Star Bright

(Author's note: So here it is, the last chapter. This one is just as bad as the two before it because, quite frankly, there is nothing noble, glorious, or poetic about a fight to the death.)

Whatever hesitation had been in the monster before, it faded as it closed in with her. With its jaws spread impossibly wide, the monster charged blindly towards her. Cathleen didn’t falter from the imminent onslaught she was about to endure. She stood her ground, feeling more powerful and more confident than she had ever been in her entire life. All her senses were suddenly enhanced tenfold as she clenched her fists. When the monster was almost upon her, Cathleen moved. To her surprise, the monster didn’t appear to be nearly as quick as she remembered.

Where once before its movements had been so insanely fast that they had appeared as nothing more than a blur to her, it now seemed to be moving at a pace no quicker than her. Cathleen instantly realized that…the monster’s speed had slowed at all. She had just become so fast that her actions were now happening at a speed that was nearly equal to it, and her mind had enhanced to a point where she could easily process this new reality of her body.

And that was why its dagger like claws sliced nothing but air as she dodged easily out of its reach. Infuriated that it had missed her, the monster lashed out at a nearby pile of hay squares. The piles of dried grass exploded into the air in a massive fluttering cloud. Snapping its fangs, the monster lunged at her once again. What happened would have seemed insane to Cathleen if she hadn’t already faced such impossible realities. The falling clumps of hay around the two of them looked like some cosmic entity had suddenly put the world in slow motion. The monster, however, was moving just as fast as ever. But so was Cathleen. As its deadly tentacles lashed out at her like four nightmarish whips, and Cathleen blocked their wild blows with her arms, she finally had an understanding of just what had happened. Both she and the monster were both moving so fast that it appeared as if things around them had slowed insanely. But such realizations was of little concern to Cathleen as she continued to dodge the monster’s whipping tentacles and absorb the stinging pain of their blows. As the fight wore on, she began to make a horrifying discovery.

With her transformation, she had become faster and stronger beyond any normal human comprehension. And she had been given absolutely no time to transition herself to that. That lesson was painfully taught to her in the next instant when she jumped to avoid having one of the lashing tentacles knocking her feet out from under her. Before Cathleen knew it, she was rocketing straight up into the sky like she had been shot out of a cannon. She blinked and the ground was suddenly far below her. Terror gripped her as her accent slowed, finally coming to a complete stop, and then began to fall. She flailed her arms and legs about, trying to do something, anything, to stop herself. Cathleen’s mind raced about in lost panic as she continued to fall upon one blank state of mind after another. Her terror of falling was lost instantly when there was a speck of movement below her, and that speak of motion rapidly got bigger.

It was the monster, hurtling towards her. In her state, Cathleen had no chance to stop it or even defend herself. It streaked skyward towards her, and in the next instant smashed its massive fist into her back. Pain exploded all throughout Cathleen’s spine, and her mouth fell open in a voiceless cry of suffering. All of its tentacles wrapped tightly around her ankles, and before Cathleen could even twitch, she was sent hurtling towards the ground far below. At the blinding speed she was going, there was no time for her think or feel. She threw her arms up in a blind instant of panic the instant the ground encompassed her entire vision.

Impact.

She blacked out a second time.

Cathleen came to with a vice like grip wrapped around her. She blinked, and realized that her body was clutched in the monster’s remaining arm. Her own arms were free of its grip, but they didn’t seem to work the way she wanted them to. Looking up weakly at the beast, Cathleen tried to break free of its grip, but her body ached all over and her mind was spinning wildly. And the strength in the monster’s hand was easily twice what its tentacles had. Despite her uneven vision, Cathleen could make out those same tentacles rising high over the monster’s head. It was about to impale her, the same way it had done to both Lance and Davis. Clenching her teeth, Cathleen lashed out in desperation, ramming her fist into the monster’s wrist as hard as she could.

She saw the vibration of her blow course down the whole arm of the monster, saw how its appendage stretched like a rubber band, and she saw the reaction from it was nearly instantaneous. It dropped her and stumbled back, clutching its arm tightly to its body. The moment was brief, as it stabbed at her with its barb tipped tentacles. Cathleen managed to dodge all but one of the deadly blades. A fire exploded in her left arm as the razor sharp edge sliced through the thick layers of her crystal like skin.

Crying out, she stumbled back from it, clutching her injured arm. When she pulled her hand away, Cathleen was shocked to see red liquid shimmering over her purple crystal skin. Blood. Her blood.

Emboldened by the fact it had just wounded her, the monster came after Cathleen with a relentless fury. Cathleen did her best to avoid the fury of attacks launched at her, but there was just too much coming at her at once and she was still struggling to regain her state of mind. When she ducked under a massive swipe of its large talons, a razor sharp barb slashed into her right leg just above the knee. Crippling pain rocked up through Cathleen’s leg, bringing her to her knees. Clicking ominously, the beast towered over her, lifting its gigantic fist over her head to bring it down in a fatal pile driver. As its fist fell towards her, Cathleen instinctively shut her eyes and braced for the intense surge of pain that would precede her impending death.

