A Lost Path [Klaus/Nicoletta]

It had taken a few attempts to get it right, but Nicoletta had finally managed it. She had ended up back in Germany. She wasn't here to stay. She had been trying to come back for the sake of gathering her things. After all, there were several important items that she kept in her apartment that couldn't simply remain there. She needed to retrieve them. At least..that had been the plan.

Unfortunately, it seemed reality was deigning to throw its first wrench in her plans. Moments after managing to arrive back at home, her phone started blowing up with notifications of back to back missed calls..all coming from a number that Nicoletta never thought she would hear from again. Well. This was going to be..interesting. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as she hit the redial button, bringing her phone up to her ear. She hadn't even gotten a word in before an all too familiar voice started spilling out in a panic.

It seemed that Klaus had gone missing a few days ago. At first it hadn't been that big of a deal. He had apparently routinely gone away from the house to do..something. But this time had been different. They had gotten a call from a Hospital. One that was in the rural area just outside of Berlin. The very hospital that she had gone to all those years ago. As her mother spoke, she couldn't help but reach up to her new eye, fingers running along the curve of the socket as the emotions of that day threatened to well up within her again.

He had been diagnosed with amnesia. Their father had been the one to get the call, and had started the drive. But instead of coming home with him, he had called back home and told her that Klaus had escaped. He was officially a runaway. It was odd, hearing her mother so desperate, begging her for help. But before she could say anything, she heard what was so obviously the door of the house opening, and then the click of the phone line.

Well. Fourteen years was apparently a long enough delay in Nicoletta's job as an older sister, it seemed. The drive out wasn't that long. And when she explained who she was, the staff had seemed more than willing to help, explaining exactly what room he had been in, and how he got out. His placement had been lucky. If he had been on any other side of the hospital, he would have ended up running out into a forest or empty farmland. According to the workers, he had been under their care about a week ago. Well.That explained why she had missed so many calls. She had been wandering the Stadt des Lichts. A place that apparently didn't have cell signal. Or at least, not one that her phone could utilize.

As she got back in her car, things started to fall together, in terms of where Klaus would have ended up. Aside from having been struck by lightning, he was relatively healthy. That meant that his distance would be mostly determined by how hard he ran. But she had at least kept an ear out. Klaus hadn't shown any real promise in his training, from what whispers managed to get out of their home. That meant he could only run normally. But that wasn't all she had been told. The escape alone hadn't been the only truly odd thing about his visit. When they had finally taken a look at the machines in his room..at least one of them had been shorted out. Several others were mildly scrambled.

The pieces had definitely started coming together. If his powers were starting to rear their head, he would have been able to run for a little longer than a normal human. But that didn't change where he would have ended up. A small village that was about an hour's drive away.

But that hour drive had been worth it. She'd left her car in the parking lot of one of the public buildings. Some asking around had turned up nothing. It seemed she had arrived ahead of him. However, there was something unfortunate she had noticed. There was very little in the way of ambient Reishi in this area. That could be a problem if something was following him. She could maybe form a handful of knives before running out. That worried her. Still, she kept wandering town. And eventually her senses picked up something. A weak..but somewhat familiar signature. It was moving towards one of the houses at the edge of the village. Nicoletta walked over casually. Instead of walking to the point where she was in plain view however, she decided to stick to the side of the house. After all, if he saw her, he was likely to turn around. Better to let him think that he was alone still.

However, it seemed that he was faster than she thought. By the time she made it to where she wanted to be, she heard only one statement.


"Yeah. You are." She stated as she came into his field of vision.

"I can get not wanting to get dragged back home by dad. But you ran from a Hospital. Did you really think you'd really be able to just slip off the radar by just leaving in the middle of the night?" Oh man, this was nostalgic. She hadn't taken the 'disappointed big sister' tone in years. He'd been what, three the last time she'd had to chastise him? And now, here he was. All grown up...

