Sara woke up at almost six in the morning, and after having a shower and a small breakfast, she dug through the three unopened boxes she had stuffed into the back of her closet. Eventually, Sara found what she was looking for, the foot-long knife that had been given to her for messing over a group of slavers a few years back. Looking at the knife and its matching sheath, Sara remembered back when she had worn her body armour daily as a matter of necessity instead of preference. Shaking off the memories, Sara got dressed in some semi-casual clothing, deciding on a long skirt and blouse. As a personal precaution, Sara strapped the knife to her right calf, and felt slightly reassured by the weight of the sheath pulling on the outside of her leg.

She then went downstairs, put her boots on, and grabbed the binders where she had been planning the curriculum for most of the night. A few seconds later, Sara had planted the binders in the leather bag she had used yesterday to hold the textbooks she was planning on using to make the classes miserable. Sara looked at the clock, noticed that it was almost Eight, and smiled. *Well, onwards to the classes. Oh yeah, I need a potato, just to torture Lucas.*

Sara turned back into her house, rooted around in the kitchen, and went back to her bike, stuffing a potato into one of the pockets on the left side of her coat. She drove to the school relatively slowly, enjoying the cool air that had rushed into the city from the ocean, and arrived twenty minutes before the first bell. Sara instantly noticed that Lucas’ car still had the racing stripe, and, giggling to herself, and just to add insult to injury, she took the potato out of her coat pocket and stuffed the fairly large spud into his car’s tailpipe, jamming the pipe pretty effectively.

Sara parked her bike nearby, activated her bike’s anti-theft system, then walked into the main office, greeting a few of the other teachers as she went to the teacher’s mailbox file and collected the in-class announcements for her home room. Sara had gotten up to her classroom before the bell had rang, and read the announcements to herself. She raised her eyebrows at some of the dumber ones, wondering who would want to go to a chess club and see who had the nastier braces, and decided to pencil in some changes, just to make them slightly more humourous.

After finishing her alterations, Sara looked up and noticed a young girl with dark hair, about shoulder length, and with differently coloured eyes. One was a dark shade of brown, but the other’s iris was almost completely red. "Yes? How can I help you?"

Sara swung her feet off the desk, leaning forwards as she did so, and let the girl speak. "Umm, I’m wondering where Lucas went. After all, this is his classroom."

Sara smiled and leaned her elbows on the desk, supporting her head with her hands. "Sorry, but Lucas has been reassigned to the chemistry home room, and is also the school’s newest chem teacher. So, what’s your name?"

The girl smiled slightly, and looked at the desk for a few seconds. "I’m Hazel Smith. Sorry about missing the shakedown yesterday."

Sara smiled faintly, then pointed at the nearest empty desk. "So Hazel, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself, unless you want to torment me with questions."

Hazel laughed at Sara’s tone, then nodded. "Well, from the accent, you’re definitely not a Yank, and I’m probably right by guessing that you’re a Canadian. So, where’s the kindness gene?"

Sara barely kept from busting out laughing, then wagged her finger at Hazel. "Well, I see you’ve managed to hear about that legend. Sorry, but it skipped my generation."

Hazel raised an eyebrow, then asked another question. "Okay then, why did you come here? I think you’d be more comfortable in -20 degrees than here."

Sara grinned. "Nope, I came here to get away from Canada. After all, this place is the direct opposite of Ottawa."

A brief shadow flitted across Sara’s face as she spoke, and she didn’t expand on the subject. Hazel was about to ask another question, but the bell rang and Sara gathered together the books necessary for the first period. "Sorry Hazel. I’ll probably be able to talk to you at lunch."

Hazel nodded, then walked out of the classroom into the swarm of dejected students trudging down the hallway. Sara sorted the books on her desk, then opened the attendance binder as the home room class walked in and planted themselves in their desks. After the usual anthem and PA announcements, Sara took the class attendance, read the most relevant announcements from the sheet, and caused the class to chuckle with an old joke she had remembered the night before.

