"Looks like there's some road work blocking our route that wasn't listed on my schedule this morning. We'll have to take a detour, sorry for the inconvenience folks," the bus driver says over the vehicle's PA system on my way to school the next morning. Today's also a busy day for the city in general, since apparently there's a big basketball match happening tonight. I didn't know until dad told me about it this morning and said to be extra careful around strangers today. That's why there's someone crammed into the usually-empty seat beside me and I'm squeezing myself uncomfortably up against the window and turned the volume of my music up a couple extra notches, hand in my bag to squeeze the doll we dubbed my Squire last night. With the other hand I pull out my phone and text Jeanette. We like complaining at each other, it's kind of cathartic.

  Destiny:'An overstuffed bus, sweaty sports fans and now a detour'

  'Could my morning get much worse'

  Jeanette:'Ugh right?'

  'I'm forced to switch which side of the street i walk on all the time to avoid strangers'

  Destiny:'The worst'

  'I can't even avoid strangers, they're all over the place'

  'There's even a guy in the seat beside me'

  Jeanette:'Is he hot?'

  Destiny:'He's like 40'

  Jeanette:'Old people can be hot'

  Destiny:'J!'

  'If you like the dad type maybe'

  Jeanette:'Eh, not my thing'

  'At school in a minute'

  'Cya there bby stay safe'

  Destiny:'Cya will do'

  A few minutes after we head off on the detour, a commotion starts at the back of the bus. I'm not really in the mood to get involved in anything that might just as well be fans of different teams scuffling with each other, so I turn my music up even more and close my eyes, trying to ignore it, but when the large man beside me is jostled by someone pushing him hard enough to bump into me, though, I have to pay attention for a moment. The bus has stopped and the passengers that were standing up are desperately trying to push their way to the front and out of the door. Practically trapped in my seat, I twist and turn until I catch the reflection of something huge in the reflection on a window outside and then panic and mortal fear force me to try and scramble backwards when a trio of purple claws come swinging at the side of the bus!

  The force of the impact lifts the bus with all of us inside, and my entire world becomes one of screams and turbulence as the vehicle tumbles and spins, tossing its inhabitants around like the contents of a tumble dryer. Something sharp pierces my side, but I barely have time to register it before something hits the back of my head and I pass out.

  An earth-shaking roar shocks me awake, quickly followed by the ground actually shaking as the monster sets down its foot only a few meters from my face. Clarity of how utterly fucked my situation is dawns on me as quickly as it's replaced by- "AAAARGH!" The man in the seat next to me screams in pain, only he's no longer in the seat. He's on the ground. Below me. He gets up and starts limping away seemingly not noticing the way I'm suddenly scrambling with my hands, reaching out for him. "H- help- please- I'm-" I hear my own voice as barely more than a whisper, cut off by my own scream as I stretch for him and feel a sharp pain in my side! I forget about him, focused only on my own pain and panic. My heart is pounding and I hear little more than the blood rushing in my ears. I'm upside down, my legs are stuck- I can't even feel one of them- I- I-

  Non-existing walls feel like they're closing in around me and I can already tell I'm going to black out again. Just before it actually happens, a warm hand settles on my shoulder and I instantly feel more calm, even before I hear her voice or see Vida's face as she leans in and asks me something. I just blink at her and shake my head. I didn't hear the question, but I'd recognize the face of the oldest Knight anywhere, framed nicely by the flowing green locks of her hair. Her skin is darker than it seems on TV, and it carries a healthy glow. "How badly are you hurt? Can you walk?" Her voice carries a low pitch and has that soothing quality you'd expect from a therapist. "Breathe deep, tell me your name." As she speaks, she pushes on the crumbled metal that keeps me trapped and upside down in my sheet, displaying far more strength in one arm than I would have imagined. With her other, she's gently guiding me down onto the ground, and then runs her hand over the wound in my side- healing it in one swift move. Feeling returns to both my legs as she lets go of me and lets me stand under my own strength.

