A desire for freedom

Prologue- Skyler

First limped through the alleyway looking around for a safe place to hide. It had taken the form of a kitten so It wouldn't be noticed by the people. It checked many different alcoves. none of them were out of view from the beings that roamed the glowing streets. The massive city was the perfect place to lay low. Without a connection, it would take a large amount of time to properly heal but First didn't want to risk another connection failing while it was already so close to death.

The battle had waged on for days. During the end of the fight, First's Connected Kay was rushing a regrouping ballista squad. While he was distracted fending off blows and shield-breaking bullets, the enemy surrounded him and waited till he was too tired to continue fighting. The moment the first drop of blood fell First knew Kay needed help. It flung Itself across the battlefield. When It arrived at Kay's broken bloody body, he was hanging from a tree by his wrists. He died from multiple bullet and stab wounds spilling his blood to the thirsty ground. First felt and knew he would never be back in his car singing along to his music, or watching the city lights pass by in the silence of the drive.

"May he forever follow the sun's warmth. If only to feel it once more." It thought.

The men who had killed Kay noticed First only a short distance away and rushed to kill It too. Not willing to let the general lose another commander, First grabbed Kay's body. Taking bullets to the back, It formed into a cheetah and fled.

Burying Kay turned out to be the biggest burden First had ever had, by tradition, it didn't shape the ground into a hole but dug at the earth till It could build a proper fire for Kay. It watched the flames lick up the wood and body till there was only ash left, It threw the dirt back into the pit and filled it in. After it was finished it realized how damaged it was from the fighting and the connection break. So It fled to a place that a third-party shadow had control of, Denver.

First stumbled into a suitable hideaway to rest, only to realize there was a small girl in the alcove with it and the girl looked just as ragged as First felt. She watched First with startled joy. It was shocked that such a small child could look so famished and drained. First wondered who could leave a kid so small on the streets?

"What are you doing out in the snow, little kitty?" the girl questioned, "You must be so cold."

She rambled on as she reached out to pick up First. It backed away from the child to take a better look at her.

She looked around 8 or 9 years old, she had red, ragged, hair. She was wearing a dress that was so muddied and sun-bleached that you wouldn't be able to tell the original color.

She seemed close to tears. First wondered how she survived all by herself. It walked forward and pawed at the girl's knee, then crawled into her lap and started purring. As the girl stroked It, she slowly started to fall asleep. First felt pity for the young thing sitting in the alley with It. So broken and so young, a worthless existence made into something unbearable to most.

First didn't even know her name but It knew that it would connect with her, she needed It just as much as It needed her. First decided she would be Skyler from now on, they needed a warrior and that's exactly what It would make her.

First gave Skyler the Connected mark under her left collar bone, visible enough to where any other Number can tell that she's off-limits. First gave her over half of Its strength and stamina and allowed her to take First's power of telepathy to call it whenever she was in danger.

Connecting Itself to her small heart, she belonged to First. She shivered more and more in her sleep, but not from the cold of the night air. She shook from the radiation flooding her body, waking up her sleeping mind and letting it see the world for the first time. Her head fell to the ground hitting it hard on a brick that stuck out of the wall on the way down. First would have to heal that but first It had to protect her, It would keep Skyler safe at all times including now. During the shift from fall to winter the child would need a place to stay that can be counted on to stay warm.

Slowly First shook off its form of a kitten, taking the much more practical form of a bird of prey that It saw once in the mind of Kay, It carefully built the wings and the tail, shaped the claws and the maw, and grew to a size suitable to carry the girl. When First had finished its form it picked up Skyler and placed her on its back, flapping its wings First took to the sky, looking to find a good place for Skyler to grow up.