Sensing the threat, a blast of raw power surged from Cathleen crystal into her body. From nowhere, an intense pressure swelled up around Cathleen, encompassing not only her entire body, but every part of her whole conscious. What happened next was impossible for her to put into any sense of rational thought. One instant she was on her knees, wracked with pain and about to die. The next instant she simply wasn’t in any form of existence. It was as if she had just stopped being. The sensation lasted for only an instant. Cathleen felt the familiar sense of simply being return to her. She cautiously opened one eye, and found herself in complete shock yet once more throughout this insane night.

She was no longer anywhere near the beast. In fact, she was now several hundred yards away from it. She was in the exact same position that she had been in when the monster had been about to crush her. And looking over at it, Cathleen could clearly see that its fist was buried deep in the earth where she had just been. There was no doubt in Cathleen’s mind that she hadn’t moved her body one inch. And yet, she had somehow gotten several hundred yards away from the monster. How she had managed to do that was beyond her.

However, there was next to know time for Cathleen to think about it. Realizing that it had missed her somehow, the monster’s head wildly darted about in search of her. Instead of seeing her, its cold gaze fell upon…Davis’s body. With a single, voracious snap of its jaws, the monster lunged towards Davis. Its hideous talons flashed in the moonlight, their sinister glimmer yearning for Davis’ blood.

“Davis.” Cathleen winced, trying to stand up. The pain from her injuries caused her to stumble and fall down.

In her mind and heart, Cathleen knew that there was nothing she could do to protect Davis. She was simply too far away…and she still didn’t know how to fully control her body. That didn’t stop Cathleen from pushing through the pain and getting back on her feet. Without a single thought to her own injuries, Cathleen broke out in a dead run to save the boy whom she loved. Barely a dozen steps were made before the beast was upon Davis. Its diabolical head snapped in her direction. Flashing its sinister fangs, the monster arched all of its tentacles, holding them like the deadly spear tips they were over Davis. With a single click, the razor sharp barbs lanced down at Davis’ exposed back.

“No!” Cathleen screamed, looking away.

As her foot struck the damp soil beneath her, intense surges of power she had felt before fluctuated from her crystal and into her once again. In the next instant, the familiar sense of her existence vanished, only to return a moment later. When Cathleen opened her eyes, she was shocked to see that she was standing over Davis. The monster’s attack halted as it leapt back in complete surprise.

Cathleen didn’t know how it had happened again. And she didn’t care. Ignoring the pain that was now flowing all across her entire body, Cathleen scooped Davis’ limp body in her arms and hoisted him off the ground with ease. She was completely surprised again by her new strength. Davis felt like he didn’t weigh anything to her at all. Cathleen shut her eyes and pictured in her mind the exact same spot she had been only moments before. Almost as if it were a real command to her emerging ability, the world slipped away from her, and she became nothing yet again.

When Cathleen dared to open her eyes again, she was standing exactly where she had been before. The monster, now too far away to even have a prayer of launching a surprise attack on her, cocked its head confusingly at Cathleen. She hardly paid any attention to it. Nearly all of her attention was focused on Davis. Taking great care not to move him too much, she laid him out across the cold grass. He hadn’t moved so much as a twitch since the monster had smashed him into the earth like a rag doll. His injuries were nearly equal to the kind Lance had suffered. If that was true, then Davis could be…

Fearing the worst, Cathleen cradled Davis in her arms.

“Davis.” she whispered into his ear. “Don’t leave me. I need you. Please, just open your eyes for me. Just a little…to let me know you’re alright.”

Cathleen couldn’t ever dare to imagine that she would be so torn with her desire to give Davis a kiss, yet be too afraid to do so for the fear of the same fate of what had occurred with Lance visiting upon her once more. She knew that if it happened with Davis…her heart would never recover from the loss. Feeling that hopelessness about to consume her, Cathleen tightened her grip around Davis and surrendered her conscious to the power of her own crystal. A whole new concept of sensing fell upon her, flowing across the whole surface of her crystal skin. As she became immersed in the sensations, a realization dawned upon her.

She could feel…a faint pulse radiating across every place that she was touching Davis and into her own body. The pulse flowed through her, collecting at the center of her own crystal. In that instant, Cathleen knew the wondrous truth. She was feeling the faint power of Davis’ own crystal. And that could only happen if he still had a heartbeat. He was alive!

Relief which few could ever dare to comprehend instantly overcame Cathleen, and she revealed in the sensation. It was an ecstatic feeling that was short lived. Loud clicks nearby drew Cathleen eyes up from her fallen love. The monster had closed the distance between them, and was now preparing for yet another showdown with her. Despite the agony wracking her body, she glared vilely at the monster.

“Davis.” she whispered into his ear, not sure if he could even hear her. Although she didn’t take her eyes off of the monster, a single tear drop fell from her face against the glimmering skin of his forehead, causing a single sparkling dot to glisten in the moonlight.

“I know who I truly am now, and I believe in myself. And it’s because of you.” Her grip around him tightened softly. “You’ve been protecting me, you and Lance. But now, it’s my time to protect you. I can’t let that thing hurt you anymore…because…I love you too.”

