The Elder's Sanctuary, Fourth Quadrant, Andromeda Galaxy.

Amaryah saw a large planet, colored a rich cobalt blue with swirling masses of large white clouds covering the surface in patches. The vessel moved then, shaking her so much her head spun, and she had to shut her eyes against the gorgeous view for the whole trip. It was loudly announced that the vessel had landed. Really, she didn't need the announcement, she could tell from the huge pressure that had settled in her chest when they were descending, she'd fought to hold down her berries and meat feast she'd had from earlier, focusing on not spewing it over the dozen empty seats near where she'd been seated. Her seatbelts retracted and she stood shakily gripping the seat and rubbing her head until she felt she could stand on her own. Yavik joined her and led her toward an illuminated door at the end of her seat row.

"Where is everyone else?" She asked.

Yavik's fimbriae folded in on themselves, "They are afraid of you and have chosen to sit in another area."

Amaryah stared at the fimbriae, did that upset it? Was it mad at her? She shrugged, 'What did it matter anyway?' She was soon to be judged for a crime she hadn't even known she'd committed. They thudded down the brightly lit enclosed bridge. It opened to a flurry of activity that had Amaryah very overwhelmed, there were different species everywhere, so much so that she didn't know where to look. A feathered golden creature caught her eye as it dragged its bags behind it and there was a creature that was translucent, you could see its hearts beating and all of its organs. Amaryah stared fascinated.

Yavik clicked his tongue, "Staring is impolite!"

Amaryah looked away and continued on, it seemed they were in an alien airship docking space. All the creatures had luggage of some type and were busily moving along to their various destinations. The place was filled with voices and languages so numerous that she couldn't make sense of them.

Yavik caught up to two other Nvit who eyed Amaryah nervously, as they pulled open the door to what looked like a sleeker version of the hovercars back on earth. Amaryah's mind began to sift through the ways in which such a car was programmable, she wanted to see what made them function. Inside was plush with four long seats around each side of the car, in the center was a shimmering tub that Yavik fiddled with until a pink beverage was produced. She watched as he drank it all and patted his stomach.

"How can I understand you all? How can I breathe?"

The other Nvit jumped at her voice, Yavik was the one who answered," We implanted you with the birth virus, it will cause your body's cells to evolve allowing you to become fluent in the known universe's languages and allow you to efficiently breathe most air compositions within our universe."

Amaryah tried to ignore the icy feeling running down her spine. She'd always hated learning about small organisms she couldn't see, knowing an alien one was inside her kind of freaked her out a bit.

"I couldn't understand some species back there."

"It works slowly, it should be finished in about three more quints of Quadrant four standard time, it is usually given to all fourth quadrant offspring at birth."

Amaryah looked out the window at the people they sped by who were greeting others in an excited manner. "I have no idea how long that is, but -"

The car chimed and slid to a smooth stop. The doors opened.

They were smack dab in the middle of a bustling city, but all details drained away as Amaryah looked up at the gargantuan, menacing T shaped structure before her. It seemed to absorb any sunlight with its dark stone and all noise from the surroundings seemed to end here. It was in the shape of a hollowed-out T, with the center housing a large dark statue of what appeared to be a slender alien female reaching her arms towards the sun. The walls of the structure were rugged and jarring, as if warning all who dared to enter that they were not safe there. Yavik and his colleagues started forward. Amaryah's eyes darted to them and back to the structure, and Yavik gently pulled her forward, her feet moving of their own accord at the urging. They presented some sort of identification to a thing that was covered in a heavy red cowl jacket. She could see no face within the cowl but felt eyes follow her every move as she scampered in behind Yavik. They walked briskly down a corridor, its engraved floors the color of freshly spilt blood, accentuated by golden walls. The walk was way too short for Amaryah, who had not been able to gain control of her heart palpitations. They'd entered a medium sized room that housed three golden chairs and a finely made large throne, located on a raised platform, on it sat a being that took Amaryah's breath away.

