CLATTONIA

I kick my foot back and forth as I sit on the counter in the kitchen, sipping a cup of hot chocolate with caramel and marshmallows as Essence walks in and my eyes flicker over to her as she reaches up to the cabinet, opening the door to reach up and grab a box of cereal.

"Morning," I say and she glances over in my direction, nodding quietly as she makes her way over to the table and sitting the box down.

A few moments later as Essence is grabbing a bowl and a spool for her cereal, Indigo walks through the door and waves to both of us.

"Hi," She says as she walks in and goes to the fridge.

"Where's Ink?" I ask and Indigo shrugs.

"I don't know," She says, "the last time I saw him I was watching him paint in his room."

"So, you two aren't a couple yet?" I ask and Essence laughs but tries to cover it up with a cough.

"Eeh?!" Indigo exclaims and her face turns a shade of red as Ink walks in carrying several trays of paint.

"What's going on?" Ink quirks a brow as he stops in the doorway upon seeing the scene before him.

"N--Nothing," Indigo waves her hands around vehemently.

Ink narrows his eyes slightly before walking in further and directly up to Indigo, leaning over her slightly and she emits a small eep as he almost bumps their foreheads together, scanning her expression.

"Alright," He says with a smile and backs away, going to the sink to wash his paint trays and leaving Indigo standing there blinking.

I glance over at Ink to find that his smile is full of knowing and I almost snort at his slyness as he continues washing out his paint trays, washing colors of teal, turquoise, bright red, and neon green down the sink as they blend together in the water. Meanwhile, Essence leaves the kitchen with her bowl of cereal to go sit on the couch and watch TV just as Reece passes her and enters the kitchen. I raise a brow whenever I notice that he brushes against her shoulder slightly as he walks passed and my phone vibrates on the counter beside me.

"Nice of you to finally join us," I muse and Reece's eyes flicker over to me before going to my phone.

"Who's that?" He asks with a nod towards my phone.

"It's Jace," I say, "he texted me fifteen minutes ago saying that he's coming over. He texted me just now telling me that he's almost here."

"Oh," Reece yawns and walks around the kitchen, debating what he wants to eat.

"You're still tired? You slept for like, ten hours," I raise both of my eyebrows in surprise.

"Well, actually, six," Reece admits, "I was kicked out of bed..."

"Kicked out of bed?" I ask as Reece's eyes widen whenever he realizes what he just said and the entire kitchen pauses to look at him.

"Um," He clears his throat, "yeah."

"Come on," Ink says with a smile and claps him on the shoulder as he walks passed him, "No need to pry into his bedroom life."

"That's not what I meant," Reece snaps and throws Ink's hand off of his shoulder.

"I'm just kidding," Ink smiles genuinely and Reece sighs, "seriously though, what happened?"

"Essence came to me with nightmares, that's all," Reece shrugs, "no big deal."

"Oh?" Ink tilts his head to the side slightly, "well, it's good that you were there for her."

"Yeah..." Reece says as his eyes meet mine and a small smile tugs at my lips as I raise my mug to my lips.

"I'm gonna go for a run," Ink says as his eyes meet Indigo's, "wanna come?"

"Sure," Indigo nods, slightly less flustered than she was earlier.

The two of them leave as Juniper walks in with a washcloth and sighs.

"I finally managed to get Katsuro to go back to sleep," Juniper says, "he's better now, but he's still relatively worn out. He wanted to train today, but I wouldn't let him."

"That's good," I nod, "at least he's better now."

Juniper gives me a small smile and Reece watches her carefully and almost as if he wants to say something to her as she goes over to the sink to wash out the washcloth. I get the feeling he already knows about her and Katsuro's relationship and wants to tell her that he approves, but he doesn't know how to go about it. Meanwhile, my phone vibrates again and I glance over at my screen to see that Jace said he's here.

"Well, Jace is here," I say and hop off of the counter, sitting my mug by the sink.

"Oh? Jace is coming?" Juniper asks.

"Yeah," I say, "I'll go let him in."

I leave the kitchen and head through the living room, making sure to go around the back of the couch so that I don't interrupt Essence's show, and I walk passed Caliber, who is polishing one of her guns on the living room floor beside the couch. I go up to the front door and open it to see Jace standing there with his hands in his pockets and his gaze raised up to the sky, his breath forming a cloud in the air from the chilly Spring morning temperature. He brings his gaze back down to me once he notices me standing there and he smiles slightly.

"Hey," He says.

"Hi," I smile back at him and open the door further, "do you want to come in, or?"

"Actually," He rubs the back of his neck somewhat nervously, "I--"

His eyes widen whenever a strong gust of wind comes and he goes to pull his jacket further around him, making a stack of letters fly out of his pocket in the process.

"Oh, I got it!" I exclaim and chase after them.

