Tori

I was fifteen when Henri sat us down and finally explained things to us. I remember sitting with all my siblings and the Weston's (minus the little kids: Jordan and Lorelai, and Arik and Leland.). I knew things. I knew my dad died saving a lot of people. I knew there was evil, and he had a familiar face. But much of what happened was hazy and much was never known to me. I mean I took history in grade school, but I had a feeling that they were keeping a vital portion of history from us.
   
"Our race has always had abilities. But things were not always harmonious between our people." Henri began. "Several thousand years ago, Skorix existed in three divisions or kingdoms. The rulers of those kingdoms all believed that we should use our abilities for different reasons. That's why they split up. They just could never agree, so they decided not to live together at all." He paused, I think expecting one of us to ask questions. We all remained silent, glancing around slightly.
   
He continued. "One kingdom believed we should use our abilities solely for good and for each other. Now you're probably wondering what's wrong with that. Well, the problem is that evil exists in individuals. They were blind to that. Therefore they'd never succeed. The second believed we should use our abilities logically. But they had no compassion." He had been staring at his hands, but now he looks at each of us squarely. "You must remember that goodness and wisdom have to exist together to work." He clears his throat. "The third kingdom acknowledged the evil in us. They believed that was all there was. So they thought every man should use their abilities for his own benefit, they had no logic or morals. All were wrong, but the third never had hope for redemption."
   
"What happened to the kingdoms?" Justin, the oldest Weston, eagerly asks.
   
Henri grins slightly. "I'm getting to that, son." His smile fades a bit. "Each ruler possessed a ring. Whenever the previous ruler would die his power would be stored in the ring as a way to carry on that kingdom's legacy. So the rings became stronger and stronger. Pretty soon the rulers weren't ruling, but were being ruled by the rings. Rebels figured this out in each kingdom and a war began. In order for there to be peace the rings had to be done away with. Their power was too great. So the three rings - the Ring of Virtue, the Ring of Erudition, and the Ring of Carnage - were taken and hidden away for no man to ever touch again. Myrmidons--"
   
"That's what you and dad were." I say.
   
"Yes. In this time they were sworn to protect the rings. There was an incident and the rings were hidden again. The location was only known by the one elected leader and pretty soon was lost with the unexpected death of that man. In our time the term Myrmidon was still used, but they were instead sworn to protect the Leader."
   
"The rings didn't stay hidden did they?" Kyle mutters. I look and see that he's hiding tears.
   
Henri looks like he might cry too. "No, Kyle. They didn't."

   
It takes me about twenty minutes to get to the clinic. Thankfully it's not all the way in the heart of Savannah, GA. It would take me forever to get to work. The outskirts of town are perfectly fine with me.

I pull up and park in the employee parking. I see Dean's blue 1976 Jeep CJ5. I am super envious of it, although I give him a lot of crap about it having terrible gas mileage. I'm one to talk though, I drive a 2007 suburban we got for toting around all the kids, rocking the soccer mom vibes. It's eight years old and has it's issues, but it's silver and I like it and it beats a mini van.

I go through the side door into the clinic. I'm just setting my stuff down in the office when Dean sticks his head in, his jet black hair slightly disheveled. "You know you should really get a comb." I laugh.

"Right thanks. I'll try and remember that." He smirks that killer smirk. "Client's already here. We'll be waiting in the exam room. The little I saw looks pretty bad."

I nod. "Alright, I'm coming now." Slipping my white coat on over my purple scrubs, I follow him down the hall to the exam room. The gray and white Pit Bull is already sitting on the table. This strikes me because he's four years old and has always been pretty excitable. "Hey Ms. Hammond. Dash is pretty calm today. He been looking weak all morning?"

"Yes, he's hardly moved all day. I couldn't get him to eat anything."

"Well, we'll see if we can't get him fixed up." I give her a smile. "So when did you discover the wound?"

"Last night. I let him out before we went to bed."

I briefly inspect the wound. It appears to be a long gash down the dog's side. Maybe 3 inches long.

