Ciara

I woke up with nothing but sand in my face. I turned over on my back, feeling water lapping at my feet, feeling the hot sun beating down on my skin, and I opened my eyes, blinking at the intense light. I attempted to sit up, but stabbing pain in my ribs had me aborting that move.

Laying on the ground, panting, and holding one hand to the pain, I winced. I wasn't supposed to be feeling such pain, but here I was, on a beach and in intense pain. Only one thing to do. Though it might sound impossible to the average person, it was only routine for me to tense my ams and execute a backflip and land in a kneeling crouch.

My head swam with the effort and I looked around me, one hand on the sand and the other on my right knee. White beaches stretched on either side of me, the ocean glittered like a blue jewel in front of me, a big boulder and a lush jungle behind me. Bobbing like an abandoned water skis were a couple of rotors from the helicopter.

Fabulous, I thought sourly and tried my comm unit...only to find it was not there. Perfect! What else will end up missing?

"Hello? A.J.? Where are you?"

Wincing at the voice, I looked for it. Howie was a figure far down the left side of the beach. I guess we washed up on some island. Morbidly, I wondered if this A.J. or even the pilot made it. Adrianna liked the Backstreet Boys and had told me, in full detail before we parted ways, just who was who. Lucky me, I have a photographic memory, so I knew all about them. Yay.

Sitting carefully on the boulder, I waited for Howie to make his way to my spot. He finally saw me, after looking from the jungle to the ocean and back to the jungle, like a five year old lost in Wal-Mart, and he ran towards me. His just below the shoulder hair bounced with his steps and I wondered how he got it so straight. I always hated how mine frizzed up, even under the image inducer.

Image inducer? Yeah, that's right. It's an ingenius invention from Adrianna's brain. It was a nifty device in the form of a platnium ring, which I still had on, that could make its wearer look like anyone they thought of. The platnium was integral in its function, not only to make it look good, though it did. I didn't have the inducer make me look exactly like Mariah, but just bits like the eyes, figure and hair. I definately couldn't sing like her!

Howie stopped in front of me, frowning. "You...aren't really Mariah Carey, are you?"

Arching one eyebrow, I smiled, "You...are very intelligent! Do you faint easily?"

Funny how I can be so impossibly arrogant in such pain...

"...N..no..."

See, just being knocked unconscious won't undo the image inducing. Even death wouldn't cancel out its effects. The only way to change the image was for the bearer to consciously cancel it or to take off the ring. It's a smart ring and can recognize what touches it. It can sense individual brainwaves and can identify a person with the minimal touch of a finger, scanning the fingerprint from microscopic sensors that lie just below the surface of the ring.

Wanting to savor Howie's reaction, I didn't close my eyes when I cancelled the inducer's effects. He flinched, but didn't faint. I was impressed, even Mika came close to fainting when he first saw the inducer's effects, but since it was from a chair in the command center to me...I have a bad-ass sense of humor.

"Who the hell are you?" Howie frowned at me, taking a step back.

"Very good, Howie. You're smarter than you look." I lifted my chin proudly. "My name is Ciara. I won't tell you anymore, but.." I frowned. "...I have to ask you a favor."

Howie arched one of his eyebrows, "What's that?"

"I need you to bind my ribs with my windbreaker," Luckily, it was still tied around my waist, but my bag was gone. I'd need to find it. "I think a few are cracked, if not broken."

He just stood there, frowning.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" I frowned. "And why aren't you hurt?"

"Who says I'm not?" He had a bruise forming above his right eye and there was a few cuts on his arms. He'd lost his white blazer and was wearing a white tank shirt and white pants. They were disgustingly white and perfect.

I was a bit perturbed at myself that I hadn't noticed his injuries. That meant I was slow in the reflex area.

"I guess I should help you." He walked over, crouched down, and untied my windbreaker.

It wasn't easy, the knot I made had been water stiffened, but he managed to undo it. The hard part was about to begin.