"Wait, Clattonia--" Jace goes to protest as he follows me, but I've already caught the packet of letters in my hands.

"Here," I laugh and whirl around to face him, only to notice the somewhat pained expression on his face, causing me to frown slightly, "what is it?"

My eyes drift down to the letters in my hands and as I scan across the letter on the top I notice that it's addressed to me from my mother from nine years ago.

"What..." I trail off slowly and untie the string of thread binding them together so that I can flip through them, only to find that they're all from my mother and there's at least fifty of them.

"I was going to tell you--" Jace starts.

"Where did you get these?" I shoot my gaze up sharply to meet his and take a step forwards.

"Look, I know this looks bad. I had letters from your mother, but I swear I just got them," Jace says, "I was going to give them to you."

"How do you know my mother's name is Myfanwy?" I take another step closer to him, "Did you read my file, Jace? Is that what you did?"

"I--"

"And why do you even have these? How did you get these?" I snap.

"White Rabbit gave me a mission to track down your mother and kill her," Jace explains swallowing hard and clenching one of his hands, "But, I'm not going to do it. I swear. And I promise you that I just got those letters. Clattonia, please, believe me."

I go to retort, but Reece runs up to the door fully dressed in a tight, black v-neck and a pair of jeans, his hands gripping the doorframe.

"Clattonia," He says in a firm and urgent manner, drawing my gaze to him, "Indigo and Ink ran into Kazuki, Minjonet, and another Supernatural that they don't recognize. Members of White Rabbit have started to surround them. They're fighting right now. We need to go."

I look back and forth between a distressed Jace and an urgent looking Reece as Juniper and Caliber run up to the doorway behind Reece.

"Stay here," I snap at Jace, "If any other White Rabbit members see you fighting with us, it'll be the end."

Jace only nods and casts his gaze aside as I run passed him with Reece, Juniper, and Caliber.

"How far are they?" I ask as the four of us run along the sidewalk together.

"They're less than two miles from here," Reece says as he checks his watch and summons his great sword which rests in its sheath against his back.

"Got it," I nod and glance over to Caliber, "Caliber, can you snipe over on one of the nearby buildings?"

"Yes. I will do my best," Caliber nods and runs off to the right into a parking garage that's next to an apartment complex.

The three of us continue to run and I summon my katanas as we get closer, the sound of gunfire and weapons clashing ringing through the air. Juniper summons her spear staff and swings it around once the three of us are within sight of Ink, Indigo and the others. I watch as Indigo summons shadows from her Hecate Shift and Ink uses his double-edged blade and his Vibrancy Shift, neon green energy running down the left side of his sword's edge and flaming orange running down the right as the runes caved into each side of the blade glow their respective colors.

"Pests!" Minjonet shouts as she stands proud with her rapier pointed out towards Ink and Indigo, her right foot stomping once into the pavement and cracking it like glass as a fissure forms. Meanwhile, her rapier forms a white rune in the air resembling a diamond made over and over again within itself that it almost looks like a "s" in the center.

Beside her, Kazuki flies around several feet in the air, scowling as he scans the scene below him, clutching tightly to his daggers as Minjonet's rune forms several glass sheets of walls to act as barriers. Meanwhile, Ink raises his blade to the barriers, slashing against them as vibrant colors of green and orange explode each time and race along the barrier in flames, burning into it with acid as Indigo moves behind Ink and continues to surround the area with shadows to cover them.

My eyes drift over to a girl with blonde and blue hair, vibrant blue eyes like the sea, and an all blue dress with blue strappy heels that wind around her feet. This must be the strange Supernatural that Ink and Indigo didn't recognize, but who is she? The girl giggles and raises a hand to her lips as she continues casually walking towards Ink and Indigo, her heels clicking along the pavement. Suddenly, one of Caliber's signature bullets flies through the air at lethal speeds and strikes the ground next to the strange girl's foot, creating a small crater in the pavement as dust flies up. She raises her blue eyes up and narrows them slightly, attempting to hide her annoyance. Kazuki's eyes widen in surprise upon recognizing Caliber's bullets as she begins to shoot repeatedly, barely hesitating before releasing the trigger, and the stranger she's shooting at dances all around them, smiling seductively as she does so.

Reece opens a time field rune around the entire scene and makes sure that it stretches far back enough to include Caliber in order to optimize the amount of people involved in the battle as more White Rabbit members attempt to rush to the scene, a few of them currently hiding behind objects in the street or in buildings. This also happens to draw Minjonet's attention and she scowls. I twirl one of my katanas around as I run towards her, red streaks of energy following behind my katanas in the process just as Ink breaks through Minjonet's final barrier.

"Loralai," Minjonet snaps as I clash one of my katanas against her rapier and the blonde looks over at her, "attack."

Loralai smirks and Reece charges her in an attempt to stop whatever she's planning to do.

