 
December 21, 2012

By: M. S. West

Published by WSIC EBooks Ltd.

Copyright July 31, 2011 by WSIC Ebooks Ltd.

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter 1

"The time is coming son."

"Yes, we know father, what are we to do?"

"You don't need me to tell you what you must do. This is all part of the cycle so either make your choices or let them all go."

"I understand."

"So what is bothering you then?"

"I dislike throwing away something that we worked so hard on. We were sure this time they would make great leaps and bounds but...."

"Don't let it bother you son. I have prepared another place so you have a chance to try again. It took me almost twenty tries before I got it right."

"What kept you going father? We expend all that energy for so little results."

"Belief that they can do better....that they can be better. As anything worth doing it takes a lot of energy and like a gardener, the time has come for pruning the good from the bad. The bad you discard, the good you nurture."

"I understand."

"If you plan to salvage some of those good seeds then you should send Maryalyan ahead."

"Maryalyan! You know what happened the last time she was down there."

"I remember, I also remember that it did not work out so well for you either. It was a little ugly but the two of you managed to learn much about them then."

"Yes we did but why shouldn't I be the one to go down there and take charge of things."

"Because Maryalyan is much more sensitive to them than you are. Right or wrong, when she laid with that male to get a true feel of the human spirit she achieved a special bond that you are just beginning to understand. If you want your next generation to "leap" she is your best chance."

"I guess." The son replies grudgingly.

"Oh come, surely you can do without your pairing for a few eye blinks."

"It's not that. I just hate to sully her by placing her in the middle of the mess."

"That is what "wives", to borrow the human term, are for; to help clean up after you." The father laughs at his son. "Besides purifying her after will give the two of you something to do while you discuss what went wrong."

"As always you are right father. I guess I should go to her and start begging now."

The father's laugh rings throughout the universe and the son considers it a good time to take his leave.

\----------

The man picks up his cell phone and answers the call.

"Sir, we have just noticed some kind of pulse coming from deep space."

"And?"

"It's coming from a place in space that it shouldn't be and it is on the move."

"What are you talking about and give me the simply explanation."

"A week ago Omega picked up a flicker in a place where nothing should be so we turned her fully towards the flicker and we have been monitoring it. Over the last week the flicker changed to more of a pulse so we speculate that it's on the move."

"And I still don't see why you are bothering me."

"Well Sir, it's moving towards us and its moving fast."

"And what does that mean to us?" The man is now curious.

"It is still far out in space. So far out that we may be seeing just an echo of what was there so we are not sure yet what we are seeing but whatever it is or was it is moving fast, very fast."

"Keep an eye on it and tell me the minute you know what it is and what it means to us."

"Yes sir."

For a year, they track the pulse. They wait in anticipation as it speeds towards earth. Speculations range far and wide as to the makeup and purpose of the pulse setting the astrology world on the edge of some grand discovery. Just when they believe it is about to get close enough for them to fully understand the pulse, it disappears leaving the hundred that have been watching crushed and disappointed.

Chapter 2

The man know to most people as The Judge is sitting behind his desk reviewing the data that flashes across his computer screen and he is happy enough with the results. It has taken him a long time to get here but the ultimate goal finally looks to be within reach. For years he had been working towards this goal though it was his advancement to the head of the International Court, well that and the timely natural disasters and usual fanatics around the world that has made it all possible.

The birth of the project had started before his time but back then, it was only an idea being bantered around. Once he had become aware of it and of the possibilities it had become his pet project, for the project was exactly what he needed to achieve his ultimate goal.

Therefore, for the last ten years he has been to advancing the project's cause every time he had the opportunity to do so. It was a slow and sometimes frustrating process and at first, he made little headway. That was until that day that has commonly become known as 9-11. Those idiotic terrorists had unwittingly given him the very opening he needed to finally get the support of the one nation that fought him tooth and nail at every turn.

The momentum started with 9-11 but other factors helped to build it to what it is today, like the natural disasters, not that these disasters meant anything to The Judge other than what they did to forward his cause. The environmentalists can blame man all they want, as their fear mongering has done nothing but helped his cause.

Also helping his cause are the big corporations and especially when they start losing money. The volcano in Iceland was a giant boost for it hit the pocketbooks of corporations and governments both. Other disasters also helped like the earthquake in Haiti that almost destroyed a nation, and of course the earthquake and tsunami in Japan that not only wiped out a village that had stood for hundreds of years but destroyed the country's delicate electrical system, hurting the pocket book of yet another corporation and government.

Oh yes the environmentalist can scream all they want for the more they scream the more money corporations and governments put into his pocket. As long as the money keeps flowing the project keeps going forward and the longer those bloody environmentalist keep relying on data his supporters are supplying to them the better.

Truly amazing.... Put something in print with lots enough fancy words and then muddy the issue with nonsense data; do that and suddenly it becomes a fact and everyone is screaming to high heavens.

Funny enough, his biggest boost to the project came during a time when corporations, banks and even countries throughout the world threatened to go bankrupt. The rich found themselves not so rich, corporations, banks, and countries begged and threatened for help, people became homeless, they starved, they killed themselves in shame, they begged and the money started to flow. Hurt the pocketbook and you get more action than all the screaming, riots, fear mongering, or bombings. When crunch came to crunch, they finally understood the need for one controlling entity and the money and resources became his.

Now the time is almost right. If only he could topple a few more governments like the ones that had recently toppled in Egypt, Tunisian, and Kyrgyz to name a few. His men were pros at leading revolutions and if his plots to destabilize European countries and the Americas work then the governments around the world will beg him for help, beg him to turn it on.

Over ninety percent of the population have been injected and one way or another they will soon be under his control. Whether they live or die, whether they can bank or not, whether they can shop, move from country to country, province to province, city to city will all be within his control.

He stopped the injections just last week for the world is over populated and ninety percent has always been his goal. As for the other ten percent; the world doubted the death camps, the hardships, the lost of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, well let them see millions die on their streets and maybe they will become believers.

God bless those of the true faith. The Jews have always been your people, we have suffered in your name and we wait patiently for the day you come to embrace us into your bosom. Until that day those not of our faith will suffer under your yoke as they were always meant to do.

Everything is going perfectly and as long as that madman Dr. Zimmerman does what he claims, he can do....

When he put his weight behind the project, he was a much younger man. What had been driving him all these years was his desire, no need to teach the world a lesson but it has taken so long and now age is making itself known. Then at some point, his priorities had changed and his little pet project had become a legacy for his children. He has been very careful and had carefully groomed and advanced his children so that when his time came they would be the ones in control; they would have the power.

At first The Judge thought that would be enough but then he had heard about Dr. Zimmerman and his unorthodox medical experiments. In fact, the doctor was about to be hauled in front of him for crimes against humanity but when his men investigated the doctor, a new hope bloomed for The Judge. The doctor had been involved in unorthodox experiments that left most of his "patients" dead but he was a medical genius on the edge of a breakthrough; a breakthrough that The Judge was very interested in.

Therefore, instead of hauling him in front of his court The Judge managed to make him disappear and The Hole has been his home ever since. Much to The Judge's surprise the doctor is quite satisfied being locked away inside a deep hole; as long as he kept supplying the good doctor with subjects that is and after all these year it finally seems to be paying off.

The doctor had finally found something lingering in a small minority of the population, which excited The Judge more than anything has done in many years. When the doctor informed him of his discovery, The Judge had increased his funding and provided him with the best of equipment to help further that research. In the end it was not money as much as the change in the purpose of his "policing force" that brought the greatest result; now the doctor has promised him a long life if not immorality.

The man known as The Judge smiles and turns off his monitor.

Chapter 3

Everyone is calling her a ditz; even the social worker she went to see last week thought she was a ditz. The social worker, as always was pleasant enough to Mary but Mary saw it in her eyes, heard it in her voice, her empathy.....you are a stupid and ignorant woman but I will help you just the same.

Mary is a pretty, young lady of twenty-five, with long dark hair and green eyes that can swallow a man but it is her inner being, which seems to suck people to her, even when they think she is being a ditz. Therefore, even though Mary is the only one that believes she has a problem and even though the social worker thinks she had lost her marbles, she had recommended and set up an appointment with a doctor.

Mary had gone to see this doctor; had in fact just returned home from seeing him. She had withstood his testing but she is feeling very disappointed at that visit. The doctor had not been able to tell her any more than she knew herself; she is healthy....absolutely healthy, not a thing wrong with her, not even malnutrition which is a common factor in those whose depend on the streets for their living.

The streets, now there is another thing that does not make sense. Every day she goes out, every day she warns any that will listen about The End, everyday she watches as those living on the streets are abused and killed by other people who live on the streets, by the police, the drug users and pushers, the gangs but never her.

More than once, she had seen the look in a man's eye as he had looked at her, seen him make his way for her, but then......it is as if she does not exist. The man's gaze passes over her and whatever it was that was driving him to come to her suddenly vanishes. The man turns and walks away and most often than not to his death.

Just like that man today. He had come upon her as she was making her way to the doctor. Mary cannot explain it but the evil that hung around the man was palpable. The man had come to her and his intent was clear....until he caught her eyes. For a minute or more, they stood motionless and stared at each other, the man's eyes glazed and when they came back into focus, it was as if Mary was not there. The man walked right past her and into the street where his life promptly ended as an ornament on the front of a truck grill.

Mary remembers that so clearly, so why is it she has no memory of her life past the last six months. Yesterday was no problem or the week before that or the one before that, but try to go back for more than six months and nothing.

For months, she has been on the streets searching for something. What that something is not even she can say. Something has been driving her out there but what.....what is it, what is it that she needs so badly that it forces her from her home everyday to search. For six months now, she has been warning those that will listen about "The End" and as she did so, she has been searching.

She knows that there is someone very important to her out there somewhere and that there is something very important that she is suppose to be doing but that is the extent of it, or at least the extent of what she feels. It's like she has been walking in a daze for twenty-five years and then six months ago, everything became clear and here she is....now what?

Mary has no job and not being able to remember more than six months of her life gives her little hope of ever getting a job. The room she is calling her home is only thanks to the social worker, her food comes from the food kitchens, the clothing from charities. So for months she has been begging to make ends meet, proclaiming "The End", and searching.

And then there is the recent development of her paranoia. Someone is watching her, she is sure of it. Thinking back hard Mary realizes that she had felt that feeling since, well since what she has come to call her awakening so feeling watched really was nothing new, what is new is the paranoia. That day six months ago everything finally became clear, that day her mind started working again and then right after that came the feeling of being watched; this as much as anything else is ready to drive her over the edge.

With almost mechanical precision, Mary eats her supper, then washes the dishes and afterwards sits in front of the television. She turns on the twelve-inch television and the television, tuned to the news channel blares to life.

This is another matter that Mary cannot explain. Since her awakening, she has had a burning desire to watch the news, to know what is going on, to be in touch with the latest. Sadly, most of the news is about murders, wars, bombings, terrorist, overthrowing of world leaders and so on and even though she knows this is not what she is looking for she cannot help but watch. Even stupider is the fact that watching the news always leaves Mary in an agitated state but just as she keeps searching on the streets, she searches the news.

Tonight as Mary watches, she becomes ever more agitated therefore, after watching the news for a couple of hours she turns it off and decides on a bath, because for some reason a bath always relaxes her. She loves to submerge herself in the water, to block out the world, to let her mind drift. Only while she is doing so does she ever feel restive or at peace.

Tonight though is not Mary's lucky night for when she goes to use the one and only bathroom in the building she finds a line up already forming by others that have had the same thought. Sighing in resignation Mary makes her way back to her room.

Chapter 4

That night sleep does not come easy for Mary but come it finally does. For half the night she sleeps fitfully, and now Mary is tossing and turning in her bed. What is causing her to toss and turn has invaded her mind before; and invasion it must be for Mary refuses to believe that it is her mind that is making up this dream or the vision she is experiencing.

It is dark, which does not make sense as it is only noon and the large clock confirms what the mind is having trouble accepting. She watches the clock tick away the time, 11:58, 11:59, 12:00....it takes her a few seconds to realize when the ticking and the rotation of the second hand has stopped....12:01.

Her body is ripped from earth and is thrown far into space. She briefly considers how strange it is that she does not feel the cold or the need for air, but such are dreams. She looks down at the blue planet...from here it looks so beautiful, so perfect...she remembers the first time she had ever seen it, how the lava flowed and how the ground seemed to be forever on the move. That was beauty too and she had spent an eon simply enjoying that sight.

As quick as a blink she is on the move again. Her stomach lurches, threatens to heave its contents and just as suddenly as it started, movement stops, making her stomach heave again. Mary opens her eyes and the vision before her has changed.

Dinosaurs, she remembers....this is not a dream but a memory, but how can it be. There, they once played with those and that one over there they would ride for hours and hours. The feel of them beneath her, they would laugh and feel each other's joy........ they.....who was that other in they? No, it has to be all a dream, but it feels so real, so much like memories.

The vision changes again and this time she sees a man and a woman. They have just awakened and sit naked in an open field. The sun is hot and bright, spring flowers release their scents and the man and women explore their differences and similarities. She watches as the overwhelming urge to breed overcomes them........and then watches as they experience their first baby.

Mary remembers the joy she had felt when she had first seen them, the joy she felt as they discovered each other, and these two were only one pair of many other pairs they had seeded over the land. She remembers the scene below being played out repeatedly; she remembers witnessing them, remembers experiencing them all, but how?

Time flows forward so rapidly that it becomes a sickening blur. The blur becomes a re-visit of her memories. Mary comes to acknowledge that what she is seeing are true memories and images and not the nightmarish dream she was hoping for. She acknowledges that the feelings she is feeling were those she originally felt; happiness, sadness, sorrows, elation, joy, anger; she closes her eyes.

When she reopens her eyes, it takes her some time to reconcile what she is seeing. Her body is floating inside a structure and she looks down as if she is a spectator to the event occurring within and that event is confusing enough that it makes her head spin. The one thing she is certain of though is that this is not the time and place she had gone to bed knowing.

Below her a man, a very old almost ancient man is working. The man is of Indian origins and is dressed, as an Indian would have dressed thousands of years ago. It takes only a few seconds longer for Mary to remember the name that humans have come up for them, Mayan.

The "Mayan" of old had been one of their favorites, a very promising branch, but even back then, they knew how it would end.......they....who is the they?

The old man is writing on some type of parchment that she remembers but cannot quite place; parchment that has been very carefully and skillfully prepared.

The building that the ancient man sits in comes into focus and Mary sees that the building is made of thick white washed stone. Outside the window, a window, which is nothing more than a space with no stone, is a jungle and well beyond that is what looks to be pyramids.

When the wind picks and sets the hangings on the walls flapping, her attention comes back to the interior. Looking closely at the hangings she recognizes them to be of the same material that sits in front of the old man.

Mary mores closer to the hangings but even looking at them closer does little to help her make out what these scribbling may be. They are familiar, yet do not seem to make any sense; some symbols are repeated repeatedly, others less so.

A sigh catches her attention. The old man's hand has paused in its scribbling. It now sits unmoving over the parchment. The man's inner light is joyful and bright but whatever he is seeing in his mind's eye is affecting that joy. For a long time he wanders his mind, his inner light dims and brightens repeatedly; that old man's inner light calls to Mary. It is so bright, so right, it is what they have been......have been, what is it they have been doing......and who is they.

The old man finally lowers his hand, commences to scribble again but stops within a blink of the eye. Deep in thought he looks out the window, looks to the sky and finally giving a big sigh he puts down his writing stick, raises and leaves.

Mary floats in to take a closer look. The parchment is only half filled so why did the old man not finish what he started. Memories.....very old memories; a calendar, a visit to a bright one, the laughter, the joy, and yes the old man knows for out of love for that brightness she had told him herself.

Another sudden shift, her head spins in dizziness, and once more, she finds herself flung far into the sky and then even further; into space beyond.

The movement of the planets on the other side of the earth catches her eye. They are moving strangely...one planet stops, then another, another, and another. In the end, they line up in a perfect union. One planet sits directly behind the other and the only reason Mary knows this is because she witnessed them lining up for if this was her first look without that foreknowledge she would never know; at least to this extent as some of the larger planets hide the smaller in their shadow.

To the left....something is opening, something dark, black, and endless. Whatever it is, it does not look inviting and Mary has no desire to get closer to that blackness, but apparently, her mind feels differently for it flings her body towards the menacing hole. Mary's releases a silent scream in her dreams and a very loud audible scream in the land of the living. Her neighbor bangs on his wall.

Mary struggles to get away, to wake up but her dream has her firmly trapped and refuses to release her. Once more Mary screams and continues that scream until she comes to realize that her body is no longer being flung into the hole, but back to that beautiful blue planet below.

Down her body goes; dust particles sting her eyes, the smell of pollution is nauseating. Mary closes her eyes in an attempt to once again keep her rebelling stomach from releasing its contents and thus she does not immediately realize when her body stops its downward movement.

Once more, time shifts and Mary witnesses the suffering of many, the vulgarity of even more, the abuse, the shouting, the screaming, the greed, and the deaths. Wars ancient and new, torture for the sake of torture, bombings and laughter at the resulting deaths, it all comes in a rush.

Time spins......opening her eyes, she recognizes the place and time. Chaos reins and humans run, scream, and cry. The very core of the planet is shaking itself apart resulting in mayhem and destruction untold.

And then....no....it cannot be; Mary cries.

"Why do you cry center of my being?"

"The suffering!" Mary replies.

"The suffering is of their making. For thousands of their years they have been following this path. We have watched and despaired for them but there has always been that glimmer of hope."

"But must it all end?"

"Center of my being we discussed this for a very long time. We knew that this day was to come and we agreed to our best course of action when the end came, no that is not right, not an end just another beginning. Remember me, remember yourself, remember our dreams, and remember what it is you are there to do.

"I feel lost; there should be someone by my side!"

"I am always by your side my pairing. Remember yourself Maryalyan as your task will not be easy and time grows short."

Before Mary can respond her body is once again on the move. Faster and faster; she screams, the neighbour bangs the wall. She stops....the stop so sudden it feels like she has been slammed into the wall.

Her scream cuts short and Mary sits up wide-eyed and sweating. Gulping for air, she looks around and tries to reconcile where she is with where she just was. Each breath that she takes steadies her; each breath that she exhales calms until finally she no longer feels like the world is falling away.

The dream, it is fading much too quickly. Mary knows it is important, she knows she must not forget but it slips away much too fast for her to grasp. She knows that the dreams hold all of her answers, if only she could hold on, grasp it by the tail and make it do her bidding.

She losses it and even though she knows of the dreams importance it is with reluctance that Mary lays back down on the bed and feeling insecure, rolls up in a ball.

Chapter 5

The next morning Mary wakes with much more clarity than she has in the last six months. The dream or nightmare or whatever it was had not revisited her and she had slept well for the rest of the night. She feels much better about the day for even though her past is still shrouded in mist; the present has become clear. She looks around with her new clarity; the sun makes the day bright and cheery, but this seems in direct contradiction to the wrongness she feels oozing into her.

It is with that mixed feeling that she makes her way from her bed and with that same feeling that she stumbles around the kitchen making her breakfast. Breakfast becomes a chore but she manages to eat for her body demands it. It is with relief that she finally makes her way out of the dilapidated room she calls home to start her new day.

\----------

Mary has been walking in a daze for an hour before she comes to realize that she is not sure what "her day" should be consisting of; she releases a frustrated growl. This morning everything seemed so clear and now.... she searches for a bench in the park that she walked into during her daze. Finding one unoccupied, she sits down to consider her next move.

Except for the birds, the spot she chooses is isolated and quiet. She breathes deeply to dispel her frustrations and listens intently to the birds as they sing their songs and some instinct deep down tells her that they are happy today. Their songs are songs of joy, songs of enthusiasm of the coming day, excitement for the young they will surely have in the spring.

Mary is surprised when she finds herself replying to those songs and soon thereafter, she is surrounded with said birds; the gathering is unprecedented as natural enemies sit calmly next to each other. Sparrows, robins, hawks, crows, eagles, ravens, and chickadees; it makes no difference to them for right now it is all about the shining woman on the bench.

Mary touches each, delves inside it seems. This one is too old, that one too young and unreliable. She touches each and only when she finds the right mix; young, healthy, bright-eyed does she smile and not knowing why she does it or even how she marks it. The physical marks flare when applied and then disappears shortly thereafter leaving them without blemish but deep down she feels the thrumming.

