Alexia leapt from her warm plush bed and bolted for the door swinging it open wildly she charged down the hall past here other two roommates to Chelsey's room and pounded on the door. It swung open after a while with an angry disheveled looking Chelsey standing in the gap. Her hair was a mess and her flannel pajamas were not yet straightened out. In a flash of violet eyes in the early morning grey Chelsey hit the floor, being too groggy to dodge a flying tackle.

"I get to go home for a whole month! I get to see mommy and daddy and the crows!" Chelsey squirmed in the wake of the unexpected and crushing love.

"The what? Crows? What?" Chelsey pushed the ecstatic Alexia off of her. "I get it you're happy, sheesh!" Alexia danced and smiled while her eyes glinted violet in the darkness of early morning, and jade green in the glistening golden light of the rising sun that shown through the fluffy curtains in Chelsey's bedroom.

"Alexia, sweetie... You know it's like... a mortal sin to wake people up before the sun is fully up right?" Chelsey rubbed the crusts of deep sleep from her eyes and yawned. Opening her eyes she jumped with fright as Alexia had appeared silently in front of her face without warning.

"It's a holiday!" She giggled.

"yes, yes, I know. Go back to bed now." Chelsey patted Alexia on the head and laid back down on the floor too exhausted to stand. Alexia dropped on her friends stomach with a heavy flop.

"aren't you going to go home?" Chelsey bit her lip and held her breath. She placed her arm over her eyes for a moment to give herself time to gain composure and steady her voice. She looked up from the floor at the happy alliance card on her bedside table. It had been sent to her from her parents who were busy in another city and wouldn't be back for at least two months. Just another full cred-chip with holiday allowance and some extra for 'love'.

"No, I'm gunna stay here so I can get some other studies done. You know how bad I am at math and you're not much better, so I have to find someone to help me study." Alexia frowned.

"Aren't your mom and dad going to miss you?" Chelsey held her breath again,

"Lexi, I'm really tired. Will you please go away? I'm really happy for you but..." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her voice wavered as she spoke again "I'm... not feeling very well this morning." her breath was heavy and filled with pain and Alexia cringed.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad at me again. I just..." She sighed an laid her head gently on Chelsey's chest. Hugging her tightly she listened to Chelsey's pained heart before speaking again. "Come home with me, my family would love to meet you. I've told them all about you and they'd be so happy to meet my first school friend!" holding back a sob she stayed still and silent for a long while. Alexia got back up on her feet and began slowly backing out of Chelsey's room, afraid she had made her friend mad again. "I'm sorry..."

"No, Lexi... I'm so sorry for being such a party pooper but I can't go with you. I'd really like to but..." There was a long silence as she couldn't hold her tears back any longer. They streamed silently down her perfect cheeks and Chelsey kept her arm held over her eyes. She felt a pair of arms rap around her once again, gentle and loving, like the embrace she had always wanted from her mother and father. The embrace she always wanted to feel with Marcus or some of the others.

"you have nothing to apologize to me for Chelsey. I'm the weird one remember." She giggled and stood up. Chelsey held back another sob. It felt so good to be held it was almost more than she could bare. Alexia began to close the door quietly behind her.

"Lexi, thank you..."

"For what?"

"Everything, letting me move in with you and your roommates... being so nice to me all the time, when I'm so bitchy with you." Alexia blinked a few times in bewilderment.

"I was too annoying for the roommate that was assigned to this room. So, no need to thank me." She looked down at her feet. "and... You'd do the same for me if I needed you right? So, it's not a big deal." A long silence turned into the door finally being closed. Once Chelsey was sure she was alone. She curled into a ball and cried her heart out into a nearby stuffed animal.

