Lance was six when he was told that he was not properly human.

It starts with the face scales. His were thick bright blue lines that thinned out at the tips, curving under his eyes and then going straight down his cheek and curving towards the corners of his mouth, but not touching. His Mama's were similar, in the sense that they were the that they were just a bit thinner and just a bit shorter, stopping halfway down her cheek, glowing a golden hue even on the darkest of midsummer nights. His papa's, on the other hand, had had a shiny black that had a red tint to it when the light reflected just right, and the shape being much smaller than even his mothers, crescent moons had that reached from the corners of his eyes to stopping in line with his nostril.

Everyone's marks were unique, coming in all shapes and sizes, to the point that his one of his older sisters had once exclaimed that their family alone had enough different colours that they could fill out the rainbow, which is a very cool concept for six-year-old Lance, that all their face scales were so diverse that they could create an ENTIRE rainbow.

For him, the scales were something of a norm, just as was the pointy ears was something that everyone had, and how everyone could do magic when they were old enough.

So, when he was told that he had to hide them if he wanted to go to school, he naturally, freaked out.

"But Mama! I can't hide them! They're too pretty to hide, and then I'll be the only one without them!" He exclaimed loudly on lunchtime, and his mother only smiled and shook her head while rocking one of Lance's younger siblings in her arms.

"Baby, the other children don't have face scales or even pointy ears or even the same hair colour like us." Lance frowned at the explanation, latching onto his blue locks.

"Why not? Everyone has them!" His Mama only sighed and put the baby down in the highchair, and sat in the chair next to it.

"Lance, we're not humans, so us Alteans have a completely different biological structure that opposes humans-" She cut herself, realising that her son did not get a word he just said, so she for a moment, thinking carefully about what her next words were going to be. "You remember Aang from the TV show you watched?"

Lance frown turned into a smile, and he nodded happily at the reference to his favourite TV in the whole wide world. Of course he remembered Aang! He was the Avatar, and an airbender and super cool because he could bend all the elements while everyone else could only just do one or sometimes none.

"Well, we're a bit like Aang, but instead of tattoos, we have face scales. But, we can't let the other children know that we have them or they'll tell the Fire Kingdom and then they'll take you away!" Mama replied in a stage whisper, that made Lance's eyes widen as his childhood innocence absorbed the reason as to why couldn't show of his face scales. He didn't want to be taken to the evil Fire Lord!

"Okay, Mama." He went to go back to eating his two slices of pizza and garlic knots only to be overcome with a thought.

"Hey Mama?"

"Yes baby?

"How will I hide the face scales?" She smiled at him and took his small greasy hands and took them in her own. Lance frowned for a moment, wondering where his mother was going with this, only to blink in surprise a warm feeling flooded through him, as if being hit by a powerful ray of sunshine after hiding from it in the dark and cold all day, from where his Mama held his hand to the rest of his body, mainly focusing on his face and ears. His hands were then quickly torn from their place onto his face, feeling for the tell-tale sign of his face that his face marks only to discover that they had in fact disappeared.

"They're gone!" His mother only laughed at his reaction.

"Don't worry, baby. They'll be back soon." Lance only smiled at her reply and went back to his lunch.

"So now the Fire Nation can't take me away."

His Mama only sighed in response.

Lance was ten when he started his Druid training.

He had been waiting forever to start his training, especially since his older siblings were well into their own, individual training, all by different people, due to the different colours of their scales, which correlates to what their quintessence is like, Lance had soon come to learn. For example, his eldest sister, Denise, was being taught by their mother due to his sister's bright orange face scales that sometimes shone brighter than the sun. His next oldest sister, Paulyne, however, was tutored by their paternal grandfather, as both had dark stormy grey scales that held a similar shape to that of his father. His older sister, Catharyne, refused to study quintessence, and had decided that he would much rather study the history of their family under her Aunt instead.

Lance never really got Catharyne.

The person who had the closest quintessence to him was his Abuela*, a short woman whose pink hair has begun to grow sliver, not that her age stopped the glow of her cyan face scales. So, on his 10th birthday, after opening his cards and presents, Abuela took him from the main part of the house into the barn.