I wash my hands quickly and put on gloves. Dean breaks a treat in half and holds it out on his palm. Dash sniffs it and manages to eat one half, but doesn't seem interested in the other half. I turn back to the table and contemplate muzzling Dash just for precaution, but decide against it. He doesn't have a history of aggression. Famous last words, right?

Sure enough, when I start to prod around he tries to snap at me. Dean muzzles him and holds him a little tighter. I resume my examination. No way this was a burn. "What makes you think it was a burn?" I question Ms. Hammond.

"Well when I found it, it was, well, smoking."

"Smoking?" This woman's elevator ain't runnin' on all floors.

"Yes, I know you think I'm crazy, but I know what I saw."

"Alright, alright. Let me make sure there aren't any foreign objects in the wound." I continue to prod around. I don't find anything and I'm about to give up when I notice something really strange. Deep in the cut I find some sort of bluish-gray substance. I give Dean a look. He raises his eyebrows questioningly. I manage to retrieve a sample to test for later.

Disposing of my gloves I address Ms. Hammond. "He may have come into contact with some sort of chemicals. I'm going to take a blood sample as well and run some tests." After taking the blood sample, I finish by cleaning, stitching and wrapping the wound. I send Dash and Ms. Hammond home with a topical ointment, instructions for gauze and tape, and many well wishes. I muster a smile, but inside I'm definitely puzzled.

"Ok what's up?" Dean quizzes me.

"I'm not sure. Dean, I've never seen anything like that."

Hearing the concern in my voice he tries reassure me. "It's probably just some chemicals from an old bottle of cleaner or something."

"Maybe, but how did he get that gash?"

"That I don't know, but one step at a time. I'll start running the tests on the samples and maybe we'll have some answers." This is one of those times I'm beyond glad that he knows our little "secret" of where we come from, our abilities, the whole sha-bang. None of our strange discoveries have very turned out to be related to my home world, but at least this way he's open minded if ever it does.

I'm slightly unconvinced, but I nod. "Ok. Thanks Dean." He smiles and plants a kiss on my forehead. I slap his arm. "We suppose to act professional at work."

"Right, sorry." He turns and heads down the hall. And I can't keep the smile off my face.

Daniel

I was sixteen when I broke my wrist. I fell off a ladder. Yes, cliche, I know. I blame it fully on Teague. He's two years older, but my gosh he can be so immature.
   
We were repainting our house and all the kids were pitching it. It was one of the hottest weekends in April. The kids would work in shifts and Teague was suppose to be my replacement. I had finished the low part and was going to let him do the top on the ladder. And what do you know, he decided to not relieve me of my duties and was no where to be found. So as the little angel of a kid I was, I climbed the ladder to start on the top. I got hardly anything done before I lost my balance and fell right off that ladder. Pretty sure mom thought I broke my leg the way I screamed.
   
Normally you'd rush your kid to the hospital. But no we went to see Jake. Jake worked at a private clinic and he knew about us. We're not exactly human and Henri was so paranoid some doctor would figure it out. Henri came upon Jake by sure luck. Jake is kinda a space nerd, so he willingly believed our story and has been our doctor ever since. He can handle most common illnesses and injuries at his clinic and stresses doctor-patient confidentiality. Thank God we've never had any injuries too serious for him.
   
"You think he'll live Jake?" Mom teases.
   
"Afraid you're stuck with this one." Jake hands me some hard candy, which I gladly accept. I'm still a five year old at heart and not ashamed.
   
"As always, you're the best. You, Trina and June will have to come over for dinner soon. It's been too long." The Mathison family was definitely considered close family friends. We love having big cookouts with them and the Westons.
   
"I'll always accept an offer to eat your food, Cora. And I'm sure Trina would love to catch up."
   
"Appreciate it, Jake." She gives him a small hug and we leave the office. That was the last mom would ever speak to Jake.

   
9am and I'm lounging on the couch reading a book. Summer is going to be so sweet. Two days ago I finished my Junior year at Armstrong State University. Pre-Law. Some people say I'm ambitious and some like to think I'm in way over head. I'm inclined to agree with the latter. Finals were almost the death of me. But hey, here I am. I passed and now I get to chill on the couch and read non-school books for the next three months.

