"Wh..What the fuck's going on?" Nara couldn't help but ask as she lazily awoke. She hung there in a daze, feeling the strength of the wind beating against her, and the firm grip of someone carrying her. Oh, right. In an instant everything came back, as she remembered just how well her night had been going. As if on command, she felt every inch of her body screaming in pain, and groaned. "Ah, guess you've finally decided to wake up huh?" A mocking voice asked. She looked up at the man she'd met, while he grinned broadly. She didn't even have the strength to reply in kind. Instead, she decided to look around, and immediately regretted it. The ground below her was a blur as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Her heart sank. Shit. In a panicked tone she asked, "Uhh, wanna tell me what all this is?" If she had any food to throw up, she was sure she would have. "I'll tell you soon, but we've got bigger problems right now." The man replied. She shot him a quizzical look, and was met with his head nodding to something behind his shoulder. She poked her head up over his shoulder. If she had been afraid of the situation before, right now it seemed like a nightmare.
Following behind them were about half a dozen…things…moving at imperceptible speeds. Whatever they were, they looked about the size of a human, but Nara could only make them out as silhouettes moving in her vision. "Hey magic man," she exclaimed in fear, "I don't know what the fuck's going on, but I don't want to die!" Suddenly, he gripped her tighter, causing her to cry out in pain. Before she could even ask 'What the hell?', he replied, "Kid, you better hope you can hold on. It's gonna be rough." He looked into her amethyst eyes expectedly. She quickly wrapped her arms around him despite the rampant protest of her soreness and held on for dear life. Out of her vision, the tattoo on his exposed arm lightly pulsed purple. For a brief moment she felt an unfamiliar sensation in her mind that seemed to gently pull her attention, that was quickly forgotten, when the world around her began to rush past. Her breath left her for a moment, but quickly returned. A piercing screech straight out of a horror movie met Nara's ears shortly after that froze her in place. It was horrifying in its own right, but the thing that frightened her most, was that she'd heard this same noise somewhere before.
From somewhere deep inside, for but the briefest of a moment, a memory surfaced of a night shrouded in storms. She had been afraid. Cold. Wet. Two simple words, "I'm sorry." Then, only the faint remembrance of a futile effort, hopeless in all senses of the word, screaming at the rain. Before she could even think, she felt the sting in her eyes, and the alien feeling of tears rolling down her cheeks. It was strange. She couldn't remember the last time she cried. Not during the time she spent starving. Not when she'd been fired from her job. Not even when those thugs had beaten her. Something about that night was important, she could feel it. And it hurt. It hurt so much she can hardly stand it. She almost felt sorry for the strange man who was carrying her halfway across the city, as she squeezed him tighter and sobbed into his chest. But she didn't care. Just this once, she wanted to let it all out. It felt good. Terrible, but also good. She just needed it this one last time, and she'd be done with it. So she wept, for everything that went wrong. At the miserable story that was her life. For the years spent alone. For every time she tried her best but failed. And for the lack of having even one good memory to cling to.
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She continued on for what felt like hours, but what was more than likely only a few minutes. Nara only snapped out of it when she felt they were slowing down, before stopping in front of a rundown apartment building in an unfamiliar part of the city. To her surprise, there was a group of three people waiting outside. A boy with dark hair maybe a year or two older than her, and a man and woman that looked nearly identical with long blonde hair. They were perhaps in their late twenties. What struck her most was the shine of their eyes. The two she assumed were siblings had ruddy coloured violet eyes, but the guy her age with dark hair had one slightly glowing purple eye, while the other was some dark color she couldn't see in the poor lighting. She sniffled, before asking no one in particular, "Who the hell are you?" in a hoarse, hushed tone. The group of three seemed taken aback for a moment, but the dark haired guy simply smiled and shook his head before replying, "Damn Sid, you couldn't even give her the short version?" Nara was confused for a brief moment, before the man carrying her sighed and replied, "Tomas. No time. We've got at least seven Husks on the way." The boy's smile quickly faded, replaced with a dark expression. He nodded, and to Nara's surprise a long, thin sword materialized in his hand. 'A sword? What the fuck am I getting into?' she couldn't help but think. The man that had carried her here, who she could only guess was called Sid, continued, "Luna, you help me and Tomas. Maxis, start healing her. We can't let a single one of 'em get away."
