'How... It's like... I wanted him and I don't know why...'

Ruby was not inexperienced when it came to guys as she has had her fair share of boyfriends in her twenty one years on earth. She had been shown a different path during high school by a mentor who helped her get out of a bad crowd and an even worse future. She had fallen in with the worst kind of people during high school, all because she was ignored in her family. Due to this, she found herself doing all kinds of things she never wanted to do, all to make herself feel worth. And the drugs just escalated the problem.

Things. .h.i.t rock bottom one day in her junior year when her 'friends' wanted to use her and a few of the other girls in their group to pay off some drug debts they had ama.s.sed. She and the other girls were repeatedly told it was just going to be for a few days and then they would be allowed to come back. In fact, the guys from her group even begged and made it sound like their lives were in danger if the girls didn't do this. So Ruby and the other girls agreed. The day before they were going to be sent off to service the dealers, one of Ruby's friend's discovered a text message on her boyfriend's phone while he was in the shower. The boyfriend was trying to haggle a higher price from the dealer for letting him use his girlfriend for as long as they wanted. The guys were basically selling them off and had plans to move on to a different city.

Ruby was floored when she found out, but she seemed to be only one of the two that were. The rest didn't believe the girl who had found the message, claiming that she was trying to start s.h.i.+t. She and her boyfriend had been having trouble and she wasn't keen on doing the guys a favor in the first place, but the other girls convinced her to do it to help pay them back. As far as they were concerned, they would do anything for the next hit.

In the end, only she and Ruby decided not to go, or they tried not to. Ruby had gone home, locking herself in her room and trying to forget things, but she got a phone call the same night. It was the other girl who had tried to not go. Turns out the guys had gotten p.i.s.sed when they found the two girls had skipped out of the meet up and hunted the one girl down, forcing her to call Ruby and tell her she needed her help. Ruby, being soft-hearted and knowing she owed the girl for warning her, went out to meet her. Ruby was jumped by the guys who she had treated as friends. As Ruby and the other girl were dragged off to the meeting, Ruby, despite being restrained, kept fighting back to get free. Eventually, her friends got tired of it and started to beat her and hit her to get her to stop. But she never did.

When they finally met up with the dealers who were buying the girls, Ruby was already black and blue all over, busted nose, large gash on her forehead and several broken bones, but she still fought. When it was time to hand her over, she ended up biting the thug who tried to pick her up as the rest of her had been tied up and restrained, causing him to throw her against a wall, knocking her out. When she finally woke up, she noticed that all of the other girls had been knocked out as well and were tied up, but there were no signs of either her friends or the people buying her. After a while, sitting in a dimly lit and smelly back room, the only door into the room finally opened and in walked a gorgeous blonde wearing a trench coat. She didn't do anything right away and instead just spent a moment observing the girls. The rest of the girls had looks of horror and fear written on their faces, as though the only thought in their minds was to make themselves as small as possible so they would get over looked. Ruby gave the woman a completely different look. Even though her entire face was swollen and bleeding, she didn't once look away in fear, instead staring right back at the woman as though telling her that she would fight her no matter what.

It was exactly the look the woman wanted to see.

After releasing all of the girls and explaining to them that they were free to go, she waited until they all disappeared before cutting Ruby loose. Ruby, finally freed, started rubbing her hands and legs to restore circulation while taking quick looks at the knife the mysterious woman had used to free her with, as though debating whether she could grab it or not. The woman finally sat down and explained things to her. She had just happened to come across the girls during a mission to wipe out the dealers and human traffickers. The fact that they had been saved was simply a coincidence. But it was that coincidence that allowed these two to meet and brought Ruby into the same line of work as that woman.

Needless to say, Ruby's life had improved from then on. On that same note, her love life had turned utterly sour. Ruby's line of work didn't allow her free time to socialize and pretty much every guy she ever spent any time with was a target. Because of this, she had gotten close to a few of the women in Black Rose, but had been single for a few years now.

'And yet for some reason, I found myself wanted to ride him like a prized bull...' Ruby quickly collected herself and got back to work, leaving the slight scent of arousal all over her body. Her tips for the rest of the night were double what they had been on any other night.

For Laz, the night ended up with no other issues. After the place officially closed down at 3 am, Laz spent some time talking to Leo about tomorrow night when they would do it all over again, along with a few details from things he had discussed with Lessa. Leo warned Laz that Friday nights were usually more subdued that Sat.u.r.day since most people would be better rested on Sat.u.r.day and more willing to go crazy. He wanted to make sure Laz was prepared for it. After that, Laz headed home.

When he finally got home, he noticed that Vivi tried waited up for him and kept the lights on. Although she had fallen asleep in her normal chair in the camper, she quickly woke up as soon as Laz came in, acting like she had been awake the whole time.

*Oh, your back huh?* Vivi said with a bit of a yawn.

"Yes, I'm back. How was your night?" Laz asked, sitting down on the couch.

*Completely uneventful. Barely even noticed you weren't here,* Vivi said as she tried to stiffle another yawn.

"Glad to hear it. We should get to bed soon."

*Well, I guess.*

"Ok. So it was pretty uneventful for me as well. Although i did get into a fight with another infected." Laz went on to explain the details of the skinny looking thug with the strange ability, causing Vivi to frown.

*I was worried about things like that.*

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"What?" Laz asked.

*People like that are going to give people like you a bad name. I've been seeing signs of it online as well. The norms are started to come in contact with more and more of of people like you and not all of them are as righteous as you. You give people a strange ability and they like to show it off. Makes them feel powerful. I can only imagine that things are going to be getting worse,* Vivi said with concern. Although many people had become infected over the past year and a half, it was still a small portion when considering the overall population of the world. But soon that ratio would start getting smaller and smaller.

"Well, nothing we can do about that now. Actually, that reminds me of something," Laz said, remembering his mental note.

*Oh?* Vivi's ears perked up.

"I was wondering if we should share what information we have with others who are trying to blindly navigate having powers." Laz said, wording it as best he could. Laz then explained the conversation he had with Ruby and the fact that if he hadn't told the things he did to Yumi, that their group would be just like everyone else, clueless about how to build their strength.

*Well, actually, someone is already doing that,* Vivi answered back while flipping on her little laptop. She ended up bringing up a page t.i.tled 'The Flower Pond,' and showing it to Laz. The name meant little to him at first and actually didn't make much sense in general as he thought she would show him something to have to do with the infected.

*This page is more than it seems. You need to either know someone who is already signed up with the page or you need to be able to answer the questions that it poses,* Vivi said, noticing Laz's weird look.

"So have you gotten into it yet?"

*I have. I was able to get through by answering the questions.*

"What are the questions?" Laz asked, having his attention drawn to it.

*What is the first realm of being? What is the second realm of being? Where is the center of energy? And a few others like that,* Vivi replied.

"Ahh... Those seem like the things that I've been telling people about," Laz said as he thought about the questions.

*I can't believe that after looking at the page, you didn't notice something else,* Vivi said as she rolled her eyes.

Hearing her, Laz looked even closer at the web page and finally figure something out.

"THAT FLOWER.... AND THE POND... BUT HOW?" Laz recognized the flower and the pond on the home screen, both of which had been located in the wooded area behind where the 'Shack' was in New York.

*Who knows. But obviously anyone who you've explained things to would be able to join this movement group and chat with each other. If you combine that with the pictures on the front page, I can only conclude that whoever made this site must have known you back in New York. And that could only really mean...*

Vivi and Laz were both sharing the same thought at this point.

The page must have been made and hosted by either Kennedy or Marlene. No one else knew the location of the pond and flower other wise.