The birds play and flop about and Mary smiles at their silliness, laughs at their antics, and chats with them for a long time. She feels so comforted, so at home, she could stay here forever it seems. It is just when she is feeling that nothing can go wrong that her peace is shattered. The birds dig their claws into her painfully, their voices rise in alarm, the sound so loud that it hurts the ear, and then they take flight. Mary looks at them in bewilderment and then suddenly finds herself on the ground with a heavy weight holding her down.

She panics. She has never been handled so roughly, she has always been invisible to them.....She struggles to move and the presence on her back pushes her painfully into the sweet smelling grass. A gruff voice warns her to be still and if the voice is not enough to convince her that stillness is her best option; the knife that appears before her eyes helps convey the message. Mary stops all of her struggling and waits.

Strong hands roll her over and a large hand immediately goes to her throat. Mary looks up into the eyes of a man filled with hate and loathing. The body knows it should be afraid, that it should fear for its life but something strong and bright inside her gives the body the courage to face those eyes without flinching.

"Why?" she asks simply.

The man slams her head into the ground, stars explode and she hears a voice telling her to be quiet. Then the voice goes on to give her a very descriptive picture of what will happen if she does not obey him and as the man babbles, Mary feels the knife cutting the front of her shirt.

The stars that have been floating in front of her eyes finally clear and Mary lies quietly absorbing the essence of the man's spirit. She learns what has gotten this man to this point, what drives him, what makes him what he is. So deeply does she go within him that she almost loses herself and it is only when she hits his inner most blackness that she finds the will to escape his trap.

Her eyes come back into focus and she once again sees only the man. His spirit is one of the "bad weeds" that she remembers talking to another about and it is doing exactly what it was meant to do when it came into existence.

The man leers down at her naked flesh with such intensity that he does not even see the hand that she raises to his forehead. Her finger touches and her voice so soft to be almost inaudible.

"May your mind live forever in revelation."

The man's leering changes to screams of torment. Dropping the knife he takes hold of his head, a head that he is sure is going to explode. The mark on his forehead glows brightly; he swears in his pain; it flares and pulses causing him more pain than he has ever felt before.

The man finally manages to stagger to his feet and glares down at Mary. Calling her a bitch, he brings his foot back to kick her but the mark flares anew. Once again, he screams at the pain and finally not able to take any more flees.

Mary calmly watches him flee, and then she sits and repairs the damage the man did to her clothing. When she has repaired her shirt as much as possible, she again looks at her surroundings. Surprise shows on her face when she realizes that the sun is well on its way to setting; for she is sure that when she sat is was early morning.

Standing up, she completes the repairs to her shirt and calmly walks out of the park. As she is exiting the park, she passes three police that are struggling to restrain a screaming man. The man screams of incoming doom and of a woman cursing him. He boldly claims responsibility to a number of vile acts; rape, torture, and murder. He babbles and he drools.....any hope the police have of calming this man down is shattered when he lays eyes on the exiting Mary for the very sight of her causes the mark to blaze anew. He falls to the ground in convulsions. The tip of his tongue that was between his teeth falls to the ground, his legs buck and spasm, and his screams increase in both volume and pitch.

Mary turns away and commences the long walk home. As she does she becomes more in tune to the humans around her. Their "spirits", for want of a better word scream for her. They beg her for attention; just a word, just one blessing; we want you...we need you....come to us and let us rest in your embrace. People start looking at her with more interest; something draws them. They recognize her but how and from where no one can say.

Mary feels those around her, feels them calling, and feels their wrongness. They are all twisted, all wrong. They beg for her but it is not with brightness that they beg but with dark menacing selflessness. This morning she had hope but hope threatens to shatter when she finds none worthy. In desperation, she pushes these spirits away.

Entering her apartment building that loathing and unworthiness continues to assault her body....so even where she lives she is not free from the pounding and seeking. It pulses, pushes and pulls at her, begging for her attention so forcefully that by the time she makes it to her own apartment she is breathing hard from the ruthless attacks against her being.

Mary closes the door firmly and then holding her head against those trying to invade, falls into a crouching position with her back against the door.

Help me. Even if I do not know who you are, I know you are out there. I can feel you close beside me. There is something.... something strong between us. We are one.....I am only a half without you...oh why are you doing this to me, why have you seen it necessary to torment me this way! Enfold me; make me whole again for I have yet to gain control and if this continues..."

A love so great that Mary is unable to describe it cocoons her. The pressures of the outside world dissipate in nothingness until it is no more than a thread. She wraps that love around her tighter and even though she is at a lost to place it, she knows that she has known this love for all of her existence. Place it or not she dwells within it until she has repaired the battering against her being, though even when her body no longer trembles in weariness she is reluctant to leave that embrace.

She would have loved to stay in that safety forever but she knows she has something important to do, even if she cannot put a finger on it yet. She is certain that the "other" is there to support her in her time of need but also knows that if she shirks her responsibility it will be greatly disappointed in her, not to mention how disappointed she will be herself. She is a part of this as much as the other, she is as responsible of this as is the other, she had agreed......yes agreed to this....So reluctantly, she pulls herself together and even more reluctantly, she pulls herself free from the other's safety.

For a long time she sits with her back against the door. The outside world she is able to buffer once again and she no longer feels like it is going to rip her apart. But even reassured that she has control, she sits quietly, repairing the few remaining frayed edges of her battered being. Even after she feels repaired she simply sits and concentrates on her breathing and when finally she stands, she needs to steady herself against the door. As she braces herself she comes to a quick decision. Mary grabs the nearest towel and makes her way to the bathroom to submerge herself in a bath with the feeble hope that water will wash away the stench of the day and block the unwanted noise.

Mary lays submerged in the bath for a long time and would have continued doing so if the banging on the door did not get so insistent that she feared whoever was banging would soon break it down. Therefore, it is with reluctance that she returns to her room. Back in her room and like the night before she finds herself sitting on her threadbare sofa; though this time she does not need the television to tell her the news. She feels it all around her, she lives it and she dies with it. She is the one being tormented, the one torturing, the murderer, the rapist, the bomber....wars, guns firing, screams of pain, howling of the mad, the demented; the need for power and more power, never satisfied....greed, oh so much greed.....where to begin, how to find your way through all this madness.

It is the wee hours of the morning before her essence finally admits to the truth. So feebly an admittance that she at first refuses to acknowledge it; things are much worst than she imagined. How could they have let it get this bad...were they blind or indifferent? Tired and weak of spirit Mary finally crawls into her bed.

Chapter 6

The next morning Mary wakes to an overcast sky of dark menacing clouds; lightening crackles, thunder booms and icy raindrops fall from moisture-laden clouds. The morning reflects perfectly her mood and she looks out at the raging storm for with some satisfaction. The storm makes her feel so at home and wanted. The icy water washes away the foulness and lightening crackles in the air rebounding off steel building after steel building, and thunder booms. The storm is wild and Mary rides it with glee. Throwing open the windows and with arms spread wide she welcomes the tempest outside.

Calm, I am with you.

The voice sounds like it is next to her ear, yet when she looks nobody is there. She takes a deep breath, then another. The storm continues to sing to her blood but now she feels the fears and the hopelessness of the homeless as the try to flee to safety. She cares little for those she touches for she feels nothing but wrongness from them, but yet.... the weather may be hiding those she is searching. She takes a deep breath and then another; the storm outside starts to subside.

She feels intimate with the rain and the lightening, so intimate that she is reluctant to let them dissipate but the frighten voices drives her on. She cares nothing about the frightened ones but what about the others, the others that may be hiding, they may...no not may; they must be out there somewhere.

Mother Nature they call her, never realizing how close to the truth they are. The other.....who is this other.....the other does not have the patience for the gentleness that nature usually required so this naturally fell to her, though every now and then when her emotions went wild....well a glorious day such a day as today occurs.

By the time Mary opens her eyes, the storm is nothing more than a gentle rainfall. She smiles a welcoming smile. For eons, the humans have complained about the weather but they have no notion of what is required to stabilize the different areas around this planet when intervention is required. Most of the time it is preferable to let the weather happen naturally but occasionally a little help is needed and that little help she has always been more than happy to provide.

When it comes to the weather, Mary usually insists on consistency so as not to give the humans an unexpected surprise.

Humans, why would she think of them as such.

What is frustrating is that even though the weather has always been consistently good or bad in the various areas on earth humans still insisted in living where they were never meant to live.

And then there is the pollution. Sure they....who is that other in they.....they had made contingencies for the pollution and under normal circumstances it should not have bothered the weather for at least another eon but they had under-estimated human greed and it is this greed that causes much of the human suffering today. Mary gives her head a shake.

You are loosing it Mary, now you are thinking of yourself as.....well I am not going there.

Mary takes another calming breath, the rain gentles and the sun becomes just visible behind the clouds. Another breath and more calm, she reaches out not touching those who seek and not hunting so much as letting herself guide.

Her eyes snap open. Mary suddenly realizes that the hospital is where she needs to be. She dresses quickly and dashes out the door. She does not know what it is pulling her but she knows that something special awaits her at the hospital.

Mary runs to the subway and quickly scans the schedule to determine what train she needs to take then makes her way down to the platform. As she waits for the train, she becomes restless and paces until the train finally arrives. When the train stops she enters quickly and then sits in the first seat she sees free.

As the train surges forward she beings to think about human ingenuity, about how they have leap forward in their use of technology, their ability to design anything they require to solve whatever they perceive as problems. Need was the catalysis, greed the driving force.

She and the other had no idea that the humans were capable of such great leaps in technology at one time. As they watched the humans over the eons, they had seen the slow and steady progress they made; keeping their societies stable and secure. The last fifty years though, things had changed. What had once been slow steady growth had become a hotbed for the greedy and it was these greedy that cause the explosion in technological advancement.

The other.....who is that other....he always told her to watch for those who wanted more than they needed for it is from them that the most profound changes will come. Mary has to agree for she cannot remember one instance where a major change on earth was not the result of someone's greed.

The stopping of the subway car and the entrance of half a dozen youths and an elderly woman interrupt Mary's thoughts. The youths are harassing the elder as she enters. Mary probes and then turning her head looks back out the window of the car. She has little thought for the plight of old lady or for the harassing group as none of them burns bright and that brightness she now feels is what she is looking for.

Once again, her thoughts are disturbed but this time by the slap of a hand on the window she is looking out of and the brush of smelly breath against her cheek. Turing her head she looks to the youth that is crowding her. She estimates that he is no more than twenty and looking closely she determines that his origins are most likely from Jose' and Marie, the pair that was located in the area the humans now call Mexico.

Her mind flashes briefly to the past and she remembers fondly how those two had spawned some very troubling individuals over the eons, though every now and then one would be born that was so bright that the stars paled beside him or her. She is trying to reconcile how she can know this when she suddenly realizes that it is one of these "bright ones" that she is in a hurry to see today.

Once again, the brush of bad breath brings her back to the here and now. The youth, as are his friends are leering down at her. It is obvious that they are looking to cause trouble and only wait for her to say something....anything to give them reason.

Mary does not even bother wasting her breath. There is no use; these youths are well beyond redemption. She raises her hand, time seems to slow for the youths; they see her hand come up to touch their foreheads, yet they are powerless to stop that hand or to escape. An image appears on their foreheads, flares, and then fades.

When time rights again the youths find themselves remarkable changed. Where once they thrived on giving others fear they now fall over each other to make sure that all in the car are safe and comfortable.... never again will these youths be a bother to another, except maybe by being too overzealous in giving assistance.

Mary takes one last look at the youths and goes back to looking out the window. Somehow she realizes that the change she just invoked will eventually drive the youths mad and finally into seeking death, for a spirit cannot be forced to change. Mary and.... and whom....who is that other....had learned very early in the project about the spirit. A spirit is born as it is and to force a change as she just did will cause that spirit to howl like a demon until it finally breaks.

It is their failure....their.... who is the other in their, she can almost picture his brightness, feel his touch, his warmth......their failure in their ability to change the spirit that has caused much of the human suffering over the eons. Even though they had been warned....they...warned but whom...he is so wise, so all knowing....who...They had been warned but regardless of the warning they tried a few times and every try ended in disastrous results, which in the end always resulted in the death of the human. Therefore, over the eons, they had discovered that they can guide the spirit but cannot force it. The problem with guiding of course is that the underlying flaw is forever present and because the flaw is forever present, the spirit eventually ignores the guiding and returns to its original predefined, imprinted behavior.

Mary smiles when she remembers the immense amount of time and energy that humans have spent on trying to determine what makes one human do what they do; never realizing that the answer was simple and right there inside their own spirit. Hours upon hours, theories upon theories they come up with when all they have to do is look inside to realize that the truth is simple; the spirit is defined at birth and nothing can change it thereafter. Murders will always become murders regardless of their upbringing, as will rapist be rapist, wife beaters, drug users, radicals, and sadly enough, Hitlers will always be Hitlers.

That is not to say that some spirits do not take the long or hard path in getting to their final destination. Many of the spirits are conflicted between good and evil, or at least what they perceive to be good and evil. They fight but in the end, they follow what their spirit demands. Others follow their spirit's predefined paths without question and when it is one of those rare bright ones, like the "bright one" she is to visit today...well it moves humanity one step closer to perfection.

Mary remembers this "bright one" but cannot place the how of it. She remember its birth and the way the spirit had burned so brightly, so promising that it had caught both of their attention; which is unusual in itself as a spirit rarely catches his attention.....his, yes the other...he is a he as this world would know him.....

The life span of a human is no more than a blink of the eye for them but in this mere blink of an eye, this spirit did much to renew their belief that there is a chance of accomplishing their ultimate goal. This "bright one" had given of herself, as very few did and in that giving she had suffered hunger, homelessness, beatings and rape, yet her spirit never wavered.

He had promised Mary that regardless of what was happening, she could be there in the end and that end is very close indeed.

He...promise....he....yes a vivid memory, when he makes a promise he keeps it, now only if she could remember who is the he.

The train finally arrives and Mary's destination so she quickly exits the car and walks out from the underground subway station. Entering the street the smell assaults her senses. The smell comes from all around her, it penetrates her, invades. Pollution hangs in the air and the humans walk through it uncaring or unawares.

Mary takes a deep breath and then immediately regrets it as that very pollution she was just lamenting enters her lungs. Coughing, she reminds herself to take only shallow short breaths until she reaches the hospital. Taking one last look around her surroundings, she reaches out for the brightness. There, that is the way.

She enters the hospital largely unobserved, enters the elevator without so much as anyone blinking an eye and makes her way to the brightness' room without anyone commenting. Entering the room, she comes across her first obstacle; the nurse is young, much too young and that spirit of hers does not belong in a hospital. If it were not for the coming, these humans would be sorry for the existence of this spirit.

Mary's entrance stops the nurse's activity; the needle stops just short of poking into the tube.

"Go, this one is mine and does not belong to you."

Mary's statement is so clear that it rings like a bell. The nurse stiffens for a brief period; the needle drops from her lifeless fingers.

The feeble voice of a lady quivers in the air.

"Is that you?"

"Yes bright one it is I. I promised you we would be here and here we are." Mary replies.

"He is here too?"

"Yes he is. Something has happened and I cannot see him anymore than you can but I feel him; it's like he stands close by my side." Mary glances to her side in her attempt to identify the "he".

"And now what?" the feeble voice inquires.

"Now what? Oh bright one you have given us hope when we thought there was none. You were true to your spirit and in choosing you struggled through life; you need not struggle in death. He has allowed me to give you anything, whatever it is you want. Say it and it will be yours, come sit by our side, choose to carry on.... tell me what is it I can give you.

By now, Mary has climbed onto the hospital bed and she lays the head of the old lady tenderly on her lap.

"Then hold me until I pass."

"There has to be more that you want. All of your life you have done for others. You were born poor, you die poor but in the time between you gave so many others hope. Now lets us give you something." Mary replies almost beside herself.

"Than give me your love."

"Oh my dear bright light you have had that since the day you were born and you well know it. If you will not allow us to give you the desire that burns deeply in your heart than this we give."

All the pain, present and past that she had ever felt dissipates into a distant memory. Joy and love fills her to the brink. She has always felt these two, always known they were there for her but never has she felt so much from them. It is as if they have dropped all that separates them from her and that they now hold her to their breasts. Visions...never has she seen something so lovely. Her mind would have been incapable of even imagining that such could exist, that such she would ever have the pleasure to see.

The two pour their love for this human into her very spirit and then take their "bright light" to places they have never taken a human before. Even in death this bright one asks for nothing, if all where like her....just imagine...The visions they show her are beyond comprehension for the human mind but the beauty of what they show affects the brightness deeply.

The woman could have asked for anything and they would have gladly given it to her but her answer surprises neither of them for the answer fits the spirit. Therefore, with little choice left and with little time remaining they give the one that spurred their hope all the love they can and the beauty that their "bright light" is experiencing is in direct relation to that love.

"Thank you."

A nurse outside sees the burst of light coming from the homeless old lady's room; she pushes the door aside. Inside she sees the old lady with her head gently cradled on the lap of a woman so beautiful that she glows. She sees a tear falls from the lady's eye; so sorrowful is the sight that it breaks her heart. Even if she wanted to, she could not have moved as the light traps her much as the headlight of a car traps a deer. Such beauty, such light....the light flares so brightly that she screams and falls to the ground. How long she lies there, how longs she tries to blink away the blindness she will never know but she will never forget that when she finally does neither the old or the shinning lady are in the room. Trying to come to grip with what her brain is telling her the nurse runs to the bed and pats it as if that alone will bring back what is missing. Her hand hits something hard and the nurse picks up the only thing left of the pair; a gem so clear and bright that a diamond would pale beside it, so bright that it hurts the eye to look inside its flawlessness.

Chapter 7

That evening as she sleeps and silently weeps at their lost, what is required from Mary becomes much clearer as does the fact that time is running out. The task in front of her, as important as it is, is unimaginable and she has no idea how to accomplish what she is required to do. The weather is starting to get cooler, the time is nearing, and the land is so vast.

The next day, having no better idea of how to accomplish what is required of her she finds herself walking and searching the streets of the city. All day she searches and come five that evening Mary is very disappointed and overwhelm. Her disappointment stems from the fact that she has been walking among the humans all day but has not found one worthy of marking. True, walking is not the most viable method for her to use to fulfill her needs but even so, after passing hundreds, maybe thousands of humans she should have found at least one, and this is where overwhelming takes over. How is she to do what she needs to do in so little time over such a vast amount of land?

Having made no progress Mary makes her way back to the room she calls home. Arriving and having no better idea of what to do next habit takes over. She turns on the television then sits on the sofa to contemplate her task.

She is deep in thought about what it is she is supposed to do and how to do it when the current news topic catches her attention. The newsman seems to be located in the country they call Mexico and he is talking about an up and coming leader's summit. It seems that the reporter does not believe what the leaders have told him the agenda for the summit is and the reporter goes on in length to explain why. The picture changes to show the same newsman interviewing the President of Mexico and asking direct questions about the purpose of this year's summit. The President gives what are obviously scripted replies to the questions and Mary becomes suddenly aware.

They are up to something and they are keeping it to themselves. It is something that he knows the population will not like and he is scared, almost in a panic that it will get out. They have a plan for absolute control, a plan that will allow them to easily give them the ability to...Oh no...

The camera pans to the right and that is when the flaring of the brightness hits Mary. The boy can be no more than ten and his spirit burns bright and pure. The wheels in her head finally start clicking into place. Mary suddenly feels stupid for after visiting the bright one in the hospital it should have all become clear that this is what she has been looking for.

So they do exist but this is impossible. How am I to travel the world looking for them? I do not have the time for this. I would have needed to start earth years ago.

Mary turns off the television and sits in the dark for a very long time. The human body starts to tired and not having resolved the issue she finally decides to give the human body the rest it craves.

That night's sleep proves to be insightful. Once more, "he" calls and as is the case every time he calls, things become clearer.

You are more than you think; remember who you are, remember who I am. Time is short so you must act quickly. Everything we have worked for, everything we have dreamed of is in your hands.

If this task is so important, than why have you given it to me to do alone? I forgot how large this land is when you are stuck to its surface I cannot do this!

What makes you think you are stuck to its surface?

A long silence follows that statement. Of course, she is stuck to earth's surface how could she not be. She is certain that the body her essence now occupies is not her usual form but she is just as sure that like any human body it has the same frailty, the same limitations.

How....

Come to me center of my essence. Follow my essence and come to me.

Something tingles; a memory of what she was....is....the realization that the only thing keeping her trapped in this body is she. Slowly, almost painfully she works with the body. She remembers that it is possible; she remembers that she has done it before but even still; it takes her most of the night to accomplish her goal.

