A/N: What is this? A new update! Yep, I had some extra time on my hands (or rather, I just didn't feel like studying) so I sat down and started typing until I had another chapter to put up. I am a little flustered with this one because, despite its relevence to the plotline and the relative importance of it in character development, I feel like it is only a filler chapter. I am anxious to get to the angsty, action chapters I have been planning out in between listening to my chemistry teacher and ignoring the rest of my classes.
To TaylorLoe: I really appreciated the feedback in your review. I am sorry that I was unable to PM you, but my computer and phone have been on strike for the past week or so. I hope that this chapter clears up some confusion, but if not, there are more explanations to come. Thank you for taking the time and showing the interest in the story to leave me a message.
As always, leave me a review. I do read them. I promise. And I usually PM back with virtual cookies.
Disclaimer: Nope, last time I checked, I owned nothing.
Previously on Events Unexpected…
Her cerulean irises constricted, opening up her pupils to the darkness encompassing her. About four-fifths of the space around her was complete blackness with only the occasional dark grey outline. A beam of grey illumination filtered in through a half-circle opening to her right. Outside, she could see the sandstorm raging in all of its fury. Further inspection did nothing to reveal the bodiless voice that came with her awakening. It was only obsidian and granite.
A hand came to rest upon the person's brow as if trying to ward off a headache. "Korra?"
"Kaji?" Korra gasped.
Kaji's lips quirked into a smile before she threw herself on top of a startled Avatar. Korra's skin shrunk away from the intensity of sweltering fire that enveloped her body along with the firebender. Reflexively, she drew both hands between herself and the other girl, flinching as her palms burst into blisters, and forcibly pried her from her body. Scooting away, she couldn't help but sigh as her burned hands met the cool surface of the rock face beside her thighs.
Kaji reached out to her, frantically grasping for something to hold onto, but the fingers soon went limp as the girl's eyes closed and her breathing became shallow. Despairingly, Korra grabbed the slack hand and pressing it against her tear-stained face. It was only after her sobbing had subsided to dry gasps that she noticed that the skin was no longer burning her. In fact, Kaji's body had mostly cooled, the only patch of warmth lying in the small alcove just below her chest where her heart thrummed rhythmically.
"You're going to be alright," Korra chanted, as much for herself as for the comatose firebender next to her. "You are going to be fine."
Kaji's eyes strained against the flux of ebony miasma swirling about her. Never could she have imagined black to have so many variations in its color. At times, it seemed as though the individual colors would break from the vortex consuming them, streaks of red or blue flashing past the corners of her eyes and vanishing once more amidst the abyss. Once, she thought she might have seen a shape, something more complex than just a straight line of light, but it was never there long enough for her to discern what it could possibly have been. There were voices there sometimes as well. Little trickles of conversation, hisses of conjugation. Whether because they were foreign to her or their magnitude was not strong enough, Kaji was unable to discern what was being said. The prickling in the back of her neck suggested that she was the topic of the conversations.
She had no way to judge the time, or how long she had stayed suspended in the distant reaches of her mind. Hell, she did not even know if it was her mind. The Spirit World was quickly proving to be more than she could fathom, so it was not entirely out of the question for her to have been sucked out of her body and thrown into the bowels of some alternate dimension. Not the time to be thinking such things, she snapped at her growing apprehension. But there was also no way that the Fire Lord could escape; not with her limited resources and knowledge.
A breeze flashed past her right ear, brushing her hair and splaying the strands out in front of her. They were strangely outlined in a pale glow, contrasting what were midnight tresses to the bottomless void. In the wake of such complete charcoal, the pigmentation of her hair seemed near insulting. How could anything of the world of Agni's light ever enter such a place and not feel as if the very attempt at black would only end in futile emptiness.
The breeze was back, passing back across her left ear, tossing more hair into a cascade against Kaji's back. Her eyes flickered in both directions, frantically peering into empty space; there was something there with her and the fear coiling around her heart was slowly constricting the organ to the point of bursting. She could not breathe, but then again, she did not seem to have to.
