On the other side of the large boulder, Wes stood face to face with another person. His entire posture seemed rigid and tense, as if this encounter had been completely unexpected. However, the person standing just a few feet away seemed relaxed in the way they held themselves. Their position was the only thing I had to go on, considering that their face was completely covered by the large hood of the black sweat shirt they wore. In fact, the sweat shirt was so large this person seemed as if they were swimming in it. It completely hid their age, gender, everything. Hell, as far as I knew there could be a monster underneath that hood, and with the way things had been going lately, that option was entirely possible. 

"Ms. McKenna, how nice of you to join us."

Yeah, cause this was just your average everyday meeting in the woods.

Wes glanced over his shoulder to see me standing not far behind him. He cursed under his breath but drew his attention back to the mystery person. He may not like the fact that I was there but there was no changing it now. I took a few steps closer to Wes but made no move to get any closer to this person.

"Who are you?" Wes asked, and I instantly relaxed just a fraction.

I hadn't wanted to acknowledge it, but there was a possibility that Wes had planned this. But hearing him ask that question out loud eliminated that possibility for me. He was just as shocked as me to find this person, who clearly knew us, just standing in the woods.

The enormous hood swayed as they spoke.

"That's not important. What's important is that you know who you are."

"I know who I am." Wes shot back.

"No, you know what you are but not who you are, and even more importantly, you do not know who you are working for."

Great, so our random meeting was with Confucius. I had no time for this and sooner or later, our group was going to wonder where we had gone to.

"Start making sense, or we start walking away," I demanded.

Wes said nothing to back up my words but made a small shift closer to me, physically supporting my claim.

"Young, dumb dark bloods. You are so quick to trust those responsible for your care when you know nothing about them or what they want."

"And what do you want?" Wes asked this time.

"I want for you and your group to be better informed. Nothing you have been told is what it seems and by continuing on your current path you will only be destroyed."

"We've been plenty informed."

It was all I could think to say. After the last couple weeks I had had so much new and unbelievable information crammed into my head, that to think I was being lied to only pissed me off. The things I had seen weren't lies and the things we all could do weren't lies. My body twitched with the anticipation to fight or flight, this thing needed to explain it's self.

Mentally digging in, I tapped into the energy hibernating under my skin. I prepared a rock the size of the baseballs I had practiced with, keeping it lifted just barely off the ground in case I needed it. But just as I was sure I had a secure hold on the rock, I felt that hold slip and the rock flew off into the distance. Wes' head jerked to look at me accusingly.

"I didn't do it," I whispered to him.

If my hold had slipped the rock would have fallen to the ground.

"I did it." The figure stated sounding almost bored.

So they are a monster.

"Do not try and harm me, dark blood. I am only here to help you."

"Fine, then show your face!" I shouted at them.

My patience had thinned with them smacking my abilities down like a person with a fly swatter. I knew I must have sounded like a child throwing a tantrum but enough was enough.

"No!" They barked back. "you're angry? Good! Use it! Return to your keepers and demand answers.

"you're a Gate Keeper," Wes announced as if just grasping the idea that had never crossed my mind.

"What I am, who I am, it is of no concern to you. What you should concern yourself with is this one question. Where are the other Dembions?"

I tried to think of how to respond to that. It made no sense to me. When I looked to Wes, hoping he understood, it became obvious he was just as puzzled as me.

As if noticing our confusion, the figure began to hackle beneath their hooded cover.

"You truly are children. Have you not ever wondered why Ms. Pierce and her personal assistant are the only Dembions taking part in your training? The Organization is powerful and yet they only provide you with two of your own kind to help show you the potential of your powers. Why is that?"

"Why don't you tell us."

"No, they need to tell you. They need to answer for the things they have done. Only then will you understand."

The practically spat those final words out, all traces of their laughter from moments ago completely gone.

I tried to think of what to say or ask to get more information from them but just as my mind was starting to form the words, several footsteps sounded from the direction we had come from.

"It appears your friends have found you," Confucius announced but made no move to leave.

Sure enough, Lolly, Lucas, Declan, Sage, and Alicia appeared from behind the boulder. Sage was the first to spot us.

