Parker couldn't believe that Lara was standing in front of him. Words escaped him and he looked at her, filled to the brim with terror.

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" Lara spoke with a steady voice.

"Not long enough, if you ask me," Parker choked out. "What are you doing here? Why are you having Colton attack those students?"

Lara laughed and stared at him for a moment. "You haven't figured it out yet?"

Parker didn't know what to say to her. They hadn't figured anything out. All they had accomplished so far was hiding in fear of not knowing what to do.

"Maybe once they wake, you'll realize my plans." With that, she vanished into thin air. Parker stood staring at the spot she had been when Alexis landed on the roof. She saw the look on his face and ran to him.

"Parker, are you okay? You look like you just saw a ghost."

It took a few minutes for him to move his gaze from the spot to her. "Lara... was here."

-----

"Parker, tell me again, exactly what happened." All the masters were staring at him waiting for his response. He'd already told them once and was frustrated that he had to repeat himself. Alexis squeezed his hand, silently telling him it was okay to say it.

"Hailee and I were on the roof talking." The masters cut him off for a second time.

"What were you doing up there? We told you to stay in your house!" Master Sora sounded just as angry the second time he said it as he did the first time.

"We were talking about something... personal..." His cheeks turned red and he continued his story. "Anyway, she left to do something and told me she'd be right back. I turned around to look out over the lake and Lara just appeared behind me."

"Then what'd she say?" Master Kingston interjected.

"She didn't really tell me anything. Just that we'll figure out what she's doing when Riley and Philip wake up. What do you think she means by that?" The masters all shook their heads, unsure as to what she could've meant. "What was the point of her coming to me?"

Master Sora thought for a moment and said, "My guess is that she simply wanted us to know that she wasn't done. That she was behind everything that was happening, even though we'd deduced that for ourselves." The other masters agreed with him as he spoke.

"Well, what are we going to do then?" Alexis asked.

"For now, we just have to wait until Riley and Philip wake so that we can see what Lara was talking about."

-----

Third term was about to start and Parker was ecstatic that he didn't have history on his class roster anymore. He was shocked to see that their entire schedules were physical classes for the most part. They would still have to learn and study for them, but he knew it wasn't going to be exhausting for the rest of the term.

"What order are your classes in Parker?" Caleb asked.

"I have Water, Fire, Lunch, Omni, Air then Earth."

Caleb let out a sigh of relief. "Thank heavens. That's what I have too. I wonder if they're doing that on purpose. We always end up together but not always with the rest of the guys in our room."

Parker shrugged his shoulders. "I just hope that Alexis in our classes too." When he said it, a smile grew across his face.

"What about Ana?" Caleb asked.

"Oh, yeah, her too," Parker corrected himself. Caleb laughed knowing full and well that Parker didn't mean her too.

When they got to the common room, everyone compared schedules. Hailee was sad that she wouldn't be able to help out this term in their Air Imperial class because she had another class that conflicted with it.

Parker almost jumped with joy when he saw that Alexis had the same schedule as him but didn't show much emotion when he saw that Ana had two of the classes flipped with them.

Parker and Alexis filled everyone in with what happened as they ate breakfast. Everyone talked in whispers to make sure that no one else overheard what they were saying.

Caleb and Hailee couldn't believe that she had just shown up like that. Ana didn't really know how to react. She'd heard all of their stories but having not been around when anything happened, she was very distant from the worry.

-----

During their lunch the next day, Parker and Alexis decided to eat a fast lunch and visit the Medical Ward. When they arrived, the room seemed extremely hot which was unusual. Typically, it was like a freezer, which they figured was just the way Madame Sasaki liked it.

Alexis took her house robe off and was just wearing the school uniform that she'd been wearing under it. She didn't like to take her robe off around others because then you could see the burn that snaked its way up the side of her neck. The collar on her robe did a good job at hiding it on a daily basis. However, since the only other two in the room were in a comatose state, she felt safe taking it off.

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"When do you think they'll wake up?" Alexis asked.

Parker shrugged. "I'm not sure but based on Lara showing up, it probably won't be very long. It's only been a little over a week since Philip was attacked so he may wake up a lot later than Riley."

Alexis didn't want to but she agreed that he was probably right. "I hope they wake up soon so that we can figure out what she's up to."

Madame Sasaki walked up behind them and spoke before they knew she was there. "These poor children... I feel so bad for—" She stopped her sentence when she looked at Alexis. "Oh dear..." she said moving her hand to Alexis's neck.

Alexis backed away raising her own hand to cover the burn. "What? It's not like you haven't seen it—"

"I know that I've seen it honey, but I didn't think it would be that noticeable in your school clothes. Remember you were in a gown while you were here. Would you like to me to help it become less noticeable?"

Alexis stared at her, baffled by her question. "What do you mean? You can just make it disappear?"

"Well, I am the medic here aren't I?"

"But if you could do that, why didn't you just do it when it happened at the beginning of the school year?" Alexis's words were getting very heated. Parker grabbed her hand before she got out of control and fire burst into her palms.

