This is fanfiction set in the Whateley Universe, and does not follow canon. I'm just using their sandbox.

Springfield, Illinois,
February 23rd, 2007

“Come with me Caroline,” Steve said, wrapping her arm around his, as they walked through the busy hall of the high school.

Clutching her white cane to her chest, hoping that no one would see it, or think it strange that she was walking arm in arm with a twenty two year old, Caroline walked hesitantly along, trying to decipher the fast moving blobs of shadows that moved through the pale white light of her vision. There were flashes of colour, but they only lasted a few seconds, she figured that it was the last gasp of her eyes, or possibly tricks her brain was playing on itself pretending she wasn't losing the most valuable sense. Whatever the case after three months of steadily worsening vision, she was reduced to following an idiot around, just because she was helpless.

People she couldn't make out, laughed as they went past. At least no one was trying to trip her, that had happened a few times, and she couldn't even tell who had done it. She just wanted to get to history class and try to look normal, if that was even possible with Steve the wonder boy at her side.

They reached her classroom, she tried to count steps like she'd read on the internet, and Steve had kind of, sort of taught her, she thought it was one hundred steps from English class, but today it was ninety-one, and the day before one hundred fifteen. Steve never kept the same pace, jerking, slowing down, speeding up, seemingly at random and the length of his stride changed just as often. Not for the first time she wondered how he had gotten the job, knowing her school, he was probably the cheapest person they could find.

He took her to her desk, which had been moved to the back so that Steve wouldn't be in the way while he 'helped' her. Taking off her backpack, she reached in and tried to find her history notebook, running her fingers over the covers, feeling the braille. The bumps all seemed to be the same.

Sighing she took them out, to get a better feel. There were programs she could use on her computer to read everything, and she'd practiced on the home computer typing, while using a program that read back what she was typing. The problem was she didn't have a laptop for school, and trying to just listen to everything didn't seem to stick very well. The school had supplied an audio version of her text books, but she had to listen to them three or four times to get the gist of things. Caroline was hoping with the braille it would be easier.

As she started to 'read' the braille, Steve reached over pulled one of the books from the pile and gave it to her. “Here you are.”

She glared at him. “I wanted to find it myself.”

“I'm here to help you, you can't push yourself so hard. Just give it time and learn to adjust.” Without asking Steve put the rest of her books away, and placed her braille slate and stylus on the desk, putting her hand on it so she would know where it was.

Caroline wondered if the fact she'd complained to the principal about Steve a week after he arrived to help her was why he was being so useless. Complaining again probably wouldn't do any good, she had seen him four times in the last month and each time he said Steve was qualified and finding another trained assistant for her with their current budget would take months. He made it all sound so reasonable and unfortunate, but she was still left with someone who did everything for her, and didn't seem to know how to teach her the basics.

Taking the tape recorder from her pocket, she stood up before Steve could do anything and made her way to the teachers desk, going by memory and touching each desk as she went. Her fourteen year old heart started to beat more quickly as she got closer.

“Good afternoon Caroline,” Mr. Murphy, the history teacher said, loudly. “You have your tape recorder I see.”

For a second he glowed a pleasant shade of yellow. Blinking her eyes got rid of the colour. “Yes, Mr. Murphy. Here you are.”

Taking it from her, Caroline tried not to blush as his hand brushed hers. She heard him place it on the corner of his desk, and that was her signal to head back to her seat, still trying not to blush. He had never been handsome, but he wasn't ugly, and in the last three months, he had been the most understanding of her sudden loss of sight, without coming off as pitying her. It helped that his voice was a deep baritone, which she could listen to for hours.

Students had started to come in, and the room was full of talking, the scraping of chairs, and bags and books being put onto desks. One bag was put right in the middle of the aisle, Caroline never had a chance. Her foot caught it, and she went tumbling forward, her sunglasses flying off. Trying to catch herself just made her elbow hit a desk painfully, throwing her even more off balance. She landed in a heap, just barely avoiding smashing her face into the floor.

The room filled with laughter.

Fighting back tears, she fumbled on the floor for a few seconds until someone handed her her sunglasses. Getting to her feet she limped to her seat, keeping her head down.

“You should have let me help you, Caroline,” Steve said.

She refused to look at him, even as a dark pink colour lit up as he spoke. Grabbing her stylus, she tried to remember the alphabet, while wishing that she could just curl up in a deep dark cave and die.

Springfield, Illinois,
February 24th, 2007

Caroline stumbled out of bed, crying as she knocked her sunglasses off the bedside table. Her Dad said she didn't need them around the house, but she hated the thought of people seeing her milky white eyes. The day before she could see some shadows, now everything was gone, it wasn't even black, it was just gone as if it had never existed. Whatever was happening to her wouldn't even let her keep a little bit of hope.

She looked at her hands in despair. She saw a feeble outline of them, all in black. Flexing her fingers, willing herself to keep seeing them, to prove it wasn't a hallucination, was a mistake. The image shattered and vanished back into nothingness.

Grabbing the useless lamp beside her bed, she threw it against the wall with a scream of rage.

Someone came running. Caroline jumped back into bed, grabbed her blanket and throwing it over herself. There was no point in getting out anymore, her life was over.

“Caroline!” her Dad said from the doorway, sounding scared. “Caroline, what happened?”

She didn't answer him.

He moved slowly, hesitantly to the side of the bed. “Hey Princess,” he said, sitting down on the bed and patting her shoulder. “You want to talk about it?”

“I can't see,” she sobbed.

Arms enfolded her through the blanket. “It's gotten worse?”

She nodded through the blanket, her sobs turning to full blown crying.

"Don't worry, we're going to see a new specialist today. She's highly recommended."

The grief at losing the last bit of light turned to rage. "WHY?! What the hell can they do? Everyone you've sent me to has been totally fucking clueless!"

He tried to say something, Caroline didn't give him the chance. Throwing off the blanket she shoved him as hard as she could. “GET OUT!!” When he didn't move, she grabbed her pillow, throwing it at him. Then she started throwing everything in reach.

She kept throwing things long after he fled. Exhausted and drained she fell back into bed.

**

Hunger made her get up.

Her slippered feet crunched on broken toys, useless pictures and scattered jewelry as she left her room. She made her way downstairs and to the kitchen without having to hold onto the wall, having memorized the layout of the house weeks ago.

A figure sat in the air, coloured in muddy blue and brown, dark ugly grey, and utter black, all churning sluggishly to form what looked like the outline of a man. Caroline stopped, staring in confusion.

“Caroline,” her Dad said, causing the unreal image to vanish. “Are you feeling better now?”

Holding her hands out, she made her way to the table and managed to find a chair. “I'm hungry,” she said, sitting down.

“Waffles sound good?”

She nodded.

As he went and started making waffles, the normal sounds somehow comforting, Caroline desperately recalling what waffles dripping in butter and maple syrup looked like. She was doing that with almost everything now, wondering fearfully how long it would take before she started forgetting what things looked like.

When a gentle thud of the waffle maker told her the hard part was done, Caroline decided to say something. “Who's the specialist?”

There was a flash of yellow. “Her name is Ms. Chance. She contacted me two days ago, and asked to see you. After talking with her, it seemed that she knew a lot about your condition, and she has some therapies that could let you get some vision back.”

“How can she know so much about my condition? No one else has ever seen anything quite like it.”

"I don't know, but she described everything exactly and said that there were some tests she could do in a few hours that would tell her if she could help. If the tests are positive you'll be going to her health spa for training." Again there was a bizarre pale yellow that seemed to outline her Dad's head

"Jesus Christ, Dad! Is she some sort of health guru like Mom used to go to? How can you trust another nutjob like that?!"

"She's a legitimate doctor, and a psychic. Not a nutjob," he told her.

Her hand slammed down on the table. "That's what Mom said. Look how well that turned out! Christ! Why don't you just save your money and send me to that school for the blind I showed you while I could still read! It will be a hell of a lot better for me than some new age bullshit artist!"

Hands grabbed her shoulders, "Now listen to me Caroline! You will not use language like that in this house. If Doctor Chance can't help you, I'll fill out the forms for the school. But she phoned me and said she was certain she can help you, and is willing to try it for free."

She snorted in disbelief. "Yeah right, it's free until she discovers the medicine that will cure me. Then the bills will arrive. Face facts, I'm not going to see again."

"Why are so willing to give up?"

"It's called being realistic. And I'm not giving up. I want to live my life as best I can. But hoping that I'll see by some miracle isn't going to do it. Learning how to use that goddamn cane properly, getting someone who actually knows how to read braille to teach me, not the asshole the school hired! Doing all those things that I've heard about like counting steps, and getting real computer programs for the blind, not the shit I downloaded off the net for free! Those are what will help me." She was crying now, hating herself for crying as tears poured down her face. "You're the one who is giving up, hoping for something that doesn't exist and not getting me the help I need."

She didn't fight when her father hugged her again, blackness filled the nothingness. Her hair became damp as he cried with her. "I'm sorry baby, I'm sorry. See this specialist and if she can't help you today, I'll fill out the forms for the school tonight."

"When do we see her?" Caroline mumbled into his chest.

"She'll be coming at one. She wants to do some tests, and talk with you for a bit, she said everything should be done by six at the latest.” He leaned back to look in her eyes, like he used to do when she could see. “So you'll meet her?”

“Yeah,” she said. “But have those school forms ready.”

**

Caroline sat at her vanity table, trying to get her long hair looking good. She and her Dad had spent two hours getting the room back into some kind of order, Somehow she hadn't thrown any of her makeup, whether it was because she subconsciously couldn't bring herself to do it or that it was too far away from her bed, she didn't know. All she cared about was that it was still usable.

Her hand ran up and down the long french braid, going by feel alone to make sure it was done properly. Closing her eyes, she could pretend that she could still see her chocolate brown hair, that if she just opened her eyes, she'd see everything again.

With a sigh, she put her braid back and reached for her makeup. When she'd first started losing her sight four months ago, she'd panicked and did exactly what her father was still doing, looking for anything that could possibly help. When she was forced to wear glasses with lenses that were so thick they could be used for telescopes, and even then she was squinting, she'd given up the hope that things would get better. She'd started to adapt.

One thing that was important for her was looking pretty, she was vain and proudly admitted it. So she'd spent hours watching Youtube videos about blind people putting on makeup, copying them, and then staring owlishly in the mirror to see if she did it right.

Feeling her cheeks her fingers brushed over some little bumps. Damn acne. A tiny bit of foundation, and blush covered it up. Mascara very slowly and carefully applied, barely moving at first, until she felt her eyelashes bend ever so slightly. Then red lipstick, the easiest part of her routine. Before she'd have done even more, but it wasn't the easiest for her, and it would have added another twenty or thirty minutes, just to make sure she got it right.

Going to the closet, Caroline ran her hand over the clothes, trying to remember what was what. The blouses were on the right, counting to herself she pulled off the third blouse. It would be her blue one with embroidered flowers. A gentle touch told her she had the right one. Placing it on the bed, she went back for pants, jeans were on the left side, her favourite pair, retro bell bottoms that hugged her hips before flaring just below the knees, were the first pair. They joined the blouse.

Underwear was next, plain stuff was in the top drawer. The second drawer was her pretty underwear, opening it up she tried to remember what was what. Matching panties and bra's were always placed together. Her fingers followed the bands, feeling for the little bumps of thread she'd sewn into the underwear to let her know what was what. Some digging found the blue bra and panties she liked, and matched her blouse.

A few minutes later, she was out in the living room, with a book for learning braille. She'd never been a fast reader, but she was a pretty good one, especially if she was reading something she liked, like Twilight. It was frustratingly slow work, but it gave her something to focus on.

There was a knock on the door, before she could get up to answer it, her dad rushed from his home office and had it opened. "Hi, please come in. You're Dr. Chance? " he asked, his normally deep voice sounded nervous.

"That's me, Mr. Grant. Is Caroline ready to see me?" a woman with a surprisingly husky voice, asked cheerfully.

Caroline walked over to the door, holding her hand out before her, until she felt the wall that split the living room from the entrance way. "Hello, Dr. Chase. Where would you like to do this?" She heard the sound of boots being taken off, and a winter coat rasping as the fabric rubbed together. For a second there was a kaleidoscope of colours, indigo, brilliant blue, indigo and beautiful forest green, she wanted to reach out and touch it.

"One moment," the doctor said.

Caroline gasped in shock as she saw what looked like a diamond glowing a brilliant blue.

"Catch!" Dr. Chance said.

The glowing blue object flew threw the air, despite her shock at seeing something clearly and in colour for the first time in over a month, she instinctively grabbed the diamond. Looking at it, she would swear it was the most beautiful thing in the world. She couldn't speak, she couldn't even look away from the stone in her palm. Her father was as shocked as she was.

"Mr. Grant, I can help your daughter."

**

"Caroline, look at the stones on the table. What colours do you see?" Dr. Chance asked, colours seemed to sparkle and pop as she spoke.

Still surprised that she could see anything, Caroline took a few seconds to answer. "Dark red, blue, black, and bright green," she said, pointing at each one.

"Very good. Each crystal contains an emotion captured when it was strongest. I want you to relax, think of a pool of water, it's motionless, a perfect mirror. Concentrate on that. Picture it in your head. Nothing is around except the pool. Can you see it?"

Caroline concentrated, the doctors voice made it very easy to picture it. She could smell the water, it was clean and fresh and cool. "I see it."

"Put your fears, worries, happiness and every other emotion into the pool. They slip into the water, not disturbing the surface, the water absorbs them, leaving you open and ready to accept what's around you. It free's you, opening your soul. Do it slowly, there is no rush."

The fear of never seeing again, of being helpless, were thrown into the pool without any regret. It was so easy Caroline wondered why she hadn't done it before. The pool expanded, she could feel the cool pure water lapping against her skin. The anger at the school bullies, who had made her a target so many times over the last few months, and the rage she felt at Steve went the same way, leaving her feeling refreshed. The worries were next, they went just as easily. She faltered with the happy emotions. The feeling of her dad supporting her, the memories of her mother, her friends, the feeling of success when she managed to do something she had thought long gone. They didn't go so easily, but she put them in there anyways. The pool rippled, growing, radiating with power.

"Relax, you're doing well,” the doctor said soothingly. “Keep thinking of the pool. It's your power and strength. You aren't losing anything when you use it, you're simply storing them, ready to be used when you need them. It's your strength, the center of your power. No one can take it from you, and as it grows, you become stronger."

With each word the pool grew.

"Now look at the crystals and tell me what you feel from each one."

Caroline picked up the red crystal gently, barely breathing, afraid the beautiful image would disappear. The dark red light reflected off her skin, letting her see her long graceful fingers. She shuddered, putting the crystal down so fast it hit the table with a crack. "It's angry. He's very angry, they want to kill someone."

Hesitantly she touched the blue crystal, now that she looked at it more closely, the colour became clearer, a soft baby blue, it was comforting to look at, she couldn't stop herself from smiling. "A child is sleeping with his mother. He's warm and safe."

She didn't want to put the crystal down, Dr. Chance actually had to take it from her hand. "What's the next one Caroline?"

Now that she was sensing them, the emotion jumped from the black crystal like a predator looking for the kill. Without even touching it Caroline knew what it was. "An old woman. She hasn't seen her children for years. She's lonely and full of hate. She wants everyone to die before she does." She wanted to throw the horrible thing away, but was afraid to touch it, the hatred was so intense.

"Calm down. It can't hurt you. What about the green crystal? What does it feel?"

The colour drew her in, after the negativity of the black crystal, she almost snatched up the cheerful feeling green crystal. "A painter is drawing something. He's happy, excited even at the thought of showing his picture. He's tired from working late, but he doesn't want to stop."

Dr. Chance, patted Caroline's leg. "Now Caroline, picture the pool again, it needs to go away now. Picture it shrinking, becoming smaller, it's still powerful and peaceful, but it can be held in your hand. Do you see it in your hand?"

The teenager nodded, staring at her hand.

"Place the pool against your chest. It will rest in your heart, growing powerful on your emotions. Ready to help you when you need it. Move your hand, slowly and gently, don't shake it."

Her hand went to her breast, the cool water entered her skin, calming her down. It should have been uncomfortable, but it was so clean and refreshing it felt perfectly natural. Her heart seemed to beat more strongly as the water surrounded it, growing powerful, she felt the energy rushing through her. Taking a deep breath, Caroline felt different, the fear was gone.

"You've done very well in only five hours, Caroline. Would you like to come and learn from me?" the doctor asked.

“Five hours?!” she exclaimed, it hadn't felt nearly that long. Yet even as she spoke, Caroline realized that she was exhausted. "You can really teach me how to see?"

“Yes. You'll never see normally, but you've made remarkable progress with only the most basic training. If you try, you'll see aura's as easily as you used to see the sky.”

She felt tears welling up. “I want to learn.”

Dr. Chance hugged her, lit up in a beautiful yellow glow. “Thank you. You won't regret it.”

**

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois.
February 26th, 2007

Caroline groaned as she used her white cane to navigate an obstacle course, for the fifteenth time. She'd only arrived at Dr. Chance's health spa, the previous afternoon, but every waking moment had been filled with work of one kind or another, starting with meditating, memorizing the route from her new room to several parts of the spa, most importantly the cafeteria and Dr. Chance's office, studying braille, cooking her own meals, using her cane all the time, counting steps, learning about psychic powers, and starting to learn what the colours she kept seeing meant.

It felt like she hadn't slept in days.

“Why am I learning this?” she asked, sitting down and dropping the cane on the floor.

Caroline heard her trainer, Mr. Washington, walk over to her, she flinched a little when his hand touched her shoulder. “Can you see?”

“Dr. Chance said I would be able to.”

“Not quite,” he corrected her. “Dr. Chance said you'd see aura's, and we discussed things very carefully before I agreed to help teach you. You'll be able to make out people, and maybe some objects, it will help but you'll still need to learn how to get around stairs, tables, cars. You have to learn to cook for yourself, unless you want to eat out for every meal. And unless you want to listen to everything, you should learn at least some braille.”

Sighing and leaning back in the chair, her foot kicked the floor. “Can we at least take a break?”

“Alright, let's go for a walk.”

She looked at him, seeing a blob of fairly intense sunny yellow, that was suppose to mean he was playful or happy, if she remembered it right. “That's not my idea of a break.”

He chuckled. “Trust me you'll like it.”