I made myself a never ending book list that I'm going to try to make my way through. Starting off with a classic, A Tale of Two Cities, which may or may not been a good idea.

I've been sitting for about an hour trying to get into this book. I haven't made a dent whatsoever. Alright, coffee break. I make my way into the kitchen and am met by Teague, who's sitting at the bar eating a bowl of cereal.

"Hey, sleepy-head."

"Morning. Where is everyone?" He says as he telekinetically turns the page of the newspaper. He and Sky are twins, so they share this awesome ability that I've always been secretly jealous of. I'm stuck with invisibility. Kinda lame, but it did come in handy as a kid. Let's just say no one could ever prove it was me who snuck out of bed and ate the last of the the cookies.

"Out having lives." I answer as I reach the counter and start pouring my second (or is it my third?) cup of coffee. "Starting now I have no life until August."

"Oh that's right. You could always get a job like the rest of us."

"Eh." I laugh. "Speaking of, why aren't you at the gym?" Teague is a certified personal trainer. He wasn't really the college type, so he just studied for the test and passed with flying colors. Mom would be proud. She only ever asked that we find something that we really enjoy and work hard at it. So far I think we're all achieving that.

"No sessions today. The guy claims he has the stomach virus or something." He says with finger quotations. "But hey, I'm still getting paid so." He folds the paper, apparently finished with it. "Since I have extra time, you wanna hit the gym with me? You look like you could use it."

"Jerk."

"Fatty."

I laugh. "Suppose I should, I haven't worked out at all in like a week." I move to the newspaper realizing I haven't looked at it yet.

"So when is this graduation of Jordan's?" He gets up and takes his bowl to the sink.

"Friday." I say as I continue to search the headlines. One catches my eye. Family Dies at Kansas Home in Fire.

"Dude, that's like two days away. Isn't he suppose to be already done with school? I thought seniors got done early."

Lebanon, Kansas. Why does that sound so familiar to me? "He had some makeup test or something. Not a big deal."

"Do you think we should get a gift or something?"    

It takes me too long to answer. "Maybe."

"That article especially captivating or something?"

"Hey, do we know anyone from Lebanon, Kansas?" I finally look up from the page.

"I don't know. I don't think so. Why?"

"Some family died there in a house fire. There's no obvious cause. They're suspecting foul play. Lebanon, Kansas sounds so dang familiar to me."

"Did they not release the family's name?"

"They're not disclosing that yet for some reason."

"Oh well. Ask Kyle sometime. He has a good memory." He pulls out his phone. "I think Justin's going to join us at the gym. Maybe he can drag Hayden along, the little camera nerd."

I shake myself out of the daze and turn to him. "Yeah sounds good. And Hayden is good at what he does. Don't bash him." Hayden is the second Weston kid after Justin. They're pretty different seeing as how Hayden is at the Savannah Art School pursuing photography and Justin is a cop. The next in line is Gage, who's majoring in engineering. After that there's Arik and Leland. They're the same ages as Jordan and Lorelai. Arik and Jordan will be graduating together. Man that makes me feel really old.

My phone buzzes and I pull it out of my pocket. Sky, informing me there's meat on sale and to get some for the cookout Saturday. We're having a big cookout to celebrate Jordan and Arik, but also to have an excuse to get everyone together. "Sky being her usual mature self. She said to go ahead and pick up the meat today because it's on sale."

"Noted." Teague laughs. "You gonna invite Avery?" Avery, my girlfriend.

"I thought I would, I think Tori's inviting Dean. And Sky will have Justin obviously."Sky and Justin have been a couple since they were nineteen. We're the only ones in relationships. But I mean, Jordan and Lorelai are young, Kyle can be such a loner, and Teague is well...Teague.

He nods. "Ready to head out then?"

"Yeah, let's go pump some iron and see if I can't kill myself."

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A/N: Yay, I updated!! Meant to do this a few days ago, but I got distracted with all the new seasons of shows starting (y'all SPN is stressing me out.) Anyways, I hope you're enjoying meeting the fam. There will still be more characters to meet. Yes, I prolly have too many, but they all have a purpose so bear with me. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed Two!
~Emerald_Parrish✌🏻️