The first dragon that fell out of the clouds above her head was so pure in its crimson hue as to bring shame to the deepest ruby. Its eyes were fluorescent orange and yellow until the colors ended in the massive slit pupil. The beard bristling from beneath its powerful jaws held the softness of silk and the color of milk. Ear flaps, rustic with the blood pumping through the thin membrane, flared out with the support of the four miniature spines before ending in two prone vermillion horns. Two whiskers the size of tentacles writhed parallel to the serpentine body as it weightlessly plummeted toward the stunned firebender frozen in her place below. Just seconds before actually coming into contact with Kaji's stupefied body, the beast tilted its beautiful head slightly outward, causing its body to follow and bypass the girl without even a slight touch from the serrated protrusions lining its back. Languidly, with the fluidity of blood flowing through a mold, the giant reptile swept upward in a boneless arc. Only once it was looming over the Royal's tiny presence did the creature stop its intricate flight; settling in a squatting position, despite there being no floor to speak of, and flicking its tail in matching bouts of impatience and contempt. The wide orb of sulfur and copper looked to the heavens from which it was birthed in… expectation?
Kaji mimicked the gaze. Her heart was thundering freely, having broken through its chains. She was nervous in the wake of such a creature of power and magic, but she also felt more at ease within the presence. At the very least, she was not alone. Her eyes widened slightly more in response to a second beast falling, much like the first, down. The mouth was open, streaming smoke and clouds of ash into the darkened foliage of inky murkiness. Scales as blue as the deep sea sparkled with their own light, as there was no external source from which they could have reflected it. The muscles underneath caused little shades of aquamarine to lighten the deep sapphire as it pushed its way down with mighty heaves of its wings. Coming down past Kaji's back, the dragon curved into itself before propelling itself up and into a similar position to the one taken by the red dragon. Where there had only been one set of piercing yellow eyes, there were now two, and both were looking down upon the human in exuding expectancy.
Kaji stayed silent, not knowing what she could possibly say that would not sound like an insult before such magnificence. The dragons had been hunted to near extinction so long ago, only two remaining in the world- and those closely guarded by the Sun Warriors. In that knowledge, the Fire Lord felt it incredibly spectacular that she was within a close proximity to such wonders, even with the possibility that they were only figments of the will of the spiritual plain.
"Kaji," the word was spoken in the reprimanding tone her father always took on when she had done something deemed 'obscene' for a lady of her standing. Her head swerved one way and then another, searching for the man who should have accompanied the tone. There was nothing but her and the two ancient firebending masters.
"Kaji, what are you doing?" Another voice, female and biting. Azula's voice.
The Fire Lord pushed against the obsidian folds surrounding her, attempting to move her body without actually knowing whether she should walk or swim. An irrational sense of tension made her fear moving her legs. What if she fell? There was nothing beneath her, just as there was nothing to her right or left or above her. Could she fall if she would not be aware of falling?
"Kaji!" her father shouted as he used to whenever she ignored him. "Are you listening?"
The red dragon opened its mouth before lunging forward. Kaji could not even scream, her lungs were too busy hyperventilating. Her eyes snapped shut, awaiting the inevitable feeling of razor teeth sinking into her pliable flesh. A moment passed. Then another. Then another still. One golden iris peeked out of a small opening in wary eyelids. A body of blue met her gaze, the small scales still tinkling in fairy lights. Opening her eyes fully, the young firebender gasped as she saw the writhing masses of blue and red ringing her. There was no longer any black except for a small hole above her, between two sets of gnashing teeth and tearing claws, and another blotch under her feet where two tails thrashed against each other.
Despite the blatant ferocity with which the serpents attacked each other, not one of them was actually getting injured- at least, to Kaji's observation. Fangs the size of her arm sank into the torrent of scaly armor, breaking the mesh of bone as though it were dough, but not a droplet of blood came from the wounds once the intruding canine was removed. It was comparable with the claws. Each set of five tore at any part of the combatants' bodies, searching for any hold. Gashes of broken scale marked the abused areas, but there was only another layer beneath, sparkling and strong. Meanwhile, voices screamed in high pitched argument, only snippets of which the Royal was actually able to make out as the sounds were mixed with primal snarls and roars of anger.
"- my daughter. You do not control-"
"You are wasting her potential. She must be taught that-"
"You are turning her into a monst-"
"You lost your right to be her father when you pushed her into my arms. It is time to live with the consequences of-"
"Why did you bring me back then? I was never your son-"
"She will become the most powerful bender this world has ever seen. She will match me and perhaps even surpass-"
"Kaji, why did you hurt them? How can you be so cruel?"
"Good, learn that each of us has a place. Those below you are unworthy of pity or mercy."