After the bell rang, Sara got the books ready for Lori’s class, and she silently thanked whatever higher powers existed that it was only a single period this morning. As her first class trudged in, Sara noticed that a few, including Lori and her two other gang members, looked inordinately pleased with themselves, so she expected the worst. Sara was not disappointed, because as she was starting the in-class work, she heard a loud explosion from the direction of the main office, and then had to answer the intercom as the students sniggered. "Hello, this is the bio class. Oh? Well, I’m sorry but she’s been with me for the last oh, half-hour now. I see. Thank you. Bye."

Sara hung up, walked back to the front of the class and pointed at Lori. "Miss Anderson, you owe me royally for keeping the principal off your back. However, I have to question your sanity. Seriously, did you have to use a watermelon? I could’ve done the same thing with a cantaloupe, and caused more damage." Lori’s jaw, by then, had hit the desk and she was wondering why any teacher would do that. Sara grinned to herself at Lori’s reaction, then continued with the class.

Soon, Sara had half the class wondering whether she was sane, and the other half almost falling out of their seats with laughter. Soon, Lucas’ head popped through the door, and he looked around at the class, barely keeping from breaking out in total laughter, then at Sara, who was going through a presentation from her university days about basic biology. Lucas heard Sara speak, and understood why the class was laughing. "Now, this picture shows what happens when a human’s biological system is influenced by vast quantities of alcohol and a minimum amount of sleep."

She flipped a picture of herself and Lucas onto the overhead, and it showed the two in the middle of a party, with Lucas crashed out on a couch, topless, and Sara sitting beside him, holding a keg, and wearing a pair of shorts and a ‘party naked’ t-shirt. Sara smiled slightly, then pointed out the obvious effects of intoxication on a human being by pointing out Lucas’ cherry red nose, lack of consciousness, and several other minor effects, such as the fact that he had made a total ass of himself before falling asleep. By then, the entire class was laughing at Lucas’ expense, and nobody except Lori and Hazel noticed the pale white lines running the length of Sara’s arms in the picture.

After class, when almost all the students had managed to stand up unassisted and had left the room, Lori walked to Sara’s desk. "Yes Lori? Did you have a problem with my presentation?"

Lori shook her head, then spoke. "No, your presentation was a riot. I’m wondering about two things though. First, why did you cover for me when the little prank I had left for the principal went off?"

Sara smiled. "Well, just between us, I don’t want you telling Lucas about the potato I put in his car’s exhaust pipe. That’s why I got you off the hook. So, do we have an agreement?"

Lori nodded, then pointed at the overhead. "Well, I won’t tell Lucas about the prank you’re going to pull on him, in gratitude for pulling me out of the line of fire, but here’s the second question. What’s with the lines along your arms in the overhead?"

Sara frowned slightly, then looked at Lori silently. Sighing, Sara leaned back in her seat. "Well, I guess it’s slightly safe to tell you."

Sara then rolled up her right shirt-sleeve, revealing the long silver-white scar running along the groove between the long muscles. "That was caused by a major surgery a few months before the party in the photo."

Lori looked up for permission, and at Sara’s nod, she traced the line of the scar with her finger. "Wow. I thought it was an error on the picture, but... hey, you said something about a surgery yesterday, right?"

Sara nodded, then told Lori to scoot before the younger students appeared as she rolled down her shirt sleeve. Lori left, looking vaguely unsatisfied with Sara’s answers, but she didn’t want to be swarmed by the next class. Sara continued making the classes crack up as the morning went by, and kept a lot of variety in the jokes and other parts of the basic presentation, which was about the effects of different substances on the human mind and body. By the time lunch hour had rolled around, Sara was tired but happy, and she decided that a short walk would revitalize her.

She went to the main yard, and after chuckling at the antics of some of the younger students, she went over to the bench under the tree where she had talked with Adrian yesterday. Sitting down, Sara watched as Lucas walked over to her, and smiled faintly as he was forced to dodge a group of seven students chasing a soccer ball around the yard.

"So, how’s your class?" Lucas smiled lightly at Sara’s question, then pointed at a purple bruise partially hidden by his hairline.