It was the woman from the statue carved outside. She was petite and had a large mass of black interlocked hair that was piled into an elaborate style at the crown of her head. Six eyes stared unflinchingly down at Amaryah, two of which were in the same place as a human's were, but the others were not. Instead, they formed an arch across her forehead. The eyes framed her diagonal, sharp eyebrows, all of which were bracketed by ridges that were dusted with moles and dark ritualistic markings that decorated her cheeks as well. Her black painted lips were split down the middle with a deep scar. Amaryah's eyes drifted to the two, thick, downward pointing black horns growing from her cheekbones and the delicate hand that was propped under her chin.

"What have you brought me Yavik?" Her voice rippled over Amaryah, it was deep and rich, it made her want to kneel at the female's feet.

Yavik inclined his head in a respectful bow, "This human has a gift, we have brought her to be judged by you Supreme."

Amaryah glared at him, Supreme chuckled, the sound causing Amaryah's knees to nearly buckle, it was beautiful.

"She feels anger for what you have done Yavik, but she must understand it was your duty? Tell me what your tests have found."

Yavik bowed again, "Her brain waves registered her as telepathic, with special attention to sensing the emotions and energies of others."

Amaryah gasped, her eyes burned with angry tears, she'd tried to keep that weird thing about her hidden from everyone. She should've known the only thing remaining that connected her to her mother would've caused her more misery.

"You may leave Yavik, your duty is noted, and you may rejoin the Kozan ship when they arrive."

Yavik nodded again glancing at her, seemingly regretting having to leave her behind. The door closed with a loud thud.

Amaryah stood with her eyes fixed on the red ground, barely holding in tears.

"Look at me," Amaryah looked up, tears finally slipping free. "Why do you cry human?"

Her head cocked in a distinctly alien way, causing a sob to slip free from Amaryah. She shook her head not daring to use her voice in front of this powerful alien being. She could feel some power that was caressing her, rubbing against her skin like an animal begging for attention, an animal that, if ignored to long could become feral. Her blood sang with fear, she was small, insignificant in the face of all of this.

"Do you know why your existence is a crime girl?" Supreme asked. Amaryah shook her head again, biting her lip to stop her stupid tears from falling.

"Your world was a malfunction, seeded by the elders unknowingly," her six eyes blinked slowly as if remembering, "we deemed it unnecessarily harsh to destroy you, so we removed you from the fourth quadrant and placed you in a deserted universe and left you there."

Amaryah listened intently, absorbing all of the new information, her tears had stopped.

"We give each world that we create a gift that could be used in any which way... telekinesis, empathic, strength, speed, healing, cunning... you get the idea." She waved her fingers, each ended in a long black claw. "The point is, you should not have developed a gift, but I am a bit curious as to how that happened."

A door opened somewhere in the room and three other aliens filed in and sat on the remaining elevated chairs. Already overwhelmed, Amaryah barely noted their presence until one of them spoke.

"We have been notified of the disturbance," a ghostly male voice came from a very slender alien, its alabaster face oval and perched on top of a too long neck.

His features were downturned, as if he were perpetually unhappy, though his milky eyes looked at her blankly, showing no sign of any emotion that he felt due to her presence. A thick line of black ink bisected his chin, accentuating full dark lips.

"Abomination," the other one said vehemently, his glowing eyes complete with red ringed irises were filled with scorn and disgust.

Amaryah sucked in a sharp breath, "I did not ask to be born with this so-called gift." She spat, looking up defiantly at this ancient creature without a lick of the fear she'd felt earlier.

The atmosphere in the room became thick, filled with promised violence and malice, it billowed from the bloodthirsty elder like a dark cloud. The Supreme smiled down at her, a hint of approval flashing across her face so fast she almost missed it.

"She should be put to death, let us end this quickly," said ghost voice.

Red eyes nodded vehemently. Amaryah looked to the Supreme who still had a small smile on her face.

