"Communication is key. Friendship is essential. Create bonds with those you meet. Forge bonds stronger than  steel, sturdier than bedrock, and more flexible than the Cosmos. These bonds will stay for eons to come."

-UNKNOWN TO US

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"Do you think you can walk normally?" Yugo stopped rolling the chair near the front office.

"Finally you ask," Melissa heavily sighed, "And yes I can." Yugo gave her a stern look. To prove her point, she abruptly stepped forward from the wheelchair and began to walk. As she started, she stumbled a bit, and Yugo rushed forward to help her, but Melissa held out a hand and Yugo stopped dead in his tracks. "I'm fine." she replied.

"Sorry for asking," he held his hands up in defense as she began to walk more comfortably in the teenager-infested hallway, "Let's not keep the others waiting." He began to walk through the hallway as Melissa caught up.

Silence fell over the duo as they flowed through the sea of teenagers. When they had reached the car, they found the others waiting by the said car.

"Are you ready to go?" Chris asked. Yugo glanced over at the group of kids. Chris noticed his gaze and frowned. "What's wrong?" Chris inquired, placing a hand on Yugo's shoulders.

"We can all now have the discussion." Yugo replied, the words dry in his mouth, and he sounded as if there was regret in the tone of the string of words. Chris' eyes widened, a grin now readily visible on his expression.

"Awesome, finally we can talk about our family history!" Chris put emphasis on finally.

"Well... About that..."

"What happened?"

"The Military have beat us to the punch."

"I know."

"What? How?"

Chris shrugged. "Called me in as well, I talked with the Marshall. And according to the others, the same happened to them."

"And?"

"It wasn't anything new. Nothing that we didn't know about already."

"Isn't it weird?"

"What is?"

"The fact that they talked about those." Yugo put emphasis on the word those.

"Not really."

"Why not?"

"Because honestly, because nobody even has the slightest clue as to what they look like." Yugo made a face of realization. He let out a relieved sigh.

"Are you guys coming in or do I have to pull you guys in?" Melissa's voice rang through the car and towards the duo.

"We're coming," Chris voiced back, "We'll talk more later at the house." Yugo nodded and together they walked into the car.

The car ride was far more silent than usual- Nico wasn't chatting about his day, Chris wasn't talking about anything new he had learned, and Sakura rested her head on a hand and was peering out the window next to her. Everybody seemed down, almost as if...

"They talked to you guys as well?" Evangeliene whispered.

"Yeah..." came their uniformed replies. And they were silent for the rest of the car ride. Yugo then finally pulled the car into the driveway.

The house in which they had arrived wasn't really a normal house. In fact, it was more like a mansion in the middle of the outer reaches of San Francisco, according to the local homeless on the streets. To rich people, it was a mix of a mansion and house in the slums.

The slums were just a fancy way of saying the Borders of the City of San Francisco, and nobody else lived in that area. The six downtrodden teenagers exited the large van, and Melissa stepped up to the door, dark and sturdy, and the inserted the key. She turned the key, and opened the door. When she stepped inside, a wave of nausea swept over her, and she instinctively brought her hand to her head. She staggered aside and rested her back on the wall.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sakura asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I-" she began, before Yugo shut the door.

"She'll be fine. Besides, we have a few little problems to talk about." he reassured her, motioning towards the dining hall. Her gaze grew softer as she headed towards the dining hall. 

Melissa stood still, seething through her teeth as she awaited for the passing of her nausea. After several minutes, she decided to walk into their dining hall after becoming bored.

The long table sat in the middle of the room. And sitting around the table were all familiar faces: The five others who used the same car with her, and the remaining twelve kids.

Melissa hastily sat in her seat. Everyone sat in silence as they all seemed to be in thought.

Yugo heaved a sigh and broke the silence, drawing their attention upon himself, "I understand why some people are down and silent, but our normally boisterous friends," he glanced over at Nico and Chris, "Are also silent. Why is that?"

"There's probably a reason for that..." Chris replied.

