Devaria, three hundred years ago.

Under the midday sunlight, the crowd had gathered at the arena. It was filled with different calibres of personalities. All gathered to watch the fight unfolding before their eyes.

She ran. Faster and faster. The arrows that were directed at her always seemed to fall a mile from her and hit the bodies of the dead warriors. Warriors she had killed.

She looked at the kings and High princes watching her from the top of the tower at the battle grounds. She loved the look she met on their faces.

Not shock, not pride.

Fear.

She was going to do more than just wow the already cheering crowd today. She didn't intend to just stop at praises. Today was the day to ascend.

She stopped running away and charged at the shooting men. A shield and Axe was all she had and Aru-menan Debak knew how to use it. She could see the figure the archers were guarding. She was visibly fidgeting. She was Aru-menan's target. Her necessary step for ascension.

Whatever made Princess Onaiah choose to fight against the people's champion, Aru-menan was going to make her regret it.

The soldiers noticed her change in tactics and quickly changed theirs too. Swords drawn, a group of close combat soldiers showed up from the lot protecting the princess. She didn't hesitate to throw her axe at one of them who dropped dead immediately. The axe returned by the time she was near the rest who had come out to face her. She increased her charge to them and the crowd roared, anticipating what she was about to do.

She flew high into the sky and she summoned her Phoenix flame and it's aura shrouded her, strengthening her. Charging the weapons in her hands.

Boom! She landed.

The dust cleared to reveal only two persons standing. Herself and Onaiah. The princess stood there, shrouding herself in blue aura quivering. Aru-menan looked at the Kings once more and was truly surprised to see their faces filled with hope? The look on their faces made it seem like they thought Onaiah would still win this. To her, it was amusing as much as it was insulting. It favoured her though, she preferred easy fights as much as the next person.

Onaiah was first to attack. She released an orb of the same blue light at Aru-menan who was already running to evade the blast. Onaiah was too weak to make orbs that could seek soul essence and Aru-meman was too unpatriotic to make it look like this fight was going to be difficult for her.

Maybe she thought it was best to not run or it was pure bad luck, Aru-menan didn't know, but the first mistake Onaiah made was to attack from a standing point and she was going to capitalise on it. She dodged the looming energy orb easily and ran towards the other woman. She summoned her Phoenix flame again but this time, she imbued the power into her fists rather than her weapon which bounced carelessly off her hip.

Boom! Her enemy's shield cracked open.

Soon the fight that was once a show of magic prowess became a ruthless hand to hand combat. Loud sounds escaped the arena as they fought and the crowd cheered on their champion, it was obvious she was winning. In rapid successions, Onaiah released a series of kicks at her opponent. Aru-menan blocked those she couldn't evade and took quick steps back.

In a lightning move, Aru-menan attacked. She made to kick at her opponents side and the inexperienced princess fell for it. Getting the distraction she wanted, Aru-menan attacked with a punch from her right and it sent the other woman flying.

Onaiah was defeated. The victory was Aru-menan's. All she had to do was claim it. But she did something different, something no one had expected.

Aru-menan picked the axe on her hip. She spoke an incantation, lifted it high and it shone blood red.

And the crowd finally went wild. Sure the champion had it in mind all along. She said it a few times too, but they never expected she would do it. No one of the royal house of Zeto had ever been robbed of their Chaytan and here before the eyes of the commoners, it was about to happen. Not at the hands of a revered immortal or a god, but at the hands Aru-menan Debak, the commoner. The people's champion.

With the axe still lifted, she walked towards the limp body of her opponent. She wasn't going to make it look dignifying. Ruthless rulers didn't deserve dignifying deaths and their worthless excuse for children deserved even less. She reached the limp body of the princess and brought her axe down with full might.

Boom!

And this time, it was Aru-menan that was sent flying. Not by the hands of a valiant soldier or a prince who loved and desired the princess nor the princess herself. It was at the hands of the father.

High lord Zeto was present in the arena, standing over his daughter's limp body. His eyes were dark with fury. The skies growing dark, It was perfectly clear to the now-silent-crowd.