Grabbing her cane, she followed her trainer into the hallway, listening to his footsteps and his basic left and right directions, trying to use the cane to avoid hitting anything. She heard people talking as they walked past, she blushed as some of the conversations stopped when they saw her shuffling along. They didn't go far, which was fortunate, if they'd had to leave the building, she would have frozen.

“Have a seat, three paces forward and five paces to your left,” he said when they entered what she thought was an office.

She took a seat, and wondered what he was going to teach her now, her brain felt like it was full to bursting.

“Right in front of you is a present, Dr. Chance thought it would help encourage you,” Mr. Washington said.

Curious, Caroline touched something that felt like a keyboard, except as she ran her hands over it, there were only six slightly oversized keys, something like a space bar, what could be speakers at the top, and a flat row with tiny holes all along it, that seemed to be set up for braille. “What is this?”

“A new product, made by a gadgeteer at cost, for blind people. It's a braille computer, with wifi access. It already has a few hundred books on it for you to read, bookmarks to websites for you to look at, and some other things that you can find out on your own,” he said.

“This is too expensive! Why is she doing all of this for me?” she asked. A yellowish green light flared and died briefly taking the shape of a human.

“I don't know. I was only hired a week ago, so this is a pretty big surprise for me to. You can ask her yourself tonight, but for now let me explain how this works.”

They spent the next hour poring over the computer, learning how everything worked. The entire time the question of why all of this was happening, whispered in the back of her mind.

**

“Caroline, how do you like your room and everything?” Dr. Chance asked, as they sat in a comfortable feeling room with a roaring fire, that was a counterpoint to the raging snowstorm outside.

“It's nice. Everything is so comfortable, and the computer you got for me is wonderful...” Caroline faltered, not sure how to ask what was on her mind.

“But?”

Biting her lip, and wishing she could actually see the woman, rather than just the jumble of colours, that seemed to hold the promise of making sense but never quite clicked, she took a deep breath and, “Why me?”

She blushed as the words suddenly stopped and her mind went blank. “I-I mean, thank you for everything, and I don't-”

Dr. Chance stopped her with a laugh. “It's ok Caroline. That's a fair question, and I'd be asking the same question if I was in your position. There are a few answers to that, and I won't tell you all of them today, but the two most important ones are that I'm looking for a protege, and the other one is that I'm doing a favour for a person I respect.”

Leaning back in the comfy chair, Caroline thought about the answer. She'd never thought of herself as being a protege, or having a mentor. That was something she thought happened to genius teen singers and superheroes, not her. She was a nobody, and as far as she knew the only thing she could do was see some pretty colours.

The second part was even more confusing. “Why would someone want you to help me?”

“Sorry, it's not time to tell you yet. You have to wait until you've learned more. That's the persons request, not my own,” Dr. Chance stressed.

Throwing her head back in frustration, she realized that demanding anything wouldn't get her anywhere and would be extremely rude. So grudgingly she put it off to the side. “What am I suppose to learn?”

“Too many things for the short time we have. But tonight you will learn about the crystals I showed you when we first met.”

There was a clicking and rattle of stones, then fifteen lights in all different colours seemed to hang in the air, little beacons of emotions in a sea of nothingness. “These are ordinary quartz crystals. If you get crystals related to the emotion, you can create a very strong connection that even non-psychics will feel. For now, we'll use these.”

A crystal was pressed into Caroline's hand.

“For my level of power and training,” Dr. Chance continued, “empowering one of these takes about a day of full concentration, and I'm very good.”

“I can make this glow?”

“Yes. Take a hold of the pool within you, like you did on the first day.”

She reached for the cool feeling in her heart. It came so quickly it was almost a shock. As the cool water surged through her body, filling her veins, light surged around her. She saw her hand, it glowed a brilliant violet, it was like an outline that shifted as she stared in wonder.

“N-now focus on a happy memory, and feel the water flowing down your arm. Let it enter the crystal, drop by drop.”

Caroline tuned her out, what she was suppose to do seemed so easy. The crystal was empty, all it needed was something to fill it. It seemed to call out for energy. Thinking carefully, she remembered the last day she'd spent with her mother before she'd fallen sick. They'd gone for a trip to the zoo. Everything had been perfect, even if her mom had to rest a little more often. Focusing further, she chose the perfect memory, the two of them riding a big horse, as it did some loops around a small track. The rose perfume mixing with the earthy smell of the horse, feeling the warm protective arms around her, the long black hair tickling her face. It was worth preserving forever.

The colour wrapped around her hand flared turning to a soft, warm pink. It swirled around the empty crystal, pouring into it like a flood. The crystal took it all in and asked for more. She gave it. The pink light overwhelmed the other crystals, filling her vision.

The light was cut off suddenly as the crystal was snatched away. “What?”

There was no answer for several seconds, just heavy breathing. “Caroline, what did you do?” Dr. Chance finally asked.

“I gave it an emotion, just like you said. I could feel it, the crystal. It wanted to be filled.”

The doctors voice quavered “You were thinking of your mother? Riding a horse?”

“Yeah. How did you know?” she asked in astonishment.

“I felt it as you filled the crystal. And now just touching the crystal, I'm still sensing it.” The pink light slowly returned, as Dr. Chance opened her hand. “It's glowing. I'm not using my sight and I can see the light.”

“What does that mean?” Caroline asked, not sure if she wanted to reach out and take the crystal back or curl up into a ball at the shock she heard in the doctors voice.

“You're very powerful. More powerful than almost anyone I know. That's going to be a blessing and a curse, and I now know why I'm suppose to help you.” The crystals vanished one by one, being placed in a bag from the sound of it.

Dr. Chance took her hand companionably, “Let's take it easy for the rest of the night. What music do you like?”

They talked about easy, normal things for the next few hours, until it was time for bed. But Caroline couldn't help but feel and sometimes see the unease in Dr. Chance.

Chicago,
March 1st, 2007

To most people watching the woman and teen walking along the busy Chicago street, nothing would seem very special about them. The young girl, who was walking carefully, arm in arm with the pretty thirty something year old, moved hesitantly, looking around in wonder behind her dark sunglasses, but the jumpiness could be put down to simply being a newcomer to the bustling city, with a less then stellar reputation. No one suspected that it was actually a training session for a budding psychic trying to learn her powers.

To Caroline, the street was lit up like Christmas. There was the nothingness she had grown used to, but in it moved blobs of light in all the colours of the rainbow, they moved, merged, shifting colour, and shape with maddening speed. An orange red aura shifted to dark, almost blood red in seconds, and a man shouted just a few feet away about killing someone on his phone. A dirty brown human shaped aura shifted to a soft yellow when a blue aura came to it, embracing it and merging together. A beautiful silver aura walked along, with a mix of white and baby blue in its' center. Black auras somehow deeper than the darkness she lived in huddled together off to the side, the auras that passed close to them became muddier, gaining flecks of dark blue or brown.

She wanted to close her eyes, there was too much information, ever since she'd started practicing with Dr. Chance, her sight had been growing. Now it was overpowering,sShe was getting sick to her stomach watching all the emotions around her. Dr. Chance promised that soon the emotions would be an open book, and she could use the auras that surrounded everything to help her get through the world, but right that moment it was too much. Did dark green mean success, or fear? Was the black and red aura that almost bumped into her a person that was going to rob her, or someone who was about to break down in tears? What did that clear red flecked with dark pink stand for, and why did it follow her for so long?

"I need to sit down," she whispered.

"What, dear?"

"I need to sit down, there's too much here. I can't figure it all out. Please, get me out of here." She hated the fear in her voice. Ever since she started going blind, Caroline had fought the fear and sadness back, not wanting to give in for fear she'd just give up and die, but the noises, the sights, the confusing mix of light and darkness was too much for her.

Dr. Chance squeezed her arm encouragingly. "Just a little further and we'll stop for a hot chocolate, a coffee shop is just up ahead."

She didn't answer, just leaned in closer to her doctor and friend. With her head ducked, so she could just see a hint of the auras directly in front of her and avoid hitting someone, it was more bearable. She turned with Dr. Chance, a bell chimed when the door opened up.

"Small step," Chance whispered, as Caroline fell back a step holding her mentors arm.

Carefully she stepped up and into the coffee shop, reaching out for the door frame to make sure she didn't hit it. The warm, coffee saturated air, was a welcome relief from the cold outside. The half dozen or so auras she saw were a relief after the chaos outside. Her companion maneuvered her carefully through the tables and placed her hand on a high backed chair.

"Just wait here, and rest your eyes, I'll be back in a few minutes with a hot white chocolate."

Touching the table, she pulled the chair out slightly and sat down, with a grateful smile. Taking off her sunglasses, she rubbed her milky white eyes, for once enjoying the darkness.

Footsteps came towards her table. She looked towards the noise and saw a blob of dark forest green coming towards her. Now that she wasn't so overwhelmed, she remembered what the colours meant, the person was jealous, a perpetual victim. It came closer, until it loomed over her.

She resisted the urge to cringe, when she smelled the aftershave he was wearing. "Hello? Can I help you?"

"Can you tell me what's wrong with your eyes?" a man asked. His voice sounded nice, soft and well educated. But the aura had her on edge.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I'm blind. It's a medical condition." She'd been warned about this when her eyes had started to change. H1!, and others would call her a mutant, now she knew she really was, but the legitimate excuse of being blind still worked.

"I don't believe you. No human has eyes like that," she could smell the coffee on his breath.

Her heart began to beat like a drum. She couldn't fight, couldn't run, couldn't even try to duck if he hit her, making fists to keep her hands from shaking, she tried to look in his face. "Go look on the internet if you don't believe me. Or what, are you going to hit a blind girl?"

Very faintly she heard fabric rubbing against skin. She didn't move, he was doing the annoying thing of waving a hand in front of her face to see if she really was blind. Normally she'd tell the person to stop, but she really wanted the guy to go away and the sooner he realized she was telling the truth, the sooner he'd go away. She flinched when a finger poked her nose.

"Are you satisfied now!" she snapped, swatting at his hand.

"Sorry. I had to be sure you weren't a gene freak," he muttered.

"Yeah, now you know. Thanks for making me feel like a freak, can you go now." She glared in his general direction, as he walked away, the green aura becoming even darker,

A brilliant violet light came towards her, she recognized it as Dr. Chance. Only she had an aura that brilliant. She waited until her companion had sat down before talking. "Did you see what that jerk did?"

Placing a warm cup in her hand, her mentor answered sounding happy. "Yes. You handled it fairly well."

"What if he'd tried to do something? I couldn't do anything to defend myself," she started to shake a little at the thought of someone attacking her. She'd never felt so helpless before, but honestly the only thing that had protected her was her helplessness.

"Don't worry we're going to change that. It's one reason we're here. Now take a sip of your hot chocolate, it will help relax you," the doctor said with maddening calm.

"What am I going to learn karate from some blind master or something?" Caroline winced at the snarky remark. Blushing she ducked her head to take a sip of her drink. It was really good.

"Hardly," her companion replied with a chuckle. "The crystals we use, are infused with emotion. It takes quite a bit of work to do it, and requires dozens of hours to create them. A similar, but longer process can be used to create a crystal that amplifies auras, the very best kirlian camera's use lenses made from these crystals. Without the technology behind the camera's most people find the crystals useless, even for most psychics it only makes it a little easier for them to see an aura. For you however, with your already formidable senses, I think we'll see some pretty remarkable things."

"Like what?"

"Almost everything has an aura, even the buildings and sidewalk. Natural things are easier to detect, but the energy people put into making something, using it, thinking about it, it adds up leaving a trace aura. You know how haunted houses feel creepy, some of it's from entities that live there. But a lot of it comes from the knowledge it's haunted. People know it's haunted, so it should be creepy, so it becomes creepier, then more people know it's creepy and it gets worse, until you would look at it and want to run away in fear. We're getting you some glasses that should let you see these auras,and make out living auras much more clearly."

“I'll be able to walk around and do stuff normally?” she asked, feeling tears start to well up.

“I don't know. You're still learning, and you aren't anywhere near your full potential. You won't be able to make out details, or read, see the texture of something, and you might not be able to see objects with very small auras. But you'll be able to see auras more clearly, spotting emotions, health problems, very clear outlines of people and things. Possibly even how they interact with each other.”

Caroline sniffed back the tears. Not sure if she wanted to cry that she'd see more than she could now, or that she'd never be normal.

A tissue wiped away her tears. "This is just a temporary tool. If we had more time, I wouldn't be doing this for you, with training you'll be able to do this all by yourself. But I don't know how much time we'll have, and you need to learn too many things too quickly."

The teen stopped smiling, this wasn't the first time her mentor had talked about not having enough time. "What do you mean? Why don't we have time?"

"I don't know. But things are in play and I don't know what they are, only that you have a part in them.”

“That's it! That's all you can tell me?”

A hand stroked her cheek. "I can tell you one thing? But you won't like it."

"What?"

"It's very important. Now finish your drink we're almost at my friends shop."

“That's it?!”

“Yep.”

Wishing that she could glare properly with milky white eyes, Caroline did the next best thing. "I hate you sometime. You know that right?"

"Yes. It's quite charming actually."

"Really, really hate you."

"Drink your hot chocolate, you'll feel better."

**

"Martin, how are you?" Dr. Chance asked as they entered a shop that smelled heavily of incense.

"Jacky!" an older man with a raspy voice shouted. "Now that you're here, I'm wonderful. Is this the newest addition to your motley crew?"

Caroline saw an aura of pure gold coming from the man. It was so vibrant it was like looking at the sun and she could see the outline of his overly large body perfectly. She held out a hand to shake his, but was engulfed in a giant hug.

"This is Caroline, and yes, she's my latest student. So please don't crush her, I haven't tortured her enough yet."

Releasing her, Martin kept his hands on her shoulders his aura became rimmed by a pretty metallic silver colour. She studied him as he studied her. The gold meant he was close to the divine, a thinker or a guide of some kind. As he was looking at her, he was opening himself to new ideas, opening his mind even further, that was what the silver stood for. She wondered what he saw when he looked at her.

He stood up, patting her shoulder. "You made the right choice, Jacky. She'll do, and the glasses will be great."

Caroline wanted to ask for more detail when a flame of white appeared from out of nowhere. With a scream she jumped back behind the Chance, only to bounce off a shelf and fall to the ground. "What is that?!"

"What, Old Monty?" Martin asked, his aura seemed to merge with the flames. "He's my spirit animal. You're lucky, he usually doesn't show himself."

"It looks like it's on fire!"

"Yeah. He's an old one, so his aura is really something. Even I see flickers of it sometimes." He disappeared behind something. "Now lets go see if the glasses I made fit ya."

She listened to the sound of boxes being moved, and cupboard doors being opened and closed for several minutes before Martin came back. "Here we go, try these on."

A pair of glasses was put in her hand. Feeling them she was less then impressed. They were small perfectly round lenses, with a thin wire frame, something like she'd expect a hippy to wear. "What colour are they?" she asked hesitantly.

"Don't worry about that, just put them on. They'll look lovely," Dr. Chance said.

With a bit of fear, she put the glasses on, they fit perfectly. She had to blink against the colours that assaulted her eyes. auras filled everything, in every possible shape and colour. Slamming her eyes shut with a scream, she fell to the floor her brain overloaded by colours and emotions.

**

The bed was nice and soft, best of all it was dark. An after image of the insane mass of auras glowed in her brain. Caroline winced as she rolled over putting pressure on her bruised cheek. Her moan of pain and hunger, brought the sound of feet coming to her side.

"Here Caroline, drink this," Dr. Chance said quietly, placing a cup of something warm to her lips.

She drank it down, it felt wonderful. The headache faded, the roiling colours in her mind became tranquil, and a burst of energy filled her. "What is this?"

"A Lakota medicinal tea, that Martin learned how to make. He swears by it. Do you feel better now?"

"Yeah, I do. God that was freaky. I saw everything, even the bugs."

Stroking her hair, the doctor gave her a few minutes to get her mind back in order. Finally, "Sorry about that, we didn't realize it would be so overwhelming. We've put a filter over them now so you'll see the auras, but only the stronger ones. As you get a handle on it, we'll weaken the filters until you can handle seeing everything. Or by then you won't need the glasses at all."

"It won't be like what it was before, will it?" she asked with a shudder of fear.

"Not for at least several months. Not until you're ready, I promise." Once more, the glasses were put into her hand.

Caroline sat up in bed, concentrating on the tranquil pool inside of her. The cool water expanded from her heart, flowing through her veins, taking away the fear and uncertainty that filled her. The tightness in her chest faded away, and the tiny tremors smoothed out leaving her as still as the pool in her mind eye. Putting on the glasses, she gasped. Dr. Chance's aura was no longer a humanoid blob, it outlined her, showing her ears and ponytail. Caroline reached out for her hand, lifting it up to stare at the individual fingers, each one roaring with power.

Getting to her feet, she looked at the bed, it was a transparent baby blue, comforting, promising a restful sleep. The books that lined the shelves, flared with white, gold and lavender. The shelves themselves, the tables, and other things in the storage room were invisible to her, but she knew that soon she would see them. As soon as she got a handle on the marvelous sights.

Crying with joy, she hugged her friend.

**

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois.
March 25th, 2007

Caroline walked around the sprawling health spa on her own, following a meandering course that had her weaving in and out of buildings, through gardens and around groves of trees, using a white cane to avoid obstacles and trying to count her steps and remember every twist and turn. Mr. Washington didn't make it easy by talking to her as they walked along. He did help out when she asked what some particularly strong aura was, and telling her to focus on things like the wind, shade, echoes and the ground.

The glasses were an even greater help, almost a miracle, allowing her to move with growing confidence. She could see the outlines of the trees as they started to revive from the long winter. The stone benches laced with heating systems to let patients sit outside on all but the coldest days were lit up with yellows, pinks and blues, from the hundreds of people who had sat on them as they rested and recovered from whatever ailed them. They were her landmarks. Twenty feet away from the circular bench and table where patients could have breakfast in the summer she had to turn right and walk towards the young fir tree that had a peculiar blackness in the middle of its aura, signifying a sickness of some kind. Then two hundred paces past that, turn left and head for the door that was a pale yellow a sign of optimism and hope, given to the doors by people who were going to the special steam baths.

It was slow going, tracking her steps, keeping the same length of pace, keeping the cane tapping the ground on either side, never rising too high, but not sliding on the ground either, was difficult, especially while talking and memorizing things. But she was learning, moving faster and more confidently every day. She wasn't taking the shuffling steps like she once did, and didn't automatically search for someones arm or a wall to grab onto.

