"What are you talking about!?" Sarah moaned, when her mother folded her arms across her flat chest and looked at the paper work for their new home halfway across the county.

"I'm saying that you are in a bad part of town, and those people you hang out with are a very bad influence!" Her mother insisted. Since there was very little for a 10th grader like herself to do, other than run away which she was loathe to do, Sarah found herself packing her things and saying a tearful good bye to her friends at their school.

When she started school in the new district, she was surrounded by hateful, unhappy and unfriendly faces. "Stoner," muttered one particularly blond-cheerleaderly type. "Bitch," muttered Vogel right back. Thus began her angry slide into the depths of loneliness.

When Sarah discovered that the preps and jocks at this school picked on their own stoners, who did she hang out with? Guess. You know it. Though openly assaulted by almost every other group in the school, Sarah and her Stoners were safe among themselves. They were happy.

One party in June, the end of Sarah's Sophmore year in high school, she finally noticed that the bright lights she was seeing really were there. Strobing, pulsing to the music they were listening to. Finally she sighed.

"It's not bad enough that my mom knows I smoke dope..." she said, waving her hand and watching the residual images of it - actually form in the air behind it, "but now she'll find out that I'm a mutant... great."

She managed to hide her powers from her mother long enough to start doing more serious if widely accepted drugs. Ecstasy and other commonly found rave-items were popular at the school, even though the preps said they were all against it, they all used something when they went to their own parties. And sure enough, one blond-bimbette-in-the-cheerleading-squad even lowered herself to BUYING from Sarah when she needed something to try at a dance. Thusly vindicated, Sarah found herself at a party in a college dorm - most people there were three years her senior, and she fit in only because she didn't care if she wasn't fitting in.

It was there that she was first "dosed" with LSD. The powerful hallucinogenic drug made everyone around her well aware of her mutant ability to perform illusionary tricks. Though they didn't realize it at the time, of course. Right then, it was just a really great trip.

One person was at that party that Sarah didn't know about. A dealer who snuck in to make his way through the college students and take home a pretty sum of money in the process. And something that Sarah has never known is that he ... well, was her future chemistry teacher.

The looming years of high school and supposedly college made Sarah squirm. She would be a Junior in high school in fall, and she knew, like all her friends, that the Junior year was the WORST. Not only did she have to look forward to being abused by the geeks and the preps and such, but the teachers simply PILED on the homework and studies. The only good thing about Junior year was that it was right before Senior...

And Sarah was bright enough to get through it all right, but while she did so, she was also starting habit after habit. She went to underground parties which actually paid her to be there - providing the light show - but then she'd turn around and spend it all on booze, weed, meth and who knew what else. Each of these things made her illusions turn out differently.

Sometimes jagged and jumpy, sometimes brightly colored and some dim and moody. Over the course of her junior year, she attracted a following of "mutantphiles" who wanted if anything to be around her - some of them wanted to get in her pants and others... seemed to be doing a research paper on her.

While she was annoyed by this, Sarah was also quite practical about it in ways. She asked for payment whenever she did something "neat" for the masses. About the end of her senior year (which she was perfectly able to ignore and slid into a 2.6 gpa for her troubles) Sarah started buying a new "mutant only" type of drug. It apparently went with certain genetics, and hers qualified. "Freakazoid Meth" was it's title, and for the moment before she crashed, she felt like she was on top of the world.

It latched on to her, like a virus. And when Sarah accidentally overdosed on it, she found herself unable to concentrate, impossible to control her powers, and most of all... In the hospital with her mother angrily yelling at the attendants that she be let into the room.

Sarah groaned, but the doctor on hand decided that a frantic mother was one thing, a frantic, mutant-hating mother was another. "Please have that woman escorted down to the lobby and if she bothers them there, call the cops." He turned to Sarah. His face was stern, he had typical dark circles under his eyes from having worked emergency clinics for far too many hours. "Young lady, you're a mess. I won't ask you anything more, but you've got to tell me if you know what the drug you were on was called?"

Sarah gurgled a bit, and made a motion with her hand, which caused the doctor to jolt back a bit. Following her hand was apparently a swarm of bees. The illusion disipated quickly, but the doctor was still a bit unnerved. Sarah found she could not quite form words yet, so she made an image in the air in front of her, of the shape of the pill, it's color and its stamp. The doctor made a note of it, and then let Sarah sleep.

Her mother didn't bother coming back to the hospital when she learned of the importance of the drug her child had od'ed on. Perhaps it was the disgust that her own offspring had become something she well and truly detested, but more likely it was the fact that three other young mutants that evening came barrelling into the clinic screaming and puking and freaking out because of it too.

One of them had three extra arms sprouting out of his back and shoulders. This appeared to be a new thing for him, they were bloody and his shirt was ripped where they'd grown. Another was humming to herself quietly and swaying back and forth, as her eyes were carefully opened back up. She'd sewn them shut, to stop them from seeing the things she was seeing, apparently. The last one was a young man whose protective force field - once under his control and easily turned off - learned that he couldn't shut it off any more. The desperation in his face as the medics tried to slide oxygen hoses close to him (and failed) was poignant and frightening.

"I got lucky," Sarah said to her doctor, as she looked them over. Hummingbirds danced around her own head, but they turned dark and icky looking when it appeared the force field boy died of lack of oxygen. Nothing was able to get into the field's range. The doctors were going to try recussitating him when his field dropped, knowing that he was either unconscious or worse - but the field remained, and they couldn't even try helping him.

Sarah sat up, careful of the monitor equipment connected to her temples and her finger-i.v., and watched the horrors of this all. She knew that whatever the hell was wrong with them, was far worse than what happened to her.

Until the voice broke into her head.

