THE BREAK-IN

The sun was bright and warm on her back as Katherine walked slowly home from the coffee shop on Saturday afternoon. Johnny Utah, her usual escort, was unable to be there that day because of a prior appointment; so he and Connor had arranged for one of the police to accompany her instead. Katherine was being unusually quiet, she had been sick to her stomach off and on all day long, and the almost constant nausea was beginning to take it's toll on her. Connor had not liked the pale look on her face so he had also arranged for Reggie to take care of little Kiara for a couple of days so she could get some rest.

When they arrived at the condo at Valley View 17, she smiled softly at the policeman and declined his offer to accompany her inside. He did a quick tour around the house to insure all was as it should be, then he settled down underneath a nearby shade tree so he could watch the place until either MacLeod or Clayton came home. Apparently all the extra precautions Connor had taken to insure Katherine was not ever left alone and vulnerable had been enough to make Kronos lay low, at least for a little while. In fact, no one had seen the K'immie for several days now.

Once inside, Katherine headed straight to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of ice water and sipped on it gingerly, tying to wash the sour taste out of her mouth. Her stomach rebelled a little at the water, so she tried nibbling on some crackers to see if that would help settle it. The queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach increased so she gave up on trying to drink the water and went upstairs to her bedroom. She went into the bathroom and put a wet cloth to her head, doing her best to try to talk herself out of getting sick again. After a few moments the worst of the nausea eased. Figuring she was going to live, at least for now, so she decided to take a shower. Katherine turned on the water as hot as she could stand it and then after stripping off her clothes she stepped inside the spacious shower stall.

The shower helped revive her a little and she was humming a little tune as she stepped out and dried off. Throwing on a short kimono style dressing robe that she kept in the bathroom, she walked out into the bedroom with plans of taking a short nap before Connor and John got home.

She never made it to the bed though. As she entered the bedroom she was grabbed from behind and yanked off her feet by one strong arm as a large hand covered her mouth to keep her from calling out for help. She was slammed up against the wall so hard it made the lights dim momentarily. When her vision cleared, her eyes focused on Kronos' face, which was twisted up in anger.

"Quiet!" he ordered, his hand so tight over her mouth and nose she was having trouble breathing. "It's all your fault! You didn't think I would let you get away with orchestrating that humiliating episode at the hospital, did you? Now, little tiger kitten, you are going to pay and pay big!" Keeping the one hand over her mouth, he pinned her tight up against the wall with his hard body, the leather he was wearing cold against her skin. The other hand reached down and yanked at the belt of her robe and pull it open. He then reached up to grab one of her small breasts.

Flinching at the bruising grip he had on her, Katherine reacted by doing two things almost simultaneously. She reached out with her mind, along the mental link she still shared with her neighbor. ~ Rayden! Help me! Kronos is here in my house! ~

~ On my way little one! ~ He responded instantly. Reassured that help was on the way, Katherine then bit the hand covering her mouth as hard as she could, gagging at the acrid taste of his blood that flowed into her mouth. Growling in a fierce rage, Kronos removed his wounded hand from her mouth and smashed her on the side of her face with his fist as hard as he could, shattering her jaw. Katherine's legs sagged underneath her and as the room faded into blackness, the last thing she saw was another hand appearing out of nowhere to grab the hand that was poised to strike her again.

"I don't think so," Rayden said in a quiet, intense voice; his eyes glowing in anger. The eyes of the immortal widened in shock as all the bones in his wrist crumbled into pieces under the iron tight grip of the white haired god. Pulling him away from his small friend, Rayden glanced over to see her slump to the floor unconscious, her mouth and nose bleeding profusely and the imprints of his fingers still plainly visible on her breast.

The next thing the K'immie knew he was being lifted effortlessly up above Rayden's head, his body convulsing in torment as a torrent of electricity shot through it. Then Rayden released him and he flew across the room like he had been shot out of a cannon. He crashed into the wall of the bedroom so hard it tore a huge hole in it, sending him sailing out onto the patio below. Ignoring the pain of several more broken bones, Kronos jumped up to flee the scene only to come face to face with Johnny Utah who had just loped up in his panther form up to relieve the policeman. Roaring in rage, he slashed out at Kronos and then transformed into his third form. Leaping back to barely escape being disemboweled by the quick sweep of a huge paw with it's outstretched glistening claws, he turned and tried to run in the other direction, his leather shirt now in tatters and blood dripping down his belly.

He didn't even take one step though before a huge ball of lightning engulfed him completely, sending him sailing through the air and landing with a sickening crunch several blocks away.