When his hand slid into hers, she immediately took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. After a few deep breaths she asked, "Would you give it a try?"

Madame Sasaki took a step toward her. "Pull your collar to the side please."

Alexis tentatively reached for her collar while looking at Parker. He saw that she was nervous so he turned around hoping to make it easier for her. "Parker, it's okay, you don't have to look away. I mean, you've seen the burn mark before."

Parker turned around just in time to see water surround Madame Sasaki's hand. She placed it against the burn on her neck and shoulder. After a minute or so, the burn started to heal itself.

When Madame Sasaki stopped, she stumbled back against a bed and the water fell from her hand. The burn had almost completely vanished and if you didn't know it was there, then you wouldn't notice it.

"You're a Water Imperial?" Parker asked, amazed at what he'd just seen.

"Yes," she said through a heavy breath. "I selected a focus in my fifth year on using it for healing. The only downside, as you can see, is that it takes a lot of energy." They nodded acknowledging how exhausting it must've been.

They stood and talked for a little while before Parker and Alexis had to leave for class. Before they left though, Madame Sasaki stopped them. "Something is different here though. Be careful you two, a burn like that should not have drained me of so much energy. Healing major wounds that threatens someone's life is what saps energy like that."

Parker led the way to their Omni class while neither of them said anything to one another. Neither of them could take their mind off of what Madame Sasaki had said.

When they walked into the clearing Master Sora, Caleb and Hailee were sitting on the ground talking. The master saw them walk into the room and motioned for them to take a seat. "Thank you for joining us."

"Sorry we're late master, we were with Madame Sasaki in the Medical Ward." Alexis pulled her collar to the side to show how she had healed the burn marks almost entirely.

"She is very impressive, isn't she?" the master asked.

"She is very," Parker replied. "But she also told us to be careful. She said that healing that burn took the same amount of energy from her that it would normally take to heal a wound that is threatening someone's life."

The master stared at him for a moment but didn't say anything. Parker could tell there was something on his mind but couldn't decide what it could've been, although he figured it wasn't something good.

"We're not going to train today. Instead, we're going to talk for just little bit and then I'll let you have the rest of the time to relax." The four of them looked at him worried. They thought they'd done something wrong that required a lecture.

"Is it something we did?" Caleb asked.

The master shook his head. "No, don't worry, you're not in any trouble." They all sighed with relief. "I just wanted to keep you in the loop. We're very nervous. The return of Lara cannot be good. Last time she was here, well you know..."

"Yeah..." they all said in unison.

"What do you think she's up to?" Hailee asked.

"Well, that's what we've been talking about a lot over the past few days. Last time she was trying to steal other's Imperials to make herself stronger. I have to imagine it's still along those lines. We're just not sure how Colton plays into this. That's what makes us really nervous."

The four them stared at him as he spoke. They wanted to add to his thoughts but didn't know what to say that the masters weren't already aware of.

"Last year, she took students to lure Parker and Hailee to her. There must be some reason she couldn't just take the two of you like she did the others. She forced you to use Caleb to get to her and then she vanished in the end."

Caleb raised his hand. "I still don't understand why she just vanished after I attacked her. It's not like anything I could've done would hurt her. The one attack just caused energy to surge—" he stopped talking in the middle of his sentence.

"I think that's exactly it Caleb," Master Sora said. "I don't think she can steal Imperials from other Omnis. You told us when you returned that she only went after you three," he said pointing to Parker, Alexis and Hailee. "Now, this is all just a bunch of guesswork, but it seems to fit."

"So, you think that she couldn't steal my Imperials?" Caleb asked. The master nodded. "Then why did she even want me there?"

"My guess is that she was going to take you with her when she relinquished every one of their Imperials."

Parker interrupted, "But why did she let the others go when we got there. I mean, she still took their Imperials away."

Master Sora held up his hand to stop him. "Parker, do you remember how rare we told you it is to have a different Imperial than that of your family?"

He shook his head, not having thought about it for a long while. School distracted him so much that he hadn't thought about his family in a long time.

"You were born with immense abilities and strength. That is why you were so advanced last year. That is why she was targeting you. I recognized it in you when you stood in front of me to be sorted."

Parker looked at him confused. "But if I'm so powerful... then how come I couldn't do anything to stop her?"

"You're still learning my dear boy. She has been practicing and mastering her Imperials for fifty-six years. You had a few months of training before you were thrown to the wolves."

"Wait—" Alexis started. "I get why she targeted you," she pointed at Parker. "But, why did she target Hailee. She was appearing to her as well."

Master Sora looked at Hailee without saying anything and gave her a nod. "There's something you don't know about me..." Hailee began to say. "Lara..." she couldn't get the words to come out of her mouth. Her lip started to quiver before she could continue.

"Hailee, it's okay. You know you can tell us anything. We're always here for you." Alexis couldn't think of anything else to say that would help.

Caleb scooted closer to her and put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed hoping it would help calm her down. He saw a tear roll down her cheek and reached up to wipe it away with his finger. Before he could do it though, she turned her head so he couldn't see her face.

"Lara..." Hailee tried to say again. "Lara is my mom..."