\----------

The task force has been Thompson's life, or so it seemed. He started his career in the field and just recently, he was put in charge of the task force; recently being just over a year ago. There is only one person he has to answer to, that person being the head of the international court in Hague, a man commonly known as The Judge who is also his father, though that fact has been buried so deep that nobody will ever be able to discover the truth. From what The Judge has told him, the international court has the support of the world leaders regarding their task. Support or no means little to Thompson as long as no one gets in the way of what he has to do.

The initial job of the task force was to enforce calm and civility throughout the world using whatever means possible. They were a power unanswerable to any and nobody ever questioned whatever they determined to be the necessary course of action. Thompson himself was responsible for the death or more than one world leader, more than one wealthy individual, more than a thousand citizens and none of those deaths bothered him at all.

While he was still in the field, there was a change in their operation. At first, it was a subtle change but over the years that shift has become clearly defined. Their main task is no longer concerned with world stability and when he had initially questioned his then superior on this, his superior had boxed his ears, so to speak.

That said he is now the first in command, after The Judge, and as such he has received all the information that was previously held from him. When The Judge first told him he had gone through the expected gambit of emotions over the plan, shock, disbelief, anger, and finally acceptance. It was not the plan itself that set him of for he totally agrees with the plan. What set him off is that they put the dam chip inside him without his knowing. He cares little about the other billion that it was done to but it really pisses him off that it was done to him without his knowledge or acceptance.

His anger was short lived though for shortly after taking over the team he was put in charge of the program and those people report directly to him and him only. After that it was an easy matter to put the Zephyr protocol in place; nobody was ever going to control him....a knock on the open door disturbs his thoughts.

"What is it Sims?"

"We detected another pulse." Sims enters the office as he replies.

"So, why are you bothering me about it? Go get it and take it to the hole."

"It may not be that easy Sir."

Thompson looks up sharply, "Spit it out Sims."

"The boy is the son of the Mexican President." Sims reply is somewhat subdue.

"I don't give a dam whose boy or girl it is. Get the boy and have him in the hole by morning or I will have your balls. As for the President of Mexico, if he complains, kill him."

"Sir!" Sims states shocked.

"You heard me. We have the ultimate say over this and no one, not a beggar or a president is permitted to hinder us, now get it done."

"Yes Sir!" Sims continues to fidget.

"Well, why are you still here!" Thompson is about ready to blow.

"There is another report of a strange occurrence that may be of interest." Sims replies quickly.

If there is one thing Thompson is tired of, it is strange occurrences. When the task force first began "the change", their orders were to investigate strange occurrences. If after investigating it and for any reason they could not explain the occurrence as being totally of human origin or if otherwise unexplainable they were to take the individuals involved into custody and bring them to what they now call The Hole.

Thompson had made so many people disappear that first year that he is surprise there is still some room left in The Hole. Every conceivable incident was investigated; so many that it became quickly obvious that they did not have the manpower to perform in-depth investigation so his solution was simple; make them disappear and let those in The Hole figure it out.

Over time, the squad's mandate changed to watching for those who pulse and bringing these to the hole. To help him accomplish his task he has control of the most advanced satellites and technology ever designed. How many of those that "pulsed" he ordered to the hole he has long since forgotten, hundreds for sure. Most of them were young, well children actually; the next largest group being the very old and then a few of middle age.

That said, his original orders to investigate strange occurrences have never been rescinded and even though they no longer actively search for these strange occurrences they do crop up occasionally and these days these individuals simply end up dead.

"So where did it happen?"

"The U.S."

"Get Farley on it then and quit bothering me."

"Yes Sir."

\----------

Captain Farley, former navy seal, former NYPD and now a captain of nobody hears the phone ring. He is a little surprised for it has not rung for some time. When he was offered the job, he had six men under his command but when the new orders came in these were slowly stripped from his command and since then, checking or should he say disposing of the occasional weird thing he has had to do alone.

"Yes?"

"A sergeant Volk of NYPD fifth division took a statement from a nurse tonight. Find out about it and make him, and her, and the problem go away."

"Yes Sir." Farley replies and hangs up the phone.

Tomorrow is early enough. No need to waste a good drink and go out into the cold tonight when the same thing can be accomplished tomorrow.

Farley sits back and flicks through the channels as he takes another drink of his whiskey.

\----------

In Mexico, an unimposing fellow is admitted into the Mexican President's home.

"Sir I am..."

"I know who you are and what you represent. Why are you bothering me, if you have to take someone then do it and don't bother me with the details." the President answers.

"I thought I would give you the chance to say good-bye sir, I have come to take your son."

"What! Get out of here." The President is visible shaken.

"Sir, you yourself gave us the authority to..." the unimposing man tries again.

"I don't give a dam what authority you think you may have. Those rules apply to others they sure as hell do not apply to my family and me. Now get out of here before I have you shot."

The unimposing man bows to the President and leaves the home without incident.

\----------

Twenty minutes later, twenty men dressed in black storm that same Mexican house. In the ensuing firefight, the president's personal guards, his wife, as well as the President himself, are fatally shot and left to die. The boy is apprehended and within twenty minutes of their entrance into the house, a very frightened boy finds himself blindfolded, tied, and taken away by helicopter.

\----------

Mary, still somewhat unstable in her new mode of transportation has been following the flare of the boy's spirit most of the night. She has finally gotten close enough that she believes she will soon be upon the owner of this flare. Her arrival to the house coincides with its invasion and she watches helplessly as the men end the life of the home's occupants, all except for the boy that is. Mary watches even more helplessly as they blindfold, tie him up, and haul the boy away in a helicopter.

She tries her best to keep up with the boy but this mode of transportation is too new to her. The distance becomes too far and even further still as the helicopter continues south. She continues to struggle after it for a time but finally and with regret, she admits defeat. Crestfallen at her failure she stops fighting her essence's desire to return to the body. As she floats back, she curses her inability to physically interact in her current state, not to mention the current weakness she still feels with this mode of travel.

Much has come to her this evening. Not only does she know that she can travel this way but she also knows that it is her embedding with the human host that allows her to easily spot those that flare....easily spot....she gives a mental, much too human harrumph. Once a bright one is spotted, she can leave the body, fly to its location and mark the individual then return. In this way, she should be able to accomplish the task set out for her. She cannot interact with the other humans while in her spirit form but interaction was never the intent.

Spotting those who flare from their home far out in the universe would not have been an option as only those that flare most brightly are easily viewed from there and they are not nearly far enough along in the project that there are enough of these to start over with. So right now she needs to look for the brighter ones and it is these brighter ones that will create the next generation, hence the reason to come to the planet to get close enough to easily feel the bright ones.

"You can do better my pairing. You can, you must."

"I dam well know it, I just need time!"

"Time is something you do not have much of."

\----------

They credit him, Dr. Zimmerman, with discovering the technology that finds those that "pulse" as they have started calling it; in reality, it was nothing more than a fluke. It was a day like any other and he was satisfying his morbid need to cut into flesh, into playing with living organs when it happened.

He had just cut the young girl from breastbone to stomach; her heart was beating, her stomach churning, her lungs moving. Such a lovely view....he had just used the laser to cut into the cavity to convince one lung to stop breathing. The careless nurse, who has since found a very painful and untimely death, allowed the gem of her necklace to drop into the cavity. The operating light hit that gem; the light was reflected off the mirror and back again just as the laser he was holding went off. The gem compressed both lights and this light rebounded and then hit the magnifying eyepiece he was wearing and viola, his first pulse.

The nurse had been his next experiment of course but that one fluky moment set something so grand in motion. Once the hole was filled with misfits that they tried to secret away from the world and as long as he was reporting progression with his ability to transplant any organ into any body without rejection or failure he was allowed to do whatever he wanted to those in "the hole". Now the hole is filled with those that "pulse" and Dr. Zimmerman is sure that very soon they will have an answer to how to capture that pulse and how to use it to provide those determined "worthy" with extended life if not immortality; his being on the top of the list.

Of course only a few are privy to the true nature of "the hole" and Zimmerman likes it that way for having just those few impatient and demanding to know his progress is already a few too many.

Even now, late at night when all is quiet Zimmerman believes that even he would have overlooked the significance of the "pulse", if that same kind of pulse had not already been discovered coming from the far reaches in the universe. Discovering that pulse in the universe and then discovering it in individuals had generated a lot to interest and talk, which has finally resolved into their belief that the pulse is the source of life; interchange an old feeble pulse for a young vibrant pulse and the old body is rejuvenated.

More than once The Judge has commented on Zimmerman's happiness in "the hole" but his happiness is no secret to Zimmerman. Here he is left alone, he is supplied with new specimens on a regular basis, he can fulfill his lust to give others pain, his lust for the power over life and death. Here he is the ruling voice.....here he is a God and as a God he has found the power over life and death.

Not every one believes what Dr. Zimmerman believes. For the last year, speculation has been running wild over the "pulse" and more than once Zimmerman has been grateful for his quiet little home. Theories on the "pulse" range from it being man's next metamorphous to it being nothing more than a freaky coincidence.

Dr. Zimmerman is happy to let those who believe such garbage their beliefs, he even encourages it for his beliefs are far ranging from those and initial experiments with older subjects have generated some success. Finding the pulse has no longer become the problem as he now has the technology to do just that. No the problem is trapping the dam thing and then transferring it to a recipient.

His greatest success, if you may call it that, was when The Judge had demanded verification of his progress. Dr. Zimmerman was afraid of losing his playground and in his desperation to prove his belief he had manage to rip a portion of a young boy's pulse and shock it inside an old woman. When the boy's pulse hit the old woman, no one could deny seeing the old woman's age regress. Sadly the pulse escaped, the woman died, as did the boy but the deaths were of no consequence. What was of consequence was the fact that he finally proved his theory and those with the power are now more willing to have him succeed and supply him the individuals for that success. The one downside of course being that he no longer kill his subjects as readily as he use to for when he does succeed he will need specimens to take the pulse from to give to the worthy.

Zimmerman is as eager as any of those waiting for results for he fully intends to be the first to receive a stable transfer and because of this he is diligent in his work. Every day is a new test, and every week a new experiment on his specimens in anticipation of being the first to capture godhood.

Of course he has discovered many problems with his program, one being the fact that not all those that undergo his testing live and the longer they have been in the hole the least likely they are to survive another testing. Therefore, when he is informed about new subjects arriving he is always sure to be the first to handle it.

The hole is just that; a hole that goes far into the ground. The cavern and the complex have grown over the years until now it is as large as fifty city blocks. Not even Zimmerman can say how many "guest" he has locked up and he does not care as long as fresh ones keep coming his way.

Only one thing has remained a constant with "the hole" and that is the method of entry and exit. That entry being the way Dr. Zimmerman is now looking and that way being up. Far above, he sees the platform slowly make its way to the bottom with his latest subject.

\----------

When Mary wakes the next morning, her mind is much clearer than it has been since....well than it has been for the last six months. This morning she has clarity and purpose and best of all last night she may have discovered why she is not finding the bright ones. That said, knowing does little to comfort her or to resolve her problem for she has no idea where or why they are taking the bright ones, or what is happening to them once they get there. So once more, she wanders the streets of the city though this time with her increased clarity. She knows what she is looking for; she searches and probes more deeply than ever before.

It turns out to be a long and spectacularly unsuccessful day and tired of muscle and mind she finds a drop-in center that offers coffee and a warm place for the human body. Though she does not stop there so much for the coffee as for a warm place to sit and to contemplate her options.

\----------

Captain Farley has just finished talking to Sergeant Volk and if the information imparted by the nurse is true, this may in fact be the first real 'unexplained" he has ever had to deal with. That said, Farley has no real reason to doubt the nurse especially as the strange looking gem he holds in his hand seems to support her story and since she repeated the same story until her dying breath; Sergeant Volk's turn will come later tonight.

The first order of business is to find this strange woman and to that end, Farley is making his way to the hospital to review their security footing. He has no doubts that he will find the woman by nightfall as it is a simple matter of finding her on the hospital feed and working backwards from there.

From personal experience, he knows that with all the cameras located around the city and with all the satellites scanning earth's surface that it is impossible to get from one place to another without something recording your movement. The first time he tried to hide from "his boss" to go on a binge they found him within the hour. Once he learned how they found him, he begged for access to those resources and has used that same system a number of times to find the ones he is suppose to "make disappear".

Farley enters the hospital and goes to the security center; a flash of his badge, which the security guard most likely didn't recognize but looks official enough, gives him access to the security footing and fifteen minutes later Farley has traced the woman from the hospital room in question backwards to when she enters the hospital's parking lot. So with a newly printed picture of her in hand he starts working his way backwards.

\----------

"What do you mean the Mexican President is dead?" The female President of Chile states.

"Just as I said. Our sources say it looked like professionals did it even though it was meant to look otherwise."

"But why?"

"Those same sources say that everyone was killed and later accounted for except the President's son."

"You don't think..."

"That is what I am guessing Madam President."

"But why kill him?"

The aid shrugs his shoulder. "Maybe they think they have the power to do as they please."

"They do have to power to do as they please and not have to answer to anyone but The Judge..."

"Maybe it was a mistake to give him so much power then."

"Maybe but there is nothing we can do about it now. We all know that it was necessary when we gave it and since then....well never mind, but rest assured that it is even more important now than it has ever been."

The President of Chile is not a vain woman but she does not look forward to getting old. She has finally achieved her goal, all the power she ever wanted is now hers, all the money she ever desired at her disposal. The populace does not know it for she hides it well but she rules with an iron fist and intends to keep ruling until the day she dies of old age; her fear is that old age comes much too quickly.

Hence the reason she supports the activities of "the hole' and even allows "the hole" continued existence in her country. Oh sure, initially she was not a firm supporter of housing the mad doctor's toys but then she witnessed the possibility of those toys. What she saw astonished her for even in her wildest dreams she had never thought it possible but there was no denying what her eyes saw or what the cameras recorded.

The Mexican President was a fool and if he was foolish enough to stand in the way of ultimate power that was his problem. Her only problem was whom she was going to have to deal with next.

\---------

Of course, Thompson knows about the death of the President, hell he had gladly ordered it after he was informed that the man refused to give them his son. Thompson has a loathing for that kind of man, "do whatever it takes as long as it does not infringe on me or mine in any manner" Thompson spits in disgust.

He didn't like the man and had no use for him and the thought of being hauled in front of the one person he has to account to on behalf of this man is maddening. It is not that Thompson is worried about the encounter for he knows that all he has to do is give his father, The Judge the same bullshit answer he has been giving for over a year, the same bullshit answer that that man himself taught him to give..... "It was necessary"... and it would be over....but still.

For months now, rumors have been banded about having a central world government and due to the recent meltdown of economy in many countries rumours are flying wild about having a central bank overlooking and handling all financial transactions. That system is a system that Thompson could easily operate under, a system he has been preparing for, for over a year and to help achieve that end he has been helping The Judge by pushing the same agenda anytime he has the chance

With power comes a responsibility it is said....as far as Thompson is concerned that is bullshit. With power comes more power and he fully intends to get his lion share of that power. He is sick and tired of having to account for himself every time some government did not like something he had done, hell if it was not for him the world would have destroyed itself many years ago. His actions forestalled the current state of some of the world governments, and if he would have been left alone, he could have forestalled the overthrow of some of those even longer or even eliminated the need for them altogether.

Thompson stops dead in his tracks and mulls over his thoughts; when he starts to walk again his step is much lighter than before...... "Take every opportunity you can."

\----------

Mary has come to one conclusion and that conclusion is that "the other" put her in the wrong city. She is not blaming 'the other" for looking at things at face value you would think that a city with over twenty million people would be the perfect place to start and then there was the promise to be with the bright one when she expired, but as new events have revealed this is not the place to be.

In considering what she needed to do next, she came to the realization that the leaders of the countries know about these individuals and that they have to be the ones responsible behind their disappearance. So even if she learns proper control of her essence tonight it will be hopeless for the bright ones are not spread throughout the world as they are suppose to be. Therefore, as evening falls Mary concludes that she needs to go to the city they call Washington, D.C. and once there she has to make her way to this country's President, which she does not see as a problem. The real problem is how to quickly get this human body the 228 miles from New York to Washington.

"Hey turn that up." A man sitting at a table in the drop-in center yells.

Mary turns to see what has gotten the man's attention and she immediately recognizes the picture being displayed; as if she couldn't as it is a picture of her and the broadcast is coming in from the front the building she lives in.

Mary lowers her face to help hide it as a lady turns up the volume.

"......she is considered very dangerous and the police are asking the public to contact them immediately if they see her but caution that under no circumstance should they approach her...."

Mary losses track of the rest of the conversation as heads have started to turn her way. Reaching out she gives the spirit of those looking a brief touch and exits with no one even remembering she was there; outside she again considers her options. Looking up the street she watches cars zoom by, looking down cars stopping at a red light.

Of course!

Mary makes her way to the intersection and waits for the light to turn red again. Once it does, she walks to the car at the front of the line, opens the door and sits down. The lady driving the car looks at her in surprise and is about to comment.

Drive me to Washington DC please.

Of course.

\----------

Farley is not happy that the woman was not at home and he is not happy that he had to make use of the news agency to broadcast her picture or to provide them any information, false or not. His first step of course was to use the feeds to see when she had exited the building again but his luck had turned bad. There had been a two-hour blackout around the area and he had not had any luck finding her exit the building before or after the blackout. Faced with an almost empty apartment he came to the conclusion that she must have somehow gotten wind of his interest in her and that she has gone to ground. Hence his reason for going to the press in the first place, for now not only may the cameras finally capture her but human eyes will watch those cameras closer giving him hours of lead time to capture the woman than if he did it all himself. That said, the initial broadcast had been two hours ago and has been repeated every ten minutes and still he has not heard from anyone; either citizen or agency. Farley is considering his next step when his phone rings.

"Farley here."

"This is New York Transit. You have a broadcast out for a woman?"

"Yes, did you get a hit?" Farley cannot keep his excitement to himself.

"Maybe sir. The cameras on I-95 snapped some pictures of a lady that looks a lot like the one on the broadcast."

"How long ago?" Now Farley is very excited.

"A couple of hours ago."

"Couple of hours and it took you this long to call me!" Farley's voice raises and excitement changes to anger.

"Well sir we do have other things we must take care of...."

"Not anymore. From here on out and until I tell you otherwise this lady is to be your priority. Now get back to those cameras and find out where she is now or where she exited. I will be there in half an hour and you better have an answer for me or I'll have your balls in a sling."

"I suppose."

Farley seethes at the sound of the bored voice on the other end of the line. Obviously, that man behind the voice is not taking Farley's threats seriously; probably gets threatened everyday.

"Pass me on to your boss, now!" Farley's anger is on the rise.

\----------

The four and a half hour trip to Washington passes without incident and it is late at night when the car stops in front of what the humans call the White House. Mary still has the feeling she is being pursued but not having any idea of the resources being put into finding and then tracking her, she feels that she is safe enough to go ahead with her plan. She gives her driver's spirit a tug and exits the car; the driver puts the car in gear and drives away.

Mary had thought of a few options as to how she can get into the complex but the limitation of the human body took many of those options away. The full four and a half hour trip she had been making and tossing plans aside. The easiest she finally came up with was to simply walk in and extinguish the spirit of anyone that got in her way. But even though she has no problem about snuffing out the spirits to find the bright ones the idea still did not sit well. Hence, she waits patiently for the alternate plan she did come up with to unfold.

The screeching of car tires, the gunning of a motor, a roaring engine, a loud crash and chaos. Mary takes her cue and slowly makes her way into the complex; casually walking past that scene of chaos.

The motor vehicle that Mary had recently been riding in has apparently tried to crash its way through the complex gates; raising all sorts of alarms and in the ensuing chaos armed men and snarling dogs run towards the gate. They run towards the scene and she walks away and then pass them; it is as if she does not exist to them. The dogs with the men cause her a little concern, as unlike the humans they cannot be deceived. Their inability to be deceived and the fact that the humans have twisted their spirits into something unhealthy angers Mary. As such, Mary soothes their spirits, twisting them back to what they should be and once accomplished the dogs ignore the woman walking towards a goal opposite from where they are being pulled.

Most people would try to break into the White House using stealth but the heighten security is what Mary needs to get the human body to where she wants it with as little difficulty as possible. The crash gives the humans a positive task to perform and as such makes it much simpler for her to push spirits into ignoring her, to move the other way, to suddenly find that they need to be somewhere else, to believe she is one of them, to believe she does not exist.

