grin. "But you better watch your ass, 'cuz if you get sucky grades, it's gonna screw your GPA and then you're gonna be all 'Aw, s**t!' when you get to senior year."

"Yeah, like Tracy totally did, like, her sophomore year!" Leanne said, imitating the way her friend spoke, earning laughs from the boys and a scowl from Tracy.

"Okay, I know you guys think the way I talk is annoying, but, like, I am who I am!" She declared proudly.

"We know." The three of them said at once.

"Jinx!" The boy in the hat said, "Y'all owe me a coke." He pointed at Leanne and David, who let out groans and fished for something in their pockets.

"Dang it, Connor." David said as he pulled out a green piece of paper and handed it to him, "I was gonna use that for tomorrow at lunch."

"Hey, not my problem." Connor said, collecting the single bills from both of them. "So, for real, Lee," She looked at him, "We gonna meet up at the liquor store and start there. You cool with that?"

"Yeah, sure." Leanne said, the four of them came to the edge of the walkway. A loud horn honked and David flinched.

"That'd be my sister." He said, he started walking down the street, "I'll see you guys later." He waved goodbye, and everyone did the same before going their separate ways. Leanne went over to a plain-looking bicycle and unlocked it from the rack it was chained to. She mounted it and began to ride off. Lion-O moved behind her as she rode towards her home. The entire environment of her world fascinated him. While he could see some small similarities in architecture between the homes she passed and the ones he had seen in Thundera, the differences between them almost erased the similarities altogether. The houses were taller, looking a bit sturdier than those that had been in the slums. They were made with brick, with incredibly straight windows and chimneys. Just outside the homes were high poles that were responsible for keeping strange, thick black wires raised above them. He wondered what they were for, and why they didn't have them in Thundera, and would have asked Leanne, but she couldn't hear him. He went closer to her and tried to put his hand on her shoulder, only for his fingers to go right through her skin without her even noticing. In this world he was completely invisible to everyone.

He kept close to Leanne, not really thinking about how he was just floating beside her as she kept riding down the road. She smiled and lifted her legs up as she began to go down a small hill, letting out a "Woo!" in joy until she began to pedal again. She pulled into a neighborhood, Lion-O wasn't able to read the sign at the entrance of it because Leanne was moving too fast, but she rode on, coming into a part of the neighborhood where all the houses and all the properties looked almost exactly the same, except for some minor differences in lawn care, or whether or not the porches on the front of the house held furniture, or hung some wind chimes. The house Leanne pulled up to was no different from the others, a simple, two story home with a white front door and one window on each floor that looked out onto the street in front of the house.

She hopped off her bike and walked it into an open garage that stored what Leanne had told him was called a 'car,' where she parked it next to some old and dusty beach toys that looked like they hadn't been touched in years. She went through a door in the garage to the inside of the house, kicking off her shoes, not bothering to do anything about them as they flew into the middle of the floor. Lion-O looked with wide eyes as a little, black, four-legged furry creature that reminded him of Snarf, but was definitely not Snarf, came up to her, mewing and rubbing its body against her leg. Leanne smiled and bent down to pet the… he couldn't believe it, but there was no other word to describe the creature, cat. It was a cat. It suddenly struck Lion-O the vast differences between her world and his. Cats here weren't cats like him, they were common house pets. It was difficult for him to view someone of his species on the same level as a pet, but he would be able to look past it while he was here… he hoped.

"Hey Slugger." She greeted the cat, who meowed at the sound of her voice. She scratched under his chin and he purred contently. When she heard the sound of footsteps, she stood up and greeted the person who Lion-O could only assume was her mother. He could see the similarities between the two of them. She just looked like an older, taller Leanne with a different nose.

"Hey." She greeted Leanne as she walked past her.

"Hi Mom." Leanne returned, she knelt back down and picked up her cat, cradling him in her arms, "You are just too cute!" The cat meowed at her.

"Oh don't hold him, you know he hates it." Her mother scolded. Leanne turned around, pouting.

"I know that." She said, putting the cat down, "Is it so wrong of me to have a little pleasure and hold the cat?"

Her mother only replied with a roll of the eyes.

The cat walked over to her mother and rubbed up against her legs as she went into the kitchen, getting some water from a strange metal cabinet Lion-O had never seen before.

"Hey mom, a couple friends invited me out tonight." Leanne said, trying to be smooth with her lie.