"I'll hold my breath while you do this. Do not stop if I make it sound like it hurts, I'll try not to, but I need you to tie this as tight as you can, okay?"

"I know how to bind bruised ribs," Howie muttered, "Nick had gone through this once before."

Seething inside, I merely nodded and took a deep breath. Howie reached his arms around me and, in the area I showed him, began to bind my ribs. White sparks of pain dotted my vision, which was of his hair, and I braced myself against fainting. I was Mika's best field agent and it would take more than a boo-boo on my ribs to knock me out.

Two island birds soared overhead, quarreling among each other. I studied them and then made a decision.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

A.J. He thought suddenly, I will find you, my friend. I only hope you're alive and well.

"Are you going to just stand there all day?" The irritated voice broke into his thoughts and Howie looked at Ciara. Her face was pale and the platnium ring on her finger sparkled. "C'mon, Latin Lover, let's go find your playmate."

He bristled at the way she said his nickname, but followed her anyway. "What makes you think we're going the right way?"

She smirked, "A little bird told me. Let's go, Romeo."

Walking behind her, Howie came to the decision that there was something very wrong with the girl ahead of him. Though she looked no older than twenty-five, there was an odd air about her, like one that's seen more than a person her age should have. He noticed a glint of silver in the waistband of her pants, reflecting the light with every swing of her waist long hair.

"Is that a knife in your back?" The question sounded stupid, even to him, and as soon as it left his lips he wished he hadn't spoken.

She stopped, and turned around slowly, and her eyes looked cold to him. "What if it is?"

He held his hands up in front of him, "No..no reason." He laughed nervously, "I was just curious."

She smiled, a little smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Didn't curiosity kill the cat?"

He gulped, "Didn't satisfaction bring it back?"

She shrugged, turned around, and kept on walking. "Are we going to continue with these...exciting conversations? If you don't have anything interesting to talk about, please shut up."

Ten minutes of walking later, she stopped suddenly.

"Are you okay?" Howie rushed to her, "Do you need to rest?"

She laughed, "No, I just wish I'd have remembered this sooner."

"...What...?" Howie turned away as she pulled her tank top out of her pants and begin to reach up, under her shirt. "Man, a little warning please..."

A moment later, a finger tapping his shoulder had him jumping, and he turned around to see Ciara looking up at him, her ice blue eyes staring unblinking into his. "What?" He asked.

"Will you feel me up?"

Howie felt his jaw drop and watched as Ciara broke out laughing, a harsh sound. She stopped and smirked at him.

"Silly boy, I need you to reach into my shirt. There's a vial in the strap..." she pointed just under her left arm, "...right here and I can't reach it. I think I pulled an arm muscle. I promise not to hurt you."

Boy, would A.J. be taking advantage of this situation, he thought as he reached up cautiously and felt...

"Is that a knife?"

"The vial is to the right," She grimaced, "Make sure your fingers keep walking or you may loose them."

Quickly, he located the vial, tucked just under the strap, and pulled his hand out. The vial was small, the kind perfume samples were given out in, and filled with neon green liquid. He stared at it...it was...glowing...

Ciara snatched it from his hands, uncapped it, and lifted it to her lips. The contents disappeared and she recapped it, and sat on the sand. To Howie's surprise, five minutes later, she unwrapped the windbreaker and stood up. She replaced the vial to its spot and retied the windbreaker around her waist.

"What was that?" Howie stared at her. Just what was she? "What are you?"

She hesitated for a moment, then said, "That was a cure-all my friend Adrianna invented. The vial re-fills itself once it's empty, but only once in a 24-hour period. The empty vial must be recapped and put back in its slot..." she patted her strap, "...right here, or else it will remain empty. It will heal broken bones, concussions, blood loss, lacerations, whatever ails you."

"Sounds handy."