  "I- I'm Destiny," I respond, my own voice weak and shaky. "A- And yeah, I think I can."

  "Good. I've stopped your bleeding and healed the worst of your bruises, but there are other people who need my help too, so I need you to get to safety. Can you help me out and do that?" I nod and start walking slowly away. My attention is all caught up in her strange, almost divine presence for a moment, but I manage without too much difficulty and only minimal assistance from Vida. Now that I'm moving, I notice she's about as tall as I am. She points in a direction which I can't place. "There's an alleyway in that direction that should be outside the combat area. Can you make it there?" Again I nod and she squeezes my shoulder before smiling in a way that tells me she's got every confidence that I can do it and then turns around and starts checking on other passengers.

  After I manage to limp-run my way to what I presume to be the alleyway Vida meant, I collapse against the wall, completely uncaring that it's going to ruin the back of my uniform's blazer. The whole thing's covered in stuff I don't even want to think about anyway. Almost as if on instinct, my legs curl up against my chest, I hug them and start crying while trying to forget what I've seen already, but the more I try, the more the images flood into my mind. Some of the people on that bus didn't look alive anymore. Not that I had much of a sense of it to begin with, but I lose track of time getting lost in my thoughts and only when I hear something scraping against the asphalt next to me, along with a tiny, squeaky voice making grunts of effort am I snapped out of it.

  The sight that greets me is the final thing that makes me certain I've lost my mind. The doll - My Squire - is dragging my backpack around the corner and into the alleyway, both her arms wrapped around one of the shoulder straps and putting every ounce of strength her tiny body might possess into the act. I completely forget about my situation and what's going on around me for a moment and just stare, dumbfounded, at this five-inch tall doll pulling my backpack. Eventually, she notices me, turns around with an almost comical grumpy expression on her yarn face, putting a hand in her side. "Well don't just sit there and stare! Help me get this thing over to you. We've got a job to do."

  "I'm- What? This isn't real. You can't talk. I must have lost my marbles in the bus."

  "You were attacked by a giant, four-armed crab monster and saved by a young woman empowered by a bunny from outer space, and you object to me talking?"

  "Well, yes. I picked you out of the garbage."

  "All part of the plan! I'll explain later, but we really don't have time now! Come on, you gotta go help the Knights."

  At this point, I just stare at her again for a moment. In the background, I hear the huge monster bellowing in what sounds like challenge, followed by the tell-tale shriek of one of Incarna's magical cannons firing, and before I know it, a ray of purple energy shoots past the entrance of the alley I'm in. She can't have said the words she just did. Everyone knows there's only ever five Celestial Knights and no more. "Now I really know I've gone mad. There's no way I can help them!"

  "Of course you can; You're Destiny!" She sounds as if that's supposed to explain everything.

  "Yes, I chose that name over a year ago, I'm well aware. But what's that got to do with anything?"

  "Again, I'll explain later. For now, you've got to transform before it's too late or your friend might die. There's a trigger phrase in your mind. Just yell it out loud and wait for the magic to happen."

  She's right. Without even having to think about it or focus, I know the exact phrase she's talking about, as if it was seared into my mind at the moment of my birth and has always been there. And I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen if I do as she says. "No, I can't. That's not how this works. There is no sixth Knight."

  "Not until today, no."

  "Did it have to be something so embarrassing?"

  "Yes. But no one will notice. That's part of the magic." Once more I just stare at her for a moment before sighing deeply and getting to my feet. Come to think of it, this supposedly safe alleyway in the middle of an active crisis zone is awfully empty.

  "For the record, I'm ninety percent sure that I'm either dreaming or hallucinating, so I'm only doing this to humor you." Still, I can't get over how embarrassing the so-called trigger phrase is and only manage to mumble it.

  "No! With gusto! And do a little twirl if you can manage it!" The doll yells in her squeaky voice, doing a little twirl as she suggested. At any other time I would have thought this whole thing was rather cute. With another deep sigh, I close my eyes, imagine the words of the trigger phrase individually and gather my courage before I yell, at the top of my lungs. I refuse to do the twirl, though.