"Where are you going?" Her mother asked as she pulled a few things out of other cabinets.

"…Um, we're gonna go to the gym, and then just hang out for a little bit." Leanne lied, pretending to busy herself with her backpack.

"No."

Leanne's head shot up, "Why not?!"

"Because your friends worry me." Her mother said, "What with the way they act, and how they're always skipping classes…"

"But—!"

"That's final." Her mother said. Leanne set her jaw and glared at her mother, angrily shouldering her backpack.

"Ugh! You never let me do anything!" She growled as she quickly dashed up the stairs. Lion-O didn't follow her, he looked back at her mother as she sighed and sat down at the table. The cat Leanne had called Slugger jumped up and sat in front of her. Leanne's mother reached up and scratched a spot on his head.

"Just what am I going to do with that girl…?" She asked quietly.

"You could always follow my suggestion and ground her for life." The cat said, Lion-O looked at it with wide eyes. Hadn't Leanne said that cats in her world don't talk?

"It's not that simple." Leanne's mother sighed, leaning back in her chair, "That girl has always been a handful. It was one thing suppressing those magic bursts as a child, now I have to deal with her teenage drama. I'm tired of her going out and risking getting caught again. I know she does that free-running, but every time she does it…" She sighed again.

"You can't blame her." The cat said, taking a couple steps off the counter, Lion-O watched as the dark furred cat suddenly turned into a dark skinned man with bright yellow eyes, and messy black hair. He was dressed in a pair of dark blue pants, and no shirt, letting Lion-O see the tattoo that rested on his chest that looked eerily similar to the crest of the ThunderCats. "She's a Redoric. Magic is in her blood, and when she can't get that, I imagine free running is a good substitute."

Leanne's mother let out a snort of laughter, "Since when did you go shirtless, Sluga?" The man looked at his appearance, then back at her.

"What? Summer's fast approaching, so I figured I might as well get ready for it." The man, apparently named Sluga, said with a shrug. He snapped his fingers and a black shadow came around him and turned into a black, sleeveless shirt, "Not like you're much better Marissa. Breaking out the bathing suits before the first day of summer?"

"Never hurts to be prepared." Marissa replied, she let out another snort, "But at least I'm not as egotistical as you."

"Hey, ladies love the tall, dark, and mysterious man." Sluga replied as he came over to Marissa, "But, look, about Leanne… it was a bad idea from the beginning."

"Oh, not this again." Marissa said, "You saw what happened the first time she used magic! Our neighbors caught her, and… well, you know. There's no way I could let her use magic again. Even if that spell was unintentional, I can't… I don't want to lose her again." Sluga sighed and leaned against the table, looking at Marissa.

"I know you're worried about her." He said, "It's a mother's job to worry about her children, as your mother worried about you. I mean, you can't imagine what she was like, wondering if you would come out half-cat or not. With those cute little ears and a nice, long tail like your daddy." Suddenly, a pair of black cat ears appeared on top of Sluga's head, and a long black tail formed from behind him. Marissa spared a small smile to him, "But Leanne is almost eighteen. You've suppressed her abilities for so long, she won't be able to use them."

"That's just what I want." Marissa said, "Leanne is a normal teenage girl. I don't want her to ever know the truth about our family. She needs to be normal." Sluga sighed again.

"Mari, I've served the Redorics for over a hundred years, and in all that time, never once has one of the family been pleased when suppressing their powers. I remember, your grandmother wanted to suppress your Uncle Jonathon's abilities because she was afraid that the same thing that happened to Leanne would happen to him. You know what he did instead of magic? He started flying planes, and not just crop dusters, but planes for the American soldiers in World War II, of his own free will. He volunteered himself, he wasn't drafted like the others." Lion-O's eyes were wide as Sluga spoke. Leanne's world had had a world war? And two of them?! "That's why she didn't hold back on teaching your mother about magic. She didn't want her to invest her life in something dangerous like that. I'm telling you now, if Leanne never knows about her abilities, it can only get worse. You have to teach her."

"No." Marissa vehemently replied, "My daughter isn't like my uncle. She hates the idea of being a soldier. She won't do anything like that. She will live a regular human life, and that's all I want for her."