Alexia stood quietly outside the door listening and wishing she could do something. She finally showered and dressed quickly, having packed the night before she flung her once small suitcase into the air and caught it with a watery hand from the kitchen sink. She giggled and sent the giant hand back up the water faucet. Skipping to the front door she swung it open to a hallway lit by a torch representing each element. The Darkness torch was the most interesting, reminding her of some of the night clubs she had gone to with Chelsey, colors and white cloths glowed in the strange light, the earth torch was a weird glowing florescent crystal. The water was a floating ball of water with a gorgeous, flowing beta fish swimming in it, only, the fish was made of pure multi-colored light. People had been known to steal the fish from time to time. Alexia being the guiltiest repeat offender of that offence. Though, no faculty ever really cared as the fish would reappear in a few hours. The fish would never last longer than thirty minutes outside of the torch. Chelsey and her had managed to figure out enough magical enhancements to keep the fish alive for a full two hours. It swam all around their dorm house fluttering and swishing this way and that in the open air. Letting out a cute bout of bubbles every now and then. That was one of their secrets though, and they would always steel a fish on the weekends and try to get it to last longer if they had no other plans for the night.

Alexia smiled remembering those nights, she would miss Chelsey but everything else about this place felt like a prison to her. The major commons area that all dorms connected to was bustling, grades had been released and posted and everyone competing for top marks was up and fighting to check the official school listings. The whole school was grumbling about how typical it was for Chelsey to be at the top of the glamour and charm departments and yet never seem to care about it. Others cheered as they had made top marks in one class or another. Though once Alexia entered the room everyone fell silent and stared. She stopped, and her smile faded.

"he...Hello.... Everyone, what's going on?" she stuttered and looked around at all the bitter angry faces.

"Make way everyone Queen Lexi-con Brown Noser coming through!" She held her breath as people parted out of her way, to the board. 'Alexia Thornchime, Department Grade Rankings: 1st in Healing, 1st in Light, 1st in Water, 1st in potions, 1st in Channeling, 2nd in Charm, 2nd in Glamour, and 1st in overall academic achievement.' She smiled, her other, non magic classes were excellent, only her math and science were terrible but even so she was thrilled!

Ranking board listings of overall academic achievement:

1st- Alexia Thornchime

2nd- Chelsey Fanecloud

3rd- Dillon Pingleton

4th- Lacey Fletcher

5th- Marcus Blackforge

The list continued on "Yay, mommas' gunna be so happy!" She clapped her hands and did a little dance as everyone rolled their eyes in disgust.

"Hey, Lexi... Nice job but take it easy next semester not everyone can handle the mental stress involved with multi classing. It's admirable what you're attempting but lesser people will just burn themselves out." Said a dingy brown-haired boy who looked like absolute havoc had befallen his wardrobe. Mismatched socks and greasy clumped hair were adorned with multi thousand-dollar silk and linen dress robes that looked as if they had been slept in repeatedly.

"Oh, hey Dillon!" She smiled widely and waved at him. "Did you see? I made first in over all can you believe it!!? Dillon rolled his eyes,

"Yeah, I saw, and no I can't." he said with a venomous tone.

"I know right, it didn't feel like I had worked that hard! Really weird huh?" Dillon clenched his teeth as his fists balled in rage.

"If you knew what was good for you, you'd take a break before you burn yourself out. A farm girl like you can't keep this up forever."

"I could probably keep this up until I graduate... but if I burn out I suppose I could join smoke department with you and take a break from all my other stuff right?" She giggled, and his face flushed. The crowed watching hissed with giggles and laughter. 'Former number 1' said some, 'so much for the Pingleton record of 1st place every generation.' Mocked others. Some hissed, 'that's what sucking faculty dick gets you. Too bad for Dillon!' she blinked a few times and smiled.

"Well, have a good holiday Dillon, I'll see you in a month! Have lots of fun!" She skipped off and ran down the stairs of the dorm staircase. Dillon looked back to the board to see 1st in over all, Filipe Means Jr. He growled and stormed off through the jeering crowds. Rudely pushing his way through he tuggedat his matted mop of hair. 'Who the hell was this new brat? Its bad enough the listing are filled with bad jokes but this!' Dillon huffed and slammed his fist into a pile of books someone was holding. The pile of books and papers went clattering to the floor and he continued storming off as if he hadn't noticed or hadn't the time to care. 'He waltzes on into the school and he is place upon the top of the charts for nothing? For existing?' Dillon fumed and hissed violently under his breath. 'Who the hell is this little shit?'

