Melody awoke with a start, green eyes wide with fear and a layer of sweat covering her skin. In her panic, she tried to leap off of her dorm bed to her feet, but instead, her body slammed into something very solid, and she fell back onto the mattress. 'Where'd that wall come from?' She frantically looked around at her unfamiliar surroundings until everything clicked, and the memories of the past forty-eight hours came rushing back. 'Right. Mom's old room. Smooth moves, Mel,' she thought blandly, touching the newly formed bump on her forehead. With a heavy sigh, she hauled herself to her feet and glanced at the dusty alarm clock on her mother's dresser, which helpfully read 2:30 AM. However, based on the soft sunlight sneaking in through the room's only window, it occurred to her that the battery must have died long ago.

Suddenly, a knock broke through the stillness before the door inched open, and the tired face of her aunt appeared in the crack. The woman's hair was wrapped up in a towel, and it seemed as if she were still in her pajamas. "Mornin', Moose. Sleep well?"

"For the most part," Melody answered, unconsciously reaching up to rub the bump on her head. If Kate noticed, she didn't say anything. She just smiled brightly and pushed the door open a bit more.

"Shower's yours. Don't stay in there too long unless you like freezing your ass off. Solar panels only do so much with the hot water heater. Towels are in the closet and feel free to wear any of Harmony's stuff for today. You and I will go shopping tomorrow to get you some stuff that fits." Melody grimaced slightly. Her mother's clothes didn't quite fit her as well as she would have liked, but they were better than her ripped and dirty costume. "Breakfast should be ready in like, twenty-five if Carlyle and Linda get along. Forty if Frank shows up. We'll give you the details of your training when we're done eating."

"Sounds good. Thank you, really," Melody replied. As angry as she'd been at her grandfather the night before, she really did appreciate everything her aunt and grandmother had done for her. The fact that they'd accepted her into their home so quickly made her chest hum with an odd mixture of nostalgia – though she couldn't tell why – and belonging. Kate gave her one last grin before disappearing around the corner, her footfalls reverberating off of the wooden staircase.

As she exited her mother's room, she glanced at the door across the hall that supposedly held her grandfather's study. Eager to not have a repeat of the previous night, she skirted past it quickly and nearly bumped into Miles. He greeted her cheerily before running after a far too rambunctious Sawyer.

Once she finally arrived at the bathroom, she shut the door behind her and looked around. The bathroom was relatively small, but the shower looked much more appealing than the old, moldy one at her apartment or the school's communal ones. She acquired both a towel and a packaged toothbrush from the closet before stripping and stepping under the warm spray.

Ten minutes later, she emerged shivering (the water really did turn cold fast) but completely free of all the grime, sweat, and dried blood she'd amassed over the past two days. 'That might have been the best shower I've ever had,' she thought, turning to the small sink. As she brushed her teeth, she looked at her reflection in the mirror and frowned. 'I have to ask Nurse Holl if she has any sleeping pills when I get back. People are gonna get the wrong idea if I start walking around looking like I have two black eyes.' Melody frowned.

Once she was done, she glanced over her shoulder at the window on the opposite wall. It wasn't large by any means, but the view from the third story was pretty spectacular — a vivid collage of autumn leaves and just a sliver of the dull gray sky (she really hoped it wouldn't rain during her training) above the treetops. 'I bet Narruk would like this place. He doesn't seem to like city life all that much. Though… I'd have to stop him from going out and hunting.'

Without warning, her good mood was dashed as a surge of white-hot pain racked her head. She let out an involuntary gasp and fell to her knees, her toothbrush clattering on the tiled floor. Her vision began to blur, and the torture persisted, growing more overwhelming by the second. She squeezed her eyes shut and curled in on herself. Then, she heard a voice, a very familiar voice, screaming her name, and as quickly as it had come, the pain subsided.

For a moment, all she could summon the strength to do was press her sweat-covered body against the cool porcelain tiles. 'What the heck was that?' She wondered when she could finally think again. Gingerly, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and leaned against the wall beside the sink. 'What is wrong with me recently?'

Eventually, she managed to get back onto her feet. She placed her hands on the sides of the sink to help maintain her balance and looked up at herself in the mirror once more. Melody grimaced at just how haggard and exhausted she looked, even more so than before.

She didn't know how much time passed while she was standing there looking at her ghostly pale complexion, but after what felt like an eternity, the growling of her stomach brought her back to reality, and she noticed, for the first time, a delicious smell wafting from the lower level of the house. Her hand was on the doorknob when the scent of sweat caught her attention, and she wrinkled her nose. 'I'm gonna need to shower again.'

