MetaHunter - ON HOLD

MH 32: Discoveries

They sat in a circle. Though Terra doubted they knew or it was even intentional, they all sat in a circle. All twelve Metas, Realmers from all the Seven Realms. They sat together in a circle of unity with a coffee table in between them and a tray of the few surviving cookies on it. The rest was already gone, consumed --mostly-- by the guy's hungry bellies.

The circle consisted of Mitch, Tylan and Ry on the couch, Marie on the single chair beside it and Charlotte at the opposite end. Angeline sat on the wooden chair Terra had brought from her room, in front of the receptionist, her daughter on the floor beside her and Cam next to her best friend, still under the window with Drake and Dylan opposite her. That left her at the end of the circle, sitting on a kitchen stool and Austin right beside her. The dogs--Mitch's wolfhounds were at the entrance. Ears slicked back on furry coats and eyes intensely watching like they could comprehend the conversation. Maybe they could, she thought.

"It's pretty clear we have an enemy on our hands," Mitch began. "One that remains unidentified but before we go into any of the details, Xander? Lina said you had a message from the dead."

"Yes," Xander replied shakily, raising her head from her mother's lap. She looked so pale and frail, in contrast to her usual bright and bubbly self. It made Terra sad to think she had a hand in doing that.

"I couldn't go to bed last night," She began. "Had a restless spirit and no one to talk to, so I stayed up till midnight, watching the dead go on and about their ways. To me then, they were merely balls of light. Then I thought to go close the window but then this particular ball came flashing through the night and right into my room. Would've gone through me had I not stepped aside fast enough. Then I saw her." Xander stopped briefly, closing her eyes as memories of the dead came rushing back to her.

"One of the three girls massacred last while Charlotte was there. The Air Elemental. I hadn't met any of the ghosts from that night, so I was thinking here goes my restless night. Then I see it in her eyes, I don't know what it was exactly but I see it. So I let her take me through her past. The Pool of Mists. Where she was killed."

Terra already thought Xander couldn't pale more than she had, looked horrified as her skin and hair turned literally white. "Xander," she whispered, eyes wide.

"Don't worry Rara, she needs this. She hasn't fully recovered from the journey." Angeline explained, holding her daughter's hand tight.

"Journey?" Terra echoed.

"To the past of the dead." Austin explained, his face grim.

"I'm fine. It's better this way." The voice that left Xander's mouth now that she'd become was as soft as the wind and just as cold. "I guess I ruined the contacts again huh?" She joked at Cam, referring to her now white irises.

MetaWalker

The word flew to Terra's mind like that time with Marq and she wondered if she could pass by another Meta without knowing it.

"She--Portia was her name," Xander continued now, "Made me watch as the Figure killed them. The humans first and then her, she put up a fight but couldn't stand it. I saw him... Peel away her insides and when she was within one breath of her life, he gave her a message to deliver. Not to me. To Terra. It used her as a messenger to Terra knowing she would come to me. She had to to find peace."

"What did it say Agha?" Angeline asked.

"The first one of the three. Tell the Hunter. It is but the beginning. Fire and rage will fall on the day of reckoning. The day of the broken. Fire and revenge. One times three." Slowly now, the eerie glow melted from her body but her eyes stayed white and so did her hair. "That's it."