The building from the outside looked like a normal apartment complex, normal for C.U.S. However, it was ten times the size once inside. Thanks to rare magic not taught at the school, magic called dimensional magic, the schools buildings could accommodate tens of thousands and only take up three city blocks in all. That was with all the space devoted to art and gardens. She headed to the train station and road the line out to the city gates where an armored troop carrier meant for taxying people to and fro awaited her. She waved a clear glassy card in front of a scanner as she boarded, and the scanner beeped and spoke.

"Thank you Thornchime, twelve month pass holder, have a safe journey with us today." She giggled and found a seat among the haggard and bearded vagabonds and ex-soldiers looking to start a new life else were. They all looked at her as if she were a fresh piece of meat dangled in front of wolves, but she seemed to not notice as her light perfume filled the air. The buss depo was crowded and smelly but one of her favorite places in the city, because whenever she was at the buss depo it meant she was leaving the nasty city!

The APC took off and rumbled out of the giant domed city. A flock of crows loomed overhead as the sun came up and the whole world light up in a fiery blaze of light. The mornings outside of the dome were unparalleled! And everyone gasped as they stared out of the fibrotic windows to see the H.D. sun rise. Alexia leaned back in her seat and exhaled as she felt the wait of the world lift from her shoulders. She was not alone in that moment as everyone in the APC exhaled in relief for one reason or another. They were all free from the oppressive dome!

The long ride back to her family's farm house made her anxious, the giant figure of the dome loomed over the transport casting a very long shadow over the land. To the eastern skyline Alexia could see a large building her father had called a prison were lots of bad people were sent during the last war. It always made her uncomfortable and she couldn't wait for her father to come and pick her up! The world outside the 1200-meter-tall dome was fresh, crisp, icy and wide open. It was so nice to breathe deeply of air that wasn't filtered, compressed and scrubbed. The soft gentle clouds floated calmly by bringing with them the scent of moisture sure to come. The world was bright and cheerful in comparison to the dim metallic grey of everything in the city, the colors out hear were natural and not painted. Even the winter grey of frost was a shockingly more vibrant color. Best of all, the cool full embrace of the wide-open blue sky! Something so foreign to her now after months of imprisonment in a super city of fourteen million! There were no hissing burst vents from hover craft making her ears ring, the lights were natural and not the nauseating L.E.D. or florescent of the city.

Alexia had been dropped off by a military escort and was now waiting at a refugee center known as the ghetto. It was dirty, dangerous and a cesspool of debauchery, addiction, and gambling. Were sell sword warriors and bounty hunters could be found by the armored personnel carrier load. But it was wide open to nature and far freer with less laws and restriction than the dome. Citizens could own and use military grade weapons and vehicles out here if it wasn't Consortium military issue. Outside the walls no one had any business not carrying a weapon of some kind, in the dome no one but military had any business with weapons of any kind. That's just how it worked, freedom comes with its sacrifices and with less military protection, that meant being far more open to raids from demons, bandits, undead, alien creatures of all kinds, and the worst forces of all! The slavers of the Atlantian Empire, and the Eastern Legion would sometimes make raids on any civilization human or not! Resources were too few to wall the entirety of the territory so only the cities themselves were walled, everything on the outskirts was considered free lands of the Consortium, were martial law was as good as the word of god himself! So, if you wanted to be free, stay away from the military. Life was much easier if you defended yourself! The Consortium of United States ruled over their one portion of the North America like mad dogs with the eastern and western boardering empires in a constant state of choking tension that would cause piano strings to snap! Alexia never felt safe in the ghetto, but then again, she never really felt safe in the dome either.

