Sarah sat across from one of the girls from the test. She had broken her arm. In the heat of the moment, she was excited to be in the fight, now she was feeling pangs of guilt looking at the damage she had done. They were alone.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? Accidents happen in training all the time.”

Sarah nodded.

“I’m sorry it happened.”

Sarah smiled and winced when her split lip curved upwards. The girl laughed.

“Training accidents sure suck. My name is Kyla.”

Sarah nodded and kicked her legs a bit. Glancing up at the older girl. Who smirked at her. A nurse came in. Looked at Kyla.

“How’s the pain?”

“I’m great.”

“Then it’s probably time for us to set it and heal it.”

Sarah waved to her. Waiting for someone to come and get her. Out of everyone she had the least severe injuries. She waited for half an hour more and she glanced at the wrist band for her holo-tablet and realized if she didn’t get moving, she would miss lunch and her Beginner’s magic class. She stood up and suffered instant regret. The stiffness had set in and the entire left side of her abdomen and chest ached. She shook it off, which is to say she just kept walking. She was almost out of the clinic when a nurse blocked her path.

“Where do you think you’re going young lady? You haven’t been looked at yet.”

“I’m okay, I’m going to be late for lunch and class.”

“We will be the judge of that.”

Sarah tried to dodge past her but ended up just kind of shifting bit as more pain ran through her entire body. She whimpered and put her hand on the reception desk.

“You’re okay, are you? You can barely walk.”

“I’m fine, really ma’am. I’ve had worse.”

“No, you are staying here until a doctor can take a look.”

She pointed to one of the examination rooms that had recently become empty. She escorted Sarah inside and helped her onto the examination bed and put a blood pressure cuff around her arm. To say the pain was excruciating would be an understatement. Sarah’s body was basically one big bruise now.

“So, what happened to you?”

Sarah tried to smile as she spoke, but it turned into a weird wince-smile-thing. She looked at her reflection in the polished metal of the storage cabinet doors.

“Training accident.”

“A lot of those today. What were you practicing?”

“Trust falls, it didn’t go as planned.”

The nurse shook her head and took Sarah’s pulse and checked her breathing. Which was not as good as it should be. Her ribs felt like someone had driven over her so there was a great deal of pain if she inhaled too deeply. The nurse frowned. As she entered cause of injuries as training accident.

“A doctor will be in to see you shortly.”

She muttered to herself as she left the room.

“Training accident my arse.”

Sarah sat there for another ten minutes before the door was knocked on and opened. The doctor who came in was a woman. She was older she was looking at a tablet and looked up at Sarah.

“Sarah MacCloud?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Training accident. Pain when you breath. Second time you’ve been to the clinic in two days. Are you going to be one of our frequent flyers?”

Sarah shrugged and winced regretting the movement instantly.

“I might be. I tend to take competition very seriously.”

“Okay well let’s get your top and leggings off so we can see what you’ve done to yourself this time hmm?”

Sarah cautiously pulled off her top which was spandex so it was a painful process. She stood up and did the same for her leggings. The doctor looked at her injuries and started making notes on the tablet she had in her hands. She poked Sarah gently in a few spots which in one case caused Sarah to cry out as much as she tried to resist it.

“Hmm. Nurse says you got these in a training accident?”

“Yes, that is exactly right.”

The doctor quirked an eyebrow.

“I have had several training accidents come through today that look strangely like blunt force trauma received in a fist fight.”

“Wow, what a funny coincidence.”

The doctor sighed. Made some more notes.

“Well, I have good news for you, it looks like one of your ribs isn’t bruised.”

Sarah laughed and instantly clutched her side.

“I suspect you have several deep muscle bruises as well. You will need to get some x-rays done so we can ensure you haven’t broken anything. Also, a CT-Scan I can’t tell if you have tenderness in your abdomen because of a muscle bruise or you have internal bleeding.”

“I’m fine, I’ve had worse. I can just go to class I will be okay in a few days.”

“I’ve already sent messages to your afternoon and tomorrow mornings teachers and your dorm mother to advise them that I’ve admitted it you for overnight observation. You can attend classes remotely. We don’t take chances with the health of our students here.”

Sarah groaned.

“We’ll get you sorted as quickly as we can and if you have no life-threatening injuries, you can go back to class tomorrow morning.”

“So, no healing magic?”

