Intersection

Seating across from the hooded figure whose face Chris could yet see, he was wondering why it was he felt right from the very beginning that he ought to avoid her, like she was the beginning of something he could very possibly detest, something he probably won't like, but that was not the most pressing matter.

So he had shelved the thought already, his focus right now was on the burning feeling on his back from the gazes of everyone else in the tavern, and from the partial silence that followed

'eaves droppers'

and from the fact that since he took a seat across from the hooded figure he had yet to get even a grunt of acknowledgement from her, like she could care less about his discomfort, or the fact that his belly was grumbling in an embarrassing way, because frankly the only reason he left his safe zone was … that he was out of food, he had been out for almost 48hrs, ergo he was hungry, and with that came the realization that he was going to have to break the silence himself.

"Ahem, hello?"

Chris asked with what he thought was a soft smile but looked forced on his face, somewhat hoping she did and at the same time praying not.

"Yes."

She replied curtly with no follow-up, as if there was a deeper meaning he should have understood from her reply. He kept looking at her and wondering at the chances that he was seated with a mentally challenged person, not even paying attention to the fact that hers was a beautiful voice, or the fact that the tavern had just welcomed a new guest that no one save for the bartender and the hooded noticed, until the individual took a seat beside him, moving his chair a little too close to him to be comfortable an action that stopped him from realizing that the burning feeling he had felt since he took a seat across the hooded figure was gone way too fast to be normal, nor did he realize that it seemed as though those in the tavern had selectively forgotten their existence.

Looking at the figure in white with its hood down and a smile on his face beside him, then looking at the figure across from him and how diametrically opposed they seemed, Chris did not know when he blurted out

"This must be the nice and reasonable of the siblings" causing both figures to stare at him with astounded looks, making the hooded figure in black to ask

"Do you know who we are?"

Chris looked at her in mirth and replied

"No, I don't. Should I?"

"I am Adrien" he says pointing to himself, "and that" he point across to the other hooded figure who pulls down her hood, letting down her white hair that looks like an exact opposite of Adrien's black hair, with a light blue eyes to Adrien's much more darker blue ones and her beautiful almond shaped round face to Adrien's angular sharp ones, with cherry red full lips, to Adrien's much thinner and slightly pinkish ones… with faces that screamed out we are related to anyone seeing them for the first time. "Is my sister Adrienne"

There was a slight pause before Adrien continued "We are Mysterys from Riversky Military Academy Base" looking at Chris who had lack of reaction to the name Riversky, Adrien proceeds to say

"It's in the inner ring" Chris looking at Adrien with a questioning gaze promptly raises his hand when he realizes that Adrien had stopped speaking, causing Adrienne to look up at the ceiling as though she wanted to be anywhere but with the fool raising his hands and waiting for an acknowledgement as though in a class with multiple pupils.

Nodding to Chris, indicating he could ask his question, Adrien stretches his hand towards his sister's drink only to be whacked on the back of his hand with looked like a sheeted daggers handle from the short glimpse he could see

"What's a Mystery" thinking further, he decides to throw all the questions he had at them and get it over with as fast as possible. "And where is the inner ring"

"Why are you telling me all these"

"Do you know who I am?"

His stomach made a grrrh sound while he was talking

"I'm starving, can I get something to eat?"

Chris said with a straight face.

Adrienne signalled at the bar which soon gets a response while Adrien goes on to answer his questions with a slightly bewildered look on his face… "Mysterys…"

"You'll learn those at the academy base when you get there."

'Where does this confidence come from?' Chris thought to himself

Chris' train of thought was cut short when he saw a young girl his age with a tattooed eye lid floating towards their table with a tray in one hand, with what he assumed was the ordered food, not sure what held his attention the most, the floating girl, or the food she held.

He looked towards Adrien in askance

"She a Mystery?"