She heard a hiss, then someone coughing a muffled version of her name. She looked around to see a strange man and woman dressed as nomadic travelers. The woman chattered away in a foreign language as the man looked to be blind. Alexia skipped over to them and they walked a few feet apart as if they were strangers. The man dropped a package and the woman walked into the nearest ladies' room. Alexia picked up the parcel nonchalantly and fallowed her mother into the restroom. There they quickly changed Alexia into the same type of nomadic clothing. Alexia's mother chanted something and made some hand gestures over a nearest stall door, pushing it open they stared at, not a toilet, but the street a few city blocks down from where they were now. Alexia quickly stepped through it, not asking any questions at all. She had been through this type of thing before every time they went to the city to collect that rare herb her mother treasures so much they would always have to dress up and sneak around. They both walked smoothly out of a coffee shop door as if just coming out after having lunch. Immediately they were joined by the nomadic man they left behind and together as a family they carried on.

As they walked down the street a man with glowing red and green eyes brushed past Alexia and her mother. Alexia's mother and father jolted to action! A ten-foot ball of fire appeared over the mans' head waiting to be dropped, held at bay by Alexia's mother who's outstretched hands shook with the force of her spell. Alexia's father however, had taken a different approach holding a very large, almost oversized gun at the man's head in one hand and a signal jamming beacon flashed on in his other. Alexia removed a tracking beacon from her cloak that the man had placed and as the fire ball fizzled her mother took back her coin purse.

"what were you planning on doing with this homing beacon?"

"come on man, it's nothing personal." Alexia's father clicked the safety off and the gun hummed as it charged and chambered a ball barring. "Wooh! Come on now, you don't wanna do that!"

"What were you going to do with the beacon?" Alexia's father repeated slowly.

"Roadside assistance man, proactive roadside assistance that's all." He smiled a phony smile and he placed his finger on the trigger and began to slowly squeeze.

"Woah Woah Woah! Come on, how could you live with yourself if you killed a man?"

"Easily, it's nothing personal right?" the two men stood motionless for a moment before a vibrating blade came out of the cyborgs wrist and he lunged at Alexia's father. In a flash there was a bang and the borg dropped.

Six holes appeared in his chest and one in his head. Alexia's father dropped his clip and loaded another. He checked in a few directions before placing is gun back in his shoulder holster. He then crouched down and dug through the blood-soaked pockets of the borgs' camo vest and pulled out a wallet with two cred chips and an I.D. card that cycled through three different I.D.s, all were free-booter mercenary identities. There was a tattoo on his wrist which told a different story, a red gryphon piercing a naked pinup girl with its claws.

"Oh he's with the Red Aviators. Damn sex slavers!" He rummaged through the lower pockets quickly, emptying the contents onto the dirt road. There was a blue metal lighter, rusty and the flint didn't spark, but he cracked it open and dumped out lighter fluid with three large diamonds inside. A bottle of chloroform, a pistol with tranquilizer rounds and a broad iron ring with a sapphire blue bird set into it. His heart stopped, and his blood ran cold, "how did they get this ring?" he whispered in horror under his breath. Holding the ring he could still see his father's smiling face in his military dress whites with his busy mustache and furrowed shaggy brows. That was the last he had seen of his father before his father disowned him for marrying his beloved Gale Song Thornchime. General Blue-Jay Jackson, the great iron wall of the C.U.S. Holder of the northern front of Lone Star City during the twelve years siege.

"Jay, Honey... Don't worry about it lets go sweetie." Alexia's mother skipped over to her husband and tugged at his shoulder. He slid the ring into his pocket before she could notice it and regained his stoic face.

"That's the third one in two months, something is going on!" Alexia's father spat and held his two beautiful girls close for a moment before they started walking again. He was not only the best shot Alexia had ever seen, but he was also the quickest on the trigger! Always able to fire the contents of the clip accurately, fast enough to make it sound like one shot. He could even do that trick with multiple targets at once! This wasn't the first time she had seen death, at age five she had witnessed her father battling a group of humans lead by a demon. Some of the neighbors were killed but not her father, her father was the best, and her mother was so amazing! Alexia just wished she could become half the mage her mother was!