Well. If anything had remained from Klaus's childhood, it seemed he hadn't become any less stubborn. Though he had definitely picked up a bit of a smart-ass attitude. But it was obvious that he was basically dead on his feet. So instead of answering his question, Nicoletta simply reached out as he tried to get on his feet, and gave him a little push. Any normal human that had been running for a week would definitely end up falling back over because of it. And with how dirty and tattered Klaus's clothes were? He'd definitely been on the harder end of that spectrum. It would have been different if he'd had even a modicum of power truly awakened. But he obviously didn't. And if she was right, and it really was starting to awaken? There was absolutely no way he'd be safe if he was left to his own devices.

"All that running is going to do is make you run yourself to death, Cass." As she stood over him, she crossed her arms under her chest.

"For god's sake, you're so ragged that you can't even stop shivering." She said as she sighed..only to get down on his level, sitting just across from him, looking him in the eyes. Red eyes to red eyes. If he really was as stubborn as she thought, then she was absolutely going to have to do some stuff.

However, as she had shifted down to sit, she noticed something all too familiar. The necklace he was wearing. The chain wasn't something she recognized..but the thing it was attached to was absolutely something she did. It was the cross that she had once used in her initial training. That made her chuckle.

"I see. He's still being a cheapskate, huh?" She asked as she held out a hand. Pulling on the ambient Reishi in the air, she slowly formed one of her knives, twirling it in her hand. The knife itself didn't keep on one particular color. As she twirled it, it kept bouncing between an exceedingly pale blue and red, with the whole thing running into a gradient during the spin. She didn't explain herself quite yet. And sitting here was at least a show of trust..but the knife was meant to be just enough of an element of danger to keep him from running..even as she broke her gaze and tilted her head back, sighing softly.

"They haven't talked to me in years, you know." She said as she turned and leaned against the building they were sitting behind.

"But the minute you vanished, the radio silence cracked. The only reason you got this far is because I didn't have service where I was at. I only recently popped back up here. My phone blew up when I got back. Calls from mom. Dozens of them, back to back." She said as she stopped twirling the knife.

It was bittersweet to be reunited with at least part of her family like this, really. She had been pretty much on her own for fourteen years. And while she had been talking in 'big sister' tone..the weight of the moment showed in her voice. The tone had cracks in it. The lecturing started to sound less serious..and her voice even started to waver.

She didn't expect Klaus to really remember her yet. But the reality of the situation was finally starting to weigh down on her. She knew what their father was like. He had completely disowned her merely because she had become 'defective', and had a disfigurement that prevented her use of a bow. She could only imagine how much harder he would have come down on him after she left..

Hm. Interesting. If her math was correct, then Klaus was legally an adult by most of the world's standards. And yet, he still hadn't outgrown that teenage contrarian instinct. And of course, his angst was on full burn as she talked about things that she knew he didn't know. Truthfully, her little rant was more for her. She hadn't felt this kind of weight on her shoulders in years. She had some emotional baggage that had been exploited in Beijing. But this was a different kind of baggage.

And as was to be expected, Klaus asked a second time what she planned to do. From what he was saying, it was clear he thought that he was going insane. And right as he asked, Nicoletta somehow managed to balance the throwing knife she had created on the tip of her index finger. As she held her hand perfectly still, she started to speak again.

"Well, the way I see it, there's three options. I could go back home for the first time in fourteen years, and leave you there. And since they both know you're liable to start running, father will likely have some kind of system in place to prevent that. Second, you can stand up and keep running. But without a vehicle or any real memories, you'd be living a really shitty life..and will probably get struck by lightning over and over again, without knowing why." As she spoke, the area started to get warmer..even as the sun started to go down.

"And then there's option three. You stay here, and I fill you in on what you've forgotten. Maybe even explain why you got struck in the first place." She said as the knife on her fingertip lifted itself and launched away, tumbling end over end, burying itself at the very foot of the closest tree before dissipating. "And maybe even help you learn how to do things like that."