“If you had superficial scrapes and bruises it would be easy to heal, but these are deep tissue injuries. I’m sure with two of your grandparents being PL15 mages, and one a respected doctor you had healing magic on tap at home, unfortunately we have only one PL15 Life mage on staff and he is knee deep in broken bones for our MANA ATP kids who are also part our defenses here, so they get priority and if your wounds aren’t life-threatening and are just painful there is no reason for him to use his energy on you when we can just give you painkillers to take the edge off until you’re healed.”

“How do you know who my grandparents are?”

“They’re your emergency contacts Sarah and have very recognizable names. Dr. MacDonald has been advised that you came in with some injuries and that we will update him when we have more information. He is the one who requested we do the CT-Scan and the x-rays.”

Sarah frowned.

“I wished you had called Nan she would have told you to let me suffer.”

“He was the one who answered the phone.”

Sarah nodded. The doctor left the examination room. Sarah was handed a hospital gown and a robe and wheel chaired to the radiology department. What followed was two hours of being zapped with radiation and waiting around before she was taken to a room and moved to a bed. While she was being moved around and waiting, she’d done her best to attend the basic magic spells class remotely. She could learn the theory but because she was in the hospital, she wasn’t allowed to actually try the light spell.

Sarah looked around her room it was sparse and as far as she knew a typical hospital room. She hadn’t had much cause to be in them while conscious. Her call indicator started flashing so she answered it. It was her grandfather. The stuffy doctor grandfather. He looked slightly displeased.

“Sarah, would you care to explain to me how you managed to bruise twenty-three of your ribs in a training accident? Or let’s go with the simpler how you managed to bruise at least one of every major muscle group?”

“You should see the other guy?”

“I’m not amused. The fact you don’t have some form of major internal bleeding with injuries like this is a miracle.”

He was looking through something on his computer screen.

“You are enough to drive a man to drink.”

“Sorry grandpa I’ll be more careful. I just don’t know when to stop trying to win.”

“Well, young lady, you have limits. You need to be aware of them.”

“Yes grandpa.”

“Good, now how are you feeling? Did they get you pain medication? When will they have you healed up?”

“I’m sore, but the medication is working, and based on what the doctor said, a month, maybe six weeks I’ll be fully healed.”

“They aren’t going to heal you with magic?”

“Well, the only have one mage who can do it and he’s healing the… MANA ATP cadets from umm a training accident too. They were way worse off than me. Glad I’m not doing their training. Its fine grandpa, I have been banged up before from hockey, this is nothing.”

“Well, we shall see about that.”

“It’s really alright grandpa, it’s just part of being athletic. You get hurt sometimes.”

“And what about these bullet fragments in your shoulder? Training accident?”

Sarah blinked.

“Umm, I thought… well umm. I was shot on Earth-2 by a man who thought I’d hurt his daughter. I thought we got the bullet out…or I was told we did.”

“Well, a bullet or fragments are fine if you heal normally but they interfere with magical healing. Your shoulder is still showing signs of the bullet wound even if it looks fine on the surface. I’m going to recommend they open you up and then heal the injury properly, along with the rest of your injuries. I’m not sure what those butchers do on Earth-2 but here we heal things properly.”

“Really I don’t want to cause problems.”

“Well either they heal you or I will demand they fly you out so I can do so.”

Sarah sighed softly. Grandparents. She loved them to death but so worried about her.

“Grandpa how’s mom?”

“She’s still in a coma, she is stable. I did everything I could now it’s just on her to wake up.”

Sarah frowned slightly.

“I wish I had noticed sooner.”

“No, this was not your fault. You are not a doctor how could you recognize the signs?”

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She heard his phone ringing.

“I will talk to you later Sarah.”

“Bye grandpa.”

She hung up the call and stared at the ceiling. She heard his voice again. The blond-haired boy.

“Red hair, how… you. You look like you just finished a training session with Amara after you skipped off with Mariana.”

“Do they not have some rule against random people barging into people’s hospital rooms?”

He chuckled.

“Probably.”

“Go away.”

“Do you really want me to go away, Sarah? That is what you’re going by these days isn’t it?”

Sarah grabbed the button for calling a nurse. The thing that vexed her most is she didn’t really want him to leave. She felt like he should be there with her. No, he’s just some obnoxious cute boy!

“I will press the call button.”

“If you feel you must, if I was bored and stuck in a room like this, I might want company. You always were a bit of a loner though. Doing things your own way, just you against the world.”

“Go away!”