Sluga sighed once again, "And you wonder where Leanne gets her stubbornness from…"

Lion-O looked back at Leanne's room and went up the stairs, travelling upwards, his feet not making any impression on the carpeted floor, and not making a sound as he travelled up to her room. He went through her door to see her shouldering a small backpack, talking into a small device of some kind.

"No… No, look, I'll be there, okay? Don't worry about it." Leanne said, "I don't care what my mom says, I'm going." She took a jacket and zipped it up, "Now, are we meeting out back, or in front of the liquor store? …No, don't worry about it! Look, I'm just gonna sneak out and meet you there. Out front or out back? …Okay… No, I'll just do my homework when I get back home—…No, my mom is just being dumb. Look, if she hears this, she'll flip. I'll call you when I get there." She pressed a button on the device and went over to her bedroom window. She opened it up and crawled up onto the window sill, and jumped out, grabbing onto the branch of a tree growing in front of the house and jumping down onto the ground, landing in a crouch. She made sure that she wasn't seen from the window where her mother was. She made her way to the garage and grabbed her bike and rode away from the house. Lion-O followed her and chanced a glance back at the house to see Leanne's mother was watching her leave from the window with a solemn expression on her face.

Is this the relationship Leanne had with her mother? It wasn't at all like he thought it would be. Then again, Leanne had never really talked much about her mother, not since the first day she had come, and that was hardly anything at all. Leanne had never really brought up the topic of mothers in a conversation, and it's not like anyone wanted to talk about it. Lion-O never knew his mother, and the little bit that Tygra could remember of her wasn't much either. Cheetara grew up on her own, Panthro's mother was already gone (he assumed), and the twins… well, they never really talked about their mother either. Nobody really wanted to talk about their families when they had a more important mission to carry out, he supposed.

He looked up as Leanne approached a building in a shady-looking area. He saw one of the people from before, Connor, was already there, holding a small can in his hands. He took a big swig of it as Leanne approached him.

"Sup." He greeted her, he held out a can to her, and Leanne shook her head.

"No thanks. Being drunk when you run takes the fun out of it." She said, she put her bike over in a bike rack and chained it up.

"Whatever." Connor said, taking another sip, "And for the record, I'm not drunk." Leanne looked over her shoulder at him, raising a doubtful eyebrow, "I'm just buzzed."

"That's drunk, moron." Leanne said, coming over and swiping the can from him.

"Hey! That's my booze, I paid for it!" Connor snapped. Leanne held him at arms-length with her hand and poured the rest of the contents onto the ground, "Aw man. What the hell, Lee? I don't spill your s**t on the ground!"

"This s**t is really s**t!" Leanne snapped in return, "It'll rot your brain, and you could hurt yourself running!"

"I'd a' been fine!" Connor snapped at her. He crossed his arms angrily across his chest, "I've run drunk before!"

"Yeah, and almost fallen off a roof for it." Leanne jabbed. Their conversation was paused when a car came up to them and parked near the store. Tracy stepped out of it after locking it up. "Tracy, tell Connor that he can't run drunk!"

"Connor, you can't run drunk." Tracy said as she came up to them.

"Why the hell not?!" Connor snapped.

"Because the booze, like, makes you stupid and buzzed and you can't have any fun because you, like, won't remember any of it." She said, "And you'll puke if you move too much."

"Ah, you're both a coupla pussies!" Connor growled at them.

"It's two against one, you're not gonna win." Leanne said.

Connor waved them off and let the subject drop. He went over to where he had been standing previously and produced a small group of the cans he had been drinking from, one of them already gone. "Here, but I'm drinkin' it after!"

"Fine." Leanne said, taking the cans, "I hope you're not too drunk."

"'M fine, didn't even drink half a' it…" Connor muttered, he sat down against the building and the two girls joined him. The three of them made small talk until David walked up to them, giving them a grin.

"Ready to go?" He asked them. They all got up and began climbing up the ladder that led up to the roof of the building they had all met at.

"So, the usual route?" Leanne asked once she got up.

"I was hoping we could go by Little Cesar's." David said, "I got a few bucks to buy a pizza."

"Ooh! Pizza!" Tracy said happily.

"I could go for a pizza." Connor said.

"Okay, we'll go by Little Cesar's then." Leanne said. She stood over on a random spot on the roof and her friends stood in a line on either side of her, "Ready… get set…"

"Go!" David shouted and took off running. The other three ran after him.

"David that's cheating!" Leanne laughed as she ran.