"I have aided in the birthing of a monstrosity. She killed my beloved in the womb, now she will kill more. What have I done?"
"STOP!" Kaji cried, hands grasping at her ears as the dry sobs crippled her. She did not know whether she was still floating, or falling, or whether she was kneeling against something unseen, but her skeleton felt like it was no longer capable of holding her up. Everything was hurting. In a smaller, shattered plea, she said, "Please, no more."
The sweating had started a few hours after Kaji had collapsed. Along with its appearance came the heat. It was not as intense as it had been before, but Korra knew that it was the effect of a fever. Moans would at times escape the parched lips, turning paler with each passing minute. The Avatar was worried sick, yet she did not allow herself to act upon such feelings. The firebender was strong. She would pull through whatever this was, somehow. Korra just wished that she knew what to make of it. She doubted that it had anything to do with Koh. The centipede had a craving for the dramatic, and she knew that the insect would want her to know that he was taking what was most precious to her. Kaji's body had also shown no signs of turning into one of the Faceless, so there was hope. Or, that was what Korra kept reminding herself. Resolving to not just sit around and further drive herself into madness, Korra made it her primary purose to find any sort of activity to occupy herself with. Easier said than done when she was confined to the space of such a small cave that was probably no more than three yards or so in length and half that much in width.
Dabbing the brow of the pale girl for the fifth time in the total span of ten minutes, the young girl could not help but wonder about the firebender. Reflecting on the past few days in the Spirit World, Korra could not remember a precedent for Kaji's insecurity. Had it been anyone else, the Avatar might have attributed it to being in such an alien circumstance, but the firebender did not seem to be the type to be fazed so drastically by something so simple. There had to be something else. Something deeper within.
Another groan escaped from the parted lips of the firebender. Korra gently placed the rag down, before moving down to the bandaged wound on Kaji's leg. The infection had not spread, rather, it seemed to neither worsen nor progress for the better. The flesh was sticky with perspiration, much like the rest of the slumbering girl's body. The tissue did not bleed, only the occasional slip of puss or fluid ran down the length of the calf at times. That served to calm Korra's nerves slightly.
"Wake up," she whispered as she bound the rags over the gruesome spectacle. She had long since not cared about the utter unsanitary nature of the bindings. The wound seemed unaffected, so the Avatar remained so as well. A bronzed hand reached out to cup a flushed cheek, "Why won't you wake? Where have you lost yourself this time?"
Her answer was silence accompanied with the incessant howl of the sands outside and the creak of rock as it was worn down from the eons of weathering. Not that Korra had expected anything else. Silence had become a staple. Her gaze glossed over the moist brow, not even bothering with the rag anymore. It would do no good now, just as it had not done any good two minutes ago. A rag would not awaken the firebender.
A silly fairy tale slipped through the fatigued edges of Korra's mind. Her hands moved from the pliant skin to the unforgiving stone against which the dreamer rested. Korra's other hand moved to support her, flanking the first hand's position. She hovered over Kaji, feeling her breaths mingle with those expelled every so often from deflated lungs. Her nose was brushing against the proud chin before moving up and to the side to allow Korra more access to what she really wanted. Her lips chastely pressed down on the heated ones beneath her; the skin was not its usual smooth contour, but rough from the abuse it had suffered at the hands of the elements. And this is where some kind of magic is supposed to awaken you, right? Korra could not believe how desperate she was in her delusions. Such things did not happen, because such magic did not exist. Pulling away, she was left feeling less satisfied as opposed to the previous few moments. Reality did not allow for such fantasies as magic, and the Fire Lord stayed asleep, though her chest rose and fell a little more sporadically than before. Chuckling darkly, Korra mused aloud to no one in particular, "I guess our true love wasn't true enough was it?"
The dragons had stopped their writhing and biting. Kaji was starting to feel claustrophobic, so tightly squeezed between the grandiose forms, but neither of the two serpents had done anything to untangle themselves. There was only stillness. The firebender had picked herself up, eventually growing uncomfortable in her fetal position. Her face was flushed from such a display of embarrassing weakness in view of the prominent beasts. Dragons were known for not having much patience for the meek.
"What do you want from me?" she asked. There was no reply. The plethora of sparring words and tirades had dissipated. The heaving of the giants' diaphragms was the only movement. Louder, and with more aggression, Kaji called to them in frustration, "What do you want from me?!"