You will have to do, it said. It was a female voice, stern and womanly but also quite deep and almost sultry. It was a yellowy-sulfur color and it made Sarah feel like she'd just been raped.

"I've never heard voices in my head before," Sarah whispered, mostly to herself. None of the doctors or nurses on hand were able to devote a moment to her. Sarah blacked out, and...

Awoke in what appeared to be someone else's house. How she got there was a mystery. Why, also. It was a nice place, filled with antique furnishings and big vases that had dried flowers in them.

Don't mind me, I just took us for a stroll. You'll get used to it.

"Who... are you?" Sarah said, used to the fact that now there was a distinct voice in her head, and that it apparently wanted to remain there.

I am Scintilla. I'm going to be needing your body again soon, when our little host gets back from his job. I doubt very much that he will appreciate your presence here in his house. He didn't invite you. He invited me.

"Well fuck you very much," Sarah muttered. She felt herself guided to a large hallway mirror, and saw to her dismay that there was not only a bunch of uncontrollably weird images scattering around her head - her own power - she was suddenly being replaced by a much taller, extremely beautiful woman. Not like she was trying to change her appearance by casting an illusion around herself - she could feel her bones shifting, her skin changing color to a rich tan, and her hair growing like mad out of her skull. Sarah felt like ... she was a million miles away, she felt like she was in that Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb". Like she wasn't there, but she was only watching.

Scintilla twirled around, and even though Sarah wasn't gay, she even wanted to touch herself to make sure that it was all real.

"Yes, I'm quite ravishing. I cannot believe I must inhabit your body and not some other more appropriate vessel, but this is the one which seemed to call to me." Scintilla said, with Sarah's altered mouth. Sarah could do nothing. She wanted to scream, but she also just wanted to hide. So when Scintilla made her way through Sarah's consciousness, Sarah just ran and hid.

***

Are you getting quite comfortable in that corner? There is someone new to meet you. They're in your body now. I did not have anything to do with it, I'll have you know.

... What is going on? Where the hell ... This is my mind? Sarah asked, and Scintilla, in a strangely muted form, nodded.

Yes, and now it's mine and someone else's too. Her name is apparently Summoner. She made an accidental jump into this dimension and we're stuck with her.

I can't believe any of this shit... I want to ... well, I don't wanna go home.

Then stick it out, let us remain, and cooperate, and you'll go anywhere you wish. You're an open book, almost a vortex of power, you will probably continue to attract people like us, wandering spirits.

... I'm gonna kill that dealer that sold me freakazoid-meth...

Sarah was given full control over her body, when the time came for the hatching at Azon. Though it was clear that Scintilla had been searched for somewhere else, and Summoner looked to be about ready to find a new host body, they all wanted to see what exactly would happen.

What did happen was that the eggs in the hot hatching grounds (which were... gigantic...) started shaking, the dragons announced it and the group of odd young people were brought to them. (Some of them were very *loosely* people, they certainly didn't look like people that Snowbird would get used to.)

Sarah stood and tried to look as casual as she could. But her mind was nervous, and her powers showed it off. People stared at her, but some of them stared not because there were little greenish-grey worry bobbles hovering around her head, but because they could also detect the six other people inside the body.

When the first egg hatched, with a pop - a beautiful little silver nose came out. It was mottled with white and grey, and then his wings came from the shell's broken shards. They were just wonderful, with lightning patterns on them - apparently the parents had flown during a huge storm? That might explain it.

Then Snowbird heard a voice which was not one of her internal - very forceful - minds. It was a softer sort of voice, hesitant the way not one of the others could be.

Snowbird? He asked, his voice hesitant. It is you I chose but will you take me? Or is it me who takes you? I am so confused and all of them, they do not help...

The dragon was confounded and a bit timid. But Sarah looked at the dragon and his wonderful soft voice which felt a little like static cling. It made Sarah's powers trade her worry lines for little dragons flying around her head.  "...K-Kenzepten?" She stammered, "Are you sure you want me?" What she didn't have to add was, 'with all this mess inside my head?'

He nodded enthusiastically, and Snowbird moved over to embrace her new friend - hearts cleverly dancing around her head like she'd seen on cartoons. Everyone knew this bond would be true. No matter what happened in the future...

***

Kenzepten was sleeping when the call came that the Warren hatching was going to happen soon. Reluctantly, Sarah released her hold on the body as Sabre required her to. She hoped that the ninja would let her back in it now and again, to see her wonderful dragonet...

They went to the Warren, where the hatching went on with superb results. Predictably, the dark garbed ninja woman garnered a black dragon bond.

So... can I go back and see Kenzepten yet? Sarah asked, but the hatchling was still quite young and Sabre knew that to leave it now would be disaster.

"No, but you can take the time to grow with yours when we get back. I ... believe you now." Snowbird grinned from the back of their mind.

The others were a little put off. They wanted in, now. Scintilla had obviously been chosen to go to one weyr, at Pelar. But now? Who would take the others? Now that they knew that multiple bondings were possible?

It was while black Katana was about two weeks old - about the same age as Kenzepten was when Snowbird was meant to leave him - that they decided to head back. Bringing the Warren hatchling was the only option they had, or bringing Kenzepten to the Warren.

"Perhaps we could bring them both to Lao Daemia..." Scintilla said, asserting herself when she saw the handsome rider who'd caught her eye before. Snowbird and Sabre conversed quietly, and decided that that, perhaps was indeed a good idea.

It will give both our bonds time to get to know one another, too, Sabre thought.

"I think so... Let's do it..." Snowbird said, hugging Kenzepten. He didn't know why she was all suddenly so friendly, but he did know there was a small black and very sharp looking dragonet near his bed when there had not been before.

***

A little time passes, and sure enough, Kenzepten grows up fast!