She'd even gotten good enough with reading braille, that Dr. Chance had given her all six Harry Potter and the Twilight series for her braille computer. She was reading them at a snails pace, but every page read was an improvement and a victory compared to the standstill she'd been at a month ago.

She heard someone come running up behind them, a security guard if she was right from the hiking boots that hit the ground like hammers. Turning to face him, she saw his aura was irritated and worried, tinged dark brown and red. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"We have some H1! protesters at the gate. It's not serious, but Dr. Chance wants you to join her." Taking his arm just above the elbow, she and Mr. Washington followed him along the path at a pace that was quite a bit faster than she would have risked normally. However with H1! at the gates, she wanted to get her little mutant self somewhere safe.

Caroline recognized some of the auras around her. "Wait, we're going towards to the gate! Aren't the protesters there?"

"Those were my orders from Dr. Chance. She's near the gate and wants you with her," he replied.

Mr. Washington patted her shoulder. “Don't worry Caroline, we won't let anything happen to you.”

She sighed with irritation. They were concerned for her, she could see it in their auras, but going towards the people who wanted her dead was the last thing she wanted. Still as she'd learned over the last few months, she had to be a lot more trusting than normal. From getting change when buying something, to picking out the right colour clothes, and even knowing what was on her plate, when she didn't make it herself, she had to rely on people telling her the truth. That was the most maddening thing about losing her sight. She shuddered thinking how much worse it would be if she couldn't even see the auras.

The brilliant aura of Dr. Chance appeared before them, and the fear that had been building up in Caroline's chest dissipated immediately. "Is H1! really out there?" she asked.

"Yes," she said, with a resigned tone of voice that wasn't reflected in her aura. "We get a group of protesters every few months. Since I'm psychic they assume I'm a mutant and this is some sort of mutant base camp."

"Are you calling the police? Where should I go?"

"The police are not coming, they would only waste time. You are coming with me, and you are not to say anything about being a mutant. You are my protege, blind and a budding psychic if anyone asks. Consider this the next step in your training, keeping a straight face and acting calm in the face of danger."

"What?!" she squawked, as Chance grabbed her hand, placing it around her own arm and nudged her forward. Hesitantly Caroline walked beside her mentor, before them was a mass of auras in all the violent and nasty colours that signified anger, fear, jealousy and hatred. As she saw the riot of ugly colours, she tried to pull away but the doctors grip was like iron.

They stopped for a second, so Dr. Chance could talk to her. "You need to learn how to face your fears and deal with people who don't like you. Just stay quiet and listen, and remember you're my protege, blind and a budding psychic. You'll be fine."

Caroline took a few deep breathes, pushing the fear and tension into the pool, letting the cool water expand from her heart, moving to her stomach and head, filling her limbs with power and peace. The auras around her became brighter and more distinctive.

"Ready?" her mentor asked.

"Ready," she squeaked.

They walked towards the yelling mob, which were being held back by the iron gate and fifteen security guards who were armed with pistols. Dr. Chance walked right up to the gate, letting Caroline stand a few feet behind her.

"Who's in charge here?" she shouted.

A person with a blazing aura of dark green and black, jealous and feeling old pain, stepped up. A gruff male voice, raspy and thick with hate shouted. "You're a mutant! We don't want you near our kids!"

Caroline shrank back, trying not to show her fear. As the hate washed over her, she reached for the pool within her, letting the power fill her. Her vision didn't improve, but her aura flared up. She tried to dampen it down.

"What branch of H1! are you guys with? You're certainly not local," Dr. Chance said.

"What does it matter? We're here doing a public service! Stop spreading your filth, gene scum!” The mob roared their anger.

Her aura seemed to reach out towards towards the mob. Having no idea what was happening, Caroline clamped down as hard as she could on the power surging within her. The colours faded away, leaving just the normal colourful outlines of people and plants around her.

"It matters,” Dr. Chance said, calmly, “because if you had talked to them, you'd realize that I am not a mutant, neither is any of my staff. I cannot and will not reveal any details about my patients, but none of them have admitted to being mutants either. So you are creating a public disturbance and interfering with my business." Caroline saw the aura move it's arm the hand was clutching something she couldn't see. "Do you know Mr. Miller, the leader of the local H1! group?"

Confusion began to overpower the leaders hate filled aura. "Yeah I talked to him."

"I'm going to call him, he's on my speed dial." There was a very short wait, then Dr. Chance was talking to someone on the phone. "Hey Fred, sorry for calling you at work, I have a problem." There was a pause. "Yeah, it's them. Can you talk to the man in charge, and let him know that he's wasting his time? Here you go, try not to drop it."

The leader took the phone. There was a short conversation, and the man's aura shifted to a muddy grey, fear, and an ugly brownish yellow meaning stress and being overwhelmed. After a few minutes with the anger being replaced by embarrassment, he handed the phone back to Dr. Chance.

"Now do you believe me?"

"I know that was Fred, but you admitted to being psychic, that means you're a mutant. And I don't like how you got a good man wrapped around your little finger." The man seemed to be saying the words to save face, there wasn't any real passion in his voice.

Now Dr. Chance was sounding bored. "Do you trust the MCO? And Goodkind?"

"Of course."

"Here is my MID.” Her confident deep red aura held something out. “No you can't hold it. See, baseline psychic. And here, a letter stating I was an employee of good standing with Goodkind International. If you want fresh blood work done proving I don't have the mutant gene, you'll have to wait a while, and I'll insist you wait in town not on my doorstep."

She'd been speaking loudly enough, pitching her voice just right, so that everyone had heard her. When they saw the MID they had lost a lot of their enthusiasm. The letter from the Goodkinds was icing on the cake. Caroline watched in amazement as the leader apologized and the entire group headed for their cars.

After they had left, Caroline took the doctors arm again as they headed back to the spa. Caroline wasn't sure how she felt about having the doctor helping her anymore. "You work with H1?! Why are you helping me?"

"I don't work with them. I know the local boss, and give him a discount on massages for his back problem. He knows I'm a talented baseline. And while I don't make donations or anything, as it might not look good to some of my clients, I am a really good listener and like to know what's going on in the area. If he happens to drop some important info, like a beating or a plan to run a mutant out of town, I just let that bit of news reach the right ear," she explained.

"Did you really work for the Goodkinds?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "I was a psychic expert for them right after I finished college. Worked with them until five years ago when I married a wealthy old man with heart problems and got the money to open this place. I still do some consulting for them."

"But don't you feel bad about helping them out. They'd kill me if they got the chance."

"It's a case of the lesser of two evils. I could refuse to work with them, but then I'd be picketed a lot more regularly, making my business and patients would suffer. And if I didn't help out a bit, there would be a lot more successful H1! operations around the area. The good definitely outweighs the bad. And that my dear is something you need to learn. Sometimes you have to help the bad so the good can flourish."

Caroline still hated the thought of working with a group like H1!. She hadn't liked them ever since she saw them beating a person almost to death when she was eight years old and she and her parents were caught in an H1 rally, but she could understand what Dr. Chance was talking about. Sometimes you had to do something bad.

She suddenly realized they had been walking for a while and she had no idea where they were. "Where are we going?"

"Lunch, as soon as you find it." The doctor pointed at an aura that had to be from an ancient tree considering the size of it. "Do you remember this tree's aura?"

It took a moment to remember it. "Yeah I saw it last week."

"Good, find the way back to the cafeteria. As soon as you do, we can eat."

With a groan, Caroline tried to get her bearings.

**

In her room that night, Caroline sat in the cushioned armchair relaxing after a long and tiring day, with a warm, fuzzy blanket wrapped around her. The edge of the blanket was marked in blue and pink lights, each colour three inches apart. In fact the whole room was lit up in a mix of pinks, reds, silver, purple, blue and few gold spots. Each one was about the size of a thumbnail, a few were smaller, and some were about the size of her fist, the large ones were carved into animals or pretty shapes. Between the colours were the gentle auras of a dozen flowers and potted plants that sat on almost every flat surface, filling the room with pleasant fragrance and feelings.

Picking up a glowing bright pink comb, that was cool and well polished, she began to comb her hair. Each of the glowing stones had been made by her, partly as training and to give her something to look at. Best of all the quartz was cheap to get, even the statues had been only ten to thirty dollars each, white quartz wasn't exactly a precious gem after all. Each shape, pattern and colour was planned, so she'd know what something was even from across the room. A few minutes of work, then a bit of planning and moving the stones around whatever she wanted to mark, then a spot of glue and another few minutes to let it dry. She was thinking of getting a jewelry kit, something she'd never thought would interest her before.

As she combed her hair, Caroline thought about seeing the H1 goons, not the jerks in particular, but what her aura had done. Curious, she let the energy in her center flow outwards, her aura flared in response. Strangely, where the colours were usually for basic emotions, this time they were a mix of three colours, silver, violet and rich royal blue, each one meaning power, psychic awakening and an opening of the mind, something she was more accustomed to seeing around Dr. Chance.

Holding out her hand, the aura expanded, sending tendrils outwards seemingly searching for something. Sweat broke out on her forehead. A pink stone was surrounded by the shifting lights, there was something she should be doing, but what? It was like being asked a question and having the answer on the tip of her tongue.

Caroline concentrated on the pink light, not daring to blink. The answer was so close, her aura started to shimmer. She beat at the mental wall, as the colours shifted to the muddy colours of frustration. With a gasp, the aura shattered, the energy faded back into her center.

She sat slumped in the chair for several minutes trying to catch her breath and to get the energy to do anything.

Not sure what happened, Caroline was finally able to drag herself to bed where she fell asleep almost instantly.

**

Hi Wendy!

I'm sorry I haven't been able to answer your last email until just now, but I've been really busy with studying. I've got so much to learn, not just how to do things now that I'm blind, but also all of this psychic stuff my doctor is teaching me. And I'm getting better at using this braille computer. I miss not seeing videos and pictures of you, but it's still super neat. And when I go back to school next term, I don't have to worry about Cindy reading over my shoulder trying to see everything I'm doing.

I've done a lot of things you wouldn't believe, and before someone cries "Mutant! OMG WE'RE GOING TO DIE!", Dr. Chance actually has an MID saying she's totally human. I didn't think they gave out those things to regular people, but she said that if you have special talents the MCO and DPA will give them to you to keep you safe. It's pretty cool actually. And she used it to make some H1 jerks stop screaming in front of the spa. OMG it was so awesome!

So anyways, You know how I would see flashes of colours when all of this started to happen, I wasn't just crazy, well no more than usual, I actually see auras. That means I can see emotions and how someone is feeling, if they're sick or really healthy, or hungry, or tired and lots of other stuff. This is really useful because Dr. Chance is teaching me how to use my psychic powers to heal people. It's really tiring, and sometimes a little dangerous.

**

March 26, 2007

"Caroline, look at Mrs. Bronson very closely, and tell me where she hurts," Dr. Chance said, while she lit candles and incense around the room.

Caroline took off her glasses and let herself see the auras that surrounded her in far more detail than usual, the woman's aura was especially vibrant, but even in the nearly empty room it took a fair bit of effort for her to focus on the patient. The woman was in pain, the flickering colours wouldn't remain still long enough for her to make them out properly, but the she knew that they signified a wound and frustration, in the same way she knew that the sky was blue when she could still see.

Very, very carefully, she released the energy in her center. Her own aura took on a brilliant colour. With gentle movements, Caroline ran her hand over the woman, there was no physical contact, but their auras brushed against each other. The tranquil, steady pulse of hers smoothed out the chaotic colours, forcing them to stillness. She'd practiced this for hours with Dr. Chance, and while it was tiring, it no longer seemed odd.

Now that Mrs. Bronson's aura was calm, Caroline could see what was causing the woman pain. There was one spot no bigger than a penny, that had a steady solid beat of dark red, it looked like dry, rotting blood. The rest of the aura stuck to it, stagnating, spreading thin threads of corruption all around her body, becoming sickly and rotten.

"There's a solid red colour on her right shoulder, and red stands for the physical body and circulation, right. Could there be a problem with the blood flow in her shoulder?" she asked Dr. Chance, not taking her eyes off the problem.

Dr. Chance knelt down, gently moving Caroline out of the way. Her own silvery tinged aura slowly expanded while she ran her hands over the shoulder, stroking and gently prodding the spot for over ten minutes. As she did so her silver light thinned out around her body, concentrating on her hand until it seemed like she was holding a light bulb. "You're right, there is a problem here. Very good Caroline, it only took you three minutes to find it. Now come here, and kneel beside me."

Nervously the girl knelt down, unsure of what would happen next. She'd watched her mentor healing people through psychic surgery from almost day one, but now she was suppose to do it herself. She had never thought of herself as a healer, blood scared her. But apparently her mutation had different ideas.

"Place your hands gently on the center of the problem. Don't worry you won't hurt her," the doctor murmured.

The bare skin was a little warm to the touch, but other than that it didn't seem any different from a healthy body. Mrs. Bronson grew uncertain, dirty brown shades of fear and uncertainty covered the other colours, making it difficult to make out what was happening. Caroline could guess what the problem was, she'd be nervous seeing a young teenager who had come in with hippie glasses trying to fix a health problem.

"Now let a bit more energy out. Move it down your arm so the water comes out of your fingers. It is soothing not only to you but to others. Release the water and let it wash away the problem."

Caroline pictured the tranquil pool of water that kept her psychic energy, a small rivulet of water was already flowing from it into her. Now she pulled a little more from the pool, creating new streams and waterfalls, just like she'd practiced every days for four hours at a stretch. It came easily, washing away her worries, her happiness, and every other strong emotion, leaving a strange balance and contentedness. Time ceased to have any meaning, it was all now.

The cool, clean water came faster, wanting to rush through her body, breaking through and touching everything in the world. She pictured gentle banks of pristine light brown sand, channeling it naturally down into her arms, while sweet smelling lily pads, reeds and cattails slowed the rushing water, calming it naturally. She never forced the power to her will, it was easier and safer simply creating channels and flows for it to move through. The energy surrounded her hands.

"Your aura is healthy and strong, you need to show her aura how to flow and move. Remind it of what it once was, and what it should be again," a voice whispered in the wind.

Her aura dwarfed the fire of her mentor. Dr. Chance's aura was a small flare, impressive, well contained and clearly experienced, her own was a raging bonfire that seemed to burn brighter than the sun, and in all the colours of the rainbow. The shifting colours were hypnotizing, creating images in the flames, some she recognized from her past, others she couldn't place. Her face appeared older, wiser, broken and healthy, screaming and laughing, dying and alive. Other scenes appeared.

A thing of blackness and death reaching for her, gore dripped from it like a river. It saw her and howled. An armoured woman with angel wings smiled and reached a hand out to something hidden in shadows, as she smiled parts of her fell away leaving only a mangled body crying tears of blood while the pristine smile remained. Blood rushed towards her, people were caught in it disappearing without even the chance to scream, a furious roar of some unearthly beast erupted from somewhere. A girl of light surrounded by blackness tore at something screaming and howling as her hands were torn.

"Focus on her,” a calm voice whispered to Caroline. She focused on the voice, trying to see past the nightmarish images Look at her aura. Teach it how to flow. Ignore your own. She needs your help. You must help her."

Caroline pushed her aura forward, shattering the images, finding the calm center. Gripping the sickly, still redness, in bonds as tight as the soul, she moved her hands following a pattern she couldn't see, but was clear in her mind. The colours began to shift, rippling gently, absorbing the emotions and energy that Caroline was forcing into it. The energy flowed like paint under her hands.

The bonfire grew into a star, washing over the woman. The stagnant, flickering colours were overwhelmed, disease and rot burned away.

Caroline felt dozens of wears and tears caused by age, she could fix them all. She knew she could. Her hands played the aura over the body, releasing more energy. It was so easy. The fear she had felt earlier was forgotten, she could help people. It was her job. Just reach out and make things better. She could do it.

Hands grabbed her shoulders pulling her away. The auras pulled on each other, trying to stay connected. Caroline felt the weaker aura starting to rip itself from its body. The woman gasped, as her life was being ripped away. She pushed more energy into her aura, she had to make the woman better, she WOULD make the woman healthy again.

Their minds connected. She felt the pain, pleasure, joys and heartbreaks of the woman. Riding a bike around the block successfully, having her appendix removed, making love for the first time with her boyfriend, watching her husband die of a heart attack, giving birth and holding her son for the first time, hearing him scream at her and saying he hated her. A mass of memories, feelings and experiences, coming faster and faster, overwhelming her, pushing her own memories aside.

Panic filled her. Screaming she pulled herself back into her body.

She couldn't remember who she was. There was only confusion.

She felt cold.

**

March 29th, 2007

"Ow," Caroline moaned.

Dr. Chance was at her side in seconds. "Thank god, you're awake."

"Wh-" she didn't have the energy to continue.

A cup of something warm and sweet was put to her lips. Even as exhausted as she was, she grasped the cup drinking it down, licking the rim to get the last drops. Another cup was brought to her and it went just as quickly. A spoon of sweet gruel was put in her mouth, she lost track of how many spoonfuls she ate, she was so hungry all she wanted was to fill her bottomless stomach. Finally she couldn't eat anymore.

She fell asleep again.

**

A sweet voice was whispering to her, "Caroline. It's time to wake up."

She opened her eyes and saw the aura of Dr. Chance looking over her. "What happened?" she managed to whisper.

"You tried to heal a woman of every problem she had. It nearly killed you and her."

"Is she... ok?"

Her mentors aura glowed with satisfaction and hope. "She's as healthy as a woman half her age. But we need to practice much more before you try to heal someone again. I didn't realize you had that much strength in you, and because of my mistake you didn't know your limits."

"I wanted to heal her, and I saw so many problems. It was so easy to heal them all." She thought about what had happened, and saw the last traces of memories not her own floating in her mind like a dream. “I saw her life. Her memories.

"I know. You're powerful and don't know your limits yet. You have to learn that you can't heal the world. You have to pick and choose who and what you heal or else you'll be a used up husk in a month if your lucky. If you're not, you'll steal memories and lives until you don't know who you are anymore," Dr. Chance told her, as a black shadow appeared around her chest. "Now go to sleep, we have a lot more training to do."

**

The auras are really useful to. I'm learning how to navigate with them, and even tell people apart. So eventually I should be able to tell who someone is without having to hear their voice or having them tell me. But let me tell you it isn't always easy.

**

April 3rd, 2007

"Hello... Mr. Washington," Caroline said hopefully, looking at the way the happy pink and yellow aura shifted and moved. She was suppose to meet someone for her run at the little sitting area outside the staff residence, but she wasn't sure who.