She pressed the call button. He smiled at her and shook his head. When the door opened a nurse came in Sarah hadn’t seen her before, Sarah pointed in the direction the boy.

“Can you please get him out of here?”

The nurse looked where Sarah was pointing and had a look of confusion on her face. Sarah followed her gaze and saw nothing there.

“I swear he was right there.”

“Hmm, maybe we should take a look at how much of the pain killer we gave you.”

She pulled out a tablet and tapped at it a few times. She paused glanced up at Sarah then down at the tablet.

“I’ll let the doctor know.”

The nurse left and Sarah threw her hands up in the air and then regrated the movement as pain shot though every corner of her body.

“That hurt.”

She laid her head back and closed her eyes. The meds were making her drowsy even with her ADHD meds in her. She woke when the doctor touched her shoulder.

“Sarah?”

Sarah blinked drowsily and rubbed her eyes wincing in pain.

“Sarah, do you have any head pain?”

Sarah shook her head.

“A nurse said you saw… well.”

“I’m sorry I must have been out of it from the pain meds.”

The doctor pulled up a chair that was in the room for visitors and sat down.

“Tell me about this boy you saw.”

Sarah shook her head.

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. It could be a sign you have a brain injury Sarah.”

“It’s not the first time I’ve seen him. I’m okay. Just a wild imagination.”

The doctor frowned.

“Okay, well you’ve been scheduled for emergency surgery. Your grandfather was right. The healing that was used on you was sloppy. The bullet fragments prevented it from being done right. We need to remove them and heal you properly. It looks like you tore it up more today with whatever happened to you. So, in about fifteen minutes we’ll give you something, you’ll go to sleep and then when you wake up, you’ll be fully healed.”

She patted Sarah’s shoulder gently. Sarah drifted off again. When she woke next, she was in the twilight forest. Massive silver trees rose out of the ground around her. Their leaves were blue. She had an overwhelming sense of peace. She walked towards the feeling of peace it grew stronger and she stood before hanging vines. Above them a massive tree that looked natural. It did not belong in these magical woods. She pushed past the vines and there was a round granite capstone laying against a small rockface. Where her hand touched blue runes etched along its edges flared to life. She understood the runes, but they made no sense to her. It was like gibberish she could feel the meaning on the edge of her perception, but she could see it. She felt the emptiness clearly it had been there her whole life. Like she was missing half of her soul. She had never felt whole. She felt the part she was missing past the capstone. She traced the runes, if she could just understand what they meant. She could feel power here immense power. Like she was in touch with the whole natural world around her. As she stared at the runes something started to take shape, she could taste it, it was right there. Then she was ripped away from it she screamed out no. The answer was so close.

Sarah’s eyes opened wide. She was in the hospital room she had been in before. A nurse rushed in checked her vitals. The nurse held Sarah down.

“Sarah, Sarah.”

Sarah stopped struggling she sighed.

“I was so close.”

“So close to what Sarah?”

“Finding out who I am.”

The nursed Sarah who rubbed her forehead and shook her head. It had felt so real. Sarah looked outside. It was dark already. She checked her wrist for her holo-tablet it was gone. She was still in a daze. She touched her forehead again.

“Sarah your surgery went fine. You are fully healed, it’s just the anesthetic wearing off.”

Sarah looked down at her arms again and noticed the bruises were gone.

“Surgery?”

“To remove the bullet fragments that prevented your shoulder from healing from the last time someone tried to magically heal you.”

“Oh, that’s done already?”

The nurse smiled.

“Yes. You were asleep when they purged your system of toxins and put you under. Are you feeling alright now?”

Sarah rubbed her face again.

“I just had a weird dream.”

“Okay, once your head clears, you’ll be able to go back to your dorm room.”

“Where is my…”

Sarah tapped her wrist the name for the device escaping her in her post-surgery daze. The nurse opened a drawer and handed the holo-tablet to Sarah.

“Thank you.”

The nurse patted her shoulder gently and nodded. Sarah strapped it on and dialed a number after the nurse left. It rang a few times before her father picked up. She didn’t use a video call.

“Hello?”

“Dad?”

“Oh my God, Sarah! How are you?”

Sarah rubbed her face again. Realizing she probably sounded stoned out of mind.

“Dad, I’m good, I just…”

“Sarah are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I just got out of surgery, I forgot to call you. I’m sorry, Mom…mom tried to…”

“Surgery for what?”