"I want you to fulfill your purpose," the blue dragon with her grandmother's voice replied first. The dragon's face swooped down into the small space between the entangled mass of scale and muscle. The whiskers outlined the Royal's face and moved down her back as though seeing her through touch. "I want you to bring back the honor of the Fire Nation which I was unable to do along with my predecessors."
Kaji's teeth clenched before she hissed, "I was working on it."
The dragon bared its own fangs. Kaji could see a distorted reflection of herself on each pearly white surface. Angered, the dragon thumped its tail from somewhere beyond the little prison before retorting, "Silence, impudent child. I can feel your doubts. I know everything that you feel, everything that runs through your little head."
"I-" Kaji started, getting instantly interrupted by another growl of warning.
Continuing with the lecture, the blue dragon turned its head slightly so that Kaji was facing a singular, gleaming eye, "I see what you feel for that girl, the Avatar. Your will is weakening, your determination crumbling, your motivation shifting."
"My motivation has always been to please you," the Fire Lord said touchily. The pout on her face might have been uncharacteristic, but she did not appreciate having her resolve questioned by an obvious figment of her imagination.
"Then why do you no longer hold any mastery over your bending? Have you not found it strange? Such complacency."
"Leave her be," the red dragon's body shifted, scraping scales with the blue until tiny sparks flew in all directions. The gap widened and the second head was able to squeeze its way into the confines of the compressed bodies. Kaji couldn't help but feel like an insect in a jar. A jar with two very large, very frightening maws full of teeth hanging from the lid that could never be high enough for her liking.
"You are unwelcome here," the blue snarled. The red ignored the comment, instead wrestling with its combatant for some extra room.
Once it had resigned itself to the fact that there was not a place to spare, the red turned to mirror the sapphire dragon by titling its head so that Kaji was at the center of its left eye. In the same, infernal voice it whispered, "She is free to make her own decisions."
"Oh, yes. So long as they are the ones you wish her to make," the blue grumbled. "Was it not you who asked the Avatar to kill her?"
Kaji's eyes glazed over, a foreign room in a foreign building coming into view. Her head ached from the unfocused nature of the image, but she could well enough pick out the forms of Korra, Katara, and an all too familiar man, sitting at a mahogany table.
The man's head was low, bowed as his mouth moved in sync with the words echoing throughout the space, "I know it is unfair of me to ask this of you, but please stop her. I know that she is my daughter and it is I, as much as Azula, who made her into the… person… that she is, but I have never had the power to nullify her destruction. I am completely loyal to you and the White Lotus and will aid you in all ways I can to take her down, even if it means the loss of her life or my own."
Kaji recoiled from the red dragon, bumping into the long neck of the cerulean fire breather in the process. The red dragon's face was platonic. No emotion flickered across the scaled snout or the fiery jewel within its eye socket. These creatures only relay what I am thinking, Kaji realized. There was more to it, she knew. Otherwise, she would not have been able to witness the memory- or illusion as she would not put it past either of the beasts to lie- that she had never been a part of. Still, oversimplification seemed to be the better route to take when it was becoming obvious that she had little chance of ever truly understanding the strange occurrences within the void. None of it made the pain in her chest any less prominent. The only comfort she held onto was brought about by Korra's words, said with the utmost sincerity: her promise that she had come to save Kaji, not to destroy her in one form or another.
"She does not lie. I said those things, but only because it was my responsibility to keep my legacy from murdering countless people and further shaming the children of Agni. Do you not see?" the question was directed to the Royal. "The world had finally begun to be rid of the fear and hatred that came of the Hundred Year War. And all of that progress vanished in an instant with your ascension to the throne."
Kaji's shoulders stiffened. She would not simply sit and take all of the criticisms of the world. Yes, it had been her mission to take the world for the Land of Kindling Flame, but she had been taught from infancy that that had been the destiny of the nation. Travelling around the world, watching all of the decrepit and abominable conditions of humanity, only served to steel her teachings. Until she had met Korra, she had never seen the beauty of the outside world, never fathomed that there was something good outside of the shores of the Fire Nation. How could she be blamed for years of breeding?
"There have always been four nations. And there must always be four nations. The balance of the world is precarious, and all of this war and conquest, it only serves to bring about the doom of that balance," the red dragon preached.