"You said get ready, and I was!" David shouted back as he jumped off the roof to another building. Connor and Leanne came after him, then Tracy. Lion-O watched as the four of them leapt from one building to the next, his eyes lingering the most on Leanne. He had seen her move like that before back on Third Earth, when she used her abilities to fly. He couldn't tell if she was using her powers to fly from building to building, but one thing he was certain of was that she looked like she was flying, and she was enjoying every minute of it. He could see how hard her body was working, if the gathering amount of sweat on her forehead wasn't enough. But her eyes were lighting up in a way that he hadn't seen in what felt like a long time. The first time he had seen it was when she first showed him the abilities that Jaga had revealed to her through the Jewel of Omens.

The four of them were having a great time, until Connor fell over, and because of his speed, started tumbling along the roof of a building. The others quickly ran over to him.

"Connor, you okay?" Leanne asked, helping him sit up. She gasped when she saw blood on his face, "Oh my God! Where are you hurt?"

"What happened?" Connor asked, reaching up and holding his head.

"We need to get you to a hospital." David said, "You need stitches."

"I do?" Connor asked, David helped him up and Connor pulled his hand back, seeing blood on it, "Oh."

"Come on, man." David looked over at Leanne, "Do you think we should call 911?"

"Well, it certainly get an ambulance over here fast enough." Leanne said, she heard sniffling and looked over at Tracy, who was starting to cry. Leanne went over to her and put her arm around her shoulders, leading her to the ladder that would lead them down to the floor. Once they were all grounded, David took Connor somewhere, saying they should get some napkins to stop the bleeding, pointing at a building with a lighted sign that read 'Little Cesar's'. Leanne nodded and sat beside Tracy, pulling out the device Lion-O had seen before, pressing three buttons before putting it to her ear. "Um, my friend just hit his head, and he's bleeding really bad. Can we get an ambulance? …Yeah, we're near the Little Cesar's pizza place off of highway 40… I can go get the address from them, hang on." She turned to Tracy, "Come on," They ran across the street, Leanne still speaking into the device, "Just give me two minutes." She held the device to her shoulder as they walked in and Leanne went up to a young man at a counter, "Hey, what's the address for this place?"

The man gave her the address of the building and pointed to Connor, "He need an ambulance?"

"He needs a hospital." Leanne replied before going over to her friend, still talking into the device, "Yeah, that's where we are, did you get that? …Okay… Yeah, we're trying to stop the bleeding… Okay… Yes, thank you." She put it away and grabbed a few napkins, helping David to press them against Connor's wound. Tracy came over to them, and Connor lifted up his hand, holding the napkins.

"I'm okay." He said, "Look, as long as we're here, do you guys want a pizza?"

"Um…" Leanne looked at the others.

"I don't want a pizza." Tracy said.

"I'm not really hungry." David said.

"Me either." Leanne said, she pulled her hands away and looked at her palms, seeing that some of Connor's blood had gotten onto her hands. Her silver eyes widened and Lion-O saw her face visibly pale. He knew what she was thinking of. That night when she was a child. Her hands began to shake, and she suddenly shook her head, closing her eyes. "I-I don't feel too good."

"Do we need to get an ambulance for you, too?" David asked in a way that made it sound like he was joking, trying to lighten the mood. Leanne grinned and shook her head.

"No, I'm okay." She said, "I just… I just need a second." She took in a deep breath and wiped her still shaking hands on her shirt, getting rid of the blood that had been on them.

"Don't you think that'll stain?" Tracy asked, gathering up her composure.

Leanne looked at the smeared blood on her shirt, then back up at her friend, "It'll wash out. It's fine."

They stayed in the booth until they heard the wail of sirens. David got up and took Connor over to the car, telling him that he hit his head, and the medics took him. David went with them, so someone could let Connor's parents know what had happened. Tracy and Leanne simply walked back to the store where they had met up. Tracy went back to her car and headed home after bidding goodbye to Leanne.

Leanne got back on her bike and began the ride home. The sun had already set, and it was dark out, so she had to be careful going down the road. When she returned home, she saw that some of the lights were still on, so her mother was still home. She tried to keep out of sight by staying beneath the window, and tried to sneak back into her room by climbing up the tree to where her room was. She tried to be as quiet as possible, and had hooked her hands and legs over a branch, when the window to the first floor opened and Leanne's mother stuck her head out the window giving her daughter a dry look.