Light yellow, a sign of amusement dominated the aura for a second. "Very good, Caroline," her instructor said, finally speaking and moving.

She breathed a sigh of relief at getting it right. “Well now I know two people by sight. Only several hundred more to go.”

“Don't be so hard on yourself, you're doing very well. Now do you know who that person is over there?"

Looking at where he was pointing at, Caroline had just enough time to see a light green aura wink out of existence. "I think it was a man. But he disappeared all of a sudden. He was what, thirty yards away? So he must be going to the long term visitors building. Right?"

That got her an encouraging pat on the back. "Very good Caroline. You're learning far more quickly than I had dreamed possible. Now are you ready for your run?"

She definitely wasn't ready to go for a run, even with her ability to see auras. But that didn't seem to be an option. "You lead the way, I'll follow," she said with false confidence.

Mr. Washington started at a light jog, going down one of the straighter paths. Caroline followed about five feet behind, watching the perfect orange outline of the man who looked more like some kind of psychedelic drawing than a person. A green spot blazed to life in his chest, that was his heart, a little below that a larger green light pulsed, his lungs were working hard. They ran like that for several minutes.

"Come on Caroline, run beside me."

With a very bad feeling she sped up until she could only see her trainer out of the corner of the eye. The trees rushed past them, creating a corridor of nothingness for her to move along. Feeling nervous, Caroline gently touched the pool, releasing a little bit of the power that was inside of her.

The world came to life.

The branches of the trees budding with life sprang forth, the path glowed with purpose, the rocks that lined it were restful and ancient. Someone said something, she ignored it, the auras were wrapping around each other, connecting everything together. She couldn't judge how far away they were, they surrounded her. the trees fed on the rocks, the bugs fed on the trees, the leaves and winter debris that hadn't been cleaned up yet, rotted and turned into dirt.

It was all connected. It was beautiful.

And then she ran headfirst into a tree.

**

Oh and get this I'm learning how to fight.

Dr. Chance knew I wasn't feeling very good because even with the auras I can't always tell what's going on around me, and I've felt pretty helpless sometimes. So she got me a really cool staff, and is teaching me how to defend myself with it.

**

April 6th, 2007

Caroline sat at her computer listening to an audio book about how to close your brain off to telepaths. It was boring, but the bruises on her face and chest from running into a tree, made her very happy to sit back and listen, rather then run around doing things that could end in pain and unconsciousness.

There was a knock on her door. "Come in," she called, pausing the book.

Dr. Chance stepped in, with her distinctive silvery purple aura. "Come on Caroline, I have a gift for you."

She bounced out of her chair, "Really! What is it? Please don't tell me it's more books, I'm still trying to get through most of the ones you've already given me."

"It's not books," the woman laughed. "It's something that will make you more independent and safe."

"Is it a dog?" she asked hopefully.

"No. Just be patient and follow me."

They went to the little gymnasium where yoga, pilates, and aerobics was taught to the patients, and even staff, who were capable of doing them. At the moment the gym was deserted. "What are we doing here?" Caroline asked curiously.

"I'd like to give you this," the doctor said, putting something that seemed like a baton in her hand.

Caroline felt it all over, noticing a small depression in the center of it, that was just big enough for her finger. There were several small golden crystals at both ends, lighting it up for her. “Um... what is it?”

"Give it a hard flick," Dr. Chance said, amusement tinting her aura.

Not having any idea of what might happen, she flicked her wrist. There was a rattle and she was holding a what felt like a cane. Running her hand along it, she wondered at the lightweight metal, and the tiny bumps where it had telescoped out. "Ok, you got me a really cool, and kind of heavy cane, that is thicker than the one I have now. Thanks?"

"It can be used as a cane, but that is only a side benefit. Hold it out and sideways, press the little indent and give it a shake."

She did so, and the other end telescoped outwards. Placing one end of the staff on the ground and touching the top, she guessed it was just a little shorter then she was, about five and a half feet in length. Swinging it around, she saw the golden dots perfectly giving her some idea of what she was doing. "Ok, now this nice. So I can start thumping people if they annoy me right?"

"Not yet, first you need to train." Dr. Chance said gleefully. Caroline turned and saw that the doctor had pulled out her own staff that flared with power.

"Oh boy."

**

Anyways Wendy now that things have finally settled down to a very busy routine, I should be able to write more often, and I'll try to phone you this week. But Dr. Chance is really harsh with the training so no promises.
I will be coming home for a visit this month though, and I need to buy some new clothes, so shopping spree?
Oh, I have to go practice again,
Bye bye,
BFF

**

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

"Daddy!" Caroline yelled, as a car door slammed closed and a man with an aura of happiness and longing looked up. Running confidently over the smooth pavement, she threw her arms around him, taking in the feel of his arms around her and the smell of his flowery soap and shampoo. He used the same stuff she did to save money, despite his complaints of smelling like a garden. "You are Daddy aren't you?" she asked half jokingly.

"Yeah I am princess. You've grown so much, I almost didn't recognize you."

"Please, its' just been two months. I haven't grown that much," she said, still not letting him go.

"Maybe not height wise, but you're a lot more confident now. When was the last time I saw you run?" he asked, his voice and aura glowing with pride.

She blushed. "I've had a lot of training. You should see me practice with my staff, I think I could take out about half the kids at my school in a fight now."

Rubbing her hair, and messing up her hairdo, he said, "Let's not do anything drastic that could involve the police please. Where's Dr. Chance? I'd like to say hello."

"She wants to see you to. But I have to find her first." She saw his aura shift rapidly to curiosity and amusement. "Its for my training. I have to practice using my aura sight, and walking by myself." Caroline pulled an envelope out of her purse and opened it. The note inside was in braille and told her to go to the diseased tree on the south side of the spa. With a sigh, she snapped her baton into a cane. "Come on, I think you're going to get a tour of the spa."

As they walked she pointed out the different buildings and features, using the auras she recognized, the feel of the stones, dirt and pavement on the paths, and even the way their voices and her cane hitting the ground echoed. She could tell her father was fascinated, not only from his aura, but also the numerous questions he asked about how she could be so sure. There was a simple answer, she'd been walking and running all around the spa on errands, tests and training since late February, with no breaks, except when she was studying her psychic powers. She'd been exhausted, bruised, run ragged and yet she was happy about it all.

They circled the spa three times, searching for ten locations, each one giving instructions to the next location. After two hours of walking they ended up in the office of Dr. Chance. "Took you long enough, Caroline."

"You try walking around this whole place with a blind fold on trying to find one particular spot of colour on a tapestry," the girl grumbled. "Honestly, 'the rock beside the east pond that is happy'."

"It worked," the woman said far too smugly.

Her father chuckled. "She's right princess. And it was good exercise, I don't think you walked that far even when you could see. And you didn't even complain until you had to find the broken branch on the tree by the hot tub. I was tempted to wash your mouth out with soap."

"It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had to climb the fu- freaking tree to get the envelope. I know I'm going away for almost a week, but honestly couldn't you forget the torture for one day?" she asked.

"Training, not torture, dear. And remember I'm your mentor, which is remarkably similar to tormentor," Dr. Chance laughed. "Anyways now that you're here, there is something that you have to do when you go home. You're going to need to get an MID. I've set you up for an appointment on Friday with the MCO in Chicago. They know me and are one of the fairest MCO offices you'll find."

"Why do I need to get an MID? Can't I just claim to be a baseline psychic like you?"

Her mentor snorted. "With a little less then two months of training, you're doing things I can't do. Having an MID can be annoying, but it's safer than not having one. I'd rather not have my most promising student and friend arrested and thrown in jail for not having some ID."

She had to admit that was a good point. "Fine. But if I vanish into thin air, I'll never speak to you again."

"Also," Dr. Carson said, ignoring the threat, "you need to get your powers tested for the next part of your training. I have some literature for both of you to read. It's a private high school for mutants, called Whateley."

"I don't want to go to some private school! I'm learning enough here that I could go back home and go back to school after the summer. I can even take summer classes so I won't be far behind everyone."

Her father shifted in his seat, rubbing his hand against his permanent five o'clock which made an annoying scratching sound. "I'm not sure. A school for mutants. Isn't that dangerous? I know Caroline is one, but I've seen what some of them can do on the news. What if one of them goes berserk?"

"I am reaching the limits of what I can teach Caroline. Right now I'm simply trying to help her build up her defenses, and pointing her in the right direction while giving her a safety net when she falls. I have been to Whateley a time or two, their psychic department is the best in the world, and a diploma from the school will open up doors that a regular high school can't even dream of," she insisted.

"How much will this cost? We're doing ok financially, but one reason I held off on sending Caroline to the boarding school for the blind she found, was simply because we couldn't afford it," her father admitted, his aura flaring with embarrassment.

"I'll cover the first year, and if she'll work for me for one month every summer I'll pay for each year after that." Her hand went up demanding silence. "Believe me this is very fair. The healing job Caroline did on Mrs. Bronson was so extensive, she has been telling all of her wealthy friends about it, and I have fifteen new reservations that will more then cover the costs."

"Th-that's very generous of you. I'll consider it very carefully."

"Dad! Where is the school?" Caroline asked, feeling outnumbered.

"New Hampshire," Dr. Chance said. "A little ways away, but it is nice and private where you can learn about your powers in safety."

"Dad, I don't want to go. When would I see you?"

He patted her hand. "I think we should consider this. I heard about your accident healing that woman, and running into the tree because you overcharged your sight. And this wouldn't be much different then going to that school for the blind."

"Caroline, I wouldn't be recommending this if I didn't think it was important. You need the training, and I feel that you need to be there." Caroline looked hard at her tormentor and friend, the tone of voice and the aura told her that Dr. Chance believed without a shadow of a doubt that this was important.

With a sigh, Caroline bowed her head in defeat. "I'll read it over. If Dad says it's good and I don't see anything too horrible I'll go."

"Thank you, dear. You won't regret it. Much."

They made small talk as Dr. Chance walked them back to the parking lot and said a final goodbye, which included a particularly big hug for Caroline. Then it was just a two hour drive back home.

**

That night, as she laid in her own bed for the first time in far too long, Caroline read over the information packet. It was late, but she'd had a nice long nap on the car ride home, and couldn't seem to get comfortable. As she read, she realized there was one advantage to braille, her dad wouldn't yell at her to turn the lights out.

The classes and groups seemed interesting. The fact that they had the packet in braille was also a good sign that they would know how to deal with her particular problem and she wouldn't be treated like a freak or an annoyance. It was kind of strange, when she thought of mutants, it was always of perfect people who could shoot fireballs out of their hands, or really ugly people who could take a tank shell to the chest. She hadn't heard much if anything, about mutants who weren't perfect and had a regular disability that didn't involve growing horns and scales.

Thinking about it, she decided that while getting a perfect body, and the most common super power, would have been FAR, FAR more preferable, if she did have to get the short end of the stick, it could have been worse. At least she could still go out in public.

With that cheerful thought, Caroline put the packet away and went to sleep.

**

Wednesday, April 25th

Wendy and Caroline got out of her Dad's car, at the local mall. After spending all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday with her father, Caroline was ready for some girl time.

"Caroline," her Dad said, his jacket rattling and rustling as he pulled something from his pocket, "Dr. Chance wanted me to give this to you, when you started your shopping spree. And remember I'll meet you at the Starbucks at ten. Be there."

"Yes Dad," she said, taking an envelop from his hand before closing the door.

Wendy was standing on the sidewalk, looking a a little unsure of herself. "So for the walking bit, do I help you? Or do you use a stick? Or what?"

Putting the envelop in her oversized bag, she gave her friend an encouraging smile. "Well, if you could help me by opening the door, it would be nice. Finding the handle and figuring out if I have to push or pull them is annoying. Then I'm good to go."

"Ok. So, I've gotta ask, what's with the pink glasses."

The smile dropped from her face. "I'm going to kill her," she growled. "No wonder no one told me what colour they were."

"No, no they look cool. They make you seem really happy, and cute."

"Just what I want to look like, a happy girl who see's the world through pink lenses." Taking Wendy's arm they walked into the mall, which was only a little crowded with people shopping after work and school.

Now that they were inside, Caroline stopped to open the envelop, she pulled out four plastic cards and a letter. Handing the cards to Wendy, she ran her fingers over the letter.

'Since you've done such a good job, I decided you needed a treat. You have four gift cards each one with five hundred dollars to some clothes store in your mall. Get yourself something nice. Also you and Wendy will have your hair and nails done at seven at the Glamour Salon, all paid for.
And your pink glasses look really cute, especially when you wear your bell bottoms, you'd make a great hippie.
Enjoy.'

"Wow, thanks," she whispered.

"Caroline, these are for the most expensive stores in town. Your doctor must really like you," Wendy said, whistling in amazement.

"Yeah, she does, when she's not torturing me. They're each good for five hundred dollars, and we're getting our hair and nails done at seven. You want to eat first or shop?" she asked needlessly.

"SHOP!"

**

"What colour is this?" Caroline asked, holding up a top that had a really nice feel to it.

"A really dark black with little shiny spots all over it. It looks good. What size do you need?" Wendy said, her aura dark green with jealousy.

"A small."

The jealousy got worse. "You used to be a medium, what happened and how can I do it?"

"Get a sadistic mentor who has you jogging a half hour in the morning and evening, climbing trees, going on scavenger hunts, and doing two hours of self defense training everyday. Some days I love the regular work of learning Braille and other stuff because I actually get a chance to sit down and rest," she groaned. Of course it wasn't that bad now that she was in a routine and seeing the result. Losing the little bulge in her belly, along with the nice lean muscle that let her finally develop a figure rather than the stick figure like legs and arms she'd had before, it made the pain worthwhile.

"Jesus, when do you have time to go to school?"

She shrugged. "I'm kind of throwing this term away. It wasn't like I was getting much from school while I was anyways. The idiot the school hired to help me was so useless I was learning more braille on my own than at school. Now I've been so busy with learning about psychic stuff and how to do things without really seeing, that learning history or English would just get in the way. I can handle having to redo a term."

"So you'll be coming back after the summer?" Wendy asked hopefully.

With a sigh, she shook her head. "I don't know. Dr. Chance, wants me to go to a boarding school that is suppose to be really good. It doesn't seem too bad, and I think my Dad is going to go for it. But I'd really like to come back home."

"What's so good about this school?"

"It's some school for..." she looked around to make sure no one was close, and used a safer term than mutants, "psychics, like me."

Wendy was instantly interested. "So you'll be able to tell the future and stuff? Will Rob ask me out to the dance next week?"

"I can't do that. But I'll learn more about reading auras, and psychic healing, and stuff like that. Now which way is the change room, I want to try this top on?" she asked, wanting to let the whole annoying topic drop.

**

"Hi girls, what would you like to tonight?" a waitress with a bubbly voice and a mercenary aura asked.

"What type of burgers do you have?" Caroline asked, having lived on a healthy, and actually pretty interesting diet of green stuff, chicken and fish at the spa, she was craving something greasy.

"It's all listed in the menu in front of you."

She blushed. "I can't see it. Could you tell me?"

The aura became tinged with an annoyed red. "We have a vegetarian burger, chicken burger, regular burger, double burger, mushroom burger and steak burger. They come with your choice of fries, baked potato, salad, or steamed vegetables, and a drink.” The waitress didn't quite shout, as if Caroline was hard of hearing as well as deaf.

"Regular burger, fries and a coke please," she said quietly. The woman had been polite if too loud, but seeing her annoyed aura had made the confidence Caroline had been feeling started to slip away. At the spa she knew where everything was, but during the shopping trip, she'd had to have her cane out almost all the time and relied on Wendy to help her get around even with her 'vision'. And constantly asking about colours, styles, where things were and sizes had left her feeling helpless. She knew that eventually the feelings would go away, at least according to the stuff she'd read online, but it was still too new for her to feel comfortable asking for help and getting around in a crowd.

To get herself out of the growing funk, despite the bags of expensive clothes beside her, she got Wendy talking about school and her old friends, while they waited for the food.

**

Caroline was happier with a full stomach, and the thought of getting her hair and nails done. It had been a few months since she'd gotten a haircut, first because she'd been in a panic, followed by depression, and then because she'd been too busy. Her hair was definitely getting a bit too much on the fuzzy side.

The mall was more crowded, so she'd pulled out her cane, it was a little thicker and shorter then a regular white cane, and much harder and stiffer than the flexible canes, so it wasn't as useful as a way to get around. But it was white, it did let her avoid objects, and notice things like steps and obstacles, and it was primarily for self defense, so there were trade offs.

"You should get your hair dyed pink," Wendy said.

"You're kidding right?"

"No, I'm serious. It will match your glasses, and people will really notice you."

"Uh huh. I don't think it would match my complexion. And I don't want cotton candy on my head," Caroline said quite reasonably.

"Well I think you should consider it. Oh bathroom, just be a minute," Wendy said, turning so abruptly Caroline almost tripped.

While her friend did her business, Caroline leaned against the wall watching the crowd and protecting their purchases. With so many people so close together, the auras seemed to merge together, and as people interacted the auras changed from one second to another. But unlike in Chicago, they weren't so overwhelming and she could understand what most of them meant.

"Hello, do you need some help?" a woman asked suddenly.

"Huh!" she jumped as the woman came right up beside her avoiding her aura sight. "No thanks. I'm just waiting for a friend."

"Are you sure? It would be no trouble." The voice and aura just oozed concern and pity.

Caroline shook her head. "No. Really, I'm just waiting for a friend."

"Well... ok, if you're sure you don't need any help."

Caroline breathed a sigh of relief as the woman and her ginger shampoo smell started to go away. She groaned as the woman turned around and came back, concern written in big shiny letters in her aura. "Where is your friend now?"

"None of your business."

"Well, I just think that she shouldn't leave you alone like this. It's not really safe for you, now is it?" The woman reached a glowing hand out to pat her shoulder.

The cane came up, just missing the woman. "Why isn't it safe for me?"

"You're blind, and all alone in the mall. You must be so scared." The worst part for Caroline was the fact that the woman really believed that she should be scared.

"Not really. I'm fourteen years old, not four. I can handle myself."

"You're so brave. Have you been blind all your life?" the annoying woman asked, leaning against the wall.

Why wouldn't the woman go away, she wondered. "Nope."

"Oh that is so uplifting, seeing someone doing so well with a disability. I wish I was as brave as you are. If I was blind, I think I'd just die."

"Wendy, come on," she whispered.