He didn’t move. He didn’t say anything. But that didn’t matter to her, she had said what she had needed to say. Cathleen gently placed Davis’ head back down before rising to her feet to face the beast. She winced slightly as the fire in her leg flared up once more. But it wasn’t nearly enough to bring her down. Now that everyone that she cared for had been removed from the coming battle, leaving nothing but her and the beast to face each other. Gritting her teeth, Cathleen screamed a thunderous battle cry and leapt at the monster with all the strength her legs could muster. She shot through the air like a bullet towards it.

Her speed was beyond anything that both monster and her had expected. Its remaining arm had barely begun to lift when Cathleen slammed her shoulder full force into the monster’s chest. Its entire body rippled violently, the same way it had done when she had punched it earlier, and it toppled onto its back in a writhing mass. Cathleen smiled with sinister satisfaction. She didn’t know how to full control her new body’s strength, but she was more than capable of adapting what she did know to make her a formidable opponent. Just as that thought passed through her mind, the monster counter-attacked.

A razor sharp barb lashed at her face from seemingly nowhere. Cathleen dodged her head to the side in a split second of panic. The deadly tip narrowly missed running her face through, but still dug a grievous gouge into her glistening cheek. Blood and purplish crystal fragments showered the night air as Cathleen clutched her face and stumbled back.

As she tittered on unsteady feet, the monster reared back its feet and kicked her in the torso with such tremendous force that it sent Cathleen flying into the air. Her world wildly spun as she tumbled out of control. Before she could even brace herself, Cathleen smashed into the earth. Crippling pain shot all through her body, leaving her unable to even twitch her fingers. Despite the crushing agony that she was enduring, Cathleen caught movement from the corner of her eye. Exerting all of her strength, she twisted her head up, and felt a cold tremor run through her as she saw the monster hurtling down towards her.

Despite all of her suffering, Cathleen somehow found the strength to roll her body out of the way. The shockwave of the monster’s impact only a hair’s length away from her sent Cathleen tumbling. She barely managed to roll into a crouched stance when the beast lunged towards her, its deadly talons aimed at her heart. There was no time for her to even think, she dodged out of the way. Its long, curved claws sliced into her hip, cutting through her thick crystal skin with terrifying ease. Despite her injury, Cathleen survived the attack, and the monsters’ over shot arm struck harmlessly into the earth.

Cathleen realized that a moment she had desperately needed had come. The creature had exposed itself, and she had a very narrow window to react. The rage that had fueled Cathleen at the beginning of the battle instantly returned to her, and she listened to what it told her to do. Balling her hands tightly, Cathleen jumped up at the monster’s head. It had just enough time to lock its shimmering eyes upon her before she twirled her whole body and delivered a heavy back handed strike with her balled fist. Her hardened crystal skin tore into the monster’s face, snapping its head back at an angle that would have killed any normal creature. Cathleen smiled with primal satisfaction as she saw two of its dagger like teeth spinning through the air.

Her smile instantly transformed into a grimace of pain when a tentacle, the same one that had cut her face, lashed out from above it and slashed into her shoulder. Blood spurted across her face, almost blinding her. Despite her terrible wound, Cathleen’s flailing hands somehow grasped the ropey tendon of the tentacle. Clicking, the monster jerked its appendage back quickly to free it, but Cathleen now had the appendage tightly in her clutches. Despite her diminishing strength, she still kept her vice like grip around the thrashing tentacle. Cathleen planted her feet firmly against its torso, pulling the monster’s tentacle taught. She locked eyes with its, and let her anger for it pour forth from her twinkling iris.

“You…” she hissed at the beast through clenched teeth. “You destroyed my home…you killed…millions of innocent people.”

She knew that it could understand her, even if it didn’t know the words she was speaking. The emotions radiating off of her face was plain as day. And so was the hint of fear she spotted in its lifeless eyes as it desperately reached up with its remaining arm to grab her.

“You murdered my parents!” Cathleen growled as several painful tears seeped from her eyes. Her scream caused the beast to jump slightly. Cathleen thought of what it had showed her, all the people whose lives were now depending upon her. Her grip tightened more than ever. “I won’t…let this happen…AGAIN!!!”

As she screamed out her defiant challenge to the beast, Cathleen pulled with all of her might. The thick, semi-solid tendon in her hand stretched like a rubber band. Then…it snapped. The monster released a horrendous roar that was nearly identical to the one it made when Lance had ripped its arm off. With nothing left to hold her up, Cathleen plummeted to the earth and hit her back hard into the ground. The impact was hardly noticeable to her, and she leapt to her feet almost immediately. The severed remains of the tentacle continued to thrash about in her hands, which she promptly tossed aside.

As the monster fell down, it repaid the injury she had inflicted upon it. One of its legs shot up and smashed into Cathleen’s chest with crushing force. As the air was completely knocked out of her chest, Cathleen’s vision suddenly went double. The monster followed through with its first attack with an equally devastating roundhouse kick that caught her in the left arm. Excruciating pain flooded all of her thoughts and senses. Cathleen had never felt such agony before, and nearly blacked out because of it. She had no memory of how she ended up writhing on the ground, clutching at her limp arm.