"It was my right, as the strongest, to rule over those who could not surpass me," Kaji reiterated the lesson that had been given to her for so long. Her heart was not in it though. She had never had much of a sense for compassion, nor was her conscience exercised often, but every time she saw the happiness within Korra's cobalt eyes whenever she did something good she felt as though she was more alive.
"You are a fool to believe in that girl," the blue dragon muttered. "She is naïve. One day, she will awaken and see that this world is ruled by the strong. Whether it is the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom or even those savages in the Tribes, there is a hierarchy built upon power. If a leader is not powerful enough to govern his people, they usurp him; if a person is too weak to protect what is his, then everything is taken from him; if a child cannot learn to grow up fast enough, they are swept away by the flood that is life. You, better than anyone, should know this."
"I-I…" Kaji's face fell, hidden behind a swath of bangs and some of her longer hair. She knew the rules of the world. She had been both strong and weak in order to understand the consequences of both. There was no peace without equal power, and even when there was, it would only last as long as the stalemate did. Humanity, in its nature, would fight. But, the hope and vindication lacing Korra's every action gave pause to the firebender's thoughts. The Avatar fought to keep the balance, even when the entirety of the universe seemed to be against her. Against the overwhelming futility of it all, Korra still could smile and continue on toward her goals and ideals.
"Her naivety is what I love about her," Kaji hummed. "I want to understand it."
"Love," scoffed the red dragon. "You are not a creature meant to feel such a thing."
The blue dragon matched her snarl in retaliation. The fire glinting in the shared pair of golden irises and constricted pupils was apparently lost upon the unwavering serpent, as it continued in Kirei's deep set voice, "You are a killer. Killers are not meant to love. You should be bound in chains so that the world does not need to fear your tyranny. And, one way or another, you will be imprisoned for your transgressions."
"I thought you were supposed to be the supportive one," Kaji muttered sarcastically. All she received was a strange wheezing sound coming from the thing's massive chest. It took a moment for the Fire Lord to realize that she was being laughed at.
"We are neither supportive nor deprecating," it spoke as though to an ignorant child. Kaji scoffed at the last remark, wondering what the hell all of the insults would have been considered if not deprecating. "We are simply opposite faces of the coin of choice. I am surrender. She is fight."
"I choose to fight," Kaji immediately spoke. "Surrender was never an option."
"But, if you fight, you will lose your Avatar."
Kaji's eyes fell. Her chest was constricting again. Eyes focused on the small patch of darkness beyond the entwined scaled entities, she admitted in a lost voice, "I have already lost her. Whether I give in or continue until it is over, it cannot be as it once was."
"Surrender is more open-ended than continuing to fight," the vermillion reptile replied. "You will lose. It is unavoidable. The balance must be kept. And you will either die in your final, glorious battle, or be locked up for all eternity. They will not take another chance with a child of Agni and Azula to be sure. Surrender offers you the option of running."
"Running?" the incredulity with which it was said noted the disbelief felt by the young ruler. "How is that any better than being locked up? I was not born to be a fugitive."
"But there is a small chance that you will escape. Though you do not deserve anything more than to be muzzled like the rabid dog you are, biting at any hand trying to aid you. Staying and fighting a war that you will eventually lose, there is no happy outcome for you, but you will not thrive in chains."
"Fight my little one," the blue dragon's voice was filled with lilting softness. "It is in your blood to fight until you win or die. There is no other option."
Kaji's eyes flickered between the crimson beast resting across from her and the sapphire one by which she stood. Burning yellow orbs gazed back, awaiting a decision. One she did not know how to make. They spoke as if she had already lost. Perhaps she had. There was no way of knowing what was going on in the world outside of the alternate dimension. It could have been months, years even, that she had been gone. Izuru could have lost their hold in the Earth Kingdom. The general in the north, the one whose name she could not conjure up in her mind, could have fallen to a conjoined effort between the international governing body in Republic City. Still, the utter injustice of it all nearly brought her to the brink of insanity. How was it fair that she had to fall in love with the one person who was responsible for defeating people like her? How was it fair that, for some reason far beyond her comprehension, she was sucked into the Spirit World with no way out and no knowledge of what would happen? Korra did not hate her, but they were broken. What had once come so easily for them was only surviving because there was still a natural attraction pulling them together. Still, there were always external factors pushing them apart, to the point that Kaji was no longer certain if the bond they shared would be enough to hold them together. And that was when she knew her decision. She had spent the last few months fighting between what she needed and what she knew was expected of her. Yet, despite everything, all paths led to Korra in the end. Her lightening no longer worked because her driving force had shifted. It was no longer pride or honor or debt that drew her forward, it was the Avatar. And it would always be her. Kaji knew it, felt it in her bones. But she could not use Korra as fuel for her inner flames when her every action went against the young Avatar and her morals. Until she chose, Kaji knew that her flames would not return to their former glory. The knowledge did nothing to ease the burden of the choice, only making her more frustrated in her indecision.
