"I think we should broadcast this next part right to the Resistance. So we can see their reactions," Headmistress snarls.

They set up my handcuffs, the serum, and the camera. What a beautiful show.

The screen comes to life and I can see Shadow, Mina, Sprocket, Trillian and others looking at the screen in surprise. Headmistress steps in front of me.

"Hello, viewers!"

"What do you want, Rigga?" Mina growls.

Headmistress steps behind me so I'm seen and Shadow gasps. "What are you doing Rigga?!"

Now's my chance.

"SHADOW!" I yell. Guards rush up and try to silence me. They fail. "WE'RE IN THE WINTERWOOD BASE IN WINTERWOOD, NORTHERN KYNGDOM! DEE'S WITH ME! HURRY!"

I can hear them all shouting right as Headmistress slams the broadcast off.

She turns to me and gives me a menacing smile.

"You shouldn't have done that, dear." 

Wait. Didn't Mina say she was leaving? Could she still do that?

Once we get back to the base I check up on the prison soldiers. They give me the report of Dee's escape, and then I say goodbye and go to my room.

After taking a nice, long shower I walk to my tool bench and start working. Layed out in front of me is a life size human automaton, it's head unassembeld. I grab my tools and start working, calming down as I do.

I had started on the human robots a while back, but I had not had enough time to finish them. My hope was that after the ball I could have worked on them more, but that had turned out to not go as I had planned.

Around me, all of my other automatons were at work, bringing me tools and straightening up. The room was full of whirring and clanking, and I felt myself unwind.

Then my radio beeped.

"We need your help in figuring out what to do about the girl we brought with us. shadow is occupied with Brynn, and Mina is preparing to leave." Trillians voice sounds tired, so reluctantly I leave my work bench and head to the conference rooms. 

Things have gone on full crazy mode at the clearing. It seems like some people left, and the other people aren't happy about it. 

As I turn to leave, I notice brown-blonde hair coming from the other side of the clearing. Aly. 

Shadow turns to me and smiles. "Everything is okay, don't worry. Let's get you started."

I nod and she walks away to get something, coming back a few moments later with a withered flower in her hand.

"It's not completely dead yet," she whispers, putting the flower in my hands. She looks into my eyes. "Let's see what you can do."

I focus everything on it, and it starts to gain shape and turn into a pure white lily. But then golden pollen starts to get everywhere, which turns into a strange golden light. The light floods the room, and it swirls all around us. The light explodes through the glass in the room, and the glass shatters on the floor.

"Brynn, that's enough," Shadow says.

But I can't stop it.

I watch it consume the hallways of the base and swarm around people while they look around confused.

"Brynn!" Shadow exclaims.

The light continues to flow, and it gets as bright as a forest fire when suddenly the power shuts off and everything goes dark, the light diminishing and flowing back to the flower.

Shadow gasps. "Did you do that?" 

I was walking towards the room where the girl with Trillian was when I heard a huge explosion. I turned in the direction of the sound and ran.

When I reached the room where it had happened, I saw shadow and Brynn standing in the middle of a glass strewn room.

"Explosion-heard-came-what?" I gasp, trying to catch my breath.

"It's fine. Everything is under control," shadow said calmly, although I saw her shaking. "Brynn just had a little power slip. That's all."

"A little?" I mutter under my breath.

"I'm sorry for the trouble I caused. I didn't mean too," Brynn said timidly.

"It's perfectly fine. I completely understand," I say, trying to calm down. "Hey Brynn, when you where in the enclosure, did you met lots of bird-people? We have one right now and we could use your help in explaining to her. If that's OK with your teacher," I said hurridly.

@Sprocket, my charctaer Ava is also with the other bird girl Valaya. They're twins. 

@shadow, Viola?, and everyone, I am definitely NOT leaving Cricket. I am just leaving he Resistance base to spy on Catastrophe. I think one of my later posts talks about it.  

I am so hungry. 

"…to her?" Sprocket asks.

I shake my head slightly to interrupt my thoughts. "Yes, of course."

Hungry.  

Sprocket gives me a half smile and Shadow nods. I start to follow Sprocket out of the room, but right as we are in the hallway, my knees hit the floor, and I collapse. Everything goes black. 

