Anya woke during the night in the middle of another bad dream, but the nightmare slipped from her memory soon upon waking.

She groaned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She felt strange, like something was missing.

As the blur disappeared from her vision, Anya distantly realised that her room was still pitch dark. When she glanced at her bedside table, the red light of the alarm clock read 04:57.

Great - just what she needed. No sleep. Anya tried to close her eyes and get back to sleep, but after ten minutes or so, she became so frustrated from tossing and turning, and feeling so physically uncomfortable, that she threw off her covers and stood by the window.

And suddenly, she knew why she felt like something was missing.

There was no moon.

Nerves pricked at her, and she tried not to panic.

Anya hated the new moon. It was bad enough that she had to contend with her womanhood every month - why did periods have to follow the cycle of the moon? - but having her mind reading powers deactivated for that one full day put her in misery every time, and made her feel so vulnerable.

She tried to go back to sleep, but Anya lay awake until six thirty, when Loid knocked on her door to get her up for school.

"Coming," she said groggily.

It could not be underestimated how much she relied on her powers throughout the course of a normal day. She needed to know people's moods, to know what to say and how to act, and the answers to tests, and to peoples questions. Without it, she felt like she was a failure as a student, as a friend, and even as a spy. How could she get the information she needed without her mind reading powers?

Anya dressed slowly for school, and tickled Bond behind his ears on the way to the table for breakfast, knowing that it was his favourite spot.

Just as Anya sat down at the table, Bond perked up from his spot on the floor, with a fearful look in his eyes. He jumped on Anya, putting his huge paws on her lap, and barked sharply in her face.

"Borf! Borf borf borf!"

"Bond, down!" said Loid sharply, and looked at Anya apologetically. "Anya, you can just tell him to get down, he's going to ruin your uniform before you even get to school!"

Anya didn't say anything in response, but looked back at Bond, who hadn't lost the alarmed look on his face.

She knew that look well. He had just had a vision, and from the looks of it, it was a pretty important one, but it was the one day of the month that she had no idea what he was trying to tell her. She shook her head gently at an increasingly frustrated Bond. When Loid went to the kitchen to refill on coffee, Anya leaned down to Bond.

"I can't see anything right now," she whispered gently. "I'll be able to read your mind again tomorrow."

Bond "borfed" in response. Which, to Anya, could have meant anything.

She got to school at the usual time, and as usual, Damian waited for her at the bus stop. Anya smiled to herself as the bus pulled up to the pavement, and she got out with her usual level of enthusiasm.

So far, it was starting like every other day, but Anya tried to pretend that yes it was completely normal to not hear anyone else's thoughts and she in fact had gone her whole life without relying on listening into peoples minds all the time.

Suffice to say, that by the time lunch came around, she was absolutely exhausted. How did other people get by with trying to interpret tonal inflections, body language, facial expressions, as well as actual words being said aloud? Anya knew better than anybody that storms could wear a calm face, and anger usually held a layer of sadness, but without knowing people's true thoughts, Anya had no idea how to respond to them half of the time.

They sat with the boys, as usual. Anya and Damian sat together on one side of the table, with Ewen, Emile and Becky on the other.

"Hey, I heard that the Imperial Ball this year is going to be held at the palace!" exclaimed Emile excitedly, and he stabbed his fork emphatically into a potato.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Becky wondered. "The school doesn't have any connections to the royal family."

"Yet," said Emile, with a dramatic wave of his fork. "There will be a snotty heir that will turn up in the halls, just you wait and see."

Becky rolled her eyes. "I really doubt it, but I have heard that there are going to be fireworks," she glanced at Damian meaningfully, before pretending to be interested in her own lunch.

"Don't they have fireworks every year?" Damian mumbled through a mouthful of food.

"You tell us, oh wise one," said Becky. "You're the only one of us that is actually an Imperial Scholar. What were the other balls like in previous years?"

"I - uh," Damian stammered, and he glanced quickly at Anya, who picked at her omurice, oblivious to the conversation next to her. "I wasn't paying attention. I didn't have a lot of fun there."

"That's a shame," pouted Anya. "Did they not even have good food? Or fun dancing?"

"Well, uh," Damian stammered, and a blush started to creep up his neck. "I don't really like dancing-"

"Yeah," giggled Ewen. "Damian-sama is really picky with who he wants to dance with."

"Shut up!" Damian hissed, and attempted to jab Ewen with his fork.

Ewen whipped his hand away quickly with another laugh, and added to Damian's apparent embarrassment: "Everyone knows Damian only has eyes for one girl!"

"I swear to God, I will murder you if you say another word-" Damian said with a glare at Ewen.

Anya rolled her eyes. The boys' banter usually confused her, but at least on a normal day she could rely on her powers to give her the subtext. Without that, she might as well be listening to zoo animals making noises at each other.

"But I don't think I'll go this year," Damian added, bringing Anya's focus back into the conversation.

"What? Why not?" Anya said impulsively in a panic. If Damian doesn't go, then that means his father won't be there, and Operation Strix will be doomed!

Damian's blush deepened as he looked at Anya, much to the mirth of the other three teens at the table. "It's just not… that … fun..." he mumbled, and his speech trailed off into the background.

"Hm," said Anya, tapping her spoon against her chin. "What would make it more fun, do you think?"