"Where exactly is your friend? She's been gone an awfully long time hasn't she. "

There was no one close by, and the pitying tone that the woman spoke in, to say nothing of the aura which showed exactly how helpless the woman seemed to think she was, decided her. With a flick of her wrist she extended the cane into a staff, and began spinning it idly in front of her. "My friend hasn't been in a fight in her entire life and would run away screaming if someone threatened her. I can see a little, and I've been trained to fight very dirty if someone threatens me. Do you really think I need my friend to protect me?"

"I-I guess not," the woman said, backing away in surprise.

"Right. So please don't treat me like I'm helpless." Pressing the button and shaking the staff, it became a baton again, then a cane.

"Wow, that was pretty cool," Wendy said from behind her. "But I wouldn't run away screaming, it would waste precious oxygen I could use to run faster."

Picking up her bags, Caroline started walking towards the hair salon swinging her cane in her hand. "I am pretty cool aren't AAAHHH!" she screamed as her foot hit some stairs, and her bags and cane went flying.

"Don't say a word!" she yelled at Wendy, who was trying and failing, not to laugh.

**

"So my hair looks good?" Caroline asked for the tenth time as they walked arm in arm the short way to Starbucks.

"Yes, the curls look great, and the cherry red nail polish is fantastic. It will look great with your black top. Should I have gotten my hair cut so short?" Wendy asked.

"Stop" she said, not wanting to risk another fall even though the sidewalk was nice and smooth. She raised her arm, letting the bags slide down to her elbow and ran her hand gently over Wendy's silky soft hair, placing what it felt like with the picture of Wendy's face in her mind. "Definitely. The pixie cut feels great."

"But does it look great?"

She lowered her glasses revealing her eyes and smirked. "If you want to know how it looks, don't ask the blind girl."

From the corner of her eye, she saw a swirling aura full of negative emotions, dark red, muddy green and pink, painfully bright yellow and black. She could tell it was a man and his hand was behind his back.

"Come on!" she hissed, grabbing Wendy's arm again and speed walking towards the coffee house.

The man started running after them. "Stop right there, bitches!" There was an audible click as a gun was cocked.

Wendy came to a halt, forcing Caroline to stop as well. "Oh god, please don't hurt us!" she said.

"Give me your purses!" the mugger snarled.

"Ok, ok," Caroline said. Shaking in fear she reached for the strap, she forgot her hands were full and the purse got tangled in the bags and her cane.

"Come on, or I'm going to kill you!"

She was certain she was going to die, the terror was almost overwhelming. Everything she'd been taught was useless, she couldn't do anything and some asshole was going to shoot her. The pool that rested in her heart, roared reacting with her fear. The mugger reached for her purse, and she screamed. Her aura leapt outwards, an angry violent orange, engulfing the man.

His scream was one of absolute fear and terror. He fell to the ground, smelling of piss and shit, holding his head, screaming to god to make it stop.

"Come on!" Caroline shouted at Wendy, grabbing her arm and jogging away. As her aura blazed around her, she could make out even the faint aura of the sidewalk, and for once it all made sense.

**

Nighttime, Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

When the Starbucks staff and customers saw two terrified teenage girls came running in like the devil himself was on their tails, at least five people decided to call the police. While several more bought them their choice of drinks and tried to get them to calm down.

Five minutes later the police were there asking Caroline and Wendy what had happened, two minutes after that they sent out an APB about an armed and dangerous mugger. Four minutes later the mugger was found sobbing and totally incoherent exactly where the girls had said they'd been mugged. Then things got interesting.

Caroline and her father sat in the interrogation room of the nearby police station. The officer who had introduced himself as Detective Murray did not sound happy about the situation, however his emotions seemed more bored then anything. From the surges of disgust in his aura whenever he spoke about the mugger, his anger at a man who would mug two teenagers more than outweighed the distrust he showed at her being a mutant.

"So, let me get this straight. You have mutant powers, you're willing to use them against regular people, but you don't have an MID. Why not, you're clearly dangerous?" he said.

"Until tonight, it was assumed I had basic psychic powers only, things baselines can do, just faster and more easily. My mentor, Dr. Chance, can do most of what I do, and she doesn't even have the mutant gene. We weren't sure if I was just talented or a mutant until recently," she explained. "Once we figured out I was doing too well, she set up an appointment for me to get my powers tested and an MID on Friday. I don't even know what I did tonight and have never done it before."

He leaned forward, probably glowering at her, which was a complete waste of effort on his part. "What exactly did you do? The suspect had to be sedated and was screaming about something when he was found."

She shrugged. "I don't know what I did. I was trying to give him my purse, when it got stuck on my cane. He yelled at me, and I thought he was going to shoot me. When he went to grab it, my aura reached out and grabbed his, a second later he was falling down and screaming. Then Wendy and I ran for it."

"Your aura?"

"Yes, my aura. Very basically, it's the emotional and energy field that everything has. When you're angry, happy, scared, bored, anything, it shows how you feel. I've been being taught by Dr. Chance, how to see auras, to make up for my blindness, and how to manipulate them for psychic healing."

"So you can what read minds?" the detective asked, getting nervous.

She snorted. "No, and I wouldn't want to, I know what boys think about. I can tell what people are feeling only. Until tonight, Dr. Chance and I believed it was only receptive."

Before Detective Murray could ask another question there was a knock on the door. Without waiting to be invited in two people, a man and a woman, Caroline guessed from the strands of colour that she noticed in their auras, came in, throwing off some very serious and stern emotions. Feeling their attention on her, Caroline sat up much straighter in the uncomfortable chair.

"Hello, I'm Mr. Fox, and this is Ms. Lane, we are the MCO agents who will be taking charge of this investigation," the man said in a deep voice that reeked of authority.

Caroline listened as the detective and her father went over the paperwork to make sure everything was in order. She did not feel very confident as her father became more and more worried, until his entire aura was a dull gray. Reaching into herself she drew strength from the pool and shoved the fear deep into the water, when the two agents finally came over to the table, she was calm and clear thinking.

"Hello Ms. Grant, we would like to go over what happened tonight. Don't worry this is completely routine," Mr. Fox said. "Can you please go over everything that occurred before, during and after the mugging?"

She told them, and threw in what she had already told the Detective to save time. They took notes, but didn't say anything or interrupt until she was done. By the end of her story, she was feeling pretty confident, the auras had become a bit friendlier and sympathetic.

"You have never done anything like this before?" Ms. Lane asked.

"No. The closest thing I've done is psychic healing. Where I made the auras flow properly by having them kind of copy mine. Dr. Chance has it all on record, since I'm her apprentice." When she'd mentioned her mentor earlier the tension had immediately eased from the agents aura, and Dr. Chance had told her to use her name if anything happened, so Caroline was more then willing to mention her as much as possible.

Mr. Fox jumped in, with a jolt of fear jumping around his heart. "So you've made psychic healing into a weapon?"

"I have no idea. I just felt really scared and my aura reacted. This is why Dr. Chance wants me to get power tested. And... she's suggested I go to a special school to learn more." She wasn't sure if mentioning the school was a good idea or not, but it couldn't be much of a secret if they handed out brochures to people.

"Whateley?"

Well, she thought, that solved that worry. "Yeah. She gave my dad and I some brochures and told us to think about it over the week. Do... do you know what it's like?"

Amusement flashed around them. Ms. Lane, muttered almost too quietly to be heard, "Recruiting agents for Whateley now."

Mr. Fox took a bit of time to think about her question. "I've never personally been there, but I know that the MCO and Whateley have a close relationship. And it is a good school for mutants to learn how to control their powers. Beyond that, I can't say much."

There were a few more questions, but the mood was much lighter and Caroline was relaxed enough to feel her exhaustion. When she started yawning, Mr. Fox called a stop to the questioning.

"That's just about everything Ms. Grant," he said. "It seems fairly obvious you only defended yourself. Even better for you, the suspect, who has a record of similar crimes, seems to have calmed down and is sleeping it off at the hospital. Since you're signed up for power testing, and just manifested recently, you are completely in the clear in that regard. Now, one last thing. The MCO is not suppose to have your name on file. We use code names when possible to protect your identity. Do you have one chosen already that we can use for this report? If not we'll leave the name blank until you do your powers testing, but it could cause some problems."

"I never really thought about it. I didn't think I'd ever need one," she said, desperately wracking her brain to come up with something that didn't sound lame.

Her father stepped up, holding something in his hand. "Caroline. Dr. Chance gave me this and told me to give it to you on Friday before doing your powers testing, I think it might be a good idea to read it now."

An envelope was put into her hand. Ripping it open, there was a single word written in Braille. 'Insight'.

"I think I'll choose, Insight." As the word left her mouth, she knew was right.

**

Thursday, April 26th

Caroline slept in late the next day. When she finally got up around ten, her Dad was busy in his office, so she went into the backyard with her staff. In a track suit, she began practicing with the weapon, using it as a cane and fully extended. For an hour she went through the forms, blocking, jabbing, and clubbing invisible enemies.

When she finally stopped, someone clapped. Turning she saw an outline of a girl, "Wendy?"

"Yeah, it's me, my parents let me stay home today after the trouble last night," the girl said. "Why didn't you club the guy last night? That was pretty impressive stuff."

Caroline blushed. "I was too scared. I heard the gun, saw how angry and desperate he was and I panicked." Wiping sweat from her face, she retracted the staff to the more manageable baton size. "You want to come in? I need some breakfast and a drink."

"It's closer to lunchtime now, you kinda missed breakfast by a few hours," her friend pointed out. "But yeah, we still have a lot to catch up on, and I want to see how you look in your clothes."

Wendy sat on a stool while Caroline cooked up some eggs and spam. "How can you do all of that?" she asked, watching the blind girl moving around almost as quickly as someone who could see.

"It's really not too hard. I'd like to use a few more spices than just salt and pepper, but I don't know what bottles are what, so I'm keeping it simple. The eggs are easy, Dad always puts them in the same place. The spam has a different shape then everything else so I don't need to ask what it is. The oil was in the usual cupboard, I just had to feel for the greasy bottle, and the salt and pepper are beside the stove with an S and P on the shakers. Then it's just a matter of timing and smelling, and maybe touching and tasting if I'm not sure." Caroline explained. "Dr. Chance has me cook our meals three times a week in the kitchen. At first I had one of the chefs help me out, but now I can handle most of it by myself, and the chefs only teach me new recipes."

"What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, turning around to face her friend and to put the finished food on the waiting plate.

"What happened to you? Before you left you wouldn't cook anything unless you had to, you spent most of your time on makeup, movies and music, and you would rather diet then exercise. What happened to the old you?" Wendy asked.

Caroline didn't answer for several minutes, thinking of how to explain as she ate. "Before I could do anything I wanted. It was easy for me, too easy. Then when my eyesight started to go, I was helpless. You saw me stumbling around school, doing less and less, not wanting to talk to anyone or really do anything. Then, Dr. Chance showed me that I could still see in a special way, and got me the right training to learn how to do everything I needed to do. Now when I cook for myself, or practice fighting, exercise or do something with my powers, it's a sign to myself that I'm not helpless. It's either do that, or have 'helpful' people like that woman last night, guiding me through everything as if I was a baby."

"Damn. Now you're making me feel lazy."

"Want to go for a run later? I can show you a few simple exercises that you can do by yourself."

Embarrassment surrounded Wendy. "I don't know. I don't want people laughing at me."

"It's a school day, who will see you?" she pointed out. "And you can do it in the morning or evening when no ones around."

"Ok."

**

After a quick trip to Wendy's house to get her in a track suit, they walked to the local park which was deserted except for a few old people enjoying the warm day. "We're going to run for at least ten minutes, you pick the pace, but if you go to slow I'm going to be pushing you. You run ahead of me, and I'll be a few steps behind."

They started jogging down the path. Caroline was nervous at first, being so far from her usual running path, but with Wendy setting a fairly slow pace, and the lack of people, it wasn't too bad. She had her baton in her hand, letting anyone else running know she couldn't see, which would hopefully keep them from running into her. As they ran she let her vision strengthen just a little, she still couldn't see the actual path she was running on, but the bushes and trees on either side seemed to solidify a little more, letting her move with more confidence.

"Come on Wendy, pick up the pace!"

"I'm going to die!" Wendy cried, but sped up a little.

Caroline laughed and kept going, loving the freedom of it all.

**

Chicago, MCO Regional Office,
April 27th, 2007

After the interesting week, Caroline was ready to go back to the nice peaceful spa. She and Wendy had spent the last few days of freedom together, seeing some other friends and she had loved acting like a normal teenager, but she missed the routine of the spa and learning how to help people. So on Friday morning, she met Wendy before school and said goodbye promising to phone and email each other until she could go back home.

The drive to Chicago was nice enough, listening to music and talking about things with her Dad. But the conversation lagged as they got closer to the MCO office for her testing. She thought that she should probably be afraid. She'd heard that they didn't like mutants and a few people on the net said that they had a habit of making them disappear, but after meeting the agents on Wednesday, and knowing that Dr. Chance trusted them. What worried her was the future, what would others say once she was officially declared a mutant. She wasn't some big tough mutant who could walk away from getting hit by a car, she had the bruises from her training to prove that. She knew that mutants had to worry about getting jobs because of discrimination, avoiding hate groups like H1, finding colleges that would accept them, and losing friends because of what they were. She'd read about the discrimination blind people had because of their disability, now she had all the extra rules and problems mutants had on top of that. And the MID would show everyone just how big of a freak she was.

She wished she could just go back to being normal.

In the MCO officer, her father sat in the waiting room with his laptop, ready to do some work during the wait. He had already filled out the forms for her, while an MCO agent watched, and she was officially code named Insight.

Then it was off to the testing.

The testers didn't seem to be too sure what to do about her blindness. She heard them asking each other if they should do some of the tests or not, she really didn't like it when they talked about dodge ball. Would she have to duck something? She didn't think she could do that.

They reached some decision, not telling her what it was of course, and started the tests. The first was easy, it involved psychic powers. She explained how she saw, read their auras, showed how she could use auras to navigate, which of course led them flick their hands in front of her eyes and shine lights in them to prove she really was blind. They also had her look around, trying to spot auras through different materials. Glass, walls, sheets, and other people would block her sight, even at its most powerful.

Trying to see if she was telepathic didn't work. When she had to guess a card, she was totally normal.

Then she had to do some psychic healing. One of the testers cut himself, she pointed out the cut using his aura, and then smoothed out the very small problem with his energy, easing the pain and completely healing it in under a minute.

That led to them asking her to change their emotions, like she had done to the mugger.

“Now, Insight, we want you to change Agent Malone's emotion,” the tester said, taking her hand to point her at the waiting agent who seemed extremely nervous. “Try to make him feel happy or excited if possible.”

“Ok,” she said.

Closing her eyes, she reached into the pool of energy, and tried to remember what she had done the other night. Channeling the power through her hands, she opened her eyes and saw her aura flaring, the colours flickering constantly. She thought about how she made the crystals, and focused on a happy thought, nothing too personal, just the run she'd taken with Wendy the day before, the feeling of freedom, strength, and pleasure. Her aura smoothed out, turning into a tapestry of clear yellows, pinks and red, physical, passionate, happy and alive.

She reached out with her hand, letting her energy caress the agent, watching them interact and the colours twist and encircle each other like paint. Breathing normally, forcing herself to stay calm, she pushed her own colours and emotions outwards, overpowering the more negative emotions of the agent. His muddy browns and greys were snuffed out, leaving only bright, vibrant colours. She saw her aura encircle him, forcing out ever feeling except happiness and comfort. When she couldn't see or feel any negativity from him she pulled back, leaning against the desk, drained as if she'd just finished a long run.

“My god!” someone laughed. “I feel so good. This... this is amazing. Thank you!”

Caroline looked up just in time to see Agent Malone tackle her in a bear hug, kissing her cheek. She gave a little scream and tried to push him away. “Get off of me!”

He didn't let go, all she could see was his aura, full of love and happiness, directed entirely at her. He kept kissing her, his big, muscular arms holding her against him, whispering his undying love for her. She heard the doctor calling for security, and felt hands trying to pull the man away. She kicked and pushed at him, but she couldn't get any leverage, even as more people started trying to pull him away.

“GET AWAY!” she screamed, as he planted a kiss on her lips.

Her power reacted to her fear, sending it back at the agent twice as powerful. Caroline was thrown across the room as Agent Malone screeched in terror, she heard running feet and someone crashing into a door, the screaming slowly faded away as the agent ran down a hallway and the door closed.

Caroline stayed where she'd been thrown, crying and hugging herself in shock.

**

Almost an hour later, after she'd calmed down, Caroline moved to a gym, the doctor testing her, stayed well back, and there were two other agents with them, both very nervous, their aura's muted. Trying to ignore the negative feelings, Caroline followed their instructions precisely, lifting weights and running on a treadmill. She was strong for a girl her age, but nothing special. As she was on the treadmill they began to angle it up. At a 40 degree angle, she suddenly couldn't hold on anymore and hit the ground rolling to a not too painful stop. Something hit the wall and bounced down beside her.

"What's this?" she asked picking up a ball that felt a little soft.

"Why did you fall down?" the tester asked ignoring her question.

She shrugged, "I lost my grip. It was pretty steep."

"Alright lets try this again. You haven't finished the test."

Shrugging she got up and began to run again. As the treadmill picked up speed, Caroline thought she heard the tester say something, leaning over to hear better, there was a gust of wind that went past her ear and something hit the wall. "Ok! What the hell are you guys doing?" she demanded.

"Just keep running please."

"Stop throwing things at me, I'm just a regular girl, not some super strong mutant," she told them, straightening up. As she did so, something else hit the wall, from the thump she guessed it would have hit her head if she hadn't stood up.

"Hey, I want off, I didn't sign up to have stuff thrown at me!" When the testers didn't stop the treadmill, she let go of the bars, and letting herself slide back, landing in a crouch at the foot of the machine. There were at least five thuds, and she felt balls bouncing off the wall to gently pelt her.

"Did you know what was going to happen? Feel a tingling, or a sense of danger?" the tester asked.

"No! I fell the first time, then I thought you'd said something, then I just straightened up and finally I just got tired of being used as target practice. What the heck was that about?" she demanded.

The tester ignored her for a minute, typing something into his computer. "You have some kind of danger sense. Possibly clairvoyance, but instead of telling you there is a danger, it comes up with a coincidence to avoid it."

"Really. Then why do I run into trees and stairs? And why didn't I avoid that mugger the other night?"

"Maybe it has to be a conscious thought or from another source to activate? That would make it a type of telepathy. And for the mugger, the report says you noticed him before he got too close to you right?"