Princess Onaiah wasn't the one dying today.

■

“Miss Albert?!” the teacher called, slightly raising his voice.

“Zeto, you bastard!” she jerked her head up from the table.

“Damn, she's drooling...”

“Zeto? What the hell is a zeto...”

“From the Queen of Henson to a nut...”

“She's so frightened, God knows what she saw that night...”

Anna looked around. Seeing variations of confused, amused and concerned looks on the faces of her classmates, she quickly adjusted to the environment she was in.

I've been dreaming again, she thought to herself.

“Sorry Mr Randall,” She said as she raised her head to meet the teacher.

“It's fine Miss Albert. Try to stay with us, okay?” the middle aged man replied with a look of concern.

She nodded and smiled.

“Yes sir,” she lied.

Turning it off was becoming more of a problem these days. It didn't give her headaches much or anything like that. It just didn't let her think. Most of the stuff in there weren't hers at all. Neither did she even want it there. And then sometimes she slept dreaming about the same person over and over again. One week of being in people's heads and she already hated it, Anna wondered how she'd keep up with this. It being Monday only made it worse as it meant she'd have to go for her sports training. In other words, more unwanted thoughts and ideas that never proved useful to her. She definetly hated Mondays.

Slowly but surely, the attention shifted from her and back to the teacher who continued his lecture. She tried concentrating but failed.

A lot of people just have junk in their heads, she thought to herself.

Mr Randall wasn't the kind of teacher that stressed out students because he was in the position to. Most teachers liked him. He wasn't a "cool" teacher but the students liked him as well. Anna too, but right now, she couldn't wait for the next ten minutes to pass. Her gaze wouldn't leave the clock as she counted each second that went by.

11:15

“Finally,” she said to herself. The bell rang a few seconds later and students began filing out of class. She detested crowded spaces these days. Even more than she did before her powers. Something about knowing that almost half the boys in class tried to get some skin while girls innocently (more or less) tried to get to the hall irritated her.

Also, she wanted to give the history teacher a chance to say what had been on his mind during the class. She'd heard it already but it felt normal letting him say it.

He walked towards Anna who was stuffing her books in her bag.

“Oh Mr Randall,” Anna said lifting her head up pretending to be noticing him for the first time.

“I suppose you know what I want to talk about,” he said.

“I was dozing in class and that's bad for my academics.”

He nodded. “You're a tough kid Anna, I've seen you go through hard times but almost getting killed beats all of them. I don't think tough is what you need right now. I heard Winston is seeing doctors to evaluate his mental health. I think you should too, and maybe take a break? Be with family, take a vacation, I don't know, whatever works. All I know is staying away from people, hiding in corners isn't going to help.”

I wasn't hiding, like anything here is scary enough to make me hide. I'm a freaking mindman now.

She nodded, getting up.

“I'll do that,” she said but deep down she knew therapy wasn't what she needed right now.

“Good, we would talk about grades later. Right now you should focus on getting back on track.”

“OK,” she said.

He touched her shoulder gently and walked away.

And with that, she made her way to the exit. The hall wasn't heavily crowded and that helped. Anna made a stop at the bathroom, tidied herself then headed to the cafeteria. She picked a sandwich and searched the room.

She isn't here yet, she noted sadly.

Luckily, she found somewhere secluded (not that it helped to stop hearing what people are thinking) and sat down to eat the meal she'd chosen.

“Oh there she is...” Anna heard Sarah think as she walked into the cafeteria. The only voice she wanted to hear right now. The owner was wearing a pair of jeans with a yellow-white stripped long sleeved top. She looked nice, Anna noted. Considering the lousy grey hoodie and black skirt and boots she wore and the fact that they both met The Prince (even though Sarah thought she met another crazy kidnapper). Yeah, she looked nice.

“You look better than you did four hours ago, crappy but better,” Sarah said as she got to Anna. She sat at Anna's right side.

“The hoodie?”

“Yup, the hoodie,” she replied taking a bag of chips out of her bag and began eating.