The tricky part is the Cameras as there is no way to trick their electronics, but the people behind those electronics are a different matter.

\----------

A Camera across the street shows Mary entering the White House complex. The person watching on the other end is much too far away to be affected by the push that Mary just gave those in the White House so he has no qualms about making the call.

"Sir, she just entered the White House. She walked in like she owned the place and nobody even tried to stop her."

"Dam it. Warn Washington Police, I'll try to warn the Secret Service or anyone that will listen to me."

When Farley first discovered that Mary had fled the city towards Washington he had not been that worried for he assumed she was simply trying to escape and Washington was as likely a way to go as any other. He tracked her into Washington and Farley had made the call to Washington Transit to have them monitor her progress so that he could continue the chase. He was only a half hour behind her so soon she would be his.

Farley's first sign of concern was when the woman apparently stopped acting as if she was being chased and drove through Washington with a purpose. Having chased many people on the run the change was palpable to Farley and at first it confused him. Then her destination became obvious and confusion changed to...well not exactly fear but apprehension for she is only one woman after all. Now he wished that fear had been his first reaction and that he would have made a fool of himself by calling White House security right away.

\----------

Mary knows where the spirit she is looking for is located and she makes her way towards it with only a little difficulty. She takes care of those monitoring the cameras with a burst that puts their spirits to sleep. Others that she comes across as she makes her way to the president are likewise subject to burst though these burst vary from making the spirits simply forget that she exist to giving them an overwhelming need to be somewhere else. A couple of the better trained humans even manage to get their guns trained on her before she has a chance to manipulate their spirits and it is with some sorrow that she snuffs out their existence, leaving behind only ashes of the body that hosted them. Finally making her goal Mary fumbles at the door only to find it locked. She frowns briefly and puts her hand to the lock. She calls all the heat to her, the air becomes crisp and frigid, and frost gathers where frost should never gather, the lock then heats and melts. Mary calmly pushes the now unlocked door to the office aside and lets herself in.

They are almost prepared. Her casual entrance through a door that was securely locked a few seconds ago and that never should have opened for anyone but the President or the head of the Secret Service puts them off guard for a second; a second is all she needs. The half dozen armed men go into action much too late. The first man falls asleep and topples to the floor, then a second quickly follows the first, the third has his spirit twisted such that he no longer become a threat to anyone but instead a burden on society, the fourth and fifth spirit's falter and dissipate into nothingness. The President, still trying to get his mouth working looks on in surprise and then at the unimposing woman that has just incapacitated his best.

"Who are you?" the President finally gets his flapping mouth working again

Mary looks deep into the President's spirit and is not surprised when she finds it dark and twisted. At one time he was probably considered a good man by human standards and Mary can see the scars on the spirit that were caused over the years as the human fought the spirits natural nature, but that nature had finally won out.

Mary retreats and takes a long look at the man himself before answering, "You can call me your creator if you like and I must say I am not pleased with what I see."

\----------

"I don't give a dam who you think you are or what you think you know; the President is in danger, now put me through to your superior."

Farley has had very little luck so far. None of the agencies he has called has ever heard of his Agency of course and as such, most of them think he is a crank caller looking to get attention and treat him as such.

He tells everyone that answers that someone had just "walked" into the White House and they have all laughed at him for no one believes that anyone can simply "walk" into the most secured facility in the United States. After being told off by the third agency, he is getting desperate and thinking it may be time to change his tactics.

So frustrated is he by his lack of being able to warn the appropriate authorities that he misses the significance of the flashing lights bearing down on him. So seething with anger is he that he does not put it all together and when he finally does, he has only time to consider one quick thought.

Maybe they were listening after all...

\----------

The President sits down even though that is the last thing he wants to do but his legs simply refuse to support him any longer.

"Where are they taking the bright ones?" Mary does not spare this man and she gives the spirit the push required so that it knows what she wants about what.

"I don't know?"

The spirit is not lying but...

"How can you not know? You supported the order, supported the decision and yet you tell me you do not know?"

"I have never had a reason to know as long as it was getting done and that the reports kept coming in; which these days are far and few between. In fact, I have not even given it much thought in a long time. All I know is that it is somewhere in South America, if you want a precise location you will have to talk to The Judge."

"And where will I find him?"

"The Hague."

Mary sighs. An operation like this can never be kept a secret no matter how careful these humans are or how much they desire to keep it such. Therefore, if she wants to find out where they are taking the bright ones she either has to go south herself or to The Hague. An inkling thought that travels through in the man's mind gives her an idea.

Call security and have your helicopter ready to fly me out please; the most powerful man in the United States complies.

The President finishes the call and asks the question that he has been burning to ask. "What does it mean?"

"What does what mean?" Mary knows what the President is asking but knowing what this man sanctioned to be done to the bright ones, knowing how little he cares for the welfare of others, knowing how his every motive is for his own welfare or those of his corporate friends she has no intention of giving him a satisfactory answer.

"What does it mean that you are here? What do these "bright ones" as you call them mean to you?"

"It means that you have disappointed me and the last time you humans disappointed me to this extent.....oh look here is my ride, now if you will excuse me."

\----------

In the end, Farley had to call Thompson, who then called the head of the Secret Service. There had been some yelling and then by the look of the face of the man talking to Thompson some threats. It all took a while but it had finally put him in the center of the chaos that still prevails over the White House.

When Farley had first arrived, the excitement was over an unoccupied car crashing through the fence. Then they found those that were suppose to be guarding the White House and the President apparently sleeping, missing or dead, causing even more of an uproar.

Now the concern is an apparent unharmed President, who does not remember the visitor he had, and the fact that they had just been informed that the President's helicopter had taken flight an hour ago.

"What do you mean it took off an hour ago and why am I just finding out now!" Neil the man in charge is definitely angry and yet almost hopelessly at a lost as to what has happened and how it could have happened in the first place.

"Well Sir, the men in charge of the craft were taken out like the others we have found so they did not report it. It was only now discovered because we have started searching the White House grounds."

The discovery of the disarray in the White House had resulted in the Secret Service calling in their off duty members and only these members have been allowed to investigate the ensuing chaos. Their starting point had been the front gate and then the inside of White House itself. They had just recently extended their investigation to the outside so it is no wonder it had taken so long for them to discover the departure of the helicopter.

"Have you reviewed the video?"

"Yes Sir."

"And?"

"The pilot and a woman got on board and then it left."

"The woman was she the one I am looking for?" Farley finally pipes up.

"Yes Sir, the same."

"Dam!" Farley turns to Neil. "Get the air force after her and get me a flight out of here."

Neil looks to Farley in dislike. He would rather ignore this man than comply but the phone call he received put him firmly in his place; on reflection, he sees this as a great opportunity to get this man out of his hair. He turns to his underling.

"You heard him. Get it done."

"Sir, you have to come and see this!" another man enters the room looking even more concerned than his superior does.

Neil and Farley follow the man to the room that houses the White House recordings.

"We just found this. I reran it five times because.... well look for yourselves."

Both Neil and Farley's face turn pale as they watch Mary's progress through the White House. Their knees go weak as she calmly walks pass those that oppose her and they have to sit as they review the conversation she had with their president.

"I need a copy of that and I need it now." Farley finally manages to find his voice.

The man looks to his superior who nods.

\----------

"What is it Captain?"

Mary, knowing nothing about flying this contraption had to restrain her control over the man so he can fly reliably and part of keeping him happy and in control requires her to show respect to the man by using a title he believes he has rightfully earned and thus insist on.

"We are being tracked Ma'am."

"Tracked?"

"Fighter jets and by the looks of it they are flying hot." The captain taps a consul in response.

"Hot? Please explain."

The captain sighs. "They have us locked on radar and are preparing to shoot us down with missiles Ma'am."

"Can you evade them?"

He sighs as if he is tired of explaining himself. "No Ma'am there is no evading those and even if I did manage one or two they will keep firing until they hit us. This helicopter does have some built in security features but not enough for what is showing up on this here radar."

"Well that won't do at all. I dislike doing this but..."

Nudging a spirit as she has done to the captain is easy and takes the least amount of energy from Mary, the hardest and most energy draining is to snuff a spirit out, which she did a few times back in the White House. Unlike what the humans may be thinking right about now, she is not all-powerful. Her energy has limits and she has dug deeply into her reserves to accomplish what she has accomplished. Furthermore, she cannot dodge a missile by simply thinking about it for the human host body has its limitation and like any other human body it can be terminated. Oh sure, she can leave the body and go back to.....to...Mary shakes her head, things have become much clearer but still...

The energy she has available is in direct proportion to the amount of energy she is drawing from some source well past the current universe less the amount the humans are drawing from her. Neither she nor "the other" fully understood this relationship at first though both noticed that as the population of the human race increased the reserves available to them decreased. Trying to understand this relationship was the reason they came two thousand or so earth years ago and it took Mary lying with that human, letting that human get inside her, having that human open to her totally for them to finally understand the relationship between themselves and the humans.

The easiest thing for them to do would be to simply cut themselves from the humans. This would have the same effect as cutting off the power from a charging battery. The battery no longer being recharge would finally drain and cease to work. Freed from the humans Mary would then have all the energy she required to do whatever it is she wished but neither her nor "the other' are prepared to let the human race they have cultivated so carefully over the eons die.

That said the one thing she has always had an affinity to on this planet was the weather. For some unknown reason the weather has always reacted to her moods, to her wishes, and to her desires. Having the weather do as she pleases, takes less energy from her than even a small push on a human spirit and regrettable as it may be the time has finally come.

Mary reaches out, seeking. Finally, she touches on those that pursue them and with a sigh of resignation starts the chain reaction. The air becomes suddenly cold, then as if they are being sucked by a vacuum clouds race in to fill a once clear sky. The clouds darken to a dark ugly black, turning what is day into night. The winds pick up and the clouds relieve themselves of their burden. Put into motion it no longer needs Mary's attention and she returns to herself with a regretful sigh.

\----------

The air force jets have locked onto their target, they have received the go ahead to fire away, and then they hit the disturbance. To the pilots it feels like they just hit a brick wall. The metal of the jets screech in protest, the jets shake and tumble through the air. Never have they hit weather so bad, never have they seen weather change so fast, never had they even had to practice flying in such. There is no up or down, the clouds surround them, the electronics become useless, snow, rain, ice, sleet, and worst of all, the wind that blows from two and sometimes three different directions at the same time.... One jet is pulled apart by the turbulence and pieces fly in every direction. Another two jets loose their wings and spin out of control, another with no electronics flies aimlessly up, down, and even upside down. Only one manages to recover, to retreat and turning tail it limps its way back home.

\----------

On the ground, those who do not believe in the end of the world quickly change their opinions. They feel the increasing wind. They see the darkening sky and the angry clouds. Then what the few survivors later called hell on earth breaks loose.

A driving wind so strong that it makes the gale forces of tornados look miniscule in comparison cuts a ten miles wide swath across the land, flattening anything and everything in its path. Trees uproot, car, animals, signs, and street lamps fly through the air. Building roofs are torn asunder and then the buildings themselves are either destroyed or uprooted to join their roofs in the skies to be torn into unrecognizable pieces. Lightening strikes earth every few seconds igniting fires, which the wind then whips up into a fiery infernal. Dust, smoke, debris cuts vision to mere inches and as such, most of the humans that death comes to visit do not realize it is knocking on their door until it happens.

Those caught in the wind are the lucky ones or so those few that survive determine, for the wind steals the breath from a person killing them so quickly that most do not survive to feel the battering of the debris or the stripping of their skin by the wind whipped dirt. The unlucky few that escape the fury of the wind must content with the following rain, sleet, hail, and snow. These unlucky see Mother Nature in her unbridled fury. Hail as large as soccer balls destroys what little remains after the winds have passed and once those remains, whether flesh, wood, or steel, have been pounded to a pulp the rains come to clean it away and this eventually becomes covered by the snows.

Where the wind cuts a path ten miles wide the accompanying weather is a swath fifteen miles more. The hail hits with such force that when it hits it drives many feet into the ground. Those caught in the path of the descending hail are lucky for they are crushed and die immediately. The unlucky have to content with the resulting explosions. Gas lines burst; concrete, stone, and dirt fly making Americans believe that they have somehow been transported into the middle of a war zone.

Somewhere in that destruction and uncared about by those suffering on the ground a fighter jet crashes into land and burst into flames and then another and another.

A storm like no other ever seen continues to sweep it way through the land, wiping away all signs of humanity, all vegetation, all dirt, leaving behind nothing but cold hard rock.

The wailing and prayers of the humans in its path commence. They call to their God, they beg for mercy and salvation; Mary, attuned to such hears and is thankful when the storm finally silences them.

The death that her storm leaves behind in the first couple of minutes counts in the hundreds. As these hundreds die, their energy slowly returns to her and "the other". Mary knows that the destruction is complete, scrubbing the earth down to bare rock and she knows that before the storm she set in motion is finished the hundreds that died at its commencement will pale compared to the number that will die before the storm finally runs its course.

As sad as the storm is to the human population, the deaths of the multitude causes her little worry for none of the spirits that call for mercy are the ones that would be moving on at any rate.

In the midst of this destruction, a faint memory comes to Mary making her realize that she has visited this destructiveness upon the earth a number of times over the eons, though she did promise "the other" that she would never have another tantrum the likes that caused the great flood of eons ago. That said both she and "the other" knows that sometimes weather is what is required to "clean up a situation" that has gotten out of control.

What does bother her though is the destruction to the land. The earth calls in its destruction and those calls bury themselves deeply into her sensitive essence. The force she has unleashed is such that the earth will take a thousand earth years to heal....Mary starts to giggle when she realizes that earth does not even have a fraction of that time.

Eventually the wailing and prayers cease and shortly thereafter in the silence a curiosity overcomes Mary; she turns to the captain. "Tell me Captain, what has your President told you of the upcoming events?"

"Ma'am?" The captain is obviously confused by her question.

"When I was with your President I sensed that he made a decision that effects the population of this country. It was a decision that he believes is required not only for a stable government but a stable economy so that those with money can rest assured that they will continue to make money and governments assured that they can continue to govern. The only part he seemed uncertain about was the control or at least the possibility that in the end he may not have the amount of control he desires."

"The President has not informed us or at least me of any such decision that he fears. He is the President and it is his job to weigh things and then to take the most appropriate action." The captain replies quietly.

Amazing. He doesn't even tell those that are close to him and I sense that this man is very close to that man. Truly amazing.

"Tell me captain and look deep inside before you answer; if you knew that all life on earth was to be destroyed in six months or three months, what would you do?"

The man is quiet for a very long time before he finally replies. "If you are looking for honesty Ma'am I can't say what I would do in anyone's hearing."

Mary knows.... she felt what the man wanted to do and is sickened by that feeling. She had asked for it, even expected it when she asked so she only has herself to blame for that feeling.

"Ma'am we are going to have to stop for fuel at some point."

"You decide the place and I will make the arrangement." Mary replies quietly.

Chapter 8

Farley's mood started foul and just keeps getting even fouler as the chase for the woman continues. His boss has called him twice complaining of Farley's lack of ability to bring this "incident" to a close and is threatening to bring in a special team. As far as Farley is concerned, his boss can dam well have at it for he is just happy to have survived that freak storm. If he had been even fifteen minutes faster in getting his transportation it would have put him in the middle of it when it hit and then who knows. His boss however cares little about his luck or even his survival; he wants results and he wants them now with no more headlines like the ones hitting the papers over the White House incident and now the freak storm.

Most of what the news is reporting about the White House is far from the truth and for those who try in vain to keep incidents like this a secret it is a relief, as the reality is far worst then what even the most outrageous papers have fabricated.

As for the storm.... the papers are already writing and the news already spouting outrageous stories. The environmentalists blame it on global warming; the scientists on a freakish combination of hot and cold temperatures, the religious state the coming of Revelations. They all have their opinions, they all point fingers, but only a selected few know the truth and that truth makes Farley's spine quiver.

"Be ready to go again when the storm passes and get me in touch with the closest air force base we have." Farley tells his pilot in disgust then turns towards the airport to look for a bar.

\----------

"Time grows short Maryalyan."

"You do not need to keep reminding me for I know; I too can feel it coming."

"Then I need not remind you that if you do not find them we will either have to scrap the project or start again from the very beginning...."

"Starting from the beginning will take a lot of effort and much of our energy."

"Yes it will.... you have been searching for a long time as the earth accords time. Why not change your tactic and talk to the human in charge of this."

"I have been thinking the same thing my center. I will see this task to its end and if I do not find something concrete I will go to this human...I have to confess that it is much worst here that I thought and it frightens me a little."

"Frightened, why? Nothing can harm you!"

"As long as you are with me nothing can harm me but what about when you sleep or if your attention waivers?"

"Maryalyan, my center, you know that the time you have left there is no more than an eye blink to us so why worry. I will not be sleeping while you are on this planet and there is nothing else as important right now as you and the upcoming events."

"Not even when the end comes."

"That will be a spectacular sight I am sure, but getting you and those we are to save is more important to me than watching the cosmic show that is sure to follow."

"Thank you....I will find them; trust me in this."

"My trust in you is why I asked you to take over this task."

\----------

The next three earth days turn into a cat and mouse chase. Maryalyan, filled with excess energy due to those that died uses that energy on the humans at various airports to make them believe they are fuelling a helicopter occupied by the president of their country and more than once they leave an airport just before the pursuing jets arrive.

The humans refuse to give up the chase and twice more she is forced to set the weather in motion, and twice more thousands die. The irony Maryalyan realizes is that even though her command over the weather does not use as much energy as her direct intervention would it still uses energy; energy she would not be able to spare if not for the thousands that died. And because of these thousands that die, she is able to keep the pursuit at bay and their helicopter fuelled.

By the time, they make the Mexican border the U.S. landscape from Washington to the Mexico is dotted with areas that look as if it has seen a warzone for when Maryalyan puts the storms into motion she does not waste energy to halt its progression. Therefore, like the first storm, it is not only the path they follow or the path of the persuaders that see damage but wide swaths across the landscape.

Once they cross the border there is some issue between the pursuing U.S. authorities and the Mexican authorities that give them some breathing room but this is short lived as the Mexicans and then other South American authorities take up pursuit as they move further and further south.

Each country, in their first attempt to stop them believe they are after an easy target and this turns out to be a boon for them, as their over confidence in their abilities make it much easier for her to deal with and to dispose them.

They finally organize a joint effort to capture them and it is almost their undoing as they come upon them un-expectantly and Maryalyan is not nearly ready for what they put against them. On this instance she uses much more than weather to escape and the amount of energy that she puts into it is daunting at the very least.

The storms that hit the U.S. hit South America. Snow accumulates where snow has never fallen. Acres upon acres of lush jungle are swept from the land, precious soil disappears, flooding occurs and thousands more die.

Every day that passes Maryalyan comes to know more of her true self and more of the importance of what she is here to do and everyday she searches to no avail. When she initially started this journey she thought that it would not be possible for the humans to keep something so grand a secret, but apparently she was wrong for they have done an admirable job at doing just that.

She knows that she has finally come close for she can feel them but to find them is another issue altogether. They are there, almost within reach, yet so far away and worst yet.... they are hurting. Maryalyan feels their pain deep within her. Some.... no many have been damaged beyond repair but there are still many that can be saved; whether those many are enough, that she cannot yet tell.

For the last day, Maryalyan has kept a northern storm brewing to keep the humans at bay so that she can search and keeping that storm brewing is costing her precious energy. The jungle beneath her is thick and it is impossible to see through the foliage but down there somewhere the bright ones call. They would be easy enough to find if she dared to visit the area with the destruction she is visiting up north but that would be counter productive for she would end the existence of the very thing she seeks.

Also, sucking at her energy is the need to keep the captain awake, alert, and co-operative. He assists her how he can, though in the end he assures her that he has used every instrument available on the helicopter to no avail.

The body she is occupying is getting tired, the captain is getting tired, and as the center of her spirit had pointed out, the time has come to change tactics; it is time that she went directly to the source.

"Take it back Captain." Maryalyan gives a regretful sigh.

Hang in there my children. I will find you and we will heal you. Your spirits will rejoice once again; all you need to do is hold on just a little longer.

\----------

The Judge has been keeping a very close eye on what has been happening in the Americas. The thought of someone being able to walk into the White House "unannounced" so to speak was of little interest to him but then the videos arrived. He replayed the video once and then a hundred times until the statement echoed in his head... until that statement encompassed is all his thoughts....the statement means all.