Adrien smiles mischievously

"What do you think?" he pauses with intention, causing Chris to look at him with an expressionless face, refusing to give him the satisfaction of asking an obvious question

"She's a Mystery, but they are different"

"What's the difference between them?" Chris looked at Adrien

This time Adrienne took it upon herself to give an answer

"There are many notable differences between them all, you'll slowly find out about them, when you are enrolled to the academy base"

Chris was perplexed, staring at Adrienne with his mouth slightly agape

"Why would I want to do that? I'm very sure that I'm ok with my life the way it is right now"

He pauses, then goes on to say

'These two jokers are messing with me, they have to be'

"Had it not been so, I am sure I would have been enrolled already… and how are you sure that I am going to be one of your 'student cadets'?"

'They must plan to kidnap me, right?'

Both Adrien and Adrienne sat staring at Chris like they were looking at one of the spoons on their table transforming into a human, to them even that would not have been as farfetched as what they seemed to be hearing from Chris at that moment … it felt like the Goddess of water had just given birth to a fire divine.

Adrienne seemed about to blow her top at any moment, taking a deep breath she explains slowly as though she was speaking to a halve retarded human much to Chris' annoyance

"Because an untrained Ability means a poor utilization, which leads to an underwhelming combat strength … which equates death!!!"

Chris looks on with a stupefied expression which he believed during the course of this conversation had become a standard part of the makeup of his face.

'They must be escapees from an asylum, goodness me… I've been speaking to crazies. What combat strength, what freaking death'

"Why would I want to come with you if there's a possibility of death by so doing?"

With a low angry chuckle, Adrienne replies in a questioning tone.

"Are you daft? Or are you just trying to make jest of us?"

Looking at Chris face that had no inkling of joking Adrienne continues her tirade

"If you're human and have not been living under a rock all your life then you would understand that, we are Humans and conflict is our very nature, not because we pursue conquest, but because we must survive!"

Her voice kept getting higher the more she spoke, even though she was the only one speaking, Chris felt that he could hear multitudes speak, no he couldn't hear them, he could feel their presence, as though they melded into Adrienne the more she spoke, it felt as though the world was affirming Adrienne's every utterance, like they were words of power

"For as long as anyone living can remember, we've been at war, so being human is tantamount to being a warrior"

Her voice felt unnaturally high, Chris could see that she was no longer raising her voice, it felt like the natural laws of the world had enabled the volume of her voice, no, had been forced to acknowledge her words of power, for everyone was enraptured at that moment, they were one, differences aside at that moment.

"Survival is all we fight for, so we must be victorious … but we do not need a pyrrhic sort of victory, we do not want to perish with our enemies if we have a choice, we want to dominate them, and therefore we must fight."

Adrienne looked up at the roof as though she could see through the building to the dark skies, then with a whisper that seemed to echo throughout the universe

"We do not seek out conflict, but it came so we must…"

It seemed as though the world went mad at that moment with everyone in it

A sudden Banging! Sound began continuously

No one raised their voices, but if felt like they did. It felt like no one needed mundane things like their voices to express their hearts

"Fight!!"

With a continuous muffled rhythm the silent explosions rang as though drums of war

"BANG… BANG"

"BOOM!!!"

"BANG… BANG"

She continued with the same whisper that all the noise in the world couldn't repress

"We did not seek out battle, but it came so we must …"

"Fight!!!"

The crowd were going crazy, it looked like they had enemies everywhere and they were about to die, but could only die in battle for anything less would be a generational shame. They were impassioned but steady, like soldiers with no room for mistakes.

Adrienne went on, at that moment she had taken on a persona of what looked HOLY and BRUTAL

"We never asked for a war, but when it came we could only…"

"Fight!!!"

*OOM!!!!"

The team of what had looked like mercenaries with an amputated leader, with impassioned looks on their faces looked to be strapping on their gear…

"We must fight…" Adrienne whispered

Now the feeling of judgement settled in with a slow and calm yet suppressive force to it

With an inaudible whisper that somehow everyone was forced to hear, as though reminding them all of their inherent weakness, she spoke a single word.

"someday"

*nhummnnn!!!"

It felt as though the moment she said that, a slight reverberation went through reality itself as Adrienne went on with a sharp glint in her eyes

"No longer would we be forced to seek out survival in the midst of death"

BOOM!!!"

BANG… BANG!!!"

"No longer shall our tears fall to the ground in grief"

BANG… BANG! BANG!! BANG!!! BA…"

"No longer shall we fear for tomorrow"

BOOM… BOOM!! BOOM!!!"