Nico piped in, his voice a bit too jumpy, as if he was popping back into reality, pushing his thoughts back "No reason in particular. Why did we gather rather a bit too early?"

"That is a nice question," Yugo smiled, "Remember what I had told you three weeks ago?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"We can finally do that, and something else."

"Which is?"

"As far as I can tell, it seems as they've talked to everyone present in this room."

"Indeed they have." Chris replied, a hand scratching the back of his head.

"But that's not why we've all sat down here, isn't it?" said Zach, his arms were folded across his chest.

"But if that's not why, then what is?" a new person spoke up, he wore a dark beanie, which covered most of his medium length dark hair, his shimmering purple eyes staring off far, as if in deep thought.

"Well Vincent, as of today, we all have been... Made self-aware of our peculiar circumstances." Yugo stated, his last choice of words seemed a bit unnatural to Melissa's ears.

'Circumstances?' Melissa thought. "Wait," she spoke up, pulling free of her own thoughts, "Wait, what are you talking about?"

Yugo only gave her a smile. "About 'Good ol' Jean's Secret.'" Several murmurs shot throughout the table's participants. "As you may know, people have begun to notice that we wear all that's left of our families." He pulled out his own clock-shaped pendant. He continued, "And as time went on these past six years, each and every one of us have slowly figured out what exactly out 'Gifts' were." Melissa pulled out her own pendant, staring deeply into the glassy surface, she became entranced to something... New within the glass bead.

She thought back to six years prior, back to some of the most strangest moments in her life. On that fateful day, she was embraced by a wet pillow. And today yet again with the translucent fist in the air, the soaked clothes. And again with the horrid dreams that she continued to have, with the sandy beach, and the soft, gentle ocean breeze.

She also remembered the picture frame. The seashells depicted on it, and how she'll never be able to see any of her family again.

Chris chimed in, "You see, our ancestor Jean was no ordinary man, no no no," he spoke eccentrically, as excitement had begun to show in his voice as it began to crack slightly, "Jean was an alchemist, and one of the best at that. He was on par with Nicholas Flammel. I've done some research, and I found that his final project ultimately led to his untimely demise."

"What exactly did it do?" she inquired, her resolve as to what she thought it was grew even more apparent.

"It were the pendants, formed by a rare substance known to be dangerous to mankind." Dylan's voice rang out, "Renegus. With his alchemy, Jean infused a special property within his DNA; a gene."

Dylan paused for a moment, "Jean spliced a certain gene into his said DNA. This allowed him and his family become to the... Side effects of human contact with Renegus," he seemed to be picky with his choice of words as he finished, "Which were insanity and death."

Silence. It was a few moments before Yugo cleared his throat. "Okay, on that depressing but factually correct note made by Dylan, you may have realized certain affinities towards an aspect. Am I correct?" He held his arms out, and suddenly he blinked out of view, just to appear right next to Sakura, whom of which Melissa was sure of her not appreciating Yugo's sudden appearance.

"P-Please..." Sakura's voice whispered softly, "D-Don't do that please..." Yugo held his hands in defense and he blinked out and back to where he stood just mere moments before.

"As I was saying," he grinned, "Can any of you guess my affinity?" He put emphasis on the word guess, implying that somebody knew of his affinity. To which she guessed that it was probably Chris.

Well, more like knew that it was Chris.

The more that she thought about it, the clearer it became. "It's with our sense of Time." She honed in on his gaze, and he smiled once again.

"Sense of Time..." he chuckled a bit, "What a funny phrase, but it isn't too far off... I can mess... With Time itself. Time is a man-made principle, and thus is flexible. What my affinity grants me is the ability to flash-forward or roll-back your perceptions of Time: Meaning that I can either seem faster or slower, but in Reality you are slower or faster." He blinked out of existence, then he appeared next to Lulu, "I can stop Time, allowing me to do this."

"So, you're telling us that these," Evangeline said, emphasizing on these, holding her own pendant, "Grant us certain immunities and affinities."