You can call me your creator if you like. -- You can call me your creator if you like. —You can call...

His first thought on hearing that statement was expected; "Their creator, never...a woman the creator...never!" And the more he watched the video the more he convinced himself that she was only some kind of freak; that was until reports started coming in on the destruction that follows her path. Like Maryalyan he cared little about the loss in life but unlike her he becomes almost joyous at the reports of death and destruction.

What could the good doctor do with her, was she the key that he...that they have been looking for. The more destruction that follows her wake the surer he becomes that she is the one to make all his dreams come true. Forget her power, as her power for destruction he does not need as his carefully laid plans will give him all the power he requires. It is what her life force can bring him. Even if it only brings him another twenty-five or better yet fifty years, he will be happy.

She is not the creator, that he is sure of, and he will never believe that she is but there is no denying she has a power and a vibrant life force and this will soon by his.

As a side benefit, the destruction the woman is causing has finally hit the Americas with a taste of what many other parts of the world have been dealing with over hundreds of years. The leaders of the Americas are no longer so cock sure of themselves making this a perfect time to get Thompson to "request' the activation of the B.E.A.S.T. project.

With the B.E.A.S.T. activated and the woman in his hands, he will have achieved two thirds of his life's goal and he is positive that the last third will follow shortly thereafter.

The Judge picks up the phone to make another call.

\----------

For Farley the last week has been nothing but frustrating. The freak storms or at least that is what he thought it was when it first hit, kept him from taking down the helicopter that first day and since then it has been nothing but frustration after frustration.

The second day the Air Force had once again acquired and locked on the target and once more a freak storm hit them; this time downing all the fighters jets. Not only did the storm destroy the jets as if they were toys but the storm was also responsible for the deaths of thousands on the ground and the destruction of entire cities.

The third and fourth day they had become wiser, or so he thought. The fighter jets no longer acquired a lock on the target when they were miles away but waited until the last minute to lock and fire. The first jet that tried the trick should have done it; it swooped down on the helicopter from high above at a speed greater than Mach II. It had locked and fired so quickly that Farley was certain of success...the lightening, the crack of thunder and the sonic boom that followed immediately after the release of the rocket destroyed his hope of success even as the yelp of joy was making its way up his throat.

The next three fighter jets had no more success than the first and the total lost of those four jets as well as the prior losses resulted in the Air Force pulling back when the helicopter crossed into Mexico.

Even for Farley the destruction that followed in her wake rattled him. Not even in his wildest dreams could he ever have thought that such destruction was possible; his mind refuses to even consider the possibility that none of it would have happened if they did not pursue. He walked through the aftermath of the first storm and refused thereafter to even look at the others. He could not afford to think of the death and destruction, only one thing mattered.... he must kill her. Whatever it takes, no sacrifice is too large, no risk too risky. That was the order he had first been given and none have come to counterman it, she must die.

When she had crossed the Mexican border and the U.S. Air Force refused to pursue he knew he had to make the call he was dreading. The call had gone as expected and his superior "raked him over the coals". Still stung from "the raking" Farley had finally managed to inform the voice at the other end of the phone of the fact that he thought the chopper was going to keep making its way south. At that news, the other end of the phone got very quiet and when his superior spoke again there was an unmistakable nervousness in his voice; a couple more quick questions that he cannot really remember and the call ended.

A couple of hours later it was his superior contacting him. The voice informs Farley that he was no longer the lead on this case and that a squad has been called in to take care of "his" problem. That so-called squad's total failure is currently Farley's only source of comfort with this whole affair.

The Squad had been cocky, the best of the best it was said and it resulted in a firefight that will go down into history, and yes if Farley had been asked he would have assured success; now he is happy that he had not been asked. Fourteen fighter jets and ten helicopters were used; there is still confusion as to what happened, where the extra crafts came from, who shot whom. In the end, only half of each managed to limp home.

Farley, designated to the role of spectator had watched it unfold on radar. The fools were obviously trying to drive the woman's helicopter to the ground instead of destroying her so they tried a different tactic; coming in from all sides, they tried to pressure her down.

At first, it looked like it was going to succeed for the chopper had nowhere to go but down and then a number of the dots on the screen started disappearing; Farley dearly wished he would have been privy to the video stream that each aircraft was sending somewhere.

That helicopter has now become the world's number one target and the woman Earth's most wanted. Farley is not sure what it was that the videos of the encounter showed but what he is sure of is that they no longer believe any of the incidents of the last week have been natural.

Every satellite that can be aimed to the area has been and the control of these handed over to his boss. They all know where she is. They track her every movement but for some reason that Farley cannot understand, the brass is holding back.

Farley wants this woman and he wants her very badly. His career is full of successes, he has never failed and yet here was a woman with almost no resources easily destroying those with insurmountable power to dust. This woman was destroying him, destroying his ego and this is something he cannot abide with, therefore his wait for his superior's next command is almost unbearable.

\----------

Those in the room had received the call for the need to assemble only two days ago. As the date of the Summit was only a couple of days off, this was the perfect time for such a meeting, as hardly anyone would question such a gathering at this time. So with no more fanfare than what would have occurred naturally they had assembled and locked themselves away.

The world's most powerful now sit in stunned silence in that very room. Those who have not seen them before had just had the unpleasant experience of watching the various videos that were streamed from the aircrafts showing the encounter of the helicopter and the squad.

When the video first started, they look on in boredom as they can only envision one outcome to this encounter. Their attitudes changed abruptly when the video projects the unearthly glow of the woman. The video shows the woman glowing and then flaring so brightly that the sun pales in comparison and then the sky turns into chaos and destruction. The squad turn on each other, panicked radio calls go out.... unfriendly contact and no more then a few seconds away. The World Leaders watch as friends turn to enemies and being the best in the world the firefight that pursues is beautiful in its deadliness. Rockets fill the air; flares brighten the sky, engines roar, shots, explosions, curses and screams. Aircrafts swoop, dodge, and burn. It was all so beautiful to behold, never have they had the pleasure to witness such skill. The helicopter they were pursuing slips quietly away.

Pilots watch as their rockets shoots down one and then two of the invading aircrafts, though they have no explanation as to why two of their own just disappeared. They have little time to pursue that thought though, for they find themselves much too busy trying to stay alive. The helicopter they were to capture simply fades from the picture as they try their best to survive.

After this video, these powerful leaders no longer feel so powerful and this is a feeling that none of them is use to or like. They just watched this woman twist the mind of the world's best and then watched as their best turned on themselves like animals. If she could do that to them is anyone safe.... Then if that is not enough they are shown the video of her entry into the White House.

"The Judge believes the time has come to initiate the B.E.A.S.T." Thompson's comment breaks the silence that has enveloped the room.

Those who were sitting in stunned silence just a few seconds ago explode and the room fills with angry cries. Thompson sits calmly through their bombardment, their criticism, their anger, their threats, and even their accusations for he knows that in the end The Judge will get what he asks for. This woman has put fear into the world leaders. They have seen her walk where nobody should be able to walk, seen her manipulate their best without lifting of a finger. They are furious and they are scared.

Thompson allows the pandemonium to stretch out long enough that by the time he again stands to speak most have vented their anger and fear. He holds up his hands for silence but before he can speak, the Israeli Prime Minister also stands.

"How can you suggest such an action? We all agreed that was to be used only as a last resort!" The Israeli Prime Minister is obviously still very angry.

"Was that video not enough for you to see that we are sitting on that edge, right here and right now?" Thompson replies quietly.

"Our friend the Israeli Prime Minister may be right Thompson. Yes that video was damming but come now." The U.S. President states.

"Mr. President, forgive me but how can you feel that way after your encounter with her. As you just saw in a video that your own security forces supplied, she circumvented all of your security, she handled your best as if they were children and she got to you. She asked you questions, you answered them without hesitation, without so much of a whim and then she left you with no memory of it. If you like we could run that video again for you."

"No need for that I have seen it enough times." The U.S. President sits heavily.

"I swear to you that all the videos we have shown you are true in every detail and that it has not been altered in any way. We all know that we stand on the brink of world annihilation and we believe that it is this woman that will put us their. Look at what she has done and what she is capable of doing. We have information that she has taken over twenty nuclear devices and the reason she is in South America right now is to take over more. We also have information that she is not interested in negotiation and has spurned all of our attempts to contact her. Ladies and Gentlemen she intends to fire these devices and as you have just seen we have no way to stop her. If the B.E.A.S.T. was already running, we would already have her in custody and maybe saved the lives of thousands of citizens spanning both North and South America. In order for us to initiate the B.E.A.S.T. we require fifty-one percent of the world leaders to agree. I call for that vote now; this woman must be captured, we must stop her, we must learn all that she knows, we must use her, we must destroy her and her network and we must do this soon."

Thompson's statement causes even more outcries but Thompson has called for a vote and as such, the leaders of the world can argue all they like but a vote must take place. After the videos and the carefully planned speech there can only be one outcome and Thompson sits patiently for the outcome to become reality. He looks around and considers the leaders. It pleases him to see that the biggest opponent to the B.E.A.S.T. in the past have finally been hit hard enough that they are no longer the major obstacle to the plan.

The Canadian Prime Minister as well as the newly appointed Mexican President are nothing more than puppets of the American President. As for the rest of the South American counties, most of these have been given the promise of benefiting from their discovery when it happens so once again there is no worry about support, though if the U.S., Mexico, and Canada argued against it, it could have been a long night. The European and Asian nations are split around fifty-fifty. It is the African nation that could throw a wrench in the works but recent sanctions invoked against them have made them a little more malleable.

As it is, after only a brief couple of hours of arguments that go nowhere Thompson gets what The Judge has asked him to get.

Chapter 9

Having finally given up on finding the bright ones in the manner she has been Maryalyan takes the next step in her journey. Instinct tells her that she is still being monitor by the humans and needing to get "lost", she orders the Captain to land the helicopter in the South American jungle. Once the chopper is safely on the ground she touches the captain's forehead and puts him into a deep sleep; a sleep his body does not fight as it has now gone without for a week.

Even though she had not found the bright ones, the time she had spent with the pilot and inside the helicopter had proved beneficial in some aspects. The pilot was very knowledgeable of the various surveillance devices that they could bring into play to seek them and had freely provided that information to Maryalyan, now it is the time to make some adjustments. She moves the air immediately around the body, making the air move faster while at the same time sucking moisture from the plantation around her until the temperature and humidity of her body matches that of the jungle. She heads south for an hour or more until she is sure that the jungle canopy is adequate to hide her. Only then does she turn in the true direction she needs to go.

Having little control over the body there is not much Maryalyan can do to make it move faster, but that does not hold true for the forces that make up the planet. Ironically, enough, every day that the chase continued she remembered more about herself, more about her control of earth's natural forces and every day she used those forces was a boon for the better she came to understand them. Therefore, it takes her no more than a thought to change the magnetic polarity around the body causing earth's natural magnetism to push her away from its surface. It is not nearly enough to allow her to fly but enough for the next step of her plan, which she also learned from the pilot and his discussions on what makes the helicopter fly and move. Wrapping the body in more air, she hardens a portion like a sail and then gives the air behind her a push. There are a few awkward moments at first but in short order she gets both the body and the air into sync.

Anyone watching from above sees nothing more than a breeze blowing the treetops though if anyone was to see from the ground they would see gale force winds propelling a body at an incredible speed. But as nobody is witness to this no one is the wiser when she exits the jungle canopy hundreds of miles north of where she started only a few hours past; or so she believes.

Maryalyan enters the airport without incident. She would have preferred to make her way to Europe using the same method she just used to get here but the risk of discovery, not to mention the distance and the uncertainty of the method makes that alternative, no alternative at all. Besides that, doing what she had done to get here had already used up much of her reserves and there was no way she would be able to keep that up across an ocean. She needs time to rebuild, and a nice quiet flight on a plane is just what her essence calls for. Checking the board, she finds a flight with a convoluted round about route that has a stop in Amsterdam. Satisfied she turns to find the gate. It does not take long to find it and when she does, she walks through without anyone being the wiser.

\----------

Thompson's time has almost come. For years he, like The Judge have believed that a central government is what this world needs and firing up the B.E.A.S.T. is the first step towards this. For years, Thompson has been working towards this goal, for years he has been stirring up trouble and stomping it out, for years, his superior had lied to the world leaders and then he himself when he was given that leadership.

The firing up of the B.E.A.S.T. is in progress and it should be fully up and operational within a few hours. This is a delicate procedure for if not done correctly it could wipe out the world's population. The first step in the procedure is to integrate the B.E.A.S.T.'s programming with electronic devices located around the globe. These devices are as small as those in cell phones to as large as the satellites floating in space. Anything capable of sending or receiving a signal is to be integrated. The task would have been impossible if not for the standardization that world leaders had insisted that companies operating in their countries follow. Standardization that had been carefully laid out and planned by their programmers. With those standards in place, it only becomes a matter of piggybacking and time.

Thompson looks at the large screen that covers the wall of his new domain. The room is round and large, being a full five thousand feet in diameter. A massive screen takes up the full five thousand feet of the wall, which is a feat in itself. Around the room and facing this screen are one hundred and fifty stations, all of which are currently manned. The middle of this space is the center of Thompson's new world. From here, he has control of every individual that will be showing up on that large screen.

The B.E.A.S.T. program will allow people to do as they please unless an anomaly fires and when one fires one of the one hundred and fifty people in this room will then have control of their fate. For the most part, he and The Judge have already predetermined the fate of those that fire the anomalies. Human intervention, the one concession they had to give the world leaders as the world leaders did not want a computer to be the one making the final decision, will only need to push a button to confirm or override the B.E.A.S.T.'s suggested solution. That said Thompson has already made it very clear that anybody that hits the override better have a dam good reason to override the suggested course of action. Therefore, only new anomalies that were not considered when the programming was written should come to his attention; making the seemingly impossible, possible.

The other use that the B.E.A.S.T. provides is the ability to find any individual regardless of where they are in the world and then control his or her life, or death. This best-case scenario is what they are hoping will occur with the woman. As long as she is one of the ninety some odd implanted, the B.E.A.S.T. will have total control of not only her life but also the body itself. If she happens to be one of the rare individuals not implanted, other procedures have already been put in place. DNA found in her apartment has already been fed to the B.E.A.S.T. and the moment she is located it will commence processing that program to incapacitate her.

So for now it is just a matter of synchronizing the electronics, and then for the next hour after that, almost seven billion people are going to hurt like hell as the microchips that have been implanted come to life.

The B.E.A.S.T. and the use of the microchips are the only two things the leaders of the world have, for the most part, ever agreed to. It was with their agreement and their co-operation that made the distribution of the chips possible. A distribution that commenced twenty years ago; implanted into babies when they were born, implanted into others during transfers of blood; either in the giving or taking, and implanted into even more with every doctor's appointment.

Ninety plus percent of the population, or so he was told now has the chip implanted into them and when the B.E.A.S.T. fires up this ninety plus percent of the population, including him will hurt like hell. The pain will be brief, not lasting more than an hour or so but that pain will be nothing compared to what those who do not have the chip implanted will be feeling if they are within range of some electronics or when they pass one of the millions of electronic devices now being synchronized.

Thompson grins at the thought of those unlucky six hundred million or so, writhing in pain on the ground as they fry from the inside out simply because they were the "random" few that did not get the chip.

At first, Thompson thought that there would be a greater outcry from the world leaders regarding their method of reducing the world population. For a while, he even thought they did not know about their plans to do so. But he has since discovered that the leaders are all well aware of these "random" few, for all have agreed that a reduction of the world population is a requirement. Granted some countries will be harder hit than others will be. Troubled countries like Africa and the over populated countries like China. The decisions have already been made and put into motion. If a leader does not like the result after the initiation, well failure in new technology has to be expected and not even the safeguards put into Alpha are protections against his programmers.

The next step, the central government will be up to his father as unlike demanding a vote on firing up the B.E.A.S.T. only the head of the International Court can demand a vote on the commencement of the single world government.

\----------

It was sheer dumb luck and Farley knows it. Initially, the helicopter disappeared from the radar but considering where they were flying the lost of the blimp was easy to explain. Next and a little harder to explain was the disappearance of one of the two heat signatures they had been monitoring but as they knew the general location of where the chopper disappeared, so it was not one of great concern either.

Farley had been put in charge of the monitoring of both and he immediately reported the disappearance of both to his superior. For some reason his superior seemed less concerned than he should but assured Farley that he would dispatch what remained of the squad to capture the woman. Therefore, Farley had no reason to even be monitoring the nets, especially not one hundreds of miles from the woman's known location.

As it is, Farley only noticed the alarm because he was bored and happened to be flipping through various channels to pass the time. Flipping from channel to channel and bang...Fluke, total fluke and something he will never let his superior know. After adjusting the feed and looking at the woman he initially refused to believe it was her, for she was suppose to be hundreds of miles from there, but when he focused all the other monitoring equipment towards the woman there was no denying the identity.

He makes a call to his superior and once more, the call is far from satisfying though to his surprise it takes much less to convince his superior that the woman is hundreds of miles from where she should.

After only a brief pause, he has his orders to shadow her flight while the squad re-positions. That order does not make Farley very happy, as Farley now has no doubt that the last place he wants to be is within a thousand miles of this woman. But like any good solider, he obeys and commences to arrange for a shadowing flight.

Her flight he discovers is scheduled to stop in a variety of different cities, which actually makes finding a shadowing flight much more difficult. More than once, he considers taking a flight to her flights final destination so that he would be waiting for her when she gets there but the wary soldier in him cautions against such a foolish assumption that she will take the flight to its end.

Where she is going and what she plans to do when she gets there is another big unknown. Farley has long since gotten the impression that his superior knows what she was doing or searching for in South America, enough so that it had scared them. That said when Farley informed him of the woman's various destinations he sounded as puzzled about them as Farley.

Some of the stops just do not make sense and if she really wanted to get somewhere there are much better flights available. Her flight has a couple of hops across North America, a hop to Europe and then another half dozen short hops before finally ending in southern France.

The soldier in Farley is convinced that the woman has one destination in mind and that destination is not necessarily the one at the end. He knows that when she reaches the destination she wants she will depart the plane and do whatever it is she is trying to do.

Another problem of course is that if he is on a shadowing flight he will never know when she gets off. This problem he easily overcomes when he manages to get in touch with one of the stewardess scheduled to work the woman's flight and gives her strict instructions to give him a call when the woman gets off the plane.

As it is, he is just hanging up from his conversation with the stewardess when it hits him; his superior seemed very unconcerned. If Farley was in charge, he would all the airports the flight is scheduled to stop at filled to the brink with the armed forces and casualties be dammed, he would take the woman prisoner. But something has changed for his superior seemed rather uncaring that his prey was slipping from between his fingers. The thought of what may have changed has Farley fidgeting with worry as he waits for his flight to board.

\----------

By Maryalyan's estimate, they are well past the halfway mark of the flight when passengers start to scream in pain and the stewardesses double over. Amidst the screams, the plane takes a quick dip to the right then levels again. The screams continue until it overcomes them and Maryalyan frowns at the prevailing silence.

She has little concern for the humans, as there is not a bright one among them so her probe has nothing to do with concern but everything to do with curiosity. The fact that she has little concern for the human body almost results in her missing the importance of that pain, for after checking the spirits and sensing that nothing is directly attacking them she commences to pull away. It is as she is pulling away that her probe touches upon the body and gives her the first hint of the wrongness. Delving deeper inside the body she comes across the pulsating foreign object embedded deep within the heart. The object is inanimate but she cannot keep the shiver from passing through her, as the evil of the thing seems to try to crawl into her.

Her body gives another involuntary shudder as she pulls her awareness back into herself. A feeling of dread lies heavily in the air, it pushes against her, trying to invade, trying to corrupt. It takes some effort but she finally manages to take a full breath giving her the energy to push back against the dread and to keep it at bay.

A horrid scream shatters the silence and Maryalyan watches in horror as the body of the human that is sitting directly in front of her stiffens. His screams are agonizing; the man tears at his clothing as if those are the cause of his torment. Maryalyan extends her senses forward and finds that the human's body has become much too hot, it was never designed to withstand that kind of heat and yet its temperature continues to rise. With a little more effort, she pushes further into to body to discover the cause and what she finds is not encouraging.

The core of the human's body is spiking and pulsing erratically. It was never designed to put up with the forces that are attacking it. Every molecule in the body has been tampered with so that they now move at a dizzying pace. The molecules bang into each other and then bounce away only to bang into another and the frenzy in which this is happening is what is creating the heat.

