Nay knew where we were supposed to go, so I let her lead the way as we ran in whatever direction she pointed us in. My lungs were burning and my feet hurt, but I didn’t care. I needed to help my teammates.

The streets were empty, and only lit by dimmed streetlights. I wondered where everyone was, but I was glad there were no humans around. The less humans, the less trouble. Even if we could erase their memories, it still was a pain.

I could hear grunts and shouts coming from above, so I knew that this fight was happening on a roof. Before I could figure out which one, however, Nay grabbed onto my arm and yanked me inside one of the buildings on the street.

It was old and dirty, but we didn’t spend much time inside. We raced through the abandoned building and burst through the door to the roof. Right across from us on another building, the boys were fighting Malicius and Lynx, Kristie unconscious on the ground behind them.

I was about to jump right off the building we were on and onto the one that my teammates were, but was suddenly stopped when Nay grabbed onto my arm and yanked me back.

“Not yet,” she whispered, still not letting me move any farther away from her.

“Why can't we go now?” I demanded, trying to pull my arm from her grasp, but it was no use. “They're being slaughtered! And soon, I could be saying that literally!”

“You don't want to just jump in when they're in the middle of a fight,” Nat advised me, though I didn't agree. “If you distract them, it may not end well.”

That made no sense to me, but I listened to her anyway. I’d rather listen to her and stay alive than not listen to her and end up dead. Though if I didn’t help my teammates soon, they could be the ones that ended up dead…

“Where’s Hank?” I found myself asking now, seeing that he was not on the roof with my teammates.

“Still in the RV, I’m sure,” Nay answered, her eyes never leaving the fight going on before us. “He most likely already erased the memories of the man and the woman we just interrupted and called the cops for them.”

But there was one thing I didn’t understand. “Why would he go back to the RV?”

“He didn’t think it was necessary that both of us go searching for you, so I went alone and he stayed inside the RV in case the boys needed him,” Nay explained now, still not looking away from the fight. “Obviously, he hasn’t thought the boys need him yet.”

But it sure seemed like the boys needed him, considering they weren’t doing very well. It scared me that Malicius and Lynx were still doing better even though they were outnumbered by one. Why couldn’t I go help them?

Nay seemed to be thinking about what we could do, but I was pretty much freaking out. I wanted to jump in and help my teammates, but for some reason, that just wasn’t an option. I just wanted to fight Malicius and Lynx and let them know I was not going to let them push us around any longer.

Kristie stirred from the ground, and I felt my breath. At least she was alive. That was good. She had dried blood on her forehead, but at least she was moving. I knew Aiden was never going to forgive me if she died.

She sat up slowly, looking around as she tried to figure out what was going on. No one paid any attention to her, even Aiden, because they were too preoccupied in the fight. Kristie said nothing and just watched them in horror.

When I saw Lynx slash Dex right in the arm, I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t just sit there and watch my teammates get hurt while I did absolutely nothing about it. I had to do something.

“I'm sorry, but I can't just sit here anymore,” I apologized, though I wasn't really sorry. “I have to go help them!”

Nay grabbed for me again, but it was too late. I had already sprung up and jumped right off the roof. “Violet, that jump isn’t safe!” I heard her call out, but I was already in the air, souring toward the roof of the other building.

“I won't let you hurt my friends any longer!” I shouted, landing right in between the two fighting groups, who immediately stopped when they saw me. Obviously, interfering in the middle of a fight was not that bad of an idea.

I didn't even have time to realize what I had said, because Malicius was shooting a rock right at me. I jumped back, dodging it, and he smirked at me. It sent a chill shooting down my spine, but I didn’t let this stop me from picking the rock back up and throwing back at him.

Instead of throwing it back like I thought he would, he merely dodged it and let it go souring off the roof. I could hear it crash into a car below, and I cringed. I wondered how someone would react to a random boulder crushing their car out of nowhere.

“Look who finally decided to show up!” Lynx cackled, her claws out like they always were. “We were starting to think that you chickened out and ran home to cry to your mommy!”

“But wait…” Malicius smiled an evil smile that made my skin crawl. “You couldn’t have done that because your mommy’s dead.”

Without even realizing what I was doing, I picked up a sharp piece of wood that was sitting in a pile beside us and through it right at him. He was able to grab it without even trying.

“Nice try,” he smiled, looking down at the stake. “But that wouldn’t have been able to kill me. Maybe a human, but not me.”

Killing him had not been my intention, but wounding him horribly was. I knew that we were not allowed to kill members of Redrum, though I was sure that they were allowed to kill us whenever they wanted to. But that didn’t bother me very much; it just reminded me of who was the better organization.