"Tend to Katherine!" Rayden ordered, as he took off after Kronos, his eyes glowing with a fury that was terrifying to see. Deciding that the god was more than capable of dismembering Kronos with just a glance of the eye, Johnny leaped from the patio, easily making it to the gaping hole on the second floor of the house. Rayden heard his loud roar of outrage when he discovered his client laying limp on the floor of the bedroom. He sent out another mental call just as he vanished in a shower of controlled lightning, trying to summon his mother to help with the injured Katherine.

He reappeared just a few feet from Kronos, who lay in a burnt, crumpled heap. His leather clothes were smoldering and his hair was all frizzled and standing upright from the effects of the lightning. The immortal looked up to see the angry god striding towards him, a new ball of lightning forming on his finger tips. Kronos shrieked in terror and scrambled to his feet and raced as fast he could through the streets of SIMsCity towards the dubious safety of the other side of the river. As he ran, curious onlookers appeared out of nearly every door, and his cries were soon drowned out by the loud cheers of the Simscitizens as they watch him flee. One glowing ball of lightning after another slammed into him the entire way to the river, encouraging him to keep running. Just before he reached the bridge crossing to the K'immie Estates, Toni raised her camera and gleefully snapped several pictures of her BBQ'ed charge running for his life, a ball of lightning nipping at his heels and the seat of his pants on fire. She lowered the camera just as

Rayden strode purposely in from of her, still intent on following Kronos. She reached out to stop him but yelped in pain as an electric shock ran through her hand. Hearing her cry out, he stopped, the fierce light in his eyes fading to a look of concern. "Toni! I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have touched me when I'm like this."

"It's ok," she said, nursing her burnt hand. "Where's Katherine? Is she hurt?"

Glancing over at the rapidly retreating figure of Kronos on the other side of the river, he reached out and took her hand, sending just a tingle up her arms instead of a shock. "Come with me," he asked, his eyes taking on a different glow to them, as the anger he had been feeling faded. Without waiting for an answer, he transported them both to Katherine's bedroom.

Toni gasped in shock as she took in the sight of the wrecked wall, then instinct took over and she raised her camera to take pictures of the damage. She cried out in pain when she tried to use her injured hand, which attracted the attention of Jathelle who had been kneeling over by the wall, examining a dark red smear on the wall. Standing up she walked over to Toni and gently took her hand and concentrated on it. Toni's eyes grew big as a cool blue light covered her hand. When it was gone, the blisters and redness from the burn had completely been healed.

Jathelle then turned to her son and demanded, "Where's Katherine? I came when you called me but no one was here!"

Rayden looked confused for a split second, then said, "Johnny Utah must have taken her to the clinic! Let's go!" Grabbing Toni's hand again, the three of them disappeared once more, reappearing inside the organized chaos of the clinic just as Connor charged in the door himself. Rayden reached out along with Johnny Utah, who was now back in human form, and grabbed him, keeping him from racing full tilt into the examining room. They held the struggling Highlander in a tight grip so he wouldn't interfere with what was going on.

Toni moaned softly as she looked at Katherine, her friend's delicate features contorted with pain, her face bloody and bruised. Sarah Jo had just finishing putting an iv into her arm and was hanging up the saline bag. Doctor Giles was standing at the head of the table, gently palpating her jaw, trying to determine the extent of the damage. Without thinking she raised the camera and snapped another picture; so this whole horrible incident would be recorded.

Jathelle brushed past her, and elbowed her way in to attend to Katherine's injuries. Giles glanced up at the goddess and said quietly, "Her jaw is broken." Nodding, Jathelle reached out and placed her hands on Katherine's face and concentrated for a moment, willing the broken bones to heal. As everyone watched, Katherine's whole body was bathed in a blue light, which was brighter around the area of her face where the injuries where. As they all looked on, the bruises started to fade as the bones of her jaw knitted together. Katherine sighed with relief as the pain flowed out of her completely.

"Rest now," she said softly. Katherine's eyelids slowly dropped and within seconds she was sleeping peacefully. Rayden and Johnny released their grip on Connor and he walked up to Katherine, touching her face with a trembling hand.

"She'll fine, Connor! She just needs to get some rest," Jathelle assured him. He glanced up at Giles, who nodded his head in agreement as he gently checked out her now completely healed jaw.

Turning around, the muscles in his jaw twitching in his effort to control his anger, he looked at all the other people in the room and demanded an explanation of what had happened. Upon learning that Kronos had apparently broken into their home and had laid in wait for Katherine, an intense glow that almost equaled Rayden's filled his eyes.

"Kronos is a dead man!" he growled, as he pushed his way through the crowd and stormed out the door.