Maryalyan remembers the chip she had seen embedded into the heart of the other human and believing that this is the cause of the human's problem she probes into the body. She finds the chips but unlike the other this one has broken and now lies dead within the heart.

The man's screams continue to escalate. The molecules continue to speed up, collisions occur more often, harder, faster, vibrating. Maryalyan's head begins to pound, her heart rate increases, she feels her temples thumping in time with her speeding heart, sweat beads her forehead.

With a wrenching effort, Maryalyan manages to pull her essence back into herself, only to feel the bombardment she witnessed bombarding the human also attacking her. Taking another deep breath, she focuses her energy. The effort it takes to keep that evil from penetrating her takes all her concentration and will. Now that she has seen what this evil can do to a human body, she dares not give up or lose the fight for if she was to lose this human body and have anther she would lose valuable time, time that the bright ones may not have and certainly time this planet did not have. The human screams once more and then the sight of his body burning to ash is enough to make her re-double her effort.... vast stores of energy comes to her.... somewhere, somehow millions are dying and their energy is rebounding back to her and "the other".

It is with a mixed feeling that Maryalyan gathers the energy returning to her. She is grateful to have it to help protect her host body against whatever is trying to destroy it but the reason for the returning energy is disturbing. Caught up in her own struggle for survival and the struggles the human in front of her was experiencing, she did not have a chance to reach out and feel those millions that died; she hopes feverishly none of them were the bright ones.

Maryalyan loses track of time as she fights whatever is trying to damage her human body, how long it takes, she is unsure though more than once she fears losing the fight. Once more what to expect of the human body is she lost the fight flashes across her mind and knowing that she can ill afford to be on the losing end she continues to gather energy and push back against the evil.

I cannot afford to lose this body. I must fight, I must win.

The manta repeats itself and echoes in her mind. It helps her concentrate, to push back, to become more than the pulses.

A dim memory of her "awakening" comes to her. She enters the human body; she and another delve deeply into the body seeking for impurities and imperfections. They heal the cancer; they stop and then reverse the aging until the body is once again in the prime of its life span. They discover an object that is foreign to the body. The object is dead, it sits heavily within the heart doing nothing; this they expel. The two of them work together as one as they have been doing for eons. As the dead object is expelled, the human body goes into convulsion, the tightening of the muscles break bones; the body threatens to shut down. The two of them work feverously to keep it alive. The battle is long and hard and more than once, they think they are going to lose that body and have to look for another. The brain is swelling; it must be saved for they can ill afford to have the brain function cease. Maryalyan concentrates all her energy into saving the brain; the motor function is the most important for the body must be able to move, to take care of itself. She trusts to "the other" as she always has to keep the rest of human body alive, her job now is the brain, some parts are lost but the most important parts she saves.

The body is stable center of my being.

Thank you, the brain took some damage.

Can you do it?

Yes but it will take some time.

Do you want me to stay until you have it repaired?

That is not necessary my center. I save the most important parts, the rest will take time but I can manage it.

Then I will leave you. Call me if you have the need.

He departs, leaving Maryalyan lost, for only once before has she ever been separated from him. In her concern, she loses control of a part of the brain. More damage occurs and she puts all her will to repairing it. Yes, that is it.... the part of the brain that has been lost is the part responsible for memories but saving the host body memories is unimportant. Little does she know that letting that go results in the problem she has been having for the last six months for not only has the host body's memories been lost but also the ability for it to keep its short-term memory. For the last six months she has been repairing the brain. The brain is such a fragile thing, cell by cell; nerve by nerve, it must be repaired. It reminds her of when they first designed the body. It was a tedious process requiring much thought. There were failures and successes a plenty. Their first attempt was little better than what the humans now call apes. Maryalyan remembers that even though there were many problems with them she was fond of that race. They were so simple, so easy to please...

It was in only the last couple of weeks or so that she finally got most of this human's brain pieced back together, hence the reason for her sudden "awakening". Further repairs followed, so automatic now that she did not realize she is doing it and everyday became clearer until now...it has all come back to her.

The pounding continues and Maryalyan continues to shield the body, to push back the evil, to deny it entrance. She cannot, will not allow the brain to be damaged again. Pulsating, it pulsates with every push; she feels the beat, the timing. Thump... thump.... thump...Mary times her pushes to those thumps. Push, hold, breath in, push. The pressure decreases, thump, push, breath in, thump.

She finally reaches the point where she can think clearly again. Frightened of what this may mean she reaches out for the bright ones. Nothing, not one bright one close by, she reaches to the general area for those gathered in South America. She spreads her essence over a large area, she listens.... She is much relieved when she finally feels their pulse, and then gathers her essence back into herself.

How long this all took, how long she fights she has no idea for she has no real conception of time and it is the stewardess that finally brings her back to the here and now. Looking around she sees that whatever had afflicted the stewardess and the other passengers seems to have passed and except for the passenger burnt to ash and ignored by all, they all act as if nothing untoward has occurred.

The stewardess asks Maryalyan if she is feeling well and Maryalyan assures her that she is. Thus reassured and as if a little while ago that very same stewardess was not writhing in pain or that there is at least one ash laden seat on the plane, the stewardess informs her that they are coming in for a landing and asks her to fasten her seatbelt. Maryalyan fastens her seatbelt and it is as she is fastening this that she comes to realize how long it had taken her to fight the evil that had been trying to invade her and how much of her energy it had taken. Much of the excess energy that had redoubled into her upon the deaths has already been used up in her efforts so that she now only has a minuscule more energy than before. Looking at the burnt body of the human before her clearly shows what would have happened to her host body if she had failed so she has no regrets of the effort and energy she expended.

The evil still hangs there, it still tries to invade, to penetrate but now she knows the pulse and is able to keep it at bay by matching her pushes to the evil's pluses.

When Maryalyan disembarks the airplane at Amsterdam there is an immediate relief of the constant attack on her body but that relief is short lived for the moment she enters the terminal it comes back tenfold. The pulse is so much stronger that it catches her unaware making her stagger so that she has to hold onto the wall until she has the pulse back under control. She realizes that the pulse in the terminal is the same yet different. It beats to a different rhythm and it changes as it seeks. By the time she accomplishes the task of settling the body to the pulse, the human body is shaking almost uncontrollably.

Using what little energy she has left she nudges the custom officers and passes them unnoticed. Head pounding, throat dry she makes her way out of the terminal and down to the train station. She is lucky enough to get there just before the train going to The Hague is preparing to depart. Maryalyan finds herself a seat and sits down exhausted.

When the train exits the airport proper there is an immediate reduction in the pulse. Breathing a great sigh of relief, she closes her eyes and works on getting her frayed essence back in order.

The further the train pulls away from the airport the less the pulse pushes allowing Maryalyan a half hour to gather strength and calm.... then they enter the city proper. She feels the difference immediately, though much to her surprise the attack on her body only increases to a slight irritant and nothing more.

Not having to put all her attention into protecting the body gives her time to watch the city and its citizens as the train speeds its way to the train station. She sees the occasional human exit their car writhing in pain and then turn to ash much like the human on the plane. The worst part is that those who past the writhing bodies ignore them and continue as if nothing is amiss.

The train stops at the station and like the rest of the humans on the train she exits. As she exits the train car the bombardment against her body resumes and she instantly realizes that the inside of the car had been providing some shielding from the pulse for it is immediately upon her exit of the car that is increase to an almost unbearable level again.

Maryalyan hurries to the first taxi she sees and entering gives the driver the address of her destination. As the taxi makes its way she sits back to contemplate the meaning of the pulse, the change. Something on earth has changed something that would be a historic moment for these humans Maryalyan is sure. Her mind flashes back to the tingle she felt in the U.S. President.

Is it possible that they have implemented what I saw...

They are searing the court when Maryalyan feels a pull. She is not sure from where it comes but the feeling of "her other" is strong. It tells her the one she is seeking is not in the court building but in another not far away. Such is the trust in "the other" that she has no hesitation about giving the driver new instructions, telling him to turn left here and right there until the pull has stopped.

She looks out the cab at the building they have stopped at. She is certain the building must be quite imposing to the humans for it stands tall and shines brightly in the afternoon sun. Giving the driver's spirit a touch she exits without paying. The driver drives away happy for he believes she has left him a significant tip.

Once more, the pulses bombard her and once more, she finds herself on the defensive. For five minutes she fights back, the human body is so fragile that it wants to bend under the pressure and she needs to give all of her strength to support it.

Finally and hoping to get some shelter from the pulse she pushes open the door to the building and makes her way inside.

\----------

The pain had hit Farley when he was on the airplane and he remembers clearly wishing to die. So intense was the pain that it was impossible to keep from screaming and he was not the only one letting those screams free. It was through the haze of pain that he saw the elderly lady stumble down the aisle. She fell and released a death scream then burned to ash. Oh, how he wished he could burn like the old lady; how he wished the pain would go away.

The pain had started at the heart, and then it felt as if his blood was being boiled and that "boiled blood" was being pumped throughout the rest of the body. And if having heated blood pumped throughout is not enough the feel of a thousand needles piercing the skin and embedding themselves into every organ and nerve was enough to drive him mad. The brain wants to explode, the eyes bleed, the chest pounds...and then... blissful nothingness.

He remembers coming back slowly, as if from deep within a fog. The pain is nothing more than a distant memory and he would have been willing to dismiss it as a dream, a very bad dream at that, if not for the dull throb he felt deep within his bones and the dried blood on his face.

Licking his bleeding lips and wiping dried blood off his cheeks, he looks to his watch and realizes that he has lost two hours of time. Taking a deep breath to settle his queasy stomach he looks around and just like him, others are slowly recovering from the ordeal. He looks to the aisle and then wishes he had not for he knows what that pile of ash once was.

\----------

Farley's plane lands only minutes after Maryalyan's flight and she had disboarded. This he knows as he has just taken a call from the stewardess he set to watching her. He is quick to exit his plane and runs through the terminal. Just as he gets to customs, he sees her in the flesh for the first time.

She is just exiting customs but that should be impossible for there is a world bulletin for her arrest. As he moves to intercept her he cannot help but think how normal and fragile this woman looks; nothing like the monster he had come to think of over the last week. He watches her stumble out of the custom area and is about to do the same when large and very powerful hands grip his shoulders.

Farley turns around quickly to give a sharp reprimand to the fool who has the nerve to impede his mission; only then does he realize that it is not one but five that impede him and more seem to be on the move.

She did this. This is that bitch's doing!

Farley is not a stupid man and as such, he holds up his hands in surrender.

"Take it easy, I'm ICC." Farley states in as calm of voice as possible, effectively hiding the frustration he feels.

Those around him look at him blankly and it becomes clear that ICC means nothing to them.

"I have identification. I am going to reach inside my inner pocket and take it out." Farley states just as calmly.

When the one fellow nods, Farley reaches inside his pocket with exaggerated slowness for the last thing he wants is any of these pistol-pointing idiots to take his move the wrong way.

\----------

Thompson has just recently recovered and is standing in the middle of his new world. The screens have come to life; the computers are talking to the electronics, the satellites, the cell phones, anything and everything electronic belong to these computers. They take in the inputs and give the outputs. Dots are flashing across the screens, lights are flashing waiting for the human interaction that will allow them to continue running their programming.

"Come on people get up, it's time we get to work."

Thompson goes around kicking a few awake and then leaves the job to be finished to those few he woke. Going but to the center of his world he looks around.

His world, the power over life and death, the power over who goes where and who can buy what is all in his hands.

"Sir!"

"Why aren't you at your station Max?"

"Sir, the computer wants to terminate a new born?"

"So."

"Well Sir the program has only been running for an hour, I don't think..."

"Think, are we paying you to think? Have there been more births than deaths in the area?"

"Yes Sir but.."

"Peters, please find Max's chip."

"Yes Sir....found it."

"No please Sir. I'll get right on it." Max knows what is coming and runs back to his desk in fear.

Thompson scans his computer screen. "Peters please terminate 666 1987652."

"Yes Sir. 666 1987652 termination commenced."

"Sir no! See I pushed the button. The baby is dead."

Max screams in pain as the program runs its course.

"So do we have anybody else here who thinks they know better or want to question their orders?" Thompson looks around. "No good, so let's get to work people."

Thompson is not upset one bit about having to terminate Max. He knew that what they had to do would become an issue for some at some point in time and that he was going to have to take action at that time. Therefore, he is actually very pleased that it had happened so quickly and that Max had provided him the opportunity to give a pointed lesson so quickly. A lesson he is sure he will not have to give again, at least not for a very long time by the looks of those that witnessed Max's death.

"Now people find me the world's top one hundred wanted and run the termination program on them."

\----------

For a half hour, Farley has been trying to get past customs. For the last half hour, they have been grilling him and he finally manages to talk the goons into letting him use his cell phone.

"Sir."

"What is it Sean?" Thompson replies.

"There's a call from Farley I think you should listen to."

"Farley? Isn't that our man in the U.S.?" Thompson questions.

"Yes Sir. He has been following the woman."

"Did he apprehend her?" Thompson becomes excited.

"No sir apparently he had some trouble with Customs."

"Trouble." Thompson frowns. "Put him on the speaker."

"Farley, what seems to be the problem and why is that woman not in your custody?" Sean asks when he has turned the phone to speakerphone.

"Customs won't let me past. I think it was something that woman did." Farley replies.

Thompson gives Sean an impatient look. "Farley put whoever is leading this escapade on the phone."

\----------

Farley is not sure what Sean said to "top goon" as he is only talking to the "top goon" for a couple of seconds when the goon hands the phone over to another. That second's goon's face looks serious for a few seconds, then in horror as he watches "top goon" fall down and burn to ash. Like a light switch attitudes change and giving Farley back his phone he is allowed to leave.

Farley takes back his phone and makes his way out of the airport as he talking to a strange voice on the phone.

"Is the woman still in the airport?" The voice asks.

"No Sir she left the airport." Farley replies.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure she exited the airport. I was right behind her until those idiots stopped me." Farley replies angrily.

"But you are in Amsterdam. Why Amsterdam? I have your reading but I have no reading of her and as such, she should have become comatose. Did she look like she was in any discomfort?" The voice is obviously troubled.

Come on people we have to get better at this. Now find me that woman and find out why the program is failing.

"So, was she in any discomfort Farley?"

"Discomfort? Hell if I know. I didn't manage to get close enough. She did seem weak though. Have you seen this woman?" Farley stops another goon patrolling the area and shows him a picture of a woman.

"Yes Sir. She took the train out of here about a half-hour ago?"

"Dam it!"

"Sorry Sir. I just..."

"I heard.... you say she looked weak?"

"Yes, like she had no energy. Sir, looking at the train schedule I would have to guess that she took a train to The Hague." Farley replies.

"Well that's better than nothing I guess and the fact that she was able proves our theory that she is something more than she seems. So why The Hague, what is she doing there?" The voice sounds puzzled.

"I have no clue. According to her ticket she was suppose to carry on but I never believed she would stay until the end of the flight."

Inspiration hits Thompson. "Hold on Farley."

Thompson pulls the cell phone from his pocket and pushes the button. The phone rings and rings and rings again. Ten rings and still no answer. Thompson starts to sweat. This is not right The Judge would never willingly allow this number to go unanswered.

"Find me the location of The Judge...Now people, do it now!"

\----------

The voice on the other end of the phone is quiet for some time before Farley hears a fear-ridden reply.

"I just tired to get in touch with The Judge in ICC headquarters. The building electronics are going crazy and he is not answering his phone. I want you over there on the double. I will mobilize Zebra team to meet you there. If my guess is correct, you will find your wayward lady inside. And oh Farley, nothing better happen to The Judge or your life is forfeited."

The cell phone goes dead and Farley looks at it in disgust for some time.

\----------

The Judge is a little puzzled over the phone call he received a half hour ago. One of the astrometry experts he has on his payroll has just told him that the planets are well on their way to aligning in the manner they all expected and as this is nothing different from what they expected, he is not quite sure why the fellow thought it was so important for him to call.

"So they are aligning. Have you discovered something about their alignment that should give us cause for worry?" The Judge's voice is brittle with anger.

"No sir, they are aligning as we have always predicted they would and it still does not give us any cause for worry."

"Then why this call man!" The Judge can no longer keep his anger to himself.

"Well sir I have spotted an anomaly." The voice on the other end replies.

"Anomaly, what kind of anomaly?"

"We are not sure Judge. The instruments we have can just barely make it out but there is something out there and it only showed up recently."

"You have the best technology in the world available to you man and I expect results not speculations."

"The anomaly is small yet sir, barely even there. It was a fluke that we seen it at all."

"Don't give me excuses give me answers. Now get back to work and find out what this anomaly is and what it means to us." The Judge is now annoyed.

"Yes sir!"

The Judge is deep in thought as he hangs up the phone and then alarms begin to sound.

\----------

Upon entering the building, Maryalyan made her way to the building directory and it was as she is reviewing this that the trouble starts.

Her plan for making her goal was to nudge the spirits like she had so many times before but it becomes quickly apparent that is not going to work in this building as the electronic pulses are the worst she has encountered yet, though she does not realize the impact of this until she comes under attack.

Scanning the building directory she finds the office she is looking for when they come after her. The attack catches her unprepared and her response to this attack is to push the spirits; she stands flat-footed and in shock when it does not work. That is when she becomes aware of the restrictions that the electronic pulses inside the building are putting on her abilities. Her initial failure is almost her undoing but she has always been quick to come to conclusions, too quick "the other" often complained, therefore before the humans can take advantage of her surprise she turns to the one thing that is hers and hers alone.

The humans have many myths, tall tales, and sayings. Most of them are purely imagination and many so far from the truth that if the truth were ever known the two would not be recognizable as the same. That said, the one that they come close to having right is the wrath of Mother Nature; little do they know that it is that very wrath that stands before them. Therefore, when the nudging fails and the humans continue approaching, "Mother Nature" releases her wrath.

The weather outside changes from a sunny lazy afternoon to a day of death and destruction. Dark clouds scuttle across the sky and lightening flashes; the resulting thunder shakes building in their footings, bursts eardrums of humans as far away as a mile, and windows shatter throughout The Hague. Rain, hail, sleet and snow fall to the streets resulting in a mess that brings the city to a stand still. The wind howls and lesser buildings fly free from their footings. The land changes from pleasantly warm to freezing and back again causing cracks, fissures and explosions as gas lines break and fiery balls shoot forth to explode upon the populace.

Just as the humans in North and South America had come to believe those caught in the storm's path die thinking that Armageddon had finally arrived and those that survive wish that they had died. There is no safety to be found, no building is safe, and no tunnels are adequate. The earth shakes, the skies scream in rage and people die.

The humans in the building with Maryalyan fare no better for the wind makes its way into the building and with Maryalyan standing in it's vortex it flings those that opposed her around like rag dolls. Furniture and bodies fly through plate glass windows; further opening the way for the weather outside to join the chaos inside but worst to come was the balls of molten earth. Keeping a tight rein on the wind she guides these molten balls around her, and then flings them to the ceiling to open a pathway.

Those that do not die or flee from the fiery inferno die shortly after when they try to halt the progress of the lady who floats upon the winds behind the balls of death. Death to the fiery balls is the preferred death as this death is quick and relatively painless, while the death from her hands takes time, for time it takes for weather to strip the flesh from bones.

As soon as she finishes with one floor, she commands the wind to raise her human shell to the next floor only to find more humans trying to stop her progression. Once more the wind responds to her wishes. Once more, she calls the hail, the sleet, the rain and snow. The interior of the building quickly becomes coated with elements that properly belong outside. Humans fall, they shiver, and they freeze but worst of all is the wind; oh that wind, how it becomes hated. The winds whips around, picks up desks, chairs, and office supplies and these go crashing into the mob waiting to do her harm. The lucky fly out the window with the furnishing, the unlucky have the wind strip their skin to the bone.

Maryalyan is merciless. She meets each attack without glee or concern. Not a floor goes unscathed as floor after floor the foolish humans try to stop the on coming death instead of fleeing like even the dumbest of animals. The higher she gets the easier the weather comes to call and the further the humans have to fall before they hit the frozen ground outside the building.

Long before she gets to her goal the fighting becomes tiresome and she supposes the humans would say brutal, though little do the humans know that they are not her only fight. Floor after floor the bombardment against her human body increases in intensity. Floor after floor the type of bombardment changes in type and pulse, and that constant change takes much more of her energy and concentration than the killing of humans, so much so that that dealing with the humans is nothing more than a distraction to the real threat.