"I never let you do anything, huh?" She asked. Leanne let out a yelp of surprise and fell to the ground. She grimaced as she felt the first wave of pain come into her spine.

"…Ow…" She groaned quietly. She looked up at her mother, who was giving her the disapproving stare that only a mother could give.

"Living room. Now." Her mother shut the window, and Leanne let out a huff of breath in exasperation, hitting her head against the ground with a frown.

"…Great." She muttered.

Leanne sat down on a couch, shoulders sulked and her gaze on the floor as her mother stood in front of her, arms crossed, looking at her with that disapproving glare.

"I can't believe it." Her mother said, "After all the times you've snuck out, I really shouldn't be surprised, and yet I am!" Leanne turned her head slightly, not really wanting to hear this lecture. Her mother snapped her fingers in front of her face, "Hey, look at me." Leanne looked up at her mother, "I want you to look at me when I'm talking to you."

"I'm looking." Leanne muttered.

"I specifically told you not to go," Her mother went on, "I told you why. And you snuck out again! Leanne, I am getting so sick and tired of you disobeying me, and doing the exact opposite of everything I say. It's like you're a child."

"Well, maybe if you didn't treat me like a child, I wouldn't act like it!" Leanne snapped.

"Excuse me?" Her mother asked.

"Mom, I'm seventeen!" Leanne said, "That's only one year away from adulthood. I think I'm capable of knowing what I should and shouldn't do!"

"I don't care how old you are!" Her mother said, "As long as you live in my house, you follow my rules, and one of my biggest rules is listen to your mother!" Leanne turned away at the sound of her mother's voice. "Leanne Josephine Redoric, look at me!" Leanne looked at her mother, her jaw set defiantly. "You want to act like a child, so I'm going to punish you like one. You're grounded." Leanne's set jaw dropped open, "For two weeks." It fell even further.

"Two weeks?" Leanne stood up, "Mom, that's not fair!"

"Oh, you think that's not fair?" Her mother asked, "Do you think it was fair of you to just leave the house and sneak out without saying a word to me? I was worried sick! I told you why I didn't think you should go, and when you come back, you have blood on your shirt!"

"It's not my blood!" Leanne said, "It was just an accident and—!"

"I don't care whose blood it is, or where it came from!" Her mother snapped, "I don't want you hanging out with them anymore!"

Leanne looked at her mother in disbelief, "But Mom—!"

"That's final." Her mother said firmly, she pointed up the stairs, "Now, I want you to go to room and I don't want you to come out."

"But I—!"

"Now, Leanne!"

Leanne's face flushed in anger and she stormed towards the stairs, before she started going up, she turned around and said, "I know why Dad left now. He couldn't stand to be around you!"

"Leanne!" Her mother gasped in disbelieving shock. Leanne dashed all the way up the stairs and slammed her door shut. Lion-O looked up at where Leanne had disappeared to, and looked back at where Marissa was still standing. Sluga, now as a cat, walked up to her, jumping up on the couch where Leanne had been sitting, looking up at her.

"Let her blow off some steam, just give her some time to calm down." He said gently, "She just said that out of anger."

Marissa sighed and sat down on the other end of the couch, resting her elbows on her knees and holding her face in her hands. "I know that…" She mumbled quietly. Lion-O saw her shoulders beginning to shake and he realized she was crying. Sluga went over to her and let her pet him, offering her some comfort. Lion-O looked up at Leanne's room and went up the stairs. He phased through her door and saw her sitting on her bed, curled up around a pillow, tears silently falling from her own eyes. She sniffled pathetically, and hugged the pillow close.

"…I'm sorry…" She whispered quietly into the pillow, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" She held the pillow tight, clearly the only comfort she had at the time. Lion-O could see that what Sluga had said was right. She had said what she did out of anger, and now she felt a staggering amount of guilt. He moved to sit beside her on the bed, his body making no impression on the comforter, and he reached out to touch her shoulder, only to have his fingers phase through her. He pulled back, seeing that he couldn't do anything to help her when she was like this. It killed him to watch her cry with no one to comfort her at all. He moved to lay down beside her and reached out to touch her face. He knew she couldn't feel it, and that it wouldn't make any difference, but it made the situation a little better for him, to make-believe he was giving her some kind of comfort.