Purpose of a Hero

"Well, you took your sweet time," Kate remarked as Melody appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Melody, her still damp hair hanging uncharacteristically freely, gave her a small smile and took a seat across from her and a wriggling Sawyer. From the look her aunt was giving her, it was clear that her fears about the bags under her eyes were justified.

"Sorry, it was nice not to use the crappy school showers for once," she said. Kate eyed her for a second, seeming to weigh her response carefully, before rolling her eyes and going back to trying to feed her son.

"You sound just like your mother whenever she was home from school. Let me guess, stall eight still has no hot water, and stall five still has some nasty writing on the wall." When Melody looked at her in surprise, Kate laughed and shook her head. "I swear, the only reason she ever came back during her breaks was to get away from 'the showers of hell' or whatever."

Melody's chest swelled slightly at the comparison, however small it may have been, to her mother. Before she could ask any of the thousands of questions bouncing around her head, though, a plate stacked to the brim with eggs, pancakes, bacon, and toast was sat down in front of her, and a chipper-looking Linda sat down at the head of the table. "Good morning, pumpkin. Sleep well?"

"Better than normal," Melody said, which wasn't exactly a lie. She'd actually managed to sleep until morning, a very rare occurrence for her over the past month. Linda gave her an appraising look before gesturing at her massive plate of breakfast.

"Good, now eat up. You'll need all the energy you can get. Frank wants to have today be a test run for how your training will be while you're here. Just to give you an idea of what you're up against," Linda explained, but Melody saw the meaning behind her words.

"He wants me to quit, doesn't he?" Her grandmother gave her a sad smile, which was all the answer that Melody needed. 'So even after his offer, he still doesn't really want to train me. Why though? Why does he hate me so much? Why does he hate dad? We're supposed to be family… family is what's most important. So why?'

"After over fifty years of being married to Frank, even I don't know what's going on in his head most of the time. However, I do know that if he truly didn't want to train you, to have you be a part of this family… he wouldn't have followed you into the woods. He's never been the type to say what he wants to say." Linda patted her on the arm lightly before being distracted by Sawyer banging his spoon on the table, flinging bits of applesauce everywhere. While her aunt and grandmother tried to mitigate and clean up the mess, Melody sank into her seat and began slowly eating her food, still just as confused and hurt as she had been before.

"Okay. We should probably go over the plan then, right, mom?" Kate announced, wiping a glob of her son's breakfast from her cheek. Melody glanced up as Linda produced a small tablet from the cabinet beside the dining table. "You ready for the Kristenson Boot Camp?"

"The what?" Melody asked worriedly, not liking the slightly sadistic smile her aunt wore. Seemingly unaware of her daughter's question, Linda hummed triumphantly and placed the tablet down beside Melody's plate. On the LED screen was a wall of text with small diagrams of what looked to be different martial arts stances.

"Today and every day starting the day after tomorrow, you'll begin the morning with Kate, Miles, and me for physical training. We'll work on your stamina, agility, and strength, amongst other things, but most importantly, we'll work on your fighting skills," the elderly woman explained, swiping down on the tablet as she spoke. Melody gulped and looked up at Kate, who was looking at her smugly.

"Get ready for hell. You're lucky; Harmony and I had to do this when we were ten." Linda shot her an admonishing look before sliding the tablet back towards herself and handing it to Sawyer.

"After physical training, you'll have an hour break for lunch before starting Quirk training with Frank in the afternoon."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to do Quirk training before physical training?" Melody asked, not particularly keen on the idea of facing her grandfather when she's already dead tired (which, judging from what she'd seen in her brief look at the tablet, would be a severe understatement). Linda and Kate shared knowing looks, though there was a bit of concern in her aunt's expression before they simultaneously shook their heads.

"Trust me, Moose. You'll be lucky to still be standing after dad's training, even without the hell we're going to put you through," Kate said ominously. Melody looked to her grandmother for reassurance, but her expression was blank. 'Oh, wonderful. I have a feeling this may put dad's midnight training sessions to shame.'

Purpose of a Hero

Despite not being a Pro Hero, Miles certainly fought like one. Melody had been a bit unsure when Kate had told the two of them to spar, but that had quickly melted away once the fight began and her uncle had started pressing her. His movements and technique were so fine-tuned and fluid that no matter what she tried, she couldn't take the pressure off of herself, forcing her to be on the defensive constantly. However, it didn't take too long for her to make a fatal mistake. She didn't see his feint for what it was until his leg slammed into her hip and knocked her off balance. Before Melody could recover, her uncle's shadow appeared over her, and she felt a slight pain on her forehead. It took her a moment to realize that Miles had flicked her. "Not bad, Moose."