Maryalyan finally makes it to the threshold of the man she came here to see, the man with the answers to her questions. The building smells of death, the structure, now a skeleton of what is was groans and creaks with stress.

Maryalyan steps out of the vortex and checks the life source of the last obstacle that stood between her and her goal. She cares little for the human lying at her feet for even the electronics did nothing to hide the blackness of his spirit. Therefore, her only reason for checking the life force is to make sure that he is no longer an obstacle to her progression.

Releasing a sigh of relief at finally obtaining her goal, she pushes on the doors that stand in her way. The doors creak and fall to the floor and she steps inside. The office she steps into is magnificent, opulent with grander. An older human sits behind the desk and it is obvious that he is not use to being thwarted in any way.

"Well my dear. It seems like you have gone through a lot of trouble to see me. Now what may I do for you?" The old human states seemingly unconcerned.

Maryalyan staggers over the threshold. Her essence is almost drained, for it has taken much of her stored energy to get her this far, so much so, that even the large scale death of the human population during the storm was not enough to replenish it.

Just a little longer and then you can rest Maryalyan; just a little further.

"Where are you hiding them?" Maryalyan barely manages to get it out.

"Hiding them? Who..."

The old man's lie dies on his lips when Maryalyan lifts her hand and the raging tempest outside comes to rest in her outstretched palm.

"Where?"

The old man swallows and for the first time in a very long time he fears for his life; a feeling he quickly comes to hate though not nearly as much as the person that is making him feel that fear.

"So you are the one that caused all that havoc in the Americas. Neither North or South America will be the same again."

"Stop your prattling, where are they?" Maryalyan states vehemently and the building storm in the palm of her hand spits and crackles.

"You will find out soon enough." The old human smiles.

Maryalyan feels a sudden vacuum. Her already faltering energy dims to almost nothing. She stands shocked as half of her is ripped away; the half that promised never to leave her; to always be there.... then the on who claimed that she was his center traps that which is hers. Her storm falters, and then disappears.

\----------

The Judge, the most powerful man in the world, the very man that intends to become the ultimate ruler of earth and very soon at that, knows that the only reason he is still alive is because the woman was tired from fighting her way up fifty floors. From the very start, the alarms rang and warned those within of a non-complying intruder. From the very start, the electronics bombarded her in an attempt to disable her and when that failed, came the order for human intervention.

Then hell on earth became a reality. Balls of molten lava that she commanded opened floor after floor for her and she followed riding the winds. And much like dogs whipped into a frenzy the men and woman under his command attacked, only to have this slip of a woman beat them back, rip the very flesh from their bodies or fling them and furniture out windows that should never have broken in the first place.

For fifty floors, she had succeeded, for fifty floors she thwarted everything he had to throw at her and her exhaustion is the only reason the man behind her had managed to stun gun the back of her neck. The Judge frowns when she commences to stir.

"Hit her again and keep hitting her every time she even so much as moves; I'll be right back.... but whatever you do don't kill her!" the most powerful man who had recently thought his life was forfeited orders Farley.

"No problem sir. I'll shock the bitch senseless and if that stops working I'm sure I can think of an alternative or two that will not kill her but make her wish she was dead." Farley gives a wicked smile.

The Judge leaves the room through a back door that has somehow managed to survive the tempest. Farley hears the man fumbling around and gives the woman lying unconscious on the floor another shot with his stun gun. A short time later, The Judge returns and in his hand, he holds a needle filled with a syrupy looking blue fluid.

"What is that Sir?" Curiosity gets the best of Farley.

"That is none of your business young man. Just make sure she doesn't wake up while I inject her and for at least twenty minutes after!"

Being a good solider Farley replies as expected. "Yes Sir."

The Judge bends and almost carelessly injects the substance into the woman. He leaves the needle inside her for a couple of seconds, nods in satisfaction then pulls it free. Throwing the needle carelessly aside, he goes to his desk and picks up his cell phone.

"Thompson."

"Sir, you're alive! I have been trying to phone you for almost an hour. Hold tight sir I have Zebra team on their way."

"It's over Thompson and no thanks to them I am still alive, besides if Zebra got caught outside they are probably already dead. I have the woman so get me another team up here immediately."

"But Zebra team was dispatched almost an hour ago. They should be there with you."

"Well they are not and that woman, she was about ready to fry me when your man" The Judge motions to Farley to get his name, to which Farley supplies, "Farley showed up and put her out of commission. I injected her with B.E.A.S.T. "A", which will keep the electronic from turning her to ash but not from causing the body insufferable pain. I hate having to do your job Thompson so get me a dam team up here and I mean now." The Judge finishes.

"Yes sir, I'll get someone there right away. If not Zebra then another team" Thompson replies.

"You have no idea what happened here Thompson. If Zebra was caught outside when the tempest hit I expect they are dead. Check the system, after all that is one of the reasons we designed it the way we did."

The Judge waits patiently for a couple of minutes.

"You're right Judge they are all dead." Thompson replies.

The Judge nods expecting no less. "I know the system is new to you Thompson but I shouldn't have to be telling you what to do. Anyways, make sure the team you send has the electronics to hook this woman up directly to the B.E.A.S.T. for after what I have seen I am sure that is going to be the only way any of us are going to keep our heads. Also prepare a ride for her to the hole and make note that I wanted her there yesterday."

"Yes Sir!"

"And Thompson."

"Yes Sir."

The most powerful man on earth looks around at what is left of this once magnificence building.

"Prepare my France office, this building is going to be under renovations for quite some time."

"Yes Sir."

Chapter 10

Maryalyan wakes to emptiness so vast that for a long time she wanders aimlessly in the vastness. That ever-present presence that has always been with her, that is a part of her as much as she is a part of him is gone...completely and totally gone.

Gone...gone.... gone...gone...

It echoes hollowly in her mind and worst yet, where once she never felt pain, her essence is now wracked with it; every bone, every nerve, every fibre of her host body throbs with the pain; a pain that refuses to go away, a pain that drives itself deep into her essence.

Even worst than the pain is the fact that she no longer feels or can access her essence's energy. This is impossible for even when she first came into existence she felt that energy. It cannot just disappear for her essence is her; her in every manner, shape and form. Yet everything is gone....Maryalyan's mind refuses to understand this for humans have yet to come up with a technology that can do this to her, but yet, here she lies as weak and helpless as a human babe.

Finally, she comes to realize that she is moving...no not her but something she is on is moving and that movement is down; her eyes flutter and pain shoots from the back of her skull to her toes.

\----------

The next time when Maryalyan wakes, it is a much slower process. The pain has increased substantially and on her first attempt to move, she discovers that movement is impossible. Only then does she realize that she is lying naked on a steel table with both her wrists and ankles securely fastened.

She hears a voice that she does not recognize and a more menacing voice she cannot ever remember hearing. She looks around for the owner of the voice but with her limited movement it is all for naught.

In desperation, she reaches deep inside herself for the core of her essence. A sigh of relief escapes her when she finally finds it and then dismay when she discovers it encased in a bubble so hard that even she is unable to penetrate it. There is only one that can trap her core like that and unable to comprehend why he would do such a thing she lies in shock...Then much like an echo two thousand plus earth years in building, she cries out.

"Why have you abandoned me? Why have you forsaken me?"

And much like the reply, she gave those two thousand earth years ago his reply echoes in her mind.

"I have not abandoned you. I did what was necessary to get you where you needed to be and you are there, though I fear your trials are only beginning. Have faith in me, have faith in us for even when you do not feel me, even when times are darkest, when all seems lost, I will be with you. Your pain will be my pain and together as always we will get through this."

The voice of her one and only fades away, leaving the voice of evil as her only companion.

"Just make sure you keep her alive. I will be calling the high court together and I want her well enough to talk at that time."

"Don't worry she will alive long enough for you to use her for your needs and rest assured that I will discover and trap her power for us. I'll inform you of anything I discover."

"Do that."

Silence.... Maryalyan strains to hear what, if anything else may be happening but the pain of the body that she now feels seems to block everything but the loudest of noise and there is now little of that.

"Hurt's doesn't it!" The voice of evil inquires.

Maryalyan opens her eyes and what she sees does not give her any encouragement. The human male is pale like a ghost and the smile he sports is so evil that it makes the human host shiver. Without even thinking about it Maryalyan attempts to feel his spirit but the racking pain, the abandonment of "the other" and her trapped core makes it impossible.

The man lowers his hand to her nude securely strapped human body. His finger barely touches her skin and much to her shame even that little touch makes her back arch and she releases a scream of pain; the human chuckles.

"I heard you were hell on wheels. You don't seem so hellish right now..."

His finger travels from her neck to her navel and his laughter plays counterpart to her screams.

"He said I had to keep you alive and believe me I will but long before I finish what I have planned for you, you will beg for your death. Now who and what are you?"

Maryalyan barely opens her mouth to reply when the human digs his nails into her bare skin causing a pain so intense that it blinds her to anything else. He continues administrating the pain until she passes out.

\----------

Due to his nature, Zimmerman is unable to comprehend that it is impossible for Maryalyan's to lie and as such, he refuses to believe any of the answers that she willingly and readily provides his questions. Therefore, every time she answers his questions, he inflicts pain and every time he does, she passes out only to be awakened again and asked the same or similar question again.

For the first time ever, time comes to mean something for Maryalyan and she learns to hate it. She learns to hate the minutes and the seconds of her torture, the hours of questioning followed by more minutes and seconds of torture. Eventually she learns about days.

How many earth days she is not sure but the same routine has played out at least ten times. She comes to consciousness strapped to a steel table; hours of questions and pain follow. There is the laser and the hand that holds the laser; oh how she comes to loath that hand. She is fully awake and aware as the man performs his tasks. The laser cuts into her; he probes her insides, laughs at her screams, continues with the questions, questions and more questions, and never satisfied with the answers. He probes her every orifice, he cuts her and sews her back up, more hours of question, followed by minutes and seconds of pain. Finally, the straps are removed and she is dragged to her dark cell. Just when she is sinking into blessed darkness they come, and for the rest of the evening other humans keep her awake using a variety of methods that only have one thing in common; the abuse of her body.

Days...oh how she comes to loathe days. Everyday the cuts become deeper and longer. Everyday her organs are moved, probed, and sampled and those deemed unnecessary by the madman are removed.

How long she suffers under his knife and laser, how long she suffers under his questioning, how long she suffers under the pain he induces she does not really know but by the reckoning it had to have been days. One day passes into the next and the next. Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day.... until.

\----------

Maryalyan cannot remember the last time she came back to consciousness without the face or the voice of the madman ringing in her ears or the feel of others probing and prodding her. The pain has become her companion, why is he not cutting into her, why is he not asking her questions and not believing her answers, why.....

Eventually she comes to realize that she is not strapped to a table and that she has the freedom to move. On her first attempt, she ends back on the floor screaming in pain as if that evil monster is once again cutting into her flesh. The bombardment of the electronics is ceaseless and the weaken state of the body has no ability to resist what the bombardment is inflicting.

The next time Maryalyan comes to consciousness she once again finds herself alone and not strapped to the steel table. A brief memory of the last time she awakened unrestrained and her attempt to move flashes across her mind. Determined to keep from repeating her last consciousness she takes much better care in moving.

The process of sitting up is long and arduous for the weaken body but it finally succeeds at its task. Finally, the body sits upright and she rests against the wall until she is drawing sufficient breath to satisfy the pain-racked body. Only then does she take stock of her surroundings.

Maryalyan finds that she is in a dark box like container; something the humans call a cell; the memory of the name comes slowly. The only light comes from a feeble source outside the door and this filters in from bars high on what looks like a steel door. The cell she determines is no more than three paces across and three paces wide.

She turns to examining her host body. It looks emaciated compared to the last time she examined it and the skin is crisscrossed with scars; both old and new. Touching a few of these scars, she discovers that the skin around many is being held together with steel staples and that some of these staples are festering. Her inner sense confirms her suspicion that the human body will fall victim to the festering soon.

Her mind flashes back to the recent past, the pain, the knife, the leering face as the human cut into her and took pieces of her flesh. The human body; so frail that it screamed in agony, yet so strong that it refused to give into his evil.

The human body was one of their greatest achievements to date. Even if everything else they try to achieve fails the one success that she and "the other' will always have is the human body; the perfect container for the spirit. Only if they could make the same leaps and bounds in the spirit as they did the human body but unlike the body moulding the spirit is impossible.

"Maryalyan."

Maryalyan jumps in surprise and then immediately regrets it as her abused body screams out at the torment the move caused.

"Maryalyan. It is I, the center of your spirit."

"Oh how I have missed you so. I am sorry."

"Sorry? What are you sorry for Maryalyan? I should be the one apologizing for having to leave you at the mercy of that human."

"I am sorry for not understanding what my leaving you those two thousands earth years ago did to you. I could not fathom the pain you described or the loneliness."

"Ah...well then this adventure of yours will enrich the both of us and make us that much closer, though I believe that you got the worst of the deal."

"Yes it will center of my spirit. So why have you come to me now when you refused all the other times I called for you?"

"Because now the danger of that human ripping your essence from you has passed. For many earth days, he probed and took parts from you but never once did I allow him access to your essence."

The voice pauses for some time before continuing. "At first, I encased it because I knew it would get you to the bright ones. I really did not believe the mad one could take your essence as he claims to his superiors but then I saw him rip the spirit out of another and started having my doubts. So I stayed and kept you safe from him. Now his time has run out and he needs you well enough to speak before the assembly."

"And the bright ones? What about them?"

"They are there with you. I knew if they managed to get you, they would take you to the same place as the bright ones. That human male...The Judge.... would have died before giving you the information you wanted and what you would have pried from his spirit after his death would have left you no better off than you were before you went to him. I saw this clearly; hence my actions to trap your essence. Those spirits are all around you Maryalyan. They are waiting for you. Can't you feel them?"

"How can I feel them when you have blocked me from my essence?!" An angry Maryalyan screams.

"Oh!" An embarrassed reply.

If the sadist Dr. Zimmerman had been around and watching at that moment, his disgust at his failures over the last two weeks would have immediately disappeared, and order or no he would have been stripping Maryalyan to the bone. For at the very moment that "the other" releases her essence and rejoins her as they have been joined since the beginning of time there was a flash of light so bright that it chases every shadow from the cell, a pulse so strong that it would explain why every monitoring system around the world has suddenly begun to ring. Once rejoined the two immediately go to work on repairing the human body. They expel the infection, heal the scars, mend the still open skin, eject the staples, and replace missing organs.

The foreign object that The Judge implanted into the body they keep in place because now that Maryalyan is once again in possession of her essence the object actually helps her, for she no longer has to spend energy to keep the electronics from burning her body as the object performs that task for her.

"Center of my spirit, all you need to do now is provide nourishment and the body will be fine."

Maryalyan ignores "the others" concerns for the human body and reaches out. Sure enough she feels the bright ones; thousands of them. All have been severely damaged by the mad doctor and much too many are beyond repair but with care, maybe just as many viable bright ones can be saved.

"Are there enough to start over?" Maryalyan questions.

"Barely but yes. The process will take longer than it would have otherwise but yes there is still enough."

"How much time do I have?"

"In earth days.....a week."

"Will that be enough?"

"It will have to be. Spend the next couple earth days recovering your strength and then you can commence mending and mark any bright ones able to be mended."

\----------

The Judge had never been shaken to the core as he was only an hour ago. When the alarms had begun ringing, he had thought them a local phenomenon but then Thompson called to tell him that alarms are ringing all around the world.

The Judge does not believe in coincidences or Thompson's feeble attempt to convince him that a "person of interest" has just made themselves known in each of earth's monitoring location; no that would mean there were thousands out there and The Judge refuses to believe that.

A quick call to Dr. Zimmerman and a check on the woman proves fruitless as the woman was still unconscious and in poor form. There is only one thing, or so The Judge was told long ago, that can cause alarms to ring all over the world and that thing is something The Judge fears. The fear has nothing to do with the possibility of his death, it stems from failure to bring his grandest ambition to life; failure to bring the world together under one rule.... his rule.

As far as The Judge is concerned, the alarms signal the coming of the end for only a magnetic force of gigantic magnitude can cause every monitoring station to go off at once and if that force strikes earth, their time is short. He remember the pulse that they had discovered long ago and how his astronomers had stated that it was coming straight for earth and if it kept up that pace and direction it would drive itself right through earth's core...but then they lost track of it. How they could ever lose track of something like that The Judge still does not understand.

He, like every other world leader have been watching the night skies closely and what they have been seeing over the last year and more recently is discouraging, but The Judge never believed that it was the signal of the end and still doesn't but... Something is happening out there, we all know it.

Remembering the strange pulse, The Judge contacts the astrologer that initially informed him of it but much to The Judge's disappointment, he is informed that "no they have not picked up on the pulse again".

Maybe there is still time. I can come up with some lame excuse and push the date of the tribune up. One way or another all will be mine.... maybe those dam alarms will come into use after all.

\----------

Maryalyan got lucky, or at least the guard that was sent to check on her did. Lucky because if the man had not just finished satisfying himself with another of the "guest", not even Maryalyan's naked, emaciated or not body would have kept him from entering and discovering the truth. As it was, the guard elected to take a quick peek through the bars. What he saw was a body curled into a small ball and laying unconscious on the concrete floor. Deciding there was no threat and that the woman had not yet awakened, he reported such to Dr. Zimmerman, who reported such to The Judge. If anyone would have bothered to open the door and look closely, they would have discovered the truth and of course discovered that Maryalyan was no longer so useless. In which case, no more "guests" would have needed to worry about unwanted attention.

For the first couple of days the only time she comes "alive" is when they push nourishment into her cell. Only then does she wake from her self-induced trance for as "the other" had stated the human body was in dire need of substance. Therefore, for the first two days Maryalyan gobbles down the food as quickly as she can and then returns to her self-induced condition. It is the next few days after, which things get very busy.

That task turns out to be more difficult that she first believed it would be for the electronics invades every square inch of this underground complex. As such, she has to be careful with the amount of energy that she releases when she creates a vision of herself lying on the floor. Careful even as she unbars her cell and then like a ghost travels the caverns.

Everything seems to be conspiring against her; everything seems to be slowing her down. It is not enough for her to mark each of the bright ones. First, she has to examine their spirits to determine if the madman has damaged them beyond repair. Those still salvageable she salvages and that takes time. Some she is able to do on her own, but far too many require the help of the other. Those they cannot save she lovingly and quietly lays to rest making the issue of a sudden increase in death rates a major concern to those in charge, which in turn makes them even more vigilant in watching. Every spirit she repairs increases her hopes of success in the upcoming migration but as "the other" had stated there are far fewer than they would have liked.

She is halfway through her allotted week when it hits her. The animals, they will require animals and food for the humans as the place where they are going is newly born. This had been discussed and the decision had already been made that substance would be transferred from this world to that. She decides to make the animals and food plants the "the other's" responsibility and as Maryalyan had not totally forgiven him for what he put her through it gives her great satisfaction to think of him surrounded with those he best mirrors.

The process is slow and sometimes frustrating work for Maryalyan but necessary if they are to continue. More than once the sorrow at what the Doctor had done to the bright ones makes her contemplate giving it all up but every time she considers this option she remembers the joy she experiences whenever a bright one is born and it is this that makes her continue the seemingly endless task.

Chapter 11

"The time is upon us Maryalyan. The humans gather and you will be called." The male voice is soft and full of love.

"I can't. I need the time to finish my task. I cannot waste time with those humans!" Maryalyan is clearly upset. She is so close to finishing what she has to do and the thought of having to stop frustrates her.

"Whether you want to or not, they are going to come for you soon. It is time for you to leave the body and come back to me so we can watch the end together."

"No!" Maryalyan is far from ready to give up.

"What use are you going to be there, come my center I will sooth away your pains."

"No, I will not, I can not ignore the rest. I need time center of my spirit, give me that time!"

"Not even father could stop what is coming."

"No not that. I am talking about the humans. Do not let them come for this body, give me the time I need!" Maryalyan begs the one that completes her.

The other is silence so long that Maryalyan begins to think that he has closed himself to her. Just when she is starting to despair, he replies.

"Do what you need to do Maryalyan. I can give you more time but you must promise to be gone before the end. Promise me that, and I will give you as much time as possible."

"My center you give me that and I will even stop trying to come up with the punishment I think you deserve for what you put me through. Give me time and your next eon will be one of peaceful bliss!"

"And your promise?"

"You have it my center, you have that and more."

"So be it but be prepared to help me for I will need to be fully aware when I arrive."

The other withdraws and allows Maryalyan to go back to work, so much to do and so little time.