Damian looked like steam was about to come out of his ears, while Ewen and Emile couldn't contain their laughter as they chuckled mercilessly behind their hands.

"I don't want to talk about it," Damian said firmly, and turned his attention back to his burger meat lunch.

Anya shrugged. She wanted to ask more, but without knowing what Damian was really thinking (and he never said his true thoughts out loud), she found herself at a loss of what follow-up questions she could ask. After a few minutes, it felt too awkward for her, so she packed up her lunch and stood up.

"Hey, where are you going?" said Becky. "You haven't even finished your lunch yet!"

"I'm just not hungry anymore," said Anya innocently, unaware of the muscles tightening in Damian's jaw. "I've got to get my books out from my locker, so I'll see you guys in class."

She didn't wait for them before she walked out of the cafeteria.

Damian stared after Anya as she walked away. He couldn't help but notice how her skirt swished against the back of her legs as she walked.

"Nice one," said Ewen, nodded towards Anya's receding figure. "You could have gone after her at least."

Damian hmphed in his seat. "Clearly she was just trying to get away from you lot being absolute idiots in front of her."

"Doubt it," said Becky calmly. "Your red face just gave you away." She delicately placed a cut vegetable in her mouth and chewed slowly, while she pointedly avoided making further eye contact with Damian.

Damian's ears burned, and he looked away, saying nothing. He knew they were right, and that he should have gone after her, but Anya had been acting strange all day. She seemed a bit more distant than usual, a bit more reserved. She hadn't seemed excited at the prospect of the Imperial Ball like the others were - even though none of the others in the group were Imperial Scholars, it was usually a popular topic all throughout the school.

Damian sighed, and decided that he would talk to her after class. If they were 'friends' now, then it was time for him to do what friends did, and make sure that she was okay.

Anya drifted towards her locker, lost in the quietude of her own mind. Without everyone's thoughts buzzing around her, she was so much more conscious of how loud her own mind was. It felt so empty, and so lonely. So wrong.

She couldn't wait for the day to be over. Absent-mindedly, Anya picked up some more papers from her locker, and turned them over.

Her eyes drifted towards the corner of the paper, and she realised that she had accidentally swiped Adrain's notebook along with her own notes. She groaned. Of course she would be forced to talk to him by fate, and that was the last thing she needed that day, when she already felt bad about her ability to pass as a normal student.

Anya chewed her lip and stuffed the papers into her bags, vowing that she would hand them over to Adrian when she next saw him.

As she slung her bag over her shoulder, she got her wish straight away. Adrian lurked in the corner of the corridor, on the border between the school foyer and the entry hall.

"Hey, Adrian," she called out to him. "I've got your project notes!" She waved the policy brief in the air.

It didn't look as though Adrian had heard her. He turned his head, and disappeared through the stone entryway.

Anya groaned again, then made her way after him. "Hey! Did you hear me? I said-"

But when she turned the corner, Adrian was nowhere to be found.

"Strange," Anya said out loud, and stepped out into the path. She walked a few minutes, all the while looking around for Adrian, or anything that could give her a clue as to where he went.

She walked all the way to the school gates, and looked down the road on either side. There was still no movement, and she was beginning to wonder if she had imagined his presence after all.

Anya was about to turn and head back, when she heard a noise coming from her right on the road: an animal whining.

Normally, Anya would have listened out for the thoughts of the animals, to at least pinpoint where they might have been, but without her mind reading ability, she followed the whining noise of the animal. She found a bush where she heard the noise coming out of, but there was no movement, no shadows -

Anya's eyes were drawn to a dark box on the ground.

Speakers?

The animal sounds came out of the speaker, which meant -

It's a recording! Anya realised, just as she turned around to face what was behind her.

Two men with needles pounced on her, and before she could even fight back, they injected something into her arms.

Images of a doctor in a white room flashed in her mind, but she could not afford to be pulled back into that memory, so Anya bit down on her lip, and focused as hard as she could on the feeling of pain blooming along the edge of her mouth. Anything to keep her from being pulled into another flashback.

She opened her mouth to scream, but her movements suddenly became so sluggish, only a weak strangled sound came out of her mouth.

She couldn't see the faces of the men behind their masks, but they wore what could only be described as medical-grade hazmat suits. Behind them, a small figure stood timidly holding a remote control.

Adrian, she realised. She tried to call out to him, but her mouth could barely move. She slumped to the ground, vaguely aware of the men who had taken her wrists in handcuffs.

"We have Subject 007 in custody," one of the men spoke into a radio. "Ready to transfer, over."

The rumbling of transport approached.

Anya's vision blurred, but she tried to plead to Adrian with her eyes, and only one word came to her: Why?

She didn't know if she said it out loud, but he quickly looked away, and he let the remote control fall to his side. "I told you," Adrian croaked, his head hanging in shame. "I lead animals to the hunters."

One single tear escaped from her as the drug took full effect, and Anya's vision faded to black.

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Uwaaaaaaa the plot arrives !

Let's take a moment to appreciate Damian's complete embarassment and Anya's total obliviousness. I think if she had her mind-reading powers today, she would have heard something rather sweet :')

Well done to everyone that guessed that Adrian was connected through the lab - you were all right!

Also, thank you all so much for your lovely comments/reviews, and leaving your thoughts and hypotheses. I love seeing what this story is evoking in people and I feel honoured when you share your thougths with me :)