"Seriously? I got destroyed," she lamented, accepting his hand and grunting as he pulled her up. Miles shrugged sheepishly and folded his arms behind his head. From the sidelines, she heard her grandmother hum thoughtfully, and both combatants turned to look at her.

"You're trying to do too much," Linda told her, which made Melody frown and raise an eyebrow in bemusement. Kate nodded and noted something down on the tablet in her hands.

"I noticed that last night when we were looking over your tournament battles. You don't really have a concrete style, just more so smashing a bunch of different techniques together, which isn't inherently a bad thing. Having options in a fight could save your life, but you can't just throw book after book onto the pile without having a good foundation," Kate explained. Melody's frown only deepened, and she crossed her arms over her chest.

'I… guess they aren't wrong. Dad's training was always just spurred of the moment and usually focused on self-defense, and Nathan and Narruk really just taught me situational things.' Seeing the pensive look on her niece's face, Kate grinned and clapped her hard on the back.

"Don't worry, Moose. We've got it all figured out. You're in good hands," she said, and Melody believed her wholeheartedly. She couldn't help but laugh when Miles tried to get a look at the tablet over his wife's shoulder and got elbowed in the stomach for his troubles. However, when her gaze fell back on Linda, she was surprised to see the sad look on the woman's face. Then, in an instant, it was gone, replaced with a warmer one. "Now then, prepare yourself. This might be a bit hard to hear."

"What?" Melody asked apprehensively. Kate leaned in close, and when she spoke, it was barely above a whisper.

"You're gonna be short forever!" Whatever Melody had been expecting her aunt to say, it was not anywhere even close to that. It took her a moment to get over her surprise and process what she'd been told before she repeated her previous question. Kate nodded solemnly. "Yup. Well, I mean practically average height, but in the Pro Hero world, that's on the lower spectrum. I don't think a single woman in our ancestry has been over five-foot-eight. Even with that behemoth Carlyle's genes, I'd say you're going to top out at five-foot-four or five."

"Which means you're always going to have to fight people a large bigger than you," Linda interjected. Melody's mind wandered to her classmates and quickly realized how true that was. Out of her entire class, the only people she was taller than were Andi, Hazel, and Sirius. While only a few inches separated her from the majority of the class, some, like Narruk and Clara, had nearly a whole foot on her. "During your time training with us, we are going to help you turn this disadvantage into your biggest strength. Get used to sparring with Miles because you'll be doing it every single day."

"I'd try to pick up as much as you can as quickly as you can. Kate'll rip me a new one if I take it easy on you," Miles whispered, though judging by the death glare he received from Kate, he hadn't lowered his voice enough. Linda continued on – either she didn't notice the silent bickering of her daughter and son-in-law, or she chose not to – and by the end of her explanation, Melody was feeling more than a little overwhelmed.

"This won't be easy, Melody, Kate can attest to that." At that, Kate grimaced and shook her head. 'They went through this when they were ten. I wonder if Kate had to spar against mom… I wonder who mom sparred against,' Melody pondered. After a few more minutes of explaining the torture they'd planned for her, Linda finally stopped and smiled at Melody. "Tomorrow, you have the day free to settle in and go out shopping with Kate and I. Going forward; you'll have training with us, then lunch before your sessions with Frank, but he has a lot more to explain than we do before you begin in earnest."

"That's my cue. Let's move, Moose. Time to skip the frying pan and jump straight into the fire!" Miles said jauntily as he slung his arm over Melody's shoulder and began leading her away, straight towards the forest. She glanced nervously over her shoulder at the others and was further unnerved by the tenseness in their faces. Miles, however, trudged on through the underbrush, seemingly without a care in the world.

Purpose of a Hero

"Hey, Miles?" Melody asked tentatively, looking around at unfamiliar surroundings. They'd long since passed the old treehouse she'd found the night before. The deeper into the woods they got, the closer and more imposing the trees started to become. At one point, it even began to rain, just as Melody had feared it would, but still, Miles showed no signs of stopping.

"What's up?" He asked casually, barely noticing the freezing rain.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Her question was born from curiosity and the need to end the awkward silence – at least on her end –that had plagued them throughout their journey. Miles looked over his shoulder, an amused expression on his face, and shrugged.

"I grew up in a pretty shitty area, learned a lot there. Then I spent a few years in the military, and once my service ended, I became a cop, but I never stopped learning. Even if I don't see a quarter as much action as you Heroes, that doesn't mean I'm not going to be prepared if shit goes sideways."