With her teeth clenched tightly, Cathleen forced her eyes to open. She had to know just how badly she had been hurt. What she saw made her stomach turn. Her left arm was dangling uselessly from her shoulder. Hundreds, if not thousands of cracks were fissured from just under her shoulder down to her finger tips. And blood, her precious blood, was oozing from those cracks, drenching her purple crystal skin red. Cathleen made one feeble attempt to move her arm, but the terrible agony that shot through her whole body caused Cathleen to curl up into a pitiful ball. As she wheezed through faint gasps, the heavy thud of approaching feet caused her to weakly look up.

It was back. The monster was back. And it looked madder now than ever before. As it took a step towards her, it stumbled. Translucent fluid, its blood, still seeped from its wounds, and it was clearly weaker now than ever before. But it was still standing, and Cathleen knew in her heart that she was finished. She had fought harder than she could have ever imagined against this beast, and had dealt it several serious wounds. But that hadn’t been enough to bring it down. Now she was all out of strength and on her last leg. In one last, indeed desperate, attempt to escape Cathleen shut her eyes and attempted to shift herself far away from the beast. Instead of the familiar feeling to becoming non-existent, Cathleen instead felt as if hundreds of ropes had been lassoed around her and had pulled in every direction.

Her eyes snapped open and she writhed all over the ground as the pain consumed her. She was left with barely the strength to even breath. Sensing that she was now not going anywhere, the beast bared its remaining fangs and began to drag itself towards her. Cathleen’s eyes darted about wildly as it continued to close in. Around it, the monsters three remaining tentacles snaked into view, their deadly barbs extended to their fullest length. Seeing them, and the way the monster had them poised, left Cathleen under no illusion as to what was about to happen. The monster had made too many mistakes, too many assumptions, and had paid dearly for them. It clearly wasn’t going to take any more chances. It was going to end this battle right now and impale her with all of its tentacles without the slightest hesitation.

With one final step, it was standing over Cathleen, ready to enact its dark deed. And she could do nothing more than lay there and await her fate.

“Do it.” Cathleen growled to the monster, showing it the courageous defiance that was her birthright. “You…you can kill me…but I’ll never be afraid of you again. Do you hear me, never! I am a princess of Avion!”

Her defiant cry to it only seemed to entice the monster even more, for its remaining tentacles began to twitch eagerly as they were all raised to their peak height. A part of Cathleen wanted to look away from them. She knew the brutal death that was about to fall upon her. But she just couldn’t. Even in that moment, as she faced certain death in the face of this beast, she could hear the echoing words that her real mother had said to her in a time that had happened only a short while before yet felt like a lifetime had passed. Cathleen remembered her mother speaking of the sacrifice she had made, to give hope to a dying planet and people. And now, her mother’s legacy was about to be played out once more through her. And she couldn’t face her death, knowing that she had cowered before the very thing that had nearly exterminated her people and sought to kill everyone that she so desperately cared for. If she was to die in the next few moments, then she would die as a princess of Avion. Showing strength and courage to the very end.

As the barbs arched to be brought down upon her, Cathleen glared up at the beast with all of the fire that her new found spirit could muster.

The monster showed her its rows of hideous teeth in a malicious grin, minus the few that she had knocked out. Its glimmering eyes suddenly stretched to their widest, and it threw back its head with a horrendous cry. Cathleen blinked, hardly able to believe what she was seeing. The monster hopped feebly away from her. As it retreated, Maude charged into Cathleen’s vision, brandishing a makeshift torch which she swung wildly at the monster. With her sharp vision, Cathleen saw where Maude had jammed the fiery end into the beast’s side. The fire had burned away a large section of its thick skin, leaving slowly bubbling ooze dripping down its side. Injured and off balance, the monster relented under Maude’s wild attacks.

“Maude!” Cathleen shouted to her best friend.

Maude ignored her cry of warning, instead keeping her attention focused on the monster as it made a feeble swipe at her, which she ducked under before jamming the torch’s burning end into the creature’s leg. It cried out again, this time in great pain as it fell onto it back. Despite her grievous injuries, Cathleen smiled faintly as she watched the beast clutch the area of its leg where the knee should have been, the same spot where Maude had stabbed it.

“I know I’m only a human here. But if any of you think that I’m going to just stand by and be some damsel in distress, you’re out of your mind.” Maude snapped.

As if to answer her challenge, a deadly tentacle lashed out from behind the monster’s back, aiming straight for Maude’s chest. Cathleen’s only friend dodged to the side, falling to the ground in a roll and just narrowly avoided being skewered by the tentacle’s barb. If the monster hadn’t been so badly injured in its fights between her, Davis, and Lance, Cathleen was sure that there would be no way Maude would have even lasted half a second against the beast. But it had fought all three of them, and the wounds the beast had suffered had slowed it down significantly. Maude, despite having none of their other-worldly powers, leapt into the battle without hesitation against the monster. When the tentacle missed her, she was on her feet in a flash, the torch in her hands held high over her head.

Screaming, she smashed the firy end down on the exposed tentacle. The effects were sickeningly instantaneous, with the flames burning right through the tendril like a surgical knife. Having another one of its appendages severed, the monster rolled across the ground in absolute agony.