"Yeah, I stopped to check out my friends hair and saw him coming out of the corner of my eye."

Satisfaction suffused the tester. "So it's a type of telepathy. If someone wants to hurt you, your power comes up with a coincidence that helps you avoid the danger, or at least warn you about it. Fascinating."

"What now?" Caroline asked, getting tired of the tests.

"Dodge ball."

"What?!"

**

"I really don't like this," Caroline shouted, as she stood alone in a sealed room.

She walked back to the entrance, holding her hand out to keep from running into a wall. "Hey, blind girl here, dodge ball really-" Caroline couldn't finish talking as a ball knocked her on a butt.

More balls erupted from the walls. She curled into a ball protecting her head and front, while proving that she had a very large vocabulary of swears and wasn't afraid to use it.

"Yep, her danger sense is definitely telepathy based," a tester said, as he watched the girl getting buried in balls from the safety of the control booth.

**

They tried to get her to play a board game, but the rules changed so quickly, and she had trouble trying to place the game pieces on the squares she couldn't see or feel, that it was considered a waste of time after ten minutes.

She had no magical abilities that they could detect.

When they placed her in front of several machines, she took a minute to touch them, scowled at getting grease on her hands and demanded a wet wipe to clean her hands.

The regeneration test was painful and initially a failure. They cut her arm and nothing happened. Then they asked her to do psychic surgery on herself. She built up the energy and ran her hand over the cuts. The skin pulled itself together after less then a minute, not even leaving a scar.

Finally well after lunch, they declared themselves satisfied and let her get changed back into her street clothes. Then it was time to take her photo for her MID. Dr. Chance had told her that she could wear a mask if she wanted to. Not wanting to look stupid with a ski mask or something, she had grabbed a light blue scarf with a flower motif from home, made it into a wide band and wrapped it around her eyes. She thought it looked properly psychic.

As she got to the waiting room, they gave her her MID. Showing it to her Dad, he was impressed with the picture, and told her her ratings, Esper 3 , Telepathy 1 (danger sense), Healing 4.

Satisfied and tired after the tests, they headed to the car where she curled up in her seat and took a nap.

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois.
May 3rd, 2007

“Alright, Insight, I this poor, sweet, little kitten is scared, and you're the only one who can make him feel better. I want you to make him a little happy without becoming enthralled to you,” Dr. Chance said, putting a mewing little puff of grey and black light on the table.

She couldn't resist, and reached out to pet the little animal. “He's so soft,” she cooed. “Can I keep him?”

Chance moved her hand away. “If you can control his emotions, without overpowering him, yes. But you'll have to look after him yourself.”

“Ok, just a little happy, I can do this,” Caroline told herself, shuddering briefly at the memory of the MCO agent declaring his undying devotion to her and than freaking out. Fortunately it only lasted a about an hour and he'd been back to normal by the time she'd left.

She let a trickle of the water that was her power leave her heart, moving down her right arm pooling at the tip of her middle finger. The kitten needed to calm down, he was surrounded by giant strangers and far from his mother and litter. Getting him to relax a little would be good. The power pooling around her fingers turned a light blue, as she thought of being hugged by her father, warm beds and a good meal.

Gently, ever so gently, she stroked the kitten. It was almost like finger painting, turning the glowing aura that was full of fear turn a pretty, calming blue. The mewing turned to a noisy purr, the shivering stopped and the kittens nose chased her finger trying to lick it. With the fear gone, she cut the energy flow, letting the power return to it's resting place inside of her. The kitten still followed her finger, she giggled making it chase her finger around the table, until she took pity on the animal and scooped him up in her arms. He snuggled against her chest, purring so loudly it felt like a little motor.

“You're my little kitty now aren't you?” she said, lifting him up so she could rub her cheek against his short, silky fur. “Does he have a name?”

“No, I just had a friend pick him up from someone giving away free kittens this morning.”

“What colour is he?”

Chance's emotion turned to embarrassment. “A really ugly yellow and black. Sorry.”

“Well his aura is beautiful. But a name, a name, he's yellow and black with sharp little claws.” She tried to think of a good name for him, but could really only think of Hobbes, and she wasn't going to call him that. As she watched him, his aura shifted, growing, becoming a tiger like black and yellow, enraged and growling, yet it's eyes of pure gold looked at her with a promise of protection.

“I need the internet!” she said, rushing from the table back to her room, clutching the kitten in her hands.

Starting up her computer, she placed the kitten on her lap, where it made itself a little nest in her dress, and her fingers flew over the keys. Flipping it to a search engine, she hastily typed, tiger protector, myth.

Dots rose up on the little display, and with practiced ease, Caroline read the first page listed, it was something about Chinese tiger myth. It didn't feel right, the next one said the same thing in different words. She went past twenty pages, before she read something that felt right. The Dawon, a Hindu sacred tiger that was a mount and a protector of the goddess Durga. Caroline couldn't explain why, but the name felt right.

“You're my little Dawon,” she whispered to the sleeping kitten. “You're going to grow big and strong aren't you and be my fierce little tiger protector. Don't worry I'll keep you safe until you're big enough.”

Surprisingly she had a whole hour to relax with her new pet before Doctor Chance sent someone to grab her for self defense training.

**

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois
May 20th, 2007

Looking at the numerous crystals before her, Caroline was amazed at the sheer variety. Before all the weird stuff had happened, she'd only had a couple of earrings, necklaces and bracelets, most of them cheap stuff teenagers could afford with a small allowance. Now she had several thousand dollars worth, and she was going to wear a large portion of it for her daily practice. Dr. Chance had told her to put on the most protective and healing crystals she had to test her defences to the limit. So rather than simply relying on earrings, her usual necklace, a bracelet or two, and her two anklets which were purely for healing, she was going all out.

Caroline picked up the cool silver forehead band and looked at the pitch black stone that would rest atop her third eye. The aura while being very dark and looking like it was full of negative energy, was comforting, like it was storing the bad feelings inside of it safely and keeping it from contaminating other things. She'd read about the stone, irradiated quartz, early in her studies but this was the first time she was going to use it. Placing it over her head, the weight of it felt odd, to say nothing of having the stone sticking out on the middle of her forehead, but the stone would help strengthen her psychic defenses, so she was ready to look a little out of fashion. The band itself was tight against her skin, with clips attaching it to her hair so it wouldn't fall off if she fell and would be hard to grip in a fight.

The small, smoky sapphire studs were better. Dr. Chance said that she'd chosen the colours so they'd come close to matching the quartz, but to her sight they were a heavenly blue and just being near them filled her with confidence. They were suppose to offer divine protection, and after putting them on, she believed it. She felt stronger, able to do more and ready to face all challenges.

Her necklace was still around her neck. The emerald in the center, surrounded by other stones. Pyrite shaped into flowers and butterflies, a brilliant gold colour, offered a shield against attacks of all kinds. Four tourmaline crystals, glowing white, were embedded around the emerald, each one focused on reducing negative energy, she could see the sadness she'd been feeling for the last week being absorbed into the crystals, changing into gentler, more positive emotions and being dispersed into the air. Bronzite completed the necklace, providing clear thoughts.

Two anklets of turquoise, their aura an almost overwhelming shade of aqua, went on under her pants. The stones added to her shields. Matching bracelets of phantom stone beads were next, within a minute of attuning herself to them, she could feel the energy within her more strongly, not just within her heart but flowing throughout her entire body.

Rings came last, so many rings. Adventurine, to promote inner peace. Chrysoprase, to deflect unwanted energy. Diamond, for strength, resilience and adding resonance with the other stones. Hematite, the worry stone, for grounding and keeping her spirits up. Quartz, for shielding and healing. Topaz to revitalize and stimulate her body and soul. Finally an obsidian ring to help sharpen her vision. All of the stones were small and set firmly into the bands, so she could punch and fight without worrying too much about damaging the stones.

As she left her room, Caroline imagined she looked a little like a mobile jewelry store. But considering she'd been told to protect herself against anything, she was willing to jingle a little when she walked. And if she ever ran out of money, she could hawk some of the jewelry for a small fortune.

Walking to the meditation room where Dr. Chance was waiting for her, she made a point to greet the people she passed by name. She wouldn't say any of them were friends, the youngest employee was in her late twenties, and she didn't have much in common with any of them, along with feeling self conscious around most adults, but she was doing her best to get to know them as friendly acquaintances.

Stepping into the room, she 'saw' Dr. Chance, but there were two other auras that were even more powerful then her mentors. "Hello," she said a little nervously at the new comers.

"Caroline, these are two of my friends, Mr. Marvelous, and Madame Ozolinsh, they're going to help with your training today," her mentor said, indicating who was who.

"Thank you for helping me. It's a pleasure to meet you both," Caroline said, feeling very nervous and falling back on her best behaviour. She'd never really followed superheroes that closely but even she knew that Mr. Marvelous was a member of the Detroit Supers Union, and a very powerful psychic. A few months ago her only hope of meeting someone like him would be if she happened to be near a major crime or in a parade, having him actually helping train her was unimaginable. The fact that they were going to try to break her defensive shield, without scrambling her mind in the process made it even more surreal.

"We're happy to help out. Dr. Chance has told us quite a lot about you, so it's actually our pleasure to help the newest generation," Madame Ozolinsh said in a soft, lilting voice. As she spoke her aura roared with power, the eclipsed the others.

Caroline felt something pushing against her. It wasn't forceful but very persistent, and it felt different then anything she'd felt before. The auras of the protective crystals, dimmed and flickered, she pushed energy into the stones and the basic psychic shield she'd learned to create over a month ago. The pressure didn't lessen so much as seem to become less effective.

Mr. Marvelous stepped towards her holding out his hand. "So you're going to Whateley? That is a wonderful choice, I went there from '91 to '95."

She shook his hand. "I wasn't really sure about it, but after being attacked, I decided it was the best choice."

As their hands touched, the superhero's aura brightened, purple energy flowed up her arm. Her shield began to buckle and the glowing light from her crystals were subsumed by the combined power. She let loose her own energy, pushing it into the irradiated quartz. The purple energy stopped dead, pushed away and dispersed into the air as if it had never been.

"I see you're using crystals, quite extensively. But why don't you have any kyanite?" he asked.

"I-I do use it. But it's-it's more for meditation, so I keep a larger crystal in my ro- room for that," she answered as best she could. Trying to keep them out of her head was getting harder, and trying to talk while reinforcing her mental protection was making her sweat.

"Can you describe how the mugger attacked you and your friend?" Madame Ozolinsh asked. Caroline watched a needle of fear go straight for her heart.

Changing the flow of energy to the tourmaline crystals on her breast, they absorbed the negative emotions, turning them into a slight case of nervousness at best which disappeared in seconds. But as she did that, the psychic energy from Mr. Marvelous managed to reach up to her shoulder. Her entire arm felt like lead, hanging limply at her side.

"We- were walking to Starbucks... after shopping. We stopped so, that, so that I could check her hair. The- then I saw his aura." The pressure was getting worse.

"How exactly does your danger sense work?" the superhero asked.

Her teeth were clenched, trying to keep them away. "Telepathically," she managed to say.

"When the mugger attacked, did you feel or see anything else?" Dr. Carson asked.

She jerked her head to look at her mentor, a wave of exhaustion washed over her. The floor would be so comfortable, she could just lie down on the soft rug and sleep take a little nap. She practically fell onto the soft chair behind her, yawning so much her jaw clicked.

"Stop that," she mumbled, struggling to put her shield back in place.

"Stop what, dear? Did you get enough sleep last night?" Madame Ozolinsh asked.

Fear of being powerless again filled her mind. The energy she'd been pushing into her mental shields stopped and her body went limp, her muscles too weak to hold her up. The pool of water at her heart appeared before her, the tranquil waters promised strength and safety. Desperate to escape the assault Caroline jumped into it.

She stared down at the two psychics. Mr. Marvelous was wearing a tuxedo and a white theatrical mask that covered over half of his face, his mouth was open in shock. Madame Ozolinsh was in a much more practical dress, and she was looking at Caroline in surprise. Light surrounded their bodies, the colour mimicking their expressions.

"What happened?" Dr. Chance yelled, on her feet and leaning over her body.

Caroline realized for the first time that her friend was rather plain, with dull brown hair, and skin that was a bit too red. Then it hit her, she could see. 'What's going on?!' she asked.

No one answered her.

"Caroline," Mr. Marvelous said, looking at her, not her body but her. "You've left your body. Stay calm, you can get back in easily enough."

Get back into her body, why would she want to do that, she thought. She moved around the room, looking at all the colours, memorizing faces, remembering what she looked like. The jewelry was a little overpowering but it looked beautiful. Going over to the window she looked outside, tears fell from her eyes as she saw the sun and trees. The aura's still covered everything, but they added to the beauty before her.

She could finally see what Dawon looked like!

Caroline rushed to the door, much faster than she normally could. It seemed like only two steps had her at the door, it was so unexpected she couldn't stop. She yelled as her face connected with the wood. She felt herself stretching, it hurt but not too badly, and then she was in the hallway.

Walking slowly, which was still a jog for most people, Caroline reached her room and simply walked through the wall. Dawon was asleep, curled up in a little ball on her pillow. Dr. Chance was right, he was ugly, with the mottled black and orange fur which was all jumbled together forming a muddy looking coat. Sitting on the bed, the mattress didn't move, but she could feel something under her. It didn't feel like a bed, it was like sitting on a thin, bouncy ball.

Reaching out, her hand stroked Dawon's fur. She couldn't feel him, her fingers tingled and stopped against the kittens aura. Now that she was watching, she could see her outline, but not her body. It was full of joyous colours. As she petted the kitten, his own aura changed from relaxed to happy. His little golden eyes opened and he purred like a motor boat. Stretching his neck he tried to lick her, confusion erupted in him when he couldn't touch her.

The two psychics came into her room. "Caroline, you can't spend too much time away from your body. You're inexperienced and your body isn't shielded," Madame Ozolinsh said.

"There are evil spirits and astral entities out there. If you're gone too long without the right protection they could steal your body," Mr. Marvelous told her.

Caroline didn't want to hear any of this, she was having too much fun actually seeing again. She jumped out the window, floating the ten feet to the ground. Staggering, she felt heavier, and instead of just feeling stretched, that had actually hurt.

She walked unsteadily towards a flowerbed, wanting to get a closer look at the vibrant colours, to feel their auras, to see again.

Her body felt cold. Her real body. Caroline felt a hand touching her, someone whispering in her ear. She tried to keep going forwards, but it was getting harder. Something grabbed her, and she jerked painfully backwards into darkness.

Someone was holding her, a blanket wrapped around her body. "Caroline, you had me so worried," Dr. Chance whispered, sniffing like she had been crying.

Caroline opened her eyes, seeing nothing except faint auras. She closed her eyes and wailed.

**

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois
May 20th, 2007

Caroline hadn't opened her eyes in the three hours since returning to her body. She knew she would have to look around eventually, the auras made her only legally blind rather than totally blind. They made her life easier, but the pain of seeing perfectly for a few minutes only to have it taken away was too raw to deal with.

“Caroline, are you ready to talk now?” Dr. Chance asked.

She didn't bother turning to look at her mentor, keeping her face to the window letting the sun warm her skin. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“How did you leave your body?” Madame Ozolinsh asked.

“You kept pushing and I wanted to get away. I saw my pool of energy in front of me and I knew it would help me. So I stepped through it and... and then I could see and do anything I wanted. Why couldn't I stay there?” she asked.

“You came back because you ran out of energy. You were astral projecting, it's a very advanced skill, and most people who do it, do it accidentally or when they're near death. To do it while you were holding myself and Mr. Marvelous back is a remarkable accomplishment. When you aren't under attack, and are healthy again, you should be able to do it for hours, even days if you push yourself,” the psychic explained.

“And why could I see?”

Mr. Marvelous took that one. “Because you were seeing with your soul not your eyes. There are four ways to see in the astral plan. The most common is astral sight, which is superficially like regular sight, although that is really just how the human brain interprets what the soul is seeing. The second one which is more confusing is commonly called astral mind sensing. You feel everything around you but you don't know what it actually is, just where it is and with practice how it feels emotionally, physically and potentially even mentally. That's how I sense things when I project my soul,” he said proudly.

“Then you have clairvoyance, which covers seeing auras, remote viewing, and other extrasensory things. Finally the most useless one is body sight, which is a mistake. when you open your astral eyes, you actually open your physical eyes and see whatever is straight ahead of your physical body. From personal experience, it's not only useless but very confusing.”

She opened her eyes and looked at the the group, feeling a little bit of hope. “So I can do it again? I can see?”

“Yes,” Dr. Chance said. “With practice you can, and we'll help you.”

Madame Ozolinsh, was more cautious. “You have to be careful. There are spirits and demons in the astral plane looking to steal your energy, to lead you astray, to get you to agree to lend them support in return for things you desire. You shine like a beacon them and if you're not careful you could be changed, injured, killed or even lose your soul. The astral plane can be even more dangerous then the physical plane, because until you learn what to watch out for, you are little more than a babe walking in a dark alley and predators are watching you.”

“Than teach me what I need to know,” the teenager said, her voice as hard as steel with determination.

**

“Now Caroline,” Mr. Marvelous said, “normally, when using crystals to astral project, you would use ones that help you center yourself and link your physical self to the spiritual. However you don't need that. Instead you need protection. Most souls in the astral plane are small, barely noticeable flickers of movement, attracting at worst the bottom feeders who can do little more then try to trick you out of some energy. You however will attract the larger predators who will seek to take your soul forcefully, or at the very least enter your body to give them access to the physical plane. Once you learn how to set up stronger mental shields you will be able to astral project almost anywhere without having to worry about that. However until you do you must take precautions.”

Madame Ozolinsh, placed eight crystals on the floor. “You will need chrysoprase to deflect and negate the negative energy, and diamonds to strengthen them. Place them by your own hand in a circle around you, chrysoprase then diamond. As you place them down attune them to your soul, with a touch of protective energy.”

She put the crystals down as instructed, letting just a hint of her energy fill the crystals, turning the already vibrant auras into protective fires. That done, she smoothed her dress and laid back on the soft mat with her head on a small pillow. “Now I just do what I did before?”

Caroline heard Mr. Marvelous settling himself into a chair. Within seconds his breathing became deep and slow, as if he were asleep.

Madame Ozolinsh, took a second to make sure his body was ok. “Yes, dear. Picture your pool and step through it. Take your time there is n-”

Without waiting Caroline summoned up the pool and practically jumped through it.