Before today, he had never even been into the barn, he's never been allowed, due to his lack of training and his inability to not touch things that had the potential to be very dangerous. But, following Abuela though the entrance, what he saw was slightly disappointing, as, surprise surprise, it didn't meet the high expectations that the now 10-year-old had put upon it. It looked like a normal barn, being rather dark with a large open plan with cupboards and filing cabinets lining the walls, instead of the super computers and the bright florescent lights like he imagined. There wasn't even any electricity wired into the building, there was no need to, Lance had later thought, for there was candles littered everywhere, you couldn't look anywhere without noticing at least five at any one time. Abuela walked in, lighting a match and setting some candles, ones that were arranged in a circle, making it not too dissimilar to a sacrificial ritual to the devil, letting the scent of the candle wax and fire fill the barn. Following his Abuela into the circle, he was gestured to sit of one of two ugly throw cushions. Abuela then sat in front of him on the other pillow, and opened a non-descript box. Out of it she pulled… different coloured glowing rocks?

"Abuela, what are they for?" She smiled brightly at him, mirth dancing in her eyes as she locked onto her grandson's. Slowly, she set them out in two rings, the one to his left holding red, blue, yellow, black and white, while, on his right, there was purple, green, brown, grey and orange.

"These, Lance, are the ten different types of quintessence. To you left are the primary colours, the ones that hold great importance to the makings of the universe. To your right, are the secondary colours. Just as important as the primary colours, never undermined them Lance, but they just so happen to be made up of the primary colours." Lance paid rapt attention to every word that came out of Abuela's mouth, making sure to catch every word that fell out, not noticing his grandmother's sad smile towards his enthusiasm.

"Now, what I'm about to tell you will be the base for all the quintessence training that you will ever do." Lance nodded his head vigorously. "For the primary colours, Red represents the quintessence that is outside the body. White represents the quintessence inside the host, the host being the other person, an important term to learn. Yellow is the quintessence inside your own body, whereas blue is the quintessence of the mind, any mind that is, not just one. Finally, black is the movement of quintessence. You get that, Lance?" Lance looked at her in shock. He wasn't expecting so much information in one go.

"Could you go over that again please?"

Lance was thirteen when his first learnt about the Galra Empire.

"Why are were here?"

Denise looked up from her book, her sun orange face scales lighting up the written form below her. Across the kitchen table her was her baby brother, her only brother. He was supposed to be studying for the science exam he had in the next week, but clearly his mind was elsewhere.

"What do you mean?" She replied, watching him as he continued to stare at the science textbook he had in his hands, as if that contained the answers he was looking for.

"Why are we on Earth? We're not humans, so we must have come from somewhere else, right?" The thirty-year-old looked at their younger sibling quizzingly. Surely Abuela must have mentioned why they were on Earth, she had been training him for over three years now, unless…

"Have you asked Abuela?" She asked while going back to her book.

"Yes, I have!" Denise blinked at Lance's remark, looking back up to face the angry teen. He had slammed the book in front of him closed, a hand on the cover, hiding an image of the planet Neptune. "All she said was 'You'll find out soon enough, Lance' or 'Maybe when you're a bit older, Lance'. Why is it so important for me not to know?!"

Ah, so Abuela was going to go down that route. Now, Denise was at a crossroad, one that could go either way. One of them would be to tell him that she didn't know, which Lance wouldn't believe for a second leaving her with the only option that she had to tell him something. But what to tell him? He needed a lengthy explanation, one that the others can back up when he asks them too, he wasn't going to stop at her when he wanted questions answered. But, on the other hand, there was a reason why Abuela didn't tell him anything, just in case. So, she couldn't tell him everything, so maybe a filtered version will do?

Putting her book down, careful to mark the page she was at, Denise stared at her younger brother. Hopefully Abuela wouldn't murder her for telling him this…

"We're hiding." She stated.

"From what?" A short terse reply.

"The Galra, mainly Zarkon."

"Who?" Now Lance looked puzzled, but intrigued. This was good, meaning that all his questions would be aimed more at the Galra and Zarkon rather than the reason why they were on this planet in particular.

"The Galra, they're a species in the depths of space. 10,000 years ago, the Galrans and the Alteans used to be allies, according to the records, but something happened to break the trust that they had, causing the Galran to destroy the planet our ancestors used to live on." She explained.

"So they want to kill us because we didn't die on the planet?" Lance asked.

"Yes." She replied. Denise was not going to the true reason that they were hiding, just like she wasn't going to tell him why they were on Earth. That job could be left for somebody else.

Talking about somebody else…

i told Lance that the Galran exist: Best Daughter Ever

Why?: Mother Dearest

cause he asked duh: Best Daughter Ever

Did you tell him anything else?: Mother Dearest

no: Best Daughter Ever

who do u think i am?: Best Daughter Ever

Good.: Mother Dearest

Last Seen At 14:47