"Not on my watch," Reece says harshly as he leaps up in the air and slams his great sword down on her, but she simply stops him with her hand upon impact and his eyes widen in surprise.

"That wasn't very nice," She says and tilts her head slightly, her eyes searching his before a slow smile works its way onto her face and Reece scowls and leaps away from her, beginning to form his Temporal Clock.

As I continue fighting Minjonet and slashing at her with relentless speeds, Caliber takes aim to Kazuki and he barely dodges one of her bullets, his eyes narrowing before he takes off in flight towards where she's hiding. Juniper points her spear staff at Kazuki and several vines break out of the earth and attach themselves to his legs, wrapping and winding around him in an attempt to stop him, making him writhe around in frustration before he finally manages to bend down and slice them with one of his daggers. Juniper frowns and summons a wave of light to temporarily disorient him and he flies out of the sky and hits the ground as one of his arms covers his eyes. Juniper summons more vines and wraps them around him and keeps him anchored to the ground while she has the opportunity. Indigo summons a pack of wolves made out of shadows and an imaginary moon, making them howl as she sends them over to guard and circle around Kazuki.

Ink races over to attack Loralai as Reece leaps from the final rune in his Temporal Clock and Loralai suddenly takes a deep breath before singing a soundwave that almost makes me clutch at my ears, throwing Reece off balance and shattering all of his Temporal Clock runes and effectively slowing Ink down as he cringes. Minjonet smirks as Indigo's wolves howl and paw at their ears and I narrow my eyes at her. Indigo falls to her knees and covers her ears, which catches Ink's attention, and I sigh, knowing what's about to happen.

"Don't," Ink starts, his eyes turning from brown to a burnt orange and his multi-colored hair turning entirely burnt orange with shades of red and bright orange as his dual-edged blade transforms into a pair of two longswords, one glowing bright green and the other bursting into orange flames, "hurt her."

"Kaian," Indigo gasps and her eyes widen slightly in surprise as she stays on the ground with her ears covered.

"And here comes the Hellbringer," I smirk.

Kaian glances over at Indigo before returning his gaze back to Loralai and he charges her at inhuman speeds, the ground ripping up into a circle and pathway of flames beneath him as he sweeps his blades into her before she can even react, sending her flying into the nearest building with wide eyes. In the meantime, Kazuki struggles to get free of his bonds and manages to do so as the wolves return back to their unphased state, but he quickly strikes through all of them, making them disperse into howling shadows before fading away.

"Don't you want to run while you still can?" Minjonet muses.

"I'm not one to run away. I'm not going anywhere, and I never will. That's a promise. And I don't break my promises," I say and swing at her forcefully, making her slide backwards a few feet and she narrows her eyes at me.

"Then I suppose I'll be seeing you around, Miss Cessair," Minjonet smiles ruefully.

"Enough!" Juniper shouts and takes everyone by surprise, making me look back while keeping my katanas crossed against Minjonet's rapier.

Suddenly, gigantic vines with thorns rip up the ground and travel towards Minjonet, Kazuki, and Loralai as an entire forest grows around us and light shines through the trees as Juniper holds her spear staff out towards us, white and red roses blooming along the ground in vines as a giant rose made out of blades appears in the middle of the forest and swirls, the blades shooting out of the petals at lethal speeds and hurling towards her intended targets. A halo of light surrounds Juniper and waves of light swirl throughout the forest as Kazuki's eyes widen and he hurriedly tries to fly up, proving to be a fatal mistake whenever a shot can be heard and the bullet flies directly into his right wing. Kazuki falls to the ground with a loud cry and Minjonet grimaces whenever she notices Loralai being held to the wall by the neck by Kaian and is kicking her feet and squirming in vain. Kaian throws her to the side like a ragdoll and she rolls several feet before laying on the pavement, grimacing as she stands in her tattered dress and looks to Minjonet for guidance. Minjonet nods and manages to push me a few feet away from her and she holds her rapier straight out, forming a wall of glass as I charge back at her and shatter the wall as I run through it only to find glass figures left in the places of Minjonet and Loralai, which shatter after the wall does.

"Dammit," I mutter under my breath and look around, scanning the area.

"They're gone," Reece sighs in annoyance and sheaths his great sword.

Kaian's eyes soften upon seeing Indigo stand up and he makes his way over to her, his eyes turning back to brown and his hair color returning to normal as well and he blinks a few times before shaking his head and sighing in realization.

Meanwhile, Juniper falls to her knees and huffs as the vines, forest, and light all fade away. I glance over at her and smile, nodding in approval, and she tiredly smiles back.

"Caliber is going to want to talk to him," Indigo says as she nods towards Kazuki, who grimaces as he tries to stand and crawl away, only to be shot in the thigh and he lets out another loud cry as he falls to his knees.

"Yes," I say as I follow the pathway of the bullet to Caliber, "yes she will."