"Of thank god, we've been looking for you two."

Everyone's attention was on us, but slowly, one by one, their heads turned to the hooded figure. Lucas' hand engulfed in flame, preparing for a fight.

"Who the hell is that?" Lolly asked.

"Dark bloods, always so curious about the wrong things." The figure replied.

I anticipated another long spiel from our mystery guest. Instead, Ms. Pierce and Mr.B brought up the rear of our search party and the hooded figure jumped into action, literally. With the mix of what sounded like a hiss and a growl, the figure leaped onto another large boulder further away. They crouched on the boulder and with the wave of a gloved hand, sent several beach ball sized rocks flying toward the two adults.

Mr. B stepped in front of Ms. Pierce and the rocks hit his chest only to break into several smaller pieces and splinter off into different directions. Mr. B seemed completely unharmed and unfazed by the strike, physically. His face, however, blazed with anger. He charged toward the figure at the same time that Lucas let off a few well-shaped fireballs towards the attacker.

Mystery person was fast and obviously skilled. They jumped from rock to rock, avoiding the fireballs aimed at them. I attempted to help in the fight by sending several rocks of my own at the jumpy figure. They shot back with larger stones but never attempted to aim their projectiles at anyone other than Mr. B who was still determined to chase them.

During the confusion, an exceptionally large rock flew toward Mr.B and like all the others, burst on impact to his body. Only this time when the large rock shards flew off in different directions, one larger piece flew directly toward Sage. The shard smacked into her head and knocked her off her feet. Mr. B turned to my fallen twin, no longer concerned with the mystery person, and ran to her side. All attempts of an attack had ceased, and the hooded figure ran off deeper into the woods at an incredible speed.

Once I reached Sage, laying on the ground unconscious, I dropped down to my knees. She was clearly knocked out and a large gash spread from the center of her forehead to her temple, causing long streams of blood to run down the side of her face. My hands shook as I attempted to apply pressure to the wound and hopefully stop the bleeding. It did no good, the blood continued to flow and covered both her face and my hands.

"Do something!" I shouted as Ms. Pierce who stood frozen in her spot.

Luckily my yelling snapped her out of it and her look of horror changed to the determined expression I had grown used to see.

"Right. Xavier, grab Sage. We need to take her to Freya."

Mr. B nodded and lifted Sage's limp body off the ground with both arms.

"She needs a doctor, not a voodoo priestess!" My voice raised again recalling the memory of Mr. B's sister.

Ms. Pierce shook her head, following after Mr. B. The rest of us had no choice but to follow as well, even though the direction we walked in was not the same one we had come from.

"She can't see a doctor, Chloe. Her switch has been flipped, her blood is tainted. If a doctor detects the abnormalities in her blood things could get...bad. Freya use to be a nurse, she can help."

Ms. Pierce filled me in as we broke through the edge of the treeline, only to be greeted by a busy road and not the park. She tossed Lolly a set of keys and instructed, "Lolly, pop over to the parking lot and get the van we drove here in. Do not let anyone see you."

Lolly nodded and was going in a blink.

Ms. Pierce proceeded with whatever plan she was constructing together by pulling out her phone and a dialing a string of numbers.

"Andrew?" She asked, the cell placed to her ear. "I need you to stay with the kids and make sure they finish the cleanup. One of the groups wondered into some poison ivy, so I need to drive them back to Landry's to see Nurse Lacey as quickly as possible........No...no the others should keep cleaning Xavier and I have this covered.....Just make sure they are all back at Landry's by dinner time......Thank you, Andrew."

She ended her call and placed her phone back into her pocket just as Lolly was pulling the van up the side of the road and stopping it in front of us. Lolly jumped out of the driver's seat, shaking with either anxiety or excitement, I wasn't sure which. Everyone squeezed into the van, and all though we had more room then we did on the way over her, things were still crowded with us having to lay Sage across the back seats. I made sure to get back there with her and placed her head in my lap.

The whole way to Freya's, I ran my fingers over Sage's head soothingly, pushing black strands of hair from her face. Though I wasn't sure who I was trying to soothe, Sage or me.