It was only a few more minutes that Leanne spent crying, but even when the tears stopped falling, he could still see the guilt that was plastered across her face. It was a couple of hours after they had had their little screaming match, but soon Leanne's mother knocked on the door, coming in with a small smile and holding a plate with a piece of food that Lion-O had never seen before.

"Hey." Her mother greeted Leanne quietly. She didn't reply, keeping her back to her mother as she lay on her bed, "I brought you some pizza." Her mother held up the plate. Leanne looked back at her, eying the food she had brought with her, "I thought you might want some dinner."

"Yeah." Leanne said, she sat up and her mother came to sit beside her, handing her the plate. Leanne took a small bite of the pizza and simply ate in silence for a little while with her mother. Neither of them said anything for a little bit, but soon enough, Marissa spoke.

"Leanne, how did you get blood on your shirt?" She asked.

"One of my friends hit his head really hard on one of the treadmills." Leanne lied, "I was trying to stop the bleeding, and some of it got on me. I just wiped it off. I was… freaking out a little bit." Her mother wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulders in a hug. Leanne didn't move away, she leaned against her mother instead. There was a pause before Leanne spoke again, "I'm not really a child anymore… I'm not that scared little girl." She looked up at her mother, "You don't have to be my lookout anymore. I really can take care of myself."

"I know." Her mother said, "It's just…" She sighed, "It's been… difficult these past few years. I just don't want to lose you."

"I know." Leanne said, letting a small smile come on her face when her mother kissed the top of her head. "I didn't mean what I said back there."

"I know you didn't." Her mother said. There was another pause of silence between them. Eventually, Marissa turned to face her daughter, taking her hands in her own, "Leanne, you know I love you, right?" Leanne nodded, "And you love me, right?"

"Of course I do." Leanne said, "You're my mom." Her mother smiled.

"And… I want you to know," She began, "That everything I've done, and everything I am doing, is for your own good." Leanne looked up at her mother, seeing that her face was trying to send a message to her, but she didn't quite understand it, as she had no idea what she was talking about.

Instead, she only replied with, "…I know." Her mother smiled and hugged her.

"Now, I want you to finish that pizza, and go to bed." She said, getting up from the bed.

"Okay." Leanne said, smiling at her mother.

Marissa went to leave, and paused at the door, "Oh, and by the way," Leanne looked up, "You're still grounded."

Leanne's jaw dropped, "Whaaat?!"

"Sorry, honey." Marissa said.

"That's so unfair!" Leanne said, "You can't come up here with freakin' pizza, and give that whole speech without getting rid of my grounding! Or lessening it, at least!"

Her mother shrugged, "Well, too bad. That's what's happening." Leanne groaned and fell back against her bed. Her mother smiled humorously at her before shutting the door.

"Most. Ridiculous. Mother. Alive." Leanne muttered to herself as she lay back on the bed. Lion-O let a grin cross his face at the sight of it. He started as he felt something pulling him back, and before he knew it, he was back in the sea of data that was the Book of Omens.

Jaga appeared before him again, "Do you understand, Lion-O?"

"…I think I do." He said, "Just a little bit." Jaga nodded, and Lion-O felt his body moving again, before he knew it, the sea of data had disappeared from his sight.

Lion-O woke up in the Thunder Tank, sitting in the place where he had been previously, he looked up when he heard voices and saw everyone coming into the tank, Leanne smiling as Snarf rested on her head, munching on some candy fruit that Kat and Kit were trying to get from him, calling the little creature a thief.

Lion-O smiled when he looked at Leanne, watching as she moved Snarf to another part of the tank, and he ran to get away from the twins, who began to chase him around the tank. She happened to glance up at Lion-O, and blinked in surprise when she saw the look he was giving her. It was a soft sort of look, one that she hadn't really seen since their 'break up'.

"What?" She asked him.

"Nothing." Lion-O said, "I was just about to see where the next stone was."

"Good, we could use some more power on our side." Panthro said, he and the others headed up to see what the book would say about the next stone. Leanne moving to stand beside Lion-O as he activated it.

Ta-dah! Another filler chapter!

I'm sorry it took so long, but it's summer time, and I was on vacation with the family and junk.

Also, I made a new picture of Lion-O and Leanne! It's on my deviantart account.

Since I can't post the link, just look up my username: popcorngamer

Or look up Leanne Redoric, that might get you some pictures.