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A week had passed since Aimée’s kidnapping and her life had been turned upside-down. She had been chosen as the newest ‘Fearsome Fighter’ so, basically, she was now Dark Daggers accomplice, and ‘link to Canstar’s streets.’ As well as Treeroot’s alibi, she didn’t mind that though, it meant she could spend more time with Max, and the more time she spent with him the more she started to love him. But strange things had been happening around her, like when her pencil rolled off her desk. She looked away for a second and when she looked back it was right near her hand. And when she was angry at Alex, a really strong wind blew up and he was blown into a building, and for days she had the dream about the older purple Aimée.
She’d also found out a lot about the other Fearsome Fighters: Emma’s last name was Scheerer and she seemed to be a different person when she was in public, there was no emotion in her at all, but when she was alone; she’d argue with Treeroot and laugh at Andy’s jokes. Treeroot had a strange smile, as if she didn’t have much to smile about, she also purred when she was happy enough. Andy’s last name was Roaranis and he and Max love playing practical jokes together. Max was just like Treeroot; he was kind and often got in the Dark Dagger costume when Treeroot couldn’t. Aimée didn’t know why but she always found him near her, whether it was Aimée getting close to Max or Max getting close to Aimée.
Before she was officially accepted into the Fearsome Fighters, Aimée had to learn how to use a weapon and earn a nickname.
“How do you ‘earn a nickname.’?” She was asking. Everyone was at the ‘Fighters certified meeting place’. Behind the library.
“What you do affects what we call you.” explained Treeroot. “For example; Max is a phantom so we call him; Phantom, Andy’s Emma’s test subject so we call him; Test subject.” Aimée thought for a while before asking,
“What about you and Emma?” Treeroot smiled.
“Well, with Emma and me, hardly anyone knows our first names, so we use them. If we can’t then I’m Elf and Emma’s Professor.” Aimée turned her head quizzically,
“People know my name, so I’ll have to do something or be something, right?” Treeroot smiled.
“Yep…” her voice trailed off as she turned toward Emma. She was under the school tractor with Andy watching tirelessly. “Emma?” she asked. A metallic bang was heard and Emma came out rubbing her head,
“Frizzle! What?!” she asked irritated.
“What weapon do you think would suit Aimée?” that confused everyone. Aimée drew a quick breath, Maybe I should tell them about my dream… Aimée thought.
“First we need to find her weaknesses, and then we can cover them with her strengths.” Max spoke wisely.
“No,” Emma disagreed, “We need to find her talents first, and then we can use them to our advantage.”
“We need to find what she fears, and protect her from them.” added Andy. Aimée felt a hand rest on her shoulder; she spun around to find Treeroot’s smiling face.
“Come on,” she said, “They’re arguing over you like a hunk of meat.” Aimée looked back; they were still saying that the other was wrong. “The home bell will ring soon.” Treeroot added, “I can show you where I live.” Aimée turned around to face Treeroot as she took a step back, “If you want.” She added quickly. Aimée smiled.
“That sounds great, how do we get there?” Treeroot motioned Aimée to follow her. She looked back at the arguing group, They won’t even know I’ve left. She figured, and followed. Treeroot helped Aimée get on the roof, and then jumped up. Treeroot saw that Aimée was nervous.
“Don’t worry,” she said smiling, “once you’re up here going along the rooftops it’s easy... most of the time.” Treeroot walked to the edge of the library and jumped to the other building, Aimée hesitantly walked to the edge and peered over. It looks higher than it did from the ground, She thought. Aimée looked at Treeroot
“I don’t think I can jump that gap.” She mumbled, Treeroot smiled, bent her knees and held out her arms,
“I’ll catch you if you fall…take a running leap if you’re THAT scared.” She said, Aimée bit her lip and looked down, she still wasn’t sure. Treeroot rolled her eyes “Do you realise, how many idiots try to ‘fly like Dark Dagger’ and jump from the skyscrapers out to the middle of the streets?” Aimée looked up and shook her head, “More than half of Canstar. And I save all of them.” She sighed, “I can catch people, trust me.” Aimée swallowed hard,
“Ok…I’ll do it.” Aimée walked to the back of the building, took a deep breath, and ran as fast as she could. Aimée felt her legs spring as she reached the edge, but she felt a tingle in her fingers and forgot where she was as everything fell silent. Aimée felt the wind rush though her hair and clothes, and heard a distant voice, “The Staff. It may be very hard to hide, but I have a feeling I’ll be very good at it …” it echoed. Suddenly Aimée fell in Treeroot’s arms and the voice and the silence disappeared and the sound of the school ground flooded in.