“That was for my mom’s car, you bastard!” Maude screamed at it.

Her curse was answered by one of the remaining tentacles swinging about and hitting her like a deadly whip. The burning hunk of wood she clutched took the brunt of the blow, but Maude was still hit with enough force to knock her completely off her feet. Cathleen only saw Maude sailing through the air for a fraction of a second before they collided in a tangled heap.

Before Cathleen knew it, she was face down in the dirt, with Maude on top of her. She tried to cry out for her friend, but just trying to move her mouth sent waves of intense pain that left her unable to even move. As she felt her friend’s weight push down onto her broken arm, it took all of Cathleen’s willpower to not open her mouth in blind pain, least she choke on a mouthful of dirt. The pressure eased off of her in moments as Cathleen felt Maude weakly roll off of her. Although her head was spinning and her vision was beginning to blur, she still found enough strength to roll over and stare at her best friend.
Maude, although she was clearly suffering just from trying to breath, still managed to force a weak smile. “Sh…showed him…that we humans…aren’t helpless. Didn’t I?” she said faintly.

“Maude….” Cathleen whispered, feeling terrible for not being able to stop her best friend from getting hurt. Maude, for her part, didn’t appear the least bit regretful about what she had done. Despite their dire situation, Maude reached over and took a clump of Cathleen’s hair in her hand.

“Looks like…you finally saw the light…”

Maude lifted her hand so Cathleen could see her glistening silver hair, which now had several deep, yet oddly brighter, streaks of purple now running through it. Maude flashed her trademark smile, and Cathleen felt her heart sink when she saw blood in between her best friend’s teeth.

Voracious growls broke the calm moment between them. Struggling, Cathleen lifted her head slightly to see the monster weakly getting back up. With her left arm completely broken, and her body smashed in more places than she could have ever imagined, Cathleen could do nothing more except lay there and watch as the monster got turned towards them. Bracing its trembling body with its one remaining arm, the monster slowly turned to face her. When they were directly facing each other, creature snapped at her with its monstrous jaws and began to crawl her way. It had only managed several feeble shuffles before a massive form dropped out of the night and landed beside Cathleen. Her eyes shifted from the beast to see Lance standing beside her. He looked like he could barely stand, yet he clutched in his straining arms a large hunk of twisted metal. Cathleen couldn’t be sure, but she thought that it was what was left of the car that belonged to Maude’s mom.

“You…stay away…from her.” he growled through his clenched teeth.

The monster’s answer was a series of very low, very dangerous clicks. Lance had his own answer to that. With a very audible and painful grunt, he hoisted the hunk of metal over his head and launched it. The large balls of debris struck the monster in the head, causing its neck to snap back at an odd angle for a second time. But the one thing that Cathleen had already learned about this monster, was that it was anything but regular. The blow to its head appeared to have little more effect than just fazing it. And Lance had clearly used the last of his strength as he fell to his knees next to Cathleen.

Breathing heavily, he looked over at Cathleen out of the corner of his red eyes and smiled. “I’m…still here…my lady.”

Cathleen was about to say something to him, but she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. The two remaining tentacles, the ones which she was almost certain had speared Lance earlier, were launched straight at his chest. Cathleen’s eyes widened with terror as she realized she was about to see Lance be impaled once again. And she knew that he wouldn’t survive this attack.

As that absolute, gut wrenching terror flooded her, a form leapt over Cathleen, sailing right for Lance. Cathleen only had enough time to see a flash of Maude’s determined face passing over her to realize what her friend was doing.

“Get down stupid!” Maude screamed, plowing into Lance from the side and knocking him out of the way of the deadly barbs…and bringing herself right into their path.

It all happened so fast that Cathleen didn’t even have time to see where Maude was hit. She could only hear her only friend’s terrible cry of pain, and see Maude’s blood spurt through the air as both she and Lance collapsed in a mangled heap.

“Maude!” Cathleen screamed.

She didn’t know how it happened. One instant, she was lying helplessly on the ground, the next she was on top of the monster, ramming her good arm straight into one of its glimmering eyes. Cathleen felt a soft texture give way to her punch, and the beast was knocked back with an agonizing cry. The sudden raw surge of power that had exploded within Cathleen vanished nearly as instantly as it had appeared. When her broken and weary body fell to the ground before the beast, she felt the bridge between her and her crystal break. All of the amazing power that she had so recently been infused with vanished with it. But worst of all, the break felt to Cathleen as if a part of her very heart had just died.

With both her body and her spirit only shells of their former selves, Cathleen struggled intensely just to turn her head to look down at her battered body. The purplish crystal skin, which had been the defining testament to who she truly was, had disappeared. All that was left now was her pale skin. Seeing that frail, spongy skin, Cathleen instantly knew the truth. She had turned into her weak silver haired and helpless self once more. But hearing the furious roars of the beast right next to her, Cathleen realized that she had found something which would never leave her, no matter which body she possessed. The inner strength of being the princess, the lost leader of her people, and the devotion she now felt for being that.