  "BLESSED BY THE DESIGNS OF DESTINY!"

  I feel the effect immediately! A surge of power unlike anything I had ever even dreamed of courses through me, suffusing every part of my body, like a manic buzzing of static electricity almost begging to be released. It is nothing more than a primer for what comes next, however. My eyes are closed, but I still have the profound sense of an out of body experience, watching myself. A storm of ethereal blue needles swarm around my body as it hovers a dozen centimeters off the ground, back arched and limbs spread wide. The needles seem to stitch and transform my clothes in that same ethereally blue glow, and underneath that I both see and feel my body change as well, taking on more curves, my hair growing longer, curlier and becoming the same blue as the doll's. The dual sense of euphoria I feel at witnessing this change somehow comes both from finally seeing a deeply held desire I've had all my life be fulfilled, and I instinctively know the other part is brought on by the magical change itself. It's the sense of unknown, untapped power. When all is said and done, my feet touch back on the ground and I open my eyes slowly. I don't just feel changed, I feel altered at a fundamental level, in the best kind of way. Even my wounds have been closed and healed like they never happened.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "Whoa. That was intense."

  "The first transformation always is. You'll get used to it over time and eventually you won't even notice," the doll explains and as she speaks, I realize I look almost exactly like her now, just, you know, taller and human. Outfit, hair and everything. "As my Knight, you'll also have a set of powers, but we don't have time to go over them now. Here's your weapon-" A meter-long needle manifests out of the now-familiar, ethereal blue glow in front of me and I snatch it, feeling instinctive familiarity with it. "- It's called Twilight Point. Flying should also feel natural to you. Now, hurry. You only have a short window to save your friend!"

  Indeed, lifting off the ground and hurtling above the city's skyline to get a proper look at the situation feels as natural as walking. The scene is grim, even my inexperienced eyes can figure that out. There's usually not this much rubble and destruction when the Knights fight a monster, even in their toughest fights. The four-armed monster is huge, at least four stories tall and with a strange musculature that makes my eyes hurt to look at for too long. Its head is like that of an insect's and two of its arms end in the clawed hands I'm already all too familiar with, while the other two end in lobster-like claws that snap and tear at two of the Knights that are trying to keep the enemy penned in - Kaida and Aria. I have trouble finding Vida and Incarna from this position, but Onyxia is easy to spot, flying around on the direct, opposite side of the monster from me, no doubt directing the battle as usual. She looks stressed, no- scared. And then she spots me and whatever she was feeling is replaced by confusion, enough so that the other Knights, who are all no doubt connected to her through Aria's telepathy feel the same emotion ripple through their network and stop what they're doing long enough to turn and look at me as well.

  "DESTINY?!?" The voice calling my name is impossibly familiar, coming from a rooftop to my right and slightly behind me. I whip around to face the speaker and gawk when I see her.

  "ASHA?!? You're a Knight?"

  "It's Incarna right now." She's right. Her hair is purple and Incarna's customary array of heavy weapons and cannons are behind her, all fallen silent in her own astonishment.

  "Sorry- I- Yeah. Sorry Incarna." Suddenly the memory of the weird expression on Asha's face last night floods back into my mind and now it all makes sense. She didn't want to lie to Jeanette and I. But how did I never recognize her before? It's so obvious now- My wonderment and confusion are broken by another new experience. Everything suddenly moves in slow-motion around me as I see ethereal blue strings begin to stretch from Asha- Incarna, away from her and up before they begin snapping one by one. I twist and turn, terrified of what's happening and feeling an instinctive sense of imminent mortal danger aimed in my friend's direction. One of the monster's huge lobster claws is coming straight for Incarna. Even in slow-motion, it moves so fast I know for a fact she can't get out of the way in time. She is going to die.

