A/N: Okay this is an idea that came to me today, or part of the idea. Originally it was going to be just original fiction, but I wanted to try to get to know my new characters so I had one of them run into the twins to get this story started. Also, don't expect updates for this anytime soon, I just wanted to get this out of my system before it was lost among all my other ideas, and I really like how this chapter turned out.

Chapter 1: When the World Was Younger

She'll see the lights and sounds, her mind ablaze with battle plans, spells, figures, images. She'll see them through the third eye, her gift opening her to the world unseen by this age. They go on in innocence, the weaklings, leaving them just right for the plucking.

She'll run through the forest , the illusions of dark, of the dawn, of ash rising to cover what she had heard were once blue skies. Looking up, at the black obscured by the leaves of autumn, she'll know that the books could never capture such beauty with mere words or colors. She'll bask in the light of the stars, their pinpoint light shining on her from light-years away, and she'll breathe in the serenity of the midnight air.

All will be right with the world.

Or so her senses will tell her.

But she'll know all too well that this peace cannot last long, that the end will come, far sooner than her reports let on, but even so, she won't be able to resist the calm, of a time when man ruled their world.

The scuffles of a small squirrel will startle her, the creature making its way up a tree, oblivious to what must come to pass. She'll pause for a moment, and see the world through the eyes of hope.

But then she'll carry on.

Knowing that all good things must come to an end.

…

"Isn't this place cool?" Cody will ask, as he holds his magnifying glass up to a tree, observing the bugs crawling among the bark, fascinated by the way they lived in the trees, only coming out in the dark of night.

"No, not at all, it's hot, boring, and why did I agree to come help you when I should be sleeping?" Zack will reply, swatting a mosquito away. He'll think about how he should have said no to Maya, that it wasn't worth following his brother out to the most obscure parts of the forest just so he could get the information Maya needed for that stupid biology report.

What love does to a man…

Cody will role his eyes, feeling sorry for Zack's loss, but won't pay it much mind. He won't be surprised by this, Zack never did enjoy the finer things in life, and this will be no different. Still, Cody will be grateful to have some company on a dark night like this. Even with his flashlight and knowing the dark wasn't something to be afraid of, the paranoia of what could lurk in the shadows will still scare him.

Just knowing that he won't be alone, will help, even though Zack would rather kill the fascinating spiders than study them.

Then he'll hear it, the roars from the shadows.

"What was that?"

"My stomach growling," Zack will respond, glaring at Cody for pulling him away from his pizza before he finished.

"No, that wasn't it," he'll say, backing toward his brother, comparing the noise to every animal sound he could think of. But it won't match anything, and he'll feel it get closer, the warm muggy air becoming hotter, suffocating even. He'll feel its presence though his eyes won't see, and in the dark, he'll shake, Zack's hand resting upon him when it gets too bad.

"I hear it too," the older twin will say, knowing that now, in the light of the full moon, that they will be in the presence of something.

"Think we should run?" Cody will ask, no longer caring about scientific inquiry in the desire of wanting to live to see the sun rise again.

But Zack won't answer, he'll feel the overwhelming presence around them, the red eyes in the forest that had gone darker than the night. He'll want to run, get away from this, but he'll only hold his brother close, knowing that's all he'd be able to do.

…

She'll know this won't be right, they shouldn't be here this soon, this time was supposed to be safe from their destruction.

But she'll also know that was a risk she took to set things right. That breaking the walls of time could make thing far worse.

If that was even possible.

Some might die because of her risk.

Many already had.

But she'll know that to set things right, sacrifices must be made. They came to that decision knowing what the cost would be should they fail, that those who didn't live to see the end of their world may very well experience this apocalypse.

She'll draw out her scythes, feel the chains that bound them together, and breathe deeply, knowing that once more, or perhaps for accurately, for the first time in history, she'd get to slaughter the beasts that hounded her very existence.

This will be the time.

To strike first

To show the power the last defenders of earth still had.

She'll run faster, feeling them growing closer. She'll hear the fear of the innocents, their reassuring words said when words would mean nothing.

Flames will dance among her scythes, the fire of eternity granting her with the power to fight once more, to kill death itself.

Among the trees, she'll spot the twins, the dark forms of the Sinvondels in the shadows, their claws, ready to tear apart flesh, their eyes, haunting their foe. Noting that they still held the recluse of shadows around them, she'll know the rupture was still the years away that it should be, but regardless she'll see that those unprepared would die just the same.

And she'd lost too much not to strike.

Besides, a weakened foe just made things easier.

She'll leap through the air, the red fires of eternity blazing all around her, touching the tress, the leaves, and all the plants around, though not burning them. The Sinvondels would pay for all they shall do, she'd make sure of it.

…

As the twins pull closer for safety, knowing that against whatever foes await them they'll love will be useless, a streak of red will dash across the sky, a flaming comet slamming to the ground, the dark beat back by the deft dancing of the eternal flames. They'll look on in wonder, unable to comprehend this, the fear they once held blown away by the blazing fury. For a moment they'll consider she could be friend not foe, but as the flames race along every shadow, as her flame lights up the dark like the dawn, they will fell the creatures of night fade and know that she is no enemy.

…

One after another, destroyed. She'll carve her scythe alone their sides, deflect their claws with the other, the purifying flames vanquishing them. They'll swarm her, still weakened by the cloak of the silence, but she'll know their magic all too well, battles too numerous to count flowing through her being, instinct guiding her. One will leap to strike her from behind, and with the grace of a dancer, she'll turn, carve the thing in half, the monster fading from existence.

…

"Whoa," Zack will say as the light carves a beacon through the dark. He'll walk toward her, drawn by the battle hardened women's power, the light of her flaming weapons revealing her figure, slender and tan, her hair pulled back in a ponytail that hung behind her, and her clothing, a short tank-top and high cut shorts doing nothing to hinder her movement when the time would come to strike.

"Fear not," she'll speak, causing Zack to take a step back, as she'll turn to face him. "What you have seen here should not exist."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not for you to understand," she will say, her voice like a thousand thunderbolts. "Just go, pretend this night never happened, and pray this is the last you shall see of these."

Cody, too frightened to protest or ask questions, will pull on Zack's sleeve, and the older twin will nod. The twins will run, notes of Cody's investigations of the bugs left by the wayside while he ponders all he had seen, and Zack will wonder, even amongst all the fear and flames, if he could have gotten her phone number.

…

Once they head to safety once more, she will lean against a tree, running her fingers among the leaves from a low hanging branch and pull out a communicator, one of the few relics from the age of technology they still had. "Maverick, it's just as we feared, the barrier is being weakened by our presence."

"Are you okay Katrina?" the voice on the other end will reply.

"Of course, ones so weak would never be able to lay a claw on me. Especially when they had not fully emerged. I'm worried about the shattering though; there is no telling when it could happen."

"Joshua and Noah came through today; they should be able to analyze the any changes in the barrier. We didn't come this far for nothing after all."

"Of course, just don't mess up again," she'll say putting the communicator away, the information being passed along that she needed. She'll begin her journey back, seeing now with her own eyes the horrors she thought she ran from. No…not run, that would imply fear. No, Katarina was never one to run. This time around, she'll kill them all, before they even get a chance to see the world they will now never conquer.