“Wow,” said Treeroot as she lifted Aimée to her feet, “I didn’t think you where that good at jumping, you practically flew over.” Aimée shook her head to clear it, and looked over the edge as Treeroot kept talking, “Halfway through I thought you’d fall, but you kept going up like there was something pushing up from under…” her voice trailed off, Aimée turned round to look at her,
“What?” she asked, “What’s wrong?” Treeroot took Aimée’s hair in her hand and asked,
“When did you die your hair?” Aimée looked at her hair in Treeroot’s hand; the ends of her brown hair were coloured a beautiful shade of lavender. Again Aimée’s dream sprung to mind, she quickly made an excuse,
“I must have done it a while ago.” Treeroot shrugged and smiled.
“Well, let’s go, the forest won’t come to us.” Aimée drew a breath to say something but stopped, Treeroot tilted her head, she looked like a small bird when she did that, “What?” she asked, and Aimée looked off to the side,
“I was wondering if...maybe you’d...carry me? I'm not very good at athletic things and...” Treeroot lifted her hand to hush Aimée, smiled and lifted Aimée into her arms,
“Sure. Why not.”

Aimée and Treeroot went over the fire department, past the town hall and stopped on top of a barber shop called ‘Lumière’s boutique’.
“Why’d we stop here?” Aimée asked as Treeroot put her down, she looked at Treeroot who was still breathing normally I don’t know how she does it; I’d be having trouble breathing if I’d done the same thing. She thought,
“Do you really think someone following me is normal?” she asked as she helped Aimée off the roof, “You’d be surprised how many people don’t look up, so we’re safe there, but people do watch me a lot when I'm on the ground. Stay here for a while, and then follow me up the hill.” Treeroot started heading up the hill and said over her shoulder, “I’ll be behind the big tree.”

Aimée waited for a long time before she thought it was safe I bet the rest of the Fighters have figured out we’ve left by now. Aimée walked up the hill and found what Treeroot was talking about. It wasn’t a big tree, it was an enormous tree, Aimée had never seen a tree so big before in her life, it looked bigger than two sports ovals. She walked up to it and stroked its bark, It’s like any other tree. How did it get so big? She thought,
“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” said a voice behind her, Aimée span around and saw Treeroot in a nearby tree standing on a branch and leaning on the trunk. She put her fingers on her temples, squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated, “I can read your thoughts, they say: ‘How’d this normal tree grow so big?’ am I right?” she asked opening one eye. Aimée looked curiously at her friend, she opened her mouth to say something but Treeroot closed her eyes again and ‘read Aimée’s mind’ “‘how’d she know what I was thinking?’ your thoughts say.” Treeroot smiled and jumped down, “Everyone thinks that when they come up here. To answer your first question: It’s a real tree, it’s just very, very, old”
Treeroot came close enough so that Aimée could see Treeroot clearly, her long blond hair looked like it was cut with her daggers, although she let it grow to her hips shed cut the fringe short, there were more scars on her face then her hands and feet but she still looked beautiful. The deepest scar started in the middle of her forehead went straight down to the top of the bridge of her nose then sloped of under her eye to the bottom of her right ear, the other scares where probably small cuts from weapons she almost dodged, although there were a few dozen small dot scars, Aimée had no idea what made them.