With everything looking like the descent of the Armageddon, Adrienne asks in another resoundingly loud whisper

"Because?"

BANG… BANG!!! BANG!!! BANG!!! BANG!!! BANG!!!"

BOOM… BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!"

"JUDGEMENT!!!!!!!!"

Like an illusion the world and everyone in it was bereft of sound all at once, like everything that happened only happened in Chris' head, even then, for the first time since two weeks, which for now he could say felt like his whole life, he felt like he had a purpose, he felt like he could see clearly.

'I AM HUMAN!!!'

'Of course I'm human, or am I supposed to be rat?'

He screamed mentally to himself, his eyes flashing golden very briefly, with him feeling the illusion of warmth and a certain powerful feeling welling up inside of him, the twins staring at him, with Adrienne resting in a half collapsed state in Adrien's arms, at some point he had gotten to her side without the notice of anyone. Adrienne looks to the table at Chris' half-finished plate then to his face with a certain weakness in her.

"You are special, very special" it seemed that whatever it was that just happened had not come at no cost. Adrien nods to that, then looks at Chris

"Which begs the question of how you managed to evade the detection of all the Oracles and Seers in HAVENRIDGE"

"Evade? I did not know I was missing" Chris said

"Mysterys, are detected very early" Adrienne adds while seating up.

"How sure are you that I'm one? A Mystique I mean"

Adrien smiles with a look that says they knew but weren't going to say, causing Chris to raise his brow in wonder at his age … while Adrienne says

"You'll find out all you need to know at the academy, but you still haven't told us how you managed to stay under the radar for long"

"I just awakened? I guess" Chris said with a frown on his face while grumbling inwardly about the academy base.

"You couldn't have just gone throu…"

"Wait, how would I know if I'm awakened?" Chris interrupted

"…gh an awakening"

"and how would you, know" Chris interrupted Adrienne mid-sentence, seeing the dark look in her eyes and a new found interest in his half-empty plate he listens innocently.

"Because I can feel your aura, and though it feels a little weird, you do have that natural aura of mysteriousness that we Mystiques emit"

Fighting off the temptation of cutting in again, Chris looks to Adrien seeing the sage look on his face and hoping to learn his patience. Half asking and half saying Adrienne continues

"It feels as though you're injured?"

Chris closed his eyes and put his left hand to his temple in realization and wonder. But looking at Adrienne who had an expectant look in her eyes as she leaned forward as though to hear a big secret.

'I guess that answers some of my questions'

"I don't know if I'm injured or how it is that I was, currently my memory only goes as far back as 2 weeks" Chris replied gloomily, as though the world owed him an explanation.

"You can't remember anything, hmm?" the speaker put his right hand on his chin stroking a non-existent beard

"So that's why it felt like you've been under a rock your whole life." Adrien finally broke his vow of silence with glowing eyes of interest and a wide smile.

'You're the one living under a rock, your whole family are living under a rock'

Chris mocked back mentally, then affirmed with a straight face.

"Yes, I don't remember much of anything, only instinctual things I guess"

"You've not been in communication with anyone for the duration of time you can remember?" Adrienne asks with a slight crease of suspicion between her brows

"No, other than today, I have been indoors" Chris sighed

"Arghhhh…" Adrienne sighs softly in slight frustration

"Parents?"

"No idea" for some reason Chris shrugs dismissively

"Anyone you need to say your good byes to?"

Chris looks at her with incredulity "what!? Why?"

Adrienne ignores him while looking down at a device on her wrist, while saying to Adrien

"We have to move fast, we cannot wait till the morrow"

"It's almost moonless, only those above ascension or the really desperate make that choice, and I don't remember being any of those" with a slight pause of realization and resignation Adrien gets up reluctantly

"We should go get your things" Adrienne says to Chris while getting up and raising up her hood again

'Hey Chris do you want to pack up your life and just go right on into a new world with no preparation whatsoever to fight humanities enemies and conquer the world?'

"Sure, why not"

"hmphh!!" ' I'm feeling heroic right now, not like my opinion matters anyway.'