Anna sighed, then ate a piece of her food as well. Taking a second to look at her friend, she replied. “Well you look better. Considering the cops said you were scared as hell when they found you and Winston.”

“We can't let one incident ruin our lives, we got more than seven decades left to live. Can't do that acting scared as hell. It's been one week already.”

“Yeah, you're right. I heard Darrel's leaving.”

“Yup. His mom was scared to death when she heard what happened. His sister and himself are moving back to New York.”

“Looks like you're back on the single ship. Welcome aboard sister,” Anna said tapping the other brunette on the shoulder.

Sarah sighed slightly then replied, “You can't blame him though, everyone's leaving the city these days. It's getting seriously dangerous in Redstone.”

“Yeah. Dad's being talking about getting outside help. RCPD is really outmatched.”

“Makes you wish you had a superpower.”

Tell me about it.

“Why would you want that?” Anna asked taking the last bite of her sandwich. She didn't even need her powers this time, she knew the answer already. Sarah always wanted superpowers. Right from the moment they met each other at Anna's mother's burial. Then, Sarah wished she could bring back the dead because she lost somebody too. A few years later and it changed. Never constant. Anna on the other hand, just wanted normal. She never believed in aliens, mutants or parahumams. Only things aren't normal as she wanted it to be and she's a living testimony to the fact.

“Are you kidding? Supers are the key to everything. Keeping the city safe. Stop the bad guys, save the day, fly home to your damsel,” Sarah said, wrapping her arms around herself at the last bit. “Like flash,” she added.

“Okay first off, flash doesn't fly. Second, super powers always brings more problems, you have indestructible skin and then the bad guys create bullets that go through your skin. Then those bad guys sell it to new bad guys who start hurting civilians with 'em. More trouble than we need right now.”

“Yeah, you're probably right,” Sarah said. Anna read her thoughts this time. She didn't agree one bit.

As per usual, Anna thought.

And the bell rang right after. They both got up and left the cafeteria. It was time for a class they both had together.

It was a boring subject really. Anna slept for most of the period whenever she had. Just another reason why she hated Mondays.

The hall was full now, people hurrying to a class. For the first time in the last few days, Anna didn't hate the sound. Instead, she tried to treat the noise like what it was.

Can't let it ruin you, she thought.

As they walked down the hall, Anna felt a heavy wave of sadness moved past her. She shuddered a bit at it. Looking around, she noticed where it came from. She tried reading his thoughts but the feelings of anger, sadness and pain overwhelmed all real thoughts, she couldn't hear his thoughts. She noticed that happened a lot.

“You okay?” Sarah asked noticing the change in Anna's mood.

“Yeah, I'm good,” she said adding a smile to reassure her. “What's wrong with Adam?” Anna asked eyeing him as they walked a few meter behind. “The school artist is never dull.”

“Dude's no longer himself,” Sarah said.

“Huh?”

“He lost his brother three days ago. Story is he got captured at a party they attended. The police is thinking it's a trafficking group. Poor guy, he might never see him again. His brother is probably dead by now.”

“That's sad, really sad,” she said sincerely. She could feel it too.

“See what I mean when I say we need supers around? The flash would never have let this happen.”

They didn't say anything to each other but continued down the hall till they entered the classroom. Mrs Lamar was already seated waiting for everyone to settle in. Anna and Sarah sat together at the right end of the class room.

As they quieted, The slightly overweight, dark haired teacher stood up and spoke. “Good afternoon boys and girls. Today we're going to be discussing something I think you all would find interesting. "Crime Rate". But before that, is there any question someone would like to ask?”

Many hands went up and she added, “Pertaining to the topic of the day please.” The hands went down. Her eyes roaming, she spotted Anna's hand up.

“Yes, Miss Albert, what's your question?”

“Sorry Ma'am, no question,” Anna replied and dropped her hands.

No.

Maybe Redstone needed a hero but that wasn't going to be her. Doing that would take away the only normalcy she had left.

Sorry Adam, she thought.