Dex suddenly sprung on Malicius, who was ready to fight back right away. Aiden joined him, and then Anthony. So that only left Lynx and me.

We just stared each other down for a moment, as if sizing each other up. She was taller than me, but that wasn’t surprising, since she was older. She also seemed so much bigger than me even though she really wasn’t.

I found myself diving and picking up a block of wood from the pile, holding it like a bat. Amused, Lynx did the same. We then just stood there again, holding pieces of wood as we just stared at each other.

“So?” she smirked, swaying back and forth like a child. “Are you going to do anything, or are you just going to stand there?”

I swung the hunk of wood at her head, but she easily dodged it. She then swung at me, but I was able to move out of the way as well. This continued over and over again, both of us easily being able dodge the other’s attack.

“Do either of you even know how to play baseball?” I could hear Aiden suddenly exclaim, as if it should have been obvious. I scowled at him, but he ignored this.

“Actually, I played softball for twelve years,” Lynx grinned, raising her hand and showing off her nails while she did so. “I was just humoring her.”

She then swung her piece of wood and successfully cracked me on the side of the head, sending me down onto the ground. Black spots clouded my vision, but I refused to pass out. I was not going to lose this fight.

I reached for my piece of wood, but Lynx then kicked it far away from us, all the way across the roof. I raised my hand to try to retrieve it with my powers, but this only resulted in her stepping down on my hand as hard as she could. I bit down on my tongue.

“Poor little Violet,” she giggled, and it was a terrifying sound. “You can’t even protect your own teammates. What kind of DAU member can’t do something as simple as that?”

I was growing angrier and angrier with every word she said. Just because she was stronger than me didn’t mean I couldn’t protect my teammates. I wasn’t going to let her win and have that satisfaction.

With all the strength I had, I kicked out my leg and took her out. I slammed right against her legs and she fell over, not expecting this kind of attack. As soon as she hit the ground, I was on top of her so she couldn’t get away.

“I can protect my teammates,” I growled, raising my fist and punching her right in the face. “I just don’t need my powers for it!”

“You think you’re the only one who doesn’t need to use her powers?” she snarled, wiping at the blood that dripped from her chin. She suddenly kicked me off and now I was the one on the ground. “I can take you down with my bare hands, no claws at all!”

My head was killing me, and so was my abdomen where she had kicked me. But I wasn’t backing down. “Bring it on!” I shouted back at her.

She hissed at me, and then pounced. I remembered the martial arts training I had taken as a child and kicked her right in the stomach, sending her flying away from me.

“Who's the superior one now, Lynx?” I couldn't help but taunt. “You're not all that great without your powers, are you?”

This only angered her, and she pounced once again. She scratched me, but this time with her regular nails, but I merely kicked her again.

She obviously had not been expecting me to actually know what I was doing. I might have been clueless when it came to my powers, but I knew what to do when it came to physical fighting. And I had my best foster home parents to blame for that.

Not that I really had anything to blame them for. I was a lot more thankful that they had let me take the lessons that I had been begging for.

“Just because you’re a good physical fighter doesn’t mean it makes up for all the other things you lack.” She was angrier than I had ever seen her before; I wouldn’t have been surprised if she started foaming at the mouth. “Like control of your powers, social skills, relationships, beauty.”

The last one stung, and I knew she noticed. It hurt so much because she was beautiful as well; not as beautiful as Lena, and definitely not Kristie, but she was still beautiful. And I was just kind of… there.

“You lack beauty,” she continued, because she knew that was the one that really bothered me. It annoyed me that I wasn’t as great at my powers as I could have been, but that could have been fixed with training. It wasn’t like I was going to get surgery on my face to make it… better. “How do you manage to stay on this team when Kristie is so beautiful, and you’re reminded of it every day? It’s always about Kristie. Boys always stare at Kristie. But what about you, Violet? You’re there as well, but they never noticed you. Because you lack beauty.”

I said nothing to this, because I knew nothing I could have said was going to matter. All she said were things that I already knew Kristie was beautiful because that was one of her powers. She was born with it. I wasn’t, and I just had to accept that. I wasn’t going to let it bother me anymore.

But finally, Lynx said something that did strike a nerve. “Don’t be surprised if Dex leaves you for Kristie one day.”

But that… that bothered me, and I didn’t exactly know why.

I jumped forward and tackled her, which she wasn’t expecting so she went crumbling to the floor. I punched her in the face one last time before tangling my fingers through her hair and yanking on it.

“Typical girl fight,” I could hear Aiden mutter under his breath as her ran by, by we ignored him.

Something seemed to change in Lynx when I touched her hair. She seemed to turn into even more of a cat as she hissed and spat, but I wouldn’t let go of her. I held on tight and continued tugging, which only seemed to upset her even more.