Treeroot must have noticed Aimée staring at her scars, because her bright smile washed off her face, and her eyes turned a mixture of light blue and dark blue as she looked away, trying to hide her damaged face with her hands. Aimée was surprised at this but wasn’t prepared for what Treeroot did next; she spun around and sprinted into the forest. Once Aimée had figured out what had happened she ran after Treeroot. After fifteen minutes of twists and turns Aimée had lost Treeroot’s trail. Aimée spun around desperately; she couldn’t find her way out. Aimée bit her lip, why do all these trees have to look the same? She thought. Then, a small sound tickled her ears, Aimée strained to hear what it was but it was too far away, Aimée decided to find out what it was, maybe it was a river she could follow out. When she got closer Aimée found it was the sound of someone crying, that made her run faster. As she rounded the next tree she saw a figure kneeling at the edge of a cliff weeping, it was Treeroot, her bag was thrown to the side and she was fiddling with something in front of her. Each sob was heart wrenching, but before Aimée could do anything Max walked out from the forest. He stepped up to his sister and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder; she looked up at his reassuring face and slowly stopped crying. Max sat down next to Treeroot,
“What happened?” he asked comfortingly, Treeroot looked down,
“Aimée was staring at my scars.” She sniffed. Max looked confused,
“That doesn’t usually bother you this much, you like to scare your enemies by saying. ‘I can stand this much pain...can you?’ and most run away.”
“I don’t want to scare her, and I especially don’t want her to run away.” Treeroot explained, “look; how many people have I saved in Canstar? And how many have taken me to their home and helped me? How many have openly come to me at school, just so we can talk? How many people want to be near me? Max, don’t you see? She’s the first person to care about me, that doesn’t have to.” Aimée placed her hand over her mouth, Aimée didn’t know what she did meant so much to Treeroot; all she was doing was being kind. Max was still confused,
“Then what’s the problem?” he asked, Treeroot starred at her brother and explained,
“I don’t want anything to happen to her, and I don’t want her to think I’m a freak and run away from me, like everyone else has. I want her to see past my face and see the real me. She’s so beautiful, and these scars make me ugly, and scary, and...” she was fighting tears at this point, “and she deserves more than some hideous, depressed, forest tramp, freak like me.” Aimée stormed out with tears in her eyes and started yelling at Treeroot,
“Don’t you ever say such things about yourself, you’re not a freak, you’re not a tramp, and you’re not ugly. You’re a beautiful, talented, girl with unbelievable gifts that anyone would love to have. You have a body that most girls have to get surgery for, and...an...” her voice trailed off as she saw past Treeroot’s shocked face; in her hand there was her dagger with blood on one of the edges, Treeroot was trying to hide her wrists, but Aimée saw the blood drip from them. She stared at Treeroot with disbelief, Treeroot hung her head,
“You have two beautiful parents, a lovely home, money to buy clothes and food, and you have a perfect life. I don’t have any parents, I have a tree for a home, I need to make my own clothes, hunt my own food and I have the farthest from a perfect life, it’d be easier to be dead.”
“There are bandages in the bag.” Said Max regretfully, “Having a life like hers is very depressing. And lonely.” Aimée walked towards Treeroot’s bag and was about to open it when she heard Treeroot get up and run she span around to see Treeroot leap off the edge of the cliff
“No!” she called as she reached out for her falling friend, suddenly a huge gust of wind blew Treeroot up into the air and she landed with a thump at Aimée’s feet. Aimée quickly pulled some bandages out and rapped Treeroot’s wrists up. “Life is too precious to throw away like used bubble gum.” She scolded as tears ran down her cheeks, she then made Treeroot look her in the eyes and nodded towards the bloody dagger, “I never want you to do that again...please.” Treeroot sighed,
“For you, Aimée, anything, just promise you won’t leave me alone like everyone else, everything’s cold and dark when you’re alone, you don’t know what it’s like…” Aimée’s hair fell into her eyes when she’d finished wrapping Treeroot’s wrists, before only the ends of her hair where purple, now a good inch was What’s happening to me? She thought.