"Ow. How did that happen? Fall off a ladder?" Lucas nodded, then frowned slightly as Sara passed her hand over her mouth to hide the laughter threatening to bubble over.

"Seriously, how’d it happen?"

Lucas sat down on the bench beside her, and grimaced. "Y’know Hazel Smith, right? Well, she gave me a ‘present’."

Sara chuckled, throwing Lucas off of his track, but he regained it with a little effort. "Anyhow, that present was a small box that pied me when I opened it. As a result, I fell down the stairs and gave myself the bruise."

Lucas stopped his grumbling because Sara, sitting beside him, was laughing uproariously. "Alright, I’ve missed the joke. What’s so funny?"

Sara wiped the tears that had sprung to her eyes, then replied after she had caught her breath. "What’s so funny? I’ll tell you. Poetic justice. A month after we first met, you pulled that trick on me and I ended up with an egg on the back of my head the size of my fist. So it’s mean, but immensely gratifying to see you get nailed by the same stunt."

Lucas frowned, then started to chuckle as well, his deep voice adding a counterpoint to Sara’s renewed laughter. "Okay, I guess. Just wondering, but did you sic her on me?"

Sara shook her head, then gestured for the time as she calmed down. "Well, it’s almost 12:15, so I’d better go and get something in my stomach before I make a mistake in the chem room."

Sara nodded, then remembered that today was also Friday, and the Eighteenth. Sara looked up at that moment, and saw Erin Cheng looking at her.

"Well, I wondered when you’d have enough free time to find me. Here’s the fifty I owe you."

Sara pulled a bill from her wallet, then waved it in Erin’s face until the girl reached out and grabbed it. "Wow. This is actually worth about twice that much."

Sara grinned as Erin pocketed the bill. "Actually, only about seventy-five. Oh yeah, about the little gift I promised you, it won’t be ready for a few more days. Sorry."

Erin shrugged, then sat down beside Sara. "That’s okay. Oh yes, I’m just wondering, but what’s with the knife hidden along your right leg?"

Sara frowned, but tapped her right leg as Erin looked at her. ‘Well, I guess it’s okay to tell you. Some people key cars, I slash tires."

Erin smiled, but shook her head to show she wasn’t buying it. "Okay. It’s actually for self-defence. Satisfied?"

Erin nodded, then stood up and ran over to a nice-looking boy who seemed to be waiting for her. Sara watched the two walk off for a few seconds, then turned her attention to Lori’s gang who were beginning to intimidate some more young students. Sara decided to break up the group once again, but Adrian got there first and told Lori to quit harassing the juniors.

Sara watched Lori’s gang disperse under the watchful eye of Adrian, then smiled. "Well, it seems that every teacher has some opportunities to torment Lori. Just wondering, but where’s Doctor Zack? I heard that he works here, but haven’t seen him yet."

Adrian grimaced, then looked at Sara. "Actually, I haven’t seen him for the last two or three days either. I heard that he had apparently called in sick, but I wouldn’t put it past the principal to try and replace him."

Sara snorted. "From what I’ve seen of the good doctor, that’s not bloody likely. Maybe a friend could wander over sometime this week."

Adrian nodded, but his reply was drowned out by the bell, signalling the end of lunch. Sara nodded as she stood up, then walked back into the school before the swarm of bored students crushed the teachers into one of the walls. Soon, Sara was causing her first afternoon class to crack up, and the rest of the day went by rather quickly. After school, Sara walked over to her bike, turned off her generator, and watched as Lucas tried to turn on his car. After almost five minutes of watching him try to make the engine turn over, she looked away for a second, wondering if she had overdid it, and heard a massive KA-WHAM!! from Lucas’ car.

Sara turned back to look at the car, and saw a massive cloud of grey smoke expel itself from the muffler. "Sucker."

Sara looked at the car opposite of Lucas’ muffler, and saw a fist-sized hole that had punched through the front grille, and probably wrecked the poor person’s radiator. Looking around, Sara saw Lori looking at the cloud of smoke floating above Lucas’ abused sedan, and she noticed that Lucas was already out of his car, looking at the damage done to his colleague’s car. She then drove to her house, parked her bike, and went into her basement.