She shrugged, "Yeah, though I rarely have to use it. As to what I am, though I find it a rather rude question, I'm human, just like you. The only difference is in our upbringings. Don't question me further, Dorough." She looked around, motioned to the beach. "These marks here tell me that your friend has been here and stumbled to the brush over there."

A.J.! Howie thought, Finally a friendly face! He started running for the brush, noticing the marks on the beach....there was blood. Not a lot, but it was there.

Suddenly Ciara was in front of him, seemingly just appearing in front of him, holding up one hand. "Stop, you idiot! You just gonna go run into a trap, just like your friend?"

"What are you talking about? What trap?"

"HOWIE!" A.J.'s voice yelled out, sounding raspier than usual. "Get me the fuck out of here!"

Ciara lifted an eyebrow, "My, my...such language from a teen idol...I guess I should rescue him." She darted off for the brush and was in it in a blink of the eye. Just who is she? Howie thought. He ran after her, stopping when he reached the brush, and shoved it aside, stepping carefully in. He saw Ciara helping A.J. out of a quicksand pit about four-feet wide.

"What's quicksand doing here?" Howie asked.

Apparently, A.J. had fallen in and had tried pulling himself out. Unsuccessfully until Ciara came around and fished him out. He looked okay, save for some nasty bruising along his upper left arm and some dried blood from a cut on his right arm.

"I have been in there for ages!" A.J. snarled, "What took you guys so long to find me?"

"Why were you so stupid to fall into quicksand?" Ciara snarled back.

"Who are you?" A.J. asked, noticing Ciara wasn't the same girl from the helicopter. "Where are we? And it's not my fault that I fell in!"

"What happened?" Howie asked.

Relieved to see his friend, A.J. ignored Ciara and clasped his friend in a quick hug. "I came here to get out of the sun, and I saw that spring..." he motioned to a spring that had broken through a rock outcropping, making a cascading mini-waterfall, "...and I got dizzy and fell back. I thought I was going to die in that shit. I guess I should thank you," he turned to Ciara, "Whoever you are."

"I'm the girl from the helicopter," Ciara said. "I just...look different in the sunlight."

Howie frowned, ready to say different, until Ciara shook her head.

A.J. just shrugged, "Whatever. Listen, I'm ready to get out of here. Howie, man, tell me you have your phone!"

Howie shook his head, "Sorry, dude. I lost it. It was in my bag and that's in the helicopter, wherever that is."

"Maybe that girl knows..." A.J. spun around, "Where is she?"

Ciara was gone.

"Ciara!" Howie shouted, unable to keep the panic from his voice.

"Ciara?" A.J. snorted, "What a dumbass name."

Her voice floated back to them, "I'm on the beach, Howie. Bring Lay Jay with you."

Howie carefully kept his features neutral as A.J. bristled. "Lay Jay?! Does she have any idea who we are? Why isn't she throwing herself at me, anyway?"

Howie shrugged, "I have no idea, but I've learned to just listen to her." He didn't dare bring up the knives thing yet.

A.J. grumbled under his breath, glaring at Ciara's back, as they walked up to her. She was watching the ocean, something was clasped in her hands. It looked like she was watching something.

"Whass that?" A.J. asked, trying to sound friendly.

Ciara didn't look at him, merely tossed what she was holding at him. Reflexively, he caught it, shouting, "Hey!" as he did. He looked at it, then dropped it.

Howie bent down, picked it up, and blanched. It was the helicopter pilots' badge, a tear of fabric still gripped in the badges' clamp. He heard A.J. griping at Ciara about how gross it was.

"He's alive," was all she said.

"...How...?" Howie asked.

She merely pointed at the horizon. "Because, there he goes."

Then Howie and A.J. picked out the small dot on the horizon. Whether it was a raft or a ship, they couldn't tell, it was so far away. He wondered how Ciara could be sure.

"How could you see that far without binnoculars?" A.J. asked her, sarcasm thick in his voice.

She smiled at them, fixing A.J. with her intense gaze, "I have really good vision." She stared back at the horizon. The ship was gone.