"She intrigues me, let us observe her gift first... I am quite curious." The supreme turned to the fourth elder, Amaryah could not tell its sex. Its robe covered everything but its eyes, eyes that were fixed on her, eyes that were filled with lightning and storms, she shuddered and looked away. The power in the room threatened to reduce her to nothing more than a wet spot on the floor. 'These creatures were ancient, creators of their universe and the life within, how old did that make them?' Thoughts fluttered through Amaryah's mind as she watched the hooded figure nod. She didn't know if it agreed with the Supreme or the murderous ghost voice alien, she braced herself.

"Good...take her to the medical wing," the Supreme ordered. Another hunched red cowl creature like the one at the entrance materialized next to her. Amaryah screamed causing it to zero in on her immediately, much to her displeasure.

She looked toward the door trying to calculate how she could escape and where she could go. Her panicked thoughts were cut off abruptly as a loud siren filled the sanctuary. The room darkened and was illuminated only by the flashing emergency lights looking like the simulated lightning storms of the dome. Amaryah took that as her sign to run, she didn't care what caused it all she knew was that she had to get the hell out of there. Running into the hallway she took a sharp left and ran into what felt like a wall, but the wall hissed, and its putrid breath filled her nostrils causing her to begin hacking up spit. A massive hand clamped around her throat and lifted her off the floor, she thrashed wildly trying to pry the hands off.

A series of harsh growls sounded from the darkness before her.

The flashing lights only revealed sharp serrated rows of teeth a few inches from her face. Amaryah whimpered, her mind blanked as she began to lose consciousness as the fingers squeezed. A loud scream filled the hallway and Amaryah dropped to the ground like a bag of stones. She opened her eyes to see booted feet shuffle past her into the room she'd escaped from and an arm still attached to her neck. It ended in a violent twist of flesh and blood, like whatever had been about to munch on her face had been torn away leaving only its arm behind. Trying to claw it off she made to stand but a deep rolling voice came from behind her.

"Stay down."

Trusting her instincts that screamed to listen to the guy who'd probably ripped apart whatever demon that thing was, she huddled in on herself. She was scooped up and carried back into the room she'd wanted to escape from, placed gingerly on a seat and she was glad. The room was still in darkness with brief flashes of light, she couldn't see anything, not even the one who'd carried her. There were sounds of roaring and loud explosions filtering in from the hallway. Amaryah hugged her knees, her life was like a fucking movie right now. She cackled softly, she was losing her mind and she was sure of it.

The explosions carried on for an eternity before the lights hummed on again, temporarily blinded and blinking rapidly she took a while to notice the scene that was before her. She rubbed at them, finally looking up her eyes widened. The room seemed to have shrunk as it was now filled will tall figures clad in hooded, armored suits. It fit them closely like if the material itself were molded to their bodies, but somehow impenetrable. They wore all black, but some had different colored trimmings around the hoods and masks that covered their faces. Large blades were strapped onto arms, legs and backs of each with shooting devices tied to the thigh. They looked like death given form. Realizing she was the focus of their inspection as well she tried to disappear by scooting backwards only to hit the booted foot of someone standing behind her.

"Oof!"

She looked up behind her, into the slitted eyes of her possible hallway helper. Its eyes were a chocolate brown with a piercing green slitted pupil. Lizard like eyes if she remembered correctly. The thing pulled a large gun from its strapped thigh and held it to her forehead. She could hear the gun's system winding up, trembling violently she tried to stay still and pressed her eyes close. This was not the way to die, she should've stayed in the forsaken dome and just died from the poisoning. 'PLEASE DON'T KILL ME, PLEASE DON'T KI-' her thoughts became jumbled. The gun lowered slowly; the lizard's arm shook as if moving against its owner's will.

"What is this thing?" Its voice was not that of her helper, this voice was gruff and cold, edged with distaste.

The supreme answered from a few feet away, "Do not kill her Azazel, she is of no threat to us." Amaryah wilted as the source of the cold voice holstered the gun. "Nice to see evidence of your gift, as weak as it might be."