Nicoletta knew she was being frustratingly vague. But if she had just come out and dumped everything on top of him, there was a pretty large chance that he would have overloaded him with information, and spooked him. She needed him to think for himself, and make his own choice. She could only hope that her faith in him to make the best choice wasn't misplaced.

It was to be expected that Klaus would be more than a little wary. But in the end, he made the right choice. Or at least, in her opinion he had. As he vocalized that he was going to go with option three, she immediately pushed herself up to her feet, holding out a hand to pull Klaus up to his feet. "Well, before we do much anything else, we need to get you some food." She said as she led the way, walking through the grassy lots until they got up to the closest place that held any food. Some little local dive that made typical German food.

As it turned out, walking into any restaurant with someone who looked like a homeless child wasn't exactly a great idea. Nicoletta was at least able to diffuse the situation before anything could really escalate. The explanation was simple. She had been searching for her brother who had run away from home, and needed to get some food in his system before they headed home.

They looked similar enough--as they very well should have--for the explanation to be viable. As they settled down in one of the empty booths, Nicoletta spoke up to Klaus again. "Alright Cass. You can get whatever you want. Just..try to be reasonable. She said as the menus were placed on their table. Nicoletta didn't even open hers. She knew what she was going to get. Coffee and a Coffee Cake. Nothing too bad. But she remained silent until Klaus figured out what he wanted, allowing the both of them to place their order.

"Well, there's going to be a lot to explain to you, so let's start with the basics. You've made it abundantly clear that you don't remember me. Not a surprise, really. I did recently undergo..quite a bit of a visual overhaul." She said as she ran a hand through her own hair, pulling some flyaways back down in the process.

"My name is Nicoletta Karlene. The disowned Oldest child of the Karlene family. Or at least, the older of the two that they had. When I was sixteen, I lost an eye to some kind of disease that caused it to start degenerating really quickly, before you ask for the reason why I was disowned." Start small. That was always the best idea. If he wanted more information, he'd start asking questions. Hopefully he wouldn't ask anything that was out of her depth.

Klaus's tone may have been monotone, but his statement about how young he must have been when she left still made her chuckle and nod as she leaned back further into the booth. "Yeah..you really were. You were only four, and you had a lot of trouble saying your own name. For a while, you introduced yourself as 'Kass Karene'. You were having trouble with your L's for some reason or another." She said, chuckling a little as she remembered the days before she had been forced to leave.

However..the mood was ruined by Klaus's question. Nicoletta's jovial expression became very grim as she slowly ran a hand up one of her arms. He had a bad gut feeling towards their father. She couldn't blame him. He had been incredibly strict on her before she had lost her eye, and became incredibly dismissive of her in favor of Klaus, to the point of actively disowning her. And that was the problem. She hadn't been home in fourteen years.

"I..I'm not sure. He was strict with me, and even disowned me after the surgery to remove my eye. But that was about it. If I had to guess, I would say he probably became incredibly angry after the fact. I had been hearing rumors that you weren't quite taking to your training. Just whispers from our extended family, you know? I think the only people that really know are you and dad. And you don't remember, and I don't think he'd be willing to talk to either of us right now." She didn't want to believe that he would actually try to purposely harm either of them. Sure, the man expected a lot out of the two of them. But he had plenty of chances to get physical when she had messed up in her training. But he never had. And yet..she could still feel that niggling doubt in the back of her head. The same feeling she had gotten in Beijing.

What if losing the 'family prodigy' and having to start over with someone new who didn't have the same growth curve had been enough to push him over the edge? The thought made the taste of bile rise in her throat. She didn't realize it..but as she thought about all of this, there was palpable intent to murder in her unfocused eyes, as well as a sudden drop in temperature for a moment before she caught herself, clearing her throat a bit. It had all been a split second. But the instinct was there. Buried for fourteen years, but there. Nicoletta was a good sister, and now he had a chance to prove it.

"But, really, it doesn't matter right now. I told you I would explain everything. And if being around dad makes you get that fight or flight response, then I'll make sure he doesn't have the chance to lay a finger on you. It's just that simple."