Sid gently lowered Nara to the sidewalk, while the blonde man, Maxis, knelt down. Sid looked at her with a slight grin and said, "Well kid, we made it. This is Maxis," he pointed to the blonde man, "He'll get you fixed up, but uh, it's gonna hurt a bit. Lucky for you, you get to see first-hand what these eyes can do." Nara saw an unexpected glimmer of excitement in his lilac eyes. She was scared, not to mention utterly confused, but she felt like she could trust these people. It was the first time in her entire life she'd met another Argamon; wouldn't it be kind of rude not to trust them, even if it was only a little bit? She nodded tiredly, too shaken and weary to give any more of her energy. Sid rose to his feet and exclaimed, "Well, let's get to it then!" while he raised his left arm. In his hands appeared an elegant spear standing just as tall as him. 'Him too?' she thought silently. The blade was long and tapered to a sharp point, the shaft wrapped in some black cloth. Nara couldn't fathom why they had weapons, let alone why they didn't just use guns or something. She saw the blonde man, named Maxis, pull something out of his pocket. To her surprise, it was just a knife. He seemed to notice her confusion and let out a sheepish smile before answering her unspoken question, "Oh, I don't need a real weapon right now. This is for healing you."
She couldn't make sense of anything he was saying. Heal her? With a knife? Slowly, doubts began to creep into her mind. 'These people…they must be crazy!' She could feel the ever-familiar sensation of fear creeping into her gut. Was he going to kill her? What did they want with her anyway? The possibilities extended on and on, and the panic paralyzed her mind. She wanted to run, to get away, to have nothing to do with any of this. Then, quicker than she could react, Maxis brought the knife up, its metallic sheen glistening in the dull light. 'No, please no. I have to run. I have to hide. They're gonna kill me! They're gonna-' Then, leaving her absolutely bewildered, he slashed his own exposed arm. There was a deafening silence in her mind. "What?" she asked aloud, too stunned to think. He looked at her quizzically, then seemed to remember something. "Oh right, Sid didn't have time to give you the rundown, did he?" he asked, more to himself, than her, "Right. So, as an Argamon who's gone through an Awakening, we use our powers by consuming our own pain. Like uh, oh! Like this cut!" He excitedly pointed to his cut, now leaking a steady stream of crimson that slowly dripped onto the concrete.
Maxis continued, "It's a lot to explain right now, so please bear with me. Essentially, as we like to call it, we "burn" our pain and that allows us to use our powers as an Awakened. Tell me if you can feel this." He went silent. Then, her eyes widened as the same gentle pulling sensation she'd felt when she and Sid had been running came back. Only this time, she could feel where it was coming from. The sensation seemed to pulse out of Maxis, caressing her mind, almost like it was pushing her attention toward him. He grinned, "Good, you can feel it already. Any time someone burns away pain, you will feel that sensation. Now, allow me to show you my Thorn." He placed his hands on her ribs, and seemed to command, "Libra, bring balance." Almost immediately, her bones cried out in pain, and so did she. However, after a few seconds, he pulled his hands away. To her surprise, her ribs no longer hurt. "What the hell did you do?!" she asked, unsure what to think. She looked at his face, and could see sweat beginning to bead up on his forehead, and his face scrunched as if in pain himself.
"Ah, don't worry," he said with some effort, "My Thorn, Libra, it doesn't heal in the way you might think." He gestured towards his chest. "Instead of mending your wounds, I can transfer them to me, either partially or fully." Nara's eyes widened even further in shock. "These powers, they can do something like that?" she asked. His expression became complicated, but he replied lightheartedly, "Oh, they can do a whole lot more than that. Just wait until you see what those three can do." He said while nodding towards the rest. Nara stared at the three, standing with their backs to each other in a triangle. The dark haired boy and the girl she could only assume was Maxis's sibling stood in a low stance, as if waiting to pounce, while Sid stood tall with the butt of his spear planted on the ground. At Maxis's previous words, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of excitement. If she could do something like that…well, she didn't really know what to think. Maxis put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump a bit. 'Damn. Gotta get over that.' she thought silently, as she turned back to look at him. He spoke in a gentle tone, "This world you've stepped into…it's hard. It's unfair. Maybe even worse than living a regular life." Suddenly she felt the pulling of someone "burning" as Maxis had called it coming from multiple directions, yet he continued in the same tone, seemingly uncaring, "But I think you'll come to prefer this life; you'll finally have the power to fight back."