Amaryah turned to look at the Supreme, and the elders who were surrounded by the death knights as she'd labelled them, and realized they were there to protect them from whatever threat had just infiltrated the sanctuary. One of which pulled off his hood, his armor was more embellished than the others, and she supposed that made him the leader. He bowed causing his dark hair to fall over his shoulder, it was embellished with small golden rings, some held hanging symbols woven into the rope-like extensions, and they softly pealed as he straightened. His ears were pointed, the left pierced from tip to lobe held a golden weaving serpent-like creature that bared its fangs in warning at those who came too close while the right housed a single engraved cuff. He began to report to the Supreme that they'd contained the threat to the sanctuary, words like assassination attempt and Ajal were uttered but did not register as Amaryah stared dumbly at the dragon man thing that spoke.

His skin was scaled and the color of charcoal, with a matte finish, but somehow when he shifted, the light hitting them caused a shimmering effect with iridescent golds and blues like it was aflame. Her eyes snagged on his lyre-shaped horns. They were long dull black and ribbed like what Amaryah's level three tutor had once shown her on the heads of the long extinct antelope of earth. She snapped to attention when he motioned to her.

"- she would make a good companion for Nezerra, she's been asking for a unique gift when I return." As he spoke, she could see his long reptilian tongue and razor-sharp fangs. She trembled.

The Supreme smiled, a real one this time. "Ah, your beautiful Sister, yes, we have no use for her, her gift is too weak to be of any consequence from what I've seen."

Dismissing her. Amaryah didn't know how to feel, insulted or relieved. Did she have a choice in where she was going? She concluded that being a companion to this Nezerra was better than the being a tortured test subject at the sanctuary. She tried to keep her face passive as they discussed his sisters, apparently, he had two that were beyond beautiful. Amaryah snickered but quickly bit her lip, sure that if she showed too much interest, they'd find somewhere else to put her.

"By all means, take her, be done with it." Ghost voice elder said while red eyes just glared at her. He must've really wanted to see her tortured. Sick bastard.

Amaryah looked at the talking dragon man as he asked, "What should I call you?" His eyes burned into hers, they simmered with a golden yellow, accentuated with green and black freckles that seemed to float around the slitted black pupil.

"Mya," She muttered, surprised that she'd given her mother's nickname for her," My name is Amaryah, but you can call me Mya." He nodded and turned back to the elders and supreme bowing deeply. Supreme touched his head and smiled, like a proud mother would at her son, "Thank you, you are dismissed."

Mya sighed as she settled into a plush chair in her quarters to separate her curls. She'd showered and shoveled some warm broth into her mouth earlier that tasted of salty spices. They'd treated her well enough, the room was better than the pinky's prison one that's for sure, for starters she had a sleeping area, a large, cushioned hovering rectangle. She had her soft seat that was near a wall sized window and her own private bathing chambers. They'd led her directly to their ship which was gigantic and threatening, she immediately categorized it as a warship, she'd been intrigued a long time ago when she'd learned about the ones old earth had made. This one though was from another universe, obviously. She was extremely impressed and wanted to get her hands on the engine immediately but suppressed the urge. That wouldn't be happening anytime soon. They took a series of confusing passageways that were dimly lit and led her to her room. She supposed it was to keep her from learning the layout of the ship, smart move.

She'd learnt that her dragon savior was in fact the commander of the legion, as her guide had called it and he was called Zogan. The guide had informed her that she would receive lessons on her journey to her new home world, it was of the utmost importance that she was aware of laws and histories of Kozantei. She drew in a shaky breath, a new world... under the faint tang of fear and panic, there was real excitement. Mya had never been outside of a walled city; she'd never seen plants or trees and definitely, never seen other species. Despite everything that had led her to this point she was cautiously optimistic about being able to begin new and start over. The twinge of sadness in her heart was only for her mother and the photo she'd had of her stuffed into her now lost backpack. Her eyelids drooped as she finished her last Bantu knot, covering it with a smooth cloth she'd had to describe to her guide multiple times before she'd understood and brought her one.