Badass

Alexis and Natalia started to walk towards Alexis's home. They did not utter a word throughout the rest of the way. Alexis was lost deep in her thoughts and Natalia did not want to disturb Alexis, so she just let her be. They reached Alexis's home. Melissa was not at home because she had a night duty at the hospital.

The girls went straight to Alexis's room and kept their bags aside. As soon as they entered, PIA greeted both of them, "Welcome ladies. And haven't seen you in a while Natalia."

"It's nice to hear your voice PIA", Natalia shouted. She was glad that PIA gave a chance to break the awkward silence. Natalia hated awkward silence. "Hey Lexi, did you contact Vorian? He was really worried about you. He was the one to call me and ask me to check if you were doing okay."

"Yes, I called him yesterday and told him everything that happened. He suspects that I have super healing ability, isn't it funny?" She then tried to laugh. Alexis wanted to divert her mind from her mother's lies.

Natalia crossed her arms and then slowly rephrased what Alexis had just said, "You called him and told him everything that happened." She paused for a while and kept on nodding her head. "But you did not have time to call me and tell me anything. Okay. I understand. I am not so important for you anymore. Okay."

Alexis could not contain her laughter after hearing this from Natalia. She burst into laughter and flung forward to hug her friend, "I'm sorry Nat. I should have called you first and shared everything with you. I'm so sorry."

Natalia smiled and patted Alexis on her back, "Okay, I forgive you just this once because you're being so clingy."

Alexis broke off the hug and fisted her hands on her waist, "Oh! I'm being clingy huh?" Then she grabbed the pillow that was on her bed and threw it at Natalia. Natalia caught the pillow "You want to start the pillow war? I'm in. Get ready to lose." and she threw it back at Alexis.

The whole atmosphere of the room changed suddenly. Both of them were laughing and running around the room like they used to when they were kids. They started throwing the pillows at each other and kept on dodging it or catching it. After some time both of them lay down on the bed and they continued giggling. Natalia was happy to see Alexis laughing like this, forgetting everything else.

"So why did Vorian say that you have super healing? Did something happen?" Natalia was curious about what Alexis had said earlier.

"I had several small bruises and they…" Alexis was about to explain how her wounds had healed without any traces but right at that moment her phone rang. She got up from the bed and went to grab the phone. "It's Vorian, he is requesting to project. Do you mind if I take this?" she asked Natalia who was still lying on the bed with her legs wide apart.

"No, go ahead." Natalia had already forgotten about what the project request did so she was unbothered.

"He is going to appear here!" Alexis gestured Natalia to get up and sit properly.

Natalia immediately stood up straight, "Right!" and straightened up her shoulder and chin. She stood there very stiffly with hands behind her back as if she was waiting for a King to arrive.

Seeing her friend's sudden change in behavior Alexis face-palmed herself and ordered, "Relax Natalia. He won't eat you." And she accepted the project request from her soulmate.

Vorian appeared in front of them. He was wearing a trouser and was not wearing any shirt. Instead he had a towel that hung around his neck. And he was brushing his teeth.

Alexis face-palmed again and pointed at Natalia, "Say hi to Natalia."

Natalia rolled her eyes and said, "Pff… get dressed pretty boy" and then turned around.

Vorian felt a little embarrassed and apologized, "I'm sorry. I just got up. Give me a sec." And then he quickly went to grab his shirt.

Natalia was standing right beside Alexis, facing away from Vorian. She elbowed Alexis and whispered near Alexis's ear, "You hit the jackpot."

Alexis laughed nervously to drown down the whisper of Natalia and put her hand around Natalia's neck and then whispered back, "Don't give me a reason to choke you" and then kept on giggling nervously while looking at Vorian putting on his shirt.

Alexis let go of Natalia's neck and then gestured her to turn around. She looked at Vorian and asked, "So, did you find any answers about me healing?"

"No not yet. I did many researches but I did not find any case where the ability would suddenly appear. Either they already had it in their genes or in some cases they had their genes altered. I could not sleep a wink last night just thinking about it." Vorian was pacing back and forth in the room like a curious child who was unable to find an answer to his question.

Natalia raised her hand to ask a question as she was even more confused than Vorian, "Will you guys patch me up? I'm a little out of the loop here."

"Yes, sorry. As I was saying earlier, I had several bruises from my 'adventure'. But by the time I got back home, they were all healed already. Not even a scratch was left." Alexis filled in Natalia.

Natalia was surprised, "What? But this never happened before."

"Exactly! And all of a sudden I have a super healing ability? It does not make any sense." Alexis added.

Natalia's phone made a 'ding' sound and she checked the notification in her phone. "What? They closed it just like that?" Natalia exclaimed after reading something in her phone. Both Alexis and Vorian turned towards Natalia who seemed dissatisfied with whatever she just read.

"Who closed what?" Vorian asked.

Natalia started to explain about the news very enthusiastically, "I was following this interesting news recently. There was a video of a humanoid creature which was flying and it had gone viral. Every news channels and social platforms were bombarding that video saying it was an alien spy and what not. There was a huge mass reaction and the government sent 15 military experts to search for that creature. But now they are saying that it was a false lead and just closed the investigation. I'm sure the government is hiding something."

Alexis blinked twice and tried to think about such video but she could not remember. "Why don't I know this?

"Because you were not here. It happened the day before yesterday. That creature was seen flying over the P-97 and P-98 Streets and headed further towards the…" Natalia paused for a while with her eyes wide open. She stayed still without even breathing. She was stunned.

Vorian found this news interesting and was already invested in it so he crossed his arms and raised his brows to ask, "Towards the?"

"Dead… Zone…" Natalia revealed softly and gave a concerned glace to Alexis.

Alexis immediately understood what her friend was thinking. She covered her mouth in shock and landed with a splat on the floor. She started to tremble as the realization hit hard. Almost every pieces of the puzzle were on place now. She was connecting the dots - why was her bag found in the P-97 Street where everything was damaged within the 10 meter radius; how did she ended up in the Dead Zone; how Melissa knew that Alexis was in the Dead Zone; and who were the military searching for and why.

When Vorian saw Alexis staying still on the floor, he went near her and sat down beside her, "Alexis are you alright? You are trembling like a leaf. What is it? What happened?"

Alexis did not say a word. She did not know what to do with all these information that would change her life; and most importantly that would change her, change who she was. All her life she thought that she was a weak human. But overnight she turned into a wanted alien. She desperately wanted to find out about her father, and not just about her father but also find out more about herself, what she truly was.

Vorian looked at Natalia and demanded to know what both of them knew, "Natalia? What's going on?"

Natalia also sat down beside the two of them and played the video of the 'flying creature' in her phone. Then she showed it to Vorian, "This was Alexis." She took a deep breath and continued, "The 'alien spy' that they were searching for is Alexis."

Vorian held his head with both of his hands. He was not shocked; he was excited. "She can fly. And she can glow like fire. And she has super healing." Then he smiled and declared, "That's pretty badass."