“The bullet left fragments, so the healing didn’t work right. I’m fine, its mom. She tried to kill herself.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She took some pills. She’s in a coma but she’s stable. I just thought you should know.”

“Where is she? What hospital?”

“I don’t know dad she’s in Glasgow somewhere. Grandpa knows. I’m going to go now dad; Just thought you should know.”

“Sarah, wa-.”

Sarah hung up without letting him finish. She was still so mad at him hearing his voice made her want to hit something. Her head was starting to clear up now. There were a pair jogging pants and a t-shirt and a hoodie folded beside her bed, there was also a set of underwear for her. And her work out clothes were in a bag along with her old underwear. She started pulling the new clothes she was provided with and tugged her runners on. She hopped off of the bed and walked a few steps back and forth to make sure she wasn’t dizzy before leaving the room. The nurse noticed her.

“Sarah you should still be in bed.”

Sarah waved her hand dismissively.

“I’m fine, just want to get back to my dorm room.”

“I can’t discharge you until you’ve been assessed by a doctor.”

“Can’t you just scan my thingy and let the Doctor AI, do it?”

“Yes.”

Sarah waved her wrist band over the scanner and the nurse nodded.

“Well, the computer says your cognitive functions are okay to go to your dorm room. It has said you should stay there until breakfast tomorrow. No work out so basically it has set a fence up around it, so I suggest you follow its instructions.”

Sarah signed and nodded. She went down to the train station. It had a few staff from the hospital waiting to head to their residence. Sarah paced back and forth hoping the physical activity

would clear the remnants of the haze from her head. She kept seeing the stone disk but couldn’t make out the runes. The train finally arrived, and she got on. The residence for the hospital staff was closer than her dorm. She was left alone she leaned back and rubbed her face and eyes. Her thoughts were still sluggish to come. The train stopped at another station. She opened her eyes again; She saw the blonde boy sitting across from her. He had his usual half-grin/half-smirk on his face. She felt her usual sense of belonging and gut-wrenching attraction to him. She rolled her eyes.

“How do you keep appearing everywhere?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Why are you bothering me?”

“Am I though?”

“Just tell me what you want!”

Sarah clenched her fists, and the train shook as a wave of force bust from her.

“Slow down tiger you just woke up from surgery.”

Sarah looked at her hands the blue veins that had flared to life started retreating. She rubbed them the burning slowly subsided.

“I don’t know you but somehow you make me want to break things.”

“It’s almost like we’re an old married couple who can bring out the best and the worst in each other.”

“Look I’m not going to play your game. Are you working for those guys that tried to grab me?”

“No, the only person I’m working for is you.”

“You make no sense. Why do you never appear when anyone else is around?”

“Because I’m here for you.”

He stood and walked across the car and sat beside her.

“You’re like the creepiest boy I have ever met. Go stalk someone else. Or I will hurt you.”

“Sarah, yes that’s the name, so strange calling you that. Sarah I am here for you, I always have been and always will be.”

Sarah pushed away along the bench. The train stopped and she ran off watching it zoom off with the boy waving to her. She ran through the station and up the stairs to the surface. She was out front of the boy’s dorm. She walked towards her building and kept looking behind her. She rushed along the foot path and found herself bumping into someone when she glanced behind her just before turning a corner. She recognized his voice and smell immediately. It was Misha. He spoke to her in Russian.

“Sarah? Is everything okay?”

“Hi Misha, sorry I just thought someone was following me.”

“Who?”

He looked behind her stepping between her and whoever might be there.

“I don’t see anyone; Do you have a reason to think someone is following you?”

Sarah rubbed her arms and glanced back.

“I… there is this boy that keeps showing up when I’m alone. He’s really creepy? Obsessed? I don’t know. He just won’t leave me be.”

“Where did you see him last?”

“He got on the train when I was alone at the senior’s dorm, and I ran off as soon as I could he was still on the train when I left it but he just seems to come and go as he pleases.”

“What does he look like?”

“Blonde hair, cute, fourteen, blue eyes, super cute”

“Do you have a name?”

“He said it once, but I don’t remember.”

Misha took out his phone and opened an app and tapped something then put it to his ear. He spoke English.

“This is Major Guren, I want team to investigate the subway heading towards west side of campus. There may be a boy on it that is causing trouble. Let me know what you find.”

He hung up and motioned for Sarah to follow him. He spoke in Russian again.

“I’ll escort you home.”

“Thank you, Misha.”

“You have my card. You see that boy again you call me right away. Try and get a picture if you can.”