Mr. Marvelous was waiting for her, his tuxedo glittered with power and the white mask on his face moved like a second skin as he talked. “You shouldn't be so eager to jump into the unknown Insight. As we've told you this isn't exactly a safe place.”

She looked around the room, before crouching over her body to look at her face and body. The exercise had really helped, the pudginess was gone from her face, along with the tiny double chin that she'd always hated. Her figure had also filled out, her legs were more muscular and rounded, and her arms were smooth and well defined, like a dancer or gymnast rather then a body builder. Now if only there were some boys her age to date nearby. Finally she answered the superhero, “Live without seeing, and you try to be patient.”

“I sympathize with you, but you are a big juicy target over here. If you think muggers bad, try having an entity that will rip out your soul, eat it in a way that will keep it alive and digesting for an eternity. Then it can take your body and use it to, if you're lucky, cause havoc and death to everything around you, and if you're not lucky, it will try to open a gateway to the world where it can physically enter the world to bring about the apocalypse.” He looked at her without any hint of humour or exaggeration.

“That would suck,” she admitted.

“Yes. Yes it would.”

“So why have I read psychic books telling about how wonderful astral projecting is?” Caroline asked, still looking all around the room.

“Like I said, you are very powerful. With training you could be as strong as I am, and that draws creatures to you. Now let's explore a little, follow me.” Mr. Marvelous jumped through the wall as if it wasn't there.

With a last look at her body, Caroline followed, like the first time it seemed like she was being pulled and stretched by the wall. Floating to the ground, she saw people walking along the nearby paths enjoying the weather, they didn't notice her moving like a ghost. Her teacher however was looking at her oddly. “Why can I see you're body, but I can only see my aura,” she asked.

“I don't know. I was going to work on that later with you.”

Looking at her hand which was invisible, except for the glowing energy that outlined her perfectly. “Can we work on it now? I'd like to see myself again.”

He sat in the air, propping his chin in his hand. “Alright, let's try something simple. Push more energy into your body, at the worst it won't do anything.”

With a nod Caroline let the power flow from her center, infusing her body. She pictured her body fleshing out, becoming visible and firm. Looking at herself, nothing seemed to be happening. She tried for ten minutes, pushing almost everything she had into it, still nothing happened.

She found herself back in her body, tired and frustrated. Slapping her thigh she vowed to get better.

**

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois
May 25th, 2007

Caroline explored the spa, actually seeing the buildings, plants, objects and most importantly people she'd spent the last few months interacting with but never truly seeing. She missed the smells, which she'd gotten used to, from the pleasant smells of the kitchen, the incense which wafted from the rooms, the scent of the trees and forest, for some reason they didn't go to the astral plane. But to see again, made up for the loss. Her instructors had left the day before, they'd stayed several days longer than they had planned, and they had promised to return whenever time permitted.

But the few days had been enough. With her body protected by some simple jewelry her psychic shields were strong enough to give her the time to return to her body if any spirits attacked her. They'd also taught her the basics of warding an area. Now she saw the glowing threads that surrounded the spa. Dr. Chance and several of her associates and partners, had spent years building them, using positive energy, carefully placed crystals, iron will, and even magical wards in places, to create a place of healing energy that would be difficult to defile.

She still couldn't see her body, no matter how much energy she pumped into herself. So she had given up for the moment. Draining herself always felt bad, and left everything looking blurry.

Dawon was sitting on her chest purring contentedly, probably thinking she was asleep. It was a distant feeling, similar to how she felt after getting her tonsils taken out and she'd been high on pain killers. She wasn't really worried about leaving her body behind. She could jerk back into it with a thought, or when she got too tired. As long as the silver cord coming from her back wasn't damaged there was no danger of getting lost, and according to Mr. Marvelous, only the strongest powers could cut the cord.

Caroline started to run, watching the scenery zip past. They'd timed her at about 30mph, she couldn't keep it up for long, it took too much power and wore her out. But for sprinting it was awesome. She came to the saunas, without pausing she jumped to the top of the two story building as if she was jumping onto a chair. Reaching the edge of the roof, she leapt into the air, landing forty feet away at the very top of a tree.

She stood there, balancing on one foot, as comfortably as if she was was standing on a road. The trees aura connected with her own, holding her steady, offering her some of its strength. Sitting cross legged she watched the sun setting. Marveling at what she was capable of, and remembering what the sun looked like, how the reds and golds played off of each other and the clouds. She could look directly at the sun, without being blinded and abused it as much as possible.

There was still something she couldn't do. She was only on the lowest of the astral planes, just above the material plane, she should be able to access other realms, higher ones, where imagery and spirit reigned and the physical world disappeared entirely. But no matter how hard she meditated, pushed herself, or even the one time she'd held onto Mr. Marvelous as he went higher, she was forced to stay where she was.

Watching the last of the suns rays disappear below the horizon she was satisfied with that.

**

Even in the darkness, she had nearly perfect sight. The physical world was lit up by auras, creating shifting, beautiful light show that let her see all around her. At the outer edge of the spa, it was even more amazing, with the wards creating their own misting light, an aurora of white and gold brought to earth.

Tracing the lines and bathing in the mist, she felt energized, as if she could jump and touch the clouds. Watching the interplay of energy, she tried to see how they were made, it was a cats cradle of power, but by finding the correct strand and following it, it would all make sense.

Something moved just beyond the barrier. She leaned closer, careful not to put too much weight on the lines, but curious to see what the new thing was. Caroline could almost hear it snuffling and snorting like one of the black bears she had seen nosing around the spa for the last few days. A roundish black shape came to the edge of some bushes and stopped dead.

Caroline screamed as the thing threw itself at her. It wasn't a bear. It wasn't an animal of any kind. It was a twisting, morphing monster that made no sense. Its aura was worse, it wasn't just black, it was an oozing rip in the fabric of reality. Worst of all it clearly saw her and wanted her. It snarled, ripping at the lines of force, tentacles reached out, trying to grab her.

She couldn't let the thing get close to the patients, it would slaughter them. As the barrier began to snap, Caroline calmed herself, reaching into the pool of energy, drawing it forth. Her aura blazed with power. The monster roared, slamming its head through the barrier, its flesh burned and peeled, but it healed almost as quickly as it was hurt. Wishing that she had a weapon, Caroline jumped over the barrier to the top of a tree, pausing just long enough for whatever it was to notice her.

It gave a strange warbling shriek and charged. Caroline fled, barely staying ahead of the creature even though she was practically flying and it was land bound. She took a bit of power from each aura she touched, just enough to power her next leap without hurting the plant. With no idea how far the monster could run, her best plan was to get it as many miles away as possible.

She never saw the thing that leaped out of the tree and tackled her to the ground far below.

Caroline screeched in pain and terror. The aura of the monster burned, its claws that shouldn't have been able to hurt her felt like knives clawing into her aura. It was joined by the one chasing her. She tried to escape back to her body, but something held her in place. She could see her energy fading away into the air.

Her pool erupted, she felt all of her power surge through her. It wasn't healing her this time, it filled her with rage and more energy then she could dream of. The orange-red flames that filled her aura pushed the creatures back. A staff of pure psychic power formed in her hand. The monstrosities didn't hesitate, they jumped her, surrounding her with tentacles, claws and teeth.

The staff slammed into them, flesh shriveled and life force evaporated as the auras connected. Hers was more powerful, shredding the vile energy that surrounded and powered the creatures. They outnumbered her and fought with insane glee.

The shrieks and flares of power seemed to summon more of the creatures. Three more burst out of the underbrush falling on her, burying her under a thrashing mound of tentacles and burning energy. Still she couldn't return to her body.

Through the haze of almost unbearable pain, Caroline felt Dawon pawing at her face, meowing piteously as her body grew cold. That thread of consciousness was enough, she reached out, feeling the auras around her. Her own aura grabbed them draining them of energy like a sponge. She felt their souls die, feeding her.

The monsters howled as her power flared up, burning them, turning their flesh to ash. For a moment her soul was connected to everything around her.

Inhuman thoughts filled her mind, she was an insect that twitched and rolled along the ground, not knowing that it was already dead. The ancient tree, it's trunk hollowed out by rot, but the outer wood still able to support it, still growing seeds ready to replenish its species, only to feel its mighty body turn to powder. The litter of baby mice, suckling at their mothers teats, giving one last squeal of pain as the breath left their body. She caught a glimpse of the madness in the monsters minds. Driven by an unearthly urge to kill and maim, heading to a place far to the east, that had driven them even further into a frenzy, exhaustion, pain and hunger filled them, they had traveled far, but death and destruction awaited them.

Her mind and soul were stretched and torn, overwhelmed by the sensations. Her silvery cord went taut and began to fray.

A lone mind, terrified and overwhelmed, screamed, tried to pull itself away from the madness she'd unleashed. Grabbing the cord, she struggled to free herself. The cord was fraying, turning white as it became as thin as spider silk.

Razor sharp claws scratched her face. She felt a pull from her body, her unheard scream was joined by a distant shriek that shattered the silence of the night.

Her spirit rocketed through the air, slamming into her body.

**

Dr. Chance raced to Carolines' room. Dawon was wailing with fear from inside. She fumbled with the keys, and almost fell into the room when she finally got it opened. Hitting the lights she saw the wall was dented. Her student was lying on the floor, gasping for breath.

"Caroline, what happened," she said, cradling the nearly motionless body.

The girl didn't answer, her eyes were wide open, staring at something only she could see. Blood and drool dripped from her mouth.

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois
May 26th, 2007

Dr. Chance watched her student walk around the room lost in her own mind. Caroline had begun moving just a few minutes ago after spending all night and half the day completely comatose. She almost wished that the girl still was. In the five minutes of being active, she hadn't shown any sign of recognition or being able to communicate.

Caroline tapped the walls, moving erratically, ignoring anyone who spoke to her and shaking off any attempt to hold her. She seemed to be looking for something and was growing more frantic, making animalistic whines. Somehow the blind girl sidestepped anything that could trip her up, sometimes touching it briefly as if testing it for some unknown purpose. Then her hand slapped against a window.

She squealed in delight, nails scratched the glass, clutching at the plastic handle straining to open it. The lock creaked as she threw her weight into it. Chance ran over, unlocking it before the girl could hurt herself. The window slammed open, and Caroline gave a yelp of excitement. Dr. Chance wondered what she would do next.

Caroline jumped out the window head first.

Chance got a grip on her waist, her arm hitting the window sill painfully, but keeping her from falling the ten feet or so to the ground. "HELP!" she yelled, hoping a nurse or someone was close by. The girl shrieked as her escape was thwarted.

As the two fell back into the room, Caroline exploded with rage, clawing, punching, kicking and biting. Chance let go with a scream of pain when teeth bit deep into her wrist. The teenager seemed to fly across the room back to the window. Chance was right on her heels, still screaming for someone to help her. She felt the girl grab her arm, the next second her forearm cracked against the windowsill, there was a crack as the bone snapped.

Instinct took over, her good hand formed a fist, and cracked into Caroline's temple. The girl slumped to the ground unconscious.

Finally a nurse and a security guard came in. They looked in shock at Caroline who was lying bonelessly on the ground a bruise already forming on her head, and Chance who was cradling her arm, while blood trickled down her face and arms from dozens of scratches and bites. "Get Dr. Eastwood, my arm is broken. And get Caroline somewhere without a window, have two guards watching her at all times."

**

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois
May 28th, 2007

Two guards watched the blind girl, who was playing with her kitten. They weren't sure why they had to watch her anymore, she hadn't tried to escape for over a day, and seemed content to stay in the hastily made room playing with her things.

It was creepy how she didn't talk or even seem to recognize them. They were so used to seeing her doing something around the grounds, looking so intense it was almost embarrassing to think they weren't nearly as determined as a fourteen year old. Now it was like watching a two year old totally focused on her toys.

Dr. Chance knocked on the door. Needlessly one guard stood up and gently took hold of Carolines' arms. She stopped moving, ignored him, simply grabbing hold of Dawon to stroke his back. Seeing that everything was under control, his partner opened the door, letting Dr. Chance come in. Her arm was in a cast, and her skin was still pretty badly cut and bruised, despite her attempts at healing herself. The door closed, and she knelt down beside the girl who wasn't being held anymore. "Caroline? Can you hear me?"

She ignored her, still playing with the kitten.

Chance slowly reached out with her uninjured hand and stroked Dawons' head. Caroline looked up, her white eyes went wide. She made a noise, grabbing the doctors broken arm. The two guards moved in, only to be waved back.

Dawon scampered away, the crystals began to glow. The small hand stroked the air just above the doctors flesh. The guards could actually see colour shifting under her hand. Dr. Chance gasped and flexed her fingers easily. The teen wasn't finished, her hands moved upwards, roaming across Chance's body, cuts and bruises healed before their eyes.

It was over in a matter of minutes, the battered doctors skin was flawless, and Caroline was grinning happily. The smile dropped from her face seconds later, and she crawled along the floor looking for her kitten.

Dr. Chance tried to talk to her for the next hour, but was met with silence.

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois
June 1st, 2007

"Come on Caroline," Dr. Chance said, holding Carolines' hand under her arm as they headed outside. Two guards walked on either side of them in case the girl panicked or tried to run off again.

Caroline refused to move for five minutes, shaking like a leaf and staring at everything with wide eyes. She snapped her baton into a staff, holding it to her chest with her free hand. Then she started walking, guiding Dr. Chance slowly and cautiously towards the western side of the spa. It took over half an hour to make what should have been a ten minute journey.

They stopped at the edge of the fence and psychic barrier, both of which had been ripped and shredded on the night that Caroline had her incident.

The girl knelt down, rubbing her hand over the grass. “Death.”

"What?" Dr. Chance asked softly.

"Death. Death attacked me. I killed them. I became death." Tears fell from her eyes.

"What attacked you?"

"Bad things, very bad things. Madness made flesh. They weren't after me. They are going somewhere, bringing death with them. They were hungry. They saw me. Wanted my power.” She shook so much she couldn't stay up. Grabbing a hold of Chance, it felt like a vice to the older woman. "I was dying. I took everything I could! I took all the energy around me! I felt them die. I took everything until there was nothing left. I died with them!”

Chance picked up the terrified girl, rushing back to the safety of the clinic, while ordering one of the guards to get some sedatives. Once Caroline was asleep she had to make some phone calls.

**

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois.
June 2nd, 2007

Caroline could still hear the gasps of dying animals in her mind, the cracking of branches that seconds ago had been healthy and strong. She twitched as imaginary leaves prematurely fallen, brushed against her skin. Above it all was the insane howling of the monsters. They'd forced her to do it, they'd been ready to kill her and from feeling their thoughts, they would have killed everyone in their path. It wasn't simple hunger, it was a game for them. Whatever they had been before had been consumed by anger and disgust.

There were more of them. She had seen that to.

Lying down, she left her body.

Jumping out the window, Caroline summoned her staff. She began her exercises with a determination that she'd never felt before. They could come back, they could attack her again, and then she would kill them. But she would never steal the life from another living thing.

She was so lost in her thoughts, Caroline never noticed the stream of patients and guests heading for their cars.

**

Dr. Chance sat down in her chair utterly exhausted, as her bank account cried for mercy.

Every guest was finally on the way out the door, due to an unforeseen emergency involving a potential leak with the natural gas tanks. It was all BS, but she couldn't tell them the real reason, even if she was believed it would just raise too many questions, and cause a panic.

Since Caroline had told her what happened, she'd spent all night contacting people all over the continent. Usually she was one of the better connected psychics, while many kept their powers on the down low, which meant not having a huge list of people to talk to, or went the opposite way and made themselves into celebrities which most other psychics avoided like the plague, she'd gone straight down the middle, having a very full email list of acquaintances, friends and people she'd worked with in the past. But with her training of Caroline, she'd dropped off the face of the earth for a few months. And now it was biting her in the ass.

Too many of the psychics in her Rolodex and email had vanished. A few sent out vague messages about bad feelings, and other things, but over a dozen had just vanished. Housewives, stock brokers, lawyers, fortune tellers, even a late night radio host, gone. Checking the local news, most just said that the person was missing, but a few spoke of ransacked houses blood stains and strange howls.

The missing started in the Southwest and moved towards the Northeast. In the last month they'd started in the northern US as well. They weren't pointed at her spa, but with what happened to Caroline, they were coming closer. If whatever these things were, were attracted to psychic energy and power, she was the biggest power for two hundred miles. Worse, everyone of the missing psychics had been away from a city, either living in a rural home, or on the edges of a town or suburb, or had been out in the wilderness. The closest town to her spa was a half hour away.

It was too dangerous to remain. She just had to make sure they had somewhere safe to go to.

There was a knock on the door. “Come in.”

Dr. Eastwood came in. “All the patients are gone, the nurses are cleaning everything up and putting it into storage now. They should be done by the end of the day and then they're taking their extended leave.”

“Thanks, Earl.”

He turned to go, but stopped himself. “What is going on? This is your spa, but shutting it down until the summer time and possibly longer, is insane.”

She smiled at him in agreement. “True. But something is going on that I don't understand. Staying here could very well be much, much worse. You're all getting paid for the time off, so the only one who's crying is me. And I'd rather cry about lost money than lives.”

His aged face seemed to become even older. “You think someone would attack the spa?”

“Not someone, something. And from the glimpses I've gotten in my dreams now that I'm focusing on it, are terrifying.”

He wasn't psychic himself, but he had worked with her enough to respect her abilities. “What did you see?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it's coming soon. Make sure the staff gets out by tonight, and then go home to your family, Earl,” she told him softly.

“And what about you?”

“I'm holding out for a hero,” she joked. “Everything should be set up by tomorrow. Caroline and I, along with some specially trained body guards will be leaving around dawn. All we need is a few more hours to prepare things.”

**

The creature sniffed the ground. It's brothers had passed through here days ago, but recently enough that their scent was still strong. Another feeling came to it, power. Drool fell from its mouth. It was hungry after the long run. Its pack could eat well, and continue onwards sated.

It roared a hunting cry.

Others joined in the call.

**

“Caroline? Are you awake?” Dr. Chance asked opening the girls door slightly.

“Yeah, I just finished training,” she replied.

Chance tried not to wince when she saw her student. The teen looked terrible, exhausted and drained of anything that could be considered soft. “I want you to meet some people, they're going to guard us tonight and tomorrow, until we get to Detroit.”

“Why are we going to Detroit?” Caroline asked.