"Language," Melody replied instinctively. She didn't even realize what she'd said until Miles barked out a laugh. "Sorry, a force of habit."

"Bet the kids at school love that, eh?" He asked cheekily. Before she could answer, though, Miles stopped, and she nearly ran into his back. Peeking around him, she saw a large, suspiciously circular clearing, and at its center sat her grandfather. His back was to them, but Melody recognized the steady, monotonous breathing of meditation from her research into the subject. Miles gave her a sympathetic look before cupping his hands around his mouth. "OI, FRANK!"

While she nearly jumped out of her skin, Melody barely noticed any response from the old man, just the tilt of his head as if to acknowledge them. Her ears still ringing, she was ushered into the clearing by her uncle. The dry leaves and pine needles crunched under her feet, somehow sounding louder in the clearing than they had on the forest path. She was only a few yards away when she looked back over her shoulder for reassurance, but Miles had disappeared.

"Sit," Frank commanded, his voice low and rough. Melody quickly followed his order and assumed her usual meditative position, legs crossed and back straight. While his eyes were closed, she could feel her grandfather's gaze piercing her. "You have experience with meditation. Good. One less thing I have to waste time teaching you."

"I learned to help a friend," she replied, ignoring the sarcasm in his tone. Frank snorted, and the ire that had driven her to blow up and run into the forest last night came surging back.

"You've appropriated your mother's bad habit of adopting strays then, I assume? Every year she'd befriend some low-life in a foolhardy attempt to 'save them', and each one was even more pathetic than the last," Frank drawled, finally opening his eyes and scowling at her. Melody felt her blood begin to boil and struggled to maintain her composure. 'What the heck is wrong with him? How can he just badmouth his own daughter like that?' As if reading her thoughts, the old man shrugged and leaned back, his palms on the damp morning grass. "Let me guess: Seismos' kid? It would be fitting considering his and Harmony's relationship. Maybe that beast that beat the shit out of her? He certainly doesn't have the control his mother does."

"Narruk is not a beast!" Melody retorted hotly.

"Funny, I remember Harmony saying something similar regarding that Lydia girl she took under her wing. Be careful of those you save; you never know if they're going to turn around and stab you in the back." His final word was punctuated by him getting to his feet, his eyes daring her to do the same. However, the instant she tried to comply, her anger, which had been growing at an alarming rate, died down. She still felt irritated with the old man, but the suffocating fury she'd felt just a moment before had all but vanished.

"Stop that!" She barked, holding a hand up to her temple. For a brief instant, there was genuine surprise in her grandfather's expression, but it was quickly buried under something much more condescending.

"Figured it out, have you? And here I thought you were as oblivious as your father."

"Kate mentioned it at dinner last night, but I still don't get it. You said you and I have the same Quirk, but Wr… but Life Drain has never had any sort of effect on people's anger around me before," Melody said, her voice quivering as she uttered her Quirk's name. The more Melody thought about it, the less sense everything made. Yet, she had no logical explanation for all the strange things that had been happening to her in recent months.

"Life Drain has always been a multi-faceted Quirk. Since its base form uses its user's own life force, it tends to take on aspects of their lives, a mutation of sorts. From the beginning of the Quirk Age, each Kristenson who has wielded this Quirk has had a unique deviation."

"When do I get one of those?" She asked, feeling quite silly for doing so. Frank gave a sharp look, as if angry she'd spoken out of turn, but then simply rolled his eyes at her.

"You already have. These mutations are unique. No one in our family's history has been able to selectively phase parts of their body at will. I don't know, nor do I want to know, what caused your variation, but most of the time, it has something to do with how you were raised," Frank explained. Melody frowned. 'How does my childhood have anything to do with me being able to use Partial Phasing?' She wondered as her grandfather spoke again. "I grew up in a fairly awful family, and when my Quirk first manifested, that already existing hatred was amplified. I've always called it 'Hate Reaction'. Usually, just being in my presence is enough to make people furious."

'I'm sure that has nothing to do with your winning personality.' Melody, wisely, did not voice that thought, instead trying to relax as her grandfather began to pace.

"Sawyer has already exhibited signs of his own mutation. I'm sure you've noticed that he doesn't look like us when he uses his Quirk?"

"That was the first thing I noticed. He looks… normal even when he's phasing through walls. Not to mention, he's far more advanced than I was at his age," Melody said, remembering just how difficult it was for her to hold her Wraith form for more than a few seconds. Her right hand unconsciously drifted over to clutch her scarred left wrist. Frank's glare softened for a moment, and he nodded.

