Chapter Fifteen: The Peacemaker

Penny and Lysette, I'd found themselves not speaking very much to one another after Ember had come into the picture. And though she tried her best, Ember could not break the tension between the two.

At first, Ember had assumed she was the reason for the tension. But it had not taken too long before she realized that this was a deeper issue between the two. And it seemed to be one that there was no chance of solving anytime soon.

And though she had tried her best, Penny seemed to want nothing to do with Ember whatsoever. This was made apparent by the sharp tones that penny would give to any question that Ember would ask. Even Lysette had warmed up to her by now, the only one holding out was Penny.

A few days had passed and Penny was still recovering from her injuries. Any offers to help make things easier for her by Ember or Lysette were turned down with great hostility.

" Is she always like this? " Ember asked Lysette who shook her head.

" No, but something has changed within her. She wanted to take me on, as I had been training her. She pushed herself pretty hard and when she had been defeated, she forced herself to continue and ended up going way too far. I think, she is more so mad at herself than she is anyone else" Lysettes thoughts seemed valid to Ember.

" Well, I guess she has to work through this then. But, I just wish I could do something to cheer her up" Ember knew that things couldn't work like this forever. It wasn't healthy.

" I would just leave her alone for the time being. She needs to work through this on her own. It probably doesn't make sense to you right now, but Penny has to push herself. She won't be happy until she achieves what she is wanting" Lysette explains.

" What is she wanting..? " Ember couldn't forsee any reason that Penny would need to prove herself, she had already beaten Lysette, even if she had lost control of herself.

" She wants to be stronger than me. She wants to have more control and she wants to learn as much as she can about who she is. And she won't get those answers until she beats me" Lysette tries to explain to Ember who found it hard to believe.

" She wants to...beat you...but wants to be in control of beating you rather than losing control so she can understand herself? " Ember tried to put together an understanding which she seemed to have gotten moderately close to. "Something like that. You don't have to understand, just accept that its something she has to do" and with that, Lysette turns and begins preparing herself some food as Ember looked on, even more confused than before.

Despite being warned to leave her alone, Ember decided to head to Penny's room to confront her and get the answers from the girl herself.

A few knocks on door left Ember with no response and without taking no for an answer, Ember pushed the door open and entered the room to find Penny laying on her bed, sobbing into a pillow.

" What's wrong?" Penny asked, genuinely concerned for Penny's wellbeing.

" Its like you don't have any boundaries at all" Penny sniffled as she tried to kick Ember away with her foot, but failing to do so.

" I just wanted to know what is wrong with you. Is beating Lysette so important to you that you are willing to let it affect you like this?" This question made Penny turn to Ember, with a shocked and offended expression.

" Its none of your business " Penny fired back, getting defensive.

" I don't care if it's my place or not. But since I've been here, you two have been fighting. Heck, when I found you both, you were in the middle of a fight. One, might I add, that you were winning" Ember crossed her arms, holding her ground and refusing to budge an inch.

" You don't have to like me, I won't be here much longer anyways. But I will be damned if I don't give you a piece of my mind" Ember's furious rant, caught Penny by surprise and she was unsure of how to react.

" From what I could I tell, you lost control the last time you two had a fight. And you beat the hell out of Lysette. Now, maybe you are mad that you couldn't control yourself. Or maybe you are mad that you got hurt so bad in the first place before you were able to create a real offense. I don't know. But what I do know is this. You two are different. You two have very different skill sets and are very different people" She continued.

" Have you ever considered that maybe fighting isn't your thing? That maybe, you would better handling things in a different way. I don't even know what you are but I know Lysette is a Lycan. And from my understanding, Lycans are great at fighting. They are naturals, and you, you are not one. So then stop trying to handle things like one. If you are training to defend yourself, I think you are fine. But I don't care what Lysette tells you, there are other ways to handle your problems or the problems you face besides violence. I mean look at the world right now. Violence got us into this mess. I doubt its going to be the way to get us out of it" Ember had to stop for a moment to catch her breath. She had never been in a position where she had to scorn people but this felt right to her. She believed the words she spoke to be the truth and she knew deep down that Penny needed to hear them.

" You don't know anything about me..and you don't know Lysette as much as you think you do. I would appreciate it if you would please leave me alone" Penny rolled over, now ignoring anything and everything Ember would have to say. " Wow you are stubborn" Ember sighed as she walked over to the bed and placed her hand on Penny's shoulder before spinning her around.

" Now listen, here is what is going to happen. You are going to go down stairs and you are going to apologize to Lysette, and she is going to apologize to you. And if you don't do what I'm telling you to...there will be consequences " Ember threatened and was unaffected by Penny's angry glare back to her.

" I could crush you..why in the world do you think that I would listen to you? " Penny growled which made Ember smirk, a smirk that unsettled Penny in a way she could not quite describe.

" Because I knew where you are hurt" Ember reaches up and pokes Penny in her ribs and Penny screams in pain.

" I'm not coming down stairs" Penny howls which made Ember smile even wider.

" Alright well I guess we are doing this the hard way then" And with that, Ember grabbed Penny by her Ankles and began dragging her off the bed, and down the hall to the staircase as Penny screamed for help.

Lysette ran to the bottom of the staircase to see what the commotion was and saw Ember who was now dragging Penny down the staircase. Dozens of thuds could be heard as Penny's head hit every step on the way down.

" What the hell do you think you are doing? " Lysette tried to stop Ember who showed Lysette away.

" I am going to make you two get along and talk this crap out one way or another. You are both stubborn as hell so we are going to do things the hard way. The Ember way" Ember answered as she reached down and picked Penny up and put her over her shoulder, and then walked to the couch and dropped Penny onto it.

" Now sit down" Ember commanded Lysette who did not move fast enough to Ember's liking.

" I SAID SIT DOWN!" Ember shouted which surprisingly made Lysette duck into the nearest chair.

" Now you two are going to work this out, and we are not leaving here until you do"