"I want to do all I can to stay near her. Even if it means giving up my birthright and the throne. I would give the world for her. But I cannot run either. She will not see me as a coward. I-I don't know what to choose. But there is time enough for that after I return to the corporeal world."
The dragons both gave snorts of derision, but they were quickly fading away from her. Growls and roars turned into howls and scrapes. Kaji noticed an increase in the temperature around her, making her uncomfortable. Something relatively heavy was wrapped around her torso. Whatever it was quickly jumped back the second she opened her eyes. Mild cursing hit her eardrums as the fogginess of sleep lifted and wakefulness set in.
Korra had not noticed when she had fallen asleep. All she knew was that she had been having a wonderful dream of being in the middle of one of those delicious sundaes sold at a corner vender in Republic City. The mixture of caramel and melted chocolate had sent her taste buds into a tingling bliss. Until the sun started melting it. The cone could not hold in the frozen dessert, and her fingers were soon sticky with the solidifying liquid sugar. The sun was truly beating down on them. It was intensifying in its heat with each passing, rushed lick until, quite spontaneously, Korra's shirt caught on fire.
The dreaming Avatar quickly awoke to the realization that her entire front was truly, on fire. Well, in the figurative sense at least. Her hands, panic driven, pushed her up and away from what must have been hot coals or something of the like. The violent nature of her wakeup call did nothing to help her already disintegrating mood and, like any well mannered child of the modern industrial era, she set to making her emotions known in a colorful string of words that would make many a sailor blush to his ears.
Then she heard it. The small, barely repressed laughter coming from her former bedding before she had escaped its boiling confines. Her eyes moved away from the reddened skin- or as reddened as blue, transparent skin could become-to see a pair of amused eyes watching her from where a certain firebender was lying. Korra's eyes watered slightly. She was unsure as to the cause, splitting it evenly among the pain still lingering in her skin and the fact that her firebender was finally among the living… well, as much as the saying could apply to the Spirit World.
"Kaji! What the hell happened to you?"
Said firebender pressed a palm to her cheek, feeling the slight burn that was diminishing even as her breathing evened out. Her mouth quirked into a shy smile, "I couldn't tell you. But I don't think the air here is good for my brain. All of these hallucinations only serve to confuse me."
"Hallucinations?" Korra inquired.
"You don't want to know," was all that Kaji was willing to share. Her hand left her face and fell to her lap. A small flame flickered in the palm, quickly coming out in a small plume of orange and blue tendrils before she extinguished it with a clenched fist. Looking up, she was thankful that Korra had turned her attention back to the scalded area just below her clavicle. The depression caused by the loss of her powerful bending was still raw it seemed.
"Your leg was infected, so I think that we are trapped here for a little while longer," Korra was saying. Kaji sighed in relief. She did not wish to be faced with whatever awaited her back in the world of the living. And that was only after they figured out some way of evading Koh's servants and finding their way out of the infinite celestial land.
P.S: I really enjoyed the whole idea in A:TLA concerning Zuko facing his inner dragons. I wanted to incorporate it into this story concerning Kaji. There were a few complications however, especially the fact that Azula is Kaji's 'Iroh' (as in, the person she looks up to) so she really had to be lacking in a good influence. That and I still consider her to be on the fence when it comes to being a really evil protagonist or a confused antagonist, so as to keep the story interesting. Choosing the red dragon was also hard for me. I was originally going to place Korra as the blue and Azula as the red, but I figured that it would be better to keep it to family members like in A:TLA. So, tell me what you think. I know it is still very open ended, but it was meant to be that way. As always, reviews let me know I am loved (or hated which is an emotional response that I am completely happy with too). Seriously though, they help me improve my writing and I love to here what would make the story more entertaining/enjoyable. Bye for now. :)