I was surprised to see that I had finally found Lynx’s one apparent weakness. Her hair.

Malicius seemed to finally realize that his partner was having trouble. Instead of smashing me in the side with a boulder like I thought he would, he merely kicked me off of her instead. Not that I was complaining about that.

He helped her up, and her hands immediately flew to her hair, as if to make sure that it was all there. She then turned back toward me, and I thought she was going to pounce. But she didn’t.

“This isn't over,” Lynx growled, her hands balled into fists. “This isn't the last time we'll meet, VAKAD. And the next time you see us, we'll be even stronger.”

I looked at her with just as much intensity and said, “We'll be looking forward to it.”

With one last scowl, she hopped onto Malicius's rock and they flew away. None of us tried to stop them. We were all tired of fighting.

I then turned toward my teammates, who looked relieved at the fact that our enemies had fled. I let out a long sigh of relief, now remembering that I had been knocked in the head with a piece of wood and was still bleeding.

“Are you okay?” Anthony asked me once he noticed it as well.

I nodded, since it was the truth. “It’ll heal quickly,” I shrugged, and it wasn’t like it had been a lie. It would be gone in only a day or two, so I really had nothing to worry about.

Nay finally jumped from the other building and onto this one, Hank by her side. “Yes,” she said, a look on her face I couldn’t read. “You are going to heal… quickly.”

She and Hank shared a look, but I didn’t even bat an eyelash at them. There was no point in worrying about whatever they were hiding because I knew they weren’t going to tell me anything. And honestly, that didn’t even bother me very much right then.

I turned toward my tired teammates, but noticed something different about them. And I wasn’t so sure if I liked it or not.

Dex smirked at me, his arms crossed over his chest. “So, we're friends?”

I stared at him incredulously. “What?”

“What you said when you got here,” Anthony continued for him. “You called us your friends.”

I had to think back on it, but I soon remembered that I had called them my friends, and it was strange. I hadn’t had any friends since I was a child, though I guess I could also count Lena, and it was just… weird. I didn’t really know how friendship really worked. I assumed it was a lot different from friendship between ten-year-olds.

I thought back at what Lynx had said. Not only did apparently lack beauty, but I also lacked relationships. But I didn’t want that any longer. Now, I wanted friends.

“Alright,” I shrugged, knowing there was no point in denying it. “We're friends.”

Kristie started squealing, and I jumped in surprise. And even though she was injured, she wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. I was too shocked to hug her back.

“We're friends!” she exclaimed happily. “We're friends, we're friends, we're friends!”

I couldn't help but smile, though I still wasn't accustomed to how friends actually worked. I guess they hugged, but that was a little odd to me. But I guess I'd get used to it.

Suddenly, Aiden turned on me, staring down at the ground with his hands in his pockets. At first, I didn’t think he was even going to say anything to me, but then he finally looked up at me and said, “Sorry for acting like such a jerk. I was treating you unfairly and you didn’t deserve it.”

I just stared at him for a moment, surprised he was apologizing to me. I finally swallowed and said, “Thank you.”

This all was strange, but I liked it. I suddenly gained four friends, and an apology. That wasn’t so bad.

“Come on, guys,” Nay now finally sighed, turning toward the door. “Let’s go back.” 

I loved the sound of that. I really just wanted to sleep for a long time and let the gash on my head heal over night, after I wrapped it up. Kristie also needed medical attention as well, though she seemed to be fine now.

As we started toward the door, Kristie suddenly stopped me, which in turn stopped everyone else.

“Is this Dex's jacket?” she asked, looking from me and then to him. I looked down at myself and my face turned red when I realized I was still wearing Dex’s jacket.

A little embarrassed, I didn't look at Kristie or Dex as I said, “Yeah, it's Dex's jacket.”

She looked confused for a moment, but then a wide smile made its way onto her face. “Cute!”

I said nothing to this and just continued walking, my friends following right after me. It felt weird to call them my friends, but I knew I would get used to it. It actually made me feel a little warm inside at the thought that I wasn’t truly alone anymore.

Friends… I finally had friends.

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The end. :)

Okay, so you're probably thinking something like, "What? How is this the end? What about Violet and Dex? What about what's wrong with Violet?"

Well, if you watch the video on the side, you'll see that it's a trailer for the sequel...

Yep, there's a sequel, and it's called Offenders. :) And I actually really need a cover for it, so if you want to make me one, that'll be fantastic. x)

I was going to enter this story in the Watty Awards, but then I saw that I can only enter one. I really want to enter my story Our Everlasting Melody, so that's the one I'm going to enter. Offenders always has a chance next year. :)

Banner on the side made by Tayla160!

Thanks for reading!