The UnHonorable War

Aaron looked back at his friend and then looked around the bus. A good question and he wondered who had what. Still, since he was sitting next to Xain he didn't really want to talk about him without actually to him... Still since he started a conversation with the weirdo he decided it was best to continue their conversation.

A monk? Was this guy serious? A monk from Greece? Was that even possible? That really confused the teen and he contemplated each word this 'Xain' was speaking. He shrugged and turned to be facing the front of the bus. "I'm 16." He responded to the man. He wiggled to unfurl a bit of his cloak. "And I'm a guy." He said rolling his eyes behind his mask.

He turned away from Xain and opened the mask slightly to whisper to Jeanne. "I think this guy has some power that can control how others feel. Remember when we first saw each other again? One minute I'm pissed and ready for a fight, next thing I know this guy walks up and I can't get angry." He returned to his chair and pulled out his book. Although no matter how hard he tried he couldn't concentrate on the book, instead he kept thinking about this Haven they were promised.

Mal seemed pleased by the easy acceptance of her choice, and settled in a little easier. She propped her knees up on the seat in front of her, forming herself almost into a ball and glanced out the window at the rainy scenery.

The commotion from Val at the front dragged her attention back to Mike and the other woman, and her brows knit together at the rapid exchange of personal information, too much to just to be a coincidence. Her eyes narrowed, and she looked towards Leena. "You know him right..? What's his deal?" She asked in a soft, conspiratorial voice.

"My sincerest apologies" Xain mutters after aaron had finished whispering "there is no need to conspire friend, my...how to say, my ability will reveal its true nature in due time." Lightly scratching his own face Xain adds "my mentor once told me 'It is the dim haze of mystery that adds enchantment to the pursuit.' A saying original coined by the French writer Antoine de Rivarol. Pardon my rambling, the point is, you must first find beauty in the unknown to have an appreciation in the known. Do you understand Aaron?"

He smiles wide and wags his pointer finger "I don't even understand my gift yet~!"

Throwing up his hood in a very animated manor he remarks "you likely deem me mad, and to that I would not disagree. Just bare with it as long as you can."

Jeanne nodded nonchalantly at Xain, barely registering his words after he confirmed the presence of his powers. She politely but glassy-eyedly waited for him to finish addressing Aaron with what seemed like philosophy of the highest order of platitudes. Having seated herself in the row right in front of her friend, she had her body twisted in Xain's direction and, once he finished speaking, she finally deemed it useful to reach out her hand for a handshake. She smiled.

"I'm Jeanne," she said.

This guy is insane! Aaron thought as he listened to what Xain told him. No soon did he think those thoughts that the man spoke them himself. He stared ahead of himself with a glare at the seat in front of him. Good choice of seating... He thought to himself. He blinked as he saw Jeanne introduce herself to him and shook his head slightly donning a smile. My what the situation they were in now.

"Tis a pleasure Jeanne" he says happily grabbing her hand with a shake. casually studying the features he can see xain comments "you have very powerful features for someone of your stature, i mean this with the utmost respect of course, i can practically see the raw potential radiating from your being." hinting at the existance of his aura sight xain giggles before adding "A figure of speech you see, tis a common saying in the middle east region of the world."

poking his cheek and twisting his finger in a rhythmic fashion xain remarks "Do not worry of me becoming a problem, you see i am a pacifist.  I do not wish to bring hostility into this world when so much already exists." pausing and cupping his chin between his thumb and pointer fingers he seems to rethink his opinion slightly. "No...no, There is not a situation i can foresee in which i will cast aside that ideal."

he extends his pointer finger over his lip and quotes "Pushing the limits on your own beliefs, is the only way to know they truly exist."

Mal tensed at Mike's words, and frowned. Well, so much for secrecy, but she supposed if everyone else were Alpha, she didn't need it. She glanced at Leena, focusing back on Mike. "I suppose he can be trusted then." She relaxed back in her seat slowly, and turned her full attention back on the girl beside her.

"So... 'Alpha' huh... I'm a little surprised you noticed me at all, actually." Mal said in a shy voice, pushing her hair back out of her face. "My abilities.. make me hard to notice. I just got used to it I guess.. It's like being invisible to everyone, even though you know you aren't." She frowned, not sure why she was telling the other woman all of this. "Sorry about the babble.."