Cathleen. Izarra. The names didn’t matter anymore to who she had become. She would never truly be the princess of her dead world that she had been meant to be. But at the same time, she was no longer that scared, lost girl whom everyone made a game out of tormenting. Two separate lives, neither which had ever been meant to be broken, had now become one. Knowing that, she used that strength to gaze upon the face of the monster that had already taken away so much from her.

It clutched at its face with its remaining hand, wobbling about as its fangs grounded against each other. A single shudder ran through its enormous body, and for a moment, it had regained its seemingly unstoppable composure. Its hand slid away from its face, revealing a single glimmering eye. With one gigantic snap of its teeth, the monster began to drag itself towards Cathleen. Step by obviously painful step, it closed in on her. Now truly helpless and out of people to save her, Cathleen could do nothing except lay there and watch as each of its three finger lost their fluid like shape and hardened into deadly looking blades.

Cathleen knew that this was it. The monster wasn’t going to waste any more time with her. She was going to be skewered without the slightest hesitation. With her strength gone and the connection between her and her crystal severed, Cathleen could do nothing more except gaze up at the monster with grim defiance.

The light from the still burning barn nearby casted ominous shadows all across the monster’s body. As it raised its hand up high, both she and the monster were suddenly bathed in a bright light. Cathleen, using the last of her strength, looked towards the light, and felt herself overcome with a multitude of emotions. The massive glow was coming from the headlights of a truck racing towards them. Her father’s truck. Cathleen was able to catch the briefest glimpse of a determined and furious face behind the wheel, but she knew without a shred of doubt that it was her mother. The truck plowed into the beast with such tremendous force that it knocked the creature completely off of its feet.

Slamming down on top of the hood, the creature could do nothing except dig its claws into the side of the truck as it was carried away. As the truck raced past her, Cathleen felt comforting warmth ignite within her at the sight of her father, still very much alive, standing in the bed of the truck, clutching something large in his hands. The monster roared and thrashed about, but it was unable to free itself. As the truck zoomed towards the burning barn at a blinding speed, the roar of the engine drowned out the cries of the alien beast. As the truck neared the burning wreckage, Cathleen’s dad lifted the object high over his head.

“Alright big boy!” her father shouted to the monster. “Try eating this!”

Cathleen didn’t know what it was that her father threw at the monster, but the way that both of her parents suddenly leapt off of the truck and stayed flat on the ground was all she needed to take a guess about what was about to happen. The monster screeched horrendously as the truck careened into the burning structure, and both beast and machine vanished in a wall of flames. Although she couldn’t really do anything, Cathleen tried to brace herself for what she knew was about to come as she tried to drown out the monster’s dying screams. But nothing could prepare her for the thunderous explosion the completely obliterated the remains of the barn in a massive cloud of fire. Cathleen shut her eyes, unable to even look at the inferno. As the heat and force of the explosion washed over Cathleen, she could have sworn that she heard on final, agonizing cry from the monster mix into the ear shattering boom.

What she was aware of was that the full force of the blast didn’t hit her. She weakly opened one eye, and saw Davis crouching over her. He was back to his pale skinned, silver haired body, and was clearly using the last of his strength to brace himself against a twisted hunk of metal which he was using to shield both of them from the blast. The instant the firestorm faded, the makeshift shield fell from his hands and he dropped to his knees. Breathing heavily, Davis looked over at her.

No words were passed between them, only gazes in their eyes. Without uttering a sound, Davis carefully scooped her up in his arms and lifted Cathleen off of the ground. Even being moved by someone else was immensely painful, but Cathleen did her best to not show it.

She looked cautiously up at Davis, and saw the look in his twilight colored eyes. He ran his fingers through her hair without uttering a sound. There was so much affection in his touch, so much tenderness that it made Cathleen just want to cry.

“Davis…”

He looked away from her for a moment before turning his gentle gaze back to her. “Did…did you mean it? What you said to me?”

“I….” Cathleen felt her chest tighten with the realization. “I thought…that you were…”

“My eyes were closed.” Davis answered weakly. “Not my ears.”

He looked away from her again, taking in a deep breath before daring to look back at her again.

“Did you?”

She knew the answer to that question. But…she just couldn’t bring herself to say anything. She couldn’t do anything, except lose herself in Davis’ eyes. Although she had just survived a living nightmare, she could feel the spark of attraction igniting between them. He seemed to have read her thoughts, because Davis slowly lowered his face towards hers, his lips parted slightly.

Fear of what was about to happen, of what it would mean to both of them, and what it would do to everyone else, flooded Cathleen’s conscious. Although it hurt her almost as much as the pain coursing through her body, she knew what she had to do.

“Davis,” Cathleen said, turning her head away slightly. “don’t…”

He paused instantly, remaining as still as a statue for the next few moments which felt like they lasted forever. After those seemingly endless moments passed, she heard Davis release a weary sigh.

“I…I understand.”

“It…it’s not you, Davis.” Cathleen whispered. “It’s just…”

“It’s not the right time.” He finished her sentence for her with obvious sadness in his voice.

Hearing his words, feeling the way he spoke to her, Cathleen couldn’t bear to remain in his arms any longer. Although it would have been so much easier on her to just let Davis carry her, Cathleen just couldn’t bring herself to let that happen. She had changed this night, in so many ways that the person she had been at the beginning of the day now felt like a hazy shadow.