\----------

Dr. Zimmerman looks out at his office at the assembly. Assembled in his domain are the leaders of the world, as well as the leaders of every major religion. They invade his domain on The Judge's whim, as The Judge wants them to hear firsthand the questions he puts to the woman and to hear firsthand her responses.

As far as Dr. Zimmerman is concerned, it is nothing but a waste of time and he wishes it all a quick end so he can have his playground back.

"Zimmerman!"

Dr. Zimmerman snaps back to the present. "What is it?"

The man called Farley glares at Zimmerman. "The Judge wants you to get the woman prepared. Now snap to it."

Dr. Zimmerman does his own scowling before stomping off to the cells. The last time he checked on the woman she was still more unconscious than awake, so he has prepared a concoction that he is sure will bring her back from where ever she has departed, at least long enough for The Judge to get this silly game over and done with.

He is halfway to the cells when his steps begin to slow, another half dozen steps and he finds it difficult to breathe. Five more and the pressure building around him threaten to make his head explode. Four steps; he loses the contents of his stomach. Three, he falls to his knees and there is stays for some time.

\----------

He blinks his eyes experimentally. The last time he came to earth and took a human body as a host it had not ended so well for that body. That was no more than an eye blink ago for him but still.... needing time to become accustomed to the human host he keeps still. He takes one deep breath and then another and one more.

"Are you alright Sir?"

A guard has found him on his knees.

"Yes. Help me up will you."

The guard helps him up and he holds onto the guard for support until he gets his bearings. Once he is certain that he is not going to fall, he releases his grip on the guard and walks back the way he just came.

\----------

It is only four days until Christmas and usually people would be rushing around doing their last minute shopping. There are still a good many that are doing just that but there are just as many if not more watching the late morning sky.

Even though governments around the world went to great lengths to keep the importance of this day quiet it never the less made its way around the globe. As such, it has become well known that this day had been coming for some time. Furthermore, on this day, right now, keeping the stellar phenomena a secret has become a moot point for the suddenly darkened late morning sky is giving a show that is visible with the naked eye.

In truth, most of those currently watching would probably not be doing so if it were not for the events of three or so weeks ago when Armageddon visited their planet. The deaths and the destruction are still fresh in their minds as they watch the celestial show. Those that watch wonder, whether they are willing to admit it or not, what the end of this show will bring.

For months, the planets have been on the move, for months, those astronomers that the governments had not been able to silence have been telling the populace, a populace who largely ignored them but now there is no need for a million dollar telescope to see the show. Like it or not, impossible or not there is no tricking the millions of eyes as they watch the major planets in their galaxy align.

At the commencement of the phenomenon, day becomes dusk, the sun seems to swell and then retract. Mercury falls in line with the sun blocking some of its rays, next to come in line is Venus blocking enough to turn the mid-day dusk into evening. Then one by one Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto aligned behind the sun, until now only earth is out of alignment.

As the earth makes its way into its celestial position, people watch in amazement for the heavens put on a spectacular light show. Millions pray to their God, believing this to be either the end or a grand gift their God has given to them or even the time when the faithful will be reborn. Million and millions of stars shine brightly as if they are competing with each other to be the brightest in the darkened sky. The Milky Way.... the Pillars of Life, stars and galaxies that the naked eyes should never have been able to see are seen as never before; "impossible" those with the education state but there is no denying what the dark skies reveal.

A section of the darkened sky disappears leaving those who see the disappearance perplex as how is it possible to have a whole section of the sky simply gone. The blackness starts as a pinpoint and like a cancerous cell, it grows and expands; more of the darkened sky disappears.

It starts slowly, so slowly that it is barely noticeable but as the blackness grows, it pulls, until it is impossible to miss the dizzying movement of the heavens. Stars, asteroids, would be suns, moons, the Milky Way. The heavens streak towards the blackness and disappear; so beautiful to see, so ominous to consider.

Just when the watchers begin to believe that the blackness will swallow them all the heavens take on another change. It is as if the blackness has swallowed all it can and finally filled it pushes away from the table. The movement of what remains of the universe stops so suddenly that the dazzling effect knock millions upon million onto their knees but it is what they see in that blackness that keeps them there praying to whatever God they believe in or as in many cases suddenly finding that they believe.

\----------

The essence inside the body of Dr. Zimmerman stands in the shadows and listens to the judge speak to the assembled leaders.

"I know that Christmas is only four days away and I promise to make this as quick as I can so you can get back to your families and friends but I felt it important that you are all made aware of the present and current danger we face. The woman I am going to bring before you is dangerous but more than that, she is the sign of what is to come. I want you to listen to her, listen to what she tells you. After you have listened to her, I am going to ask for the "one government" so keep this in mind as she answers our questions for December 21, 2012, will be a day to remember. It will come to be known as the day the leaders of the world gathered and put aside their differences to save humanity. Each and every one of your names will be remembered for doing what was required to keep the human race viable so please, I beg you, listen closely to what this woman has to say."

Leaders of the world are never an easy audience and telling them that they are going to be asked to give over what power they have to one man makes them even less easy. Therefore, as The Judge turns and shouts for the doctor to bring in the woman the leaders stir, they stir even more when nobody appears, and even more when Dr. Zimmerman enters alone.

"What is the meaning of this Zimmerman? Get me the woman!" The Judge's face is almost purple with rage.

"I think you will be more pleased with me than you would be with the woman...or at least that will be your initial thought." Zimmerman's voice but not voice replies.

The leaders sit stunned. Now as never before they sit in total silence and nobody wants to be the first to break that silence for even the most unbelieving among them cannot deny the aura of godliness that suddenly surrounds the man known as Dr. Zimmerman. The serenity from the aura is overwhelming and when the light dims enough for them to see again, each sees a vision of their God in place of the man once known as Doctor Zimmerman.

The silence is finally too much for the Catholic Pope and it is his voice that finally shatters that silence.

"My lord, you have come back to us. What does this mean?"

"Come back to you...yes I suppose you can say that. As to what it means, it means that for most of you, it is the end."

The implied threat creates uproar and the military men and women assigned to protect their precious leaders jump into action, only to find their bodies thrown and held helplessly to the floor by a force unknown.

"You have questions ask them though the knowledge will do you little good and I fear many of you will not be pleased."

With a trembling voice, the Pope is once again the first to speak.

"All of our beliefs are based on you. Always have we believed that you are our creator and have had a hand in guiding us, tell me that is so?"

Their God thinks this over for an eye blink before choosing his words.

"I suppose you can say I am your creator; me and another that is. As for guiding you, no you were always on your own. The choices you made over the eons were yours and yours alone and neither I nor the other had anything to do with those."

"The other! You speak of your father God!" The human chosen to represent the Protestant church yells in rejoice.

The god image tilts his head considering the statement then looks at the gathering. "No, father had nothing to do with you. You belong to Maryalyan and me. It is and always was our decision as to what to do or not do with you. And now it is our decision as to who to save and who to leave behind. Father guides us when we ask but usually lets us create our own successes and make our own mistakes."

"A woman, surely you jest!" The leader representing the Islamic faith exclaims.

Once more, the god figure works through the implication before replying.

"Yes and no. You are incapable of understanding; we are more than a man, more than a woman, but to make it easier for you to comprehend think of me as a male and Maryalyan as female."

"You say this is to be the end. So then you have come to what.... take your faithful away?" The President of India, a man of deep faith pipes up.

"Faithful?"

"Yes, those of us that have spend our lives praying to you, who build churches for your faithful to gather into; those that abide by and pass on your teaching."

"Though the prayers do occasionally creep into my thoughts I have never bothered to listen when you humans pray. As for my teaching, I have never passed any teachings onto the human race. I have visited a few specials, those with spirits so bright they cannot be ignored but nothing more."

The last statement causes a loud explosion of exclamation. Their god waits patiently throughout, not caring one way or another for his real reason for being there is to give Maryalyan the time she requested, not to answer questions from foolish humans. The Pope finally pipes up loudly enough to voice his question over the commotion.

"Are you trying to say that the Holy Bible is not based on your teaching?"

"Correct."

"If it is not your teaching, then whose or what is it?"

"Which part?"

His God's reply sets the Pope back for a second so the Russian President is the one to reply.

"The book of John, what about that?"

"John...Oh yes I remember him, though his real name was Johanson. What about it?"

"Well did not John or Johanson as you call him base his book on what you taught him?"

Their god laughs. "No, I never taught Johanson anything. We met briefly the last time I visited. He was one of those bright lights and a very talented and amusing minstrel but one without a subject so after my little misfortune he wrote his story. It really is too bad you changed it for the original was very entertaining."

"Story! I cannot believe that. How about the cross! You were crucified. You died for us." The Pope once more.

"Died for you? You humans think so highly of yourself. Judas never liked me, or at least the human that I occupied at the time so when he got into trouble with the Romans authorities he took the first chance he had to get himself out of trouble."

"But then he wrote about you, about your teaching, his sorrow for turning on you. He became one of your most...."

"Judas was a lazy and greedy man that never had an original thought of his own, so like others he took Johanson's story and adapted it for his own needs. You can not fault me if you humans took the writings of entertainers and turned them into something more."

"The Koran! Then that is the true book!" The long bearded fellow at the end shouts.

"The Koran.... writings of a man gone mad, a man whose only goal in life was for absolute power and control, much like the control your judge is asking you to give him. He was a bigamist, a man that hated women to the core. He managed to gain some followers but his madness was his downfall. One of his followers killed him and then that very same follower took up his writings, and he in turn used it to secure his wealth and to justify his cruelty."

"The old testament, your father's words, Moses, Noah, Adam and Eve!" Each statement is shouted louder and louder, a measure of the Australian Prime Minister's disbelief.

"The old testament is actually quite interesting. A part of that is based on human memory going back eons and eons, before we put you on this planet actually. Maryalyan and I are still uncertain how it is some of the first remember their linage but.... as for the rest once again written by men of power to try to obtain more power or to protect what they already have. Think of it as...The Declaration of Independence. Given time, what do you think future generations would think of it in say 5,000 or 10,000 of your earth years? How many times would it change, what would be the result? As for they being my father's words, if he ever thought he had the need to intercede we would not be here talking today." Their god stops and gives them an appraising look before continuing.

"Moses was a man that used manipulation to rule those that you call the Jews. Noah was a man with enough foresight to listen to what others told him about the rains that befell earth during Maryalyan's tantrum. Because of his foresight he managed to save himself, his family, and a few animals and don't be silly; do you really think I would allow Maryalyan to flood all of the earth's land mass and set us back eons to a time where we only had a handful of specimens. As for Adam and Eve, that story is naught but fancy but funny enough the closest the bible comes to reality. Adam and Eve is the concept of the first two and if you look narrowly at what we are doing you could relate that to one of the pairs we put on this earth when we first put them here, much like we are about to do again."

"How many are you to save." A soft female voice inquires.

"Thanks to your and Dr. Zimmerman's actions, you have only left us a few hundred pairs. It is enough to start over but fewer than what we wished for."

"And what determines if the individual is worthy of saving?" The voices are becoming quieter and quieter as the reality sinks in.

"The spirit within determines the worthiness. Just like you and Dr. Zimmerman we have been searching for the bright ones.... as it is these bright ones that we will eventually breed our ultimate creation."

"But Lord, we converted thousands to your cause you can't simply ignore that." The Catholic Pope voices in earnest.

"Nor can you ignore the fact that we have killed thousands in your name!" The Islamic leader pipes in; uniting the religious leaders as no other cause could.

"Yes you killed millions in your feeble attempts to control the world and your need for conformity. The Crusades, the Jihads, the Romans, the Greeks, Ireland, France, Britain, Afghanistan, India, Israel, Egypt, Iran, Africa, Iraq and I could go on until the end comes. You proclaim that the killing were in the name of your god...did I ask you to kill them...to kill in my name. Admit the truth here and now, the killings were not for me, they were to sooth the personal pride of an injured party or to advance some personal ambitions and for no reason other than those. And while we are at it, let us talk about the men and women that were burned, tortured, and raped in my so called name, by those that enjoyed the raping and torturing of men, women, and children. Once again I ask you.... How many did I actually ask to have killed, how many wars did I ask you to start, how many bombs..."

Total silence follows their God's statement.

Maryalyan we must be gone soon.

Almost there, go ahead and finish off with the humans and I will join you shortly.

"I see I have shattered your illusions. You believe I have deceived you, that I should have given you more so I will leave you with one last thought to consider and a gift."

Those gathered begin to feel hope again.

"Look inside yourselves, look deep inside with total honesty and find your spirits. You all have one and I will help guide you to them. Find it and examine it thoroughly and honestly. Then tell me I am wrong in what I say and in what I am doing."

Their god waits patiently as those gathered do as he requested. Some hesitate and these he gives a push, those with fear he calms, those who deny he shows the reality until all have examined and none of them come away happy with what they have seen in themselves.

"Now for the gift...picture this... Picture a world with no laws, no governments, and no greed. A world of love and happiness, a world where individuals are free to advance and discuss their thoughts without fear of reprisal."

"That world would be chaos, much worst than what we have now. We need laws, we need someone to take and keep control." The Judge screams.

"You are not seeing the gift. This other world has none of your human weaknesses. It is filled with laughter, happiness, love, respect..."

Those gathered look to their god in disappointment for the gift they expected was much more than words, more than a request to imagine something they could not comprehend fully even if they had a thousand years to consider.

Their god releases a much too human sigh and it is at that point when Maryalyan joins him. She has shed her human body but for the sake of those gathered, she keeps a semblance of humanity, though no one can deny the divinity, the power, and the femininity that she projects.

No longer, do any of those gather doubt who or what stands before them; she is the mother. Her breasts are swollen with the milk of life and her stomach is vibrant with fertility. It is plain that even as they rallied against her, she was the one that nurtured them, that nurtured the earth and the animals. She is love, she is birth and rebirth, and she is compassion. She is the vision of all women, yet none. She is one that expects obedient behaviour from her children and one that will not hesitate to hand out punishment or rewards for that behaviour. So glorious is she that to lie in her arms would be to burn into nothingness, and all those gathered want to be the first to burn.

They cannot grasp the concept my center. If you truly want them to know, you must show them. Maryalyan states to him.

The male god considers Maryalyan for a few human heartbeats.

You still love them. Even though you try to separate yourself from them, you love them.

Of Course, but that does not mean I am willing to allow them entrance into the next world.

Chastised the male god bows his head.

Then help me give them a real gift.

All you have to do is ask.

The conversation between their god and Maryalyan spans no more than a few human seconds. The god looks at and then addresses the still disappointed assembly.

"Maryalyan has just pointed out that you cannot come close to comprehending our goal. Therefore, I have what you would call a double-edged gift for you. We will touch your spirit and take away all that is corrupted, diseased, and unwanted. When we do you will finally understand and for a short period live our dream. The cutting edge of this gift is that it is temporary. We are not able to change the spirit forever and very shortly after the change, it will start to change back. The lost of the perfection will be painful to you and you will feel that pain and lost for the rest of your life. The up side is that your life can already be counted in your earth minutes so you will not suffer long."

Those gathered look at their god in a mixture of hope and shock. They obviously want to take what the god is offering them but most are thinking that they can postpone the end that their god is talking about by postponing his offer.

Do it my center. The time grows short and as you stated, we must not be here when the end comes.

You are right. Let us get this over with and be gone.

The god joins with Maryalyan and together they delve into the spirits of those gathered. They strip away all that is diseased, leaving only perfection, perfection so pure that it is blinding. When they withdraw, it is looks of joyous wonder that prevails over the gathered.

It will be nice to remember them thus. Let us go.

"Enjoy the last eight minutes of your lives." The god tells those gathered.

Like Maryalyan, he elects a humanoid shape when he strips himself from the human body. The shell that was once Dr. Zimmerman falls to the floor and burns away to nothingness. To those witnessing his transformation he is power, raw energy, and a king of kings. His light joins Maryalyan's and the two shoot to the heavens just ahead of the screams of agony that those they leave behind emit when their spirits start to return to their norm.

Chapter 12

The ending will look beautiful my center, shall we watch it together. The female of the two asks.

Of course, though I fear we timed it too closely. We may have to intervene. The male replies.

We will intervene if required. Now come sit with me and let us watch the universe unfold.

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At first, it is fear that grips the multitude as the heavens disappeared into the blackness. Some died from that fear, while others, even the unfaithful fell to their knees. Now all that matters to those watching the heavens is the beauty.

A minute ago, two bright lights shot to the heavens. The lights had been too beautiful to even describe. They pulsed in every color imaginable; they flared, and projected love and serenity. The two lights streaked into the blackness and disappeared.

Most thought that was to be the end of the show. But when those two lights disappeared into the center of the blackness, the blackness starts to change. At first the change was minuscule, just barely a flicker but it continued to grow until where there was once a forbidding black hole there is now a light and color show that is dizzying to behold. It is as if the very substance of the universe has been released and now dances a joyous dance.

An explosion.... colors streak across the universe and the black hole clears.

Those watching would have previously sworn that they would never see something as beautiful as what they had just seen. They would have sworn that they would never see something so hypnotizing as the light show the heavens had produced, but the sight of a beautiful blue green planet in the center of what was once a menacing black hole silences the world. Never would they have thought, never would they have dreamed...Earth trembles....

Help me hold it together Maryalyan for they need more time.

It will hold.

Those few million that were standing find themselves thrown to the ground as the earth's orbit tilts and the earth moves into its place in the line of planets. The populace scream in fear and despair, and where billions would have seen now there are only a few million looking to the heavens as the bright lights soar from the heavens.

The earth continues to tremble; pressure seems to build, to push upon the surface. Earth finds its place in line and the sudden halt of orbit causes twice the commotion then the commencement of the move had. Humans scream in terror as dirt flies, water rise, and man's greatest creations tumble into nothingness.

We need to hold it just a little longer Maryalyan

Our strength should be enough.

Those who are watching rejoice in the belief that they are seeing their salvation... Angels streak from the heavens. So bright they are that to look directly at them is impossible and most soon discovered that even with closed lids the Angels glory shines through to make itself known. So entrenched in their belief are they that they refuse to see the truth of what is.

Most of the capsules congregate in the southern hemisphere and plunge into a hole that goes deep underground. There they seek the ones with the mark and once found the capsule opens to carefully encase the marked one inside. Then with their bundles secured the capsules fly back into the heavens.

Other capsules plunge into waters and there they gather the marked animals; others scour fields and ocean bottoms. Soon, these join the others in the darkened sky.

For those on earth the sighting of the Angels, the shaking of the land, the waiting to be rescued seems to take forever but in reality only a couple of minutes pass from the time when they see the Angels appear and then disappear once more in the sky; their cry of despair echoes throughout the cosmos.

Let it go my center. It is now time for us to watch.

They release their hold and cascading chaos reins on earth. Freed from their restraints at last, the waters wash over the land, earth matter from dirt to rock fly into the air, man's buildings finish their collapsing, ice flow where none has ever flowed and mountains shudder and tumble. Voices rise in alarm.

Those on earth do not yet realize it but their sun had exploded almost eight minutes ago. Mercury explodes from within and its debris follows the sonic wave that caused its destruction. The wave and debris hits Venus tearing it apart like a child tearing apart an unwanted toy. The destruction continues towards Earth. The earth crumples to the destruction as easily as Mercury and Venus. The two celestial bodies are the only ones left to witness what comes next. They watch the extinguishing of the rest of the planets that had aligned and finally a part of the universe that was once so bright goes dark....

\----------

That was beautiful was it not?

Yes very. In a way it is a shame for we put a lot of energy into that planet and the new one will take much to make it as viable.

Yes it will but it is that making and molding that excites you. Beside, feel the energy you were expending on those that just perished coming back to you? Soon you will be swollen like a human mother ready to give birth so you will need something to spend that energy on.

One heavily body smile to the other.

Come then...husband...rest in my arms while we wait for them to arrive for we will have much to do thereafter.

\----------

Many of what would have been earth years later in a place far from its origin the capsules deposit their loads. They spread the humans and animals across the vast landscape and across watery bodies in pairs. Others capsule open and seedlings fall gently throughout the land.

The awakening is slow but awaken they do and upon waking, every creature from human to the smallest of insect has an unquenchable desire to breed.

Two heavenly bodies watch and smile.....

The End

Other Ebooks available from M. S. West

Vampire's Bane (Book 1 of the Bonded in Blood Saga)

Call of the Werewolf (Book 2 of the Bonded in Blood Saga)

Just a Job (Book 1 of Assassins)

The Sound of Silence