Jeanne raised an eyebrow at Xain's compliment, but the smile that had previously only been on her lips crept into little young crow's feet at the sides of her eyes. Despite everything, this awkward Greek foreigner had a charm to him that captivated her in a strange way, and as she went back to her resting position, hand at her side again.

The girl momentarily turned around to listen to Mike, and then turned her head back towards Xain and Aaron.

"Yes, I can agree with that," she said, nodding at his last statement. It rang way too true for the events that had transpired in the last 24 hours.

Aaron sat quietly and listened to the two talk. When Mike stood up and began to speak about how they were all safe. He let out a sigh of relief. "Congratulations Mr. Xain you get to see what's behind the mask." He said as he removed his hood and mask and let out a deep breath of fresh air. They were free. Finally he could live in peace and no longer hide who he was. He stopped caring about his disguise and let some of the cloak fall away to reveal his bandaged legs and invisible torso.

They were all Alpha's in here. They were all one people. He turned his head to look at Jeanne. "So Jeanne, you still like the Honor Guard despite the fact that we're all Alpha's? Here on this bus each of us are all one people now. After all you did join the Honor Guard to hunt us down, no?" He rose an invisible eyebrow. Not like she could see it but his tone had a hint of mockery in it. He felt a slight pain in his jaw and he rubbed it. Speaking helped the pain sometimes. "So Xain, if we're all Alpha's what kind of abilities do you have?" He asked looking at the man.

An entire bunker? That this person made with his own hands? "So you must be some kind of Earth or Metal... Bender?" He asked remembering the old TV Show Avatar: The Last Airbender, that he used to watch religiously. "And to create an entire bunker out of stone must mean you're exceptionally powerful. Remind me to never get on your bad side." Aaron said chuckling to himself nervously. This guy had to be insanely powerful to do all that and more.

He wanted to ask a question but he felt like he might be asking a little much. I wonder if he knows who that golden clad person in the news broadcast was? He decided to ask himself instead of asking the question aloud. He would probably have time to ask them later. Or perhaps his questions will be answered as he continued down the path he was walking.

"as i have said i do not fully understand my ability" Xain quickly points out to aaron. "I myself believe it to have something to do with influence, however i have always been a person of great influence on those around me, my power may have something to do with say....forcibly inducing my influence on an area. at least that is the assumption i have come to. the first time i attempted it i only affected myself, however at the fueling station it appeared to have wider reaching results."

he chuckles before remarking "i've only had what one would call supernatural abilities for a couple hours."

his eyes appear to flare with excitement as xain takes his finger and punctures a hole in it using his well decorated necklace. "We have something in common my dear Aaron, my blood can't be seen either." dripping from the wound appears to be a faint water like substance, glowing a light blue as it exits his skin but fading more and more as it passes.

"Of course im exaggerating." he giggled playfully. "boy does this sting, why must this aged fool do such silly things." pressing his finger against his cloak to stop the bleeding he asks politely.

"any more questions?"

Jeanne softly and steadily blew air through her nose as the pondered about a way to respond to Aaron as to not embarrass herself. Finally she answered, in a waxy, poetic language that she'd only previously used in literature class.

"I cannot foresee my ethics being displaced by hatred. Alphas and I are of one blood, and therefore I shall protect my kind before I destroy it."

Having turned her body to face front, she sank into her seat, all by her lonesome, as the bus began to move towards the bunker. She'd been listening to Mike while also holding her conversation with Xain and Aaron. Slowly, goosebumps rose on her forearms, hidden under the black sweater, as it was made more and more clear that there simply was no way back, only a way forward, for her now. She'd been handed this path when her Alpha DNA was revealed--actually, no, she chose this path when she chose to steal and take flight because she naively believed she could make a change to the fibre of the world.

She shivered. Jeanne's chances of being here in this particular moment were so slim, that the image of her cold gray body lying on the dissection table of the Honor Guard base invaded her retinas through her vivid imagination and lingered longer than any sane human would've liked.

She tried to distract herself by closing her eyes and "looking" at Mike's severe face, dimly lit by the switch lights on the bus dashboard. She found a sort of rough, grounded survival in his face that gave her strength.