“Davis.” she murmured. “Put me down.”

“But…Cathleen….” Davis protested weakly, his voice full of fear for her.

Cathleen tightened her grip on his badly torn shirt. “Davis, please…you have to….I need to.”

There was a moment of hesitation in Davis. But, he finally placed Cathleen on her feet. Even though she needed to show strength even in this moment, Cathleen still had to brace herself up against Davis. For his part, he did nothing more than be a pillar for her to lean upon. As Cathleen shifted her full weight to her feet, she had to clench her teeth to block out the pain. She wobbled slightly, but used her good arm to keep herself up. As she fought just to remain on her feet, two shady figures came stumbling out of the nearby darkness. Cathleen squinted through her blurred vision, and felt her eyes watering almost instantly when she realized the approaching pair were her parents. They were both completely covered in dirt and bleeding from several large wounds. Yet the look in the eyes of her adoptive parents was unmistakable. She could see nothing in each of their gazes except the utmost love that any parent could have for their child. It was the exact same look she had seen in the eyes of her real parents, just before the transmission they had left for her had ended.

As they approached her in complete silence, Cathleen felt her lips tremble with a multitude of emotions. When they were only standing a few feet apart, Cathleen looked to each of them. Her mother clutching her side, wincing slightly every time she breathed. Her father, blood trickling down his face from a terrible gash across his forehead. Yet both of them were smiling so affectionately at her.

“Mom….” Cathleen said the word with hesitation, then looked to her father. “…Dad…”

Her mother swallowed hard before stepping right up to her.

“Sweetie…” she as if there was a lot more that she wanted to say, to somehow make amends for a lifetime of lying.

Instead, she did the only real thing that Cathleen could have ever wanted her to do in that moment. Tears dripping slightly from her eyes, Cathleen’s mom carefully wrapped her arms around her. Exhausted, hurting everywhere, and completely drained in every way, Cathleen could do nothing more except fall into her adoptive mother’s embrace. Resting her head against her mother’s shoulder, Cathleen looked up to see her dad standing over her.

“My little girl.” he said with affection that equaled the way her real father had spoken to her. Moving with slow caution, he bent down slightly and kissed the top of her head. Warmth spread all through Cathleen from the parental love she was now immersed in. Although she would never truly know her real parents, she was eternally grateful for the ones she now had.

Looking beyond them, she could see Davis standing back, quietly nursing his wounds as he stared at her. Although clearly in just as much pain as she was, Cathleen could still see the love in his eyes for her. Turning her gaze beyond him, she could see both Lance and Maude off in the distance. They were sitting side by side, with Lance having returned to his own pale skinned body. Even at the distance they were, she could see the warm smile on his strong face as he looked at her.

Seeing the two of them, the way they were looking at her, brought both a sense of euphoria to Cathleen, as well as sadness. Knowing how they felt for her, and she in turn for each of them, made Cathleen realize the eventual harsh decision she would have to make. She was no fool, and knew that in the end she couldn’t have them both. And although she couldn’t bear the thought of knowing that she would eventually break one of these amazing boy’s hearts, she knew that she would someday have to.

As her real father had said to Cathleen, the future was in her hands. But he had also said that no one could foresee the future. And her destiny now was to be a symbol of a future for the scattered survivors of her destroyed homeworld. To be a leader. To decide. But would she eventually choose strength and safety with Lance, or comfort and emotional peace with Davis? She couldn’t know. All Cathleen truly knew was that in the moment, nestled in the arms of her new parents, looked on with unshakeable love by the two boys who had changed her life forever, and now with a reason for living…she knew that it would be enough. For now, it would be enough.

**

Sitting a short distance away, Maude sat beside the still hulking Lance in silence. She was happy for Cathleen, knowing that her best friend had finally found a happiness that she had always hoped she would. Maude didn’t try to move, it hurt too much to even try. Not with the awful gash she had in her shoulder where the monster’s barb had cut into her still oozing blood. She supposed eventually they were all going to have to drag themselves to the nearest hospital, but for the moment, they could all afford just a few moments of much needed rest.

As she sat there watching her best friend embrace her parents, Lance stirred beside her. Maude caught him looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

“You’re bleeding.” he said softly, nearly all the strength and fire gone from his voice.

Maude looked down at her injury, surprised with how bad it looked that it didn’t really hurt as much as she thought it should. She turned her head towards Lance, working her eyes up and down his battered body.

“You don’t look so hot yourself.”

Lance grumbled something under his breath before looking back at Cathleen. Maude did the same, and the two of them watched the display of family love unfold before them. Maude noticed Davis standing just beyond them, and saw the way he was looking at Cathleen.

“I wouldn’t get all worked up about that kiss you got earlier, Big Red.” Maude said, motioning towards Davis. “I’d say your buddy still has a good chance.”

Lance cocked his head slightly. “Maybe. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

"I have to know something." Maude said, turning her head slightly to Lance. "If you all came here in pods, where the heck is yours and Davis'?"

"They're right over there." Lance replied, pointing his finger.