"Okay, now the Twentieth is Sunday, and today’s Friday evening. Now, what should I bring to the meeting? The magnums are a definite yes, and my sword is beginning to get hungry, so I’ll try to feed it some greenskins beforehand. What else? The cards can be useful as support, so I’ll take those, and I’ll take my knife so I can use my really nasty close-combat skills. Naturally, my armour will be active for the entire conversation."

Sara collected twelve each of the chemical explosive and EMP cards, and grabbed one of the smokers, which was always surrounded by a faint haze. Sara put all twenty-five cards into a specialized hip pack, with three compartments. After sorting the cards by type, Sara closed the pack and put it on the small table beside the exposed cards. Sara grabbed her sword, and felt a small shudder of revulsion pass through her as she looked at the stained scabbard. She knew that some of the brownish-red marks were caused by her own hands, but many others were much older than her, and some were only a few months old.

She put the sword, still sheathed, on the table beside the hip pack, wiping her hand madly against the side of her skirt. Finally removing the tainted feeling from touching the sword, Sara then unbelted her knife’s sheath and put it on the table as well. Sara looked at the row of objects on the table glaring at each one in turn as she thought of the hell she had gone through. The sword had forced her to take an innocent life, the cards were a symbol of when she had no control over her life, and the dagger was the symbol of her breaking away from the chains that had bound her to what some would say was her destiny.

As she looked at the weapons, Sara shuddered, hugging herself, and felt a sudden urge to get out of the small room before she felt like smashing something. Sara climbed out of the small room and closed it, slamming her hand onto the switch hard enough to break the skin. As the door closed, Sara stared at the blood dripping from her hand, inspecting the wound with an intensity normally found when she was studying a new discovery in biology. The droplets of silver-tinged blood that welled out of her hand fascinated her for a few seconds as they pattered to the floor, the wound slowly sealing before her eyes. Finally the wound closed, and Sara just watched as the blood that remained on her hand was quickly reabsorbed by her body.

Sara paused, trying to let her mind try and work through the strain of the feeling of oppression, but finally she gave up. Running up to her room, Sara fumbled for the key that opened the safe, eventually getting the safe open. There, sitting right on top of everything in the safe was the picture of her and her grandparents, which Sara tenderly picked up. "What would you think if you could see me now Grandpa? Grandma? I know that you’re in heaven, but I doubt I’ll ever get up there, no matter how much good I do. If only you had known the truth before you died. But now, I’m alone. Completely, sadly, pathetically alone. My parents and siblings believe I died on the operating table seven years ago, and sometimes I wish they were right, as then I would have never had to go through what I did."

Breaking down, Sara bitterly flung the picture back into the safe, slamming the five-inch thick door shut immediately afterwards. Kneeling in front of the steel door, weeping bitterly, Sara finally broke down and truly mourned the loss of all she had once known. Several hours later, Sara looked up and saw that the wall below the safe had been dented inwards by repeated blows. Looking at her hands, she saw the faint traces of blood and bruising that told her the story.

Sighing bitterly, and feeling like someone had hit her with a truck, Sara slowly stood up. Locking the safe, and placing the key back under her bedside table, Sara headed downstairs, moving slowly as she decided to eat something, even though she really didn’t feel like it. Ten minutes later, she had made herself a meat and cheese sandwich, and was slowly munching her way through it, when she noticed something outside.

Getting up, and leaving her meal on a plate on her dining table, Sara walked to the back door, looking outside at the darkened skies far above her. Sighing sadly, she turned and started to head back to her supper when she heard a dull thump and some knocks against the back door. Turning around, Sara recognised the sight of Stryk pounding on the back door almost feverishly. Sara opened the back door, and pretty much had to catch Stryk as the teen almost fell into the house.

Sara looked at Stryk, noticing a few injuries, but nothing serious enough to feel worried about. "Well, how are you doing Stryk?"