“The things that attacked you, I think more are coming. So I contacted Mr. Marvelous, we'll be staying with him until you can go to Whateley. Anyways, this is Mr. Travis,” she said, motioning for the stocky, well armed body guard to step inside. “He works with a security company that deals with mutants and other concerns.”

Caroline looked the man over. “The monsters are insane. They won't be stopped by guns, and they won't run. I felt their minds, they love pain, causing it and receiving it.”

“Ms. Grant, can you tell us anything else about them?” Mr. Travis asked.

“They were half spirit, attacking your soul and mind while killing the body. They healed almost as quickly as I could injure them. I'd rip apart their aura, opening cuts that would kill a person and in seconds they'd be healed. I had to burn them with my aura. They wouldn't stop,” she said, starting to cry.

The man walked over to Caroline, and patted her shoulder. “Thank you, that's very helpful. You won't have to face them again, we have some weapons that can handle them. Phosphorescent rounds, it will burn them from the inside. Just get some rest, we'll make sure you get to Detroit safely.”

From the look Caroline gave him, Dr. Chance realized the girl didn't believe him.

**

Pine Springs Health Spa, Illinois.
3am, June 15th, 2007

“Caroline! UP NOW!” Dr. Chance yelled at the sleeping girl.

“What?” the sleepy girl asked, struggling to wake up.

She heard people grabbing her packed suitcases and bag, putting Dawon into a carrier. A pair of track pants were put into her hand. Over the noise of people talking into radios, she could hear a strange howling, it was distant but coming closer. The blood drained from her face.

“Something is coming. We need to get you out of here now! Put on your pants.” Dr. Chance ordered, her aura was not the usual calm and collected thing of beauty it usually was, but was flaring and rippling with terror.

Throwing off her blanket, Caroline hurried to obeyed, while her body guards rushed around her. Exactly five minute later she was running arm in arm with her mentor towards the parking lot. All six body guards were running with them, weapons drawn, their auras shouting to the world that they were primed and ready to kill. They didn't quite throw her into an SUV that was already started.

The vehicle peeled out, presumably there were one or two other vehicles with them, since only two of the body guards were with her and Dr. Chance. Clutching her baton, on her lap, and making sure Dawon was safe at her feet, she turned to her friend.

Biting her lip, Caroline began to cry, the nightmare fight filled her mind, she fought to push it down. If they didn't get away in time she needed to be ready. Chance slid over quickly putting on her seatbelt again, letting Caroline cry on her shoulder. .

The world lurched, the SUV leaned to the right, on the verge of tipping over, brakes shrieked and the guards aura's filled with fear, while Dr. Chance screamed. With a teeth rattling thud the SUV righted itself, letting the driver hit the gas. His partner was on a phone, yelling that they were under attack, with one car destroyed, and that they needed the police.

“What's happening?”

“Something took out the front SUV,” Chance said. “Project your soul and be ready to fight.”

Taking a moment to calm herself, the pool appeared before her, its mirror smooth surface beckoned, promising power. She stepped through. The feeling of unbound power engulfed her. She could see the flames of the SUV disappearing in the distance, and the aura of 'something' that was ripping it to shreds.

She allowed her aura to flare up, casting a ghostly white light, undefined, yet waiting, her power rippling behind her shields. Crouching between the seats, she looked protectively at her helpless body before turning to the windows for more dangers.

Too fast to react, three nightmares jumped from the trees barreling into the SUV. Claws and monstrous fists ripped away the tires and engine. Somehow the driver didn't flip the vehicle as he struggled to bring it to a stop. They spun and sparks lit up the dark sky, but they stayed upright. The seatbelt dug into her body, leaving bruises that were distantly felt.

Ignoring the pain Caroline dove through the door, wincing as her astral body was stretched painfully. Her aura became a brilliant orange red of confidence and physical strength. Her staff formed in her hand, blazing with more power than ever. Without any hesitation she charged the mockeries given flesh, focusing on their vile, oozing auras rather than their even more sickening physical forms.

The two body guards got out, each one carrying a shotgun, and began firing at the creatures, unable to see what Caroline was doing, not that it mattered, they were fighting on different realities. The third SUV came up, brakes squealing, only to smash into one of the creatures which resembled a monstrous bear that appeared out of nowhere. The creature roared in pain, pulling itself off of the shattered hood, leaving pieces of flesh clinging to the jagged metal. Bullets tore through the windshield into its face.

That was all Caroline could see before the battle was joined.

Her staff was a whirlwind of fire, driving into the oversized jaw of a catlike creature, tearing at its aura. A tentacle gripped her foot, the eldritch energy surrounding its diseased flesh burned, tainting her soul. Caroline dodged a swipe from its claws, while giving her staff a razor sharp blade that sliced through the tentacle, destroying the aura and making the physical limb shrivel up. The staff kept going, creating a long line of dead flesh on the creatures neck. It shrieked, creating more tentacles trying to grab her as she danced backwards.

The third wolflike creature, which had been advancing on the SUV and the annoying gunshots, turned away as its brother gurgled in pain. With a gibbering howl it pounced on its prey. Caroline who was struggling to keep the tentacles away, spun to face the new threat. Even before she came to a stop she knew it was a mistake. Tentacles wrapped themselves around her body, and the wolfmans claws tore through her aura, shredding the energy that held her together.

More howls came from the woods. How many of the awful creatures were there, she wondered. The two creatures tore at her, as she struggled to free herself. The body guards turned to face the trees letting loose with everything they had. Something that moved like water and faster than the wind, tore through them leaving only bloody fragments.

More shots rang out from the car. Caroline saw the aura of Dr. Chance, shooting through the window, protecting her body. With a scream of rage, her aura shifted, spinning in the creatures grasp her staff speared the monsters chest

The thing collapsed, its body whole and unharmed, but the aura was destroyed.

A tentacle wrapped around her neck, and another pierced her body, ripping into her soul. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't free herself from its grip.

Metal shrieked as three more creatures tore into the SUV, ripping it apart.

A desperate jab with her staff knocked the creature off balance and she almost flew to the car. Dr. Chance was unconscious, lying on top of her body. A catlike monster loomed over them both, raising a slimy, ichor covered claw for the kill.

Without thinking she lashed out with her aura throwing every bit of psychic energy she had into it, a single overwhelming need filled the brain of the insane creature, 'PROTECT ME!'

With a screech the creature turned on its fellow attackers, using tooth, claw and tentacles to rip the things apart. Caroline couldn't keep herself together any longer, and reentered her body. She turned her head away from the horrible sight. Even without being able to see the blood and gore, the tearing apart of auras, and the screams of pain and rage drove into the center of her being, each one felt like a physical blow.

Cradling Dr. Chance, she checked to make sure she was alive, crying and pleading to whatever would listen that help would come and save them. She had nothing left in her to give. Her body ached, her mind felt shredded, unable to come up with a clear thought, and her powers were gone.

The battle raged outside, she couldn't tell what was happening, the auras shifted and moved too quickly. A thought managed to make itself heard, 'get the gun'. Placing the injured doctor down, she got on her hands and knees looking for the pistol. Her hand didn't find it, instead she found herself holding a bloody, limp form, that had only the barest hint of life in its aura.

“Dawon,” she whispered. The shock of seeing her pet so badly hurt, shook her out of her numbness. Growling in rage, auras rose around her, the desperation imprinted onto the pistol less then a minute ago, shone like a beacon. Reaching into Dr. Chance's pocket, she pulled out a fresh clip and loaded the gun.

Stepping outside, her baton in one hand, and the pistol in the other, she almost slipped on the ichor, slime and blood that coated the road. The cat thing she'd brainwashed, was facing off against the last two monsters, they were all injured, and too busy killing each other to worry about her.

Caroline waited patiently for a few seconds and a snakelike monstrosity landed close to her. Running over, she put the pistol against its head and shot five times. The thing didn't get back up, she could feel heat rising from its body, and what smelled like burning garbage. Turning to the last two monsters, the cat was on its back, being torn open by an enraged giant rat. Five more shots to the malformed head, and the cat was able to rip the head from the body.

With a moan, the cat thing turned to Caroline, crawling towards her. Its' aura was still the disgusting black ooze, but it was flecked with love and protective feelings. She stepped back, not trusting the thing. “H'lp oo,” it moaned.

On hands and knees it crawled towards the SUV, where Dr. Chance waited helplessly.

“NO!” Caroline screamed, hitting the thing with her staff. “Leave her alone!”

Even with her desperate assault, the monster didn't stop. It reached the destroyed SUV and reached inside. Her attack redoubled in effort when it pulled Dawon from the wreckage. It wrote something on the kitten in its own blood.

With a rattling gasp it breathed into the kittens mouth and collapsed.

The kittens aura began to glow, fear and pain dominated, but there was traces of something she couldn't tell holding it all together. It gave a little mew, staggering towards her. Sobbing, Caroline dropped her staff to scoop up her pet. Falling to the ground, she let the shock and fear overcome her, crying in grief at the death that surrounded her.

When the police finally arrived, they found her still crying, holding Dawon, as she was held by a dazed but living Dr. Chance.

This is fanfiction set in the Whateley Universe, and does not follow canon. I'm just using their sandbox.

Detroit, Michigan,
July 1st, 2007

The city street was noisy and smelly, assaulting Caroline's brain with such a wealth of information that she couldn't quite handle it all. The auras of the people and occasional animals were easy to watch, she was used to the riot of colours that outlined everything. But after the peace and quiet of the health spa, where she knew all the sounds and smells, the roar of cars, dozens of conversations, echoes, screeching of brakes, the smell of garbage, perfume, unwashed bodies, exhaust fumes and more, was giving her a headache.

She now regretted not having a conventional white cane. She hadn't used one in months, relying on her extendable staff that let her feel her way along when she wasn't quite certain about what was ahead of her, but relying on it more for self defense. The firm staff wasn't nearly as convenient for gliding, which would let her notice garbage, small ledges, and other obstacles her aura sight found impossible to see. Trying to find the shoreline, the edge of the curb or building, with the staff was possible, but again it was harder than at the spa where flowers and plants lined the paths, so she could simply walk between them to stay on the path with almost no effort. She was forced to dodge out of the way of people who didn't see her white staff, while trying to not fall onto the street, run into a lamppost, building, or newspaper stand, all the while counting steps to reach her destination.

Her destination today was a coffee shop two blocks away from the Detroit Supers Union Headquarters, where she and Dr. Chance were staying while the superheroes tried to make sense of the X class entities that had attacked them. So far they hadn't discovered anything except rumours.

Still they hadn't found any sign of the creatures near Detroit, and with so many superheroes around she was feeling safe enough to do things on her own. For the first week, she'd been terrified to leave her room, and this was the first time she'd gone outside on her own since the attack. She wished she had Dawon with her, but they'd found out that while the kitten was peaceful and playful when everything was calm, when Caroline was surprised or scared by something, it had certain reactions that could easily get someone killed. It was safer to leave it back in her room, she could still feel the kitten anyways, the last time she astral projected she'd seen a hairlike silver cord stretching from her to Dawon. How it had happened no one knew. Just like Mr. Marvelous and Dr. Chance couldn't tell what was in the kittens aura. All they knew was the kitten obeyed Caroline, and separating the two was probably dangerous, not just for Caroline or the feline, but whoever tried to do it.

She finally smelled coffee, and heard the jingling of a bell as a door opened up. She judged it was a few yards ahead, dodged around a group of laughing girls, and took a few seconds to pinpoint the door. Stepping inside and off to the side, she looked for the familiar aura of Dr. Chance.

“Caroline, over here!” her mentor yelled from across the crowded room.

Holding her cane a little like a pencil so it was pointed almost straight down, she swept it in front of her from shoulder to shoulder, making sure she wouldn't trip over any bags or chairs. The quiet conversations of the coffee shop was so peaceful after the noisy street. She wasn't so happy with the fact that she was part of gossip, as people saw her and told their friend how sad it was that she was blind as their auras shifted to be full of pity, or in one case pleasure, tinged with vicious glee.

Dr. Chance was in a corner well away from anyone, sitting with a man who was outlined in muddy brown and a bit of black, he was shy and very nervous, a little angry to. Caroline felt her cane tap against a chair and sat down turning the cane into a baton and putting it in her large purse. “Hello,” she said.

“Caroline this is Luke, I hope you don't mind him joining us,” Dr. Chance said.

“Hi Caroline,” Luke said, in his husky voice.

“Luke, it's great to see you,” she said honestly. The guy was a mutant, with Bit that made him look like a cross between a rat and a rock, he smelled like leather and fur. His aura looked nice though when he relaxed and he was always willing to talk, at least when he wasn't doing his job as an IT intern for the Supers Union.

“I got you a chocolate smoothie, it's at twelve o'clock, ten inches from the edge of the table,” Dr. Chance said.

She carefully grabbed it, letting the cold drink cool her hand. “Thanks, it's too hot outside.”

“How was your walk over here?”

Taking a sip of her smoothie to buy some time, Caroline tried to think of the best way to respond. “Confusing. I really don't like cities anymore.”

“Why?” Luke asked.

“Too many things going on. Too many people. After staying at a spa and even my hometown, it's disorienting.”

“Just think of it as training. You're going back to school soon, so you'll need to get use to all of the noise and jostling,” Dr. Chance told her.

“So what did you want to talk about that I had to brave these dangerous streets without my hellcat?”

“Well,” Dr. Chance said, “since you will be going to school soon, I thought you should talk to an alumni of it. I have to go to some appointments so you and Luke can talk together and then do something fun afterwards. You've got your phone and credit card?”

“Yeah,” Caroline said quietly. She hadn't felt comfortable being away from Dr. Chance or her father when he came down for two weeks to see her, since the attack.

“Um, are you sure?” Luke asked. “People might get the wrong idea if I'm here with her all alone.”

“You've got your employee badge, if anyone says anything just show them that and phone me. You both need to get out and blow the stink off after being inside for so long. Have fun,” the doctor said, leaving before either of them could object.

“So... what do you want to know about the school?” Luke asked.

Caroline could hear him shifting uneasily, his fur rubbing against his clothes, the tapping of his claws. She concentrated, sending out a thread of her aura to touch his, calming him a little. “What's it like?”

“It's really good. I was there a couple of years ago so it's probably changed, but the teachers are really good. They're all at the top of their field, so you'll probably get a better education than you would at any other school. If you're an exemplar or really good, you can take college level courses in almost anything. And there are tons of groups. I was in the computer group, and the martial arts club. That's a really good one to get into because of the combat finals at the end of the term,” he said, getting excited.

“Combat finals!”

“Oh,” he audibly winced. “I shouldn't have said that, it's suppose to be a surprise. Don't tell any of your classmates, it's not the same if the freshmen know what's going to happen.”

“All right. But with the combat finals, what will I be doing, fighting a war? Shooting a gun?” she asked.

“Nothing like that, unless your opponent has a gun,” Luke said quickly.

Caroline gave a little eep.

“There's nothing deadly about it, they're very careful about that. You just have to achieve an objective, and you can do it anyway you want. Some use powers and weapons, other use distraction and tricks. When I had to face a guy who could blow up a car with his mind, I ran for it and still passed,” he assured her.

“Right, so keep practicing my fighting. What about the students? Are there a lot of ragers?” Caroline had watched enough shows and news reports about mutants to know some of them went nuts sometimes.

“A few, but they have UV bands that let you see if they're dangerous.”

“Right, not very useful,” she muttered.

“Uh, I guess not. The cafeteria is really nice, it's a giant crystal, so the sun shines right in and it has a waterfall, you can look- er listen to it as you eat. And the tunnels are...”

Caroline listened to everything he had to say, making mental notes of the important parts as they drank their drinks. Eventually she flipped open her watch and touched the hands they'd been talking for over two hours and her stomach was letting her know it was suppertime. “Want to go somewhere to get a bite?” she asked.

“We can eat at the cafeteria at headquarters,” he said. “Or there's a fantastic sandwich place down the street.”

Caroline really wanted to get back to the headquarters where she felt safe, but she realized that for her own emotional healing, as Dr. Chance would say, she had to push herself. “Let's get some sandwiches.”

Taking his arm, they walked through the crowded street, Luke talked about the city, some places she should visit now that she was getting out more, places to avoid and his job, which currently involved making the heroes webpage more interactive, with videos, a forum, and other things.

Caroline's cane was moving before she realized it, knocking a brick out of the air that would have hit Luke in the head. Even with her arm shaking from the impact, she was twisting around, cracking the hard plastic on a persons shoulder, who's aura was bloody red of anger and muddy green of resentment and an ugly blue of fear. The man screamed, his aura twisting around, her trained eye showed that something was broken.

This happened so fast Luke was still confused, ducking back against a wall. Caroline saw the emotions and the auras flickering, letting her know who was friendly and who was ready to fight.

Four more people came in from behind Luke. He was shouting that was an employee of the Detroit Supers Union, holding up his badge even as he held his free hand up to defend himself. Caroline could tell that that wasn't going to help, the emotions were too raw, too intense. She didn't moved in to meet them, putting power into her sight.

Able to see their individual hairs, she watched how the energy moved to see who was going to punch, who was going to jump on her or Luke, and who was hanging back. Psychic cues she couldn't consciously detect had her dodging and moving constantly, letting her avoid taking hits that would knock her out or at least put her off balance enough that she wouldn't be able to avoid the follow up. Her staff jabbed into a gut, leaving a man gasping, then moved upwards knocking an arm to the side, letting her move forward to stomp as hard as she could on the attackers instep, even as the stuff spun cracking into the mans chin. With two men down, she charged the other two.

In less than a minute, three men were on the knees gasping for air, clutching bruises and broken bones, dazed and defeated, their fellow attackers were fleeing. Luke was on his phone calling the police, his aura full of amazement directed at her. “You shouldn't have done that, you could have gotten hurt,” Luke said.

“They were definitely going to hurt you if I hadn't,” she said, leaning on her staff trying to catch her breath and letting the shakes of the adrenalin rush wear off.

“They couldn't hurt me, my skin and fur is as hard a rock. The best they could have done is damage my clothes,” he told her.

“Didn't know that.” Caroline looked around at the growing crowd. “They're taking my picture aren't they?”

“Yeah,” Luke said with a resigned sigh. “Sorry, this sometimes happens thanks to my looks.”

“So... what now?” she asked, wishing she had a hood or something to cover her face, at least her sunglasses were in place.

“We wait for the police. Don't worry, I'll make sure they know exactly what happened and that it was all self-defense.”

She didn't need to see the resignation in his aura to know he was upset and tired of things like this. Moving beside him, she patted his arm, letting him know he wasn't alone.