Maude traced to where he was pointing, and had to admit that she really wasn't all that suprised to see that Lance was pointing at their moterbikes. She shot Lance a questioning look. "Do I really want to know how?"

"Not really quite sure how it works myself." Lance said, not taking his eyes off of his own bike. "Only that they can change into anything we want them to that's about the same size as they are. Like that old Transformers cartoon."

Maude didn't bother trying to go on, it was pointless to ask questions that even Lance didn't know the answers to. So she kept her mouth shut. Silence fell over them again. An awkward tension settled in between them, one that Maude hated feeling. After what felt like forever, Lance broke it.

“Thanks, by the way.”

Maude looked over at him, noticing that Lance still had his eyes directed at Cathleen. Maude would have been lying to herself to say that she didn’t feel at least a little bit offended by that.

“For what?” she asked.

Lance glanced slightly at her. “For pushing me out of the way. You took a hit, a bad one at that, for me. Probably saved me life.”

Maude kept her eyes on him, clicking her teeth slightly. “Well, you pulled me out of the car earlier, so I guess that makes us even.”

“Thank Cat, I was going for her first before she told me to get you.”

Maude rolled her eyes slightly. “Wow, you don’t give a damn about me. What a shock.”

“Don’t be an ass.” Lance grunted. “And…I actually do kind of give a damn about you.”

Maude raised an eyebrow when she looked back at him. “Really, huh?”

Lance nodded his head slightly. “You’ve got more guts than any girl I’ve ever meet. You’re also the only person who I haven’t been able to outright scare with my red eyes. And I certainly can’t imagine anyone else taking that thing head on the way you did.”

“Well,” Maude said. “That’s probably the sweetest thing any guy’s ever said to me.”

As she said that, Maude glanced over at the still burning barn. “So…” she asked. “Is it dead?”

Lance followed her gaze, fixating his red eyes on the smoldering bonfire. “That sucker was in the heart of that inferno when it went boom. I’m pretty sure he’s not walking away from that one. Cat’s parents probably wouldn’t have gotten that critter if you hadn’t kept it busy.”

Maude turned to Lance, and was a little surprised to see him staring at her. She turned her head away quickly, not wanting to dwell on just what the hell that look had been. When she dared to looked cautiously back at him again, she saw Lance’s eyes fixated upon Cat again. Peered out at her friend, who was still hugging her parents like there was never going to be a tomorrow, Maude felt a an unknown feeling go through her.

“I’m not Cat, you know.” Maude explained. “And I never will be a long lost alien princess or something like that. I’ll always just be a normal human.”

“No.” Lance said with a hint of regret in his voice. “You’ll never be Cat. But you have the same strength that she has. And that means a lot to me.”

“You really love her, huh?” Maude asked, not daring to look at him as she pulled her knees into her aching chest.

“Yeah, I do.” Lance said, emotion present in his voice. “She makes me feel alive in a way I’ve never known before. She’s given me purpose for the first time in my life. I know that what I feel for her can’t be anything else except love.”

“But Davis feels the same way about her.” Maude said.

“I know that.” Lance replied. “But I can’t just turn my feelings for Cat off. We may be aliens, but well can feel just the way you do. I just wish that she didn’t have to be put in such a tough place, having to eventually choose between the two of us.”

Lance sighed heavily.

“But…no matter what happens, I know that I’ll always be there for her. I’ll always love her and protect her. The same way my dad did for her parents.”

Maude didn’t realize it at the time, but she was leaning slightly towards Lance as she asked the next question. “So…what’ll you do if she doesn’t choose you, Big Red?”

Lance chuckled softly, turning to Maude. For a brief moment, their eyes locked. Maude saw a nearly identical strength and determination in Lance’s deep red eyes as she knew were emanating from her brown ones. As they stared at each other, the corners of Lance’s lips curved slightly.

“I’m not going to die if she doesn’t. I’m sure I can find a girl out there who’s right for me.”

**

Not far away, oblivious to everyone, a tiny shard of the crystal Cathleen had used to save Lance remained. Fueled by some unknown reaction to Cathleen’s touch, the crystal had embedded itself into the loose soil that had been turned up by the battle. As a faint gust blew through across the ground, the crystal shard bent to the force of the wind identically to the surrounding grass. From its broken end, three new edges had branched out, and as the yellow light from the sun of its new home began to shin upon the shard, the three edges absorbed the light, and slowly began to grow.

(Author's note: Well, that's the ending. I sure some of you had wished that I had made Cathleen choose either Lance or Davis in the end. And to tell the truth, I did begin this story with a solid idea of who Cathleen would pick. But the more I wrote, and the more I developed the relatonships between the three of them, I began to switch back and forth in my decision, until finally I reached a point where I had to admit that I just couldn't make up my mind on which one of them would be better for her. So I decided to leave it open for you readers to decide. And as much as I would have liked to make this story go a little further, I've also realized that I needed to stop it here. Because to create the full story, along with Cathleen trying to rally her scattered people across the planet and find a way for them to live together with regular humans as well as discovering who she has greater feelings for, would require me having to write not a book's worth of material, but several. And I just don't have that in me to do that right now. But I hope that you have all enjoyed the ride as much as I have. Until next time, fare well.)