  "You only have a short window to save your friend!" the doll's words echo in my mind, and I move without considering the situation further. With Twilight Point in hand, I hurry to fly to my friend, shoulder-tackling her hard enough to shove her out of the way. My weapon comes up just in time to poke into the giant monster's claw, piercing its hardened shell with the ease of a hot knife through butter, and the monster's reaction to the sudden pain is immediate as its claw pulls back just as quickly as it was coming for Incarna. Evidently the monster must have sensed the confusion and distraction among the Knights and used the opening to try and get rid of the biggest threat.

  Even despite my success, the force of the enemy's claw pushing down on my needle rocked me back a few feet, and when it pulls away, I get pulled with it another couple of feet before the weapon slips out and I fall to my knees. But the disaster is averted and time returns to its normal flow almost with a scream of various sounds flooding my ears. Incarna, too, falls to her knees as a result of my tackling her and the monster screams in obvious agony. Vida almost appears out of nowhere to check on Incarna, but quickly seeing she's at most bruised, turns her attention to me.

  "Hey, aren't you that girl-"

  "Ignore her. We've got bigger problems to deal with, literally." Onyxia's sharp, commanding tone cuts the healer off. In the very brief moment since time resumed she's made her way from the other side of the monster to where she's now hovering only a couple of meters from me. "We'll deal with this anomaly after we make sure the monster is defeated and any surviving civilians are safe. New girl-" She turns her attention to me, pink eyes almost staring a hole in me. "Help out however you can, but stay out of our way." And with that, both she and the other two Knights on the rooftop shoot off, staying airborne and circling about the enemy in a new tactic to avoid its deadly claws.

  Without being looped into the Knights' psychic network, my best chance of knowing what they're going to do is guessing based on what I remember from observing their former battles, and suddenly I wish I had paid closer attention or even tried to memorize any recurring tactics, but how should I have guessed I was going to be so intimately involved in the future? So I run to the edge of the roof to observe the battle for a short spell, watch more closely how the Knights take advantage of each other's talents and let the others cover their weaknesses. Kaida, being basically the classic berserker archetype one might recognize from video games, relies the most on the others to keep her safe while she cuts and stabs at the monster, opening up wounds that close as quickly as she makes them. Her impact on the monster is only surpassed by Incarna, whose heavy firepower repeatedly punches large, gaping holes in the enemy's form. Those take a little longer to start closing, but still outpace my friend's ability to make more. Aria and Vida are stuck keeping civilians and the other Knights safe, too much so to turn their own offensive powers on the monster, and Onyxia seems equally occupied just trying to coordinate her squad as well as occasionally informing rescue workers where they need to go to get a civilian out of harm's way. The blinding speed she possesses comes in very handy here.

  The battle isn't quite a standstill. It's literally moving as the monster seems to make its way toward some inscrutable goal. The Celestial Knights are impressive, even more so up close than on TV, but they aren't all-powerful, and they don't have infinite stamina. They will lose eventually. I have to find a way to help them. Without anything more than an idea about what my powers are and certainly no training, I feel that using them for this battle might only cause more harm than good. But I do have the needle, and I think I can create the same ethereal threads I saw earlier with it, without too much trouble.

  My mind made up, I brandish Twilight Point like the rapiers I've seen the fencers at school use and step off the roof, letting myself drop a few dozen feet before I fly directly at the monster, back up towards its arms, where I see Kaida doing her best to fight off one lobster claw while hacking away at one of the taloned limbs. "Hi! Big fan!" I yell at her over the monster's roar, receiving only a snarl in return. "You're doing a good job. I've got an idea for that lobster hand," I explain, smiling sheepishly. Breathing deep, I hold up my weapon and put my hand through the eye at the bottom of it, pulling back with it the beginning of a string. It feels weird holding onto, brimming with the same buzzing potential as I felt when my transformation happened. I have a strange sense this isn't how the magical string is supposed to be used, but I haven't been told bloody anything about how any of this works, so I'm just doing what comes naturally here.