Trillian-

Ava, Valaya and I peek into the room where Brynn sits. Shadow and Alexander were arguing and she was sitting there with shadows under her eyes looking tired. I signal for the twins to wait at the door and walk up to her. Brynn looked up with scared eyes.

"What happened to me?" She asked "I don't want to be angel of death…"

"I know," I muttered "something like this has happened to me too."

"What?"

"y'see, I once had a sister who had even more power than you. It corrupted her and turned her mad. She went around wreaking death and destruction but one day I figured out a way to stop her. Unfortunately I was then stuck with her power. I had the same trouble as you, every time I used it, I ended up accidentally incinerating something."

Brynn looked at me, confused "but you aren't destroying stuff anymore…"

"no, but it took a long time to figure it out. If you want, I can help you with your powers…?" 

I stand by the room where Shadow, Trillian, Sprocket and everyone are. A passed out Brynn has woken up and scientists try to figure out what happened. Meanwhile, Alexander and Shadow argue, Trillian tries to talk to Brynn, and Mina and Sprocket talk. 

I walk into the room and Mina and Shadow look up.

"Hey, Harbor!" Shadow exclaims, coming to hug me.

"How've you been?" I ask, quickly hugging her back.

She smiles. "Okay."

I turn to Mina and she nods with a smirk.

"Took you long enough."

I laugh. "Yeah, well I'm here now but I'm gonna need some catching up."

A fox looks at me. "Who's this?"

"Princess Harbor of Mer, and an old friend. We all were in the Battle of Aslahari together," Shadow replies.

"Yep," I nod.

Shadow turns to me and in practically a single breath explains what's happened. Honestly, I thought she was going to hyperventilate.

"Now," I say. "I've heard some things from other kingdoms about what Catastrophe has been up to."

"And what's that?" Shadow asks.

I sigh. "Catastrophe has been trying to gain access to different kingdoms, such as Goldenlight, Tory, Windwater Falls, Rin Province, and other places. But not nessacarily to control them, but to occupy them. Occupation in order to find any Resistance members or opposing spies. It's pretty bad. They even came to Mer, but couldn't get past the navy. Other safe kingdoms are the Jade Kingdom, and most of the kingdoms in the southern regions. Northern ones have been taken over by SOCS recently. SOCS is making the people leave, and then they tear down the towns to make facilities. Like I said, it's pretty bad."

"That's terrible," Shadow replies.

Mina nods. "We're still trying to get a handle on our troops and it seems as though Catastrophe is using his to cause oppression already."

"No kidding," Shadow says. "And with all the things happening with Alexandria, Brynn, and everyone else…."

"Who's Alexandria?" I ask. 

While shadow and everyone else tries to explain to Harbour who Alexandria is, I slip out to one of the covered porches.

Looking out at the trees, I take a deep breath. I was exhausted. This whole deal with the enclosure had left me no time to sleep. And now this disturbing report about Catastrophe's forces moving to the different kingdoms…

Stop. Think. Think about what you can do. Don't trouble yourself with the things you can't do right now. Deal with them later.

I hear a noise behind me. Turning around, I see the little girl Brynn walk out. She walks up to me and stands next to me. We sit there in silence for a while.

"I thought the scientists were looking at you," I say, breaking the silence.

"They are talking to shadow. She is trying to figure out what happened." She sighs. "I really wish that I had some time to get used to this. I had no idea what happened back there. It is really hard to understand something that you have no idea about."

I laugh. "I feel your pain."

She looked at me quizically. "You do?"

"Yup. Back when I was in SailHaven, Lord Elliot," I scowl, then take a deep breath and carry on, "decided to send me and Trillian on a mission to get the Relic of Blood or something like that. Actually he didn't tell me to, but I went anyways. Anyhoo, turns out the stupid thing turned me into a vampire. All of a sudden I had fangs," I point to my canines, "and I was going to be immortal and age slowly, and I had these scary mind powers that if I used to much I would go insane or something like that. This all happened while a war was about to start."

She was silent for a while, and I could sense her uneasiness. Finally she said, "I'm hungry."

Laughing, I hand her a muffin from out of my pocket.