Sarah nodded.

“I hear you had a training accident today. Everything okay?”

Sarah smiled and wiped up some tears.

“I’m fine.”

“You look healed, must have been bad if they used magic.”

“No, I was shot on Earth-2 and there were fragments left, so the healing magic that was used on me there didn’t work right. They had to pull the fragments out and heal me again. My training injuries just got healed because of that. They weren’t bad, only some bruised ribs.”

“That good. Wouldn’t want my star recruit hurt.”

Sarah laughed.

“You don’t give up.”

“I am Russian, if we gave up easily, we would have moved someplace warmer long time ago.”

Sarah giggled.

“Sarah, I am here for you. Whether or not you decide to come to Russia. You remind me of your daughter.”

“Oh, yea?”

“She is starting her next week. I guess someone pulled some strings.”

“Wow, that’s great.”

“She doesn’t have any powers, but this is the best school in the world.”

He snapped his fingers and started patting around the pockets of his combat pants. He found an envelope.

“Yes, I have a letter from the president for you.”

He offered the letter to Sarah.

“I have filed my reports on possible new recruits and apparently your story had an impact on him, and he sent this in diplomatic pouch.”

Sarah took the letter. Adjusting her hair and blushing slightly.

“I’m not all that special I’m actually sort of terrible at life.”

“Well, it is in everyone’s best interest that young talent like yours isn’t corrupted by more militant parties.”

Sarah nodded again and put the letter in the front pouch of the school hoodie she was wearing. She started looking around and realized in her haste to leave the train she’d left her bag of clothes and her ear buds behind in the bag.

“Is something the matter?”

“I just left my bag with my clothes on the train. It had my ear buds in it damn it.”

“I will find it if I can.”

The pair arrived in front of the dorm. Misha swiped his card and opened the door for her.

“I’ll drop it off with Major Sheppard when we find it.”

“Thank you, Misha, I appreciate the escort home.”

“Good night. And don’t worry about boy I’ll make sure he understands how to behave more respectfully.”

Sarah waved and walked inside the dorm. She stopped by the cafeteria area and used her holo-tablet wristband to purchase a soda and a sandwich from the vending machine. She walked up to her room and found the common room was alive with conversation. She waved to them and headed to her room not really up to dealing with other human beings when she opened her door, she saw the bag she had left on the train sitting on her bed. She started looking around her room immediately but found no one except a tired looking Sir Gallant who had awoken at her abrupt entrance. She went into the common room.

“Who dropped the bag off for me?”

The girls looked at each other.

“Bag?”

“The plastic bag from the hospital? How could you not see someone come in and go into my room?”

Amee looked annoyed.

“Sarah chill. We didn’t see or hear anything.”

“But it’s right there on my bed, how else did it get there?”

Amee walked to her door and looked at what Sarah was pointing at.

“Sarah, you are kind of… forgetful, are you sure you didn’t bring it in and forget you, had it?”

“I’ve got fucking ADHD; Not dementia!”

Amee held up her hands.

“Maybe talk to us when you aren’t going to be a super-bitch.”

Amee walked away. Sarah bit her thumb nail pacing back and forth staring at the bag. She finally grabbed Misha’s card from her nightstand and called him.

“Sarah? What is wrong?”

“I found the bag in my room; He was in my room.”

“Don’t touch anything. We are on our way.”

Sarah continued to pace staring at the bag chewing her thumb nail. It took ten minutes before there was a knock on the door and Misha was there with two more of the security detail for the campus. Amee let them in, and Misha put his hand on Sarah’s shoulder. She had tears on her face. He motioned for the two women with him to go check the room out. They checked the whole room and came back to Misha shaking their heads. Sarah pointed at the beg.

“I’m not crazy, I didn’t have it with me. I forgot it on the train.”

“I know Sarah. You did not have it when I brought you home.”

He pulled on a pair of gloves and took her ear buds out and put them on her nightstand.

“We’re going to take everything else with us, see what we can find out about him. Maybe he can turn invisible or phase through things. We’ll sort it out.”

Sarah was still in tears and stood at the doorway.

“He was in my room. How can I sleep here and feel safe?”

Maria spoke up.

“You can use my bed. I will watch your room tonight.”

Sarah nodded. Maria approached her and put her arm around Sarah’s back and hugged her. She led Sarah to her room. Amee looked like she wanted to say something to Sarah. Sarah glared at her. Amee sighed and sat back down.