  While the monster is distracted by Kaida, I wrap the end of the string around the base of its lobster claw, and then start flying loops around the extremity. As I move, the string seems to just endlessly continue as long as I need it to, cinching tighter and tighter around the vice-like hand until it's forced shut. When I fly backwards a few meters to inspect my work, as if sensing that I'm done, the thread simply stops and makes a neat knot on its own. The claw seems handled to me, I can even see it strain against its bonds, but to no avail. Plan successful! Now, off to the next to repeat and then-

  Only too late do I sense the thickening of the tapestry between the monster and myself, and before I know it, I'm hurtling through the air after the claw I just finished tying up is used as a blunt instrument, slamming into me hard enough to send me flying despite my ability to do so under my own power. The crack of bricks and mortar as I hit the building I was on the roof of not two minutes ago tells me what happened before I feel the pain! I hardly even have the time to be amazed at how every bone in my body isn't broken before I see the claw come at me once more and I have to react quickly to move out of the way.

  "New girl!" Someone calls out to me right after I barely manage to clear the space. I don't even have to turn my head to recognize the clear and precise tone of Onyxia's words. "Look at the tip of the claw, where you stabbed it." I do, and I instantly realize what she's trying to tell me, but she continues anyway. "Whatever you did, the wound you dealt is the only one that's not closing. I need you to follow up every one of Incarna's attacks with one of your own in the same spot, make sure the damage sticks." I simply nod at her. "I've already relayed a similar message to Incarna. Get to work!"

  Asha- Sorry, Incarna, smiles at me as I approach her and she lays out the plan. "Okay, so I'm going to switch to more pin-point fire instead of looking for weak spots. The way I understand it, the theory is your needle is going to turn my attacks into wounds that won't heal. Got it?"

  "Got it. Where first?"

  "Base of the arms, starting at the lower limb on its left side, two hits each, and then rotating clockwise. The aim will be to first disable them and then keep going through to amputation if necessary."

  With a shared smile between us, both of us knowing we have a lot to talk about after this is all over, I fly off to the first arm my friend indicated and ready Twilight Point for attack. At Onyxia's command, Aria seems to have switched off supporting civilians and is bringing her own power to bear on the monster in the form of various invisible telekinetic attacks alongside Kaida's blade. Vida's efforts are now focused on healing those two squad members only as they get struck and take hits almost on purpose. The leader's own efforts also switch to full offense, her cannons aimed directly at the monster's face, the beams seeming to have a disorienting effect more so than doing any actual damage.

  As expected, Incarna's ranged attack makes a deep furrow in the enemy's purple flesh right as I'm in position. The wound begins closing even as I move to strike, my aim as true as that of my friend. Not that hitting such a big target this up close is difficult at all. As my needle digs into the flesh, I suddenly understand why my first attack left a mortal wound. Thousands of tiny, barely visible threads of blue light entwine themselves with the monster's flesh, pulling it apart as quickly as its own natural healing ability tries to close the wound. On my own, I doubt I'd have had much more effect than any of the other Knights on this beast, but together, we can take it down.

  Five minutes later, the monster lies defeated in the streets below us as I hover next to the Knights. Together, Incarna and I disabled its arms one by one, and once that was done, Kaida and Aria joined our concerted efforts, making amputating its limbs a relatively simple effort, at which point, it almost keeled over on its own. This one is big enough that we are almost enveloped by the cloud of smokey purple and black lights drifting up from the monster's dissolving corpse. Only Incarna and Vida's eyes look at me with any form of warmth or sympathy, while Onyxia and Kaida seem furious and Aria remains as inscrutable as ever.

  "Rooftop of the Somerset Conservatory's main hall, five minutes," is all Onyxia says, her tone colder than I had ever imagined it could be, before she and the other Knights fly off in the direction of the mentioned building on the outskirts of one of the city's suburbs. Only Asha sends me an apologetic smile, but otherwise just follows her leader's orders.