As if by nature, Maddox's face twisted in such a way that his upper lip nearly covered his nostrils as he looked from Claire, back to her apparent mother, the Masked Lady.

"What did you- how is this-" Maddox shook his head, a slight smile of disbelief. He stood in between the two women, chuckling slightly so that his shiny brown eyes started to gloss over in amusement.

"I knew she looked like you!"

Claire didn't answer Maddox. She ignored his presence that blocked her view of her mother, the one who had abandoned her at the orphanage so long ago.

"I thought you were dead."

The Masked Lady glanced at Claire, her eyes glossed over with pain and regret. She kept her composure with ease, though, not letting tears fall beneath her mask.

Moving slowly with grace, the Masked Lady revealed the hazel eyes hidden beneath her mask as she lifted it from her face, letting it fall to the roof of the building she stood on.

The omnipotent woman moved closer to Claire. The power that radiated around her was enough to push Maddox out of her way as she inched closer to her only daughter. They hadn't seen one another in thirteen years.

And things haven't changed since then.

"Darling,"

"Don't!" Claire's voice cracked in a subtle sob as she stood up, backing away from her mother who stood with open arms.

"Claire, please-"

"Please what, Anaia? You left me. I thought you were dead, and you show up now?"

Anaia's eyes welled with tears. She allowed them to flow silently down her cheeks, shimmering in the heated sunlight. "I had a reason. Please, let me explain." Her voice pleaded, covered in guilt and shame. Her hands shook as she tried to control herself as she saw her only daughter reject her.

"No!" Claire walked backward as Anaia came closer, paying no attention to her direction.

"Claire!" Maddox yelled, running toward her. "Stop!"

"Huh?"

As she turned to look backward, Claire lost balance and tumbled down the side of the old apartment building, the tension in the air rising as she went against it, falling to certain death.

Anaia watched as her daughter fell weightlessly through the thin, polluted air. Maddox felt the wings on his back stretch out. He couldn't control the movement as his feathered white wings lifted him from his feet, only to send him plundering through the air.

"Save her."

Anaia's voice was soft-spoken, a tender whisper in Maddox's ear. She hadn't physically spoken, but her words rang like chimes on a warm, wooden porch in the middle of March in his ears. She had once again spoken to him without saying a word.

Darting down through the air faster than Claire had only seconds ago, Maddox could hardly breathe. His hair flew back, and his eyes were hardly able to remain open while the force of the wind nearly held them shut.

His vision grew blurry, fixed on a single blob that seemed to get larger as seconds turned into hours through the thin air.

The force of the wind was almost unbearable, and Maddox's muscles grew weak. His wings kept pushing him farther toward Claire, but she was always out of his reach. His fingertips had brushed her arm once, twice, and then a third time, but he couldn't quite grab hold her.

He couldn't hold on.

Time seemed to slow down as Claire's booming screams became muffled in Maddox's ears. Her blue eyes grew clearer as Maddox inched near her through the air, filled with panic and dried tears.

Maddox closed his eyes tightly. If he couldn't save her, he didn't want to see her die. Not here, not like this. Not at all.

Then, time stopped.

Everything around the two stood still, and they remained weightless in the air. It didn't make sense, they should have been falling. In his stupor, Maddox opened his eyes, looking down at Claire, who floated still below him.

Shielding his eyes from the light that radiated from her body, Maddox was able to adjust, seeing Claire's curly brown locks floating in the air around her head, her eyes closed shut as if she were meditating.

Her hands shone with a bright light, and Maddox witnessed as that light traveled through her veins, illuminating her whole body. It was as if the sun itself flowed through her veins, taking her at its will.

Claire felt at peace. The feeling of the wind that passed by her moments ago coming to a standstill was relieving. She felt as if her spirit had been lifted from her body, leaving a glistening shell behind. The standstill air began to move again, slower than the fall.

Maddox and Claire slowly fell in unison as if they were being lowered to the ground by the hand of an invisible force.

Claire's face remained unmoved, a slight smile on her face as her eyes stayed shut. She blushed slightly, her cheeks red from the initial fright of the fall and her still apparent sunburn. She had perfect serenity about her as she allowed the light to do as it pleased, its power radiating around both her and Maddox.

Once they had been lowered enough to touch the ground, Claire opened her eyes slowly, a wide grin on her face as she looked up at the twenty-foot high building, her mother standing in an upright stance on the edge, glancing down at the two.

Claire waved at Anaia, finally coming to accept her own gift as truth, and trying to wrap her mind around her mother's horrid explanations and excuses that had placed undeniable distance between them. Anaia had helped them to the ground. She allowed them to fall. Claire decided that she couldn't change the past, but she could accept the present and move toward the future.

Anaia had retrieved her mask, returned it above her nose in its place, and watched as her daughter faced the unimaginable fear of death that pushed her true form to the surface, revealing the magic hidden beneath her skin.

Claire would need that push- the adrenaline of fear so real- to face all pains imaginable.

Now she knew how to exert that magic, how to use it and control it.

Motorcycle and van engines roared to life in the distance, and that fear returned into Claire's body.

Chaos.