"It appears so," said a red-headed girl, "Look at us. We've all been shy and nervous around each other as of late." She heaved a sigh.

"Crystal does indeed have a point. Aren't we all friends guys?" a red-eyed boy asked, pushing his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose.

"We've only known each other for a total of six years Conner," Sakura replied, she then sighed, "I'm... Sorry, I've had a rough day." she apologized. Melissa thought something was off. As if she were afraid of something.

Something was up. "I just..." she felt it was hard to speak, then she continued, "When I was approached, they seemed... Almost a bit too forceful."

"To us, they were friendly, too... Friendly." Yugo replied confused to her statement.

"It's not just you guys," Conner said, "They were rather inquisitive with me, Chris, and Evangeline."

The others quickly chimed in as to how they were approached. "One thing is for certain," Dylan said, "There has always been more than meets the eye with our pendants. And I trust that you all have had 'The Dream'?"

"Yes." came the uniform replies of all the teenagers. So it wasn't just her who had the awfully strange dream?

"A vision of sorts you say. Basically Jean, our common ancestor, explains to us exactly had just happened mere moments before." Vincent muttered, a hand on his chin inquisitively.

"The Dreams are similar, yet different. Did you note something? I know I did when I spoke with Chris a while ago." Yugo mentioned.

"Yeah," Chris agreed, "We noted a single major difference, and a somewhat lesser one."

"What was the difference?" Lulu asked.

"The place The Dream took place."

"Excuse me?" Melissa asked, "What do you mean by place? I don't think we quite follow."

"I am referring to the location of our conversations with Jean." Chris smiled.

"Now that you mention it," Zach piped in, "I've always found the location to be a bit odd."

"Yes, it is indeed a bit weird," Yugo shrugged his shoulders, "And those locations give a large indication about our affinities. The location of mine is in a clock shop near Big Ben."

Chris cut him off "And mine was at a power plant. Well, more like I was near a power generator of sorts."

"And that's the difference," Dylan said, "To further that, mine was in a chapel of sorts."

"Okay, so here's the thing- The Dream's location is there just in case we didn't understand what exactly was our affinity based on the feats we preformed." They eventually began to have a discussion as to possible meanings.

Melissa couldn't believe what she was hearing. For the longest time she didn't believe in anything supernatural or paranormal, and yet she was stuck smack dab in the middle of it all. But for some reason, it all made sense to her. She finally understood. "How about this?" Melissa began, and everyone went silent, focusing their attention on her, "How about we say the locations to everyone, and from there... Find the affinities."

Silence greeted her after her final comment at first. It seemed to last forever. "Very well," Vincent said, he then paused for a moment, "A mountain top. That's where it was for me."

Conner was next. "A Forge."

Nico spoke up, "A cozy house with a fireplace." He wrapped his arms around him as he said so, and everyone stared at him. "What? It's true..."

"A space shuttle." Brook broke in, her face contorting into a confused look.

"A rain forest." Lulu chimed in.

"A coal mine." Sakura's soft voice shook a bit.

"A lava pool." Karma bluntly uttered.

"A cemetery,"said a bright blonde kid, "Ironically."

"Don't worry John, I was in one of those skydiving places." said another kid.

"But at least that sounds nice Mike." he replied.

"If it were real."

"Recording studio." said a dark-haired male, who gave off the vibes of a Gothic kid.

"A chemical laboratory." Zach piped in, crossing his arms.

"A dark hallway." Crystal said.

"I was in a lighthouse." said a stoic male.

"Ugh, what were these supposed to mean?" exclaimed the Goth.

And this is where things went south. What was meant to be a nice and neat discussion became a heated and unruly debate.

"I see," exclaimed Melissa, her voice breaking in, silencing the other teenagers, "The places 'are' what our affinities are! Because regrettably..." She trailed off.

The other teenagers leaned forward in their seats in anticipation. "Mine was on a beach. To be exact, the place that scarred my childhood."