Sara easily pulled the teen inside, closing the door behind her. "Well enough, I guess. Just wondering, but can I cash in on your offer to crash here?"

Sara nodded, the look on her face saying more about Stryk’s evasiveness than anything else. "Alright! Jeez. I was caught in a bit of a scrape and need some place to lie low for a few days. You’re the first person I thought of."

Sara nodded again, still serious, then ventured a guess. "So, José wants you to be turned into a liquid as soon as possible, huh?"

Stryk nodded, looking like she was running on adrenaline, more than anything else. She then looked upstairs for a few seconds. "Actually, I’m really exhausted, so could I crash in your spare room now?" Sara nodded, pointing out exactly where the room was. After she saw Stryk crashed out on the bed, and sleeping peacefully, Sara headed back down to where she had left her sandwich. Sighing, she sat down and finished off her supper, though everything tasted like ash.

Six artfully flipped up onto the familiar balcony where she had often landed lightly to speak with the owner of the fortified house. Tapping on the window, and looking inside, she heard a muffled voice respond to her light tapping, then the window opened, seemingly of its own accord. Six climbed through the large window, looking around at the fairly spacious room until her eyes met with her old friend Dr. Zack. He was sitting in his favourite armchair, chewing on the stem of his pipe as he mulled over what seemed to be a fairly interesting dilemma."Good evening Tony. How are you doing?"

Dr. Zack nodded at his guest, standing up and taking a long pull on his pipe before responding. "I could be better my dear. The questions raised by your friend Miss D’Arnise are creating more dilemmas than answers, not the least of which is where did she acquire that nanotechnology in the first place? By the way, would you like some tea? I was just about to give up and make myself a mug to relax."

Dr. Zack stood up, then wrinkled his brow for a second. "Actually, as you’ve had much closer contact with Miss D’Arnise, maybe you could help me figure her out."

Six smiled slightly, privately amused as Dr. Zack’s mind switched tangents at an amazing rate., and then responded. "Actually, it’s at Sara’s request that I wander over here and see how you’re doing. She was slightly concerned about your disappearance from school for the last several days. And, yes I would love a mug of blueberry tea."

Dr. Zack nodded, moving into his kitchenette to prepare the two mugs of tea, and then pointed towards the basement. "Well, this time at least, I have a perfectly justifiable excuse on why I wasn’t in the school for the last few days." He paused as he pulled the teapot away from the stove burner just as it was beginning to whistle, then continued as he poured the hot water into the mugs. "Anyhow, you know how Dr. Pearce gave me a sample of our friend’s blood, which I examined. Well, after finding out about the nanomachines in her blood, I managed to isolate and examine the program in one machine."

Six shook her head, the last few minutes of conversation having gone completely over her head. "I’m sorry, but I barely understand basic physics, much less medical technologies that, by all rights and purposes, haven’t even been pulled off of the drawing board."

Dr. Zack smiled, walking back into the living room and handing Six the mug of tea she had asked for. "Umm, these machines actually have been off of the drawing board for the last several years, but the ones inside Miss D’Arnise’s system have apparently either been upgraded or evolved to a technological level that makes the International Space Station look like an ‘87 Yugo."

Six took a sip of her tea, thinking about what Dr. Zack had just said. "Wait a second. Most of what you just said went over my head, but are you trying to say that the machines in Sara’s blood evolved to their current level of ability?"

Dr. Zack nodded, looking worried. "Yes. And that is what’s worrying me. For all I know, they could become so advanced that they could become independent of Miss D’Arnise’s body. Then what would happen is totally beyond either my wildest dreams, or my worst nightmares."

Sighing, Six turned the conversation to more mundane matters, letting Dr. Zack relax and distract himself from what could be a potentially volatile situation with Sara. By the time the old cuckoo clock in the hallway declared that it was two in the morning, Six had finally managed to assuage her own worries towards Sara, and had finished her tea. Bidding farewell to Dr. Zack, she went out in order to try and keep a lid on the resident Fixed idea population, which had become much more aggressive of late.

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