"They've been bringing him around more and more often these days. They're worried, and rightfully so. At the rate he's going, he'll have his first awakening by the time he turns ten."

"First awakening?" Melody questioned. Frank, though he looked a bit annoyed that she cut him off, sighed in resignation and sat back down a few yards from her. Using a small twig, he began to draw something in a small patch of dirt, and, for the first time, Melody noticed his hands shaking slightly. When he had finished, there were three stick figures drawn in the soil. The first showed the little stick man standing with its arms aloft and small wavy lines emanating from its body.

"The first awakening of Life Drain is the subtlest. I doubt you'd even notice it when it happened. It's the first time a foreign energy is absorbed into the body. Normally it happens as a sort of 'second wind' and revitalizes the user," Frank explained. Melody frowned, a feeling of dread settling in her stomach. She did remember something like that. Sirius and Epiphany collapsing in the maze with expressions of – what she'd thought at the time was concern at their loss – fear.

If he noticed the trepidation on her face, Frank must have ignored it because he then pointed to the second figure. This one, the only one with a facial expression, sent a spike of pain lacing through Melody's head. Unlike the other two, this one was not standing but kneeling with its mouth open in what she could only assume was a scream. The wavy lines were surrounding it like a cloud. "The second awakening occurs when too much foreign energy has been stored. It is the most violent of the three. The body tries to reject the life force, much like how white blood cells try to destroy a virus. This… is what happened to you at the tournament. It's the reason you cannot use your Quirk. Your body is still fighting against itself."

"Wait, what? What exactly happened at the tournament?" Melody demanded. The more she stared at the drawing, the more insistent the throbbing in her head became. She started hearing the same voices she'd heard since the night before. Nathan. Damien. Ms. Whittaker. Narruk. The almost pitying looks her family had been giving her drove her insane.

"As I said, your body tried to reject your Quirk and Life Drain, in return, lashed out. If it hadn't been for your father tranquilizing you, you'd have surely killed your friends and teacher," Frank said bluntly. Melody's breathing became slightly erratic, and she leaned back, as if someone had smacked her.

"I… I don't understand. I don't remember," she said helplessly. Frank frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Sometimes our subconscious will repress certain traumatic memories. Not entirely; they will still affect us even if we don't realize it, but they will be hidden from our conscious mind. I'll admit, I don't remember much about my second awakening. One moment I was training with my father in the backyard; the next, I was sitting in an interrogation room at the police station." While his tone betrayed no emotion, Melody saw the briefest flicker of sorrow flash across his withered face. Maybe she would have said something if her breakfast hadn't been threatening to make a reappearance.

In the end, it took a few moments for the both of them to compose themselves. Then… Melody turned her attention to the third stick figure drawn hastily in the dirt. This one was the most unsettling of the three. The wavy lines were gone but were replaced by what looked ominously like a cloak. "The third awakening… is the most volatile. This is what we will be trying to achieve during your training, and if we fail, if you fail… the results will be disastrous."

"I don't get it. What does this…" she trailed off unsurely, gesturing vaguely at the drawing. Instead of answering her, Frank got to his feet with a grunt and took a deep breath. In an instant, the already chilly winter air became almost unbearably cold, and the grass around her grandfather's feet began to wilt and turn brown. A black fog began to coalesce around his legs, slowly spreading up his body until it engulfed him in a whirling mass of mist. Melody's eyes widened, and she stumbled backward.

When the mist began to settle, not disperse, she heard an oddly consistent rattling sound coming from the cloud. When her grandfather's face finally came back into view, Melody wanted to run. To sprint as far away from that clearing as she possibly could, not caring if she would get hopelessly lost in the woods. The only splotch of color in the black gaseous cloak was a white, cracked skull. When it spoke, its words echoed softly. "This is Life Drain's complete form. The Reaper's Veil."

Purpose of a Hero

Oh, hey there. Yeah, I'm not dead, surprisingly. I know I keep saying I'm gonna get better at this whole 'upload schedule' mumbo-jumbo, but that would mean tackling my procrastination and laziness at the same time. I'm not saying I'll never get back to consistent uploads, but I need to sort out my personal life and bad habits before that can happen.

Anyway, Melody's true Quirk gets explained… sorta. It will become more and more explained as we continue with this arc and the story as a whole. Sorry if anything about it seems confusing. To clarify, Melody, Frank, Sawyer, and all the past users of Life Drain do not get the Deviations of anyone else. Those are specific to each individual person and do not carry over.

Alright, that's all from me. I'll try to get the next chapter out in less than a month but, as always, no promises. Until next time!

Next Time on the Purpose of a Hero:

Chapter 53: Normalcy